Nobby

i've got a £20 bet on

got a smoggie mate of mine who works there for News Interactive seems to be a fair few smoggies, geordies and even one or two mackams who, for some reason have been let out of sunderland, working around here. LOADS of Geordies and people from the North East work in the London Media, mostly the creative side though yeah, there's a fair few. i keep telling me mates down here that it's all part of the master plan to colonise the south-east and start off the geordie/ northumbrian world domination plan also means that i can talk complete crap to the southerners and they just nod and smile pretending thay can understand me....means i can get away with murder. sounds like me, we usually get called the Geordie Mafia so, what do you do?

got a smoggie mate of mine who works there for News Interactive seems to be a fair few smoggies, geordies and even one or two mackams who, for some reason have been let out of sunderland, working around here. LOADS of Geordies and people from the North East work in the London Media, mostly the creative side though

Actually the question is not about the experience and the atmosphere but about the ability to analyze. About off-the-ball movement: This is typical Dutch live coverage; watch how many players one can see during a live coverage. What more off-ball-movement would you like to see??? Only the last defenders and the keeper are missing. it actually has the psv logo at the top during games?

got a smoggie mate of mine who works there for News Interactive

do you work in White City Pete?

You don't think that you can see things at the match that won't be shown on telly? Like off-the-ball movement? Interesting. It doesn't mean you know more about football, but you'll certainly get a better view of what went on at that particular game. A better view of players body language, what they do when the ball is nowhere near them, whether they're interested, which players have found a lot of space for themselves, and which are stood next to their markers. At the ground you can pick the long ball before it gets played because you see the whole pitch - you also see how the receiver of the long ball found themself in that space. All stuff you can see at the match that you don't on telly. exactly

in the stadium by far

i agree, loaning him out would do him the world of good

Steven Taylor?

Latest News on Martins to Chelsea

i wouldn't sell him for £20million

maybe

We dont need Ljungberg, i'd say West Ham do. Not much creativity when Benayoun goes off form, and Etherington is shit. Totally agree with you about Etherington, worst player i've seen for a long time. Has he gone to Fulham?

http://www.calciomercato.com/index.php?c=46&a=29236 “Martins loves it at Newcastle.” The Nigerian striker’s agent, Patrick Bastianelli, speaking to Grt radio, dismissed rumours linking him to Chelsea, in a swap with Wright-Phillips. “I doubt Chelsea will sell Shevchenko but if things go on like this, they might do in June.” Another swap, this time relating to the Serie A, featured Inter defender Marco Andreoli and Torino midfielder Simone Barone. “The deal cannot be done,” said Bastianelli, “because Andreolli will only leave on loan. Inter have received offers from England and France, for example Marseille are interested.”

not a website to be trusted tbh

West Ham in for Ljungberg as Arsenal line up Dutch star By Jason Burt Published: 09 January 2007 West Ham United last night made an audacious bid to sign Arsenal's Fredrik Ljungberg. No fee has been discussed so far for the 29-year-old Swedish international, although Arsenal do appear prepared to sell him and West Ham have the funds available. Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, has lined up Ajax's Dutch international left winger Ryan Babel as Ljungberg's replacement. The 20-year-old is keen to join Arsenal although no deal will be done before the end of the season as Wenger wants to look at other targets. Babel was recently described by the Netherlands coach, Marco van Basten, as having the potential to be the "new Thierry Henry". If West Ham sign Ljungberg, they will shelve their interest in Shaun Wright-Phillips, who remains reluctant to move to Upton Park despite a £10m bid being lodged, with the winger also offered the same £50,000-a-week wages he earns at Chelsea. Indeed, it is thought that the bid is now close to collapse. West Ham are confident that they will also be able to match Ljungberg's personal terms - which means he could earn an astonishing £70,000 a week - but although the midfielder is keen to stay in the Premiership, they are unsure if he will want to join a relegation-threatened club. It is likely that Ljungberg, who is now captain of the Swedish national team, may insist on an exit clause should West Ham be relegated. West Ham could also try to revive Arsenal's interest in their midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker, who wants to leave the club after a traumatic season, and offer him in a possible swap deal. Wenger was interested in signing Reo-Coker last summer as was Sir Alex Ferguson. It is thought that he has cooled on the player since but is still looking for young central midfield talent which would raise question marks over the future of Gilberto Silva as well as Ljungberg. Arsenal have also, in the past, shown interest in Yossi Benayoun although West Ham are adamant they want to recruit players not sell them. Ljungberg, who has two years left on his contract at the Emirates Stadium, joined Arsenal in 1998 for £3m from the Swedish club Halmstad and has been a key member of Wenger's squad. However, the signings of Alexander Hleb and Tomas Rosicky have limited his opportunities this season and, although he had a fine Champions' League campaign last season, it is believed he is not central to Wenger's plans. If West Ham manage to sign Ljungberg, it would represent a huge coup. They also believe it will help them in their attempts to secure their other transfer targets. West Ham's potential bid for Ljungberg once again shows the determination and ambition of the Icelandic consortium which took control of the club last autumn. The chairman, Eggert Magnusson, promised that money would be spent in the transfer window and West Ham have been busy lining up a number of targets. They have already signed Luis Boa Morte from Fulham for £5m and last night completed a move for West Bromwich Albion midfielder Nigel Quashie. The 28-year-old Scottish international has joined on a three-and-a-half-year deal for an initial £1.5m with a further £250,000 payable if West Ham avoid relegation. He may start against Fulham on Saturday. West Ham are also in the hunt for Alexei Smertin, who is set to leave Dynamo Moscow. They also want Bolton Wanderers defender Talal Ben Haim, although his advisers may still try to secure a move to Chelsea, and they have not given up hope of signing Middlesbrough's Mark Viduka. http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/news/article2137748.ece

Nigel Quashie insists that West Ham United will fight their way out of the Premiership drop-zone before the end of the season and then go on to much bigger and better things in the future. The 28-year-old midfielder completed a £1.5million move from Championship promotion-chasers West Bromwich Albion on Monday night and, having swapped a top-of-the-table battle for a relegation one, admitted that he was excited by the challenge ahead. "I'm delighted that the deal has now been done and it feels great to be a West Ham United player," said the Scottish international. "I'm now looking forward to being a part of the Club, getting out on the pitch, and getting my foot in to try and help us out of this position. "As soon as I heard that West Ham were interested, I thought to myself: 'I'd like to be a part of that.' Having met Alan Curbishley and the Chairman, I can see the direction the Club is going in, and I fully believe that the squad here is capable of achieving the success they want. "The easier option would have been to stay at West Brom and try to keep us up there in the Championship with a chance of promotion but I looked at the situation here and saw it as a Club who can go on to bigger and better things in the future if we can stay in the Premiership this year." At 28, Nigel arguably still has his peak years in front of him, but brings 11 years of senior experience with him and admits he will do whatever he can to help Alan Curbishley's youngsters fulfil their potential at Upton Park. "There are some fantastic young players here and I am looking forward to playing alongside them and hopefully passing on some experience," he says. "Nothing would give me more pleasure than to help these young lads keep the Club in the Premiership and then see them to go on and reach the very top. "Of course it hasn't been a great season so far, but this team shouldn't be in the position it is in, and I believe it is only a matter of time before we push ourselves up the table. It's going to require sheer hard work, and everyone realises exactly where we are, but there is a lot to be positive about. "I'm under no illusions about the task ahead, but throughout my career, I've faced certain challenges and met them all in the same way - by trying to do the very best I can and giving as much commitment and determination as possible. "I do feel that I've perhaps got more desire and hunger in me now than when I was a lot younger, and I'm determined to establish myself as a Premiership player. It's a fantastic opportunity for me at West Ham and I can't wait to get started." http://www.whufc.com/articles/article.php?page_id=8657

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7936/picture5ru8.jpg Ambition is one thing, but it takes history to crack China Chelsea eye up a billion online fans Rivalry from Accrington Stanley Millions of Chinese football fans turning on their computers this morning will discover that the welcoming face of Chelsea has a rather glum look. Ashley Cole was selected to send a greeting to fans on the club’s new Chinese language website, but his stern countenance was in stark contrast to the wide smile displayed by Peter Kenyon, the club’s chief executive, as he surveyed a golden future in the world’s biggest marketplace. Kenyon was in Beijing yesterday to sign a deal that will put Chelsea on the biggest website in China and give tens of millions the chance to learn all about Cole, Frank Lampard and the rest of the stars at Stamford Bridge. The new website is one of the first tentative steps Chelsea are taking on the long march to world domination. Within seven years, Kenyon wants the name of Chelsea to be first on the lips of fans when they think of football — even if they speak Mandarin. To dominate the world, though, Chelsea will need to become the most popular football club in a nation where the potential audience is measured in hundreds of millions. The rewards could be huge: never mind the obvious merchandising of shirts, an instantly recognisable brand name can be applied to everything from mobile phones to credit cards, opening a rich seam of money-making opportunities among a population of 1.2 billion people. Little wonder then that Samsung, their shirt sponsor, and adidas, their kit sponsor, also have their names prominently displayed on the website, hoping that Chelsea fans in Shanghai and Beijing will soon walk to the shops in their adidas trainers to buy a Samsung television to watch their favourite team on the Chinese equivalent of Match of the Day. But even using a host internet portal as powerful as sina.com — which boasts 40 million hits a day, three times more than its nearest competitor — Chelsea is facing an uphill task, according to Dr Simon Chadwick, an academic who has studied the popularity of English football in Asia. He discovered that there is no substitute for history in the eyes of fans who appear to regard Chelsea as the upstart among more august company. Chelsea may be the English champions but they lag a long way behind in the Chinese popularity league. “The difficulty for Chelsea is that there is so much brand equity in history,” Dr Chadwick, of Birkbeck College’s Sports Business Centre, said. “Chelsea might be ambitious and have aspirations to be the world’s biggest club, but they are still the new kids on the block in global terms, a long way behind Manchester United and Real Madrid in the Chinese market particularly. Chelsea can sign big-name players and raise their profile, but history is built up over decades and they cannot create that.” China has become football’s Klondike and even the smallest clubs have worked out that there is money to be made in a vast country that has relatively few indigenous football teams. While Kenyon shook hands on his deal yesterday, Accrington Stanley were quietly working on a new website (www.accringtonstanleyasia.com), designed to introduce the historic club to Asian fans. The Coca-Cola League Two side’s ambitions know no bounds, with proposals for merchandising that could include the legend “The most famous little football club in the world” — in Chinese, of course. To cement relations across the globe, Accrington are playing Chengdu Blades tonight at the Fraser Eagle Stadium, which completes English football’s Chinese circle. The Blades are owned by Sheffield United, who took the ambitious approach of buying a club in China to ensure that their foothold in a marketplace rapidly becoming swamped with not only English football clubs but those from Europe and other sports. It makes Chelsea the latecomers, which is why Kenyon may have to wait rather longer than 2014 to see his ambitions realised. Dr Chadwick added: “Football is often talked about as the most popular sport in China, but basketball is huge there and Formula One is attracting attention. Chelsea are not just competing against Manchester United or Real Madrid but against many other sports and brand names also looking for the same money. “Peter Kenyon may have to wait a long time before Chelsea is the biggest name in sport in China because they have so much ground to make up. But they do seem to have a long-term strategy, unlike some other sports businesses — including big football clubs — that have used China for a smash-and-grab raid. “It is a big job and Chelsea have a long way to go in China, which they have to conquer before they could call themselves the world’s biggest club.” Mass appeal The world’s biggest club? The English Premiership is the most-watched football in China, with 53 per cent of all football fans tuning in, compared with 45 per cent for China’s own league matches. Chelsea claim to have 20 million fans worldwide; Manchester United have 20 million in China alone. A survey of 400 Asian fans by Birkbeck College discovered that 75 per cent claimed to be Manchester United supporters. They found just 13 Chelsea fans in the sample. English clubs are racing to form partnerships with Chinese clubs: Newcastle United have an agreement with Dalian Shide, while Charlton have established a youth academy in Shanghai as part of a deal with Shanghai Zobon. Sheffield United remain the most ambitious, having paid £200,000 to acquire the Chengdu Blades. Football is not the most popular sport in China, though. It is basketball, mainly because of the growing number of Chinese stars playing for NBA clubs in the USA, headed by Yao Ming, probably China’s biggest sporting star — not least because he is 7ft 5in tall The Times January 09, 2007 Kevin Eason

Bolton Wanderers Kevin Davies, the forward, expects to sign a new, long-term contract in the next few days. Davies, who has attracted the interest of Newcastle United and Everton, said: “We’re moving closer and, hopefully, it will be tied up in days.” http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,277-2537822,00.html

This Chief Scout seems pretty sensible.

not far click for map

tickets are the same price for all games http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Prices/0,,10278,00.html

I'm undecided He is injured after EVERY match he plays though

been looking through old match reports this one is quite a good read cockneys day/match report http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2336/1999-00/newcsemi.html