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English Premier League 2008/09!

Chaos Butterfly

Chaos Butterfly

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Oct 16, 2000
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So well, the season is 3 weeks old... no super major surprises results wise with the exception of Fulham getting up over Arsenal (WOO!!)

Biggest news, transfers! Robinho going to Man City!! Wow. Berbatov finally getting out of Spurs and heading to Man U... Pavyluchenko coming in to Spurs... some big name, big money moves there!

Other than that, it's great to see Deco settling in really well. Many internationals struggle to quickly come to terms with the style and speed of play in the English game, so for him to be right on it from the very beginning is great :)

Any predictions so far? For me, unfortunately I reckon Chelsea will take the league... yes it's early, and they haven't had any set-backs yet, but I'm not sure if anything can stop them.

Relegation? Way too early to say...

Discuss :)
 
I'm a Chelsea fan but I gotta say, I don't fancy their chances for the league.
They offloaded a bunch of players and only brought in a couple. They arguably have the best first team around. But you need a pretty big squad to compete on four fronts (EPL, CL, FA Cup, League Cup). Come december, they'll all be pretty knackered. They're gonna have to buy big in the next transfer window.
The developements at Man City are certainly interesting. The comparisons with the Roman Ambromovich takeover are inevitable. However, Chelsea were a reasonably successful team when RA came in. Better than most but not quite up there with the elite. They just needed that extra cash to put them up there with ManU and Arsenal.
It will be interesting to see what infinite cash can do for a team with like Man City.
 
It's an utterly souless, corrupt, ego-driven corporate pisstake of a 'competition' run solely for the purpose of making as much money out of the people that genuinely care as possible. The Chelski affair turned me off the premiershite and the way the clubs have sold their souls for short-term success leaves me utterly cold.

I can't wait for football, English especially, to collapse under the weight of its own success. We're nearing a tipping point here with people pushed to the limits with the credit crunch who just will not pay such ridiculous sums for games and assorted paraphernalia to watch a club which has lost all identity and connection with the people that help build it.

Thank FUCK I have the team I supported as boy, going strong after getting promotion to the 4th division last year (at Wembley!) which is solely owned by the supporters trust - all of which have 1 equal share in the club.

1. United
2. Chelski
3. Arse
4. Liverpool

As if anyone would ever expect it to be any different :\
 
Ohhh DR, do you get excited with Subutteo as well?

Enjoy your park football while the rest of the world watches quality matches every weekend...;)

I have no problem with Chelski (why should I? I've supported them through thick and thin since I was a ankle bitter in New Zealand). I've even started drinking vodka for breakfast in thanks to the takeover gods =D

Interesting to see whether any City fans suddenly drop their Poor mans persona and celebrates the chance to compete with the big boys. I for one look forward to more Matches of the day coming around every week, not every 6 as it is at present. I hope to see 7-8 Super clubs competing not just 4. Without a salary cap it unfortunately takes big wallets.

Lets face it, there isn't enough money in London to support the type of transfers that you need to bulid a super squad. Look how far Fayed's hefty pockets have taken Fulham up the ladder. Just be thankfull that the rest of the world recognised the English Premier League as a safe investment to create an exciting competition. It could have been Seri A or Premeira Liga that attracted the investment and no decent players wanting to head to England.

Yes it would be nice to see Bobby C and George Best running around with a soggy leather pill and dripping side burns, but no one would pay to watch that these days.

Had to laugh at City fan Noel Gallagher's quote “It’s nice to know that every gallon of petrol a Manchester United fan buys is going into our transfer kitty.”
 
Busty St Clare said:
Ohhh DR, do you get excited with Subutteo as well?

Enjoy your park football while the rest of the world watches quality matches every weekend...;)

I have no problem with Chelski (why should I? I've supported them through thick and thin since I was a ankle bitter in New Zealand). I've even started drinking vodka for breakfast in thanks to the takeover gods =D

Lets face it, there isn't enough money in London to support the type of transfers that you need to bulid a super squad. Look how far Fayed's hefty pockets have taken Fulham up the ladder. Just be thankfull that the rest of the world recognised the English Premier League as a safe investment to create an exciting competition. It could have been Seri A or Premeira Liga that attracted the investment and no decent players wanting to head to England.
Click to expand...

Good to know you've got no problems with where all Abramovich's money came from. Have a read, it might be interesting to you. If you don't think it's a problem for Ken Bates to run a club to near bankruptcy only to be sold to a corrupt, near-faceless russian oil baron who screwed over the people of russia for billions of dollars then you've either got no morals, a screw loose or are totally unappreciative of what a 'club' is supposed to represent to its supporters and the community as a whole.

As for London clubs with no money - there is an Uzbek billionaire waiting to buy into Arsenal, QPR have been bought by Briatore and have the worlds richest man Lakshi Mittal as an investor and there are strong rumours about West Ham being offered around the Middle East... Input of finance.

And yeah it is park football - St James Park... The real one ;) =D

Seeing as you're NZ based have you ever seen a player for the NZ Knights called Sean Devine? What a legend - I'm surprised either of his knees worked by the time he went to NZ though :D
 
Alan Curbishley's resignation may well be the end of my 44 year romance with West Ham (they were my local club as a lad, my attention being drawn to them by the 1964 FA Cup Final against Preston North End) :\

Premiership football's lost its soul :|

Going to start going to watch my now local side in the Blue Square South League :)
 
duck_racer said:
Good to know you've got no problems with where all Abramovich's money came from. Have a read, it might be interesting to you.
Click to expand...

I've flicked through a biography of his a year or so ago and, well..... I couldn't really give a shit ;) Lets face it the whole British Empire was built on slavery and exploitation.

If I made all my moral judgments like that I would be sitting around praying that Gishna himself comes down and invests in NZ cricket =D The Gods know we need it!

Interesting to see Keagan and Curbishley have left because of next to no say in who their clubs sign. I can't imagine Sir Alex not weilding his large Scottish stick if he was unhappy with a purchase choice

Seeing as you're NZ based have you ever seen a player for the NZ Knights called Sean Devine? What a legend - I'm surprised either of his knees worked by the time he went to NZ though
Click to expand...

Actually watching soccer in NZ? Are you fucking insane? We even watch the All Blacks having breakfast on the tele for Christ sake!
 
Busty St Clare said:
Actually watching soccer in NZ? Are you fucking insane? We even watch the All Blacks having breakfast on the tele for Christ sake!
Click to expand...

This is actually wrong and I feel I should point out that the Phoenix were getting 5-figure crowds...

But if d_r hates the Premiership, the A-League is worse: no promotion, no relegation. No clubs. Franchises instead. So the Auckland Knights don't exist anymore, they lost their franchise and after some debate where it would go, it ended up in Wellington. Which is great for now, but in five years we might not have a team. Or franchise, whatever. Plus our marquee signing (player who doesn't count towards teh salary cap) last season was a guy who failed in Fulham's reserves :(

But it's fun anyway.
 
On the Premiership: I suspect d_r is right that there will be a collapse. The credit crunch affects the clubs as much as fans; it's a lot harder for them to re-fund their loans, so they'll be spending more on interest and less on players (admittedly, Man U signing Berbatov slightly ruined that theory).

The ones who prosper will be those owned by oligarchs with lots of cash, who don't mind running them at a loss: Chelsea and (improbably) City. Only way for anyone else to compete at the top level is find another benefactor, but logic suggests there can't be many out there (and even if they were, they would surely pick another league: there won't be 7-8 clubs funded like Chelsea, because it would be easier to buy (say) Valencia and try to be the biggest club in Spain than to try to compete with 6 other billionaire clubs in the UK.

my solution: salary caps and caps on ticket prices. But it won't happen :(
 
Salary caps would be unreal for league parity but I'm not sure if it'll mean a better spectacle. Besides, the big clubs wouldn't have a bar of it.

I'm an Arsenal fan but I can see that we're the weakest of the usual top four, and under threat from the new money backing City.

Guess we'll see how this season pans out - good to see Walcott amongst the goals overnight.
 
chelsea dismissed scolari today!

there's already speculation that morinho could be back, but the question is whether or not the relationship between him and the ownership has been too damaged to get past. he prefers to be in england though and if chelsea's thinking long term as well as wanting to save this season, he seems like the best choice (assuming he'd come back that is).
 
Hmmm...would he, though? He's coaching a successful team (Inter are 7 points clear in Italy), and Chelsea aren't going to win the league.

Glad to see Tony Adams go. He was the most clueless manager I ever saw. He either didn't know what was happening (and said so) or was obsessed with 'passion' and 'commitment' and never talked about tactics.
 
i don't know that he would either, but he prefers england and would be the most knowledgeable of any candidate of the premier league, but also of chelsea. he'd make for the perfect long term/short term replacement. i think that's mostly been thrown into the mix by the fan base more so than the ownership.

with scolari, he came off intent on adjusting tactics when he first came to chelsea, but lately has been criticized for not abandoning the 4-3-3 when it clearly wasn't working. liverpool set him back, but the draw against hull at stamford ultimately put the final nail in the coffin.
 
Seems that it could be Guus Hiddink taking over at Chelsea... he currently coaches the Russian national team, but has a clause in his contract allowing him to coach clubs... Chelsea are owned by Abramovich... Abramovich supports (financially) the Russian national team... ba da bing! we have a new Chelsea manager.

At least that's what the news sources over here are saying... Australia still has an obsession with Guus after he finally got us to the World Cup, so any Guus-worthy news is well reported!

So, after my early season prediction that the Premier League was Chelsea's for the taking... well it seems they didn't want it :\ not that I care, not a big Chelsea fan anyway. Looks likely that it will be Man Utd all the way from here on in. Even if they do drop some points, which is almost inevitable, they are just finding ways to win... even if it is an ugly 1-0 victory, it's still 3 points.

As for me, I've jumped on the Villa bandwagon! Glad to see someone else up there pushing the top 4 around!

The relegation battle looks interesting... still not sure who will go down, but to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Hull City ended the season in the bottom 3... after a blinding start, they've come to a grinding halt... even though they've picked up a couple of fighting draws recently, they haven't had a win in FOREVER, and the confidence at the club can't be all that high... unless they get a few wins they'll slip into the relegation zone, and I think if they get there, it will be difficult for them to get out. But then they are really only 3 or 4 wins away from safety so it could go either way. No matter what, if they survive, next year will be very difficult for them I reckon...

CB :)
 
It's City. They will find a way to mess things up, to everyone else's amusement :)

I'm off to Derby tomorrow to watch United continue their inexorable march towards one of four trophies :) (actually, I suspect Barcelona will walk off with the Champions League, but I can dream can't I?)
 
^^been to anymore games recently IJ? man, it would be great to be able to go to a match. i envy you.

so, whats gonna happen guys? man u gonna take it? is liverpool gonna make a run? will aston villa finish in the top 4, or will arsenal beat them out?

i personally think man u is gonna win it, but we will see. vidic being out for the next 2 gameweeks might hurt them, having to play fulham and then villa. liverpool is playing great, but man u has the advantage and will probably come out on top. of course chelsea is up there, but i think liverpool will finish above them. i really hope villa pulls it out and can come to form and finish 4th. with 3 losses and a draw in the last 4 games, it may not be looking good. i wish them luck!

so what else is happening? benitez will be in liverpool until 2014, so im sure some liverpool fans are excited about that.

as for the fantasy league, i am definately doing better than i thought i would, being in 10th place. hopefully i can gain a couple spots. :)
 
Nah, I've only seen Man Utd-Bolton (PL) and Derby-Man Utd (FA Cup). Oh, and Ebbsfleet-Swindon Supermarine (FA Trophy) but I doubt you'd envy that ;)

Still think United will win. Liverpool or Chelsea need United to drop points. Where are they going to do that? Maybe against Villa - but Villa are rubbish at the moment, and the game is at OT, and Villa are playing Nigel Mediocre at right back (United beat them 4-0 last season, basically because Reo-Coker, out of position, looked shite against Ronaldo). Not against Fulham. Or Sunderland or Portsmouth.

Realistically, Liverpool/Chelsea need some luck, or they need to win all their games and hope United lose at home to City and Arsenal. It could happen, but I doubt it...
 
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