Queeaqueg wrote:I don't really know who could do the Scotland job. Gordon Strachan would be a good choice but he would never leave Celtic.
All the papers here say that George Burley is gonna be revealed as the new manager this week, after all the compensation issues with Southampton have been resolved.
Not my first choice, but I'm pretty confident he can pick up from where McLeish left.
The drunk is off! George Burley is going. Saints will now get... Hoddle.
The Premiership title race is getting interesting, Man U and Arsenal suck on same points and Chelsea are two points behind. Liverpool are out of it and they'll be lucky to make 4th.
Best of luck to George Burley I hope he does well with Scotland as they were so close to qualifying and of all the British Isle teams a least they have a bit of fight in em As for liverpool the FA cup is the only realistic cup they have a chance of getting this year. And if they arent careful Everton will take there fourth place position.
Looks like Paul Ince is going to be the new Southampton manager. He had a massive impact at both Macclesfield and Milton Keynes, can he keep it going long term though?
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Paul Ince should stay at MK Dons cause he is doing well with them and could help them gain promotion. I dont know if he can make the step up to Southamptons level though and they have been struggling to get results this season:?: We shall wait and see.
Looks like Paul Ince is going to be the new Southampton manager. He had a massive impact at both Macclesfield and Milton Keynes, can he keep it going long term though?
I can't see it happeninf. Ince turned down Fulham and he is doing a good job at MK Dons, can't see why he'll appear at Saints. I said that when Alex McLeish left that Burley would be choosen for Scotland and I said that Shearer would be next Saints manager, I stick by my guns
In FA Cup only 6 Premiership teams made it through; Chelsea, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Portsmouth and Middlesbrough. There are more Championship sides going through which is rare. The best tie was the Liverpool - Havant game where a team 6 divisions below Liverpool and made up of builders, teachers, etc managed to score two goals and lead at Liverpool until being crushed 5-2. Well done to them and the man he scored the goals, he'll remember that for the rest of his life.
Wow, so much has happened since the last time a post was made. Where to start...
Champions League. For the first time ever in the history of teh competition, 4 teams from one nation will go into the quarter-finals. Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are all from England and go into teh draw... along with Roma(Italy), Barcelona(Spain), Fenerbahce(Turkey) and Schalke 04(Germany). The draw will be made on Friday for who will play each other.
AC Milan 0(0) - 2(0) Arsenal
Chelsea 3(0) - 0(0) Olympiacos
Man U 1(1) - 0(1) Lyon
Inter Milan 0(0) - 1(2) Liverpool
Barcelona 1(3) - 0(2) Celtic
Porto 1(0) - 0(1) - Schalke 04 - Schalke win 4-1 on Pens
Real Madrid 1(2) - 2(2) - Roma
Sevilla 3(2) - 2(3) - Fenerbahce - Fenerbahce win 3-2 on Pens
FA Cup. For the first time since like a 100 years a team from outside the top 4 will not be represented in the FA Cup Final and for the first time since 1995 a team from the top 4 will not win it. Portsmouth remain the only Premiership team left in it and are clear favourites. The other three are from teh Championship(league below Premiership) and they include Cardiff Ciy(knocked Premiership team Middlebrough in Quarter-final), West Brom and Barnsley, who knocked current FA Cup holders and previous League winners Chelsea and 2006 FA Cup and 5 times Champions League winners Liverpool.
Portsmouth v West Brom and Cardiff V Barnsley. All played at Wembley.
League Cup. Chelsea v Tottenham, Chelsea were the favourites but Tottenham out played Chelsea and won the match 2-1 AET. Ramos the Spurs manager picks up first bit of Silverware.
The Premiership. 3 teams remain in the hunt for the Premiership. Arsenal lead he way by 1 point after three draws(though they beat AC Milan at San Siro in Champions League), Man United are rigth behind them and are in fine form plus have a game in hand. Chelsea have lost in two cups and now have to fight for the Premiership(and Champions League) and Chelsea are not far off with 8 points behind plus two games in hand. Liverpool are way out of the race for the title but they have to fight for the 4th Champions League sport with Everton, currenly both equal points and both in good form.
That Arsenal can't sustain a title or CL race. First to the Premiership, Man U manage to cut Arsenal's lead at teh top and with Arsenal losing to both Man U and Chelsea(plus lots of other draws), Man U now lead to the Premiership with 81 points with Chelsea behind them with 78 points... where are Arsenal... in third with 74 points(and if anyone is interested Liverpool have 69 points). This Saturday hosts teh title decider as Man U travel to Chelsea... if Man U win then they get the title but if they lose then the race is wide open. A draw will also favour Man U.
So the Champions League, Arsenal play host to Liverpool. Liverpool came to Arsenal first with the game finishing 1-1(Arsenal should have got a penalty) and then Arsenal travelled to Liverpool where they lost 4-2(Liverpool's penalty was not a penalty). So Liverpool go through, along with Man U(beat Roma), Chelsea(beat Fenerbahce) and Barcelona(beat Schalke 04). Liverpool play Chelsea tonight which shows the third meeting of these team in this stage for 4 years. Man U play Barcelona with Man U being the favs and Barcelona being really out of form(but have strong players such Messi).
FA Cup has two unlikley finalists in Portsmouth and Cardiff.
Oh, and Queen of teh South knocked out Aberdeen to go to play Rangers. Rangers are chasing 4 tropies(one they have got already).
Playoffs start at the weekend, we've got the away leg at Wycombe on Sunday. It gives us the benefit of home advantage in the second leg and our record against the Chairboys over the last couple of years has been good to put it mildly (0-0, 6-0, 2-0, 1-2, 2-1).
It really could go either way though. Wycombe are a strong side and their form is more even than ours (6-0 drubbings aside!), we've got a a talented but young squad and I've no idea how they're going to react to big games. I'm going to book my ticket for the away leg today, but sadly I'm likely to miss the final as I'm in Dublin for the bank holiday.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Well the Premierleague season has come to a dramatic end. On the final day nothing had been truly decided at the top or bottom of the table. The only things we did know was that Derby were down and the top four had been decided.
Man U and Chelsea were fighting it out for the premierleague title both on 84 points but Man U had a superior goal difference. At the bottom, Fulham, Reading and Birmingham were all within a point of each other with Fulham going into the final day out of the bottom three.
Overall, Man U took the Premierleague title winning at Wigan 0-2. Chelsea drew with Bolton 1-1 but the time Bolton scored the equaliser Man U already won the title.
At the other end of the table, Fulham needed a win and they would have stayed up and that is what they got with a 0-1 over Portsmouth, even Reading and Birmingham won.
Else where, Everton got the final UEFA(5th spot) with a 3-1 over Newcastle and Aston Villa drew 2-2 with West Ham.
Now that is over, the attention turns to the Cup Finals. First to the big cup final, the Champions League.
For the first time ever there will be an all English Final between Man U and Chelsea. Chelsea beat Liverpool(4-2AET) and Man U beat Barcelona(1-0). This sets up the first English Final in Moscow on 23rd May.
The next cup final is the FA Cup Final were Portsmouth will take on Cardiff which will be an interesting match because no top four teams, one Championship team and Harry Redknapp might finally get his first trophy as a manager.
The UEFA Cup final will be between Zenit St Petersburg who surprisingly beat Bayern Munich and Rangers who equally surprisingly beat Fiorentina(on penalties). Rangers potential four trophies is still on.
The play-offs have also began with the Race to the Premiership beginning. Crystal Palace play Bristol City(Bristol City hold a 2-1 advantage from first leg at Palace) and Watford v Hull(Hull take a 2-0 advantage back to their ground).
As much as I hate Rangers, I'd love to see them win the Cup.
"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." - PJ O'Rourke
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"Men and women range themselves into three classes or orders of intelligence; you can tell the lowest class by their habit of always talking about persons; the next by the fact that their habit is always to converse about things; the highest by their preference for the discussion of ideas." - Charles Stewart
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"I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations." - James Madison
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UEFA Cup Final - City of Manchester Stadium
Result:
Zenit St Petersburg 2 - 0 Rangers
Rangers' European adventure comes to an end with defeat to the much deserved Zenit St Petersburg. Zenit St Petersburg controlled the game throughout having more procession, shots and corners. Rangers threaten at times but never really looked like scoring.
To tell you truth I never expected Rangers to win. Of course I wanted them to but many of the European games that Rangers played they were lucky; Wender Bremen, Sporting Lisbon and Fiorentina they were very lucky against. Zenit St Petersburg on the other hand have played entertaining and very well throughout the competitions beating(almost brushing aside) the likes Marseille, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, Villarreal and Bayern Munich fairly easily. The match against Bayern Munich second leg was where Zenit St Petersburg stood out where they completely outplayed Bayern Munich and made players like Ribery, Toni and Lucio look like amateurs.
This is the second UEFA Cup victory for a Russia team in 4 years(the other two went to Sevilla) and shows the growing strength of Russian football which has gone unnoticed. Not only have Russia qualified for Euro 2008(at the expense of England) plus with the growing strength of teams like Zenit St Petersburg and CSKA Moscow and the quality players going there shows that maybe Russian football can become a major league in European football. A good Champions League run by one(or more) of their teams would do this.
Attention now turns to the FA Cup and Champions League.
English Premierleague
Premierleague Champions - Manchester United
Runner Up - Chelsea
Champions' League Places - Arsenal and Liverpool
UFEA Cup place - Everton
Intertoto place - Aston Villa
Relegated - Reading, Birmingham City and Derby County
Promoted -
Champions - West Bromwich Albion
2nd Place - Stoke City
Play-off - Hull City
FA Cup - Portsmouth
League Cup - Tottenham Hotspur
Community Shield - Manchester United
FL Trophy - MK Dons
Fair Play League Table(UFEA place) - Manchester City
Europe
Champions League - Manchester United
UEFA Cup - Zenit St Petersburg
European Supercup - AC Milan
Rest of Europe
Spanish La Liga - Real Madrid
Runner up - Villarreal
Copa del Rey – Valencia
*Valencia do not qualify for CL
Italian Serie A - Inter Milan
Runner up - Roma
Coppa Italia – Roma
*AC Milan do not qualify for CL
French Ligue 1 - Lyon
Runner up – Bordeaux
Coupe de France - Lyon
Scottish Premierleague - Celtic
Runner up - Rangers
Scottish Cup - Rangers
German Bundesliga - Bayern Munich
Runner up - Wender Breman
DFB-Pokal - Bayern Munich
Dutch Eredivisie - PSV
Runner up - Ajax(though will not be in CL)
KNVB Cup – Feyenoord
Portuguese Liga – FC Porto
Runner up – Sporting Lisbon
Cup of Portugal – Sporting Lisbon
Greek Superleague - Olympiacos
Turkcell Superleague - Galatasaray SK
Russian Premierleague - Zenit St Petersburg(2007)
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Manchester United 1 – 1 Chelsea – Manchester United win 6 – 5 on penalties.
Manchester United beat Chelsea in the all-English Champions League Final. Manchester United’s Ronaldo scored the first goal but Lampard brought the match level. Man U controlled the game first half but in the second half Chelsea controlled hitting the bar twice through Drogba and Lampard. The match went to extra time where Drogba got sent off for slapping Vidic.
The match goes to penalties and Chelsea looked to have won it when Ronaldo surprisingly missed but on Chelsea’s final penalty, Terry stepped up and split which mad the ball go wide. Man U scored their next two and finally won when Anelka missed his to gift Man U their 3rd Champions League trophy and Sir Alex Ferguson’s 2nd.
Hull won the most expensive game in Football beating Bristol City 1 - 0 at Wembley to secure promotion to the Premierleague for the first time in their history. 39 year old Windass got the winning goal.
Also Avarm Grant got the sack as Chelsea manager even though hey finished Runner up in Premierleague, Champions League and League Cup. 2nd best is just not good enough for Chelsea.
Woohoo! Stockport won the League Two playoff at Wembley! I think it was easily the best of the three playoffs as well, a really electric game with good football played by both sides.
One thing I will say to anyone going to Wembley, either go for the expensive seats or the cheapest ones. We went for the Category 3 ones and the Category 4 ones only started a couple of rows further back. I don't think there's a bad seat anywhere in the ground.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
Sorry for the double post but I thought it would be a good time to review the predictions we made for the season back in the summer.
Here are mine:
Prem:
1. Chelsea 2nd
2. Man Ure 1st
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool
5. Tottenham 11th
6. Aston Villa
18. Derby 20th
19. Fulham 17th
20. Wigan 14th
I didn't do too well here, getting Arsenal and Liverpool right isn't really much to write home about. I'm glad I predicted Villa doing well, but I forgot to factor Everton into the equation. Wigan's timely appointment of Steve Bruce transformed their season.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It looks like many Championship clubs experienced a reversal of fortunes in 2007/08. At least I put West Brom in the top six, but I couldn't have been much more wrong about Hull and Leicester!
I did much better here, I knew both Forest and Swansea would be strong but I didn't predict Yeovil and Hartlepool running out of steam, Bournemouth and Gillingham struggling, or Port Vale and Luton going to pieces.
League Two
1. Milton Keynes
2. Bradford 10th
3. Dagenham & Redbridge 20th
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4. Lincoln 15th
5. Stockport 4th P
6. Rochdale 5th
7. Shrewsbury 18th
23. Accrington Stanley 17th
24. Mansfield 23rd
How did I leave Peterborough out of the top six? If I'd really thought about it, I'd have expected Bradford to have a tough time adapting to this league as well. I guess the old Conference bottleneck isn't what it once was, with the Daggers struggling but Accrington did well. I've got to feel for Lincoln and Shrewbury though, they had strong squads at the end of last season, but failed to keep them together.
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
I thought I'd make a system for scoring our predictions, if everyone wants to check theirs. It goes like this:
Correct Prediction = 20 points
One place out = 10 points
Then subtract 2 points for every further place out, including negative numbers!
So for example, I got 10 points each for predicting Chelsea and Man Utd in 1st and 2nd, 8 points for Fulham in 19th and -4 for putting Tottenham in 5th. I got -28 points for both Hull and Leicester!
All in all I scored a grand total of 12 points!
Q. Why do Communists drink herbal tea?
A. Because proper tea is theft.
I got a fair few things wrong and I imagine I will run into the minuses. hey the season is officially over... now to focus on the comings and going which is the football transfer market. There are lots of transfer stories going around at the moment but the two biggest so far are the Ronaldo story and Chelsea story.
C Ronaldo won won everything at Man U(no treble, though) and Real Madrid have not kept it secret about how much they want this player. Man U said they are not going to sell and Ronaldo has come out several times saying that is happy and wants to stay. Tis does not stop Madrid and their mouth-piece Marca from 'courting' the player over and over again with stories like they will offer £100 million deal plus players and give Ronaldo £10 million a year.
Is this wrong for Real Madrid to do this? They are clearly trying to unsettle the player where Man U are threatening to report them to Real Madrid. Real Madrid think that they are still teh biggest club in the world and where they ahve gotten away with doing stuff like this in the past(Ronaldo, Zidane and Beckham), other clubs have taken over from Madrid with power and Real Madrid have failed to notice that they are no longer the force they once were in Europe.
The other story is who is going to be Chelsea's next manager? Frank Rijkaard is the clear favourite with Mancini not far behind. Mancini has reportedly(no official) been sacked by Inter Milan which means Jose Mourinho may become next manager of Inter Milan. Guus Hiddink was in running but ruled himself out. Luis Phillipe Scolari and Michael Laudrup are outside favourites. Mark Hughes is only British interest and has good odds. Personally I can only see Rijkaard doin the job and maybe Mancini but who knows.
As for liverpool the FA cup is the only realistic cup they have a chance of getting this year. 
And if they arent careful Everton will take there fourth place position.
. We beat Celtic 1-0 to reach the semi final of the Scottish cup.
