The Football thread

axisus

Rooney has been a great player, but for me he went down a notch in my appreciation some years ago when he held the club to Ransom, back when Fergie was boss. I'm not in the F*** Rooney camp, but it's all about the team and if they play better without him I'd just not play him, and if it goes long term, sell him. Players get paid waaaay to much for me to give a sh*t about them to be honest.

joeyowen

Maybe it doesn't come across the same in text but it was a very blasé statement 

It's clear as day that he is past his peak. I want him to stay at the club, and break the records sure. However for a while now he is being played in every game when he is dire. Every player gets dropped but him, and there is something wierd about it. Also, let's not forget the transfer requests he had handed in to get more money from the club, because 250k a week simply isn't enough... 

If we need to manage him better, he also needs to manage himself better. 

Also, if you don't like my statement, I would refrain from visiting the United Forum where worse is said every other minute being the classy bastard we are  

lloyd

I dunno, I just cringe when people speak about their players like that, especially ones that have given as much to a club as Rooney has, despite his wobble and transfer request-de Gay seems immune from it as he's performing I assume. 

I can well imagine what the Utd forum is like. Worse fans in the league when taken as a whole IM(honest, unbiased as a Liverpool fan)O

quarky

Rooney hasn't been his devastating best for a long, long time, and playing out of position doesn't help at all. I would play him as a backup to Ibrahimovic (who is hardly pacey either), and he needs to accept that his time in the front line is probably over. I think they can both play in that role though, and neither should be expecting to play every game at their age. There are so many United players though who have a lot to answer for though. Rooney is getting older. Depay has no such excuse, neither does Rojo, Schniderlin, or Darmian. All should be delivering more when given the opportunity. Even Martial should be looking to improve on last season.  

As for United, Rooney isn't their only issue to deal with, and I think Leicester made them look good. They have some great players, but still seem to have confidence issues, lack of pace in a lot of games, and the defence needs work. They still look like they would struggle against of the top 4 from last year (apart from Leicester), and even Liverpool.

Still, I am really happy with the players signed, Mourinho, and have still enjoyed every season since Fergie left.

lloyd

"Even Liverpool?" I think everyone can agree, Liverpool fan or not, that Liverpools attack is pretty devastating, since Klopp has joined we've scored more goals than any other team.

Any defence will struggle against us this year (apart from Burnley apparently!)

Defence has been average of course.

Should be a cracking season this year, think the top 4 places will be more closely contested.

quarky

Yeah, Liverpool are looking great, just couldn't resist it

joeyowen

At least we can all agree, best league in the world! 

As for United, yes we have a lotttt of players who need to up their game! 

City to win, as for the next 6, no idea at all 

lloyd

quarky said:

Yeah, Liverpool are looking great, just couldn't resist it

I'd expect nothing less!

axisus

quarky said:

........ and have still enjoyed every season since Fergie left.

I certainly didn't! Moyes season was a disaster, I just didn't see that fall coming. He seemed to go from confident manager to Rabbit in headlights mode. Shot his foot clean off on day one by ditching all the 'successful' backroom staff.

Van Gaal was a great character, but he didn't have a clue most of the time. I don't expect to win every game, but there really was some dire stuff. He did get the young players going, but we lost Di Maria because he didn't have a clue how to play him. I'd have assembled the team around a player of that calibre. The last 6 months I was desperate for him to get the sack, thank goodness he's gone.

Shame that Pepe didn't come to Man U, but he does like 'stick a cherry on top management' rather than a challenge - and Man U have looked like something of a challenge since Fergie left.

Sesh

Good to see Saints have climbed to the top half. Obviously the press were only interested in West Ham being poor rather than the Saints playing well. Par for the course.

axisus

Sesh said:

Good to see Saints have climbed to the top half. Obviously the press were only interested in West Ham being poor rather than the Saints playing well. Par for the course.

Charlie Austin was a good buy. Can't believe that some of the other teams weren't in for him?

joeyowen

Not many people dislike the saints, well run club who do well after selling lots to liverpool every year

Nothing against West Ham, but can't help wanting something to go wrong with the new ground after getting it so cheap at the expense of tax payers....

works out under 50k a week

Which may be a lot to you and I, but it means some of their players could afford it by themselves....

Sesh

axisus said:

Sesh said:

Good to see Saints have climbed to the top half. Obviously the press were only interested in West Ham being poor rather than the Saints playing well. Par for the course.

Charlie Austin was a good buy. Can't believe that some of the other teams weren't in for him?

The big clubs are never interested in the older English players who have worked their way up the leagues until it is too late. Like Ricky Lambert and Jamie Vardy.

Hopefully Austin will stay injury free and keep scoring.

Sesh

joeyowen said:

Not many people dislike the saints, well run club who do well after selling lots to liverpool every year

Nothing against West Ham, but can't help wanting something to go wrong with the new ground after getting it so cheap at the expense of tax payers....

works out under 50k a week

Which may be a lot to you and I, but it means some of their players could afford it by themselves....

It was between West Ham and Spurs for the stadium. How bad must Spurs' offer have been?

BigBearKris

The great shame of Chelsea being shite again continues.
What the hell is going on there? They cannot defend, neither they can score goals... last seasons was easier to understand as the players clearly didn't get on with Mourinho and seemed to play against him. Now though?

Neil

joeyowen said:

Not many people dislike the saints, well run club who do well after selling lots to liverpool every year

Nothing against West Ham, but can't help wanting something to go wrong with the new ground after getting it so cheap at the expense of tax payers....

works out under 50k a week

Which may be a lot to you and I, but it means some of their players could afford it by themselves....

Spuds were the only other interested party or the stadium would have just been an expensive white elephant.

As a West Ham supporter, moving to that bloody place is the worst thing that could have happened.

The nearest supporters are miles from the pitch so it has no atmosphere. The players are more or less the same team who finished 7th last year and I think the crappy atmosphere is the root cause of our shocking results.

At this rate we'll have the biggest stadium in the Championship!

axisus

I always thought that stadium was a bad idea. It may well work out in time, but it just looks too big and spacious for a club place. It was just the greed of the owners thinking of getting loads of people (potentially) in, with no thought of the actual club and what would be best for it.

lloyd

Sesh said:

axisus said:

Sesh said:

Good to see Saints have climbed to the top half. Obviously the press were only interested in West Ham being poor rather than the Saints playing well. Par for the course.

Charlie Austin was a good buy. Can't believe that some of the other teams weren't in for him?

The big clubs are never interested in the older English players who have worked their way up the leagues until it is too late. Like Ricky Lambert and Jamie Vardy.

Hopefully Austin will stay injury free and keep scoring.

Like Liverpool and Lambert and Arsenal and Vardy you mean? Lambert was older and Liverpool less of a big club these days, but the point stands.

Theres a reason why the big clubs don't go in for these guys, it's because they're generally not good enough and they can't afford to gamble on them (manager or board). Vardy was clever in not going to Arsenal as he'd have had to change his game or adapt to defences sitting deep, crowds, managers, media demanding wins every game, more media interest/pressure, big price Ag to justify etc, this applies to anyone that moves too, and why it often takes guys a season to slot in and start performing, when you're 28/29 a season to settle in becomes a luxury you can't afford.

David Gold said (Austens) knee was fucked didn't he? Some shit stuck and Saints took a gamble on him, was pleased when he scored, wiped the grin of that fuckers face for sure.

thecolourbox

axisus said:

Sesh said:

Good to see Saints have climbed to the top half. Obviously the press were only interested in West Ham being poor rather than the Saints playing well. Par for the course.

Charlie Austin was a good buy. Can't believe that some of the other teams weren't in for him?

I believe we (West Brom) were but his injury record wasn't the best, so we bought Ricky Bloody Lambert instead. Christ alive that was not our finest scouting hour. I've seen oil tankers turn quicker. I'm pretty sure he's been booked for time wasting when being substituted because the ref didn't realise he was genuinely sprinting off the pitch (possibly)

Gassage

So Sam may be sacked because of this leaked video regarding avoiding player transfer rules

I think Allardyce is a disgrace and should be humiliated amd made an example of.

 So therefore I'd keep him as England's manager.