Football The 2011/2012 Season Thread

[Everz]

Is he better than Silva was at the start of the season? Genuine question as I haven't seen enough of him.

Honestly from the 10 or so Lille games I've watched I'd say he can more then enough match Silva. Plays great through the middle but can be effective out on the left, great with the ball at his feet, good vision, lots of tricks, his attitude as noted may be suspect though, tracking back isn't one of his known features. If Chelsea do get him then they are going to have one hell of a fearsome team.

 

[Embattle]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...l-health-of-the-Premier-League-laid-bare.html

 

[cHodAX]

Honestly from the 10 or so Lille games I've watched I'd say he can more then enough match Silva. Plays great through the middle but can be effective out on the left, great with the ball at his feet, good vision, lots of tricks, his attitude as noted may be suspect though, tracking back isn't one of his known features. If Chelsea do get him then they are going to have one hell of a fearsome team.

Lets see how he does against Yaya then, if he comes out on top then I will really consider him top draw.

 

[cHodAX]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...l-health-of-the-Premier-League-laid-bare.html

The Premier League has a terminal cancer, it's called greedy souless mercenary players and agents who care for nothing other than easy profit. Hence a £6 million fee to Hazard's agent. Disgusting.

 

[Keitanz]

If Chelsea get a new striker like Hulk and the Hazard deal is confirmed they will easily challenge for the prem title next season I think they may need to replace di matteo though.. his negative football won't win them the prem..

 

[cHodAX]

If Chelsea get a new striker like Hulk and the Hazard deal is confirmed they will easily challenge for the prem title next season I think they may need to replace di matteo though.. his negative football won't win them the prem..

Which is exactly what I said a week ago in reply to a silly comment you made! If they spend well then they are going to be a real handful.

 

[- English -]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AleYSkW2LoQ

Unsure if its been posted already.

 

[ileks]

£6 million to Hazard's agent? That's nuts. Is it over the course of his contract through his wages? Or a one off fee?

I've never really seen him play. If all the top clubs are after him and his wages are that high he must be the absolute bollocks to be fair.

 

[Everz]

If Chelsea get a new striker like Hulk and the Hazard deal is confirmed they will easily challenge for the prem title next season I think they may need to replace di matteo though.. his negative football won't win them the prem..

Why would they get Hulk now if they get Hazard?

 

[cHodAX]

Why would they get Hulk now if they get Hazard?

They have a thing for 1970's TV shows?

 

[Keitanz]

Why would they get Hulk now if they get Hazard?

To play upfront as a replacement for Drogba :S they'd be a bit silly if they didn't get another decent striker.. if Torres continues his bad streak then they will be totally fucked ;/

 

[Everz]

To play upfront as a replacement for Drogba :S they'd be a bit silly if they didn't get another decent striker.. if Torres continues his bad streak then they will be totally fucked ;/

Hulk isn't a striker.. he's pretty a stronger version of mata? Torres upfront anyways.

 

[Everz]

Canal in France are saying that Montpellier have accepted €8m and Chamakh for Giroud. Let's all wait for proper confirmation

 

[megadave]

I dont want Hulk for anything near the prices ive seen thrown around for him tbh.

 

[ileks]

Sounds like a good deal.

Are Arsenal going to be signing M'vila? I remember hearing a rumor about it a while ago but have heard nothing since.

 

[soze]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...l-health-of-the-Premier-League-laid-bare.html

I don't understand that. How are City in a better position when the wages wipe out the income.

 

[Embattle]

It is the position of the teams at the end of the 2010-2011 season as are the figures.

 

[megadave]

Shit has truly hit the fan in Italy.Again.

Juventus could even lose their title again

 

[megadave]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/may/28/italian-match-fixing-fury-resignation

With a major international football tournament on the horizon Italy has once again been seized by a huge investigation into match-fixing. As yet it has not reached the magnitude of the 2006 Calciopoli affair, which left a shadow over Italy's World Cup triumph, but after police raided both the quarters of the national team and the home of Antonio Conte, manager of the Italian champions, Juventus, it's set to make as least as big a splash.
The roots of the latest scandal lie in the summer of 2011. After a member of Serie B side Cremonese suffered a serious car crash, tests showed that he and other members of the team had been drugged with sleeping pills. The culprit was one of their own teammates, Marco Paolini, who had been attempting to pay off a mounting series of gambling debts by arranging a series of defeats for his bookies. Cremonese's unexpected winning streak had forced him to take desperate measures.
It soon became clear that Paoloni was merely the tip of the iceberg. Famous names such as Atalanta's captain Cristiano Doni and the legendary Lazio striker Giuseppe Signori were arrested as evidence emerged of others willing to throw games, or procure others to fix results, for at least two international betting syndicates.
Phonetap evidence abounded, but not all of it was conclusive: Paolini would often boast of contacts with big-name players that he didn't have in the hope of earning a payout for a result that had actuallyin fact come about naturally.
Meanwhile, in the southern city of Bari a parallel inquiry investigation was underway that brought some extraordinary admissions. Bari's captain revealed that he had deliberately scored the own goal that saved their neighbours and biggest rivals from relegation. How angry were their fans about this? Not very; Bari's goalkeeper alleged that leaders of the club's own supporters were among those in on the fixes, on one occasion even visiting his house to urge him to lose, so they could make money on it.
Reactions in Italy to all this has have been mixed. While Atalanta's fans responded with fury to the news of Doni's involvement, for many other fansmany others just felt a sense of weary resignation. This is after all a nation still dealing with the fallout of the Calciopoli scandal, which saw Italy's biggest club, Juventus, stripped of two titles and relegated to Serie B. The idea that not everything in the game is strictly above board is hardly a revelation. Fans' expectations are at have been lowered to rock bottom.
And few expect much to change; when Juve were recently crowned champions for the first time since the 2006 scandal, they arbitrarily decided to reclaim the two lost titles. The Italian FA did nothing to stop them.
There is also a sense that this has so far been merely the foothills of the real scandal, with the big names yet to emerge. Monday morning's police actions have certainly obliged on that front. In the headline-grabbing early morning raid on the base of the Italian national side, police searched the room of defender Domenico Criscito and served him with an official notice of investigation.
Elsewhere in Rome, Lazio's captain, Stefano Mauri, was led away in handcuffs, one of 19 people arrested. The tactics are deliberately high profile and carry echoes of the Totonero scandal of 1980, which saw carabinieri waiting pitchside to arrest players as they came off at the final whistle.
The police case may take years to complete, but sporting sanctions will be immediate, for just as in 2006 the Italian FA is fast-tracking its own trials to have penalties in place for the start of the new season, with the first of the hearings beginning this Thursday in Rome.
More arrests will almost certainly follow in the next few weeks, and at least three Serie A clubs – Lazio, Genoa and Siena – may begin next season with significant points deductions. Beyond that though, the broader question is whether the Italian game will ever be truly free of match-fixing. "This investigation could go on eternally, if only we had the manpower," as one investigator put it.
Just six years on from the last major match-fixing scandal, and with a succession of smaller tremors peppering the years before and since, that Italy should found itself again mired in scandal truly suggests that football here is not simply a sport, but rather a vehicle where – regardless of what happens on the field – everyone can win, if they have the right connections. In which case, the loser will always be football.

Plus loads of people arrested/under investigation today.

 

[Keitanz]

Hulk isn't a striker.. he's pretty a stronger version of mata? Torres upfront anyways.

Ehh in the few matches I have seen him play Hulk has been playing as a striker :S He can go straight in to the team as a replacement for Drogba anyway..

They can't just rely on Torres becoming good.. if that backfires then it will be terrible for them :/

 

[megadave]

Hulk plays wide right cutting in like Sturridge

 

[Ch3tan]

So Hazard still not confirmed? He is the ultimate troll.

 

[Litmus]

Yet it is probably less than Drogba was getting.

Mate, it was reduced to 45p, won't make a whole lot of difference.

 

[Everz]

Ehh in the few matches I have seen him play Hulk has been playing as a striker :S He can go straight in to the team as a replacement for Drogba anyway..

They can't just rely on Torres becoming good.. if that backfires then it will be terrible for them :/

From the right. Much like Suarez.. he is no striker.

 

[Embattle]

Mate, it was reduced to 45p, won't make a whole lot of difference.

I think you've got the wrong end of my comment.

 

[Keitanz]

Hulk plays wide right cutting in like Sturridge

He can play both.... he probably plays mainly right wing now though.. for some weird reason

 

[megadave]

So Hazard still not confirmed? He is the ultimate troll.

Apparently there will be no announcement til after the England match,even heard rumour of after our managerial appointment, i'm still not convinced we'll sign him despite what he tweeted

 

[Keitanz]

Apparently there will be no announcement til after the England match,even heard rumour of after our managerial appointment, i'm still not convinced we'll sign him despite what he tweeted

Since he tweeted "I'm signing for the champion's league winner." It would be awesome if he tweeted tomorrow "Yes.. Man Utd the winners of the champion's league 2008!" I think I would die........

 

[Raven]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18235961

I really hope he tells them to go fuck themselves, he has a good thing going at Swansea.

 

[Wazzerphuk]

Since he tweeted "I'm signing for the champion's league winner." It would be awesome if he tweeted tomorrow "Yes.. Man Utd the winners of the champion's league 2008!" I think I would die........

... of the future, Arsenal. Not the past. He's a forward thinking man