General Football/Soccer Talk

I remember reading an article where Elia said he preferred England over Italy, but he went to Juventus anyway. Don't know what happened...

Also looking forward to both games, George!

I think Arsenal made a bunch of panic buys but from what I gather they didn't really overspend for any of them. Just seems like a series of bandaid moves more than a solution to me though. I mean they'll all be good for this season and should save them being embarrassed again like they were against United but I don't think a declining 29 year old Arteta and a 31 year old Benayoun are really solutions to anything beyond the rest of the season. They're good players and it'll be interesting to see them go around though, especially Mertesacker who could either be good or a complete miserable failure because of how slow and immobile he is.

I gotta agree with you 100%, Jae. These are sure band-aid moves. According to some sports sites, the team sold players for 74m but bought for a little more than 50m. That's the transfer policy of the owners, that's how the team survived through the economic turmoils of the last times. Now, Benayoun and Arteta might give the team some needed midfield depth, Arteta even has a hot WAG, but that won't be enough to cover for the loss of Fab, Nasri, even Eboue. Benayoun had some injuries and Arteta's best years are past him...

Then Arsene payed almost 30m for two guys in Oxlade-Chamberlain and Joel Campbell. The Ox will see time in the Cups only, while Joel didn't get a work permit... But then André Santos will give Gibbs a nice battle for the starting spot and Mertesacker, you said it, he can be outstanding in his spot or a total failure. Now, Chu Young Park, I'm interested to see how he will do. His hat-trick yesterday, to go with Van Persie's four goals... I can't wait. We won't get out of the European spots, but all this new signings need some time to get used to each other, something I'm not sure if all the fans have.

EDIT: Making some paperwork for school. Anyone knows if Chelsea's Ramires has an european passport, so he doesn't take a non-EU spot?

EDIT: Making some paperwork for school. Anyone knows if Chelsea's Ramires has an european passport, so he doesn't take a non-EU spot?

I wasn't aware that there were any rules about non-EU players in England. I know you're only allowed 3 in Spain though. Unless Football Manager is lying to me.

Not sure if there are in England, but Chelsea only has three non-EU players: Ramires, Obi Mikel and Salomon Kalou. Other African / Brazilian players have an EU passport: Drogba (France), Alex (Netherlands), Essien (France), David Luiz (Portugal).

Yeah there's no non-EU rule in the EPL but it's REALLY hard for them to get work permits so that sort of keeps teams from filling their squads up with Brazilians and Africans. They have to have a certain number of home-grown players too but they could be non-EU if they signed up at an early enough age. Most teams have feeder teams in Belgium and Spain where they can send players and get them EU citizenship within 2-3 years.

Wow, the match was Barcelona vs Milan, but they put Real Madrid's logo. Weird.

BTW Trabzon defeated Inter 1-0 and Beşiktaş defeated M. Tel Aviv 5-1. YEAH

I'd imagine whatever confidence he gained from actually scoring a goal earlier in the game, he lost after this effort.

The ball is a filthy wh**e....
Olympiakos not only deserved the tie but the win as well as we were waaaaay better than Arsenal! 2 mistakes of Marcano and bad positioning of Constanzo were the things that gave Arsenal the win...


Now on for the 3rd place at least!!

Olympiakos not only deserved the tie but the win as well as we were waaaaay better than Arsenal! 2 mistakes of Marcano and bad positioning of Constanzo were the things that gave Arsenal the win...

So Olympiakos deserved to lose then.

Better luck next time George. Nothing to do against the new guys, Andre and Alex

SUPER-rich Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea was given a yellow card by Tesco — for pinching a £1.19 DOUGHNUT.

The Spaniard, 20, was quizzed by security staff after he scoffed an Original Glazed ring treat from a Krispy Kreme cabinet at a store in Altrincham, Greater Manchester.

De Gea was hauled up after being captured on CCTV helping himself to the treat — but escaped a penalty.

The sticky-fingered stopper — thought to be on £70,000 a week — wolfed down the doughnut in the magazine aisle.

But as he headed for the exit without paying, he was tackled by security staff — one of whom spoke fluent Spanish.

Wow... also on ESPN

Stupid Everton fans throwing coins and bottles at our players when they went to take corners. Absolutely pathetic. Club should be fined at the very least.

I'm a sad, sad panda right now

At least you finished with 11 men and only conceded 2 goals though.

And now our Dreadlock Man, Sagna, has fractured his fibula. We are doomed to relegation if our starting right-back is Carl Jenkinson

Slide tackle from behind, surely a yellow card offense?

Flash

Look who's going to be at the Man Utd game.

Physically he'll be there but mentally his mind will be somewhere else, like he usually does in the 4th quarter of games.

At least he isn't playing.

It must be rare for the 6 ft 6 Sebastian Coates to not be the tallest person in the room/building/city.

David Silva's today performance for City against United was one of the best I've seen in the entire year.

Another reason to hate Hicks & Gillett. Benitez wanted to sign Silva a few years ago but didn't get the money to do it.

Must have been nice for Arsenal fans watching United get beaten by so much.

Must have been nice for Arsenal fans watching United get beaten by so much.

Of course But now I'm kind of worried for when we face City...

Sick of drawing home games when we should have won them. 4 already this season, 2 against newly promoted teams.

Would have been a different game if Carroll had of just placed his shot instead of trying to kick it out of the stadium.

Dear lord, we are at the top of Europe at the moment. It's been quite some time since I've seen such a dominating performance by our national team. Klose, Müller, Kroos, Khedira, Özil all were amazing yesterday. Can't wait until next summer... BOW, EUROPE!!!