Jack “get your tickets here” Warner is in front of the FIFA Executive committee this week as he attempts to slither his way out of another in a long line of “misconduct” allegations. The November edition of “World Soccer” has an article by Lasana Liburd that details at length the ethically challenged Warner’s exploits over the years. Liburd points out that despite Warner’s initial threat to sue FIFA General Secretary Urs Linsi and Ernst & Young – whose leaked report set off the investigation – no action has ever been taken.
It seems that threatening to sue is all part of the Warner act. He threatened to do the same to Andrew Jennings but nothing came of that either. No doubt Warner prefers to take his chances in front of stacked FIFA committees rather than a court of law.
Rob Hughes looks at the imminent arrival at Old Trafford of Henrik Larsson and the current problems of Thierry Henry.
With SAF’s loan capture of Henrik Larsson and the transfer window just around the corner I’m interested in finding out how you would go about strengthening your favourite team. What kind of player (just one) does your team need and who would it be?
Bobby , l have to say the premieirship was just as intertaining as many other weeks, but, l found something funny, rafa does not fancy stievie in the middle at all,.My question corncens wenger's teatment to henry, if you look dropping players and so forth has always been his way of showing players the door, and l am afraid, that henry is about to be shown the door, .he did it with viera .l can see that in the summer.l do not see ourselves doing without thierry's goals l do not think rvp and ade can give the team 20 to 30 goals together during the month. what do you make of the whole fiasco
Last edited by henry14 on December 4th at 9:40 AM.
Bobby, as a Liverpool supporter I would love to see some strength on the wings. A Joe Cole or Aaron Lennon type would be great, as would the Harry Kewell LFC thought they were buying several years ago. Pennant, Gonzalez, et al are simply not up to the task. I think the strikeforce has been revamped adequately although I would like to see some younger talent there instead of buying established players.
Hopefully the Zenden Experiment is drawing to a close, so perhaps we'll see some better selection and subsequent effort in midfield.
You beat me to it twinkletoes. I agree that it's clear Liverpool need better service from the wings. On the right, Pennant hasn't been cutting it and it's still too early for Paul Anderson (who may play against Galatasary this week) and Adam Hammill. However, I think Gonzalez will be good with more time, and getting Kewell back in Jan/Feb will solidify the left side. However, my biggest concern is what Rafa will do to Gerrard when Sissoko comes back. Although Bellamy is getting the credit for the win at Wigan, I thought Gerrard actually was the key player.
I'm interested to see what happens in the January window if the sale to the Dubai group is finalized. Perhaps then Rafa will get his first choice pick for RM instead of his fifth choice (Pennant).
Last edited by verbal97 on December 4th at 8:39 AM.
Bobby my question to you is what do you think of Sepp's plan of making the season from Feb to Nov? Also what do you think of As Roma can they win that scudetto? Also with Liverpool drawing Arsenal in the 1st round of the FA do you think they should put a seeding system kind of like in the C.L. to avoid big teams from meeting in the first rounds, because I really don't want to see another Man U vs. Milwall type of final I'd rather see Arsenal Vs. Man U final or even last years final. I have nothing wrong against small teams I just think when it comes to the finals Big teams will very rearely slip. You just need to look at the last 5 years and see who has been winning the FA cup, Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool and I think Chelsea.
Hi Verbal, I'm not sure I agree about Gonzalez. From what I have seen, he reminds me of Garcia, in that he doesn't have the physical stature (or possibly desire?) to compete well in the midfield of the EPL. I realize Lennon, Cole, Robben et al are not exactly Roy Keane types, but you need a certain amount of toughness to succeed and I think Gonzalez might be one of those players who would score 20 goals in Spain and about 2 in England.
As for central midfield, you are right to worry about the Gerrard/Alonso/Sissoko quandary. Alonso's form has been awful lately, when you consider what he's capable of. I can see why Rafa has used Gerrard on the right: putting your 11 best out there. Now that the strikeforce has started to gel and Liverpool no longer has to rely on some kind of 1+1 arrangement up front, you have to get creative to use the midfielders in their best roles.
I bet Mourinho would go with a 3-5-2 if he had the reins- Carra, Agger, Finnnan across the back, with Sissoko in front. Sorry, Sami. Riise on the left, Alonso in front of Sissoko, and Gerrard in front of him. Pennant or Garcia on the right, with Kuyt and Crouch up front.
Though Spurs were never going to win the game anyway Rosicky dive.........Ronaldo diveS I think that there is no doubt that the refs need help when it comes to penalty decisions but my question is what a bout a dive like ronaldos second dive outside of the box where we see alot of goals scored on set pieces. If video replay works on penalties give inside the box wont people eventually begin wanting it outside the box?
Bobby you made a comment on FSW about the improvement and play of Huddlestone I cant figure out why he didnt play? Do you really think that Spurs are going to move Keane? Probably not to Liverpool anymore with Bellamy catching fire but I heard Villa were very interested. I think it would be a bad move. They seem to have still not settled in from the lose of Carrick though I still think 18 mil was to much to turn down.
Players for teams......all in all I think the best non cup tied player in the world is Luca Toni and he seems to just be coming into form for Fiorentina. Though fiorentina is my team in Italy i would rather see him on Celtic hail hail
Celtic- Luca Toni a wish... Russell Anderson more likely
Spurs- need midfield help maybe Kevin Thomson or Scott Brown from hibs
Last edited by bigdavedisaster on December 4th at 11:49 AM.
Bobby, I have followed the EPL pretty closely the last five years. What intrigues me the most, is how prickly and frequently, managers jibe each other to gain a "psychological" advantage. Whether it is Ferguson vs. Wenger ("squeaky bum time", I love it), or Ferguson vs. Mourinho, or the drama between Mourinho and Wenger; managers seem to use the media to out duel each other. You would never see this kind of manipulation in American professional sports because the media would run endlessly with it. It adds a lot more color and fervency to the game, which I quite enjoy.
Last edited by Smudger on December 4th at 12:46 PM.
Bobby
Chimbonda never makes contact how is it not a dive. They showed the slow mo replay on SKY and you can clearly see that Rosicky just goes to ground neither his front or back leg is touched. He simply pick his trailing leg up and doesnt put it back down.
Guess that's selective vision for ye. Tomas was tackled from behind in the box, Chimbounda made contact with his leg, Tomas was fouled. Sorry that there was no leg break, but this is like WHU fans claming a pen shouldn't have been given when Hleb was hacked down.
Btw, Celtic milked the ref for their stunning free kick. Glass houses, stones, etc. Again.
Id love to see arsenal follow Man U's lead and bring back a recently retired veteran to provide some leadership and moxie to the side. Henry I think needs more time to mature and devleop as a leader. With that in mind id go ask Zidane what he would want to spend the next 5 months tutoring Henry and the rest of the young lads.
I'll start with my questions so you can answer them Bobby =)
1. Who do you think will get the automatic start up front for Arsenal in the coming weeks? RVP seems to be the clear choice, but adebayor has scored some big goals (openers vs. tottenham & united). Who do you forsee having the bigger month? What do you think henry14?
2. Liverpool now find themselves on the brink of breaking the top 4. Do you think Rafa will finally stop his rotating ways and simply start consistently with Kuyt and Bellamy? They seem to make a great partnership. Who do you believe will have a better season at liverpool now that kuyt seems to be the guaranteed the start up front?
nice one on picking up the soap i was waiting for that one.
Congrats to liverpool fans for breaking the open play away goal scoring duck. I would have to agree that gerrard simply is more effective in the middle. He makes things happen in the midfield. His sheer presence is a force to be reckoned with and must be respected.
I also have to say that it is SO satisfying to have Man U leading chelsea right now. They defied all the critics who thought chelsea would once again run away with the title. They laughed at Fergie when he spent all that money on carrick and didn't land heargraves. Now mourinho has to continue with his media mind games that seem to trickle off.
If Chelsea don't win the champs league and United take the title, one has to think it's the special one's first taste of failure in England.
"Blethering" Blatter's summer fun league? Yes it would benefit the EPL and playing standards but it's the kind of thinking that gives idiots a bad name. There are other summer sports, like cricket, that would be destroyed. Playing in the summer heat in Southern Europe would become an endurance race.
It's so poorly thought through. If it happened all the lower leagues would have to switch otherwise the whole promotion relegation thing wouldn't work. That would cascade throughout the amateur divisions. If it reached into junior levels it would suck out youngster from the other sports all of which are geared around not competing with football.
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on December 5th at 9:10 AM.
You know what Bobby l am an acturial science student and somehow did a research of the primier of uae, you know what from the investments l have studied, they will be big transfomations in the hieracy at liverpool, because his family is the only thing that gets power, of his asserts in an autocratic manner,in alll his investment, he has been a man who has made more money by ruthless business means of profit at all cost, something that does not go well in the football fratenity.l saw article from liverpool fan expecting the guy to , to splash money to buy the club, splash money for the stadium and give rafa millions like mourinho.that will not happen this is a bussiness investment that can be forfeit if profits are minimal and if they are huge loss.they guy is not a soccer fan at all, so he wont own liverpool like roman , but it will become, part of a holding company, having said that l feel if they do not rush into conclusion and take time with ploughing cash to minimise losses, they can be a huge succes in 5 to 10 years something l doubt liverpool fans want to hear.what is your view on foreign onwership in the prem
extraordinaryrvanp
I said in an earlier post on this blog that Jarosik took a dive to set up a free kick and that s why I asked the question about people wanting to review free kicks that result in goals. So there is your glass house and there was no contact made take a look again. he goes for the toe poke misses bc chimbonda got a piece of the ball and then he picks up his trailing leg and falls there was nothing for chimbonda to contact. The comment had notheing to do with selective sight. i said earlier that Spurs were never going to win that game and simply raised it as an example of the refs needing help due to the speed and angles of the game when it comes to awarding penalties.
Last edited by bigdavedisaster on December 5th at 2:33 PM.
Not to attack anyone here, just the soccer world in general:
Is it not possible that someone falling in the penalty spot is not fouled OR diving? If someone wins the ball from you it's very easy to stumble over it. If you're running at high speed and get bumped it takes almost nothing to get pushed over. I haven't closely looked at the Rosicky incident, but Ronaldo is obviously off balance and takes a few studder steps before falling.
So my question for Bobby:
What merits an indirect free kick in the penalty area?
I've seen one once or twice. On one particular incident Ronaldo rolled the ball to Roberto Carlos and he hammered it from about 3 yards off the goal line and the wall didn't have the balls to block it, but it's very uncommon. I've always felt that handballs and fouls in the penalty area which don't interrupt a scoring opportunity should result in a free kick.
buffytvs: I'm not an opponent of Hargreaves by any stretch, but I don't think buying him would overwhelm Chelsea or anything. To me he's no Essien, Ballack, Lampard or Makelele. I seem to recall Bobby saying in the blog that Mascherano is a much better player than Owen too and look who he's got on so far.
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