English Football

[Guest frowned]

yeah - it'd be good to emulate the likes of Birmingham and Charlton. I'm personally looking forward to playing Birmingham after the play-off match, there's an ultra-friendly rappor between the two sets of supporters as a result of it. It's just particularly hard to predict coming seasons really, nobody knows what to expect over the Summer, last season we were expecting Leeds to be competing for the Premiership Title and look what happened... a season or two ago Ipswich qualified for Europe and were expected to top-8 it at least. How many seasons has it been now whereby everyone's predicted sad sad endings for Charlton?

 

So in all actuality we don't know what to expect, although as I said earlier the safER bet would be bottom 6.

[TheFranchise 0]

A lot of people (and not just derby fans) are predicting the playoffs for us next season.

 

If we stay up, i think we can do it. Then again, if we go down, we'll make the playoffs next season.

[deancoles 0]

Just heard about Bolton trying to sign Rivaldo, how the hell are they oing to pay his wages? even though he'll take a paycut he'll still be by far the highest earner at the club.

[Anorak 0]

Heres the million dollar question, can you survive, given that Delia Smith has akready said you wont be spending much money which is death in the premiership, its not 1995 anymore, the standard of football from top to bottom is exceptionally hard, just ask wolves

tis a fair point and I don't honestly expect to see us outside the bottom 6-8 all season. On the positive side we do have an absolutely ace manager - the best we've had since Martin O'Neill by far, he's a decent tactician, knows his players and guarantees that any money spent will be done so hella-sensibly, and there really is some genuine class in the team - it doesn't run through out, but it's there regardless - Green and Huckerby jump out from a mile and that's without mentioning the latest products of the youth system and a pretty solid midfield.

 

But as supporters we are by no means kidding ourselves, we may be probably the strongest team in Division 1 (and I don't mean to be blindly bragging - we've shown ourselves to be consistant all season) but we will obviously struggle in the Premiership. But we're enjoying ourselves at the moment, we have a four game race for the championship, a big premiership payday ahoy and plenty of promise on the horizon - it's just not going to be an easy ride.

From what i've seen this season you're a better footballing team than West Brom and that definately gives you the edge over them as far as survival goes, its given Portsmouth a slight edge that may see them survive instead of Leicester this season because crucially they have been creative enough to break teams down at Fratton Park to get those essential home points. Despite Redknapp always pleading poverty they did have the resources to bring in more useful new faces than Leicester (Ferdinand & Thatcher were the only decent ones we got) so you'll have to overcome that. You'll probably find out next season whether or not Worthington is an exceptional manager or merely a good one.

[Vanhalen 0]

Sory, it wasnt a knock on Norwich or anything like that, its just that inevitably every year, we see these bright eyed bushy tailed football clubs win promotion and they always severly underestimate just what a step up in class the premiership is, I know that sounds arrogant, but it just comes from experience, you have Man City who have players like Robbie Fowler and Anelka, Leeds who have one of the finest young strikers in the league, and they are struggling to stay up.

[TheFranchise 0]

But Man City are managed by Kevin Keegan, who once threw away a FIFTEEN point lead in the premiership.

[deancoles 0]

Any opinions on the Premiership "Crawl for 4th place"? I think Newcastle will get it because when I look at the fixtures and see something like Newcastle vs. Charlton I'll automatically say that it's an easy home win, yet if you say Liverpool vs. Charlton there's always that nagging feeling that it'll finish a draw.To sum it up, Newcastle are far better at home than Liverpool and that will be vital because neither have a good away record(same thing with us).

[Vanhalen 0]

Liverpool can be so dire at times, I mean we did the double over them pretty easily this season, thats why I'm backing Newcastle.

[TheFranchise 0]

The thing is, Liverpool really IS a sleeping giant, if they had the fire underneath them lit, they could take the league.

 

Except, Houllier isn't the one to light a fire.

[The Decemberists 0]

Safe at last! Altough I stopped being actually worried it's nice to know we've finally gone and done it. Well, I say safe. 6 points off the team in the last spot and we've got a 20+ goal difference to them.

 

Going up next year.

 

You Reds!

 

Oh! And TWO for Johnno! Woooooooo!

[TheFranchise 0]

Whoo.

 

Barondeath and myself aren't going to be happy today.

 

But if Walsall lose at Palace next week (VERY possible) we go into the home game with Millwall knowing a win WILL keep us up.

[deancoles 0]

0-0 at home to brighton was a very dissapointing result, if we had won we'd have been a point ahead of QPR with 2 games left.Looks like another trip to Cardiff if we're to get promoted.

 

I'm glad the Liverpool/United game wasn't live on TV, the highlights were bad enough.

[TheFranchise 0]

Arsenal are officially 2003-2004 Premiership champions.

[Anorak 0]

Going up next year.

I bet you said that last year.

 

We'll have to see which teams lose key players in the summer, it could be a very different Leeds or Leicester side playing in Div 1 next season, i also heard that Wolves have 11 players out of contract soon as well because of the necessity of being cautious financially if you've just gone up & having a safety net. Will Forest hold on to Johnson, Dawson, Reid etc?

[The Decemberists 0]

Johnson is definatly, definatly, definatly, staying - signed a new contract in the summer, wife own's a shop in Nottingham and we don't *need* to sell anyone this summer like we have done before.

 

The only ones who's going in the summer is Reid and probably Williams, and I really don't think they're as big a loss as Awesome Dawson or Johnson would be. Bopp is likely to go because, frankly, he's a big girl and you can't be in the first division. Rogers is almost 100% staying on after the summer, which I think is great, as is Impy, which isn't really great, but usfull. Hopefully we can get Gerrard as well as he's been different class in goal since he signed. Plus Kinnear will definatly have money to spend, otherwise he wouldn't have signed his new contract.

 

 

 

 

And yes, I've said we'd be going up every year since 1999... the law of averages states that if I keep saying it every single summer *eventually* I'll be right.

[Vanhalen 0]

Jeses, we just lost our chance at Europe in one fell swoop, still five wins out of seven games is pretty impressive for Sturrock, hopefully we can win one or two more and go out of the season on a high note, then prepare for the season where we have to deliver next season.

[deancoles 0]

Here's the Premiership team of the season.I can't argue with that team although Given and Shearer could be in place of the 2 Man united players.

 

Tim Howard (Manchester United), Lauren (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Patrick Vieira (Arsenal), Robert Pires (Arsenal), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United).

 

If I was Norwich or West Brom I'd get some creative players for the premiership, Julio Arca would cost about 2 Million(if Sunderland don't go up) due to Sunderland's Financial problem and he can play Left Back if needed.

 

BTW does anyone on here play Championship manager?

[Anorak 0]

BTW does anyone on here play Championship manager?

Play it? I've lost a large chunk of the past last 5-6 years of my life to it, i played a ridiculous amount of years on the 97/98 version. I'd be here all day talking about that game but i'm scared i'd bore you all very quickly if you haven't spent a stupidly large amount of time playing it yourself.

[Vanhalen 0]

Personally I think you should put Niemi instead of Howard

[TheFranchise 0]

BTW does anyone on here play Championship manager?

Play it? I've lost a large chunk of the past last 5-6 years of my life to it, i played a ridiculous amount of years on the 97/98 version. I'd be here all day talking about that game but i'm scared i'd bore you all very quickly if you haven't spent a stupidly large amount of time playing it yourself.

Many a day instead of college i would play CM for 10 or 11 hours a day.

 

Yeah.

[The Decemberists 0]

Re Champ Man -

 

Was fired by the Forest board in 2024 after 21 years in charge for demanding money to improve the squad - 2nd in the Premiership wasn't good enough for the fickle Forest faithfull who were having a go at me for our "poor" league postiton. After my sacking the fans protested outside the ground though, which was nice.

 

Still, after 7 European Cups, including a run of 6 in a row, I felt my postion was safe enough for it to be worth issuing an ulimatium.

 

Brighton, bottom of the Premiership took me on and gave me the money to bring in the player I wanted for Forest, and he scored 15 in 17 games and kept us up.

 

I've also won the world cup with england, 12 years after quitting the national job for losing to Argentina in the final 1-0 - the only goal conceeded under my managment. Also won the European Nations Cup with Italy and the World Cup with France.

 

Cherno Samba is God, and Jaime Donnolly is Jesus. Adam Green is Moses.

 

And Alexis Kubliskis is a absolute legend.

[TheFranchise 0]

You know who's a great player on CM?

 

Tonton Zola Moukoko

 

Derby signed him as a 16 year old, beat off Juve, Milan, Barca and Arsenal (this is actually true) to land him, he was released the season that he appeared on CM, he was homesick in real life, but if you played him in every game, as an 20 year old he was sold for about £24m.

 

And this was when big money was about 14m for Ronaldo.

[TheFranchise 0]

Ooh, someone changed the thread name.

 

Good show.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Tim Howard (Manchester United), Lauren (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Patrick Vieira (Arsenal), Robert Pires (Arsenal), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United)

 

Well, I'm a big fan of Van Nistelrooy's...but I don't think he should be on in Shearer's place, especially after the goal he scored against Chelsea on Sunday. And Howard's only played half United's games this season, now Carroll's pushed his way in...Friedel's been impressive this season, and actually scored a goal, so I'd put him in his place.

 

And this from a United fan...

 

Oh, and if Henry doesn't win Footballer Of Year, it'll be a travesty.

[Guest jpclemmons]

Liverpool can be so dire at times, I mean we did the double over them pretty easily this season, thats why I'm backing Newcastle.

And look out for Aston Villa as they are not far behind Newcastle and Liverpool in the battle for the fourth spot in the EPL where they could easily have 7 points in the last three matches.

[The Decemberists 0]

Tonton Zola Moukoko's good, but Samba is just unbelievable, 30 goals plus every season for 14 years, you can't argue with that.

 

And Jamie Donnolly scored 61 goals in 54 games for me one season.

 

I did have Tonton Zola Moukoko for a while, but i only really used him in the reserves and the FA and League Cups. Although he did score 5 against, and I swear this is true, Derby in one Cup final.

[The Decemberists 0]

Hello again. I've just found this. Obviously now Magic Joe's in charge not of it's accurate anymore, but I still found it really funny.

 

"WWWeeellllllllllllllllllllll............

We always lose to Walsall,

We never get it right,

It's hard to stomach players who've

No stomach for the fight.

 

Our midfield's made of popcorn,

Our backs are made of lead,

Our forwards sulk like puppies and

Our goalie's just dropped dead.

 

We always lose to Walsall,

And Reading, Stoke and Crewe,

When Forest turn up down your way,

We'll likely lose to you.

 

Our squad's as thin as tissue,

Our players have no guts,

Our manager just grumbles, while

Our board just scratch their butts.

 

It's time to get the axe out,

It's time to swing the sword,

It's time to cull the manager,

The players and the board.

It's time to ditch the groundsman,

The kid who serves the teas,

The blokes who sell the tickets and

Those bastard referees.

We'll show them who the boss is,

We'll show them life's a bitch,

We'll blow the sodding stands to hell

And dynamite the pitch.

We're on the road to ruin,

We're in a bloody mess,

We're riding down the rails in

The Oblivion Express....

 

And do we care? Of course we don't -

We'll blow the place sky high.

Come shout it to the heavens, mate:

We're FOREST till we

FOREST till we

FOREST till we

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

die. "

 

 

 

Like I said, no longer accurate, but still quality Forest fare.

[deancoles 0]

Here's a list of my CM gods.Shame a lot of them are more famous for their CM skills than their real life ones.

 

Kim Kallstrom

Cherno Samba

Kevin Amankwaah(best Bristol City player on the game and future England/Ghana right back)

Lee Holmes(I sign him for free because he's on a youth contract at derby)

Mancini(Brazilian right back who now plays for Roma)

Matthew Blinkhorn

Julius Aghahowa

Taribo West(he starts 00/01 on a free and is great for Nationwide teams)

Javier Saviola

Sebastien Frey

Igor Tudor

Tom Huddlestone(another Youth player at Derby)

[TheFranchise 0]

Have you seen Huddlestone play?

 

He's our best player!

[Guest hunger4unger]

Here's the Premiership team of the season.I can't argue with that team although Given and Shearer could be in place of the 2 Man united players.

 

Tim Howard (Manchester United), Lauren (Arsenal), Sol Campbell (Arsenal), John Terry (Chelsea), Ashley Cole (Arsenal), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Patrick Vieira (Arsenal), Robert Pires (Arsenal), Thierry Henry (Arsenal), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Manchester United).

 

If I was Norwich or West Brom I'd get some creative players for the premiership, Julio Arca would cost about 2 Million(if Sunderland don't go up) due to Sunderland's Financial problem and he can play Left Back if needed.

 

BTW does anyone on here play Championship manager?

Hands off Arca!

 

He's international class and without him we (Sunderland) wouldn't even be in the play offs. Especially with that whiny sack of shit Kevin Kyle up front.