The "Official Football thread" Part Two...

Give Rafa a lifetime contract he"s doing a great job,

(14-01-2010 19:09 )m100 Wrote:  And (just to piss off liverpool fans) I'm not saying it's right but if you ignore man utd/liverpool it does make interesting reading.

http://www.the-football-club.com/big-clubs.html

Interesting article. The definition of a big club has changed though since football's turned more into a business these days. So you have to take into consideration turnover n valuation of the club. Take Notts Forest for example, many consider that they're not a big club, but they won back to back European Cups in 79, 80, yet Leeds are considered a big club by some despite being in League 1. It's an interesting debate.

In my opinion i think to be classed as a big club in Europe, a minimum requirement is to have won a European Cup. Domestically, it has to be done on League titles and turnover, with league titles having a larger weight.

I think people have been hard on Rafa.
It must be hard trying to get the best out of his players when their mind are obviously on other things such as the strong possibility there house will be burgled every time they have a match

I c Monsieur Wenger wasn't calling Gallas to be banned from football, or hasn't a clue why he's on pitch playing football, after his horrendous tackle on Mark Davies, who now misses the rest of the season

Apart from the league title, 20years and counting,all of Liverpool's last cup wins have been in the 21st century and when rival fans tell us were living in the past they mean 60s/70s/80s not the 90s/00s when we have still been second only to man u in trophy wins.I did have a chuckle when Stoke city fans sang to us your not famous anymore,because i was at the Norwich game in 2005 when they sang that to us and look what happened at the end of that season!As for hicks jr any violence to do with football is totally out of order as is singing songs about Hillsborough/Munich etc.Also if one of the Glaziers walked into a pub in Manchester they would get chased out too or worse.

IMO their are only two truly huge clubs in England. That's Liverpool and Manchester Utd, because both have European cups and long sustained success domestically.

Arsenal need to win a European cup before they can be considered amongst the elite clubs of Europe. And Chelsea need to win several more titles and a CL.

One thing Man Utd do have over Liverpool is two world club championships. Now you can say the WCC is a joke comp, but in South America and the latin European countries it's taken seriously.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/f...027754.ece

I can't believe that the 'smaller' clubs are in favour of this. You play all season, get fourth place, then whichever one of the usual suspects you've displaced gets a second chance. Are these clubs so stupid that they can't see that referees will be told to ensure who wins any play-off.

(15-02-2010 15:29 )m100 Wrote:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/f...027754.ece

I can't believe that the 'smaller' clubs are in favour of this. You play all season, get fourth place, then whichever one of the usual suspects you've displaced gets a second chance. Are these clubs so stupid that they can't see that referees will be told to ensure who wins any play-off.

If they've got any brains, they'll leave it alone as it's sorting itself out anyway...."The big four" is now only three these days in any case, with Villa, Spurs and Man City all closing in. Chelsea's squad although still powerful is getting older by the day, Utd are not the force they were last season and Liverpool are in freefall in the boardroom and on the field. I doubt very much that the top four will be the "usual suspects" even at the end of this season, and definitely not next.

(15-02-2010 23:53 )colino Wrote:  

(15-02-2010 15:29 )m100 Wrote:  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/f...027754.ece

I can't believe that the 'smaller' clubs are in favour of this. You play all season, get fourth place, then whichever one of the usual suspects you've displaced gets a second chance. Are these clubs so stupid that they can't see that referees will be told to ensure who wins any play-off.

If they've got any brains, they'll leave it alone as it's sorting itself out anyway...."The big four" is now only three these days in any case, with Villa, Spurs and Man City all closing in. Chelsea's squad although still powerful is getting older by the day, Utd are not the force they were last season and Liverpool are in freefall in the boardroom and on the field. I doubt very much that the top four will be the "usual suspects" even at the end of this season, and definitely not next.

Definitely agree with that

Although i do think Liverpool will get 4th spot this season, Man City will surely have too much after the summer to not get into the top four next season

On three occasions since the premier league started there has been a gap of 18 or 19 points between the team who finished fourth and the team who finished seventh. No one can justify the team in seventh in that situation claiming a champions league place, a gap of that size is not down to say losing an influential player etc - it's down to one team being significantly better than the other. The other thing which they seem to be ignoring is that unless english teams keep getting to the last four/final/winning the champions league then eventually the fourth champions league place will be taken away by eufa. Does it then become a play off between the third, fourth, fifth, sixth?