rach 1 Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Ace. Thanks scouser honest john - sounds like it was a good night! Link to post Share on other sites
yamayamayama 2 Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Just been reading the sports pages. It sounds like he had quite a debut there, couldn't really have been more impressive. I hope he had some nice hot pies from Mrs Miggins to celebrate. Link to post Share on other sites
giggsy 0 Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Wish I'd have been able to get a ticket there Honest john., must have been awesome. Watched it in town. Things are looking good. Link to post Share on other sites
2pints-mate 0 Posted September 30, 2004 Share Posted September 30, 2004 Good game to watch, shrek certainly is a talent. We'll deal with him though, don't you worry Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 He's rubbish. Link to post Share on other sites
connackers 0 Posted October 1, 2004 Share Posted October 1, 2004 Pretty impresive stuff, things like this make me wish i was back in england - missing out on all the hype, bollox and speculation - will be great to see how rooney progresses this season. Chelsea Liverpool Sunday - should be a good one! Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 And we know who to support! Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 He has so much potential its scary - for all the other teams!! Looking forward to seeing that game tonight on J Sports. Then the weekend games.. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted October 2, 2004 Share Posted October 2, 2004 What about agents and the ridiculous amount of money they get. Makes me sick. Read this article on the times, prepare to be amazed: - Martin Samuel in The Times opens the lid on the money ‘earned’ by the loveable football agents. ‘The BBC used to send two taxis to collect celebrity guests. True. The first would pick up the star at his hotel and drive him to the studio, the second followed in case the chauffeur car broke down. This occurred in what would be known within the broadcasting industry as the good old days, before blank-faced accountants with degrees, calculators for brains and an old-fashioned sense of responsibility towards money that was not their own, looked at the bills and said: “We are doing what?” Still, it is nice to know some industries remain defiantly unreconstructed. In football, for instance, the good old days are happening right now. ’Did you see how much Manchester United paid to agents last year? Contained within the accounts detailing United’s payment of £5.5 million to agents last year (a minimum figure, potentially rising to £8.5 million including bonuses and excluding the £1.5 million Paul Stretford creamed from the Wayne Rooney transfer, which will be included in next year’s figures) is the small matter of £331,000 due to Rodger Linse, agent for Ruud van Nistelrooy. The striker has been a United player for three years now, so how can Linse still be owed such a large sum? It turns out to be the tip of the iceberg. ’The total money owed to Linse actually stands at £1.202 million, payable in instalments, and represents his cut of Van Nistelrooy’s new contract. Signing for United is indeed the gift that keeps on giving. Not only are agents rewarded for playing matchmaker, they are on a retainer for keeping the happy couple together. Surely, United do not pay Linse to refrain from hawking their contracted player around Europe, creating trouble? A cynic would say that if this were the case, it deserves another word: blackmail. ’Linse will pocket £1.2 million for keeping a player who says that he wants to stay at a club that says it wants to keep him. If he signed M. Mouse at the bottom of the agreement, it could not be a greater affront. ’Is this common practice? We cannot know. United are the only Premiership club to release precise details of payments to agents. Arsenal, Chelsea and the rest have no intention of following suit. Unless we are to presume that those in charge at United are staggeringly stupid, we must believe that transparency would reveal similar wastefulness throughout English football. ’Yet not all clubs are created equal and for United to be so dependent on agents is bizarre. If Steve Gibson at Middlesbrough needs to use third parties to entice Michael Reiziger from Barcelona or Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink from Chelsea, that is understandable. What makes little sense is that United spend inordinate sums to attract players who would walk over hot coals for a place on the staff at Old Trafford. Louis Saha spent several weeks agitating for a move from Fulham and when the bidding topped £12 million, his chairman seemed happy to see him go, too. Why then did agents slice £750,000 from his deal? ’The same with Cristiano Ronaldo, signed from Sporting Lisbon, with whom United have an arrangement as a feeder club. In the circumstances, if any transaction could have been completed person to person, it was this one; but no, United still handed £1.1 million to Giovanni Branchi to act as go-between. There is not a single player bought by United in the past year who would not have viewed the move as a promotion, so why has it taken £8.5 million of arm-twisting to bring these players to the club? ’The more transparent football gets, the more opaque its customs become. Magnier and McManus compiled 99 questions about United’s finances, but their document could have been as easily expressed in one line: what are these people doing for all this money? ’That question could also be extended to David Gill, the chief executive, and his board members. Gill’s life at the top may not be as hectic as one thinks. The manager runs the team; the marketing and commercial department promote the club; United also have a financial director, Nick Humby, controlling cash streams. ‘So Gill is there for the big stuff: identifying and appointing the manager, negotiating contracts, buying players. Yet United have had the same manager since November 1986, more than £8 million is spent in a year paying third parties to facilitate the buying of players and, as for contracts, apparently give £1.2 million to Linse and he sorts it out. ’If United really were to cut out the middleman, the only chap queuing at the Jobcentre would be Gill.’ Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted October 2, 2004 Author Share Posted October 2, 2004 Poor Michael. Michael Owen admitted yesterday that he may be forced to consider his future at Real Madrid following his summer move from Liverpool. The England striker traded Anfield for the Bernabeu in a £8m deal in August, but has started just one match for the Spaniards and has fallen to as low as fifth in the pecking order behind Raúl, Ronaldo, Fernando Morientes and even Guti. And yesterday the 24-year-old said: "I don't have a crystal ball so I don't know at what point I should start being worried, but I would be worried if this continued right the way through the season. If that happened then obviously I'd have to ask questions about myself. "At Liverpool I was first choice every week. What Raúl is to the Real Madrid supporters I was in a way to the Liverpool supporters. I was an important player. The big difference is that I'm not playing as much in Madrid." Owen's challenge for a place in the team has been made harder by the possibility of losing sharpness, especially at a club without a reserve team. "It can be difficult to not play and then be called upon for one game or 10 minutes or so," he said. "Much as you do probably train harder when you are not playing there's nothing like match fitness or playing games," he said. Following the departure of the coach Jose Antonio Camacho, under whom Owen played 70 minutes of the match against Mallorca and started the match with Espanyol, Owen has found his chances even more limited. Madrid's new manager Mariano García Remón has preferred Morientes and even converted midfielder Guti as an alternative to his first choice pairing Ronaldo and Raúl. Owen has had just 10 minutes during his three games in charge. "It's only the start of the season and I never expected to walk straight into the side so I was happy with the way things went for the first five or six games," he added. "But I haven't played much in the last two or three. I don't want to carry on not playing. "I've played a couple of games, played a few matches for England and done a hard pre-season so I'm fit at the moment. But if it continued then it might be a bit more difficult and I might have more problems. I hope we don't have to cross that bridge." With the return to fitness of Wayne Rooney and the impressive performance from Jermain Defoe during England's victory in Poland last month, there are even suggestions that Owen may lose his place in the national team, a potential problem which is not being helped by sitting on the bench at Madrid. But yesterday he shrugged off suggestions that his status as a first-choice England striker is in danger. "I've not played as much as I would have liked to in the last few weeks but I'm sure when I come to England it will be OK. Sometimes in life in you have to be patient," he said. The England striker insisted that he was not concerned about the untouchable status of certain squad members, including Raúl and Ronaldo, saying: "If I play well, better than other people, then I'm sure I'll get a chance if I wait my turn. It is tough but I have been through tougher times than this." But Owen has already discovered that it is not always as simple as playing well and taking chances, especially at Madrid. He admitted: "[The situation] isn't because I'm playing badly, so I'm holding my head up high. I firmly believe that it's only a matter of time before I get a chance and then it's in my own hands: I'm not looking for favours from anyone. "I'm the kind of person who goes to sleep thinking about these things and every time I've played I've been reasonably happy with my performances - I've never had a really bad game. "Unfortunately, I haven't had many chances lately, but that's football. I'm sure I'll get them and if I play well I've staked a bit of a case again. I'm not playing as much as I would like but there's still a long way to go." Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Anyone else watch the Arsenal game last night? They destroyed Charlton, they just make it seem so effortless. Bastards. Nice to watch though. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Just read this: "Diego Maradona, the world's most famous sports cheat, has claimed that his notorious hand-ball goal against England in the 1986 World Cup was not, after all, a matter of divine intervention, but of simple revenge. The player has always described his goal, which he punched into the net, as scored by "the hand of God". But yesterday, in an extract from his forthcoming book, modestly entitled El Diego: The Autobiography of the World's Greatest Footballer, he said it was retribution against England for his country's defeat in the Falklands War. He writes: "We blamed the English players for everything that happened, for all the suffering of the Argentine people ... Before the match we said football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war. But we knew a lot of Argentine kids died, shot down like little birds. This was revenge." England lost, and Argentina went on to win the trophy. The English are not Maradona's only target: "I met the Pope. It was disappointing." He says the Pope gave him a rosary and told him it was special. But when he compared it to ones handed to his wife and mother, he found it was the same. Peeved, he went back to tackle the Supreme Pontiff about it but received only a pat on the back. Maradona writes: "Total lack of respect!" Since then Maradona has become bloated and cocaine-addicted. In April he was taken into intensive care with heart problems, and his family then forced him to go into rehab for his addiction. After two months he said he wanted to go to Cuba, the setting for a picture published in a Mexican newspaper showing him lying on a bed snorting substances. His family tried to get a court to stop him, but Maradona went on television, pleaded for the right to return to Cuba, and broke down in tears on air. A judge cleared him for take-off, and two weeks ago 43-year-old arrived in Cuba for treatment at the Centre for Mental Health. So the man who once had the body of an athlete and the feet of an angel now has the brain and heart of an addict. The hand of God moves in mysterious ways." Link to post Share on other sites
connackers 0 Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 Arsenal look SO awesome at the moment, just wondering what would happen if they had to do without Henry for a few games - maybe the only chance anyone has to catch them. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Yes. Anyone got a big stick? (with some big nastly looking spikes on it) Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 Flippinek and I sat down last night waiting to see by how big a margine United would win. 70 minutes into the game and it was "I hope we can steal a draw". and I see Owen played crap again and Madrid lost again. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted October 5, 2004 Author Share Posted October 5, 2004 Call us TheArse or Arse Null all you want. Just watch the games Link to post Share on other sites
connackers 0 Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 You`re great to watch - that`s half the problem! At least when you had George Graham we could take the piss `cause you were so boring. We don`t have much to slate you for anymore as you`re just too damn good. Just a shame you can`t carry it through to Europe.... Link to post Share on other sites
man_without_a_head 0 Posted October 6, 2004 Share Posted October 6, 2004 I used to go to quite a few games at Highbury when I was in the UK. Now seems like the better time to be there, they are buzzing. It's strange how they can't seem to do the same in Europe.... Link to post Share on other sites
Honest John 0 Posted October 7, 2004 Share Posted October 7, 2004 How do you feel about you "Emirates Stadium" then, hey? Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 8, 2004 Share Posted October 8, 2004 They are good to watch at the moment, it's just so damn frustrating them being Arsenal and all. It will all come crumbling down soon. Maybe. Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted October 8, 2004 Author Share Posted October 8, 2004 Hahahahahahahahaha. hahahah hahahahahahahaha. hahahahah hahahahahaha. ahahahahahahah hahahahaha Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted October 8, 2004 Author Share Posted October 8, 2004 As for the name of the stadium. I really don't give a crap. As long as the action on the pitch is as good as it is. Who cares about the name of a building? Link to post Share on other sites
connackers 0 Posted October 9, 2004 Share Posted October 9, 2004 England might play 4-3-3 against wales tomorrow, apparently they`ve been using it in training, with rooney playing just behind owen and defoe. Should make for an entertaining game! Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 9, 2004 Share Posted October 9, 2004 Yeah and its on live too at a decent time. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted October 11, 2004 Share Posted October 11, 2004 Good to see a win last night but Wales were pretty goddam awful weren't they. Cracking Beckham goal there but what about his ridiculous "tackles" . But I was just bored for the most part. Link to post Share on other sites
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