Fedyan

When the piggies played Liverpool there was like a ton of gifs about how Klopp instructed Salah to play against their defenders, some genuinely hilarious. At least three of their defenders can expect to be in our WC squad, so optimism is not exactly high. I know Egypt can play a bit. But Suarez and Cavani will have a field day if we play like yesterday. Akinfeev was the sole reason it did not end up with a tennis score.

Who is going to start in goal for you guys? Pickford, Hart or that dude from Stoke? Just read the news from Amsterdam, a bit terrified and grossly concerned. Quite a few rivers in the host cities, and beer might be sold in cans, so please boycott :lol:

Italian media sez Jorginho of Napoli is joining one of Liverpool, Yanited or City. Brilliant little player.

Anyone with a valid railway ticket will be given free access to waiting lounges and RZD-owned hotels in the vicinity of the train stations during the tournament. So anyone who plans to save money on hotels and stuff can still take a shower and use a restroom not attached to a fastfood chain. Always a nice thing. Last time I checked, all but two stadiums are done, the rest will be finished in early April. My personal favourite is the one in Nizhni Novgorod - purely for the scenery and the fact that you are a short cab ride away from the millions of fantastic nastoikas. Messi vs the Croats, cannae wait. Several hotel owners and airlines have been politely requested to stop ferking about with prices, but it remains to be seen if they will actually come back to their senses. But, to be fair, pretty much any big event anywhere causes greed to blow out of all proportions. We got spanked by a half-arsed Brazil last night. Our defense is basically a bunch of misfits and guys who would not even make the team ten years ago. Fantastic stuff, if you're a fan of Egypt or Uruguay On the plus side, they did fix the stadium logistics at Luzhniki and nobody had to wait for an hour to leave the stadium, which became a bit of a problem after the Argentina friendly. Considering the traffic in Moscow, kind of a big deal. Good on us, I guess. Any news on how many brilliant and eternally peaceful Western politicians will boycott? Not being sarcastic, just curious

Imagine how much fun those WBA fans are having. So many thrills before the season ends.

This is rather exciting, I must confess.

We got completely bummed in Brazil, looks like we're getting raped in Russia I know at least two dudes from a football forum that I frequent for the last 10 years who specifically bought tickets to support your boys :lol:For some bizarre reason, your national team is quite appealing here. Have absolutely no idea why, probably nothing to do with Kylie and Hugh

Quality

what are the odds for him to remain at WBA if they lose every game from now until the end of the season? Just curious

Spent 6 hours waiting online, but managed to get a QF ticket in Kazan. Ripoff price, but who cares. Can't wait. I do realize this is a football forum, and no sane person should ever search for logic or common sense. But, come on State-funded violence in Marseille? Considering that there were quite a few episodes during Euro16, involving knobs from different countries, I must assume that it had nothing to do with crappy policing and sh!t data exchange between relevant authorities. One evil dude funded it, for some peculiar reason. Hard to say what's the benefit, but I am sure some intellectual like Joey Barton would care to explain :)We had Man U and Lpool in Moscow playing the same week, I never bumped into a single article about any incidents. Likewise, for Spartak and CSKA in corresponding fixtures in England. And curiously enough, there were a few in Spain (one even ending in a tragedy, although I am sure nobody bothered to read a statement from Bilbao police union rep afterwards). Curiously enough, nothing happened when Real Sociedad, Athletic and Sevilla played here. Probably nothing to do with particular individuals responsible in the day among the Spanish police. If Italy get to host a World Cup some time in the future, would one not go because, you know, Rome and Naples, stabbing someone and such? As a match-going local who has seen some truly crap stuff in the stands back in the day, I find this talk absolute nonsense. Then again, I must have forgotten about millions of civilized Westerners who were eaten by bears in Sochi (for being gay and/or black, obviously) or boiled in noodle soup during the Olympics in Beijing. Or something like that As for the spy gate, that is just beyond ridiculous. If people want to boycott, they are free to do so of course. But then again, if we are indeed on course for WW3, how about a great final pissup? Jesus Christ, maybe I am getting old, but the sheer horror of how many individuals base their thinking on Star Wars and movies about James Bond really does get me sometimes Should be a cracking party, but what can one do if we live in a day and age of phony outrage (irrespective of one's place of origin).

These down yet?

I bet these guys can't eat and sleep having to watch matches of a club that is forced to play in the same league as Chelsea and Bournemouth Been to South Korea, lovely place. Know a few people who went there for the World Cup in 2002. Great memories. Some people, man. :lol:Trump FFS

Those tats on his head. Why?

Madrid Alaves match is proper canny

Nigeria-Iceland ticket fixed. Volgograd on a roasting hot day in June, here I come. The inner Scotsman cries because of the monetary considerations involved, but the inner football-loving kid is ecstatic Our centrbacks are all crooked, two of the planned starters got their ACLs all ferked up. Which means that the eternal Berezutsky twins or even the 60 y.o. Ignashevitch might still have to play. Or, we might have to arrange a Russian passport for a certain Waldermar Anton who plays for Hannover, with his parents being from Siberia iirc. Already got two Germans repatriated (Rausch and Noedstedter), so why not. What, with youth football still failing to produce any consistent amount of quality players in certain areas. If I were a fan of either Egypt or Uruguay, I would bet my house on Russia conceding in these matches. Literally a handful of players remotely ready for first team international duty at one of the most crucial of positions. Good news for anyone who has tickets to matches in Nizhny Novgorod and does not intend to bring family along - quite a few of their pub and bar owners plan to work 24/7 during the tournament. Awesome party town, can't wait.

What an absolute waste of a career.

Heart bleeds for McGeady specifically. Must be missing having his personal chef, driver and liaison officer (to drag him out of the nightclub at 7 am) and all the other perks. Heart bleeds for the daft tw@t. Not.

A ban on all traveling fans a step to take because some thugs met another set of thugs and it ended up in tragedy with a police officer suffering a stroke? And the follow-up paragraph makes it even more ludicrous. The sad reality is that in this particular instance a group of far-left nutters met a group of far-right nutters. Always amazes me how with all the technology available to the relevant authorities, all the black lists and databases, these things still happen from time to time. Absolutely bewildering, considering resources involved. And I am not even talking about Russia in particular. Arsenal - Cologne game had a whole bunch of people fired for blatant failure to maintain order written all over it. I actually stopped watching Brazilian and Argentinian football a few years back, passing interest now, purely due to some mental things in the stands and around the stadiums. But still regret not going to Brazil for the World Cup, brilliant country. Now, I am the last person on this forum to say anything nice about that set of pigs (there is no such thing as a "Moscow" fan, it's kinda like calling someone a London or a Manchester fan when one of their clubs are away in Europe), but they do bring a ton away, domestically and abroad. Any club in the world who have that luxury/problem will admit to a certain scum element among such visitors. One of their charmers was actually detained in Munich (was involved in the whole Marseille thing) on Wednesday. Unfortunately, we live in a day and age when being a mentalist is too appealing to some. And the histerical media is always hungry for more. Some dude punches a horse, every NUFC fan does. Some idiots racially abused Batshuayi yesterday, must mean that every Atalanta fan is a racist. Proper hardmen spend a night out in Bilbao looking for trouble with another set of proper hardmen, a tragedy happens, must ban everyone from there. Problem solved. Not. Incidents like this need serious investigation and severe punishments must be handed out to those responsible and yes, dare I say it as someone who saw quite mental things in the stands in my youth - that includes police officers who fail on duty due to lack of professionalism. These things shouldn't happen anywhere in 2018, end of. And the whole WC thing is already tarnished, cos we are evil, hellbent on destroying the universe, challenging The Donald's precious lifestyle and all that. So nothing new. Thoughts and prayers to the family of the officer.

Turned out a mate of mine was at the match yesterday, managed to get a ticket while on a business trip. Not a keen follower of English football, mind, but he still texted a question why West Brom were so sh!t. Pardew, the master of the positive first impression But then again, top teams might have a chance, when you insist on playing progressive, entertaining, attacking, front-foot football. Almost unfair

His attitude absolutely reeks apparently What a shocker. Left quite a mark as a grade A kernt in these here parts. Played for the pigs to boot. That's it, they must go down, like

Aiden McGeady still with them? Should be relegated for that alone

Hopefully, the Neanderthal section of their support won't affect the kid's confidence if he isn't good enough. He was supposed to be a very exciting prospect for you guys iirc. Injuries? Kind of disappeared, I actually thought that he was plodding along at some MK Dons type club. Best of luck, lovely city and all, but he is getting into a very serious relegation dogfight. As a keen follower of Serie A, dare I say it - Hellas' situation this season is far worse even without lying, unambitious kernts like Ashley at helm. Be interesting to see what he gets out of this experience.

Gracia failed miserably at Rubin, despite being given almost a new squad of vastly overpaid decent-ish players (mostly from Primera). Yes, they are one of the toughest clubs to work at in our league, due to some behind the scenes political aggro between the directors, but honestly it was almost painful to watch at times. Rumors of cliques between players, the ever-present complete inability to make even a half-arsed effort to learn the language (I always wonder why is it that hockey and basketball players are far more interested in integrating in new surroundings, than the footballers) and general feeling of apathy. All of that for a reported 6 million euros per season. They are now struggling to offload his signings, cleverly flirting with bankruptcy, so that wasters like Mvila can terminate their contracts, which they do, of course. I have no idea if he is any good at English, and his Malaga side were very well-drilled and functional (plus, anyone who gives Pablo Fornals a place in the team can't be that bad), but stranger things have worked out under even more bizarre circumstances.

To be fair, Pozzos have always been about player transfers pure and simple. Without them, Watford would just be another meddling Championship club (at best), while Udinese would probably play way outside of realms of Serie A, let alone have a wonderful new ground. I understand why their model isn't universally popular, but it's not like they have a sovereign oil rich state behind them. Silva does come across as a bit of an arrogant character, and their run was well rotten. There are some good players there (I rate Richarlison and Doucore, Kabasele looks promising) and their aim is to survive anyway. At least, they will never employ a Pardew or a Lambert, you can bet on it. Also, for all the "mental" talk, when they sold Granada to the Chinese media guy (name escapes me, but he also owns Parma and a minor share in Minnesota Timberwolves) he specifically praised them for the shape the club infrastructure was in and the books in order. Rumor has it, they are about to buy Tondela in the Portuguese Primera, so that it would be easier to bring even more talent from South America for resale. Not everyone's cup of tea, understandably, and we can go on and on how the game is dead and all that, but personally I would much rather have football business people involved at clubs the size of Watford or Udinese, than a guy like Ashley, no matter how much wealthier he might be. Also, NEVER a boring transfer window with them, an ultimate dream for any FM addict

And he dates a fit bird as well.