What a weekend it was for Manchester! Manchester United made history by securing the league title for the nineteenth time at Ewood Park and Manchester City kept the Manc flag flying high by winning the FA Cup at Wembley!
It isn’t every day you’ll find both sets of supporters celebrating in the city of Manchester but this weekend showed it was indeed possible. And it could be a sign of things to come. We could be entering an era where English football is dominated by Manchester!
Showing posts with label FA Cup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FA Cup. Show all posts
Monday, 16 May 2011
Saturday, 14 May 2011
35 years.
So today is the big day: the FA Cup final! I don’t know about you but this year’s final just isn’t doing it for me. I honestly don’t care, and that’s really quite sad as it’s a competition with such great memories for me.
I know I’m a Manchester United fan, and Manchester City are in the final, but that isn’t the reason I’m not interested, heck I couldn’t actually care less if City won it or not. What the hell is wrong with me!? I am letting the red half of Manchester down big time.
I know I’m a Manchester United fan, and Manchester City are in the final, but that isn’t the reason I’m not interested, heck I couldn’t actually care less if City won it or not. What the hell is wrong with me!? I am letting the red half of Manchester down big time.
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Ryan Babel #idiot
Upon watching the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Liverpool at the weekend you may have heard the commentator say the following when Ryan Babel came onto the pitch:
I’m sure he’s impressed his new manager no end! Because yes, as you might have heard, after the match, in which Liverpool lost 1-0 thanks to a dubious penalty and a stone-wall sending off, Ryan Babel decided to log in to Twitter and take his frustrations out on referee Howard Webb.
Along with this outburst he posted a link to a mock-up photo of Howard Webb in an old United kit clearly stating he felt the experienced official was a biased referee. He couldn’t even be bothered to Photoshop the latest kit onto him, what a muppet.
What went through his head? What imbecile writes that on Twitter and goes into enough thought for a picture and thinks they’ll get away with it scot-free. Ryan Babel apparently.
Obviously he didn’t get away with it and the FA have charged him with improper conduct, and rightly so. If you ever find yourself on Ryan Babel’s twitter page you’ll see that he’s been banging on about being sent to Twitter jail. Maybe it will do him some good, if he spent more time actually training than tweeting nonsense all day long he might actually become an average player yet!
But that’s not even the worst thing, what’s annoyed me the most is the fact that the PFA have actually defended him! No! You just don’t do it! Gordon Taylor, a man so out of touch with the game he still thinks managers are allowed to smoke in the dug-out, has come out and said Babel shouldn’t be reprimanded:
This guy’s a bigger idiot than Babel. First of all Gordon, a quick definition of the word vitriolic from Chamber’s dictionary: extremely bitter or hateful, especially with reference to speech or criticism. Yeah, I think we can just about say that Mr. Babel had a slight bitterness to his apparently innocuous tweet.
I highly doubt Howard Webb will see the funny side to it to be honest Gordon. He’s a professional referee and calling him biased is pretty much the worse thing you can say about him! That would be like calling a fireman a secret arsonist! I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if someone questioned your professionalism Gordon, how would you feel if someone said you took a bung from a multi-national news corporation? You wouldn’t be seeing the funny side to it would you?
Football is currently the worst sport for showing disrespect to officials. Referees in football get nothing but abuse from fans, players, managers, and journalists, and yet funnily enough without them we’d have no game to play at all. Players show no respect for match officials, swearing at them, surrounding them, slating them before and after games. What message does that send to the young kids out there? It’s alright kids, abusing the referees is just part of the game, according to Gordon Taylor it’s all a bit of fun!
In rugby the referee stands at about half the size of the cauli-eared behemoths running around the field and yet they command more respect than a football referee could ever dream of! Players address him as Sir, listen to what he has to say, and take decisions on the chin, whether they’re right or wrong. So why is football so different? Well youngsters playing football aren’t being taught to respect the referees while young rugby players are. That’s where it has to start, at a young age. Teach them to respect officials no matter what, their decision is final. If it’s gone against you, man up and get on with it. But that’s easier said than done when every Match of the Day interview is filled with one manager praising his team whilst the other bemoans the referee.
Ryan Babel’s tweeting is but a drop in the ocean. But that ocean is made of tiny droplets that over the years have created a mass of water so big it will probably never be able to be drained.
Babel’s not the one to blame here, he obviously thought it was okay to do what he did. He has since apologised on Twitter, it’s unknown if he has apologised to Howard Webb directly though. The people to blame for all this are the FA, who year in year out allow this to happen, and the morons like Gordon Taylor who apparently say it‘s alright.
And they call him chief executive of the PFA? That's a joke. SMH
“Here’s a real chance for Ryan Babel to impress his new manager, all be it they’re down to ten men and a goal down, but it’s still a great chance for him.”
I’m sure he’s impressed his new manager no end! Because yes, as you might have heard, after the match, in which Liverpool lost 1-0 thanks to a dubious penalty and a stone-wall sending off, Ryan Babel decided to log in to Twitter and take his frustrations out on referee Howard Webb.
“And they call him one of the best referees? That's a joke. SMH”
Along with this outburst he posted a link to a mock-up photo of Howard Webb in an old United kit clearly stating he felt the experienced official was a biased referee. He couldn’t even be bothered to Photoshop the latest kit onto him, what a muppet.
What went through his head? What imbecile writes that on Twitter and goes into enough thought for a picture and thinks they’ll get away with it scot-free. Ryan Babel apparently.
Obviously he didn’t get away with it and the FA have charged him with improper conduct, and rightly so. If you ever find yourself on Ryan Babel’s twitter page you’ll see that he’s been banging on about being sent to Twitter jail. Maybe it will do him some good, if he spent more time actually training than tweeting nonsense all day long he might actually become an average player yet!
But that’s not even the worst thing, what’s annoyed me the most is the fact that the PFA have actually defended him! No! You just don’t do it! Gordon Taylor, a man so out of touch with the game he still thinks managers are allowed to smoke in the dug-out, has come out and said Babel shouldn’t be reprimanded:
“So long as it's not vitriolic, so long as it's taken in the right way and it's a little bit of fun then we've got to be able to smile at these things.”
This guy’s a bigger idiot than Babel. First of all Gordon, a quick definition of the word vitriolic from Chamber’s dictionary: extremely bitter or hateful, especially with reference to speech or criticism. Yeah, I think we can just about say that Mr. Babel had a slight bitterness to his apparently innocuous tweet.
I highly doubt Howard Webb will see the funny side to it to be honest Gordon. He’s a professional referee and calling him biased is pretty much the worse thing you can say about him! That would be like calling a fireman a secret arsonist! I’m sure you wouldn’t like it if someone questioned your professionalism Gordon, how would you feel if someone said you took a bung from a multi-national news corporation? You wouldn’t be seeing the funny side to it would you?
Football is currently the worst sport for showing disrespect to officials. Referees in football get nothing but abuse from fans, players, managers, and journalists, and yet funnily enough without them we’d have no game to play at all. Players show no respect for match officials, swearing at them, surrounding them, slating them before and after games. What message does that send to the young kids out there? It’s alright kids, abusing the referees is just part of the game, according to Gordon Taylor it’s all a bit of fun!
In rugby the referee stands at about half the size of the cauli-eared behemoths running around the field and yet they command more respect than a football referee could ever dream of! Players address him as Sir, listen to what he has to say, and take decisions on the chin, whether they’re right or wrong. So why is football so different? Well youngsters playing football aren’t being taught to respect the referees while young rugby players are. That’s where it has to start, at a young age. Teach them to respect officials no matter what, their decision is final. If it’s gone against you, man up and get on with it. But that’s easier said than done when every Match of the Day interview is filled with one manager praising his team whilst the other bemoans the referee.
Ryan Babel’s tweeting is but a drop in the ocean. But that ocean is made of tiny droplets that over the years have created a mass of water so big it will probably never be able to be drained.
Babel’s not the one to blame here, he obviously thought it was okay to do what he did. He has since apologised on Twitter, it’s unknown if he has apologised to Howard Webb directly though. The people to blame for all this are the FA, who year in year out allow this to happen, and the morons like Gordon Taylor who apparently say it‘s alright.
And they call him chief executive of the PFA? That's a joke. SMH
Saturday, 8 January 2011
Hodgson sacking: Who's to blame?
Liverpool are terrible. A simple statement of the obvious, but true nonetheless. In the past two seasons they’ve looked so poor, with two players at most providing any input whatsoever. So who is to blame for all this?
The previous owners have done their fair share towards the demise of the club, Hicks and Gillett brought down the axe on them for sure, but they are thankfully gone now and Liverpool have new owners. New owners who probably didn’t know what they were in for!
There is a long long road back to the top for Liverpool. The owners, and the fans, are going to have to be very patient as they wait for Liverpool to even get into contention for European places, never mind the Premier League.
However, since Liverpool have been saved by their new baseballing owners, they’ve still been as poor on the pitch as they were with Hicks and Gillett. So who’s to blame for it?
At this moment in time all of it is being placed at the door of manager Roy Hodgson, and literally as I’ve been writing this, he has been sacked. Fair or unfair, this is just what happens when you’re manager of one of the biggest clubs in Europe and your team isn‘t performing. I personally think blaming Hodgson for it all is unfair. Obviously he was under extreme pressure by the fans, but maybe they were expecting a little too much from him. Liverpool are not an elite club in the Premier League anymore, their team isn’t even good enough for a Europe berth. It’s been the biggest fall from grace in Premier League history, and in such a short time too. Two seasons ago Liverpool looked like they would win the title for the first time in their history, United pipped them, and they’ve been in freefall ever since.
They’re just not a good side, take three players out of it, Reina, Gerrard and Torres, and Liverpool are no better than West Ham. Exaggeration? I don’t think so. Liverpool’s current squad are so under-par they almost don’t deserve to be playing in the Premier League at all.
You do feel for Roy Hodgson, he had a tough job in getting this bunch of second-rate superstars to perform like a top side and it just was not happening. You can't blame Hodgson for all of it. It’s the players who should have to answer for the recent plummet in form. Think about it, Liverpool have been poor now for a couple of years, they were poor under Hicks and Gillett, they’ve been poor under the new ownership; they’ve been poor under Rafa Benitez, they’ve been poor under Roy Hodgson. Who’s been there the whole time? The players. Someone needs to tell them that Liverpool Football Club is not a retirement home! It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world!
It must be so frustrating to be a Liverpool fan, especially a Liverpool fan who spends their good money to go and watch their side at Anfield, and God have mercy on their poor away fans. Every game I’ve watched with them involved, all I’ve seen has been a complete lack of effort by the players, they don’t even care. Some of them have been sat in cruise control, waiting for the inevitable moment when Hodgson gets the sack and someone else takes the reigns.
Remember when putting on a Liverpool shirt meant something? Apparently those days are gone. None of the players this season have even pretended to make an effort, with the exception of Pepe Reina. Steven Gerrard is a great player but I’ve only seen glimpses of him putting in a shift, and he’s the captain! Fernando Torres started to show some of the form that Liverpool fans remember early on this year, but he has fallen right back into his rut. Joe Cole has done nothing since signing, the whole defence might as well be made of origami, Max Rodriguez is capable of much more, same goes for Glen Johnson and Lucas. Paul Konchesky is the only woeful player you can blame on Hodgson.
Liverpool are in the FA Cup against Manchester United this weekend and you just can't see them getting a result, not when you have players who just aren’t earning their wages. When you put on that shirt, you give your all, not necessarily for the manager but for the fans. When these players first sign for Liverpool all you hear from them is how big a club Liverpool is and how proud they are to be playing for them. Here’s an idea: show it!
If Liverpool are going to get out of this mess they’re going to have to do some work. The fans don’t deserve to watch this, I think the recent Anfield attendance says it all really. It’s not fair on them, it’s not fair on the owners, it’s not fair on the now sacked manager. Go out there and make an effort, for your self respect if nothing else.
The previous owners have done their fair share towards the demise of the club, Hicks and Gillett brought down the axe on them for sure, but they are thankfully gone now and Liverpool have new owners. New owners who probably didn’t know what they were in for!
There is a long long road back to the top for Liverpool. The owners, and the fans, are going to have to be very patient as they wait for Liverpool to even get into contention for European places, never mind the Premier League.
However, since Liverpool have been saved by their new baseballing owners, they’ve still been as poor on the pitch as they were with Hicks and Gillett. So who’s to blame for it?
At this moment in time all of it is being placed at the door of manager Roy Hodgson, and literally as I’ve been writing this, he has been sacked. Fair or unfair, this is just what happens when you’re manager of one of the biggest clubs in Europe and your team isn‘t performing. I personally think blaming Hodgson for it all is unfair. Obviously he was under extreme pressure by the fans, but maybe they were expecting a little too much from him. Liverpool are not an elite club in the Premier League anymore, their team isn’t even good enough for a Europe berth. It’s been the biggest fall from grace in Premier League history, and in such a short time too. Two seasons ago Liverpool looked like they would win the title for the first time in their history, United pipped them, and they’ve been in freefall ever since.
They’re just not a good side, take three players out of it, Reina, Gerrard and Torres, and Liverpool are no better than West Ham. Exaggeration? I don’t think so. Liverpool’s current squad are so under-par they almost don’t deserve to be playing in the Premier League at all.
You do feel for Roy Hodgson, he had a tough job in getting this bunch of second-rate superstars to perform like a top side and it just was not happening. You can't blame Hodgson for all of it. It’s the players who should have to answer for the recent plummet in form. Think about it, Liverpool have been poor now for a couple of years, they were poor under Hicks and Gillett, they’ve been poor under the new ownership; they’ve been poor under Rafa Benitez, they’ve been poor under Roy Hodgson. Who’s been there the whole time? The players. Someone needs to tell them that Liverpool Football Club is not a retirement home! It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world!
It must be so frustrating to be a Liverpool fan, especially a Liverpool fan who spends their good money to go and watch their side at Anfield, and God have mercy on their poor away fans. Every game I’ve watched with them involved, all I’ve seen has been a complete lack of effort by the players, they don’t even care. Some of them have been sat in cruise control, waiting for the inevitable moment when Hodgson gets the sack and someone else takes the reigns.
Remember when putting on a Liverpool shirt meant something? Apparently those days are gone. None of the players this season have even pretended to make an effort, with the exception of Pepe Reina. Steven Gerrard is a great player but I’ve only seen glimpses of him putting in a shift, and he’s the captain! Fernando Torres started to show some of the form that Liverpool fans remember early on this year, but he has fallen right back into his rut. Joe Cole has done nothing since signing, the whole defence might as well be made of origami, Max Rodriguez is capable of much more, same goes for Glen Johnson and Lucas. Paul Konchesky is the only woeful player you can blame on Hodgson.
Liverpool are in the FA Cup against Manchester United this weekend and you just can't see them getting a result, not when you have players who just aren’t earning their wages. When you put on that shirt, you give your all, not necessarily for the manager but for the fans. When these players first sign for Liverpool all you hear from them is how big a club Liverpool is and how proud they are to be playing for them. Here’s an idea: show it!
If Liverpool are going to get out of this mess they’re going to have to do some work. The fans don’t deserve to watch this, I think the recent Anfield attendance says it all really. It’s not fair on them, it’s not fair on the owners, it’s not fair on the now sacked manager. Go out there and make an effort, for your self respect if nothing else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)