oldtype

I have to admit that I couldn't have foresaw the ridiculously awful luck with injuries that has left us with an old heap of shit and a young heap of shit up front as our only strike options. But still, we've been safe for a while now. Just unfortunate that we're probably going out with a whimper instead of with a roar.

Injustice? They've battled their way to the final and deserve a shot. Clearly I deserve a seven-day ban for daring to be the slightest bit irrational on an internet football forum.

If they stop City winning something then Tony Pulis should be knighted The real Stoke City v. the expensive Stoke City. Should be the most entertaining FA Cup Final ever.

It's a fun book. A lot of the analysis is overly simple but the fundamental point that the book is putting forth (why do we just assume that some things are true about football without questioning them? And why are you damn Englishmen so damned scared of statistics? ) are very relevant.

Stoke are going to win the FA Cup, aren't they? Just to make me slit my writs at the injustice.

It's unclear whether Liverpool's uptick is down to Dalglish or down to replacing Fernandon't Scorres with Suarez and Carroll. Probably some combination of the latter with a bit of honeymoon factor and "anyone-but-Woy" syndrome mixed in. It's far too early to be making long-term predictions. We don't even know whether he's staying on for next season.

What happened here?

That's not something to lie down and accept though imo. A season ticket at £500 a year is still affordable to a great deal of 'working class' people. I'm hardly flash and going to an away game represents a small fortune to me tbh. Stoke away was £30 ticket (not that bad), £60 to get there from London, plus all the other cash you end up spending. I'm f***ed off about paying £50 for Chelsea but will pay it because I live in London. If I was back in Newcastle it would put me off. It's only an extra 10-15 quid above what you've came to expect, but it's creeping up all the time man. There's very little you can do to not "lie down and accept" it though. It's not as if you can protest being forced out of matches by not going to matches. It sucks that ticket prices are going up, but as long as the club is filling the stadium (or at least getting as many in as they can), it makes sense for them to have the tickets priced as highly as possible. If they don't, they're just letting the profit margin go to the touts instead. Economic realities exist and can't be ignored. There are certainly measures that can be taken to not alienate low-income fans, and I wish they'd try a bit harder in that respect, but the fundamental reality of rising ticket prices is just something we'll have to accept until an equilibrium point is reached. The only way to solve this problem would be to figure out a way to make rich people not like football. Unsure how that would be accomplished.

Obviously not up to the challenge of beating Leon Best in the scoring charts.

Well it's clearly no longer working class entertainment and hasn't been for a long, long time though.

I'd like to think that he's nailed on to succeed now that we've all written him off on here.

Am I worthy enough to hear the reason why you think that?

Would Messi still be significantly better than CRon in any other team but Barcelona?

Compare it to ticket prices for US sports or even West End musicals and it's really not that bad. Make the price artificially too low relative to the demand and really all you get is massive amount of scalping(touts). I think it feels more expensive for you guys because in England it's the expectation that a "good fan" should be able to attend every single home game. I'll continue to enjoy my 40-pound season tickets (and requisite shit football) here in South Korea by the way

Did somebody say Park?

Routledge just doesn't get along with Pardew or maybe "this group of lads" I think.

As I mentioned previously, Liverpool have no squad depth at all and that is going to come back to bite them in the ass if they're trying to sustain a title challenge over the course of an entire season. What is their plan B if Suarez gets injured? David N'Gog?

Uh oh...

Their press have been calling for him to be reinstated to the squad at every major tournament for the past decade

http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_litmuuSd0J1qznuzoo1_500.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miura_Kazuyoshi Miura Kazuyoshi, Age 45, and still a full-time player in the Japanese 2nd division scores in a Japanese National Team v. J-League All-Stars charity match. Broke right through Japan's first-choice back four and delivered a ridiculously good finish. Do a search for "King Kazu" on the video site, it's the second one down. What a f***ing legend this guy is. Been playing professional football since the year I was born and still keeps himself in good enough shape to turn out at a respectable level. Absolutely loved by the Japanese and respected all over Asia, even in Korea. You can hear the commentators choking up when he does that crazy dance thing to celebrate his goal. A model professional of the absolute highest order.

its Shola form, that. But can Messi eat an apple while on a bike?

I can't speak for most of the players on that list either, but at this point he does look better than Zidane.

Korean media's in a collective orgasm over "Big Game Park" Well... It was a nice finish wasn't it?

Would give Ranger a nice kick up the ass to have another youth team striker play first team football ahead of him.

Good shout. Not convinced he'd do that though. Leave I mean. Would love to see him move somewhere else just for the heck of it. I mean, surely he has to get sick of destroying La Liga year after year after year at some point?