Association Football in The British Isles

[kyle]

Bummed about Blackpool. I've enjoyed them this season. Any promising leads on the teams coming up from Championship?

I see that QPR are back up. Nick, do you hate them? Being that they're a London team? It's hard for me to keep up with rivalries and so on.

[Good Intentions]

It's easy: Nick hates everybody who isn't West Ham, with a small exception in Brighton & Hove Albion. He hates Millwall in ways which occasionally scare him, but it's pretty universal loathing for all non-Hammers.

[Nick Ink]

It's easy: Nick hates everybody who isn't West Ham, with a small exception in Brighton & Hove Albion. He hates Millwall in ways which occasionally scare him, but it's pretty universal loathing for all non-Hammers.

Yes, Marinus has it nicely summed up there. A more detailed breakdown would be...

Fear & Loathing (in order):

 Millwall > Tottenham > Chelsea > Sheffield United > Liverpool > Luton Town > Arsenal > Bolton Wanderers > Manchester United > Leeds United > Birmingham City > Wigan Athletic > Manchester City (post-takeover) Reading > Sunderland > Glasgow Rangers > Stoke City > Ipswich Town > Almost everyone else

Possible grudging affinity/ambivalence/ respect/ kindred spirit empathy towards:.

Newcastle United / Nottm Forest / Manchester City (pre-takeover) / Wolverhampton Wanderers / Dagenham & Redbridge

My own personal and unaccountable soft spot indulgences:

Peterborough United / Greenock Morton / Brighton & Hove Albion

Teams that are so insubstantial, fluffy and ludicrous that it would be churlish to even express an opinion about:

Fulham, QPR

[Nick Ink]

Any promising leads on the teams coming up from Championship?

Next season, you mean? Why the Mighty Irons, of course!

Ah, inviting the punishment of hubris again.

[kyle]

Well no, I mean the two teams coming the the premiere.

Also I see that Brighton will be playing championship next year.

[Nick Ink]

Well no, I mean the two teams coming the the premiere.

Sorry, kyle, I knew what you meant really.

Let me see - QPR wobbled a bit at the end but play well as a team, and have the very gifted Adel Taraabt to produce the unexpected. The manager, Neil Warnock (or 'Colin', as he's known to anagram-loving West Ham fans) has been there before. However, the board are ambitious and his position might not be safe for long.

Norwich have had back-to-back promotions after sliding into League 1 the previous year. I wouldn't bet against a fourth successive season of changing divisions. They do have a celebrity chef owner however, which may come into play.

Through the play-offs, Reading look like this year's 'Blackpool', in that they only sneaked into the top 6 at the end and don't really seem to have any Premiership class. Swansea City are a much more interesting proposition, renowned for fast, fluid, attacking 'total' football and with an excellent manager. I hope they go up as they finished 3rd and deserve to overall.

[Thermofusion]

I'm bummed out about Blackpool. I actually bought a Blackpool FC beach towel a few months ago and paid slightly ridiculous shipping for it. Sigh.

Anyway, looking forward to figuring out a way to listen to/watch the Championship playoff on Monday. There's an article online comparing Swansea's passing skill to Barcelona so of course I'd like to see that.

[Nick Ink]

I'm bummed out about Blackpool. I actually bought a Blackpool FC beach towel a few months ago and paid slightly ridiculous shipping for it. Sigh.

Ian Holloway was quoted before the game as saying that Blackpool staying up would be "a better story than anything Shakespeare wrote".

[Thermofusion]

Granted I'm the most casual of followers, but I do appreciate how Holloway doesn't seem at all afraid of speaking his mind, especially when it involves hyperbole.

[Chet]

I feel sorry for Blackpool if only because Blackpool, as a place, is the absolute fucking armpit of the universe and those guys really need something to be happy about.

[Thermofusion]

It sounds like any number of our kitschy, vaguely run-down American east coast seaside resort towns, which I have a fondness for. Also man why aren't we playing FIFA 10, I'm bordering on respectable at that shit now. I think my Spain could take your Scunthorpe, I mean.

[Good Intentions]

For some association football outside of the British Isles, the game between the USA and Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup (between North American and Caribbean nations) was off the hook. If you get the chance to watch a replay of it, grab it with both hands.

[Nick Ink]

For some association football outside of the British Isles, the game between the USA and Mexico in the final of the Gold Cup (between North American and Caribbean nations) was off the hook. If you get the chance to watch a replay of it, grab it with both hands.

The fact that Avram Grant failed to get a single decent performance from Pablo Barrera (and rarely used him, in fact) is starting to look very damning. I wonder if we could hang on to him for next season.

[Chet]

Did you notice if Efrain Juarez played, if so, how'd he do?

[Nick Ink]

Didn't see it/him, but the names getting all the praise are Javier Hernandez, Andres Guardado, Pablo Barrera, Giovani dos Santos and Aldo De Nigris.

They also lost 5 players to a drugs ban just before the tournament, if I remember rightly.

[Chet]

Yeah. They also banned a bunch of players last year after an incident with a transvestite prostitute. Juarez was one of them. He signed for Celtic last summer after a decent showing at the World Cup, and starting off decently then after that he looked like he'd never played football in his life when he took to the pitch.

[Nick Ink]

Yeah. They also banned a bunch of players last year after an incident with a transvestite prostitute. Juarez was one of them. He signed for Celtic last summer after a decent showing at the World Cup, and starting off decently then after that he looked like he'd never played football in his life when he took to the pitch.

Perhaps he was nobbled by the mafia.

Seriously, Chet - what is going on with that?!

[Chet]

That was a response to this

It's also handy to know that Vladmir Romanov, Hearts owner, is absolutely batshit insane.

[Good Intentions]

Barrera was playing well, but it was Dos Santos that really set the game alight for me.

Also, isn't it now generally accepted that Grant is one of the worst man-managers to ever rise to prominence? I shudder to think what the Hammers would have been like without Parker's leadership.

[Nick Ink]

Barrera was playing well, but it was Dos Santos that really set the game alight for me.

Also, isn't it now generally accepted that Grant is one of the worst man-managers to ever rise to prominence? I shudder to think what the Hammers would have been like without Parker's leadership.

Well, quite. And the fact that Parker wasn't even Grant's captain (the media continually got this wrong too) rather underlines your point!

[Thermofusion]

This goal has been all over American sports blogs this week and the comments have been especially juvenile/fun to read.

According to American fans, it's one of the best goals of the MLS season. According to rest of the world (which apparently has little better to do than spam American soccer threads with incomprehensible profanity), it's the kind of ho-hum goal that happens on a daily basis in League Two. So which is it?

[Nick Ink]

Great goal!

Just not as great as this

[Thermofusion]

That is awesome!

The U2 in the second half of the clip's a little much though.

[Chet]

Great goal!

Just not as great as this

He was my hero as a kid, now I wish he never wore a Celtic shirt.

And that MLS goal was legitmately amazing.

[Nick Ink]

Great goal!

Just not as great as this

He was my hero as a kid, now I wish he never wore a Celtic shirt.

And that MLS goal was legitmately amazing.

What, Paolo? Because he's a fascist, you mean?