Who are ya? (The new football thread)

Pretty grim year's on order for the mighty Red Devils. And for Hibs for that matter.

FA could strip captaincy from Terry

Quote:

David Bernstein, the Football Association chairman, is facing increasing pressure from inside the organisation to remove the England captaincy from John Terry after a day of high-level talks behind the scenes to ascertain whether he should overrule the manager, Fabio Capello.

Bernstein contacted every member of the 12-strong FA board to ask for their individual views on the day that Rio Ferdinand described himself as "insulted" with a "bad taste in my mouth" and Emmanuel Frimpong, Arsenal's 20-year-old Ghanaian, became the first footballer to say the FA's handling of the case would put him off reporting racist abuse.

Ferdinand and Frimpong both used their Twitter accounts to express their anger on the day Bernstein established that at least one FA member wants Terry to lose the captaincy and that the decision should be taken immediately rather than putting it off until the next board meeting on 23 February.

One issue raised to Bernstein is that it would be difficult for the FA to take the moral high ground if any of England players are racially abused by the crowds at the European Championship in June. Other board members believe the FA is in a no-win situation and that, if it removes the captaincy from Terry, it will be accused of prejudging the case and ignoring the principle of innocent until proved guilty.

Good riddance to bad rubbish, says I.

bekayne, that was awesome. Anfield Cat=legend (and a better instinct in the 6-yard box than Andy Carroll. Snap!)

Fabio Capello resigns over John Terry affair; 'Arry Redknapp favourite to replace

Quote:

Harry Redknapp is the overwhelming favourite to replace Fabio Capelloas England's next manager after the Italian resigned because of the breakdown in his relationship with the Football Association over the John Terry affair.

On an extraordinary day for the two managers, Redknapp was acquitted of tax evasion and Capello informed the FA chairman, David Bernstein, he could not continue in the role now that his employer had gone above him to demote Terry as England captain against his wishes.

Capello was not involved in the consultation process and, after publicly criticising the decision in an interview with Italian television on Sunday, he told Bernstein that he felt the relationship was beyond repair.

His resignation was accepted only hours after Redknapp had been cleared of taking bungs at the end of a two-and-a-half‑week trial at Southwark crown court. The Tottenham Hotspur manager, who said he had been living through a "nightmare", will be the clear choice to take over from Capello and try to reunite a squad that has been badly divided by the Terry case.

Ha ha ha ha

Poor Mick. He's a good coach. I don't know what makes Wolves think they'll find a better one -- it always seems to be the way with managers. One of Wolves's rivals will just pick up McCarthy in a few months and he'll have a crack at revenge. Not far off from Ancelotti--it cost Chelsea some 38-million pounds to fire him (a year after he won the domestic double!)--only to hire the new phenom who has them scrambling out of a Euro league position.

Menawhile, Suarez, who never denied using a racial slur against ManUtd's Patrice Evra--just that in Uruguay you can use racist language and it's not offensive--decided not to shake Evra's hand in their Saturday's match. "He could have started a riot," said Sir Alex Ferguson. "He should never play for Liverpool again." It sure was dumb--almost as dumb as Kenny Daglish's strained defence of the classless move after the match.

Oh, and apparently Carlos Teves and Man City's coach Roberto Mancini are set to make peace. Well that's nice.

Heart of Midlothian beat Celtic 2-1 on a dubious, late penalty in the other Scottish Cup semi-final. It's a capital affair for the final. A Cabbage and Jam Tart Derby.

Come on you Hibs!

It was only a matter of time before that team managed to sneak at least one league title away from Barcelona. Mourinho has a good record, but I wouldn't count this as one of his greatest challenges. Especially if, as I expect, Bayern Munich progress to the CL final over Franco's team.

Jonathan Wilson asked yesterday if any of Pep Guardiola's signings actually improved Barcelona. Certainly his tactics did, but if you have a team that perfect, how can you introduce another player into it?

Manchester City FC are champions of England. When they gave Sir Alex Ferguson the worst bollocking of his career, beating Manchester United at Old Trafford 6-1 in October (United's first loss of the season), it looked like they would waltz to their first top league title since 1968. But their early season form started to flag while Sir Alex's Red Devils (who had called Paul Scholes out of retirement) calmly, like champions, racked up a series of wins from January to March. City's league lead, which had seemed unattainable, gradually bled away until United led by a seemingly unsurmountable 8 point lead with six games to play.

Even with the second Manchester Derby coming up, United had a much easier schedule and it didn't seem possible for United to relinquish their advantage, not after their relentless, merciless play since January. Cue their collapse: a loss to relegation-threatened Wigan, giving up a 4-2 lead to Everton to draw 4-4. Then the second Derby, when a buoyant City won 1-0, handing the advantage back to City with goal advantage.

And then the most ridiculous final day in living memory. For United to win the league, with goal difference out of reach, they need to better City's result. Both City and United score early, which seemed to settle the result. But City's opponent, QPR, themselves fighting relegation, equalized, incredibly. When QPR captain Joey Barton (who has done jail time for assault) was red carded for elbowing Carlos Tevez, it seemed inevitable that City would score again. But, again incredibly, it was QPR who scored again. United saw out their 1-0 lead, and seemd poised to take the title one more time.

Cue more unbelievable scenes: Eddie Dzeko heads in from a corner at 91 mins, and City player of the season, Sergio Agüero, at the death, took a touch from Mario Balotelli, danced around a QPR sliding tackle and slotted it into the corner. Pandemonium. Pitch invasion. The title, finally. Vincent Kompany, Man City captain: "Please, please. Never again like this."

I bet Liam and Noel Gallagher are pleased as punch right now.

Caissa wrote:

Any day Man U finishes second is a good day. Too bad my Reds had an indifferent League season.

While I may be biased (although I wasn't too broke up about the title, to be honest) and I really like Vincent Kompany and Sergio Agüero, I think any day a team wins the title simply because they bought every good player available and more (they were paying Wayne Bridge £100 000 a week to sit on Sunderland's bench) is a bad day for football. Even if it was the most exciting final day in ages, maybe ever.

Rebecca West wrote:

What's with the extreme faking?  I've seen this a lot in pro sports, but when it comes to football, it's Academy Award performances.  Please, someone explain this to me.

Yeah, obviously this diving stigma is something that gets attached to football whenever it's discussed in North American contexts. My first answer would be that I just don't think it's as wide-spread as many would-be commentators say it is. They hear the reputation, see a dive, and that confirms their prejudice. As a point of comparison, I'd hate to think what first-time hockey spectators would think if they watched Mike Ribeiro or Maxime LaPierre play.

Second, we tend to apply moral value to the culture of the sports we like. For example, most soccer players would be aghast at the "finishing your check" ethos of hockey, which looks to them as an excuse for slower players to hurt more skilled players on purpose. Every single one of those checks would be rewarded with a yellow card on a football pitch. Going down when you're fouled in soccer, even easily, is just part of the game. It doesn't have a moral connotation. This is especially true in footballing cultures like Spain or Brazil which prize skill more than brute force. If you've fouled someone, it means you're too slow. I find it interesting that Don Cherry (the high priest of the Canadian good ol' boys hockey religion) always accuses 'Europeans" of cheating and diving, who also tend to prize skating and hand skills over the rough stuff.

Third, getting tackled hurts. Aside from shin pads, there's no equipment and central defenders are hard men. Getting spiked on your achilles, having someone tackle through the ball while you're running full tilt, or knocking heads is painful, and walking it off is the only way to recover.

There are other strategic things too that may not be considered strictly sportsmanlike, but occur in every sport--time wasting, getting your breath back, irritating your opponent, whatever. It's not the brightest part of the game, but I don't think it warrants the ire usually afforded it by North American sports fans. For example, the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, probably gets kicked in the ankles more than any other player and you can't get him to go down with anything less than a tire iron to the kneecaps.

The worst man in football, John Terry, has been selected for England's Euro 2012 squad, despite facing a hearing next month for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand (see above). Anton's brother, Rio Ferdinand, who used to partner Terry in defence, was not selected--for "footballing reasons" according to the new England manager, Roy Hodgson. But of course everyone is speculating that Hodgson couldn't have selected both, since they have an irreperable relationship after Terry abused Rio's brother (and hasn't apologized or even admitted it). He could have (and should have) not selected either of them.

This coming off the fact that Terry almost jeopardized Chelsea's Champions League hopes by stomping on a Barcelona player, unprovoked. He was red carded and will miss the final (see also above). Terry also cheated on his wife with the long-term partner of former Chelsea teammate, Wayne Bridge, and then allegedly mocked him for being a cuckold. All-round class act, that Terry.

John Terry is a disgrace to football and it's a disgrace to pick him for England's squad.

Dirty, cheating jambos.