**** OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread!*****

[THEOSU]

ok, a bit off point here, but i've been thinking about lampard recently, and even before this entire mourinho situation, i came up with a hypothesis.

frank lampard = gaizka mendieta.

mendieta just kind of floundered around at valencia for a while, showing flashes of potential, but never establishing himself as anything mroe than player deserving of a regular place in the first team. then in 1999 hector cuper took over management of the club, and mendieta became awesome. he lead his team to consecutive champions league finals, and became a regular in the spanish national side. the thing is, he was never able to hold the same influence on the national side as he was on valencia.

he was then sold to inter for an absurd amount in 2001, and poof. the magic disappeared. meanwhile, valencia won la liga without him (and with rafa benitez as teh gaffer), while they only were able to finish 3rd and 5th when he was at his peak. he struggled to even get a match at inter, so they loan him out to barca, then to boro where still is. only he can't even break into the regular squad at freaking boro.


the similarities between lampard and mendieta, up until mendieta's sale, seem stark. lampard was a decent enough player at west ham and then chelsea, certainly a name regularly penciled into the starting eleven. then in 2004 mourinho takes over and lampard turns awesome, leading his team to the champions league (semi)final. he continues to maintain outstanding form for his club, while he is notably poor for his country. now a new man is leading chelsea (it is not yet known exactly which man is in charge), and lampard is out of contract in 20 months time, feeding speculation of a move. we will see if my hypothesis holds true.

[Oski]

[ QUOTE ]

ok, a bit off point here, but i've been thinking about lampard recently, and even before this entire mourinho situation, i came up with a hypothesis.

frank lampard = gaizka mendieta.

mendieta just kind of floundered around at valencia for a while, showing flashes of potential, but never establishing himself as anything mroe than player deserving of a regular place in the first team. then in 1999 hector cuper took over management of the club, and mendieta became awesome. he lead his team to consecutive champions league finals, and became a regular in the spanish national side. the thing is, he was never able to hold the same influence on the national side as he was on valencia.

he was then sold to inter for an absurd amount in 2001, and poof. the magic disappeared. meanwhile, valencia won la liga without him (and with rafa benitez as teh gaffer), while they only were able to finish 3rd and 5th when he was at his peak. he struggled to even get a match at inter, so they loan him out to barca, then to boro where still is. only he can't even break into the regular squad at freaking boro.


the similarities between lampard and mendieta, up until mendieta's sale, seem stark. lampard was a decent enough player at west ham and then chelsea, certainly a name regularly penciled into the starting eleven. then in 2004 mourinho takes over and lampard turns awesome, leading his team to the champions league (semi)final. he continues to maintain outstanding form for his club, while he is notably poor for his country. now a new man is leading chelsea (it is not yet known exactly which man is in charge), and lampard is out of contract in 20 months time, feeding speculation of a move. we will see if my hypothesis holds true.

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting, indeed.

It is amazing how much a manager can affect the play of individual players.*

*Not sure if this message is written in official Barclay's Premiership language. If not, please move to the American soccer fan's forum.

[KDawg]

[ QUOTE ]
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7260094

Arsenal is now the most profitable club in England.

Interesting nugget:
[ QUOTE ]
"We had over £70million of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money, we will make it available."

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically once January comes, Arsene has the skrills to buy whoever he sees fit to buy. I am sure he won't spend a penny though.

[/ QUOTE ]


he won't get anyone of any major importance in the Jan transfer window because they will be cup tied. you keep on forgetting this fact [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[The once and future king]

Lampard played really well when Reiniery (sp) was the manager.

[ QUOTE ]
while he is notably poor for his country.

[/ QUOTE ]

He was Englands top scorer in both the qualifying campaign and Euro 2004 itself.

Lampard was awesome the season before Jose came, and was awesome in Jose's first season. Since then his form has droped off somewhat.

[The once and future king]

[ QUOTE ]
No offence, but it's the "OFFICIAL Premiership 2007-08 season Thread". It's about English football. There is no such thing as a PK or offence, except of course in "Boston Goals", which should tell you something (for our US friends, it's a spoof about your lack of understanding of football).

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey Fat, stfu.

Its great that our former colony's citizens are taking a interest in Football. Yea they may use some dodgy terminology but so what, what matters is the growth of the beautiful game (with a u of course).

I dont care what terminology they use just as they dont talk total bollox about the game, which apart from this guy RJ for the most part they dont. If you look at there analysis, you will notice that they are doing really really well for yanks and in about 5 or 6 years will begin to understand the game properly.

So in the mean time there is no need to be unduly patronising, and we should be doing all we can to encourage their interest in Football.

Edit: Spelt patronising with a z.

[Chairman Wood]

So I wake up this morning and hear on Canal 9 news here in Argentina ( A big major television channel here but I take all journalism here with a big lump of salt) that there might be a Ronaldinho to Chelsea move. They didn't give a transfer amount but they gave the value of his suspected contract to be 5 years and 72 million euros. This doesn't make sense to me as CL already started and (I think) he started for Barca making him ineligible but I just thought I would share this very startling rumor I heard. Anyone else hear anything like this? Other sources?

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
I could of course, when discussing the NFL, refer to goal kicks, conversions and trys when points are scored. Of course it would make me look like I had no idea what I was talking about. DUCY?

[/ QUOTE ] TOAFK answered better, but yeah you could. I wouldn't mind, and I would know immediately you weren't American. You know what we are talking about and thats what matters.

BTW, just a fun fact, soccer is a term first coined by an Englishman.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7260094

Arsenal is now the most profitable club in England.

Interesting nugget:
[ QUOTE ]
"We had over £70million of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money, we will make it available."

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically once January comes, Arsene has the skrills to buy whoever he sees fit to buy. I am sure he won't spend a penny though.

[/ QUOTE ]


he won't get anyone of any major importance in the Jan transfer window because they will be cup tied. you keep on forgetting this fact [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I know this! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

A name I have been hearing, and he is cup tied, is Luca Modric from Dinamo Zagreb, Eduardo's former teammate.

I think Wenger will take a wait and see approach. We'll get Djourou back in January, but we will miss three players for the ACN.

The amount of money available is impressive though.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I could of course, when discussing the NFL, refer to goal kicks, conversions and trys when points are scored. Of course it would make me look like I had no idea what I was talking about. DUCY?

[/ QUOTE ] TOAFK answered better, but yeah you could. I wouldn't mind, and I would know immediately you weren't American. You know what we are talking about and thats what matters.

BTW, just a fun fact, soccer is a term first coined by an Englishman.

[/ QUOTE ]
Just to add one thing, I watched Sky Sports on Sunday and they were showing NFL highlights. The lady doing them did a good job and she even mentioned a player had a "hat trick" of TD's, which I thought was an awesome expression.

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/7260094

Arsenal is now the most profitable club in England.

Interesting nugget:
[ QUOTE ]
"We had over £70million of cash at the end of the year and if Arsene wants to spend that money, we will make it available."

[/ QUOTE ]

So basically once January comes, Arsene has the skrills to buy whoever he sees fit to buy. I am sure he won't spend a penny though.

[/ QUOTE ]


he won't get anyone of any major importance in the Jan transfer window because they will be cup tied. you keep on forgetting this fact [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I know this! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

A name I have been hearing, and he is cup tied, is Luca Modric from Dinamo Zagreb, Eduardo's former teammate.

I think Wenger will take a wait and see approach. We'll get Djourou back in January, but we will miss three players for the ACN.

The amount of money available is impressive though.

[/ QUOTE ]

"wait and see approach" is a term used in the stock market, not football, so please keep such dodgey phraseology in the hot-dog eating threads.

James