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2010-2011 Football Thread

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This was mentioned before – back when Liverpool's new shirt was released – but something that caught my type/shirt geek eyes was the unusual shirt numbering Liverpool were sporting today.

Normally in the FA Cup teams wear their League's typography – so Premier League clubs wear the Premier League's style of lettering, Championship clubs wear the Football League style and so on. But Liverpool ran out today wearing an Adidas font, the same that they wear in Europe – and as far as I can see, they were unique in doing so as all the other clubs looked to be wearing their League's numbers.

The cynic in me thinks that the big clubs get a fair bit of money selling multiple lettering styles for domestic and European versions of their shirts – and with Liverpool's fortunes worsening year-on-year European qualification now isn't the given that it once was. By establishing the precedent of wearing alternative numbers in the FA Cup, Liverpool might be looking to keep this lucrative revenue stream open should they fail to qualify for Europe in upcoming seasons.
 
woolyback said:
Second half was the best I'd seen us play in quite a while (which speaks volumes) and at one point I thought we might've pinched a goal. Not too sure about Utd's kit either - all black with some sort of whistle attachment....;)
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Howard Webb, like Giggs and Scholes, is very effective bench player for United despite his age and lack of pace.

woolyback said:
Not really sure what to expect for the rest of the season - has Kenny just come in to steady the ship and make sure relegation is avoided or is he building for the longer term? Did hear something about him asking for a 4 year contract but given only a year :confused:
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He will want a longer-term contract, and the owners will be under a lot of pressure from fans to keep him, regardless of the season's results. I suspect that the owners would prefer him to be a short-term replacement pending a long-term replacement in the summer, but the owners cannot risk the fans wrath by getting rid of him.

Which isn't to say he'll fail. Perhaps he'll be successful and remain with us for the next 5 years or so. That would be ideal.

woolyback said:
One thing is for sure, Torres needs to start showing some interest (assuming he can get some decent support/service) but today he really looked like he couldn't be arsed.
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I'm unconvinced that the new owners will be able to convince him to stay - and, given his current form, it might be better if we part ways, as much as I hate to say it. A best case scenarios would see us picking up a quality second striker, and Torres regaining motivation as a result.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
It seems that Ryan Babel would agree with you...
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Saw that. Best thing Babel's done for the 'Pool. in many months :D

Jaffa Cake said:
The cynic in me thinks that the big clubs get a fair bit of money selling multiple lettering styles for domestic and European versions of their shirts – and with Liverpool's fortunes worsening year-on-year European qualification now isn't the given that it once was. By establishing the precedent of wearing alternative numbers in the FA Cup, Liverpool might be looking to keep this lucrative revenue stream open should they fail to qualify for Europe in upcoming seasons.
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Interesting....I wonder if that's really true? I still own just one Liverpool shirt...$120 a pop is a little steep for me to be picking up a new one. Though, mine is the ugly one from the 2006-2007.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Interesting....I wonder if that's really true?
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Since I posted that I've had a look through the Third Round pics on the BBC website, and there's only one other club I've spied with non-standard lettering – and that's Spurs.

The Londoners of course have taken the unusual route this season of having different shirt sponsors for the various competitions that they're involved with, and are selling all the various versions of essentially the same shirts to their fans. Basically, it looks like a way of trying to get as many different shirts on the shelves as possible to try and maximise revenue. That's my suspicion, in any case.
 
Should have been sweet, f'King Kenny back, Gerrard a deserved red card, but lazy Manchester United, just lazy.

Rio, Savage and Babel, looks like Twitter is the place to be.:rolleyes:

Shirts - Manchester United to wear grey for their next FA Cup game? If they go out, at least they lose to a team with a decent shirt.:)

Good to see Colin and El-Hadji Diouf fight it out for the title 2011 BBC Sports Personality.

Liverpool - pretty much what takao put, except Meireles is looking overrated. Disappointed Glen Johnson was out, but then Lord Blackadder didn't get to see Gary Neville.

Cheers,
OW
 
oscillatewildly said:
Liverpool - pretty much what takao put, except Meireles is looking overrated. Disappointed Glen Johnson was out, but then Lord Blackadder didn't get to see Gary Neville.
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In order to be overrated, a player has to be rated to begin with, and I'm not sure Meireles can be placed in that category. The best that could be said about him is that he's not been as big a flop as Poulsen.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Since I posted that I've had a look through the Third Round pics on the BBC website, and there's only one other club I've spied with non-standard lettering – and that's Spurs.

The Londoners of course have taken the unusual route this season of having different shirt sponsors for the various competitions that they're involved with, and are selling all the various versions of essentially the same shirts to their fans. Basically, it looks like a way of trying to get as many different shirts on the shelves as possible to try and maximise revenue. That's my suspicion, in any case.
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Standard Spurs....
 
XIII said:
Standard Spurs....
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I've just had a check, and they don't look like the standard Premier League lettering – this isn't the best picture, but you can see that it's thinner than the League numbering, lacks an outline and the Premier League lion logo...

Screen-shot-2011-01-10-at-5.49.32-pm.jpg

(With apologies to you for showing a picture of celebrating Spurs players). ;)

EDIT: Here's the back of a Brummie shirt with the standard lettering for comparison.

Screen-shot-2011-01-10-at-5.58.48-pm.jpg
 
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oscillatewildly said:
Supposedly, Barcelona, Manchester United and Jose Mourinho (Inter Milan) were after Meireles.
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He's had a few good performances, but with the rest of the squad being off-form it's hard to judge. It will be interesting to see how the Hodgson signings fare under Dalglish - perhaps he will get something out of them.

Jaffa Cake said:
I've just had a check, and they don't look like the standard Premier League lettering – this isn't the best picture, but you can see that it's thinner than the League numbering, lacks an outline and the Premier League lion logo...
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I can't say for sure, but that first picture definitely looks like the shirts they wear in the Champions League.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Do you follow A-League at all? I just watched Adelaide smash Melbourne.
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No, not at all. And even less likely to start following now the new franchise/club has been canned. They're just TV games for me played far off in the distance, so no different to following the Premier League, so I follow that because it's better.

They blame FIFA's 0.0001 of 1 vote for the Australian bid for the World Cup because we didnt have the suitcases full of bribe cash like Qatar and the Russian oligarchs did (am I sensing an acrimonious oil-money ruining football theme in all my posts?). Basically nobody wanted to risk investing in a football club up against the two big codes of a new Aussie Rules club and the entrenched Rugby League clubs without the future boost hosting the World Cup would have given the sport.

Which segues nicely into my reply to Jaffa :):

Jaffa Cake said:
Actually, I wouldn't say that there's really a rivalry between us at all – if you were to ask supporters of both clubs who they consider to be their top ten rivals I'd be highly surprised to see anyone name the other club. Certainly that would be the case from a City perspective, swiftaw could probably say if it's the same from a Wigan point of view.

In fact, one could argue that there's more of a rivalry between the two football clubs and the rugby league teams, rather than an inter-football club rivalry. There seems to be some friction between sections of the Warriors and Athletic support over in Wigan, and the same is true here with us and the two professional rugby league clubs in the City (in particular Hull FC, rather than Hull KR). We're constantly being told that Hull is a 'rugby town', as proved by the fact that it's home to 'the biggest derby in world sport' which strangely can't manage to sell out the ground. :D

I don't think that matters are helped by the respective clubs sharing grounds – both Wigan teams call the DW Stadium home while we share the KC with Hull FC. It's like a couple of siblings who don't get on having to share a bedroom. :D
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Thanks for that insight. Normally I would have assumed any rivalry would likely be more geographical like the local derbies elsewhere, nothing beats quarrelsome neighbours for good rivalries, but was wondering if the rugby league affilitations carried over into the football side of things.

The rivalry between the codes sounds like that here for the spectators where success is measure by popularity more than trophies (although the latter increases the former, everybody loves a winner). But it's really League vs Rules because both are so huge that football is still an outsider knocking on the door, and why they play the season in the sweaty heat of summer to avoid direct competition with the big two for bums on seats. They pretend the reason is so it syncs with the major northern hemisphere leagues and international seasons, but they were doing it long before stuff like that became important.

Ground sharing really wrecks the pitch, doesn't it? Like I always read about Old Trafford after a rugby tour is like a cow paddock and Wenger always complains about it. I can imagine both Hull and Wigan wanting their own ground eventually, maybe when they are both bigger than their respective rugby league siblings one day.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
I've just had a check, and they don't look like the standard Premier League lettering – this isn't the best picture, but you can see that it's thinner than the League numbering, lacks an outline and the Premier League lion logo...

View attachment 266930

(With apologies to you for showing a picture of celebrating Spurs players). ;)

EDIT: Here's the back of a Brummie shirt with the standard lettering for comparison.

View attachment 266935
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I can see the differences. I can't quite imagine what kind of foolish fan would buy both shirts just because of different lettering.. but what do I know :eek:

Trying to decide whether it's worth going to Leeds. What's Elland Road like?!
 
awmazz said:
Ground sharing really wrecks the pitch, doesn't it? Like I always read about Old Trafford after a rugby tour is like a cow paddock and Wenger always complains about it. I can imagine both Hull and Wigan wanting their own ground eventually, maybe when they are both bigger than their respective rugby league siblings one day.
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Funnily enough, there's been some talk today about our new owners wanting to buy the Stadium from the Council. Seems like a bit of a pipe dream to me though, and I think their money could be better spent...

XIII said:
I can see the differences. I can't quite imagine what kind of foolish fan would buy both shirts just because of different lettering.. but what do I know :eek:
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I suppose it might appeal to collectors, and there are always some fans daft enough to fork out for another shirt – and so long as there are, the clubs/shirt makers will push their luck. But personally, I'm not a fan of buying printed shirts in any case.

XIII said:
Trying to decide whether it's worth going to Leeds. What's Elland Road like?!
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It's okay – a better ground from the outside than the inside in my opinion – but I think you might suffer with leg room. ;)

I imagine visiting Arsenal fans are more welcome than visiting Hull City fans, in any case. :D
 
awmazz said:
No, not at all. And even less likely to start following now the new franchise/club has been canned. They're just TV games for me played far off in the distance, so no different to following the Premier League, so I follow that because it's better.
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Ah, that's a shame. I guess I probably wouldn't follow MLS anyhere near as much if I didn't have a local team to cheer for, so I don't blame you. I've actually met a couple of the players though, and it really feels different to watch matches in person, in the supporters' section, compared with supporting a Premier League team over 4000 miles away, even if you are a big fan of said team.
 
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Jaffa Cake said:
t's okay – a better ground from the outside than the inside in my opinion – but I think you might suffer with leg room. ;)

I imagine visiting Arsenal fans are more welcome than visiting Hull City fans, in any case. :D
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So perhaps the constricted leg room was just imposed for the visit of Hull City, and will be expanded when the Arsenal visit?! If I can find cheap enough transport I'll go, just to tick another one off I think... :)
 
Cheeky! But true.

It's also worth remembering that USA international midfielder Jose Francisco Torres is kicking around the Mexican Primera Division. If Liverpool look around carefully, we could put together a full First XI of Torri.

I'd keep Reina though. ;)
 
awmazz said:
Mark these two posts #1649 and #1650 for revisiting at the end of the season for their hindsight/foresight scores! ;)
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The main reason for my earlier post is that I don't see how Kenny can win this situation. I think he will take Liverpool from the current position to back to within the top 5 next year. I don't see them winning the league any time soon. I'm not being critical of him, I just think it's a mistake for him to come back and blemish his record (like he did with Celtic.)

(Mark this post for review in 3 seasons time.)

Is this thread not going to a second half this year?
 
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