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2008-09 Football Thread

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R.Youden

R.Youden

macrumors 68020
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Apr 1, 2005
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Well due to limitation sizes with the Macrumors database "The Premier League Thread" is due to be closed at the end of this season. The last play-off game has finished so it is the end of the domestic season in the UK.

The old thread had over 5,000 posts and was started on the 6th April 2005. What an amazing few years it has been in the world of football.

Anyway congratulations to everyone who had a great season in 2007-08 and unlucky to those who didn't. The next 12 months will be fascinating.

I suppose a good way to start this thread will be to make some predictions for the next season. What do you all think we will be talking about in the next 12 months?

I think the big talking points will again be Liverpool's failure to deliver and the failure of Man City after their chairman gets arrested for fraudulent business dealings!



Oh and one more thing





COME ON YOU 'ULL
80685225-thumb-425x290.jpg





Oh and for our friends across the pond we are talking about this:

golden_ball.jpg


Not this

American_Football.jpg

;)
 
As good a time as any to offer our congratulations to dynamicv's Stockport County – 3-2 winners over Rochdale in this afternoon's League Two Play-off Final.

As we all know, getting promoted as champions or runners up is a bit old hat, all forward thinking clubs these days choose play-off glory when making the step up a league. :D

So congratulations again – a MacRumors demi-derby with Carlisle United beckons next season. :cool:
 
Congratulations to all Hull fans, that is an amazing accomplishment. . . been over 100 year hasnt it? As for me, I am over the moon that Napoli finished 9th in the Serie A after just being promoted and not being in the top division in nearly 7 years. . . 9th mean intertoto and possibly Uefa. . . Not to mention some tasty transfer rumours such as the possibility of us signing Iaquinta and Gilardino. . . Needless to say I am very excited.

LONG LIVE FOOTBALL!
 
Patmian212 said:
Congratulations to all Hull fans, that is an amazing accomplishment. . . been over 100 year hasnt it? As for me, I am over the moon that Napoli finished 9th in the Serie A after just being promoted and not being in the top division in nearly 7 years. . . 9th mean intertoto and possibly Uefa. . . Not to mention some tasty transfer rumours such as the possibility of us signing Iaquinta and Gilardino. . . Needless to say I am very excited.

LONG LIVE FOOTBALL!
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104 years. That is a great performance by Napoli. I think if Hull finish 17th next season it will be an amazing performance.
 
Well I won't be the first poster in this thread to support a team that finished badly last season...COME ON FULHAM :)
 
I take it we all know about Avram Grants departure at Chelsea? I knew it would happen but I feel it is undeserved.

Rijkaard is due to leave Barça in June and this will pave the way for him to finally join Chelsea taking Ronaldinho with him.

Abramovich has been lusting after the style of play that Barça have and now he can finally achieve it by having Rijkaard, Ten Cate (Rijkaards Assistant manager at Barça when they won Champions League) and Frank Arnesen as Director of football.

As a Barça fan I detest everything about Chelsea :D but they will be quite a force next season, even if Lampard and Drogba go to Inter Milan as the papers are suggesting today.
 
Well I'm glad the season is over, didn't go exactly to plan for Birmingham.

Now all the promotions are known here are my predictions for the up coming season.

Premiership

Winner - Arsenal

Relegated - Stoke, Hull and Fulham


Championship

Winners - Crystal Palace

Runners-up - Birmingham

Playoffs - Watford, Reading, Wolves and Ipswich

Relegated - Doncaster, Blackpool and Barnsley


League One

Winners - Leeds

Runners-up - Carlisle

League Two

Not got a clue...

Oh and big talking point of the season... England's World Cup qualifying campaign

Now for the cruel bet. First premiership manager to get fired will be... Roy Hodgson
 
Roy Hodgson doesn't get anything like the praise he deserves you know. He is a quality manager, shown that all over Europe.

I feel it's too early to predict the ups and downs for next year, but Bolton and 'Boro will do well to stay in the Premiership. I think the 3 promoted Championship teams have a good chance of staying up simply because of the quality of some of the bottom half Premiership teams, they are getting poorer.
 
Markleshark said:
Roy Hodgson doesn't get anything like the praise he deserves you know. He is a quality manager, shown that all over Europe.

I feel it's too early to predict the ups and downs for next year, but Bolton and 'Boro will do well to stay in the Premiership. I think the 3 promoted Championship teams have a good chance of staying up simply because of the quality of some of the bottom half Premiership teams, they are getting poorer.
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Boro'? Going down?! Sheesh. Not a good day - first me thread is about to be closed, and then me team gets dissed. :eek:
 
I'll wait a while before making my predictions for the upcoming season – transfers and what not can have a huge bearing so I think it's a little early to be picking teams for titles and relegation.

One thing I do know though is that it's going to be a tough campaign for us next season – despite every report and opinion piece saying otherwise though, I'm confident we'll fare better than Derby County did so far as points are concerned. Phil Brown is an astute manager, he cut his coaching teeth as number two to Sam Allardyce who – despite what many may think of him – has a proven record of achieving success with unfashionable clubs. From what I've seen so far, it looks like Brown has learnt well from his mentor and how he's setting up the backroom of the club has striking similarities to what Big Sam did at Bolton.

We're realistic – we know that there's no way we're ever going to be a Manchester United or an Arsenal, but we're more than capable of emulating Wigan or Bolton. As is always the case, our fate will be decided by what we do against the other teams towards the bottom end of the table, anything we can get off the bigger clubs is a bonus.
 
scotthayes said:
Well I'm glad the season is over, didn't go exactly to plan for Birmingham.

Now all the promotions are known here are my predictions for the up coming season.

Premiership

Winner - Arsenal
Click to expand...

Wouldn't mind that! :eek:

I am optimistic about the coming season though, provided Wenger brings in the right players. Nasri looks on the brink of joining, so that's a good start.

Jaffa Cake said:
..has striking similarities to what Big Sam did at Bolton..
Click to expand...

Uh-oh. I hope you aren't one of those nasty, rough Arsenal up, best way to stop them is to kick them teams! :p
 
Jaffa Cake said:
I'll wait a while before making my predictions for the upcoming season – transfers and what not can have a huge bearing so I think it's a little early to be picking teams for titles and relegation.
Click to expand...


I agree. Imagine the effect a serious injury to Torres, Fabregas or Ronlaldo during EURO 2008 would have on their respective teams title ambitions?

I will make one prediction, more of a wish really: can Arsenal win a trophy, any trophy, that their pretty football deserves. :eek:

And now for even more serious wish: can the Swansea vs. Cardiff matches pass without any "off-the-field incidents", please?
 
Nasri is a quality player, and will be very good for Arsenal, however, the sooner AW sees the other countries in the world apart from France the better. :rolleyes:

I can see Man Utd getting rid of Saha in the summer (Least I hope) and replacing him with someone quality and young. Thing is, you can't have Rooney/Tevez/Someone in the team all the time with the likes of Nani, Ronaldo, Anderson, Giggs and Scholes all being there, so someone might have to come in and be a quality squad player. When Utd need Saha hes always hurt. West Ham, Newcastle, Everton or Pompy might be a good move for him. Also, a right back. Willy Sagnol already been linked. Good player, I think Utd should sign Daniel Alves... just for the sheer hell of it.

I expect to see Roy Keane to spend a lot as well, though quite where the Sunderland Board are getting the money from I don't know.
 
Markleshark said:
I can see Man Utd getting rid of Saha in the summer (Least I hope) and replacing him with someone quality and young.
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Rumours regarding United signing Ajax's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have been doing the rounds for a while and have stepped up a notch in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, we've apparently made an official enquiry about our pacy on-loan striker Frazier Campbell. I'm doubtful that a permanent deal will be reached, but you never know. I'd settle for another loan so Fergie can assess how he does against Premier League standard opposition. That would be good. :)
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Rumours regarding United signing Ajax's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar have been doing the rounds for a while and have stepped up a notch in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, we've apparently made an official enquiry about our pacy on-loan striker Frazier Campbell. I'm doubtful that a permanent deal will be reached, but you never know. I'd settle for another loan so Fergie can assess how he does against Premier League standard opposition. That would be good. :)
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Huntelaar is good, but I can't say I've seen enough to say how good.

Young Frazer is coming on very nicely, and yes, for me you can take him on loan for another year. I don't think a permanent deal is totally out of the question mind, stranger things have happened.

The question on everyones lips here however, regards Michael Bridges. Surely he isn't going to sit in the Hull reserves for another season, and watching the Sky coverage of the Carlisle-Leeds games he put a few hints in that he might just be back at Carlisle. Personally, I'd take him - he's a quality player and just what we need considering our two star strikers are 19 and 21. He'll be a great asset to Carlisle United once again.
 
I can't see Bridges having a future at City. I believe he has another year left on his contract, so the club might try to cash in on him in the summer.

Huntelaar's a pretty good player – he's impressed for the Dutch U21's and there was apparently a bit of a hoo-ha in the Netherlands when he was left out of the full national side for the last World Cup (kind of a reverse of England's Theo Walcott selection ;)). I reckon he might be a useful purchase – my contacts across the North Sea tell me he's got talent.

Of course, if Fergie does decide to buy him he might be looking to offload one of his other strikers. You can see where I'm going with this one. :D
 
Well, what can I say? Thank you Jim Gannon, Mark Maguire, Peter Ward, Norman Beverley, and everybody else at County, be it the players, the coaching and backroom staff, the Trust, or just other fans like myself, for putting pride back into my club.

In the season when we lost Graham White, our honorary club President, and Danny Bergara, our most successful manager ever, in the club's 125th anniversary year, they took us not just to Wembley and back to League One, but did it in style. That's the way football should be played. Commiserations to 'Dale, who did themselves proud, and best of luck to them next year.

I am both happy and relieved right now. Roll on next season :)
 
If you had offered me third place in the league and a spot in the Champions League at the beginning of last season, I'd have taken it, I would not have believed you, but I'd have taken it.

A Gooner till I die.
 
Hiddink has ruled himself out, Mancini appears to be staying at Inter Milan... so, who do we think is going to assume the Poison Chalice™ that is the role of being Chelsea manager?
 
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