SEMTEX

Why would he play? This isn't the playground, we don't have to try and play with fair teams.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14498496.stm Yuri Zhirkov booed by fans in Moscow after move from Chelsea Former Chelsea midfielder Yuri Zhirkov has been heckled by Russia fans during a friendly match against Serbia in Moscow. Last week, Zhirkov, who can also play at left-back, moved to Anzhi, a club from North Caucasus. The player was booed by fans almost every time he touched the ball and even pelted with a cigarette packet near the corner area. Deeply upset, he was substitued after 68 minutes. After that, fans began chanting some offensive - unprintable - words. Even Russia manager Dick Advocaat urged the supporters to stop their barracking - and when that failed, he buried his head in his hands. It would have been better if the fans had not come to the stadium at all than to come and show such disrespect to Yuri Tottenham and Russia striker Roman Pavlyuchenko The Dutchman said despite Russia's 1-0 win he was very disappointed with fans' behaviour as "they booed one of the best players" in his team. That became a big surprise for all Russian team players as well. Striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who plays for Tottenham in the English Premier League, told the BBC the disrespect to Zhirkov was a real shock. "It would have been better if the fans had not come to the stadium at all than to come and show such disrespect to Yuri. That is not deserved," he said. Midfielder Roman Shirokov from Zenit St Petersburg said his team-mates do not consider those people as supporters of the national team. And Serbia's Nemanja Vidic, captain of Manchester United, added: "Yuri might be disappointed because he played for his country and people were behaving bad to him, but he is a great player and after two or three matches the problem is going to be solved." Anzhi, a club from Makhachkala, are owned by a Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov - an oil and metals magnate, number 118 in the world in the Forbes List of the world's billionaires - and are one of the richest clubs in the Russian Premier League. Some Moscow fan organisations have boycotted the region and refused to travel to the north Caucasus since May, saying it is too dangerous for them, and citing previous clashes with rival supporters. Among fans that supported other Moscow-based teams in disrupting matches with North Caucasus clubs are those from Zhirkov's former team CSKA Moscow. For security reasons and lack of modern football infrastructure in Makhachkala, Anzhi's players live and train in the Moscow region and fly to Dagestan only for home matches. Anzhi want to make Cameroon star Eto'o their next big signing Zhirkov was the second big summer transfer hero in Dagestan after the Hungarian international Balazh Dzhudzhak moved there from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven. "Talks have been difficult because Yuri had to leave one of the best clubs in the world. On the other hand he really wanted to get back to his home country," Anzhi's consultant German Tkachenko told the BBC. The president of ProSports Management underlined that the London club was not really happy to let Zhirkov to go but everything ended well finally. New Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas told the Blues' website at the time of the move: "In the end it was mostly his [Zhirkov's] decision. It was a great financial offer for him, it is a return home for him." In total, Zhirkov made 32 starts and 17 substitute appearances for Chelsea. According to Russian media, Anzhi are paying Zhirkov about US $5m (£3.8m) a year. "Everyone is making his own choice. And I am here not because of money, although that is also important," Zhirkov said after his presentation in Makhachkala. "I really wanted to come back to Russia and prove that I can still play at the highest level." Now Anzhi are close to signing Cameroon striker Samuel Eto'o from Inter Milan. They had already signed Brazil veteran Roberto Carlos in February. In a league match in March, the World Cup winner walked off the pitch after a Zenit St Petersburg fan offered him a banana. Zhirkov is expected to make his debut for Anzhi on Sunday when they meet Spartak Moscow at Luzhniki Stadium. Anzhi are now fourth in the Russian Premier League and trail leaders CSKA by eight points after 19 matches.

If Lovenkrands is in the rotation, rotation is not the key.

ENOUGH

FUCK YOU LOVENKRANDS

First suspension After just a few matches into the CFA 2007-08 season, M'Bengue was embroiled in controversy. While playing in a match against the second team of AS Monaco, he committed a dangerous foul on an opposing player. He was swiftly given a yellow card, however, after realizing the severity of the player's injury, the referee decided to send off M'Bengue. The French Football Federation responded by suspended him 13 matches, which effectively made him ineligible for play until March 2008.[4] Second suspension M'Bengue was one of the main bright spots during the club's successful play during the season. However, on 14 March 2009, he would be involved in another incident. Coincidentally, while playing against the Monaco senior team in a league match, M'Bengue committed another rough foul, this time on the Argentine midfielder Alejandro Alonso. He received a yellow card for the tackle and Alonso was eventually ruled out for the season. In response to the tackle, the FFF again suspended M'Bengue until 1 June, which ruled him out for the rest of the season.[6]

Adu will not be joining the Union as a designated player.

http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/Freddy-Adu-return-to-MLS-soccer-Philadelphia-Union-081111 Freddy Adu is coming back to Major League Soccer, and he will be joining a team he could help turn into a legitimate title contender. After initially being linked to a move to Chivas USA, sources within MLS have told Fox Soccer that Adu will be signing with the Philadelphia Union. An announcement on the move is expected to be made on Friday. The signing re-unites Adu with Union head coach Peter Nowak, who was head coach of D.C. United during Adu’s early years in MLS. Chivas USA had been lining up a move to acquire the 22-year-old midfielder, and had a move to sign him as a designated player lined up only to have ownership balk at the move at the last minute. That decision paved the way for Adu to move to Philadelphia, where he’ll be joining a Union side currently battling the Columbus Crew for first place in the Eastern Conference. Adu will not be joining the Union as a designated player. Adu’s arrival comes just as the Union looks to revamp an offense that recently lost striker Carlos Ruiz to a transfer to Mexican side Veracruz. Philadelphia will be hoping Adu can provide the playmaker the squad has sorely needed since joining MLS last year. Combining Adu with the forward tandem of Danny Mwanga and Sebastien LeToux could give the Union the sort of high-powered attack they will need to make a deep playoff run. An Adu-Nowak reunion might seem odd considering the way they clashed during Adu’s time in DC, but the two repaired their relationship in the years after, and worked together on the 2008 US Olympic Team. When asked about Adu a year ago, Nowak said he still rated Adu as a player and would love the chance to work with him again.

For fucks sake. He better not be shit. http://msn.foxsports.com/other/story/Freddy-Adu-return-to-MLS-soccer-Philadelphia-Union-081111 Freddy Adu is coming back to Major League Soccer, and he will be joining a team he could help turn into a legitimate title contender. After initially being linked to a move to Chivas USA, sources within MLS have told Fox Soccer that Adu will be signing with the Philadelphia Union. An announcement on the move is expected to be made on Friday. The signing re-unites Adu with Union head coach Peter Nowak, who was head coach of D.C. United during Adu’s early years in MLS. Chivas USA had been lining up a move to acquire the 22-year-old midfielder, and had a move to sign him as a designated player lined up only to have ownership balk at the move at the last minute. That decision paved the way for Adu to move to Philadelphia, where he’ll be joining a Union side currently battling the Columbus Crew for first place in the Eastern Conference. Adu will not be joining the Union as a designated player. Adu’s arrival comes just as the Union looks to revamp an offense that recently lost striker Carlos Ruiz to a transfer to Mexican side Veracruz. Philadelphia will be hoping Adu can provide the playmaker the squad has sorely needed since joining MLS last year. Combining Adu with the forward tandem of Danny Mwanga and Sebastien LeToux could give the Union the sort of high-powered attack they will need to make a deep playoff run. An Adu-Nowak reunion might seem odd considering the way they clashed during Adu’s time in DC, but the two repaired their relationship in the years after, and worked together on the 2008 US Olympic Team. When asked about Adu a year ago, Nowak said he still rated Adu as a player and would love the chance to work with him again.

http://www.footballshirtculture.com/images/chelsea-11-12-adidas-third-football-shirt.jpg http://www.footballshirtculture.com/11/12-kits/chelsea-2011-2012-adidas-third-football-shirt.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FootballShirtCultureBlog+%28Football+Shirt+Culture+Blog%29&utm_content=Twitter

Well there's a good a chance it'll be him as anyone else.

This just typifies the ultra pessemistic attitude on here like I agree we're better off playing the game now then postponing it though. I'm a little pessimistic, but not an ultra pessimist. I thought that was a pretty realistic comparison of what is to be expected from our transfers tbh. On Saturday, we will be reeling from the loss of Enrique, they will be without Cesc and Nasri. They will be hurting more than us. Their loss is much more significant than ours.

Wayne Bridge vs Jadson, Dann and Mata They will strengthen more than us. Therefore, we are more likely to lose. It's not hard.

Really boring.

Why?? So we actually have a left back, to start with. Ok, and I ask you this - if this game was postponed for 3 weeks, who do you think will have strengthened more in that time period? NUFC or AFC, having lost Cesc & Nasri.

"Previous Regime" Is he referring to previous management? Because Jose certainly wasn't pre-Ashley

I like it.

Palace/Crawley (A)

Never understood posts like this. Firstly if the topic really doesn't interest you then why bother opening it and then to take the time to actually post on it? So you can only comment if youre part of the Anti Ashley brigade? If those who didnt care about it didnt post then it would give a pretty one sided view on the 'issue' Ok then. You tell me in your own words what imput lovejoys post has actually added to this thread then. Erm.. balance? Showing that not everybody actually thinks this is worse than the Holocaust? I can concur with your point when you're discussing a hobby or tv show or something that people like to discuss in-depth, but I'm not sure that flies in this situation.

Damn

James Perch

Because people kid themselves into thinking that certain NUFC players have an affinity with NUFC the club - not the ownership, the fans, the stadium, the history etc. And thus it feels like Jose is stabbing us in the back. There's nothing wrong with hoping players feel this way, but personally I'm not shocked when they don't. Still leaves a bitter taste either way.

Nothing to gain this time. Already Enrique's fault. I was under the impression that transfer request = no extra payout to player on transfer.

I wonder why Ashley didn't force him to put in a Transfer Request?

Tottenham vs Everton postponed. I must've missed the thread where this was mentioned like... cannit see it anywhere.