English Premier League EPL Thread

[thecorsair]

What are the youth academies in the clubs doing? After years of no success with players from all over the world, Barca hit gold with Guardiola pushing for homegrown talent. Remember if Deco wasnt sold, Iniesta would never have been seen the way you guys see him today. I know the feeling of despair when the club you support goes for a prolonged bad patch where you know its mismanagement from handling players to the managers.
Barcelona currently seem like some benchmark... it wasnt the same before 2009... For years and seasons Barca were perennial underachievers, from Van Gaal to all of them... we had some special talent but the team did nothing... Rijkaard did bring in some semblance but it was still attractive football with losses and no trophies (I dont consider Spanish Cup and stuff as notable trophies)

Guardiola promoted the right players like Busquets, Iniesta, Pique and Messi correctly. I dont know how many of you know this but The Barca board were planning to sell Xavi to ManU and Messi and Iniesta as loans in their early time to Rangers and with Iniesta having a permanent deal clause...

So bad management is everywhere and bad times happen... but good times will come

United's youth academy hasn't produced any top class players since Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Scholes and the Nevilles in the early-mid 90's.

That 2 of those are still part of the first team squad is a pretty telling statistic.

 

[RagingBull]

United's youth academy hasn't produced any top class players since Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Scholes and the Nevilles in the early-mid 90's.

That 2 of those are still part of the first team squad is a pretty telling statistic.

Cleverly is coming through for you now though, he looks like a class player. If injuries aren't a problem him & Wiltshire will make for a great midfield pairing for England one day. Saying that, if Arsenal carry on the way they are, him & Wiltshire will make for a great midfield pairing for Man Utd one day lol

 

[RagingBull]

Champions League Draw if anyone's interested;

Group A
Porto
Dynamo Kiev
Paris St Germain
Dinamo Zagreb

Group B
Arsenal
Schalke
Olympiakos
Montpellier

Group C
AC Milan
Zenit St Petersburg
Anderlecht
Malaga

Group D
Real Madrid
Manchester City
Ajax
Borussia Dortmund

Group E
Chelsea
Shakhtar Donetsk
Juventus
FC Nordsjaelland

Group F
Bayern Munich
Valencia
Lille
Bate Borisov

Group G
Barcelona
Benfica
Spartak Moscow
Celtic

Group H
Manchester United
Braga
Galatasaray
CFR Cluj

 

[VASith]

Cleverly is coming through for you now though, he looks like a class player. If injuries aren't a problem him & Wilshere will make for a great midfield pairing for England one day. Saying that, if Arsenal carry on the way they are, him & Wiltshire will make for a great midfield pairing for Man Utd one day lol

Fixed for you.

 

[FLOSI]

D and E look like interesting groups...

So Spurs sign Defoe to an extension... I have no clue what the hell they're doing.

 

[axecutioner18]

United's youth academy hasn't produced any top class players since Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Scholes and the Nevilles in the early-mid 90's.

That 2 of those are still part of the first team squad is a pretty telling statistic.

Exactly and this illustrates my point, when a team hits a high and makes its mark ,it is usually when a core group of players who have fantastic understanding due to playing together for years hit it off... which mainly happens in youth academies...

or consider Arsenal's 'unbeatables' (I dunno but that moniker was a little too much IMO) those guys were all literally national team compatriots from Henry, Pires, Wiltord, Viera etc etc and having stuck together for so long and being naturally talented they obviously struck gold...

So its not the talent, the fact that you have to be patient and stick it out with the same core group is important. Sadly these days, everyone just wants to go where they feel they can get ready made success... few want to really give it a shot with patience and time. Specially I see the younger upcoming players have become moreso transfer frisky probably because their role models were like that...

 

[RagingBull]

Fixed for you.

Ha thanks. He's been out for so long I can't remember how to spell his name

 

[axecutioner18]

Ha thanks. He's been out for so long I can't remember how to spell his name

Ironically WILTshere is apt considering his constant injuries...

 

[RagingBull]

Exactly and this illustrates my point, when a team hits a high and makes its mark ,it is usually when a core group of players who have fantastic understanding due to playing together for years hit it off... which mainly happens in youth academies...

or consider Arsenal's 'unbeatables' (I dunno but that moniker was a little too much IMO) those guys were all literally national team compatriots from Henry, Pires, Wiltord, Viera etc etc and having stuck together for so long and being naturally talented they obviously struck gold...

So its not the talent, the fact that you have to be patient and stick it out with the same core group is important. Sadly these days, everyone just wants to go where they feel they can get ready made success... few want to really give it a shot with patience and time. Specially I see the younger upcoming players have become moreso transfer frisky probably because their role models were like that...

You are spot on Axe. I think the Real Madrid Galacticos proved that buying a team doesn't quite work for lasting success. They wanted to buy the best player's in the workd for each position. Yeah they had some success but not long term. Even City with all them superstars, on paper there probably got a stronger squad than any team in Europe. I know they won the league but they look beatable, which new prompted Southampton proved. It takes time to gel as a team & Barca were gelling as a team years & years ago before we had even heard of Messi, Xavi etc etc

What do you think of Barca's Champions League group Axe?

 

[axecutioner18]

What do you think of Barca's Champions League group Axe?

I think its a pretty tough group, Moskow, Celtic and Benfica are not pushovers specially the away ties will be extremely tough... its not easy coming back from these strongholds with 3 points, so whatever Barca has to do is try to maximise whatever they can do to increase the GD in the Nou Camp.

Also with the fact that these teams specially Celtic and Moskow will probably look to park the bus, I think the group will be a very hard fight for Barca...

In ways the so called Group of Death wont actually be that tough for Real Madrid because honestly its only tough when teams start to park the bus, Man City and Dortmund are not that kind of team and neither are Ajax.. and when there is open play its easier to create and build chances...

 

[RagingBull]

I think its a pretty tough group, Moskow, Celtic and Benfica are not pushovers specially the away ties will be extremely tough... its not easy coming back from these strongholds with 3 points, so whatever Barca has to do is try to maximise whatever they can do to increase the GD in the Nou Camp.

Also with the fact that these teams specially Celtic and Moskow will probably look to park the bus, I think the group will be a very hard fight for Barca...

In ways the so called Group of Death wont actually be that tough for Real Madrid because honestly its only tough when teams start to park the bus, Man City and Dortmund are not that kind of team and neither are Ajax.. and when there is open play its easier to create and build chances...

I think Barca will beat them all comfortably at home but thats 3 hostile stadiums there got to go to but Barca thrive on that kind of atmosphere, I'm sure they'll win the group comfortably still.
Hopefully City will play to there potential this season in the champions league, if they do they should win that group. IMO there got a better squad than Real but Real have the better manager and experience.

 

[thecorsair]

Cleverly is coming through for you now though, he looks like a class player. If injuries aren't a problem him & Wiltshire will make for a great midfield pairing for England one day. Saying that, if Arsenal carry on the way they are, him & Wiltshire will make for a great midfield pairing for Man Utd one day lol

He may turn out OK if he can stay fit but he's not really done anything to justify the hype so far.

Another dodgy product in recent years is Welbeck. He's been sent out on loan several times, been given lots of game time and still only has a slightly better goalscoring record than Emile Heskey.

The Champions League group stages should be fun as even though United won't go through they probably won't get their arses kicked as badly as City will

 

[greygoose]

D and E look like interesting groups...

So Spurs sign Defoe to an extension... I have no clue what the hell they're doing.

They can't afford to buy a new striker.

 

[greygoose]

Another crazy transfer deadline day.

 

[meth head]

Arsenal have signed nobody and doubtful anything is going on behind the scenes

 

[greygoose]

Arsenal have signed nobody and doubtful anything is going on behind the scenes

Same here. Atleast your squad is better than ours.

 

[meth head]

Same here. Atleast your squad is better than ours.

Hmmmm that's debatable mate. I am f____g fuming! Arsenal are f_____g the fans over big time! If I had spent the kind of money they have on season tickets I would be p____d!

Another shameful day for the gooners

 

[greygoose]

Hmmmm that's debatable mate. I am f____g fuming! Arsenal are f_____g the fans over big time! If I had spent the kind of money they have on season tickets I would be p____d!

Another shameful day for the gooners

You'll be ok. Wenger will get you that fourth spot.

We on the other hand loan Carroll out and don't replace him.

 

[meth head]

You'll be ok. Wenger will get you that fourth spot.

We on the other hand loan Carroll out and don't replace him.

I don't want 4th. It keeps covering up the desperate cracks within our club. As terrible as it sounds I want them to get battered week in and week out. Maybe then change will happen.

 

[VASith]

Hmmmm that's debatable mate. I am f____g fuming! Arsenal are f_____g the fans over big time! If I had spent the kind of money they have on season tickets I would be p____d!

Another shameful day for the gooners

Shameful? Don't think so. No need to break the bank on desperate signings right now. We will grab a defender and maybe forward in january when prices are a bit better. Sky isn't falling. We have a good squad.