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The FOOTBALL Thread (2005-2006)


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Plucky, yes lots of fanatical websites out there.

 

pie-eater seen this, a bit worrying. Seems to have been going on for ages.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/4641071.stm

 

Wigan Athletic has been warned its first Premiership game, against Chelsea, is likely to be cancelled in an ongoing row over policing costs.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) will withdraw cover unless the Latics pay just under £300,000 by 1 August.

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It has been going on for a long time, and time is flying fast.

 

Got this sent to me by a friend about Micky Owen,

 

Michael Owen is going nowhere next season, because he is an important part of Wanderley Luxemburgo's plans.

Nice try, but we think we know how this works by now. If tales of Owen house-hunting in Surrey are correct, the striker has already worked out a) that Luxemburgo's plans probably involve a lot more bench-warming; B) that Real Madrid spend most summers lying through their teeth about transfer dealings; and c) that given the Bernabéu's recent turnover of coaches, Luxemburgo himself might not remain in the club's plans for a whole season.

 

Owen must be disappointed, to say the least, that his old club won the European Cup the year he left to further his ambitions in Spain, yet it will be a greater setback still if he remains on the periphery in Madrid during a World Cup season. He does not have to prove his ability to Sven-Göran Eriksson, but for his own sake he needs to be playing regularly so he can take fitness, form and confidence into the 2006 finals in Germany.

 

Whatever Real Madrid may be saying, a return to the Premiership this summer would appeal. The question is where?

 

Chelsea could certainly afford him, and would doubtless quite like him, though the nagging worry for Owen is that the new champions have developed a habit of vacuuming up anyone who is any good and on the market, then working out later how to fit them into their team. Sometimes, as with Scott Parker or Hernán Crespo, they don't manage to fit them in at all. After his Real Madrid experience, Owen would want a few guarantees that the coach rates him and has a regular role in mind.

 

The trouble with Chelsea at the moment, and this may explain why transfer targets such as Fernando Torres and Adriano have proved resis tant to José Mourinho's charms and Crespo is so reluctant to return to London, is that no one's place is safe. Theoretically that might sound a good thing, in that having to play for your place and not be picked on price or reputation is enshrined among the core values of the game, except Chelsea's rare mixture of caprice and cash by the barrowload has altered the equation.

 

An Owen, Adriano or Torres who did sign for Chelsea might get a fair crack of the whip, considering at the moment there is only the overpriced and overrated Didier Drogba to beat, but supposing Andrei Shevchenko or Samuel Eto'o became available a couple of weeks later, or in the next transfer window?

 

It is an open secret that Roman Abramovich is keen on both of them, especially the former and unlike every other club owner/chairman would be happy to accommodate them whatever the expense to him and inconvenience to others.

 

With the exceptions of Petr Cech, John Terry and Frank Lampard, all Chelsea players have to live with that level of uncertainty. It cannot be easy, though at least it is better than the financial uncertainty surrounding the other English clubs in the Champions League bracket. Suddenly not one of the top five English clubs is an ideal, risk-free destination for a player hoping to win trophies and further his international career. Arsenal, in their final season at Highbury, are likely to remain preoccupied with their move to a new stadium and their suspicions about Chelsea.

 

They have raised their game to match Manchester United in the past, but with a strictly limited amount of money to spend and several areas of concern in the squad they do not look capable of raising it again to catch Chelsea.

 

United themselves are in even worse shape. What was once a byword for stability and dependability is now precariously balanced, both on and off the pitch. While public spokesmen David Gill and Bobby Charlton appeared to buy the Glazer family's guarantees last week, the fans blockading Old Trafford probably offered a more considered and logical response to people who have plunged the club into a frightening amount of debt.

 

Were Owen to join United it would doubtless please Eriksson, who would then have his England strike partnership in tandem at club level every week, but would it be a good career move? Is this going to be Sir Alex Ferguson's last season? How can the club replace fading forces such as Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes on the Glazer budget? United ought to be able to build another great side around their world-class trio of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rio Ferdinand; unfortunately it has become a race against time. There is no guarantee that all three will stay together either, and once the first one leaves the Glazers could be left with a house of cards rather than a theatre of dreams.

 

Money is tight at both Merseyside clubs, despite Liverpool's unexpected success in Istanbul. Rafael Benítez has bought himself time and a great deal of admiration but, with a move to a new stadium still planned, needs to sell big before he can buy big. Everton, quite rightly until they prove their Champions League credentials, are behaving like every other team who finished below them in the Premiership, wheeling and dealing for bargains, picking up players on loan and spending parsimoniously.

 

Increasingly, non-Champions League Premiership managers are being judged on how they spend their money. There is only a limited amount of it about, even at big clubs like Newcastle or well-backed ones like Middlesbrough, and the frivolity of a few years ago is conspicuous by its absence.

 

Ahead of the ledger so far in the summer stakes appear to be Alain Perrin, David O'Leary, Steve Bruce and Martin Jol. Those with work still to do include Bryan Robson, Alan Pardew, Mark Hughes and Paul Jewell. Sam Allardyce, Alan Curbishley, Chris Coleman and Steve McClaren seem to be content to stand still and build on last season's work, while in danger of going backwards from last season are Stuart Pearce and Mick McCarthy.

 

That just leaves Graeme Souness, on whom the jury is still out. The verdict will arrive a few weeks into the new season, if past experience is anything to go by. Everyone knows their place in the Premiership by now - on Tyneside anything is still possible.

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scouser this morning in the soaraway sun

 

STEVEN GERRARD has had a sensational bust-up with manager Rafa Benitez — and is heading for the Anfield exit door.

 

The Liverpool skipper is furious there has been NO improved pay offer from Kop bosses and NO more talks are planned.

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Looking grim scouser

 

GERRARD: IT'S ALL OVER

He'll make £35M exit after training-ground clash with Rafa and contract talks row

 

STEVEN GERRARD sensationally broke off all contract talks with Liverpool last night as he opened his Anfield exit door.

 

The England midfielder's relationship with Rafa Benitez broke down completely during an angry exchange at the club's Melwood training ground.

 

And in a move that fired the starting gun on a £35million bidding war between Real Madrid and Chelsea, Gerrard has now vowed that he will not talk to the Liverpool hierarchy again. A friend of Gerrard said last night: "Stevie's patience has snapped with Benitez and Rick Parry and it's civil war now.

 

"If they had wanted to sort this out, it could have been done in two hours, yet we have got nowhere and Stevie doesn't know why they're not prepared to sit down properly.

 

"Now he's stopped talking and even if Liverpool come back and say they want to re-open negotiations, he will tell them where they can stick it." Gerrard and his advisers are now convinced that Liverpool simply do not have the money to offer him the new £80,000-per-week contract he feels he deserves after leading the club to their night of Champions League triumph in Istanbul.

 

Reds chief executive Parry denies that, with Gerrard then concluding that the alternative is that Benitez simply does not rate him or want to keep him.

 

And the furious England ace has now told Parry that he has no wish to continue the negotiations that only began in earnest last week, insistent that it is Liverpool who want him out, rather than the 25-year-old seeking a move away from the club he joined as a schoolboy.

 

The straw that broke the camel's back came when Gerrard - who has two years left on the deal he signed last summer after turning his back on Chelsea at the 11th hour - arrived to train on his own at Melwood on Saturday afternoon.

 

Benitez, who had conversations with Gerrard on both Wednesday and Thursday, gave him permission to come in for a private session following Jamie Carragher's wedding 24 hours earlier.

 

But when the pair spoke for a third time as Gerrard arrived to train they became locked in an angry exchange that left the player furious and determined to quit and Benitez complaining that he is being used as a scapegoat to make the midfielder look as if he is being forced out.

 

Benitez' assistant Paco Esteban put a terse and unhappy Gerrard through his paces, while the manager's mood was described by friends as "pessimistic" as a result of the row.

 

The Spaniard believes he is being set up by Gerrard and his advisers at the SFX group, in particular agent Struan Marshall, who held talks with Parry on Wednesday and Thursday.

 

Privately, the Liverpool boss is understood to be frustrated that Parry chose to go on holiday before sorting the problem out and putting an acceptable deal on the table, maintaining that he is not responsible for slowing things down.

 

Benitez told friends: "I don't know what is going on. I'm being accused of orchestrating a campaign to get rid of Stevie but I've done nothing at all. I want him to stay."

 

Gerrard, though, no longer trusts Benitez, believing he has been taken for granted by the club since his public vow in the aftermath of the May 25 night of glory that he would stay at Liverpool.

 

Their relationship has broken down, seemingly irretrievably, to the point where they are no longer talking after Saturday's bust-up.

 

And now Gerrard's decision to kill off the talks leaves Liverpool with little option but to invite Real and Chelsea to lodge their initial bids.

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It is looking indeed grim.

 

Had to laugh at this though on the Guardian:

 

"Such was the look of disbelief on his face that small aircraft have been getting lost in the Grand Canyon-sized furrow that passes for Steven "I'm the f*cking man!" Gerrard's forehead since it emerged that he's surplus to requirements at Liverpool. Club officials at Anfield claim they want to keep their skipper, but not so badly that they're willing to meet his demands for an extra £15,000 per week. Expect Real Madrid and Chelsea to duke it out in a bid to win the 25-year-old Scouser's scrawl, thereby giving Rafa Benítez a £30m war-chest with which to buy more young Spaniards than you can shake a matador's cape at."

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lol.gif I'm sure it has occured to them and Fergie is a big fan. Though it looks like Essien is the Utd target. (Or Owen, or... someone else).

 

Will Gerrard be wanting to be at United though? I hope so!! clap.gif

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Chelsea open bidding for Gerrard at £32m

By Oliver Kay and Russell Kempson

 

 

 

CHELSEA last night launched a British record £32 million bid to sign Steven Gerrard and this time, after the dramatic collapse of his contract negotiations with Liverpool, are highly confident of getting their man.

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, and Rick Parry, the chief executive, held an emergency meeting with Gerrard and his agent, Struan Marshall, at the club’s training ground last night in the hope of reviving discussions over a new contract. But, despite their willingness to offer a new deal worth more than £90,000 a week, the discussions ended just after 8pm with Anfield officials finally conceding that they are losing the battle to keep their headstrong captain.

 

 

 

Real Madrid are expected to submit an official bid today, having made two informal inquiries to Benítez last month, but Chelsea have made the first move. Sources at the London club — who have informed Gerrard that the £100,000-a-week deal that they were prepared to offer him last season remains on the table — revealed last night that a £32 million offer had been submitted and there is optimism at Stamford Bridge that Gerrard could finally succumb to their advances, followed, perhaps, by Shaun Wright-Phillips, for whom Manchester City are braced to receive a £20 million-plus bid.

 

As recently as Friday, Gerrard indicated that he was prepared to sign an extension to his £80,000-a-week contract at Anfield, which expires in June 2007, but he was so angered by Liverpool’s perceived dithering over the past month that he told Benítez on Saturday afternoon that talks were off. Liverpool were aghast, having waited for months while the 25-year-old stewed over his future, but, despite the bullish words of Benítez and Parry earlier in the day, followed by an effort to talk him round last night, Gerrard left Melwood at 6.30pm — two hours before Marshall and Parry — having seemingly decided that there was no way back.

 

Benítez and Parry are incredulous that it has come to this. The word from the Gerrard camp is that the club are to blame for dragging their feet over talks regarding a new deal, but Benítez and Parry protested, saying it “makes no sense” to talk of a lack of urgency on their part after they had waited five months for Gerrard to come to the negotiating table.

 

“I don’t like to talk about this,” Benítez said yesterday afternoon in a press conference intended to focus on Boudewijn Zenden’s arrival on a free transfer from Middlesbrough. “But we tried three times last season to talk to Steve about a new deal and he always said, ‘We need to wait’. So, OK, we wait.

 

“This year we have been talking about needing to win trophies. Well, we have won the most important trophy, the European Cup. We have been talking about improving the squad. Well, we have signed José Manuel Reina, the best goalkeeper in Spain, Mark González, the best player in Chile, and we have agreed a deal with Seville to sign Antonio Barragan, a very good young full back, so I think we are improving the squad and I can assure the fans that we want Steven Gerrard to stay with us.”

 

With that, Benítez suggested that Gerrard could be anything that he wants to be at Anfield (“chief scout, assistant manager — we want him to stay here for all his career”), but those remarks were not taken seriously by the player or his advisers, for whom the damage had been done. An hour before Benítez’s rallying call, Marshall, of the SFX sports agency, had confirmed “talks have stalled and are unlikely to be reopened”.

 

The expectation is that Liverpool will be forced to accept Chelsea’s bid — with the London club threatening to transfer their interest back to Michael Essien, the Lyons midfield player, if no agreement is reached — and, considering the manner in which Gerrard’s future overshadowed his team for much of last season, there will be a part of Benítez that is happy to be rid of him, particularly if the sale enables him to buy players such as Dirk Kuyt, the young Feyenoord forward.

 

There have been doubts about Benítez’s desire to keep the player, but Parry fought the manager’s corner yesterday. “Rafa wants Stevie to stay and couldn’t have made that any clearer,” Parry said. “We have made it clear since January that we wanted to talk to Stevie about a new contract. For anyone to make an issue of a delay of a few days makes no sense.”

 

Benítez vowed that he and Parry would do “all the right things” to turn the situation around, doubtless recalling his team’s comeback against AC Milan in the European Cup final in Istanbul six weeks ago. An equally unlikely salvage mission is needed now.

 

Chelsea launched their own salvage mission last night, telling Hernán Crespo to report for pre-season training after his proposed permanent move to AC Milan, where he was on loan last season, stalled. Crespo may be asked to lead the attack next season because the club have so far failed in their attempts to sign several strikers.

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The sun say the same 32 million bid from Chelsea. Who is going to make way in the Chelsea team? (Do Chelsea actually think about these things when they buy or just do that once they've sealed a new deal...?!)

 

If he does go, I'd prefer it to be out of sight somewhere in Spain.

 

Sad times are coming it seems. I hope that whatever happens it is done quickly though so we can get it out of our system asap.

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If he goes to Chelsea, we'll get to see whether Lampard and Gerrard gel without having to bother watching lots of meaningless friendlies before the World Cup. Jose's rotations should see them get some games together. Makalele doesn't win awards, so he's easy to leave out.

 

England should be in with a fair shout next time. North European climate, good defence, good at set pieces, Wayne the Loon in open play. Whether Lampard and Gerrard can sufficiently protect the back four is one of the few conundrums. Without further proof, Sven will just pick them on reputation, pick up his money, and shag more women.

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That's a big loss for Liverpool, but you know with the money you'll get from him things might not look so bad in the near future. It may well even turn out to be a good thing. (I'm trying hard).

 

So the question now is where will be off to? He's welcome at Chelsea. \:D

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It looks like it's all getting nasty, with much more nastiness to come it seems. It will be interesting to know what really happened when the air clears.

 

What do fans think scouser?

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I bring with me not only a bag of prawn cocktail crisps, but some good news for you.

 

"Steven Gerrard has decided to stay at Liverpool in an astonishing about-turn after late night talks with chief executive Rick Parry.

 

Gerrard seemed certain to quit the Reds yesterday after it was revealed he had told the club he wanted to leave following the collapse of new contract talks."

 

http://www.football365.com/news/premiership_news/story_156337.shtml

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/4654837.stm

 

Well, you know it might change again in about 5 minutes of course.

 

Perhaps he worked out a way to survive on a paltry 100 grand a week.

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This gave me a laff. Predictions on scores please.

 

7-0?

 

-----

 

ANFIELD? GISSA JOB THEN

Exclusive By Andy Lines

THE team playing Liverpool in the Champions League are so desperate for "quality" players they are advertising on the internet.

 

Welsh champions TNS have posted an ad on the web ahead of their sell-out match at Anfield.

 

They describe it as "a unique opportunity" for "players of real quality".

 

TNS play Liverpool in the first qualifying round of the Champions League on Wednesday. It will be Liverpool's first game since their sensational victory over AC Milan in Istanbul in May. And their Welsh opponents are determined to strengthen their side by any means possible.

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Saw that John. lol.gif

 

----

 

Alert Mr Wiggles!

 

"Newcastle are considering a swoop for former Manchester United striker Diego Forlan, now at Villareal. (Sun)"

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Well it didn't get all nasty at all did it. Happy for you scouser ;\)

 

Deadly Diego at Newcastle. Just watch him come back and score more than Ruud. wakaranai.gif

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Thanks rach, good ending to the story Jamie signed as well so alls good.

 

I bet you're just jealous you want Deadly D back in your team right? ;\)

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They should have accepted Gerrards offer to resign captaincy and given it to Carragher - he knows how to lead by example. I'm not totally convinced of Gerrard as captain anyway, and it might free him up a bit.

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