I think there should be a football thread, and so thats why i've made one. I want one, fatboygreen said he would post and hopefully others will.
This is basically for anything to do with football. Any league, any country. On and off pitch talk. Whatever.
Now personally i think a good way to start this off would be the controversial goal by Henry for arsenal against Chelsea this sunday. In my opinion, Pires dived to win the free-kick, neither Makelele or Lampard touched him, and the free kick should of been re-taken as the ref did not take 5 steps back, and should of gave some indictation to the Chelsea players the free-kick was going to be taken.
But that's my opinion as a Chelsea fan, anyone else with there views?
Please post, because i think once started this could be a really good thread for all you football lovers (and maybe even haters to slag footie off).

Saw the Chelsea goals on box today, I thought the Henry goal was fine, good result for Chelsea though. Millwall's 2-1 over brighton puts us closer to the play offs, and good to get one over mark mcgee Good idea frere just hope people post !

Me too.
I don't think it was fine, prob because i'm biased.
LOL at soton, 2-0 with a minute left. 2-2 in the end. Great start for Harry redknapp...
Wouldn't it be a good swap for Strachen to go to Pompy? I rate him, didn't do a bad job down here in Cov.
Millwall have the quality to go for a playoff spot i think

I think Pompy will end up with the better deal if they get Stachan, and the saints must be gutted after that 2-2, they should have won that game.

They might, but i think Redknapp may save soton from relegation.
I think Downing is Englands long term solution on the left hand side, i've yet to see his strike from the game, but heard it was good, but the defender didn't charge him down. Bet Harry R was p***ed majorly about that.
Soton have surprised me this season, as i don't think their team is particually weak. Everton have also surprised me, i thought like England in Euro 2004 they would collaspe without Rooney (who is over-rated in my book), but instead they are second and going strong. Lets hope Moyles don't ruin it by buying some dodgy players in January, like new teams into the prem buy dodgy players when they get promotion

Yes Downing should definately be playing on the left for England, I dont think Sven will be able to ignore him much longer. Yes Everton are flying at the moment, it would be good to see them get a european place, and they dont seem to be missing Rooney at all, as to Rooney being overated I dont think so, just look at what he done at the euro champs, once he got injured we looked very average.

I'm not saying he is rubbish, because that he is not. He is a very good talented young player with a bright future.
I think all the hype surrounding Rooney took confidence away from the rest of the England squad, and made them think he was their most valuable player, which he may well of been, and so make them think they couldn't win without him.
My opinion of Sven has gone down, as he seems to consistantly play the 'big-names' who under-perform more often than not, and doesn't give youngsters like Wright-Phillips (Shawn and maybe even Bradly in the future, Man city need to keep a hold of them two) and Dowining the chance they need, hopefully come Febuary in the Holland game he'll play his best squad, not his 'big-names'

The players have to be bigger than that, I agree with you about Sven though, he was influenced to much by his days with Lazio,the Italians are to defensive and England cant play that defensive keep ball system, we only look good going forward. And tacticly I think he's lost the plot, in the world cup when Brazil had a man sent off, it looked like we were the team with 10 men. I think we need an English man back in charge.

He doesn't have the same pride in the job as a English manager would have.
I would like to see Steve McLaren as England manager sometime soon.
Sven has been playing around with tactics, which gives a advantage, as then if needed players can rotate around the pitch and play in several positions.
He (Sven) does seem to favour the defence alot, sometimes at the sacrific of attack power. Nobody wants to see Phil Neville or Owen Hargreves come on, when we have more attacking players, and even better defensive minded players at our disposal

Steve Maclaren is the man for the job, he knows the players and he is a goos coach. Alan Curbishley could do a job aswell, but we are stuck with Sven untill the next world cup, lets hope he has learnt something.

England have the players to win the world cup, but won't with the current state of the management system. Steve Bruce would also do well. Me friend thats a brummie and supports Birmingham blamed their form on Eric Black. WTF? He was a good manager at Cov, even if he was incosistant, so even though he's assitant at Birmingham it ain't his falut.
I think there is not enough International's for Sven to try players and tactics out, but i'm not making excuses for him. Too many league matches i think.

Yes there are to many games, and there should be a winter break. I think aventually all the top clubs will join a european league anyway, and that will mean the end for a lot of small clubs and make the gap between the haves and have nots even bigger.

I'm not sure how well a European league would work on a weekly basis at first, but thats something i would like to see. There is a massive gap between leagues at the moment, (e.g. Premiership and coca cola championship) clubs in the premiership are spending millions on players, while championship clubs spend thousands or hundreds of thousands, maybe millions depending on the club. Maybe more leagues would work. Spilting the premiership and other leagues into small leagues.
Say the premiership and championship split into 3 leagues between them would have around 15 or so clubs in a division, meaning less games. And a winter break should be a defo, it's the holiday season, no should work for a while.

Are you telling me that Chelsea at home to Barcelona would mean as much as Chelsea at home to West ham, or Arsenal at home to Spurs, I think if you ask most fans they dont want the european league, I would rather watch Millwall at home to West ham, than at home to Real Madrid any day of the week, cos it means more, cos I can phone my mate Tel and take the piss out of him and vice versa, and theres history there, I dont know anyone who lives in Madrid. it dont mean nothing

I'm not saying that. Just like watching the champions league is good because it's the best of the best. Top notch footie.
I like nothing more than taking the piss out of friends who support other teams, and yes the history is there. Maybe the European league should just stick as the champions league and stuff like that (But does anybody actually care about the Inter-toto cup anymore?).
And England has one of if not the best leagues in the world when it comes to football, and in a way, i'm quite proud of that, so that would be changed. But the leagues in England are too big i think, with some mant teams just floating in mid-table year after year after year, even if thy have some sort of input on who eventually becomes champions, i think if leagues were shrunk and others introduced while contraversial it would be better for the league and international quality in the long term

Yes, I'm not saying get rid of european compitition, keep the champions league, but just for the champions, not those that finish 2nd, 3rd and 4th. That would cut down on games and reduce the premiership to 16 clubs, with the bottom 4 in div.3 being relegated to conferance. I agree champions league is good to watch, and is the best level of football in the world, but you just have to listen to the crowds in the early group games at Highbury, Stamford bridge and Old Trafford, to realise it means nothing, You get more atmosphere in the F.A cup Chelsea at home to Macclesfield town. I'm not saying get rid of champions league just that domestic comprtition means more.

I think that we are both saying the same thing, but just not understanding each other. lol
I agree that runners up shouldn't be in the champions league, erm what did you win?
There would be more build up to a FA cup match thought, and yes the atmosphere would be much better, which helps create a better game overall.

Wot did we win ?, bugger all actually, but the cup final was a brilliant day out, and the support was blinding. Perhaps we should make the following predictions.

1= Top 6 premiership

1 Chelsea
2 Arsenal
3 Man.utd
4 Everton
5 Liverpool
6 Bolton.w

2= Top 6 championship

1 Ipswich.t
2 Sunderland
3 Wigan
4 West Ham
5 QPR
6 Millwall

3= Top 6 league 1

1 Luton.t
2 Tranmere.r
3 Hull.c
4 Bristol.c
5 Bradford.c
6 Brentford

4= Top 6 league 2

1 Scunthorpe
2 Swansea.c
3 Southend.u
4 Yoevil.t
5 Macclesfield.t
6 L.Orient

Champions league winners = Arsenal

F.A Cup winners = Everton

League cup winners = Chelsea

Be interested to see if you have Chelsea winning everything

Come on, what about league one and two !

I thought you was talking about our brilliant win nothing history

I'll try

League one
1. Luton
2. Tranmere
3. Hull
4. Bradford
5. Bournemouth
6. Brentford

League two
1. Scunthorpe (We are sending you out the cup)
2. Swansea
3. Yeovil
4. Darlington
5. Leyton Orient
6. Maccelsfield

We shall see who is right, winner gets a prize

A season ticket for Acrington Stanley

So when you said prize you meant booby prize. No offense to Acrington, but your rubbish.
What first 11 would you play for england?

ooooh ?

GK Robinson
RB G.Neville
LB Cole
CB Campbell
CB Terry
LM Downing
RM Wright-Phillips
CM Beckham
CM Lampard
ST Owen
ST Rooney

Hard choise leaving out Gerrard, but Lampard dont give the ball away as much

GK Robinson
RB G.Neville
LB Cole
CB Campbell
CB Terry
LM Downing
RM Wright-Phillips
CM Gerrard
CM Lampard
ST Owen
ST Rooney

How can you leave Beckham out, he's the best passer of a ball we got, and the best at deadball situations, but apart from that totally agree with you.
I think Gerrard is either shit or brilliant no in between.

Just see that goal by Gerrard? Awesome. Bend it like it like beckham, why not curl it like cole (joe), loft one in like lampard, rocket one like rooney. Beckham is either s***e or not bad. His passing is good, when he can be bothered. Far too overrated in my book.

Shame Scoles retired, cos we've lost a midfielder who was good going forward, I think Lampard and Gerrard are more central holding players, and only Rooney can fill that hole between midfield and up front, if he gets injured were a pretty average team, cos no one can fill that hole

Hmm... While I'm here, let me ask a question of all those people here that like football:

What's so attractive about 22 people running around in T-shirt and shorts chasing an inflated pigskin?

Personally, I've never seen the attraction of it... But I just wondered what other people thought about it

Its one of those things that is in your blood, or not as the case may be

There was a peroid of my life, about a year or two after Coventry got relegated i gave up on footie, but was that the biggest mistake of my life.
Asking why people like football is like asking other people why they like the sport they do. Like fatboygreen said it's in your blood. You make not like footie and thats your choice and i respect that, but i think it's called the beautiful game for a reason.

Did you hear about Dover getting done by the taxman for vat not payed on there hot meat pies, they reckon they owe about 30 grand. Talk about taking the piss, iv'e been there and the pies were nowhere near hot !

LOL didn't hear that.
What about Chelsea and West ham getting fined over their Carling cup clash when they didn't control their fans. On teletext it said about Kezman getting struck in the head with a coin, don't think that was a Chelsea fan, and West ham fans clashing with police. Erm excuse me but nothing was said about Chelsea fans, so why are we getting punished?

Thats like the Millwall- Liverpool game, Millwall fans getting done for racism, there wasn't any they were just booing a black player for a bad foul, the F.A have gone mad

Well we know what FA stands for, and i don't mean Football association...
Just read that Chelsea are going to appeal against the decision, good job aswell, we have done nothing wrong.
Also Gary Neville thinks Man Utd are still title contenders. I mean they've got themselves close again with a good run of games, but i don't see Chelsea, Arsenal and maybe even Everton at this point dropping too many points, Man Utd will have to win a hell of a lot of games to win the Premiershp this season

I dont think you can write Man u off just yet, but they do need the others to slip up, I can see Everton slipping but not Chelsea or the arse, We got a big game coming up away at Leeds, we need a result there.

Leeds are a bit dodgy. Some matches they are really good, others not too good, you better hope you catch them on a off day. While we've got Watford and Norwich (think you can guess which team has got which, not exactly Coventry vs Norwich is it? lol)
Don't write Man utd off just yet, look what happened a few years back, Arsenal thought they were champs, but somehow Man utd stole the crown from them.

Noing our luck they will be shit hot, and that time Man.u pulled back 13pts on Newcastle

Man utd, the come back kings. Time to be dethroned me thinks.
That'll be a big match, seen's as both want promotion, don't think leeds will hold back.
Middlesbourgh easy past another team in the UEFA cup. Think about it, Middlesbourgh were virtually unknowns in European competetion, now they are ripping through teams like nobodys bussiness, didn't even play Downing

The Middlesbrough game was strange, I think red star looked the better team, even more so in the second half, but boro scored 3, and red star just did'nt have that killer touch. But they have done well boro, and now there through to the knockout stage

Middlesbourgh spitting out European teams like know's business, Everton second, Yeading still in the FA cup. 04-05 certainly is a strange season

As the half god half man Jimmy Hill once said, Its a funny old game
Whats the best goal you've ever seen live, ie not on the tele but at the game

Pfft couldn't even remember. I think i remember one which Huckerby scored while at Coventry. Took on the entire Man utd defence and scored. Cov win 3-2. Also beckham f***ed up right in front of us at the end, classic.
What about you?

1995 at home to Charlton, Ben Thatcher hit a 30yd volly into the top left hand corner, we ended up doing em 3-1, sweet memories from that game, all my cousins are anoraks

Rangers got beaten by Auxerre tonight!

Just another team to add to the long list of teams that have beaten Rangers in europe