Is it wrong for me to hate Shaun Wright-Phillips now?

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1531108,00.html

But you are allowed to be irrational, yes.

http://www.wanchope.net/

He spent a chunk of last season laid out so whether he plays more or less games this season I don't think it will affect England too much re World Cup preparations either, even if he does succumb to a lengthy injury again (unless it's in May obv.).

He still hasn't signed a new contract. United paid a record transfer fee for him. His time at Old Trafford has seen United fall from being the best team in the country to arguably the third best. He missed a drug test either through stupidity or because he had been taking coke recreationally. He earnt £2.3million while serving a massive ban for missing the test. The club stood by him throughout, and refused to criticize him. He is holding out for a massive wage increase to £120,000 a week. He's constantly being picked up by the tabloids for 'unsavoury behaviour'. He made a point of meeting Chelsea exec Peter Kenyon with his agent in a busy London restaurant.

hahahaha...is this your impersonation of Stevie Gerrard a year from now?

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

i'll start a thread in a minute :)

Because those are different teams with no connection to Man Utd. That's a bit like saying why didn't the AFC Wimbledon fans just go and support Crystal Palace.

And if the Premiership is mostly dour, what of the lower leagues?

i do appreciate the quality of a game in terms of mistakes. insofar as a i find it frustrating if palace are mishitting passes etc.

but the quality of a game to me, is if palace are feeling confident, and put some moves toghether and score some goals. unsurprisingly, this happens more often when they play weaker opposition. so ideally i would look for a low play off finish, maybe get to the final of the play offs.

ps i never really watch matches on TV, if i do see football its at the ground, this might make a difference. TV seems to be a more analytical, rational process, assessing the game on its objective merits eg quality.

(NN also, allegedly, only in bury to see which assets he can strip from the club anyway)

the thing about FCUM is, i think, to do with the SOCIALIST CO-OPERATIVE side of the set-up, 1 member, 1 vote type thing, at least to hear certain ILXors talk about it.

Neville, Neville - they ain't half bad
Neville Neville - it's the name of their Dad

but they seemed to have a whole song worth of stuff. Then they started on a rather poor Beckham song to the tune of 'Days' by The Kinks which went something like:

Thank you for the Daaaaaave
That cockney lad, he ain't half bad, believe me

As I'm sure you can imagine, I have difficulty with this kind of attitude. Once you're a fan of a team, that's it, you're stuck with them. It's not possible to just switch allegiance (although I became interested in Coventry City and Bologna when I was at university in the respective cities, which is fine), and indeed most of the teams you could switch to are your "hated" local rivals. Ailsa, you're basically saying that should Celtic disappear you'd be happy to support Rangers.

Fandom transcends wanting 11 men to beat a different 11 men - the atmosphere, community and intangible Wimbledon-ness (insert your team as applicable) becomes the key.

So when, say, the 11 men in question are stolen and relocated - but the spirit and community remains - what could be more natural than channelling the love and enthusiasm for the entity that was Wimbledon FC into a new venture, supported by the same fans, with the same emotional commitment, in the same way?

Maybe it's like being dumped by your SO and building a robot girlfriend out of a mannequin and a speak and spell, and loving that instead, but I don't think so.

It's the vibe - the second division vibe, the Stretford End vibe. The standing up and moving around vibe, the 'make your own fun' as opposed to watch the super duper entertainment we've laid on. The 'paying not much cash to watch matches vibe'.

They could have course and gone and supported Glossop North End, but if more than 200 would have done that, soon it wouldn't be GNE but would be 'FC UNited' so they did the decent thing and started their own.

I also recall them playing Halifax Town in the League Cup in 1990 and it was bloody empty.

In the space of a week or two in about April/May 1992:

I decided that my heroes (Ride) had sold out with stuff like Twisterella so I had my long indie hair cut off. Then I stayed up until the early hours in utter misery as the Tories won yet another election, despite the persuasive powers of Kinnock's "Yer alright!" rallying cry. The next day I went to see a half-empty Boo Radleys & Pale Saints gig, where the bands looked they were about to split up, and I thought 'this is the end of the music I love'. After the gig we discovered that IRA had blown up the city so we had to get a tube to Epping and then a very expensive taxi into Essex, where I spent the weekend cycling in the pouring rain to a youth hostel which was partially closed so they stuck us in a freezing outhouse with some kids with, er, difficulties. But I knew United wouldn't let me down: two points behind Leeds but with two games in hand. Then we lost at home to Forest on the Monday. Then we lost away to (already relegated) West Ham on the Wednesday. And then we conceded the title by losing 2-0 at Anfield.

I went through a bit of a negative state of mind after that and told myself that it was impossible for Labour or Man Utd to ever win and life would be easier if I just stopped hoping.

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,10260,1671734,00.html

The real mystery with SWP is how does someone so short fall over so often?

Blimey, I missed this! No and no!

If she had been from New Brighton we'd probably still be together, living in one of the funny-shaped houses on Mockbeggar Drive with our three daughters LaTchford, Dixie and Johnebbrell.

Our work got a Christmas card from your work, which I thought was funny, seeing as we are bitter rivals. I couldn't see your signature, unless it is just a random squiggle.

the whole scott parker thing is quite misleading. he was being groomed to play regularly but got injured - which ruled him out for around 8 months. when he recovered, he could have stayed to fight it out cos the third midfield spot was totally up for grabs, but didn't so we signed michael 'the stud' essien instead. them's the breaks.

the only player to really feel sorry for is Bridge, who Mourinho doesn't like, possibly cos old wayney likes a drink or two apparently.

blatter's an arse. he never seems to moan about Real or Milan having more than 11 good players, does he?

It would either have been that (I had to sign about 80 in one go) or something stupid like "Bollo" or "Ringo", which seemed like a good idea at the time.

There's no reason why SWP can't follow Cole's example - impress in training enough for Mourinho to gamble on, get lucky/play well and/or grab goals, consistency will then mean regular action.

21 appearances (albeit mainly from the bench) in half a season isn't bad considering the competition. He made 37 appearances for City last season.

Since the Charity Shield:

SWP: 21 Chelsea appearances
Joe Cole: 20
Damien Duff: 19
Arjen Robben: 18

True enough, if he'd joined any other club in the country he would prob. be playing more games, but in the long term - and if he's good enough - he's at the best club for a hungry young winger. i mean, would he really want to be Arse next year when they've sold Henry and are playing FC Boltonski in the UEFA Cup?

If it was a choice between that or playing for Chelsea in the Champions League, then I would imagine he would choose the latter. But if it's a choice between that and watching Chelsea play in the Champions League, then I would have hoped the former, unless he wants to become Chelsea's David May.

No idea about minutes played.

Lampard 1530
Essien 1335
Makelele 1092
Duff 913
Cole 913
Robben 631
SWP 557

557 minutes is the equivalent of 6.2 games. He has never played a full 90 minutes.

He's also made appearances in 5 champs league games.

The real policy that'll benefit here is the UEFA home-grown rule which will stop hoovering of talent like Chelsea are doing. Abramovich is slowly making a case for tighter regulation, seeing how all the big boys are now no longer big boys; maybe some good will come of it after all.

If he's got it wrong, he's wasted 18 months of his career (albeit a very educational 18 months); if he gets it right, he'll be first choice at the best club in the country. Is it worth the gamble?

He's not going to lose his World Cup place, whatever happens. SWP seems to have that second choice right-midfield place nailed on.

Players join clubs like Chelsea because of the vanity. If you have the press, the fans and your agent telling you how brilliant you are, of course you're going to believe it. Look at Parker. Look at Gravesen. Big fish in a small pond, carrying the team, of course they thought they could break into the Chelsea/Real side, what with the amount of money that was being thrown around for them. It's the same reason players agree to move up a division.

Parker is a weird one - I'm not sure Mourinho was ever really convinced by him and he started below Tiago in the pecking order when Jose arrived. Considering he joined Chelsea specifically to play for a top club and boost his England prospects* he kind of fucked it really. Not that he's been in Sven's plans since joining Newcastle (to my eternal dismay!)

(*Okay, and the money)

You are dismayed at the fact that he hasn't features in Sven's plans? or that he joined Newcastle instead of Spurs?

ha ha. translation: ARJEN PLEASE JOIN SPURS, LOVE MATT DC

cole's pretty much a first choice now though, certainly the team's most impressive performer this season. i'm still not sure if swp can be improved that easily; cole was never really a random winger, so example-wise he has to be looking to supplant robben, who himself (as ppl have already noted) is barely tolerated for his excesses right now.

-- Matt DC (runmd...), December 21st, 2005 5:21 PM