Premier League 14-17 May + FA Cup Final

Pinky und der Brain wrote:
Good for you Luis, for once I entirely agree.

I will add that Stoke have also been very credible in the league this season, never getting dragged into the relegation scrap (unlike some wealthier teams we could mention) and their home form has been outstanding. Their current position is best of the rest, with the possible exception of Everton they could not be expected to have finished higher than any of the clubs ahead of them. Given that people were talking about Coyle for manager of the season a few months back when Bolton were doing well, I think Pulis should be nailed on for the prize if Stoke go all the way. In a comparatively disappointing and weak season where very few players, managers and teams have stood out, Stoke have genuinely impressed me.

Plus one of my oldest friends is an ardent Stoke supporter, so I'm going to be fully behind them. No disrespect to City, who until a couple of years ago were very likeable, but now you're just another bunch of underachieving, overspending wankers.

Its rubbish to have a team like City spending loads of money to get into the top 4 - its much better for football if we just have the same clubs spending loads of money to stay in the top 4 every season

Richards could be very important - he can take care of Etherington but also be a 3rd Cb at times for the high balls into the box.

City are one of the best teams at dealing with high crosses and set-pieces but they did concede to Everton/Distin in uncharacteristic fashion last week.

Pinky und der Brain wrote:Some shameful shit going on in this thread. Y'all would honestly rather see the billionaire plaything Man City win this trophy than you would see a side with 10% of the budget win it?

Pathetic. Just because Stoke are a smaller club who don't make it easy on their opponents...

Completely and utterly agree. Good on Goater, hope he enjoys his day, but as an outsider looking in I look at City and see nothing but an abhorrent Arab's Fantasy Manager plaything. They got lucky, pure and simple. And it's not as if the owners were City fans a la Jack Walker, or that they, God forbid, play good football. The day they offered Kaka 500,000 pounds a week was the moment the true horror of what they have become sunk in. The irony is that they had one of the best academies in the country prior to the Sheikhs, and had a team with the likes of Ireland, Richards, Johnson, and Sturridge who were getting better and better. Who's to say they wouldn't have qualified for the CL with a homegrown team? We ll never know now they've joined the dark side.

Goater aside, the Man City sympathisers for tomorrows game on here clearly fall into 2 groups: those that hate United and Arsenal fans who hate Stoke. Personally, I hope Stoke win: they played brilliantly against Bolton and fully deserve it.

Noah und der Bale wrote:

Pinky und der Brain wrote:Some shameful shit going on in this thread. Y'all would honestly rather see the billionaire plaything Man City win this trophy than you would see a side with 10% of the budget win it?

Pathetic. Just because Stoke are a smaller club who don't make it easy on their opponents...

Completely and utterly agree. Good on Goater, hope he enjoys his day, but as an outsider looking in I look at City and see nothing but an abhorrent Arab's Fantasy Manager plaything. They got lucky, pure and simple. And it's not as if the owners were City fans a la Jack Walker, or that they, God forbid, play good football. The day they offered Kaka 500,000 pounds a week was the moment the true horror of what they have become sunk in. The irony is that they had one of the best academies in the country prior to the Sheikhs, and had a team with the likes of Ireland, Richards, Johnson, and Sturridge who were getting better and better. Who's to say they wouldn't have qualified for the CL with a homegrown team? We ll never know now they've joined the dark side.

Goater aside, the Man City sympathisers for tomorrows game on here clearly fall into 2 groups: those that hate United and Arsenal fans who hate Stoke. Personally, I hope Stoke win: they played brilliantly against Bolton and fully deserve it.

Really don't see why the owners are getting such bad press. They invested in the club, but it is too early to say they are trying to buy success short term. Let's see what their long-term plan is? If you are honest you'd want owners like this investing in your club. They have not closed Manchester City's Academy; they have just made sure that oney the best of that talent will get there. They can loan players to your clubs and not bat an eyelid and nor would you, getting access to that talent. New guidelines coming in will mean that there will have to be a more local basis to clubs anyway. Manchester City are economically viable. Good luck to them. Wish Valencia was.

It's not like these owners don't invest in community projects there as well and that certain players do not have a social conscience at that club. They certainly do. Stop being so envious. Interesting nobody mentioned QPR's money in this thread. Did they buy promotion? Does anyone care about that?

Pierre Littbarski wrote:

Pinky und der Brain wrote:
Good for you Luis, for once I entirely agree.

I will add that Stoke have also been very credible in the league this season, never getting dragged into the relegation scrap (unlike some wealthier teams we could mention) and their home form has been outstanding. Their current position is best of the rest, with the possible exception of Everton they could not be expected to have finished higher than any of the clubs ahead of them. Given that people were talking about Coyle for manager of the season a few months back when Bolton were doing well, I think Pulis should be nailed on for the prize if Stoke go all the way. In a comparatively disappointing and weak season where very few players, managers and teams have stood out, Stoke have genuinely impressed me.

Plus one of my oldest friends is an ardent Stoke supporter, so I'm going to be fully behind them. No disrespect to City, who until a couple of years ago were very likeable, but now you're just another bunch of underachieving, overspending wankers.

Its rubbish to have a team like City spending loads of money to get into the top 4 - its much better for football if we just have the same clubs spending loads of money to stay in the top 4 every season

Translation:

I hate ManYoo for being soulless, cheating richboys, so I like Man City even though they are soulless, cheating richboys

Good old Pierre and your stupid agendas and fallacious arguments.

It isn't a choice between one or the other. Spurs got into the CL without spending 150% of their annual revenue on wages and another £200 million on top of that in transfer fees. They would have managed it earlier if it were not for Wenger sneaking into their hotel and poisoning them on the last day of the season. Everton also got into the CL without massive amounts of money. It can be done without spending half a billion quid. But instead of praising those sides, you're praising Man City.

As with the refereeing issue, you don't give a flying fuck about facts, or fairness, or what's good for football. You just care about someone being able to stick the boot into your fabled enemy. Tosser.

EMP wrote:

Noah und der Bale wrote:

Pinky und der Brain wrote:Some shameful shit going on in this thread. Y'all would honestly rather see the billionaire plaything Man City win this trophy than you would see a side with 10% of the budget win it?

Pathetic. Just because Stoke are a smaller club who don't make it easy on their opponents...

Completely and utterly agree. Good on Goater, hope he enjoys his day, but as an outsider looking in I look at City and see nothing but an abhorrent Arab's Fantasy Manager plaything. They got lucky, pure and simple. And it's not as if the owners were City fans a la Jack Walker, or that they, God forbid, play good football. The day they offered Kaka 500,000 pounds a week was the moment the true horror of what they have become sunk in. The irony is that they had one of the best academies in the country prior to the Sheikhs, and had a team with the likes of Ireland, Richards, Johnson, and Sturridge who were getting better and better. Who's to say they wouldn't have qualified for the CL with a homegrown team? We ll never know now they've joined the dark side.

Goater aside, the Man City sympathisers for tomorrows game on here clearly fall into 2 groups: those that hate United and Arsenal fans who hate Stoke. Personally, I hope Stoke win: they played brilliantly against Bolton and fully deserve it.

Really don't see why the owners are getting such bad press. They invested in the club, but it is too early to say they are trying to buy success short term. Let's see what their long-term plan is? If you are honest you'd want owners like this investing in your club. They have not closed Manchester City's Academy; they have just made sure that oney the best of that talent will get there. They can loan players to your clubs and not bat an eyelid and nor would you, getting access to that talent. New guidelines coming in will mean that there will have to be a more local basis to clubs anyway. Manchester City are economically viable. Good luck to them. Wish Valencia was.

It's not like these owners don't invest in community projects there as well and that certain players do not have a social conscience at that club. They certainly do. Stop being so envious. Interesting nobody mentioned QPR's money in this thread. Did they buy promotion? Does anyone care about that?

They've spent 300m+ on players in 3 years. And pay the most obscene wages in football (even Barry is on 100k+/pw ffs). The wages are what's killing football more than anything. Sure they might be in it for the long-haul, but there is no question they have tried to get success as quickly as possible by throwing shedloads of money at it. The rest of your post just proves they don't shirk on the PR firms either.

And yeah QPR did buy promotion to a degree. Plenty of sides do, e.g. Crawley bought promotion to the league, Notts County bought promotion from league 2 last yr. If you're significantly richer than the rest of the league you're buying an advantage. It's all part of the game, but people have every right to hate the rich

Saints can't directly accuse Pierre of hypocracy, because he's been found guilty of it too many times himself. But it stands to reason that if you're tired of Manchester United buying titles, and their legions of southern fans who say "we" more often than a Parisian hooker, then you should be tired of Manchester City buying titles and their legions of so....

I don't hate Man City because they're trying to buy titles, or ruining football by collecting players and inflating wages. I just don't like Sheikh Mansour. He is essentially a Saudi Al-Fayed and sooner or later he is going to fuck and kill Kate Middleton.

Blackpool in trouble already. Davies scores from close range as Blackpool fail to deal with Robinson's freekick.

Blackpool turn it around. Puncheon makes it 2-1.

Blackburn are leading. It would be nice if Kuszczak could stay on as van der Sar's replacement.

Picked the right game today. Matt Taylor scores with an effort from just inside the area. 2-2.

Wolves have also taken the lead at Sunderland.

what a horrible 90 seconds for Blackpool

Blackpool take the lead again just before half-time through DJ Campbell. 3-2.

Some game isn't it sessh.

DJ Campbell makes it 3-2 to the home side

edit - good to see others who want Stoke to beat City

debaser wrote:

EMP wrote:

Noah und der Bale wrote:

Pinky und der Brain wrote:Some shameful shit going on in this thread. Y'all would honestly rather see the billionaire plaything Man City win this trophy than you would see a side with 10% of the budget win it?

Pathetic. Just because Stoke are a smaller club who don't make it easy on their opponents...

Completely and utterly agree. Good on Goater, hope he enjoys his day, but as an outsider looking in I look at City and see nothing but an abhorrent Arab's Fantasy Manager plaything. They got lucky, pure and simple. And it's not as if the owners were City fans a la Jack Walker, or that they, God forbid, play good football. The day they offered Kaka 500,000 pounds a week was the moment the true horror of what they have become sunk in. The irony is that they had one of the best academies in the country prior to the Sheikhs, and had a team with the likes of Ireland, Richards, Johnson, and Sturridge who were getting better and better. Who's to say they wouldn't have qualified for the CL with a homegrown team? We ll never know now they've joined the dark side.

Goater aside, the Man City sympathisers for tomorrows game on here clearly fall into 2 groups: those that hate United and Arsenal fans who hate Stoke. Personally, I hope Stoke win: they played brilliantly against Bolton and fully deserve it.

Really don't see why the owners are getting such bad press. They invested in the club, but it is too early to say they are trying to buy success short term. Let's see what their long-term plan is? If you are honest you'd want owners like this investing in your club. They have not closed Manchester City's Academy; they have just made sure that oney the best of that talent will get there. They can loan players to your clubs and not bat an eyelid and nor would you, getting access to that talent. New guidelines coming in will mean that there will have to be a more local basis to clubs anyway. Manchester City are economically viable. Good luck to them. Wish Valencia was.

It's not like these owners don't invest in community projects there as well and that certain players do not have a social conscience at that club. They certainly do. Stop being so envious. Interesting nobody mentioned QPR's money in this thread. Did they buy promotion? Does anyone care about that?

They've spent 300m+ on players in 3 years. And pay the most obscene wages in football (even Barry is on 100k+/pw ffs). The wages are what's killing football more than anything. Sure they might be in it for the long-haul, but there is no question they have tried to get success as quickly as possible by throwing shedloads of money at it. The rest of your post just proves they don't shirk on the PR firms either.

And yeah QPR did buy promotion to a degree. Plenty of sides do, e.g. Crawley bought promotion to the league, Notts County bought promotion from league 2 last yr. If you're significantly richer than the rest of the league you're buying an advantage. It's all part of the game, but people have every right to hate the rich

And before them other rich clubs paid stupid wages. Abramovich's genius was that he forced the wage expectations of ordinary players up, so other clubswere deterred from buying them whether Chelsea wanted them or not. It was genius as it helped to weaken opponents without even bidding for them.

Now Manchester can outdo him. It's a pity, but look at other clubs. Valencia had local ownership and cocked it up. It isn't the nationality or even the wealth that matters, it's the commitment to the club and planning.

I don't envy City their success if they get it - the main issue is governanance rules. I'd like to see an ownership tax that is reinvested into the lower leagues. Eventually the economic bubble that football has ignored will burst and force it to live in real world, but Manchester City won't be affected for the moment and before them it was CHelsea and before them others. It's surely better than the deep debt run football that governs Spanish football.

I can cope with City buying DAvid Silva, but the clubs bidding for Villawere in debt. That takes the piss. Demand a bargain from a club in debt and pay for it by redistributing your own debt. It's outrageous. Why is that different from a Ponzi Scheme?

What minute will united equalise ?

92nd.

90+6

82nd minute

Goals

Sturridge makes it 3-3 from a close range header after a Lee cross.

Bolton equalize again. Bit of a classic going on here..

it happened again! Wolves go ahead, Bolton equalise. Poor old Blackpool fans.

If Blackpool win they're only 3 points behind Villa!

Ok 4-3 now !

Luis wrote:If Blackpool win they're only 3 points behind Villa!

Aye. There is still mathematical possibility we could go down. It still takes big GD swing though.

Blackburn hit the frame of the goal. If the standard Man Utd script is followed, they'll capitalise on the let-off and get the equaliser in the next few minutes. Ferdinand almost scores an own-goal as well with a glancing header.

If that was vs Chelsea it would have been 2-0.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Man Utd think they should have a penalty, and the officials are consulting.

Respect Campaign

And the penalty is given. Looked like Hernandez threw himself into the slightest of contact with Robinson. Stupid goalkeeping though, as the forward was going nowhere.

Fucks sake. Was a pen though.