The Premier League thread

Aaaaand Stevie is staying

Jovanovic and Cole have me excited about this season, but we've made some other interesting signings for the future in Shelvey and SFA young player of the year Wilson.

Most of all, though, I'm just fucking pleased with Roy's ability and willingness to speak to us and to the players, though. I'm not even that fussed about us going for the title this year after all the kerfuffle of late, I'm just hoping we get a good buyer, make the top four, and have a good run in the EL while we settle in for a new English era of Liverpool football

Stevie is too old to go anywhere now, no one is going to pay the sort of fee Liverpool would want for Gerrard when he's on the wrong side of 30 now. So despite whatcertain papers have said about Real Madrid being interested, he was always going to stay.

In other newsSir Alex Ferguson has said he's happy with what he's got and and played down the suggestion of brining in new signings, given how awful their central midfield is I think that's great news for the rest of the league. No playmakers, and only one ball winner (assuming of course Hargreaves is dead - he broke down again in pre season so that's a fairly safe assumption).

Also apparently your lot have reached an agreement with Rangers to sign Danny Wilson, who I know very little about but from what's been said he's an 18 year old centre back who's rated very highly. He's probably a couple of seasons away frm being ready to start in the Premier League (needs to bulk up) but from all accounts he's got the goods to succeed. Thankfully for you Rafa isn't there to ruin his career and Roy is pretty good at developing young British talent.

As mentioned he was SFA youth player of the year, so bodes well

Been awhile lads but bloody good to be back....

Bridge could plug our left defense quite nicely. I realise he is a little old at 30 but we need a hand back there. Glad reira is getting teh boot, olympiacos can have him. Plenty of promise but under performed. Loic Remy would be EPIC, and for a reported player swap of El Zhar and Plessis plus 13.5 mill is well worth it.................. But Huntelaar as well... MAJOR EPICNESS!! We could then sell Masch, maybe pick up Suarez. We would have plenty of strikers and wouldnt have to rely so much on El Nino ( If he stays!! )


So glad we are actually being smart about things and making progress!!

I wouldn't put much hope in Huntelaar, he flopped at Real Madrid and AC MIlan, seems to be another player like Alfonso Alves and Kezman that score a lot of goals in the Dutch League but struggle anywhere else.

Has anyone actually got any clue about this Arda Turan? Random Turkish cats keep talking about him coming to Liverpool but they are the only cats I've heard talking about him yet apparently he's really highly rated...

That Javier Hernandez at Man Utd has me a bit worried, it must be said. Fastest player at the WC vs our backs = a bit concerning, especially if we end up patching our left back area up with someone playing out of position...

Maschie is outies, or at least looking to be, but that's seemed to have been the case for a while now Hopefully we get a good price for him, at least.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/mascherano-latest

Torres is sounding keen to stay though, so that's cool

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/hodgson-on-torres-future

Drenthe, who can also operate as a left winger, claimed on his own facebook page that he is set to move to Anfield. "I will soon be joining Liverpool FC. I hope I will have a good season," he said.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/transfer-gossip/9m-royston-drenthe-will-lift-liverpool

Drenthe is gash.

Heh nfi, but I struggle to believe he would be worse than us pushing one of our fullbacks in there as might have to happen otherwise

Well Insua's deal is on the rocks right now because agree to personal terms as Fiorentina want him to take a pay cut.

Aaaand a brace from Ngog against Macedonian heavyweights FK Rabotnick see an under-strength Liverpool head home with a two goal advantage going into the second game at Anfield.

GO boys, GO!!

You heard about the new rules governing the squad, must be some sort of UEFA standard as from what I can tell it's pretty much the same as the squad rules they have in Spain:

- Clubs register a squad of up to 25 players, which must include at least eight 'home-grown' players, at the end of each transfer window.
- Home-grown players do not have to be English; home-grown players are defined as those who "irrespective of nationality or age, have been affiliated to the FA or Welsh FA for a period of three seasons or 36 months prior to 21st birthday or the end of the season in which he turns 21".
- Clubs can supplement squad with unlimited number of players under the age of 21, a player is deemed to be 21 if he is under the age of 21 on 1st January of the year in which the season commences. For the current year he will need to be born on or after 1st January 1989. Fuck that makes me feel old.
- Changes to the squad of 25 can be made only during transfer windows, although in exceptional circumstances (eg goalkeeping injury crisis) moves could be allowed.
- Players loaned to Football League clubs cannot be replaced, but can regain their spot on return to parent club.
- Rules apply only to Premier League matches, not FA Cup or League Cup matches. European matches aleady have very similar rules governing the squads.
- Clubs that do not have enough home-grown players to make up the quota of 8 will be forced to operate with a reduced squad, so a team with only 5 home-grown players will have a squad of 22.
- First deadline is 1700 BST on 1 September (24 hours after end of August transfer window).

Wow, that's pretty crazy. I think we'll just sneak in, thankfully, as we have several young players we have had come through the academy proving themselves atm.

British players with appropriate skill:
Stevie
Jamie
Glen
Joe
Spearing
Shelvey

Skilled youngsters who I think apply:
Pacheco
Ayala
Amoo

Close run thing though; Roy'll HAVE to be looking for an British LB. Time to investigate other clubs ^_^

From a quick look:

Arsenal: Clichy, Gibbs, Wilshere, Walcott, Ramsey
http://www.arsenal.com/first-team/players

Chelsea: Terry, Cole, Lampard, Turnbull, Sturridge, and a shit load of eligible juniours.
http://www.chelseafc.com/page/PlayerHome/0,,10268,00.html

City: Hart, Lescott, Bridge, Richards, Barry, SWP, but have several other available
http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Players

United: Smalling, (the cunty) Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Hargreaves (??), Owen, Rooney, Owen, Carrick, Scholes. They shit it in...
http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={91EA3BE2-963A-4BAB-802C-F46A0EF3FCA3}&page=1

Everton: Hibbert, Baines, Osman, Rodwell, Wallace, Vaughn, Beckford, Baxter
http://www.evertonfc.com/match/everton-squad.html

Fulham: Stockdale, Kelly, Baird, Hughes, Murphy, Greening, Davies, Zamora, Johnson
http://www.fulhamfc.com/MatchAndTeam/PlayerProfiles/1stTeamPlayers.aspx

Spurs: Shit it in with their defenders and keepers only.
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/players/player_profiles.html

Villa: Also shit it in.
http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/FirstTeam/0,,10265,00.html

So pretty much just Arsenal and us struggling. I bet fucking Ferguson put someone up to this <:

Liverpool are the only team that are at risk, don't count players under 21 as they are free to play without being included in the 25. Arsenal have heaps of players that qualify as the majority of their squad was purchased/stolen when they were 17/18 so you have the likes of Fabregas, Bendtner, Song, Denilson, their back up goalies, Djorou, in addition to the players you posted. Hargreaves doens't qualify as he was trained in Canada and Germany not England, and Owen only counts once. Liverpool have:

1. Gerrard
2. Carragher
3. Glen Johnson
4. Joe Cole
5. Stephen Darby
6. Jay Spearing

...and maybe Damien Plessis... Insua would've qualified.

Ahh yep, call. We've heaps of young cats coming through we can include though, but it'll be a fucking baptism of fire for them to be forced into the 25. I'm sure we have plans afoot though. Knew that Rafa guy should've sucked it up and got Mickey back instead of letting him go to those cunts up the road >_< ^_^

German World Cup sensation Sami Khedira has just been signed by Real Madrid, very Mourinho like purchase and should mean that one of Momo Diarra, Lassana Diarra, or Gago should be out the door.

Hurry up, Fiorentina, sort it out. Insua played his usual inept game this morning in our last friendly and I really don't want another season of yelling at him for letting people run around him. Glad Aurelio is back though, he plays a smarter game than Insua and should be our starter imo.

Also, GAH, TWO WEEKS! Cannot wait for Tottenham v City and Liverpool v Arsenal games. Fuck I love PL

Arsenal win the Emirates Cup

And Winston Reid signs to West Ham for 5million pounds. Epic! Rumoured on 3news tonight and just saw it confirmed on West Ham News.

Wow! Go boy!!

There's nothing on the official site that I can see, where did you see it?

Guess it was an unofficial West Ham fan news thing on Facebook. It's been reported on Soccernet and The Daily Mirror now too.. looks like he just has to do a medical. $8.7million NZD

Well it's official now! 3 year contract

Soon to tbe the cockney Maori!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/aug/09/martin-oneill-resigns-aston-villa

"Martin O'Neill has shocked Aston Villa by resigning as manager only five days before the start of the season". wtf. Ow!

Two reasons:

1) Not enough of the Milner fee being made available for new signings.
2) Bid accepted by the board for another player, probably Ashley Young and alledgedly from Spurs.

Villa are in a sell to buy pattern and O'Neill hasn't complained about the impending sale of Milner which is probably due to the large fee. However they've been stagnant in 6th for 3 seasons now so if he lost Milner he'd want money to replace him with, especially as it would be the second year in a row where he lost his best player. he also said he'd walk if they sold Young, so either reason is viable.

Also Arsenal are set to break their own unofficial record for most injuries at the start of a season with Aaron Ramsey, Cesc Fabregas, Abou Diaby, Alex Song, Nicklas Bendtner, Robin Van Persie, and Denilson all expected to miss the opener, plus their are fitness doubts over Johan Djourou and Andrei Arshavin. Does remain to be seen what they'll do for a goalkeeper as well given Lukasz Fabianski's appalling performance in Arsenal's 6-5 over Legia Warsaw, and as we all know with Almunia then they're better off going starting with another outfielder and having no on in goal. There's rumours that youngster Wojciech Szczesny will get the nod but in my opinion if Arsene Wenger doesn't sign a goalkeeper before the window closes then Arsenal will not finish higher than 3rd yet again.

Joe Clole, that ones too easy! Three game ban incoming, no arguments necessary blatant leg breaker so despite the commentators claiming he's not that sort of player he had to go. Almunia's poor positioning then completely out done by Reina's absolute shocker...

Blackpool were pretty awesome yesterday though.

Also real doubts about Mancini after seeing that system against Spurs, how the hell is Silva supposed to do anything when Tevez is behind him and trying to occupy the same space all the time? Anyone could've seen that happening too, playing tevez over Adebayor in the that system was an absolute no brainer.

Pff not even; I can't believe that they're not appealing the ban. Even Arsene said it was fuck all

ps. Player of the season's looking pretty good so far <:

The man who's never played a moment of football is commenting on tackling?

I'll comment on what I like, thank you very much!

Oh you meant Wenger? Oh... <:

No meant you. Wenger's response was his standard I didn't see it from memory.

Oh. Then get fucked. And if you didn't see it what the FUCK are you talking about, oh 12th division hero of all things football?

Cole's missing a penalty tonight adds to his outstanding player of the season run >_<

I think he meant Wenger claimed to have not seen it?

Only way this can be settled is if you fellas get your boots on and have a day of soccer related battles down at the park imo ^_^

Whenever I've tried to organise kick arounds G inevitably pikes, have you seen his boots? There's not so much as a blade of grass or fleck of mud on them.

lolz.

am thinking of attempting to get a bunch of unfit degenerates together to play in the indoor soccer comp @ grey's ave YMCA.

any posters in this thread keen?

You and a drunk Zennith rolling up on me on a hungover Sunday afternoon to kick a flat ball around the Domain once hardly qualifies the use of "whenever", brother

Tho TVT suggested that exactly this could be a good idea over this weekend, so could be a good chance to blood my boots.
And, seeing as I'm pretty much an exact body double of Joey Cole and you're essentially the Kiwi Koscielny, I think we should recreate the moment and see exactly how rough it really was <:

Bro I've never kicked a football in anger so expect that it really would be a piss-take, but I'd give it a whirl at least ^_^

gummi: Keen!
G: Keen so long as it's on Sunday as I have the real deal on Sat. As for your Koscienly call, pffft I'm like the white Ashley Cole.

Three 6-0 scores this week. I only care about the Arsenal one though

Oh dear City beat Liverpool 3-0 and Mascherano goes AWOL, as Roy Hodgson admits he had no idea where he was.

Was actually a good game; we put some pressure on them and Hart and Kompany (lol pun) stood up for them, while our boys at the back foundered a bit. Glad we've got some less hairy fixtures to face now though, it must be said.

As for Maschie malarky it's pretty fucked. He made a big statement about continuing to work with us while he waits for the right offer to come in then disappears? Random imo...

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/latest-news/100-up-for-masch

LOL! Bit early there lads, on several fronts

Liverpool trying to sign Paul Konchesky:

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_6337675,00.html

Although it could be reliant on selling Maschie to us, which is a funny one because I et the impression Woy is happy with our bid bu the owners want more.

Oh and Aquilani has gone on loan to Juve with an option to buy him for £13m.

Selling Maschie to you cunts and losing 5 million pounds is fucked though; he may not have had a stellar season last year but fuck losing money on him just because. Sit him out for a couple of months until he sorts himself imo

Good news re Konchesky, though a bit strange when we have (an admittedly old and injury prone) Aurelio available. Be nice to have a more defensive option I guess, as Danny got paced and schooled against Man City and Aurelio really isn't too flash in defence.

And I'm a bit sad to see Aquilani go as, imo, he was acclimatizing and was almost what we had expected for our 20mil by the end of last season, but with Joe and Milan in place I really can't see him challenging for a spot as both of those two have more to offer than he.

Heh fans are none too pleased by it it seems. I didn't think he was great as he continued to move the ball like it was Italian football, but plenty of cats are calling him the most creative player we had. Personally I saw the creative movement and passing that he did go awry all too regularly to give him that much credit and it felt like he kept forgetting he was playing the English game...

Well supposedly the bid was £14m + Hleb who despite not fitting in with us was a fairly good player for Arsenal and is versatile enough to play anyone across the midfield. But Liverpool want £24m in cash which for a player hell bent on leaving with so little time left on his contract is a bit much. I imagine a deal will be done in the vicinity of the £18m you paid for him though, as at the end of the day you still have some serious holes in your squad with Aurelio as your only left back, Paulson your only proper holding mid, and Carragher as your only cover for Johnson at right back (and if you thought Dagger got paced wait until you see Jamie out wide), so you'll need some cash to bring in a few reinforcements.

To be honest I was surprised by the move as I think he'd be the perfect player to sit in midfield against the smaller teams that you guys struggle to break down, plus he provides the all important depth which you guys seem to struggle with as well. Keeping him would've meant you had Poulsen for the defensive role and maybe Lucas at a stretch... Aquilani, Gerrard, and Lucas able to play the central role... Gerrard, Aquilani, and Cole able to play an advanced role... Then Kuyt, Babel, Cole, Jovanovic, and Gerrard able to play the wide roles. When you take out Aquilani and factor in that Cole and Gerrard will probably miss a few games (Aquilani would to to be fair) with injuries then you start to look a bit thin.

Then again whether Aquilani was happy with a rotational role in the squad is a different story.

Hahah, have seen Jamie out there a couple of times and as long as the ball only comes near him when it's being cleared we're fine <:

re happy, that's what I'm guessing has happened. And the 25 man squad thing may have had a hand in it too, but I imagine it being primarily his being unhappy with being a bit part player.

Ahh well, he had a nice time in sunny Liverpool for a year recovering from injury, well played all involved!

Aaaaaaand Stevie is injured already. FML.

Looking forward to FIFA

Bro, I've just decided that in our epic clashes you're not gonna be allowed to use Barca.

No fucking way.

Though now with Milan and Cole in I might give it a go just to see, and if you slyly let me win a couple, just enough that I think their usable, so that I think I can legitimately compete with my concerning squad, I might let you for a while at least

Scraped past Tranzonspor and into the group stages of EL; one thing I can say about supporting a weakened and rebuilding Liverpool is that even success over marginal teams is exciting

Group A
Inter Milan
Werder Bremen
Tottenham
FC Twente

Group B
Lyon
Benfica
Schalke
Hapoel Tel Aviv

Group C
Manchester United
Valencia
Rangers
Bursaspor

Group D
Barcelona
Panathinaikos
FC Copenhagen
Rubin Kazan

Group E
Bayern Munich
Roma
Basle
CFR Cluj

Group F
Chelsea
Marseille
Spartak Moscow
MSK Zilina

Group G
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Ajax
Auxerre

Group H
Arsenal
Shakhtar Donetsk
Braga
Partizan

Plenty of interesting matchups there; like it. Irks that we aren't involved but will still have a have a look

I'm happy with Arsenal's draw Don't see them having a problem getting past any of those teams.

Shaktar will be a challenge away I'd imagine and I think Braga have been touted as tricky too iirc but I'd imagine you lot getting through without too much trouble

Partizan away could be a intimidating as their ultras are bat shit mental, think Roma fans but worse.

Ridiculous allowing that handball to stand; that goal being allowed would have got us all the way to twelfth!

Theiving bastard Catalans stealing our Maschie... >_<

Chris Woods supposedly going on loan to Derby... at least he will get proper game time there.

wtf Spain! Poor ol' Pepe, that's not done his rep any good

Barcelona players got confused and kept passing to Messi and Maschie.

!!!

Plus given in juniors it was always Piqué putting the hard word on defenders who gave Messi the treatment he probably ended up threatening his own defence. Oi Marchena I'm watching you!

Former Liverpool boss Gerald Houllier has taken over at Villa, not sure if you were following football when he was in charge. But h's better than a lot of Liverpool (and other fans tbf) remember, many point to the end of his reign and the failures in the transfer like Diouf, Diao, Cheyrou, Kewell... But many forget that he took the underachieving Spice Boys (actually what they were referred to as - David James, Jamie Redknapp, Jason McAteer, Steve McManaman, Paul Ince, Neil Ruddock, Rob Jones, Phill Babb) that despite a dearth of talent only won the League Cup and made them into a competitive force again, he also matched Rafa's best finish of second (tbf it was a case of snatching 2nd on the last day rather than legitimately challenging for the title like Rafa). He also bought in the likes of Hyypia, Henchoz, Hamann, and McAllister as well as bringing through Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, and Danny Murphy. Plus there was the lesser treble he achieved in the same season they finished second (League Cup, FA Cup, and UEFA Cup), he also arguably left a better side for Benetiz than Rafa left for Woy.

So he's a much better manager than many rememeber and should do well for Villa.

Really only started following seriously after Rafa took over but am aware of Houllier's impact. Hope things work out well for him at Villa and that they can do good things as I far prefer them to most of the other top half teams ^_^

4 - 1. I honestly expected a 1 all draw at half time. Good result but that's a flattering scoreline from our backup boys :>

4-1 ARSENAL!

2 - 2 after AET at Anfield against League 2 Northhampton!

2 - 4 loss on penalties!

Fuck you LFC academy, stop wasting my fucking time you cunts; I'd burn your facility down right now if I were able to

Fun fact: Northhampton are 17th in League Two like we are in the Premier League!

The Cobblers also hold the record for the shortest time to get promoted al the way from the the bottom division to the top and then relegated all the way back down again (9 years). Groge Best also scored a double hat trick (6 goals) against them in the FA Cup. At present they are 69 places below Liverpool in the league.

lol Liverpool lol

lol Chelsea lol

lol Man City lol

Distinct lack of lol Spurs considering you're an Arsenal fan.

Fuck real football; my demo of Fifa 11 is coming down now and my pennies are saved for release day

lol Arsenal <:

They played like shit on the weekend. Didn't deserve to win. Only started playing when they were 3-0 down. If they had played like that the whole game we would have routed them 4 or 5-0. Oh an Alumnia is not the world class goalie that Arsenal so desperately need. He was definitely at fault for one of those goals.

At least Chelsea lost too and United could only draw so didn't lose too much ground.

iirc he was out of position wildly for the first, utterly fucked the second, and could have smothered the third and would have if he hadn't already carded himself. Ultimate fail imo...

Though our drawing with Sunderland was also a fucking mare so can't talk too loudly

What happened to MGC?

Anyway 3-1 Arsenal this morning, nice way to bounce back from losing to West Brom :@

Another draw with Rubin Kazam, not even shocked or annoyed this time. Just accepting that they are our bogey team.

lul Liverpool! Blackpool is our new Middlesborough. In othe news, FML

Relegation ahoy!

Fuck up

PS I'll kill you Zenith! Dot fprget our bet!

The pro-Rafa Brigade are very angry right now... Lots of happy now you c**nts, see what you've gotten us!

Hahah, decent

A few player ratings:

heh some of those are awesome