gazza ladra

UEFA Team Ranking 2007 http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/trank2007.html 1 AC Milan Ita 2 FC Barcelona Esp 3 Internazionale Ita 4 Real Madrid Esp 5 Liverpool Eng 6 Arsenal 7 Olympique Lyon 8 Valencia Esp 9 Juventus Ita 10 Newcastle United Eng 11 Manchester United Eng 12 Chelsea Eng UEFA Team Coefficients 2006/2007 http://www.xs4all.nl/~kassiesa/bert/uefa/data/method3/tcoef2007.html 1 Espanyol Esp 2 Newcastle United Eng 3 Liverpool Eng 4 Valencia Esp 5 Real Madrid Esp 6 Olympique Lyon 7 Chelsea Eng 8 Manchester United 9 Sevilla Esp 10 FC Barcelona Esp

Looking at the list you'd think that NUFC is the team that everyone wants to avoid.

Alright. I need to know. Did you go back through all of his columns and compile this list or did you start doing this from the beginning of the season? I won't ask why you've done it. Still, it is interesting

Yeah, maybe we could pick up that Amdy Faye guy. Heard he scored a game winning goal a few weeks back. I said "best" players. Sad thing is. He IS one of their best players.

Yeah, maybe we could pick up that Amdy Faye guy. Heard he scored a game winning goal a few weeks back.

Like to see West Ham go down. They have more that is worth buying on the cheap.

Yes, you can. A few years ago, perhaps twenty years ago now an interview was broadcast on American television with a man named Al Campanis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Campanis in which this boardroom insider claimed that blacks lacked the necessarily requirements to be baseball managers. Read it for an education. Al Campanis worked for the Los Angeles Dodgers- the team that broke the race barrier in American baseball and first hired a black player, Jackie Robinson, in 1947. The club was long renowned and celebrated as the club that did the most to bring equal opportunities to everyone regardless of their race. His statements were so shocking precisely because he worked for the Dodgers and not, say, the Cincinnati Reds-- a club that might be compared to Everton. True. But comparing yourself with Spain doesn't really do you any favors. If an American politican in 1960s America tried to claim there was no racism in this country by pointing at South Africa, would you believe him? All good, but the highlighted which is disingenuous, dishonest, and, in my opinion, willfully ignorant. Here we witness a general decline into bullshit. Sad really No arguments to refute, just ugly bullshit

It is plausible. It is equally plausible that blacks do "read-the-writing on the wall", and don't bother applying. I don't know. Neither option should be dismissed out of hand.

Speak as you find, of course - or rather from your own standpoint. I have personally found that the racism-shouters will say there's LESS racism when it suites them, or MORE when they're argueing that. Duke of Wellington could have been talking about the PC career racist-shouters when he said "Lies, damn lies, and statistics" Yes, and Disraeli said "Most people use statistics the way that a drunk uses a light post-- more for support than for illumination" I am trying to use statistics to illuminate the issue and enable us to discuss an emotionally-charged topic rationally. My point was that, in my experience, it is the so-called "racism-shouters" who are the ones who make the appeals to reason and the racism-deniers who, inevitably, do the shouting. Crooks presented an argument. If you disagree, refute it with facts. Hard numbers are a good place to start.

To me it is incredible that any discussion of racism in society immediately leads to one side charging the other with gross simplification and ignorance, Crooks makes a statement. His character is impugned. His looks are mocked. His arguments are dismissed out-of-hand without consideration. No facts are presented. The science of statistics are dismissed, again, out-of-hand eliminating the basis of all rational discussion. False analogies and poor, irrelevant arguments are repeated and repeated again. And again. As if merely repeating a prejudice is enough to win the argument. Fact. mackems.gif And inevitably, the side that accuses the other of ignorance is the side that claims that no racism exists. Oh, irony.

I found that book pretty disappointing. Basically, it is a rehashing of Simon Kuper's superior "Football Against the Enemy". Though the chapter on football in Iran is pretty good and the one one football/politics in the former Yugoslavia is interesting, the rest--- Rangers/Celtic, Barcelona/Real Madrid, etc.-- has been been covered ad nauseam. He doesn't really add anything. Haven't read Kuper's book mate, but I saw in the Amazon review this one referred to as Kuper-lite, so it sounds like you're probably spot on re him not adding anything. Is the Kuper one worth a read then? I think I found Foer's book disappointing because I read Kuper's book first. Had I read Foer then Kuper perhaps I'd have a different attitude. Still, I think that Kuper's book is superior. Kuper-lite is a fair assessment, I think. I haven't read Football Against the Enemy in a couple of years-- it came out over a decade ago-- but I remember him being particularly strong on South Africa and the United States (he's lived in both) and eastern Europe-- East Germany and the Soviet Union. As a child growing up in the late 70s soccer-madness that came in wake of Pele playing for the Cosmos, I can attest to everything he writes about the state of the game in California at the time. One of the best parts (for me) is where he writes about attending San Jose Earthquake game where the crowd was more preoccupied with doing the wave around the stadium than watching the game-- 100% true. Also, he has this humorous bit about soccer "coaches" --dads who only knew American football-- calling out "plays" from the sidelines--100% true. (Incidentally, he mentions "Crazy George". Crazy George is the man responsible for the wave --known in Europe as the "Mexican wave". He started it at college games in the Pacific northwest (I think) before bringing it to San Jose. He started working baseball games in Oakland in 80-81 or so, and from there it spread to baseball stadiums around the US. From there it was picked up by Mexican-Americans. Mexico 1986 and all that followed shortly after. So, anyway, Crazy George is to blame) Foer is a decent writer and he fully acknowledges that his book is inspired by Kuper's book-- he says as much in the acknowledgments. And the success of his book has lead to the recent publication of Kuper's book (for the first time I think) in the United States as "Soccer Against the Enemy". Foer has a lot of fans and he's been pretty successful-- he's taken on the role of editor at the New Republic, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious magazines. They've been losing readers in droves during his tenure. Don't know if this has anything to do with Foer. The magazine has recently lurched to the right-- being one of the few (the only) traditionally liberal magazines to support Bush's war in Iraq. They've pretty much alienated their readership.

No.

Goes without saying. Though if we're including injured players.... Owen would be my number 1, errr. I mean number 2.

Second only to Martins imo.

Newcastle v AZ Maccabi Haifa v Espanyol Rangers v Osasuna Braga v Spurs Sevilla v Shatkar Donesk Lens v Bayer Leverkusen PSG v Benfica Celta Vigo v Werder Bremen So when do they draw for the last eight? Will we know before AZ? Nice to have an interest in the other games.

good looks?

Quotes like that make me wish that Fenerbahce pulled if off. for relaxing

Bad falafel maybe? I did have a dodgy kabab once. Had a bad empanada once. Never look at Chileans the same again.

Bad falafel maybe?

No everyone. I got the opposite impression. Seems to me that most prefer to play Fenerbache . Personally, I'd much rather play AZ than Fener. Pretty sure I'm in the minority.

one more goal would do nicely.

Not knocking Crook out of hand.... But are there any statistics as to the number of blacks that have their coaching badges? Comparing the relative percentage of qualified blacks vs. the relative percentage of hired blacks would be a better indicator. And how many coaches are actually English anyway? Also, you probably shouldn't look at the relative percentages of citizens, but the relative percentage of footballers. In the US, blacks are a relatively small percentage of the population, but constitute 90% of the professional basketball players. For years, all the coaches were white. (And no badges or qualifications of any kind are required) Same goes for American football. Only in recent years has this problem (and it is a problem) been addressed.

Bring on the Fenerbahce invasion.

Damn.

Appiah and Alex would be good.