nani just talked his way out of old trafford. if his play hadnt already done so...

11/12/2009 3:32:32 PM

11/13/2009 11:04:59 AM

What happened with Nani?

11/13/2009 12:43:45 PM

^ he said Sir Alex has mishandled him and killed his confidence.

11/13/2009 3:31:24 PM

lolbregas

11/13/2009 10:26:05 PM

oh god, nani to milan?

11/14/2009 2:10:24 PM

nani for pato switch exposed???

11/14/2009 2:46:42 PM

FYI:


I wouldn't waste my time going to the Eurosport warehouse sale next weekend



unless you want jackets that say "Eliza" or "Jenny" or "Beth" on them



or if you wear size 12+ in shoes and don't mind that the shoes you'd buy seem to have already been worn for a few games.

[Edited on November 14, 2009 at 5:05 PM. Reason : .]

11/14/2009 5:05:43 PM

damn. that sucks.

wasted trip?

11/14/2009 5:07:54 PM

Epic increase of my carbon footprint


and I'ma need Eurosport to compensate me for my wasted time

[Edited on November 14, 2009 at 5:15 PM. Reason : ^ you right]

11/14/2009 5:14:45 PM

you shouldve bought that Blanco england jersey. not sure why you didnt

11/14/2009 6:50:52 PM

fucking meaningless friendlies

Van Persie out 2-3 months

11/14/2009 11:57:43 PM

thats why i hate friendlies too. van persie is the hottest striker in the league right now. pretty much him and fabregas are driving arsenal on right now into 2nd place and then a friendly and bam, you lose your best player.

i swear it happens to rooney all the time and i was praying he didnt get hurt trying to do all the work against brazil while the rest of that b-c england squad blew major ass...

while i hate arsenal and maybe even van persie more than arsenal itself, i can def feel your pain

11/15/2009 2:47:41 AM

11/15/2009 11:36:35 PM

dammit. i meant january not december...lol

11/16/2009 8:11:57 PM

Totally sucks for Van Persie and Arsenal

I was thinking about this the other day - I wonder how much longer we're going to see as many friendly games as we do now. With so many club games and all these injuries happening, I could see a lot of star players just saying, "Screw it, it's not worth it." And who's going to want to come out and watch these games if it's just a bunch of scrubs?

11/16/2009 10:00:09 PM

FIFA's not going to change their rules just because star players get hurt in friendlies. To quote Al Pacino in Heat - "You can get KILLED.. WALKIN your DOGGIE."


You get called up by your country for any game, you have to go. You get hurt, your country compensates your club. That's how it works.


Either that or international football ceases to exist. You saw how the clubs bitched about sending players to the fucking OYLMPICS. In FIFA's eyes, the club vs country side ALWAYS ends with country winning.

11/17/2009 2:06:04 AM

Quote :

"You get called up by your country for any game, you have to go."

Not if you don't want to play. Players have chosen not to play in friendlies before. Just this week, Castillo and Torres opted to stay with their Mexican teams instead of play in the Slovakia-US game and then Torres declined a call-up to the Denmark game because of "personal reasons." I'm not talking a choice that FIFA or a player's club makes, I'm saying what if the player decides on his own that it's not worth it.

Even if players don't flat-out say, "I don't want to play in this game," we could see something like Rooney "resting a sore knee" or some other bullshit injury just so he doesn't have to go play some friendly in Qatar. Players like Rooney, Ronaldo, and Messi know they're going to be called up for the games that actually mean something, even if they don't go play in these exhibition games so at what point do they just decide to stop going?

And are you sure about countries compensating clubs for an injury? I thought that was recently brought up when Milan was pissed off about Oneywu's injury and wanted compensation.

11/17/2009 8:08:26 AM

Well I know, for example, the FA had to compensate Newcastle when Owen got hurt in WC06.


Clubs have insurance policies on their players, but it's a it unfair to ask a club to foot a bill when a player is out on international duty.



and yes, on an individual basis players can say "hey I can't play," but they have to give a valid reason according to FIFA. IE: Injury, Club performance or competition, family reason, etc. Obviously those reasons are usually not that strong, but they have to give a reason nonetheless. They can't just be like "Naw son." And they also have to deal with the knowledge that if they repeatedly flake out, they'll be replaced in the lineup permanently. That's a self-fulfilling cycle anyway.


But as the main FIFA rule goes, ignoring the others that give you 'outs', if you are called up for any game - friendly or not - you are required to participate to maintain your status as a member of the international lineup. The whole process is pretty informal and cordial, but the penalty for not showing is greater than it would be on a club level. See: Adriano. Dude flaked for months on Inter, but not once did he resist a Brazil call-up. That's because he knew that if he didn't play for Brazil, he wouldn't play for them (or obviously anyone else internationally) again. Unlike a club, where he could just say any number of things to get out of his contract and would be guaranteed to find a new one.

That's also why FIFA works so well in the general sense - most players put country before club, too. It's a pride and privilege thing.

11/17/2009 9:42:53 AM

double post:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=699533&sec=england&cc=5901


Van Persie is gonna let some woman rub placenta on his ankle.


Shit'll probably work, too. Stem cells and all that.

11/17/2009 9:47:21 AM

Quote :

"But as the main FIFA rule goes, ignoring the others that give you 'outs', if you are called up for any game - friendly or not - you are required to participate to maintain your status as a member of the international lineup. The whole process is pretty informal and cordial, but the penalty for not showing is greater than it would be on a club level."

Okay, fair enough.

Then maybe we should expect to see friendlies become a little more friendlier? I didn't see the tackle on RVP but I read this morning that Kuyt said it was an unnecessary challenge.

11/17/2009 10:12:51 AM

Well, the flip side is that if you get paid (and they do, for friendlies even) to play football, why would you just go through the motions?

People who show for Spain - Argentina don't want to see Gonzalo Higuain and Cesc Fabregas half-assing it, because they paid good money for those tickets.

The players don't want to half-ass, because in the normal run of things, they don't get to play each other that often. Plus, there's fringe players who might be trying to make a case for themselves to be in the starting XI.




I'm not disagreeing with you at all, I'm just saying that there's so many subplots going in international football that 1. it's hard to keep straight and 2. not likely to change any time soon.

11/17/2009 10:28:09 AM

Yeah, it's a tricky situation. That's why I said earlier that the extreme top-tier players could probably get away with getting out of a friendly here and there because there's a very small chance guys like Rooney would lose their place.

I'm not against having a random friendly but it doesn't make sense so soon after a long qualifying process and with so much time to go before the next meaningful game. You need to have friendlies to prepare and evaluate before a tournament but what is a game in November really going to benefit with regards to next summer's World Cup?

I'm not really sure what they can do, but something needs to be done in my opinion. Sepp can work on shit like that that instead of telling the US to play their games in the winter.

11/17/2009 10:52:57 AM

I'ma have to disagree with you on that one. Sepp needs to keep up pressure on the US to have their games in winter.

11/17/2009 7:11:16 PM

Not Sepp.

Whoever the president is in 10-15 years, perhaps.

11/17/2009 8:43:23 PM

I was talking to a Carolina RailHawks ticket rep today... they're in talks to get Fulham over here for a game next year.

11/20/2009 1:21:52 PM

lolverpool with 2 subs already in the first 18 minutes as babel and agger have gone off injured

11/21/2009 8:08:33 AM

prob shouldve went back to sleep rather than watch that first half...


skrtel just scored for lolver. man city have looked less than enthused to play this game today

[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:01 AM. Reason : f]

11/21/2009 8:47:54 AM

lol at tevez getting booed coming on

dammit i knew i shouldve picked adebayor for my fantasy team this week



[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:19 AM. Reason : nice, skrtel tried to karate kick it from adebayor. thats epic defending]




lolverpool losing now 2-1 haha, man city finally decided to start playing this half

[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:26 AM. Reason : pool pwnt. stay home]

11/21/2009 9:11:32 AM

haha dammit game, i cant keep doing this. benayoun ties it back up literally seconds later

11/21/2009 9:27:38 AM

Benayoun with the equalizer

11/21/2009 9:27:43 AM

this game went from a snoozefest to insane within a matter of minutes

[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:29 AM. Reason : shit just realized i dropped benayoun this week on fantasy ]

11/21/2009 9:28:31 AM

yeah it did.

11/21/2009 9:29:33 AM

back and forth....ahh peepee decided to slow it down

11/21/2009 9:30:52 AM

I think shittycity's strategy in the first half were to let lolverpool injure themselves.

and man N'Gog is terrible

11/21/2009 9:31:54 AM

yeah i dont know how ngog has ever scored in this league...he is always garbage when i watch.


and insert kygriakos spends more time on his back joke here...

[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:33 AM. Reason : g]

11/21/2009 9:33:09 AM

yet another Greek player who can't cut it in the EPL

11/21/2009 9:35:30 AM

haha Lucas LOLVER

11/21/2009 9:44:05 AM

hahaha lucas lolvia shouldve won it for lolverpool. epic fail on the unmarked header...



apparently all the money in the world can buy you 6 straight draws in the epl. nice purchases whores of manchester....

[Edited on November 21, 2009 at 9:47 AM. Reason : im glad i dropped given on my team though]

11/21/2009 9:44:40 AM

I didn't think Kygriakos was that bad today, it was really Skrtel's fault on both of the City goals.

And wow to Lucas missing that open header that badly, that's certainly not going to win any Liverpool fans over


What's everybody's prediction in this Sunderland-Arsenal game?

11/21/2009 9:55:14 AM

that sunderland are going to get killed

11/21/2009 9:56:40 AM

my prediction has been way off haha...

woot bent, on my fantasy team

11/21/2009 11:32:25 AM

Well that fucking sucked.

And to make matters worse there were Sunderland fans where I was watching it

11/21/2009 12:29:01 PM

Epic Everton ass-beating

11/21/2009 3:35:22 PM

that goal darren fletcher scored was ridiculous

11/21/2009 7:08:49 PM

the spurs are laying an epic ass beating on Wigan. 7-1 now in the 87'. defoe with 5 goals.


[Edited on November 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM. Reason : lol. make that 8-1. bentley scores.]

[Edited on November 22, 2009 at 12:00 PM. Reason : 9-1 final. jesus.]

11/22/2009 11:49:01 AM

WHAT?


EPIC.

11/22/2009 12:04:17 PM

that fletcher goal was serious. in the discussion for goal of the year.

and wow to 9-1 beat down on wigan....lol

11/22/2009 3:43:57 PM

great rant from Babel... maybe him and Nani should hang out together

Quote :

"Babel also revealed some of the sacrifices he has made since moving to Anfield. "As a Liverpool player I can't play in my blue Nike boots. They strongly discourage me from doing that. "

fuck Rafa and Liverpool for this bullshit, how the hell can you be expected to produce without wearing your blue boots?

11/24/2009 11:38:59 AM

11/24/2009 11:45:21 AM