European Soccer Part XIII

[Bob Gray]

Originally posted by Rhett
While I too have read articles comparing Man City to Leeds, I have also seen articles that claim Man City will be the next Chelski. :)
Any team could be another Chelski if a Russian billionaire happens to come along, but there's been no serious public interest in Man City by any Russian billionaire, whereas Man City's debts are very real and certain. Last night on FSW Bobby McMahon said if Man City were relegated that it would be calamatous.

[Nathan]

Speaking of Chelski, they lost 3-1 to Monaco today.

ManU beats Charlton 2-0 with goals coming from Gary Neville (2 in 2 weeks) and Louis Saha.
Timmy comes back in with the clean sheet. Nice performance all around.

[Bob Gray]

Chelski sure have their work cut out for them. Gotta give credit to Monaco, who keep getting written off, but keep getting the results.

[Nathan]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
Chelski sure have their work cut out for them. Gotta give credit to Monaco, who keep getting written off, but keep getting the results. And, I think Monaco did it with 10 men in the second half.

[Jimjamesak]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
Chelski sure have their work cut out for them. Gotta give credit to Monaco, who keep getting written off, but keep getting the results.
I'm gonna go out on a limb right now but I think Monaco will win the Champions League simply based on the way they have been playing.

[Rhett]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
Any team could be another Chelski if a Russian billionaire happens to come along, but there's been no serious public interest in Man City by any Russian billionaire

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=296901&cc=5901


Are you sure?

[Bob Gray]

Originally posted by Rhett
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=296901&cc=5901

Are you sure?
Every week or two there's a rumor about a Russian buying one England team or another. There have been rumors about this regarding probably half the Premiership teams within the last year, but I wouldn't put much stock in this unless it becomes more concrete. The article basically says Man City wants investment and there's a Russian with a pile of money who could be interested. To me that's not big or new news.

On the Monaco-Chelski match yesterday, Makalele's dive is one of the worst I've ever seen. The referee must have been at the other end of the pitch or something to not see how bad the dive was. I mean the Monaco guy grazes Makalele's head (at nearly the same time Makalele returns the favor), then Makalele takes a couple steps and the falls down. I don't know which is worse, that the ref fell for it or that Makalele did it. And then Desailley stands there clapping. I've never been a Desailley fan and this does nothing to change that. For a supposed veteran, Desailley sure is flakey. Hopefully Makalele will get reviewed on this, if there's a mechanism for such things.

[MavrckMngr]

Rhett, if you haven't already done so, you should subscribe to the MCIVTA newsletter. It usually gets posted a few days after every match (they also had question-and-answer sessions with Sweep and Wardle for their 1000th edition a few weeks back), and the editors do a great job of making sure babbling idiots don't rule the roost. Great match views on all first team and reserve fixtures, and most of the fan opinions are well-informed and interesting to read.

I can see Monaco winning CL if they play like they did the last 25 minutes yesterday, but I wouldn't mind seeing Chelski win just for the sake of an English side winning Europe, that and you know it would **** Roman off to no end...no salt mine for Claudio. But, if they do indeed fall out to Monaco, I'd chip in myself if we could get Ranieri to come to City. I'm secretly rooting for Deportivo, but if Chelski or Monaco win, it's all good to me.

p.s.: If you ran AS Monaco, would you find it unsettling that the Chelsea fans were making more noise than the home crowd?

[3W]

In the case of Villa, the "billionaire on a white horse" was actually a Venezuelan. On that note, talk about a team that got their crap in order. It's been impressive to see them this year. With a few results, they could make Champions' League qualifying, which is a huge success after nearly getting themselves relegated last season.

[Don King]

From Football365:

"How naive were the alleged terrorists in thinking that six people actually living in Manchester and having tickets to Old Trafford would not raise suspicion?"

Sorry. I know this is serious, but I still laughed like hell.

[BW0683]

Originally posted by Bob Gray
On the Monaco-Chelski match yesterday, Makalele's dive is one of the worst I've ever seen. The referee must have been at the other end of the pitch or something to not see how bad the dive was. I mean the Monaco guy grazes Makalele's head (at nearly the same time Makalele returns the favor), then Makalele takes a couple steps and the falls down. I don't know which is worse, that the ref fell for it or that Makalele did it. And then Desailley stands there clapping. I've never been a Desailley fan and this does nothing to change that. For a supposed veteran, Desailley sure is flakey. Hopefully Makalele will get reviewed on this, if there's a mechanism for such things.

Agreed on the Makalele dive, the deserved yellow has him suspended for the second leg. UEFA is reviewing the Desailly elbow and I expect him to get a 2 match ban, leaving him out for the home leg also.

Horrid performance, but there is still some hope for the 2nd leg - not going to give up just yet.

[FerrisLives]

The Premiership got its first new team today. With a Sunderland defeat to Crystal Palace, the Canaries of Norwich City clinched promotion. It would be cool if Ipswich joined them via the playoffs, as I think the East Anglia derby is cool and would love to see it in the EPL.

[3W]

Congrats to Norwich City. Best of luck to the Canaries in the EPL!

[Jon]

BTW, Celtic finally lost a home game: 2-1 to Aberdeen. Actually, considering that the Bhoy's only other loss this year was to Hibernian in a Cup game, this is their first league loss as well... Oh well, back to the drawing board...

[DBenz]

That's excellent news! Having lived in Norwich for a year and supported the team through their playoff run of 2002, I'm definitely excited at the prospect of seeing them in the top flight next year. Most football fans seem to think that they are one of the weakest teams to go up in recent memory. Hopefully they'll be able to prove the nay-sayers wrong and stay up at the end of next season. Either way, I'll have fun watching.

[Rhett]

Originally posted by MavrckMngr
Rhett, if you haven't already done so, you should subscribe to the MCIVTA newsletter. It usually gets posted a few days after every match (they also had question-and-answer sessions with Sweep and Wardle for their 1000th edition a few weeks back), and the editors do a great job of making sure babbling idiots don't rule the roost. Great match views on all first team and reserve fixtures, and most of the fan opinions are well-informed and interesting to read.

Where do you sign up?

[FerrisLives]

Originally posted by DBenz
That's excellent news! Having lived in Norwich for a year and supported the team through their playoff run of 2002, I'm definitely excited at the prospect of seeing them in the top flight next year. Most football fans seem to think that they are one of the weakest teams to go up in recent memory. Hopefully they'll be able to prove the nay-sayers wrong and stay up at the end of next season. Either way, I'll have fun watching.

Norwich will be one of the most fiscally conservative clubs in the Premiership in a while. West Brom was also quite cautious last year. A lot of teams have learned their lessons from Bradford, Coventry, Derby County who all came close to financial catastrophy after spending a fortune in the Premiership and getting relegated a few years later.

[DBenz]

I think you're right about Norwich being cautious. However, if they don't spend, they'll probably be going right back down next year. Green and Drury are premiership quality players. Huckerby may be able to continue some of his recent success too. None of the other players really stand out as top league material though. If they spend cautiously and go right back down, that just puts them right in West Brom's shoes, no better than they are now. What's the formula for successful transition into the Premiership without a really rich supporter like Birmingham has? Maybe Delia can step up her contribution a bit:)

[Bob Gray]

Interesting day today, as both UEFA Cup semifinal first leg matches ended in 0-0 draws! Not something you see every day.

Making the transition to the EPL and staying there after promotion seems to be getting tougher every year. You either splash the cash and hope you don't get ruined financially if you get relegated anyway, or you don't splash the cash and then probably end up having a real good chance of going back down since you're Nationwide squad isn't likely to be real competitive in the EPL absent some bolstering.

[jmh]

Wow, surprised I didn't hear about this until just now. Not exactly EUROPEAN soccer, but I imagine folks will be interested to hear...

Maradona taken off respirator (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=298072&cc=5901)

The Hand of God apparently has some severe heart and lung problems. :(