• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Official Football Thread 2006/2007 (Soccer)

Status
Not open for further replies.
psycho_snake said:
I cant predict what will happen in euro 2008, but beckham is bound to go out with a bang and he will have a fiary tale ending to his international career.
Click to expand...

I predict another penality shootout between Germany and England and Beckham misses :p

just kidding ;o we'll see!
 
psycho_snake said:
I cant predict what will happen in euro 2008, but beckham is bound to go out with a bang and he will have a fiary tale ending to his international career.
Click to expand...

Or alternatively England will think they're the best team around but get beat in the quarter finals after scrapeing thru the group stage.
 
It could be a mix of the two. England play either portugal or germany in the quarter finals. It goes to penalties and beckham misses one. That would be tragic if it happened.

Anything could happen really, but I do hope that beckham does have a happy ending to his international career.
 
Please let something happen in the transfer market. Its been going so slowly. There ahve been quite a few transfers, but no one really gives a **** if mario melchiot and tit**** branble join Wigan. Its taking too long for clubs to make an interesting move.
 
Wow the transfer rumours is big today, yet at the same time I nearly fell into a coma reading it.

The Spanish league has finished now should be some activity going on. :/
 
That Beckham injury story is the reason why I've yet to buy a scalped ticket for Beckham's Galaxy debut against Toronto FC. Until I know for sure that he's gonna be healthy for it, I'm not gonna shell out $200 for the ticket. I'd sooner wait closer to game time, even if it means paying more (or simply not being able to afford it). Otherwise I'll end up paying two big ones to watch the second worst team in the league. :lol Can't say I find that appealing.

As for what Lalas said, I think there's an element of truth to it, but there's just as much bullshit as well. But it's a discussion I'll save for another time.


Cornballer said:
Toronto fans - what's the deal with this Maurice Edu kid? People on other forums are saying he's a pretty legit central-midfield prospect for the US (one for the future), but I haven't seen him play yet. Do you agree with their assessment?
Click to expand...

I like what I've seen of Edu so far. He's probably the Fabregas of our squad...he can hold the ball up and push it out wide, or find someone downfield. He obviously doesn't have the ridiculous 30/30 vision that Cesc possesses (who does?), but he's been a really solid contributor for us. I think he'll help USA immensely.

What I'm not sure about is if Edu could play in Europe. Or if he'd even want to, though I assume he does (as all of 'em should).


Yazan said:
Well, I live in Sweden but support Ac Milan and only Ac Milan (the swedish league sucks so hard). So am I a glory hunter? I don't think so. I started to support Milan around season 97/98 and they were really bad at that time. I think that they parked at 10 or 11pth place, and it is a team I always will support. Even if we get relegated.
Click to expand...

Which you should've been...[/bitter]


It's not fair, the trophy room is bare
While United's room is hammered out.
Click to expand...

:lol


hadareud said:
apparently Arsenal's "very big" deal of today is that the Aliadiere Middlesbrough move is going through today.

:(
Click to expand...

This was my fourth choice...think I had it spoiler tagged.
 
Finally some news. United have made a better offer for quagliarella. A month ago we made a £10 million bid for him. Its not been stated how much money has been offered for this improved bid.
 
David Suazo has joined milan, whihc is quite a big shock because inter had pretty much agreed to buy the player. He played for cagliari and he did quite well with them. Since milan were going on about signing a world class striker, this isnt the signing any expected Milan to be making.

At the moment their strikers are ronaldo, gilardino, inzaghi and suazo. I doubt they'll bring in another striker unless the sell and if someone leaves its going to be gilardino.
 
Capello is pretty unsure about his future. I cant believe that The Madrid board would actually consider sacking him. He just won the bloody league for them. Its the first major silerware that they've won in 4 years capello's job is still unsecure. What more did the board want? It was very unlikely that they would win more than one major tournament because they were in a mess. You would have thought that they would have learned from prvious mistakes and realised that changing managers so often is no good for the team.
 
WHERE THE HELL IS ALL THIS MONEY COMING FROM?


Seriously? We haven't been able to match our loan INTEREST payments, so we are going further and further into debt every season. Where have the Glazers got this cash from?
 
Its not like they used all their money to buy United. We are in a lot of debt and in a way it is a concern, but some people tend to forget that he's a billionaire and you dont become a billionaire if you are a bad businessman. They already own a american football club, so they've got the experience to manage a team. The money for these players has either come from their pocket, the bank loan, the money from the TV deal or the money from winning the premierleague. Its probably a bit of everything really.

Im not as worrie about the glazers as other people are. The new TV deal is a big bonus to them. If united win the league then they get an extra £20 million pounds. They're also getting more money from ticket sales. The prices are going up and there have been complaints, but I bet that we'll still see a full house at Old trafford most of the time.
 
psycho_snake said:
David Suazo has joined milan, whihc is quite a big shock because inter had pretty much agreed to buy the player. He played for cagliari and he did quite well with them. Since milan were going on about signing a world class striker, this isnt the signing any expected Milan to be making.

At the moment their strikers are ronaldo, gilardino, inzaghi and suazo. I doubt they'll bring in another striker unless the sell and if someone leaves its going to be gilardino.
Click to expand...

Suazo did more than well in Cagliari. We will probably buy one more striker or an SS, I don't think that Gila will leave.
 
BatiGOOOOOOL said:
Also, someone said that only Mexico gets favored by refs in the CONCACAF. I'm sorry, but that's completely false. It's not the team's fault, but both Mexico and the US are the sugar daddies and as so, they are protected by the organization all the time.

On saturday the ref ignored two clear PKs in Panama's favor. Yesterday, the US ref in the Costa Rica-Mexico match was a complete disaster and had to help them for 120 minutes, so they could get a miserable 1-0 win. We played like shit the whole tournament, but that's no excuse for giving out non-existant red cards or showing yellows to our players and then turn around and show nothing to the mexicans for the same type of action.
Click to expand...

1. Please point out the 2 PKs that you're talking about.

2. Like Cornballer mentioned there was the clear red card that was not issued, and so many bullshit offsides and fouls were called against the US that game. I've watched every US game in the tournament and in every single one they've had to win against the ref's calls. I've got the US-Panama game recorded so I'll take a look again and specifically give you all the calls im talking about.
 
hadareud said:
apparently Arsenal's "very big" deal of today is that the Aliadiere Middlesbrough move is going through today.

:(
Click to expand...

Are you kidding me?

What the hell is going on with us? First Henry and Cesc, now Wenger?!!! I don't think Wenger will leave but this transfer period is going to put us into a relegation battle.
 
Yazan said:
Suazo did more than well in Cagliari. We will probably buy one more striker or an SS, I don't think that Gila will leave.
Click to expand...
I cant see AC Milan having 5 strikers plus kaka. If they buy another striker then someone will have to make room for that and I cant see anyone else other than Gilardino leaving. They just bought suazo, ronaldo was bought in january whilst Inzaghi is a useful player for Milan because at his age he'll be happy to play a small role and AC Milan need someone like him, so gilardino is the one person left.
 
hadareud said:
apparently Arsenal's "very big" deal of today is that the Aliadiere Middlesbrough move is going through today.

:(
Click to expand...
There's rumors that Arsenal are back in for Sagna, and also it turns out the Nicky Hammond (the Reading guy) turned down the Director of Football job last week. Link.

Another slow day, I guess.... :P
 
Apparently Forlan has come out and said that his contract has a £15m release clause. I know he didn't do it at United, but he's been so good at Villarreal that I think he's worth the gamble. I'm sure someone in Spain would take him back for that much next summer if he doesn't work out again, given how strong he's been in La Liga.

There seem to be a lot of strikers available for not ridiculous prices (though some of those too)...Trezeguet, Gilardino, Forlan, Owen, Saviola, Milito...if Liverpool can't pick any of those up, I don't know what's wrong with them.
 
There were rumors floating around this morning that Arsenal were in for Forlan, as well.

Batigoooool said:
Has this guy ever heard of a man named Jack Warner, the dirtiest piece of shit to ever be a confederation's president? That's no easy accomplishment, let me tell you. He does whatever the hell he wants and everyone knows it. Most recently, it was proven that he did a huge fraud with World Cup tickets and his son's travel agency and all he got was a slap on the wrist from FIFA.

The Gold Cup is such a shitty torunament and CONCACAF overall is so crappy because he doesn't care as long as he racks in the $$$.
Click to expand...
Of course he's heard of him. Jack Warner is one of the most corrupt people within FIFA and a blight on CONCACAF, but claiming that he's orchestrating a Confederation-wide conspiracy to benefit the US and Mexico doesn't make a lot of sense and is well beyond his abilities. Look, CONCACAF is run by idiotic people and the refereeing is terrible, but don't mistake incompetence for a well-crafted, nefarious plan to help out certain teams.
 
I was just thinking Forlan might do best at Arsenal, as they're the most continental of the English teams, but I hadn't heard anything so dismissed it.
 
It was on TribalFootball which is a crappy, unreliable site, so I'd guess it's a fake rumor.

psycho_snake said:
Apparantly chelsea are after some guy called Lee Chun Soo. He's a midfielder for Ulsan Tigers. Has anyone ever heard of him?
Click to expand...
He has bad hair and scored in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, IIRC. One of the better players on the Korean side, but he's also known for mouthing off to the press and being something of a pain in the ass.
152fs503654.jpg
 
You've probably all seen the story anyway as it's on all the news sites, but just in case:

American-based businessman Daniel Williams has confirmed that he has held talks with Blackburn Rovers about taking over the club.

But Williams, originally from Lytham St Annes, is keen to stress that reports of an imminent takeover are incorrect.

"We are at the very, very early stages of any kind of process," Williams told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

"The whole thing about a deal being imminent and a price being agreed just isn't the case."

Williams is fronting a consortium interested in taking over at Ewood Park and has been involved in the proposal since March.

"A guy I know was looking at Premier League clubs that might be for sale and Blackburn came up, so that's when I became interested," added the 30-year-old.

"However, when he later pulled out, I remained interested and I've since got other people interested in coming on board."

The consortium comprises American financial institutions and there are high hopes Williams would invest heavily if a takeover was to go through.

But he ruled out making sweeping changes to a club that has finished in the top half of the Premiership the last two seasons.

Williams added: "The people who are already running Blackburn seem to be doing a damn good job of it.

"The notion that we would come into the club with no other football experience other than being fans and be chairman, chief executive officer and vice chairman is nonsensical.

"If we bought the club then we wouldn't be putting (Roman) Abramovich money into it, but we would make funds available.

"The way you make a club valuable is by getting it in the top seven and Europe every year.

"The one thing I think it's important to stress is there would be no debt going on the club as part of this deal.

"I will be putting a significant amount of money into funding it, but it won't be the whole £50m.

"The institutions we have who are interested in doing this deal are very, very large investment institutions.

"You don't make an investment in a Premiership club without being willing to dig into your pockets and make money available to ensure the club does well."

Williams owns a company called Elite Graduate Jobs and another heavily involved in property development, Princeton Global Housing.

He follows the fortunes of Rovers from the United States and attended three Blackburn games last season, including the FA Cup semi-final defeat by Chelsea in April.

But he added of the talks with Blackburn that they are "very much at the conversational stage at the moment".

He insisted: "We've had a very good dialogue with chairman John Williams and his vice-chairman David Brown but a lot of what has been written is exceptionally premature.

"I certainly haven't seen anything in the way of due diligence and we haven't formally made an approach."

Rovers chairman John Williams admitted on 13 June that talks had taken place with a potential investor.

"We've made some progress with a third party but it is very difficult because of all of the formalities involved," he said.

US investors are currently clamouring for a piece of lucrative Premiership action following the respective takeovers of Manchester United, Liverpool and Aston Villa and also the interest in the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City.

Any potential deal at Ewood Park hinges on whether the trustees of the late Jack Walker, the former owner and chairman, approve the sale.
Click to expand...

Man I hope it happens, it sounds perfect. He's a genuine fan, he doesn't want to change the way the club is run as it's run well (unlike any takeover of Man City, which is run terribly) and funds will be made available for players.

The only downside is how early the talks are, and these things take time. There's still like, 11 weeks until the transfer window closes, so there's plenty of time, it's just most of the players we're after might have been snapped up by then.
 
He's only 30?!?

Shinobi said:
That Beckham injury story is the reason why I've yet to buy a scalped ticket for Beckham's Galaxy debut against Toronto FC. Until I know for sure that he's gonna be healthy for it, I'm not gonna shell out $200 for the ticket. I'd sooner wait closer to game time, even if it means paying more (or simply not being able to afford it). Otherwise I'll end up paying two big ones to watch the second worst team in the league. :lol Can't say I find that appealing.
Click to expand...
It's definitely a concern for MLS if he misses a lot of games due to injury. Hopefully that isn't the case.

As for what Lalas said, I think there's an element of truth to it, but there's just as much bullshit as well. But it's a discussion I'll save for another time.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I totally agree. He makes a few good points and then he's completely wrong about a few other things. Seems like he was looking for some more press for the team - at this point for MLS "there's no such thing as bad press."

I like what I've seen of Edu so far. He's probably the Fabregas of our squad...he can hold the ball up and push it out wide, or find someone downfield. He obviously doesn't have the ridiculous 30/30 vision that Cesc possesses (who does?), but he's been a really solid contributor for us. I think he'll help USA immensely. What I'm not sure about is if Edu could play in Europe. Or if he'd even want to, though I assume he does (as all of 'em should).
Click to expand...
Cool, I'll keep an eye out for him. It sounds like he's been developing nicely, and hopefully he continues to improve. He's only had a handful of professional games so far...
 
Cornballer said:
It was on TribalFootball which is a crappy, unreliable site, so I'd guess it's a fake rumor.

He has bad hair and scored in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, IIRC. One of the better players on the Korean side, but he's also known for mouthing off to the press and being something of a pain in the ass.
152fs503654.jpg
Click to expand...
It sounds like he would fit into chelsea perfectly.
 
Auxerre defender Younes Kaboul is close to joining tottenham. Ive never seen him play, but if football manager is anything to go by, he is amazing.
 
The Guardian said:
BREAKING NEWS: Sheffield Utd have been told to expect a verdict from the Premier League arbitration panel "by the end of the month, maybe sooner" ...
Click to expand...

Does this really qualify as "Breaking News"? They're just going to tell Sheffield U that there's nothing they can do....
 
The announcement that they will announce the verdict by the end of the month isnt really breaking news, but it would be breaking news if they actually got something big out of this.
 
More problems in SA...
Reuters said:
Blatter says World Cup hosts face transport challenge
By Mark Gleeson
CAPE TOWN, June 19 (Reuters) - FIFA president Sepp Blatter says South Africa still faces challenges around transport and hotel accommodation for its hosting of the 2010 World Cup finals.

Blatter said he told South African President Thabo Mbeki in a meeting in Cape Town on Tuesday that while stadium construction was well underway, the country now had to turn its attention to ensuring enough facilities for thousands of visitors during the tournament.

"We have seen progress in the building of the stadiums but the system of transport definitely has to be looked at. There will be a lot of visitors and there is a great need from companies to help with extra capacity for airplanes, buses and local transport," Blatter told reporters after the meeting.

South African organisers expect at least 350,000 visitors for the tournament, considerably down on the initial estimates of some 900,000 when they first bid for the tournament.

A total of 55,000 hotel nights are to be secured for the tournament, according to the South Africa 2010 Local Organising Committee.

Blatter also made a brief reference to the high crime rate in South Africa, saying that the World Cup had heightened reports.

"All major cities in the world grapple with problems of criminality but those in South Africa are getting more publicity than they deserve because of the World Cup," he said.

The FIFA president was in South Africa for a brief two-day visit, during which time he met with local organisers in Johannesburg on Monday and toured the site of Cape Town's new stadium on Tuesday.

On Monday he reaffirmed his previous, often-repeated stance that "only an act of God" would see the tournament taken away from South Africa.
Click to expand...
 
Cornballer said:
More problems in SA...
Click to expand...

This is ****ing ridiculous. Why give the WC to a country that obviously does not have the finance and infrastructure to handle it???

And good job Blatter noticing SA's crime rate NOW, and not before you granted them the WC. Idiot.

This is definitely not SA's fault, rather FIFA's for accepting their bid..
 
Outdoor Miner said:
This is ****ing ridiculous. Why give the WC to a country that obviously does not have the finance and infrastructure to handle it???
Click to expand...

Good luck finding another African nation with the required finances and infrastructure...
 
On the crime thing, Blatter's point wasn't that they have a high crime rate, but rather that it seems they do because they're getting so much focus in the build up to the WC and any major cities would face the same problem.

He's probably wrong (I dunno though, I'd have to see figures), but he has to spin something.
 
Liverpool have agreed a 11 million deal for a player according to a mystery club, the player is unknown. The player is on holiday at the moment.

Any guesses?
 
I would guess at Malouda, seems to fit the price, and pool are in dire need of a competent winger. Simao is possible as well, he would fall in the 11mil range. I would think Mancini would be more around 15-18. At 11mil, it could be any one, even Darren Bent
 
"The Honduran striker will wear the shirt of Milan next Season," a statement on Milan's official website said.

"The transfer from Cagliari to the Rossoneri went ahead after negotiations during the night."

But Inter remain adamant that Suazo has signed for the Nerazzurri, even though he has penned a new deal with Milan.

"With us there was complete agreement. This has been an amazing change of will. Anyway the player has signed for us so we will see," Inter president Massimo Moratti said.
Click to expand...

^ seems to be the dispute
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Unhinged Bios Official Thread
10
267
SJRB replied
  • Poll
Football (Soccer) game is abandoned because a fan used sexist language towards the ref.
24
752
T8SC replied
THE BEAUTY OF FOOTBALL
2
54
1K
Ellis replied
URC 2025-2026 Official Thread
Social 
7
766
StueyDuck replied
Moana | Official Trailer
2
67
1K
jason10mm replied
Top Bottom