2006/2007 Premiership Footy Thread

derekc said:
Ballack didn't cost anything though beside the huge salary he is getting. So the three would cost them 51mil pounds. Total disaster signings or buying without thinking especially for Sheva who is past 30 now. Ballack should've gone to United but I guess he was looking for Glory.
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Based on his performances I am glad we did not get him. Mikel as well.
 
Mikel was the easiest 12 mil pounds United have ever made :D hope more of those come our way. I think Ballack would've done well at United. He can both defensive and attacking which is what we needed. Why can't flippin Gatusso just sign for United!

That Nani prospect is looking good. Might be a Ronaldo complement.
 
Angelo said:
:eek:
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Hehe, I thought you might say that! :)

i am just not sure where he would fit into United's lineup. Granted, he did a better job than Ballack and he is certainly superior to players like Richardson and Fletcher, both of whom have got way to much game time this season.
 
When are the new UEFA laws, requiring a certain amount of players being brought up through the clubs youth system, coming into effect? would Fletcher and Richardson qualify?
 
hj2k_x said:
Hehe, I thought you might say that! :)

i am just not sure where he would fit into United's lineup. Granted, he did a better job than Ballack and he is certainly superior to players like Richardson and Fletcher, both of whom have got way to much game time this season.
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hj2k Mikel is immense and he is exactly the type of player ManU are missing. He will be huge one day...mark my words! :eek:
 
Mikel might be a great talent but his thug like attitude off the pitch isn't for Man United. We need a thug on the pitch. Damn I do miss keane at MF.
 
xcleric42 said:
When are the new UEFA laws, requiring a certain amount of players being brought up through the clubs youth system, coming into effect? would Fletcher and Richardson qualify?
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What are these rules? Chelsea will clearly not be big fans of them...
 
Sir Alex Ferguson is prepared to risk title winners Manchester United getting beaten by Chelsea in order to preserve a sense of fair play in the relegation battle.

Scrapping it out at the bottom is a concept alien to Ferguson apart from one very brief flirtation with danger during his early days as Red Devils boss.

Yet he is acutely aware all eyes will be on Old Trafford this weekend when United entertain a West Ham side looking for the point that will guarantee their safety.

Ferguson's long-time friendship with Alan Curbishley extends to the Scot presenting the Hammers boss with a return air ticket to New Zealand at the end of last season so his Premiership rival could see his sister after announcing he was stepping down as Charlton manager.

But Ferguson is eager to make it clear Curbishley can expect no favours this weekend, with Sheffield United and Wigan also scrapping for their lives.

And the United chief's determination to ensure he has a full-strength side available to face the Hammers means he will rest a number of key men at Stamford Bridge as his team head south to meet the side they have just deposed as champions.

"The West Ham game is a very important issue," said Ferguson.

"We have to respect our reputation.

"Alan Curbishley is a good friend of mine but he understands we have to respect the wishes of other managers.

"I get on very well with Paul Jewell and Alan Pardew as well. They deserve our best attention to the game and I will be picking a team to win on Sunday.

"I don't know what my team will be at Chelsea but there will be a lot of changes, simply because the players are so tired."

In fact, Ferguson revealed even if Chelsea had beaten Arsenal on Sunday to prolong the title battle, he was considering fielding a less than full-strength side at Stamford Bridge in the belief that a fully fired-up United could have collected the point required to lift the trophy against West Ham four days later.

"I know it would have been controversial but when you consider Chelsea's home record in the last few seasons, I could have played my best team and still lost," he admitted.

"I could have played all my youth team and kept my first-choice one for Sunday.

"In the event, I am glad we are going there as champions. It would have been some game if we weren't."

Among those likely to miss out are Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Edwin van der Sar may also get a rest, while Ferguson will assess the fitness of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic very carefully, reluctant to take any risks with two of the men he believes have been key to United's success this season.

Although Ferguson has had some excellent central defenders in his ranks, until now none have threatened to forge a partnership as effective as the one Steve Bruce enjoyed with Gary Pallister at the start of United's title-winning sequence in 1993.

However, in the teak-tough Vidic and stylish Ferdinand, Ferguson now has exactly the right blend again.

"Everyone saw the difference it made to us defensively when Vidic and Ferdinand were back together at Manchester City on Saturday," said Ferguson.

"They were absolutely peerless. We have been looking for that foundation of strength in central defence for a long time.

"We have had some combinations but they have not lasted as long as Pallister and Bruce but we hope these two do."

Jose Mourinho has promised his players will applaud United onto the pitch, just as Ferguson ordered his team to do in similar circumstances two years ago.

United skipper Gary Neville, who remains sidelined with an ankle injury, described it as one of the worst experiences of his career, although Ferguson thinks it is an appropriate gesture.

"The guard of honour does not concern me too much but I am pleased they are going to honour us," he said.
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http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_2114573,00.html

Looks like the guard of honour may be for our youth team ;)
 
xcleric42 said:
ah here we go, already in place although there hasn't been much said about them recently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/4233353.stm
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Uefa has announced clubs competing in the Champions League and Uefa Cup will have to include four homegrown players in their 25-man squad from 2006.

Europe's governing body also wants to implement the plan in domestic leagues but that will have to be agreed by each national association.

Uefa then wants six homegrown players by 2007 and eight in 2008.

Of the eight, at least four must be trained by the club's own academy and the rest in the home country.

Uefa defines a club-trained player as one who has been registered for a minimum of three seasons with the club between the age of 15 and 21.


About time, but can we increase four to eight?
From R
Have your say on 606

Of the 32 sides in last season's Champions League, five clubs would have not had enough homegrown players to meet the requirement of eight under the eventual new ruling.

They are: Arsenal, Chelsea, Celtic, Rangers and Ajax.

Uefa's 52 member associations will vote on whether the same rule should apply to domestic competitions at a Congress in Tallinn, Estonia in April.

There has already been strong opposition voiced by the Premier League and the Italian federation.

But Uefa chief executive Lars-Christer Olsson said: "We think this is a reasonable compromise based on all the consultations we have had.

"Although we have had negative responses from some leagues and some bigger clubs in those leagues, all the others involved have been very supportive of this idea.

"We also think the proposal is legal, because it is a sporting rule, not as a restriction, to develop and promote young players."

But a Premier League spokesman said: "Uefa clearly believes they have a robust-enough legal position to introduce the changes within their competitions.

"However, it is extremely unlikely that such a rule change will be introduced in our domestic competition."
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Interesting, though I would prefer it to stipulate players in the team, rather than the squad. It's easy to get some lighties together and have them in your squad, but making them actual team players is something rather different.
 
Yeah it's difficult to say how home grown players will affect the playing field but it does prevent teams from splashing out cash to buy the best players in the world.

Hmmm...rumours about United interested in Eto'o for 27mil pounds. Would be a great player for United but I guess these rumours hardly ever come true. Chelsea and Liverpool would prob be in it for him as well and inflate his worth.
 
derekc said:
Yeah it's difficult to say how home grown players will affect the playing field but it does prevent teams from splashing out cash to buy the best players in the world.

Hmmm...rumours about United interested in Eto'o for 27mil pounds. Would be a great player for United but I guess these rumours hardly ever come true. Chelsea and Liverpool would prob be in it for him as well and inflate his worth.
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If our whole squad were fit, we wouldn't need very many more players to be really great next season. I mean, how close did we come to the treble this season with half a squad!?
 
Still there are weaknesses that were very evident during the season. We need a central and left midfielder to be long term replacement for Scholes and Giggs respectively. With SAF not being very happy with Saha and Park in crutches till August, we will need another striker unless Dong can do something.
 
derekc said:
Still there are weaknesses that were very evident during the season. We need a central and left midfielder to be long term replacement for Scholes and Giggs respectively. With SAF not being very happy with Saha and Park in crutches till August, we will need another striker unless Dong can do something.
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Indeed. Replacement for Scholes and Giggs crucial. I quite like the look of Dong. Want to see more of him next season for sure.
 
Another interesting proposal:

Every year it is suggested (sometimes by me) that England's fourth Champions League spot should go to the FA Cup winners. Yes, the big four have dominated that competition, but they have been aided by clubs lower down the Premiership fielding weakened teams. The prize at stake - glory and a UEFA Cup spot - is not considered important enough in these money-obsessed times until sides have reached the last eight or even the semi-finals.

I love the Cup in particular and knock-out football in general, so would welcome such a move to reivingorate the world's oldest tournament. There is another competition that could do with livening up, however: the Premiership. Copy an idea from Holland and some of the kinks could be ironed out of England's top flight, too. And this idea has more chance of being adopted than giving a place in Europe's elite to the Cup winners.

Holland gets two Champions League places. The title winners enter the group stage, but the teams finishing second to fifth in the table play off for a place in the third qualifying round. Twente play Alkmaar and Heerenveen play Ajax in the first legs of the semi-finals on Wednesday.

England has four places in the Champions League. The top two enter the group stage and third place gets a third-qualfying-round berth, as does fourth. It would be nice if the last place went to the FA Cup - but imagine instead that it was the subject of a play-off disputed between the teams finishing from fourth to seventh.

For a start, there would be a difference between third and fourth, where currently there is none. Rafa Benitez has done nothing wrong by fielding weakened teams and some complaining have done the same in inverted circumstances. Neil Warnock rested players at Old Trafford - would a full-strength Sheffield United have fared better and aided Chelsea's title challenge?

However, if fourth place meant only a play-off then Liverpool would have been at full strength against Portsmouth and Fulham to hold off the challenge of Arsenal.

How much fiercer, too, would be the contest for seventh. Reading are up there almost by default, thanks to Steve Coppell's attitude to the UEFA Cup. But there would be none of that ambivalence if Reading were in with a chance of a Champions League play-off.

The big four come ever closer to establishing an uncontestable supremacy. Everton broke into the top four when Liverpool's Spanish contingent were learning the ropes. Spurs came close last year when Arsenal lost their way. But this season a gap has opened up despite some indifferent displays from Arsenal and Liverpool's poor start, and the biggest serious challenge to the top four's monopoly on the Champions League is now large-scale outside investment.

If, however, each year one of the quartet had to face a play-off, then anything could happen.

Such a prospect would damage the FA Cup further, it's true, giving challengers for the top seven another excuse to downgrade the FA Cup. But given the general determination to downplay that competition's importance, the change would not be that noticeable.

The Premiership would be on a similar footing to the lower divisions, with the play-offs helping to maintain interest well down the table and right until the end of the season.

Liverpool, as they did in 2005, would be complicating matters this season if they were to slip to fourth on Sunday. The holders of the European Cup now defend their title at the expense of the last-placed qualifiers from another country, entering the group stage as of right. In 2005 UEFA rightly rewrote the rules. Now, with Liverpool in the final, if they slipped to fourth in the end-of-season Premiership standings, then the play-offs could not begin until after 23 May and their meeting with Milan in Athens.

But if Liverpool did win the competition and finish fourth, then Arsenal would go in the play-offs, to be held in late July and early August. Yes, that would be an inconvenience, but worth the prize at stake rather more than the Intertoto and UEFA Cup qualifying.

It would also be awkward if a top-seven team were in the FA Cup final. But in most seasons the play-offs could be accommodated easily enough. The League Two final would move to Friday night, League One to Saturday and the Championship to Sunday, leaving Bank Holiday Monday for the Premiership play-off final at a packed Wembley.

To enact this change would require the votes of two-thirds of the Premiership clubs, that is 14. A high threshold, but as the change would give anyone with dreams, hopes or expectations of seventh a shot, such a move would not be out of the question. Indeed, you would need three clubs to vote against their own interests for this to happen.

If one or more of the big four slip up, then this system could allow them a chance to get back into the Champions League. But more likely is that in a knock-out context, a poorer club would make the extra effort.

I would rather see the FA Cup bolstered, to restore the balance between leagye and knock-out football. But the resistance to that idea may be too strong - you would have to change the Champions League rules - unless Michel Platini backs it in his new role as UEFA president. The Premier League could introduce play-offs next season if they voted for them now.
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I like the idea. Play-off for the last Champions league spot.
 
derekc said:
Yeah it's difficult to say how home grown players will affect the playing field but it does prevent teams from splashing out cash to buy the best players in the world.

Hmmm...rumours about United interested in Eto'o for 27mil pounds. Would be a great player for United but I guess these rumours hardly ever come true. Chelsea and Liverpool would prob be in it for him as well and inflate his worth.
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Nobody gets Eto'o...nobody! :mad:
 
Well it seems like he's quite unsettled there. Barca will make a killing off a player that doesn't really want to be there anymore.
 
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