2010/2011 Season Soccer Thread (incl. ECL and Europa League)

So Rooneys quitting Man U. I'm sure durbanite will have something to say about this.

Personally, I could see it coming. He never really came back from that terrible world cup performance but I just wonder where this leaves Man United now.

 

Won't they get a good ROI looking back? They paid what, 40 Mill for him back in the day? Couldn't they sell him for 60 now?

I wanna see if Fergie will bench and talk shit about him until January or try to raise his value by playing him and sell him anyways. Either way, I love the sound of a Rooney-less United.

 

The problem is that thanks to some weird rule they have over there, Rooney can buy out the final year of his contract next summer for something like $5 million. If he decides to do this, United won't get shit for him. If he really wants to leave this badly (and I think the media is making way more of this story than it actually is), United might be forced to sell him in January to get any sort of decent return on him. This season just keeps getting worse and worse. But hey, at least we're not Liverpool.

 

Football365.com confirms Rooney is to go

Apparently, Manchester United paid £27 million to Everton for Rooney, accoring to that article - Everton have a clause built-in stating they will receive 20% of any transfer fee that United get for Rooney. Well fucking played, Everton!

I reckon Rooney will move on in January, if he was to stay in England, to Chelsea - he'd have less competition for a place upfront than at Manchester City (he'd be competing with Drogba and Kalou - unlike City who have Adebayor, Tevez, Balotelli, Santa Cruz, etc). Also, Chelsea will be more able to offer him Champions League football next season. I also further doubt Rooney would move tp Man City, since it would be a real slap in the face for the United supporters. If he were to leave England, there's only 3 clubs who could realistically afford Rooney's transfer fee (assuming he doesn't buy out his contract - I don't think he would do this) - Real Madrid, Internazionale and Milan A.C.. I don't see Milan making a move for Rooney since they just purchased Ibrahimovic from Barca. I don't know if Rooney would fancy a move to Madrid due to the number of English players who have gone there over the last decade and had their careers stagnate (e.g. McManaman after the first 2 seasons, Owen, Beckham, Woodgate). That leaves Internazionale - but would Rafa Benitez want Rooney? I'm not sure he fits the sort of player Rafa would use.

So, who knows.

 

I had a whole response to this raring to go then this happened.

This part is important however. I agree that Man United will be in the Europa League next season at best. They have been a team of good to mediocre players ever since loosing Ronaldo and Tevez to richer clubs, and Rooney to form/confidence. Saved only by having one of the best managers ever to grace the game. And I say that while not being able to stand Alex Ferguson. Still, I cannot think of anything funnier that Man United failing, seeing as they are my team' biggest rivals (or SCUM as they are affectionately known round here).

But speaking of great managers; who caught the Inter vs. Tottenham game midweek? First half just showed how far Spurs have to go to compete at the top European level. But the second half display, led by the imperious Bale was magnificent. If they can hang onto him and Van der Vaart, they should be able to become of of the "Big Four" no problem.

 

FUCKING.YES! Manchester City 0 Arsenal 3.

Take your Abu Dhabi millions* and fuck off, City! Mancini will be out of his job by December I think - too much spending and they can't even win a home match against an Arsenal side who have spent MUCH less. Sorry PV4**, maybe next time?

*Technically, Arsenal are ALSO sponsored by Abu Dhabi interests, since Emirates Airlines are the main sponsor, but Arsenal aren't owned by a sheikh/prince/whatever.

**As an Arsenal fan, I can't call him anything else. We miss you, Paddy. Alex Song isn't even CLOSE.

 

I don't understand the wages/transfer fees paid by Man City in recent years. Good to see the young guns win a big game, they're still inferior to the mechanical and dominant Chelsea though.

 

What's not to understand? They were bought by Arab royalty and now they're throwing oil money all over the transfer market trying to buy up any superstar that comes up for sale and hoping they'll gel into a team that can contend for the title. It's the same thing Chelsea did after Abramovich bought the club.

 

Watching FC United of Manchester at the moment, looks like a brilliant atmosphere. Think I'll pay the £16 and become a member, would be nice to have a team other than Burnley I can go and see.

 

Fuck Qatar and their Oil Money.

Continue...

 

Qatar? Fucking really? A place smaller than Connecticut and is a fucking desert? In the middle of summer?

WHAT THE FUCK?

 

Everyone knows FIFA is corrupt. I didn't expect FIFA to just throw up their hands and basically admit it. "Yup, we took the cash, and fuck you England for having journalists that do their jobs."

 

I mean, at least Russia will do a decent job and was a decent contender, but if you are an organization suspected of corruption, could you pick a worse 2 choices than Russia, clearly one of the most corrupt, money makes everything legal, countries in the world and motherfucking Qatar, who has never had a team come close to qualifying for the World Cup, much less get past the second round of the Asian Cup? I mean, US aside, Japans bid looked amazing and I imagine Australia would do an incredible job as well. Fuck Sepp Blatter, that dirty old fuck.

 

USA deserves a WC, Australia too. England really deserves one.

It's crazy. I don't usually give a rats ass about who hosts what but their rationale, publicized and encouraged by Sepp Blatter, for choosing Qatar was "they showed that they want to please and fix every complaint and shortcoming that would otherwise make them a terrible choice to host the world's largest sports tournament".

Seriously.

One of the towns that will have to support a minimum 30,000-seat stadium has a population of 2500.

Seriously.

115 F on average in June and July.

Seriously.

They plan to temperature control every stadium. The sheer logistics involved make my head spin, it'll probably have the largest carbon footprint out of all World Cups.

Seriously.

My favorite world cup was Germany 06, it was perfect and the altitude didn't affect the game. Russia is going to be a blast, though I'd love for England to host one, but Qatar's heat is going to ruin the game no matter how "temperature controlled".

Money bets that the Qatar bid falls through, there will be a ton of investigation and outcries over the injustice of having a tiny, boiling hot dictatorship hosting "the world's game". FIFA always maintains that Germany is a backup for Euro's/WC's due to the terrific infrastructure. Here's hoping.

 

I'm of Russian descent. I've always wanted to visit Russia, and I've always wanted to go to a World Cup, so I guess I get to kill two birds with one stone. But, Qatar, fucking seriously? Those British investigative journalists have got to be licking their chops.

 

I was really saddened last night to see FC United of Manchester lose to Brighton 4-0. Oh well, it was a good run while it lasted.

Burnley leeds this saturday should be exciting.

 

If anyone's interested in tactics, here's an excellent site to read:

ZonalMarking

The site deals exclusively with tactical analysis of football, with focus on games from the Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Bundesliga and the European club competitions (some major games from other leagues such as the French are occasionally covered), plus international matches. About 5-6 new match reviews are added per week (number varies according to competition schedules). Also, there are two very interesting series of 'recap' articles: Tactics in the 2000s, and 20 sides of the 2000s (can be found under the Decade in Review category). It's written by one guy, so the quality and the style are consistent.

 

How´s it going Durbanite? Think we will overtake you? And also the 3:0 was because of the ref sending off Boyata right in the beginning of the game. Also I thought that Mancini was going to be gone by christmas

 

Right now, Arsenal are the worst team in the top 5. Losing to Bolton 2-1 yesterday confirms this. Europa League, here we come!

EDIT: I say Arsenal are the worst team because they don't have a decent holding midfielder, no decent second goalscorer (i.e. over-reliance on Van Persie), they STILL have a poor defence (headers ALWAYS seem to go in against Arsenal, and I blame the defence for this), and no outstanding goalkeeper. I weep every time Almunia steps out because I know he will make at least one catastrophic fuckup - he's the modern version of 1990's David James.

 

US Gold Cup roster announced here. Thoughts:

-Freddy Adu?? Really??

-No Tim Chandler?? Really?? (especially since I'm pretty sure he isn't cap-tied to the US yet)

-Chris Wondolowski is a poor man's Taylor Twellman and isn't really the type of player who I expect to have a huge impact off the bench, that spot would've been much better off going to Bunbury or Gomez, or even for that matter Salgado/Conor Doyle/Findley (much as I hate the poor man's Eddie Johnson, his speed would have been an asset off the bench)