Roy Collins compares the arrival of David Beckham to that of Wayne Gretzky’s move to the Los Angeles Kings in the late eighties. Given the NHL’s almost joke-like status in the US it is not something that MLS should try hard to emulate.
Please ignore the above ,it wont let me edit.
What I meant to say is .....in a new development in the Tevez/West Ham/Sheffield Utd debacle ,it appears that members of the third reich where Yorkie sympathisers .
Hope no-one takes offence ,but I thought it was funny!
the media wants to portray henry's marriage problem as part of arsenal l would not care what happens in his private life l am now disappointed he wanted to leave the club
If I'm SAF and the Glazers, I would drop the pursuit of Tevez and get on with the chase for Vagner Love! That guy was incredible tonight. Question for all the Arsenal supporters and for Bobby, why did Arsenal not keep Baptista? Do they think Abdelbayor is better than the "Beast"?
Hats off to Brazil. They really had Argentina's number tonight. Great pressure in the first half. I didn't see Argentina get a meaningful possesion in Brazil's half for the first 20 min.
I thought the Ducan White article didn't add anything to what we covered on Friday, though Curbishley saying that he didn't expect Tevez to join them was interesting.
The Glenn Gibbons piece didn't either. It will be interesting to see if all the leopards change there spots even with JM reporting his new found alignment with Roman.
BTW for those who didn't see it, JT really did score an excellent goal yesterday. The problem was he attempted to engage in an African dance celebration with Didier, Malouda and co afterwards that shouldn't be seen on any channel and could cause serious injury if repeated.
P.S. Oh and I thought Ray Hudson summed it up well saying the real winner in today's final was the unpredictable nature of footbal. Bear that in mind if you think Real Madrid and Man U might repeat.
Last edited by LosAngelesChelseaFan on July 15th at 8:32 PM.
Ringo, I did not realize this vos intended as humor. Zis information in ze news article is not korrect. If zis had happened in Germany, proper procedures vood haf been followed und Tevez would be training mit Toti by now.
Both Adebayour & the Beast waste chances; however, Adebayour has shown more promise via getting important goals against the EPL top four (for eg. Manu). Moreover, he has adapted to England & the EPL in a more timely fashion. Lastly, i believe he fits better with the team (as opposed to Batista).
Hopefully he improves now that Henry is gone and he will be seeig more playing time. He is a pretty decent player; just needs to improve his finishing, limit his clumsiness and improve his focus.
PS - He is also younger than Batista, bought at a lower price than Batista, would be bring about a greater profit to the club if sold and most importantly, he commands a lower wage than Batista (more than likely).
Just wondering what you thought about Milans lack of acquisitions this summer. Its strange that they are so complacent when they were pretty mediocre in Serie A last season, that is compared to the two seasons ago, last season they went down hill and I think that they will continue to decline a bit with their aging team. They have a great starting 11 but whole bench of players that don't really add anything.
Galliani came out and stated he will acquire one of 6 superstar players. Its seems that the names pretty much won't leave their clubs. Which one do you see coming or which one do you think would be the best addition to the Milan squad? Will they go down hill with the squad they have versus other teams in Serie A and Europe getting stronger?
l want to comment on the story of arsenal strikers, let me first say that both adebayor and rvp are not the best finishers in the world,lo have to say rvp is a better player than ade ,but he was guilty of missing chances.arsenal fans who think we can go into the season with ade and rvp will be surprised, l think eduardo will be firstchoice .l am not taking the palacio rumour serious but if wenger got him that will make two penalty box strikers and and if they both settle they probably start ahead of rvp, because our problem last year was wastefulness and , that made our defending look horendus butl can not blame wenger for buying another box striker.l feel rvp is highly overrated by arsenal fans, and those thinking walcott and bendtner will lead us to silverware should think again
I know this isn't in there but have you heard anything about Graham Arnold's job? Even though the Aussies won 4-0 today, they didn't look that impressive.
In fact, they barely scraped through the group stages and were outplayed the first two games. You could even say that in the first 80 minutes Thailand looked the better side today.
Is this the job Gerrard Houllier is waiting to take over? He's been rebuffing a lot of clubs who have been offering him jobs.
I sincerely doubt whether anyone would be looking to Walcott and Bendtner for silverware, i know i am not, especially where Walcott is concerned, for i find him to be highly overrated and expect him to be a bust.
As for your comments of RVP, i agree that he is guilty of wasting (every now and then); but he can be forgiven, for he is only 23 and all that will be improved up (at least it should be) as he grows from strength to strength. Van Persie is a special player. He will get goals in the box, outside the box and wats more, he can create or beat a defender one on one (sometimes 4 on one, as we saw last season). Van is one for the future, possibly the near future.
What do you all think of Walcott? I think Wenger should have focused more on Lupoli, a player i think is destined to be a star.
What do you think of Senderos? Personally, i think we should sell him and buy Kompany. I find him to be an overrated nutcase with a low football IQ. Many will not agree with me, but i prefer Djorou, i trust him not to make silly mistakes and he a capable defender.
Any 16-17 year old who can play the bruising style of the championship and look that good has immense talent. If Walcott ends up a bust, that will be a dark mark on Wenger.
q1.Bobby martin oneal is highly rated and has an open cheque book from lener what do you think will happen if villa do not improve, because last year they were boos when they were awful and what do you make of a coach with that moneyn signing harewood?
q2 one pundit said that people are overhyping man united signigs, and he said so far the only signing that could improve them immediately is hargreaves , nani and anderson will take two more years to be anywher near very good prem players, What is your take to such a qoute?
q3 drogba has had two or so years saying , he wants to quit chelsea and he wants them to match his ambition , and it pops up here and then do you see drogba at chelsea in the next two years given his desire to mplay in another leauge?
q4 what do you make of wigan signing of siberski and brubmle etc, should wigan fans fear?
q5 who is the best prem player ever or rather since its inception?
q6 alan curbishely came out to take a swipe at fergie that he claimed tevez had won westham relegation battle was that tounge in cheek and what dou you make of the comments
q7in one word will tevez be a united player come aqugust 31
Walcott? classic example of an overhyped English player. The English press trots them out all the time. He's got speed and one move. However Wenger is a master at getting the most out of youngsters.
IMHO I have seen a dozen or so from the U-20 World Cup sides that are far better than Walcott. Pick them.
l think he is a talented young player but at southmton they concentrated on him using pace rather than technique and that is what wenger is working on , that why he said he wanted him to be a winger before going forwrd so that he could gethe confidence if beating men one on one
Expect Celtic to consume large quantities of sunscreen, specially Strachan.
Probably win the MLS and use it to eye up potential MLS proespects.
Brazil and Dunga have created a beast, that Argentina side won't be at the 2010 WC, having Messi AND Tevez up front was lame, three or four corners from the Argies went begging, Palacio or Milito would have been better than Tevez, save him as a sub.
If Tevez goes to Man U it'll stink, West Ham took all six points off the Mancs last season, their Hero is going, who ever heard of a two year loan?
Don't compare DB with WG
Nick Webster had some good stuff to say about Beckham, Dave Kreigel just had stuff.
OMG He'll be SIR DAVID soon...lord help us!
This seasons top four will be last season's top four, maybe a different order though.
Very few English players are world class, they lag behind their European and South American counterparts in terms of technique and tactics. The very best English players can compete but the majority fall short. Sadly English players like a pre 1991 Gazza are few and far between.
I would not rule out Argentina for WC 2010 because of their showing in the CA final.
Let's give Brazil more credit, they spanked Argentina.
I concur that very few English players are world class. In fact I can't think of one. I also concur that they are in general technically and tactically inferior to SA, African and European players.
How many players get to be world class? Are we talking the best XI in the world 2 deep at each postion, 3?
You are telling me that Lamphard, Gerrard, Rooney, Joe Cole, Ashley Cole, Robinson, Foster, Terry, Beckham, hargreaves could ONLY play in England and would fail in any other league?
I understand that he is only 17, despite that, i believe he is just another over-hyped English baller who will be just as disappointing as Freddie Adu.
What's your take on Senderos and Walcott? I would be more than willing to give Walcott a chance, but i think that Senderos must Goooooooooooooo. Maybe we could loan him to an Italian side where he would get regular playing time, maybe that would help him. If not, he should have no future with a top-four club in any league.
Sorry got carried away with Foster-i was trying to think of players on the national team and got carried away. I think Robinson had a bad year and although not the top 3 keeper-he would do well in many leagues
As for the others I am trying to get a sense of World class. I think all those players could go to clubs in any league and do well. Is that world class or is it the top 3 players at any position-which becomes rahter subjective depending on the style of player etc.
It's funny to me how much some people expend so much energy hating anything English. Clubs, players, national team, it doesn't matter. There is a tremendous arrogance in the so called "experts" who can only see a certain style of player as being world class. What that even means is pretty ambigous. I always thought it meant that a player was capable of competing at an international level. The distinction between the top fifty players in the world is a pretty fine line. It's ridiculous to claim that no English player is in that category unless your arrogance and prejudices run so deep you can't separate players from their point of origin. Plus I've always wondered why the Brazilian and Argentine Leagues are so lightweight. It seems like the good players can't wait to jump to European clubs as soon as possible.
Black soccer-
Football is not that important to me for such a term or emotion as hate.
If you are referring to my agreeing to poster CraigF's comment that no English player was World Class, again here's my opinion. I don't see any English player as a World Class eleven starter 2-3 deep except for Beckham, Gerrard and Lampard somewhere on the bench. The others mentioned don't deserve recognition.
You can disagree with me but don't be so ignorant to refer to me as a hater. I had injected some humor into my post. It seems you are incapable of such a notion.
I am not an expert on football nor are you or anyone else in the blogosphere.
Opinions are universal and like those things we sit down on, we all have 'em.
As far as why Brazilians and Argentines players come to Europe, it's simple....money and a better life.
There's nothing at all lightweight about that decision.
Jogo Bonito and relax your balls
Last edited by gongatore on July 19th at 10:14 AM.
Sorry gongs but I call them as I see them. One man's humor is another man's insult. Calling someone a hater is interjecting humor, calling someone ignorant isn't. I know what your selling and I don't buy it. You certainly aren't the only poster that runs with the anti English theme nor will you be the last. Sorry if it felt like you were singled out. The level of talent between the player who is number twenty in the world and number 40 is a thin line. Players like Rooney and Gerrard have what counts, the respect of their peers and legends of the game. I guess Pele isn't an expert either. Gerrard may not be as pretty as you like your players but he can play with the best in the world. How many current Brazilian players would you put into that exalted class? Five or six? If so, I would question the basis of that call. Maybe you'd pick a bushel of Argentines but then again they showed what looks good on paper doesn't always translate. I'll stand by what I said. The top three or four players from the major soccer powers and maybe two or three from some of the lessers sides qualify for world class status.
I don't intensely hate Brazilians. Now that other group isn't exactly on my guest list nor am I on theirs. I do however welcome Tevez to Man U. Club loyalty always seems to do wonders for world soccer peace and harmony (see Christiano Ronaldo EPL 2006-2007) Don't worry about me laughing, you've already given me a few laughs. Gongs please leave my balls alone. You seem fascinated by them. Size 5 for men size 3 for kids.
Last edited by blacksoccer on July 20th at 12:48 PM.
ummufan,
hmmm, world class, now let me think...
...Socrates, Pele, Maradona, Shilton, Beckenbaur, Schmeichel, Van Basten, Baggio, Puskas, Gasgcoine, Baresi, Giggs, Cantona, Deschamps, Lineker, Beckham, Ronaldo, Henry...to give you an ides!
ALthough it is hard to define World Class when a player is only 25 or even 29.
blacksoccer,
The English Premiership is THE MOST ENTERTAINING National League and quite possible the best. But English players with only English players around them don't have what it takes to be world beaters or world class, everyone rates lampard but he's merely good. Going one up to Brazil and then loosing, not world class, how many penalty shoot out exits, not world class. The money in the premierhsip is good for the premiership and bad for english football, how may of the top players go abroad to spain or italy or germany to play, too few. They won't do it for the same or less money and they certainly won't do it for the challenge, and thus are complacent and NOT WORLD CLASS. Wayne Rooney, finish your contract at Man U and then go to Italy, see how you do there, maybe then you'll become a world class player.
Argentinian and Brazil leagues are different, watch a Boca, Estudiantes game. The players, particulalry in brazil, (mostly) have two choices, poverty or football, they work hard to become the best and have a chance at coming to europe for the big moolah.
Oh and and expert is something that is 'past it's best' and 'a drip under pressure' :P
Although some of the tosh you read in the American media about football is pretty bad, a
Hmmmm, not enough space when I'm feeling garrulous,
Although some of the tosh you read in the American media about football us pretty bad, a mainly non soccer public just doesn't get how bad, that Schoen guy on Gol TV! my mum could comment a game better than he does! :P
gongatore,
Argentina 2010 will field maybe three/four of it,s current squad.
CraigF-
I mostly agree with your post re: English players and the English game. I will go even further. I don't think the EPL is the most entertaining league, it has the most pace and that's it for me. I watch more of La Liga and Serie A than the EPL.
W/O the influx of cash hence foreign players I would suspect that the EPL would be not as "entertaining" as other leagues.
And to refute the poster BS and his claim, there is a bigger difference than a fine line with the top 50 players in the world.
But opinions we all have 'em just like our backsides, know what I mean?
As far as an 2010 Argentine side, who knows?
Schoen on GolTV is pretty bad but Ray Hudson is so bad he's good.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
Thank you to all who take time to visit this blog and especially to those of you who post your comments and thoughts.
PS - If you have questions please post them on the regular Monday blog. I am unable to answer e mails posted to the inbox on this site.
And one more thing. If you have questions or complaints or compliments about programming please contact Fox Soccer Channel or Fox Sports World Canada directly. I have no control over what the stations televise.
