Exiled in Texas

Glad to see Dida supsended - that was shamefull - and such a pretence. Excellent job by UEFA to suspend him. Thought that Celtic might have been hit harder than they were though. They seemed to get off lightly . Milan will probably appeal, blaming Celtic for the problem, and have the 2 game ban reduced to a bye into the next round.

But now that the club is private I doubt accounts will ever be filed publicly. Private companies don't have to file annual reports. We'll probably never know exactly how he invested the money.

What a joke......I first read the quote from the Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/09/04/sfnowe104.xml So believing both the Telegraph and Bolton Wanderers fans he must have been raging mad but half smiling too. Obviously the "I'll never forgive him for that" remark was tongue-in-cheek. But that obviously doesn't sell papers or pacify the snubbed Bolton fans.

Always liked the Tim Howard chant.... Tim Timeneeee Tim Timeneeee, Tim Tim Turooo He's got Turets, and he says Fuck You

Nice

I'd love to see him do a Beckham and sign for the MLS. FC Dallas could use a player like him, and I'd even buy a FC Dallas Kluivert jersey if they signed him.

One other thought as to what might hold back American kids.....they never watch the game. Sure they play the game, but they don't watch the game. They never get to see Arsenal or Manure carving teams up with running and vision. When I'm watching Premier League, Champions league or the odd Italian or Argentine games on TV I'll call my son over to watch a play or a goal, and he will enjoy the move, but will never sit down to watch the entire game. They therefore never learn the nuances of the game from the pros.

Grassroots soccer in the Texas is very strong. My town which is part of the Dallas/Fort metroplex has a population of 36,000 and our local soccer association has 2,000 active kids playing. The majority are playing in the U9 and down range but the soccer is almost always the first sport that kids get into because it is very simple. Games are small sided U6 is 3v3 (no goalie), U8 is 5v5, U10 is 7v7 and they don't play 11v11 till they go into U11 age. So they get lots of touches on the ball, space to play in and no-one gets lost on the wing or stuck playing defense. Soccer is also the main activity for the kids during lunch breaks at school now. The challenge is to keep more of the soccer players in the sport as they get older. (American) Football is king in Texas, - with highschool football being the most popular of all. The stadiums the local highschool teams play in would shame most 1st Division teams. The highschool in the town next to mine pulled in 46,000 to watch one of their playoff games. So the lure of highschool football and the "friday night lights" is a huge draw to young kids and the outstanding soccer kids at aged 7-8-9 are then often moving on to the traditional US sports Football and Baseball. But those that stay have good foundations to develop their talent and there is a good range of options for the kids to progress. U5 through U8 is non-competitive......small teams, scores not kept, teams randomly drawn from player pool, all players play at least 50% etc. Once they hit U9 and U10 then the games become competitive and scores are kept but games are still small sided. At this age, the local Soccer Clubs start offering skills training and running their own teams. This is the first level where players (or parents) have to be serious about playing as the training schedule and costs start to increase - up from $80 for a 10 game season to $600+ for the year. Once they hit U11 - then the talent pool gets split. The good players move to the Select clubs who have paid coaches and teams are built through tryouts etc. Costs are now anything from $2500-4500 for the year which pays for the coaching staff (many from traditional footballing countries), practice facilities and tournament fees. Training is now 3-4 nights a week plus weekend games/tournaments. The point is........while American kids may not have a huge tradition of soccer to fall back on, the foundations are there for the US to develop a lot of good players, before handing them off to Colleges, MLS and maybe even overseas. What options exist for kids back in Britain. Kick about with their mates, an hour of PE, and a lot of clogging the shite out of a ball in 11 a side games where effort and physical play overshadows technique and skill. The challenge for the US is to keep their soccer players in the game rather than loose them to other sports. But the foundations are there for the US to create a lot of good players that may just need polishing off in other countries leagues.

No more than £10M - except if the likes of a Top Shelf attacking player such as Deco, Gudjonsen is available.

This is the third off-season that we have chased him, and supposedly he wants to come, but never has. I'd like to see him come, but I don't think it's likely. Doubt Chelsea let him go and doubt he wants to leave either.

Wasn't the general feel that we overpaid for Oba when we paid £10M for him. If the thought that he wasn't worth $10M, but we were desperate to sign him so overpaid, then a release clause of a 30% profit (and likely £4-5M above market value) doesn't seem so bad. If no team was interested in him at £10M, then what chance £13M. Fact is, he played well, scored goals and his value has increased.

Look at that Stadium full of Mongs. How embarassing for them!! You'd have thought that it was only Newcastle that embarrassed themselves showing up to greet a new signing.

Could someone with New Thread capabilities start a thread listing other preseason fixtures by club? Especially any US games - would like to see if any teams were heading Stateside this summer. I know about Celtic at the MLS All Star game and Chelsea playing a pre-season tourny at LA Galaxy. Any other big clubs heading to the US?

:clap: :clap: :clap: I like your style......

Beardsley was my all time fav, but honorable mention to the Mighty Mickey Quinn.

Need to check the dates on that one......that was last summers tour 2006.

Managers get respected when the prove that they can do their job -i.e manage the players, manage the game situations. When GR started to loose the plot and ran out of ideas, then he lost the team. Had he had plans for team tactics and game strategies then he would have stayed in the job - but once his game plan dissolved into "blame the players for not scoring, not defending, not playing etc" then his position was undermined.

It's not really workable. Suppose the 14 clubs leave their domestic leagues (for example suppose ManU and Chelsea make the 14) and play a season of European games. What happens next season? Do the new Premier league champions (Arsenal or Liverpool) automatically get in and the current teams drop out? What about the teams that finished bottom of the Euro League? Relegated back to their league? Replaced by their home leagues champions? What if another countries champions are better than the champions of the relegated team? Besides, these issues I think the whole concept is poorly thought out anyway. Will a EuroLeague game be as exciting as a domestic derby game? Will following a team that doesn;t play anyone elses local team be exciting after the first season.....would Man U rather plan Milan in EuroLeague or Liverpool in Premiership. It sounds very easy to set it up, but I just can't see this being sustainable.

signed a 2 yr extension I thought.

I don't get it.....he is a squad player. He is not meant to lead the attack week-in and week-out, but to come into a game from the bench when needed. We all piss and moan about not having a big enough squad but then when Roeder signs a squad player to increase the overall depth of the squad then thats not good enough either. FFS a team is probably only able to manage 3 top class strikers playing 2 at a time and then needs a second tier of strikers to make up the squad - players that understand their role at the club. Sibierski is that type of player.....fills in well when he plays but isn't going to throw his toys out of the pram if we field a front pair of Martins and Owen. I like the signing of him to a second year....stablises the squad in terms of numbers and ability without destablising it with bad influences.

Boca - River. tbh

The Rapids changed their colors and logo to closer match the NHL COlorado Avalanche which is also owned by Stan Kronke. Looks like some brand alignment between his Franchises.

Sounds like you all want Roeder to go out and shoot his wad on a couple of players on a stop-gap basis and hope that they work out. Then if the transfers are not run away sucesses, then you blame the manager for doing exactly what you asked for. FFS, we'd all like to have back the 9M for Luque and the 9M for Boumsong, and have it to spend elsewhere. Well who is to say that Roeder didn't back away from a couple of marginal transfers that he felt were too risky. i.e. he never pulled the trigger on a Luque or Boumsong deal. When you are 80M in debt, or whatever we are, and your predecessor spend 50M on some dross then you have to be carefull. First you can't flash the cash because you don't have it, and the little you do needs to be well spent.

Step 1 - Don't buy crap just because you are desperate. It wastes money. Step 2 - Use your money wisely and buy the players you REALLY want. So far, we have seen GR doing exactly Step 1, and a bit of Step 2.

Gillet is now in partnership with Tom Hicks, according to Dallas Morning News. Hicks owns the Dallas Stars ice hockey team and the Texas Rangers baseball team. According to the article (Posted in the Liverpool takeover thread) Hicks and Gillet were both at the the NHL All Stars game in Dallas last week and the idea of splitting the investment in Liverpool 50/50 gathered momentum during some meetings together. Whoo HOo ....Finally I am ITK