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The 2011-2012 Football Thread

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I mentioned Darlington's plight in one of the Apple/Premier League threads – the Blue Square Premier club are on the verge of going out of business having recently entered administration for the third time in nine years.

The club travel to Barrow this weekend for what may be their final ever fixture, and a fan on one of the Darlington forums has written a brilliant and emotive post about the situation and the weekend's game that is currently being spread all over the internet.

As a Hull City fan I know – like too many fans of too many clubs – what it's like knowing your club's next game could be its last. To put it mildly it's a horrible, horrible situation and one that luckily we got out of. Hopefully the Quakers can do the same.
 
Meanwhile, Carlos Tevez is sitting on a beach somewhere not playing football, yet earning enough money every week to keep a handful of Darlingtons afloat. It is a real shame, isn't it? :eek:
 
News today that Nick 'Nicky' Barmby has agreed to officially become our permanent gaffer, rather than the caretaker role he's had over the past few weeks. However, there is a downside – he's announced that he's retiring from playing to concentrate on his new duties.

His career took in some of the country's top clubs (and Leeds United ;)) as well as a couple of dozen England caps, but it's kind of fitting that he ended his career at the club he supported as a boy. Hopefully he can go on to enjoy success as a manager to match his accomplishments as a player.

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Good news for Hull City and their supporters. I hope he does well for Hull, we could do with one team from around here in the PL. Old cliche time; this division is the hardest to get out of, and when you look at the amount of teams that have been in the PL in our division, you can see why. Can't see Leeds doing it this year, so it's up to you Hull lads and Cap'n Barmby.
 
That's not news! Big news is 'return of the Mac'. No, not the wannabe LA Gangsta rapper from Leicester, but non other than...Schteeeeve!

<awaits unveiling interview>
 
Jaffa Cake said:
I mentioned Darlington's plight in one of the Apple/Premier League threads – the Blue Square Premier club are on the verge of going out of business having recently entered administration for the third time in nine years.
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Having the pleasure of recently driving past Darlington Area twice a week for a year, I asked the local lads more about how such a lowly team could have a fantastic stadium...

It would appear that as ever the fans and team are not to blame for their predicament, it's businessmen some well meaning and some a little bit dodgy who were looking to make a quick buck from selling the old ground for housing. Deals fell through, the council imposed strange planning conditions and they were out of pocket and now nobody is interested in doing the right thing because it will cost them even more money.

All a bit sad but just goes to show that men who operate successful businesses don't necessarily know how to operate football clubs (Aberdeen, Dundee FC, Hearts, Hibs, I'm looking at you.)
 
Fuzzy14 said:
It would appear that as ever the fans and team are not to blame for their predicament, it's businessmen some well meaning and some a little bit dodgy who were looking to make a quick buck from selling the old ground for housing.
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Former Darlo chairman George Reynolds would certainly fall into the 'slightly dodgy' category. A convicted criminal, he was behind the building of the new ground – which he modestly named after himself – but left a couple of months after it was opened. The club went into admin shortly after.

To put his stadium folly into perpective, the ground has a capacity about the same as Hull's KC Stadium (c. 25,000) – but Darlington has less than a third of Hull's population. You also have to take into account the more prominent clubs in the north-east who are going to leach support from the Quakers, meaning that they're never going to fill it. Not that they can actually fill it mind, as the council has imposed a cap resulting in a maximum possible attendance of 10,000. This is due to the local road network and parking not being suitable or safe for larger crowds.

Basically, it was a massive, ill-thought vanity project by a corrupt businessman which has helped to push the club further into the financial mess it's in.

Lunacy. :rolleyes:
 
Apparently the people behind the new 50p coin with the offside rule explained on the back got the rule wrong. This lends further credence to my belief that the offside rule is actually impossible to explain.

Jaffa Cake said:
To put his stadium folly into perpective, the ground has a capacity about the same as Hull's KC Stadium (c. 25,000) – but Darlington has less than a third of Hull's population. You also have to take into account the more prominent clubs in the north-east who are going to leach support from the Quakers, meaning that they're never going to fill it. Not that they can actually fill it mind, as the council has imposed a cap resulting in a maximum possible attendance of 10,000. This is due to the local road network and parking not being suitable or safe for larger crowds.
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I was reading about their stadium yesterday. That's a huge stadium for a club that size, and the attendance limit really makes the (massive) extra expense a waste, assuming they could fill it in the first place. It shows an obvious lack of effective communication with hte council along with unrealistic planning goals - hopeful at bes, criminally negligent at worst.

There is a nation that building a new stadium will automatically improve a club's fortunes, but this has been demonstated to be false time and again. In Darlington;s case, it's a big albatross around their neck and it's killing them.

Inevitably, the team, the supporters and the community suffer the most while the perpetrators cut their losses and run. :(
 
Independent running a with story tomorrow saying Rooney is leaving United during the window.

Rooney Offski

EDIT:

Although, apparently, now definitely not.

Hilariously, I was just watching the Sky News Sports guy making a case for this story whilst the other newsreader was sat next to them reading out live tweets from Rooney saying that people indicating he was leaving had no idea what they were talking about.
 
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City are short on fit strikers at the moment...that would be a sensation, eh? I'll believe Rooney's leaving when it actually happens though. ;) P.S. that link is probably being bombarded, as it won't load for me and nobody else is reporting the story.

Meanwhile...

Quick! go check the highlights of the Liverpool-Oldham match to see what it looks like when Andy Carroll actually scores a goal. After Bellamy, Gerrard and Jonjo Shelvey had already put the game away, of course...

Someone should check the goalposts and make sure they aren't 2 inches wider than regulation....:rolleyes::D
 
Henry's signature is now confirmed. Have to say i'm not as thrilled as i was. I'd rather he left his record/legend as is and we signed a more long term solution.

But i guess we're stuck and have no choice until summer. Since our other forward players suck at the moment, in addition to the rumours saying Podolski is not interested in us and will reject any offer Wenger makes because he doesn't want to be in RVPs shadow...especially with Euro 2012 coming up.

Edit: Oh Carroll and Downing scored :eek: belated Christmas miracle that is.
 
I don't think Arsenal fans should be so gloomy. The way you guys tell it, you seem to expect Henry to totter out onto the pitch, dragging his long grey beard on the ground as he shambles hoplessly about before keeling over from sheer exhaustion after a couple minutes on the pitch, or slipping on the ball and face-planting while attempting a trap. :eek:

Henry was once a world-class player and is still a very good one. He will not undo any of his work from years past. So cheer up! He probably still has a few good goals left him at this level, and it's only two months.

As for Liverpool, Downing did indeed score. Though, let's review the opposition: Oldham. I repeat, Oldham Athletic - the League One club. No disrespect to them intended, but Liverpool would have looked silly had they failed to win this one, and Carroll would have looked doubly silly had he not scored. Actually, he still looks a bit silly for having taken 89 minutes to do so. But at least he did. Credit to Oldham for going out there and getting an early goal and battling hard the first half.

I think Liverpool can win the FA Cup this year, it's a trophy Dalglish should take very seriously.
 
lol i don't mean to be melodramatic just really skeptical. As an Arsenal fan it comes with the territory.

Fair point about Oldham and they played at home to boot. Would've been catastrophic if they drew/lost.
 
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daneoni said:
lol i don't mean to be melodramatic just really skeptical. As an Arsenal fan it comes with the territory.
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Maybe I'm just projecting. A good friend of mine, who is an Arsenal fan, is very gloomy about everything associated with the club these days, with the possible exception of RVP. He is very pessimistic about Henry's return. He'll brighten up momentarily if Henry scores any goals, then lapse backinto his pessimism.

He's pinning his hopes on getting Podolski, so if that doesn't happen he'll be even more long-faced than Ruud van Nistelrooy usual.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Maybe I'm just projecting. A good friend of mine, who is an Arsenal fan, is very gloomy about everything associated with the club these days, with the possible exception of RVP. He is very pessimistic about Henry's return. He'll brighten up momentarily if Henry scores any goals, then lapse backinto his pessimism.

He's pinning his hopes on getting Podolski, so if that doesn't happen he'll be even more long-faced than Ruud van Nistelrooy usual.
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i hope they don't get Podolski...
 
I hope they find the idiots quickly and roast them. The media have now declared Liverpool to be the most racist club in England, with the most racist supporters, and this is probably going to stick for a very long time now. :(

I just feel bad for the poor kid Adeyemi. Nobody should have to listen to that garbage.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Former Darlo chairman George Reynolds would allegedly fall into the 'slightly dodgy' category.
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Fixed that for you! That's what I heard but was trying not to say anything libelous!

Lord Blackadder said:
Apparently the people behind the new 50p coin with the offside rule explained on the back got the rule wrong. This lends further credence to my belief that the offside rule is actually impossible to explain.
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When I first saw the story I thought the same but it would be impossible to fit the non-interfering rule onto it. And the complexity of the sending off for last active player rule wouldn't even fit on the back of a £100 note.
 
For years thankfully us in Scotland didn't have to suffer March of the Day on Saturday evening, we got Sportscene with SPL action. But then the BBC lost the same day rights and now show it on a Monday evening in a graveyard slot, so we now get Linekar & Co.

But tonight it's Scottish Cup action so it's back. Some great underdog stories, Cowdenbeath nearly turned over Hibs, Hearts looked shaky against juniors and the Dundee-Killie game was fantastic! (ended 1-1). Great to watch proper football!
 
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