Gert & TheBoy's Official VNA Soccer... err Football Thread

[TheBoy]

Yep, a few interesting groups drawn yesterday, not least Group H which could throw up some great matches. Arsenal have a wonderfully tough group - it almost looks back to front with Napoli and Dortmund being the 3rd and 4th seeds. Some good games to look forward to in the other groups, such as City v Bayern and Real Madrid v Juventus, but the other groups do look a lot more straight forward in predicting the top two.

In MUCH less exciting news, the Europa League groups were drawn today. Spurs have been drawn against Anzhi Makhachkala, FC Sheriff and Tromso; Swansea have drawn Valencia, Kuban and St Gallen; Wigan have got Rubin Kazan, Maribor and Zulte Waregem and finally (of interest!) PSV are joined by GNK Dinamo, Chornomorets Odesa, Ludogorets.

Chelsea have signed Samuel Eto'o on a free transfer from Anzhi, which to me seems a real gamble. I was surprised to see Eto'o is still only 32, but considering he's been happily collecting his mammoth pay cheque in Russia for the past couple of years suggest to me his heart isn't really in the game any more. For Chelsea's striking options to be the shadow Torres, Demba Ba (who is looking likely to be rejoining Newcastle on loan), the seemingly untrusted Lukaku and now Eto'o is hardly going to scare the opposition. The internet is a wonderful thing too, as mischievous folk have today been highlighting the comment made by Eto'o back in 2005 when he said "I’d rather sell groundnuts in my village than to play for a pathetic team like Chelsea"

Onto Spurs and we've had a busy day announcing signings of Vlad Chiriches and Erik Lamela Lamela becomes our new record signing for the third time this summer. Word on the street (well Twitter and my favourite Spurs forum) is that Eriksen has been at training along with his fellow new signings today, so hopefully Spurs will make an official announcement soon too. The scary thing about all this transfer activity is that so far we're just about going to break even on the players signed and how much Madrid will pay for Bale. Add in the sales we have made and the indications are that Daniel Levy will still have some spare change rattling around with which to spend on his favourite day of the year, transfer deadline day!

Aside from the money coming from Bale to finance these deals, it's amazing to think that we can attract players with the quality of Paulinho, Soldado, Lamela and Eriksen without having Champions League football and without paying stupidly high wages. It makes me very proud.

UEFA Super Cup action tonight with Bayern vs Chelsea. I'll probably catch some of it, but these games rarely live up to the billing. Be very interesting to see Mourinho come up against Guardiola again! Apparently one journalist asked Jose what he thought of his record against Pep with just 3 wins in 15 attempts... Jose got angry and said he was wrong... until someone informed him that it was in fact correct, lol.

Any interesting transfers on the horizon in Holland? Who do you think Ajax will go for to replace Eriksen?

[Gert-Jan]

Holloway is one bad ass comedian, lol. Awesome quotes by a man I wasn't too familiar with yet. Has he worked as manager in the Premier League before, or mainly coaching teams in the "Coca Cola" Championship? Refresh my memory..?

Normally during the transfer window we talk about Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Manchester United, but I'm pretty sure Tottenham Hotspur is what everybody is talking about nowadays. Levy has put together a team which seems perfectly capable of finishing in the top 4, making my pre-season prediction look stupid. We've discussed Eriksen earlier this summer, but I'd like to add that I personally find his numbers of goals and assists still just average; 162 matches for Ajax, 32 goals, 54 assists. His replacement should have been Marco van Ginkel. That's the big surprise Ajax had in mind, but Chelsea wasn't being cooperative. Yesterday, technical directors of both clubs, Overmars and Emenalo, negotiated about the possibility of Van Ginkel moving back to Holland for this season only. Ain't gonna happen though. Earlier tonight Ajax have officially announced they have reached an agreement with Heracles Almelo about Lerin Duarte. (Heracles have one of the lowest budgets in the Eredivisie.) This transfer is another perfect example of Cruijff's philosophy; not spending any more money on players that ask stupidious wages, when a much more affordable player can easily be signed. You will soon see him play against Barcelona....

I agree the European Super Cup is normally not the most exciting game to watch, but thought I'd reserve some time to sit down and watch it anyway. If only for the "battle" between Pep & Jose. But, DAMN, I got way more than expected. Fantastic attacking Football by Bayern Munich, you could really see some Barcelona influences there, while Chelsea were defending like champs, yet being very creative too. David Luiz's header should have been Mourinho's ultimate victory over Guardiola.... Mourinho's own interpretation ofcourse. He was going nuts during the second half of the extra time. There are moments I believe he's one of the greatest managers in the world, but sometimes I really think he should pay a visit to the local psychiatrist.

Wish I could say something about PSV's opponents in the Europa League, but all I know is that East Europe is where they'll be headed to. That, plus the fact Serbia, Ukraine & Bulgaria are three highly ranked matchfixing countries, lol. Spurs should be able to easily advance, especially with the squad they have now. Group F is indeed one of the most exciting groups in the CL draw. Also, funny how faith has put Barca and Celtic in the same group again. Remember last year's result in Glasgow?

Kinda lost track of all the lastest transfers, so I may have missed a few. Last night my sister told me Kevin Prince Boateng went from Milan to Schalke? I was like: "Girl, you gotta be kiddin' me!", but apparently he DID leave Italy and moved to Germany? Even more surprising since he was really putting in an effort for Milan during Wednesday's match. I think Alderweireld will be leaving Ajax as well, and maybe PSV's midfielder Toivonen, too. There's still an official agreement between Norwich and PSV, which expires around midnight on September 2nd, but the Swede really doesn't wanna go to Norwich. Well, that's what he has been telling the world for the past few weeks. In the world of Football, though, that usually means the total opposite, lol. No transfer for him implies he will be forced to join PSV's B-squad. Club policy.

TOMORROW!! .... Super Sunday .... Liverpool vs Manchester United & Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur.

From historical point of view, the two most successful English teams followed by an intense North London derby.

[TheBoy]

Sorry I left replying for a couple of days. I was... pretty dark on Sunday as you can probably imagine. Then I thought I would wait until after the transfer deadline had passed.

So, let's jump back to the weekend. Liverpool continued their fine start to the season with a well deserved 1-0 victory over Manchester United. Things will get very interesting for them when Suarez becomes available for selection, as Brendan Rogers will be eagerly watched to see what he does. Sturridge has started off in the same form as he finished last season (11 goals in his last 8 games, I believe) and so he can be forgiven for thinking he has earned the main striker role. However Luis Suarez will probably not be best pleased at having to play out wide or behind. I still think that Liverpool should have sold Suarez during the summer, but now we will have to wait and see what happens.

Spurs were quite frankly awful against Arsenal. We dominated possession against them (and it's a looooong time since I can ever remember us doing that!) but we did absolutely nothing with the ball, were slow to react, and looked clueless creatively. Arsenal on the other hand defended as a team and took their chance when it came along. I think this game simply came too soon in the season for Spurs. If this had been maybe a month later, then it could have been a different story, but it's obvious right now that we need more time to gel and settle on our best starting 11. Eriksen can't start soon enough for me. You say you are not overly impressed with Eriksen's goals and assists record, but compared to our three main midfielders last season: Dembele - 54 games, 2 goals, 6 assists; Sigurdsson - 55 games, 10 goals, 7 assists; Lennon - 48 games, 4 goals, 11 assists - he is a machine! Lamela looked promising with his 15 minute cameo so hopefully he will settle quickly and soon become an integral part of the team.

Transfer deadline threw up a few big money deals, not least Real Madrid selling fan favourite Mesut Ozil to Arsenal for £42.5m. This was a surprising move to most people over and in Madrid for a number of reasons. Firstly that Ozil would choose Arsenal and no other bigger teams were interested (Manchester United were incredibly short sighted not to have bid for him) and secondly, even though Ozil is unquestionably an upgrade over everyone at Arsenal, it wasn't really a position where they needed to strengthen. It was also reported that Gareth Bale's Twitter and Facebook account had been targets of angry Madrid fans accusing him of being the reason Ozil had been sold. Earlier in the day, thousands of the fans in attendance to greet bale chanted 'Ozil not for sale' to Perez.

United did of course spend some money and they finally managed to prize Fellaini away from Everton for £27.5m! This amuses me as it was well known that he had a release clause in his contract of £23m, which expired at the beginning of August and that David Moyes stated publicly that he wouldn't disrespect Everton by activating it. As we now know, he then went on to bid much less for him until they ended up paying over £4m more for him. Well played Everton. Daniel Levy would be proud of you!

Liverpool were active early in the day signing Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea, along with signing central defenders Mamdou Sakho from PSG for £18m and Tiago Ilori from Sporting Lisbon for £7m. All three have the potential to be quality signings for them and certainly raises the stakes for those European spots.

After those deals the rest were made up of a lot of loans and more minor transfers. Romelu Lukaku has joined Everton on loan from Chelsea, which I find surprising but yet more good business from Everton. For Chelsea to go into the season with Torres, Eto'o and Ba (who Chelsea were willing to let go yesterday) it doesn't exactly send fear into opponents.

Deals that caught my eye abroad were of course Kaka heading back to AC Milan, which should serve as a warning to Gareth Bale that nothing is certain career wise at the Bernabeu. I also saw that Ajax had sold Toby Alderwiereld to Atletico Madrid.

I'm sure there were many more interesting deals taking place in Europe though, so I'll leave you to fill me on any that are worth talking about :)

Time for yet another international break now :( England have games against Moldova and Ukraine, which are both must win games if we are to keep qualification hopes alive. Wayne Rooney has already withdrawn though and that will be a big loss considering he had started the season so well.

Oh almost forgot about Ian Holloway! His Crystal Palace side won their first game of the season against Sunderland, so the pressure has subsided for another week ;) Holloway has managed in the Premier League once before with Blackpool a few seasons back. He won many plaudits for the way Blackpool played and for half of the season they were actually flying high. However by the second half of the season, all the other teams had worked them out and they plummeted to earth getting relegated on the final day of the season. He has been mostly employed in the lower leagues with Plymouth, however he did land the - at the time - quite lucrative Leicester City job. But his managerial style didn't fit in with the players or the board and after steering the foxes to relegation from the Championship, was soon dismissed.

[Gert-Jan]

I'm sure there were many more interesting deals taking place in Europe though, so I'll leave you to fill me on any that are worth talking about.

• Tranquilo Barnetta: Schalke ~~> Frankfurt
• Patrick Helmes: Wolfsburg ~~> Cologne
• Peter Odemwingie: West Bromwich Albion ~~> Cardiff City
• Gareth Barry: Man City ~~> Everton
• James McCarty: Wigan ~~> Everton
• Marouane Fellaini: Everton ~~> Man United
• Romelu Lukaku: Chelsea ~~> Everton
• Benoit Assou-Ekotto: Tottenham ~~> QPR
• Andrea Dossena: Napoli ~~> Sunderland
• Fabio Borini: Liverpool ~~> Sunderland
• Bebe: Man United ~~> Pacos Ferreira
• Nick Powell: Man United ~~> Wigan
• Emiliano Viviano: Palermo ~~> Arsenal
• Stephan Ireland: Aston Villa ~~> Stoke
• Obi: Inter ~~> Parma
• Mesut Ozil: Real Madrid ~~> Arsenal
• Marko Arnautovic: Werder Bremen ~~> Stoke City
• Martin Demichelis: Malaga ~~> Atletico Madrid ~~> Man City (all in one summer)
• Christian Atsu: Porto ~~> Chelsea ~~> Vitesse (on loan)
• Walter Gargano: Napoli ~~> Parma
• Makoto Hasebe: Wolfsburg ~~> Nurnberg
• Luca Antonini: Milan ~~> Genoa
• Teemu Pukki: Schalke ~~> Schalke
• Serdar Tasci: Stuttgart ~~> Spartak Moscow
• Alessandro Matri: Juventus ~~> Milan
• Dennis Aogo: HSV ~~> Schalke

Okay, maybe I should stop, lol....

Manchester United were aiming at Herrara (Bilbao) and Coentrao (Real Madrid), but were simply too late to sign them. And the fact they HAD to have Fellaini on the last day of the transfer window led to paying a higher price than needed. "United, wake up!" They certainly have me convinced of one thing, they are not going to win the title this year.

We play Estonia and Andorra this weekend. Good news by the way, Van Gaal has finally come to his senses; Sneijder is back! Only cause someone else is injuried, but still.... Wesley is back! Does England play away or at Wembley?

[TheBoy]

Lol, yeah there were a few transfers I didn't make a comment on ;) Everton look to have done some sensible business with the previously mentioned Lukaku being joined by the experienced Gareth Barry and promising James McCarthy.

The one that stands out for me that I did see but completely forgot about is Martin Demichelis to Manchester City. It's a slight surprise to me that City brought him in the first place, seeing as he's 32 and never played in England, but I didn't realise he had gone to them via Atletico Madrid. What's the story with that?

Ah, so Wesley Sneijder is back in the Dutch squad. Then the question is, will van Gaal pick him to start - or will he pretty much have to?

England play Moldova at home tonight (lol, I thought it was Saturday!) followed by Ukraine away on Tuesday. We've had a lot of injury withdrawals though and so our three attacking options are Lambert (who is confirmed to be starting) Welbeck and Defoe. We'll really miss Rooney and Sturridge who have probably been the best two English players so far this season. Although surely we will have enough about us to muster a win against Moldova... Ukraine will be a potentially defining moment in England's qualifying and we must avoid defeat. Which, sadly, is Hodgson's favourite situation as it allows him to play his horrible negative, defensive football and claim success with a 0-0 and claim genius with a 1-0 win.

Elsewhere, Scotland play Belgium and I'll be interested to see how Belgium perform. They have such a great selection of talent at the moment, yet they aren't exactly setting the world alight just yet. In theory, they should be a good outside bet for the World Cup, but they need to start winning matches comfortably.

Although truth be told, I'll be glad when the international games are over and we can get back to proper football lol.

Oh btw Gert-Jan, I keep forgetting to ask you - have you started reading 'I am the Secret Footballer' yet? I've just remembered I need to add 'I am Zlatan' to my birthday wishlist for later this month ;)

[Gert-Jan]

No Man City, Bayern, Juventus or Barcelona this weekend. Instead, England vs Moldova & Estonia vs Holland.... we even have to travel to friggin Andorra.

I believe it was around 1994, during the World Cup in Brazil, that I started following our national squad. (People still tell me how cute 9 y/o GJ looked like, lol.) Anyway, the away game in Estonia was our worst in the past 20 years. We managed to draw 2-2 thanks to a late equalizer by Van Persie. Sneijder started from the beginning, but only due to the fact Van Der Vaart was injuried, cause here everybody knows Rafael is Van Gaal's main man for the no 10 position. Playing with both former Ajax youngsters at the same time is, according to Van Gaal, absolutely impossible. Combine the Sneijder story with the fact we won our home match against Andorra by only 3-0, mix it with the dreadful game last Friday, our headcoach Louis making comments such as "I don't like coaching the national team, I'm sacrificing myself as I only wanna know what it's like to be at a gigantic tournament", and you KNOW the media is putting full pressure on one of Holland's most egocentric coaches of all time. Ugh! I swear, Van Gaal even believes Barca's success is all because of his work back in 1999. And Bayern Munich's domination? It's all thanks to him; King Louis. Alright, I'll shut up and let you cheer for England's victory over Moldova. Niiiice!

Sadly, I have not started reading the book yet. Still need to find time to do so, lol. I mostly read during the holiday season (June/July/August), but would really like to start as it seems a book right up my alley. Will definitely post about it here once that time has come, the more there is to discuss, the better! Thanks for the reminder.

Couple additional WC qualification results. Belgium win away to Scotland and are now 5 points ahead of Croatia. Switzerland lead group E after a comfortable home win against Iceland, despite Gudmundsson's hat-trick. Portugal are leading Group F, not sure about the last time THAT happend as Portugal usually suck big time in World Cup/European Championship qualifications. Ukraine demolish San Marino (9-0). England's group is still pretty tight. The match against Ukraine on Tuesday seems to be a big one, maybe even crucial?

[TheBoy]

It seems strange coming on here after an international game and not be the one moaning about my national team lol! Although I suspected that all was not well when I saw the Estonia result, especially after being 2-1 down until the late equaliser. I knew that Van Gaal had a very high opinion of himself, but I did not realise he was prone to making such public egocentric statements! Is there a suspicion that the players may not be responding to him and that they would quite like to see him quit or fired before the World Cup?

When it comes to international management, I always think that it's not as simple as just having a 'great' coach. It's a totally different beast to club football, and I believe that you need to have a coach who almost specialises in international management.

Oh so you were 9 during USA '94 - I was 10 and also for me it's the first major tournament that I can clearly remember :) I was rooting for Italy that year (England caused the rest of the world great amusement by failing to qualify...) as Italian football was shown on TV every weekend. Roberto Baggio was by far my favourite player and I remember being gutted when he missed his penalty in the final. Thinking back, there were some amazing players back then for Brazil and Italy - Baggio, Baresi, Romario, Bebeto, Dunga, Cafu, Maldini, Albertini...

England were as good as expected against the might of Moldova. Roy Hodgson has obviously taken some PR lessons off Van Gaal though as he has stated that were it not for injuries to Rooney and the suspension of Welbeck, England's newest and currently best striker Rickie Lambert would have been dropped for the Ukraine game! Way to give the guy some extra confidence, Roy! I have the unfortunate feeling that tomorrow night's game against Ukraine will be a rather tiresome affair with England being very cautious and hope to pinch a narrow victory. A loss would be pretty disastrous, especially as we have somehow managed to get ourselves top of the group. We have home games against Montenegro and Poland to finish, so I can understand if Roy resorts to his strength against the Ukraine, even if it will kill my soul to watch :-p

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my sister took the hint I'd very much like the Zlatan book for my birthday, so I'll find out in a couple of weeks if she did ;) I also brought a book (again from that trusty cheap bookshop I mentioned previously) called 'Soccernomics'. I haven't started it yet, but it looks very interesting. I enjoyed 'Freakonomics' so I hope that one similar and related to football will highlight some thought provoking points. I'll let you know when I get around to reading it ;)

Good luck to Holland against Andorra and hope you get to see a better display!

[Gert-Jan]

You gotta be kiddin me .... Andorra 0-2 Holland.... only 2 goals?!



Sometimes I'm tempted to compare our national team to North Korea, although Van Gaal is even worse than the leader of that insane country. Last weekend all players had been informed they were NOT allowed to talk to the media. Meanwhile, Sneijder is running all over the field, tackling, helping defenders and defensive midfielders, instead of focussing on doing what he's good at; passing & scoring. Van Gaal, the man who truly believes HE is the reason Football was ever invented, is making ridiculous decisions and holding stupidious press conferences before and after matches. Robben and Van Persie are scared to death Van Gaal will throw them both out of the squad, if they dare to take a firm stand. Despite their status, no critical comment has been made by any one of them, which means they lack personality. "Louis, Wesley is one of the best in the world, we need him. Now stop being such an ass". But nooooo, they remain quiet, as are the Dutch FA.

Also, the two away matches prove we simply don't have enough quality. We're not better than England, and in my honest opinion, we will probably not even survive the group stage next year. Half a decade ago the big clubs in Europe were willing to pay millions to sign Dutch players, now the majority of our squad is "making a living" in the Eredivisie. Yes, alongside Italy, we are the first European country to reach the WC, but a quick peek at our qualification group says it all.

Ukraine 0-0 England. With still two home games to go, you guys can start booking flights and make hotel reservations, too. Congrats Drew! The World Cup 1994 was awesome, still remember the Quarter Final between Brazil 3-2 Holland. The 1998 tournament in France was even better though.

Less than one week to go and the Champions League officially kicks off....

[TheBoy]

After England's glorious, magnificent, world class 0-0 draw away to Ukraine, Roy Hodgson responded with puzzlement at being questioned by pretty much everyone as to why he was so pleased with himself. He said that before the game, everyone had accepted that a draw would be a good result and that's exactly what they got. He conveniently glossed over the fact that we played like none of our players were aware of what a football was and basically told everyone they were wrong and we should be happy.

So by that logic, Roy would say to you Gert-Jan: Damn well be happy with your AMAZING 2-0 victory and do not question the coach!

Of course, we all know the truth for both our nations and no amount of sugar coating or lecturing will hide the real facts. I tell you how turgid and boring the Ukraine v England game was: I fell asleep and missed the last 5-10 minutes lol. I had to go into the office the next day and was talking about the game to one of the guys who informed me I missed Lampard have a decent chance to win the game!

It's an interesting comment you make about thinking Holland will not make it out of the group stages in the World Cup. I say this because England, unless they get a real group of death, have historically shown that even with a very average side, we still usually make the last 16 or quarter finals. As much as you are down on Holland at the moment, it's still a no-contest as to who has the more technical and skilful side, but if there is disharmony in the team it's more likely that they will fail than the team full of brainless, yet cohesive English players.

I was going to ask you what is the current % of Dutch players playing the Eredivisie at the moment as it's been a talking point over here again during the international fortnight? I remember we touched on English teams have a home-grown quota these days and you saying it wasn't yet a rule in Holland. But then I realise that we can focus on the number of English players playing in the Premier League as we have literally none playing abroad, which of course, Dutch players are much more likely to do!

One more bit of international news before I move on and the Republic of Ireland have sacked Giovanni Trapattoni and are expected to announce Martin O'Neill as his replacement soon. I feel a bit sorry for old Trap, as he's done what I would perceive as a really good job with the quantity and quality of players available. Although I can also understand that he's being paid very handsomely and that he is now rather stuck in his ways.

Thankfully we are back to proper football this weekend! Although just my timing - the first time in ages that Spurs play on a Saturday at 3pm and I organise to catch up with my best friend. D'oh! We play Norwich, who have been a bit of a bogey side for us since they came back into the Premier League. But a win is important just to get us rolling again after the Arsenal setback, so hopefully we can finally get a few goals from open play and grab 3 points. I'm really eager to see Lamela and Eriksen start, but AVB has proven to be rather cautious in the past with introducing new players.

Will you be watching the Real Madrid game tomorrow? Ancelotti has confirmed that Bale will be making his debut, although wouldn't say if he would start or come on as sub. It will be exceedingly interesting to see where and how Bale plays. For some reason, Bale's debut has been the lead story on the tv sports news channel (possibly because they own the Spanish football tv rights lol) and they have been trotting out what there 'sources' have been telling them with regards to Bale's likely position. Hilariously, they have suggested he could even be deployed as a left back!! Yep, this is kind of bullshit that we pay our subscription fee to hear.

Do you want to make a prediction on the Champions League? Maybe pick the semi-finalists and a winner? I'll go with: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Viktoria Plzen... Just kidding, Real Madrid. Winner: Barcelona.

Oh and I just remembered one more thing about the '94 World and the reason England were not there... Did Graham Taylor's infamous "Do I not like Orange" quote make it back to Holland? If you ever want to a laugh and an eye opener and have 40 minutes to spare, check out Graham Taylor - An Impossible Job on Youtube...

[Gert-Jan]

Tottenham 2-0 Norwich
Gotta admit I was really impressed by Spurs. Ofcourse we both know they have an amazingly talented starting line up, but if you look at the quality AVB is still having next to him on the bench, Tottenham could perhaps end in the top 4 after all. That being said, Norwich City were awefully poor. It's still a mystery why guys like Van Wolfswinkel and Fer went there, cause no matter what Hughton said about how he wanted to play Football, Saturday's performance sucked big time. Kinda got the feeling they only traveled to White Hart Lane to collect one lousy point, which they tried achieving with a very defensive style of play. Looking into Bassong's eyes, all I saw was despair.

Back to Spurs though. Christian Eriksen. Oh My God! His first game and it got me instantly convinced of how right he was to move to London. Did you see what he did after 15 minutes or so, before Soldado back-heeled the ball against the post. Wow! Paulinho was on a roll too. And right back Kyle Walker kept walking, errr... running. In my opinion, it's a good thing Bale left. Spurs were able to collect €100m and at the same time create a much more balanced team that isn't depending solely on Bale. Already looking forward to next week's game, AND the one against Chelsea the week after....

Inter 1-1 Juventus
Inter: Handanovic, Campagnaro, Ranocchia, Juan, Guarin, Taider, Jonathan, Nagatomo, Cambiasso, Alvarez, Palacio.
Juventus: Buffon, Barzagli, Bonucci, Chiellini, Lichtsteiner, Vidal, Pogba, Asamoah, Pirlo, Tevez, Vucinic.

The traditional Derby D'Italia. Sadly I only count 6 Italians in the starting line up; 5 for Juve & 1 for Inter; Rannocchia. What is it about the big matches in the Serie A that no matter how high the expections are and no matter how much you think it's going to be one of the best matches ever, they always end up being boring as fuck, lol. First half was hurting my eyes, and the second half wasn't much better, really. We've been talking about coaches last week, but Hodgson and Van Gaal are nothing compared to Mazzari and Conte. When the game itself isn't worth watching, I usually start looking at the sidelines. Gotta love managers who are yelling and shouting at everyone and everything that moves in front of them, lol. Do they really believe Football players even notice that? Anyways, to conclude, I was happy when referee Orsato blew his whistle for the last time Saturday night.

Didn't get to see Barca & Real as I had planned a night out with friends. Hope to catch some highlights tomorrow. I did hear Bale made his debut?

Champions League last 4 ~~> Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, Chelsea

Champions League Winner ~~> Real Madrid

FIFA Ranking (09/12)
1. Spain
2. Argentina
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Colombia
6. Belgium
7. Uruguay
8. Brazil
9. Holland
10.Croatia

Remember, the first 8 countries will be placed in pot 1 for the World Cup draw, which will take place on December 6th.

(I'll post the % of our national team still playing in the Eredivisie somewhere mid October, as the last qualification matches will be played then.)

[TheBoy]

Haha, Gert-Jan I think you may becoming something of a Spurs fan ;) My incessant blabbing about seems to be finally paying off lol.

In seriousness though, the game against Norwich was by far our best game of the season so far. It's surely no coincidence that this happened on the first start for Eriksen and we didn't have the three beasts in midfield. Of course it's always dangerous to talk about someone after their first game, but Eriksen's display gives great hope that we have finally found someone to replace Modric and Van Der Vaart. We still have Lamela to find his feet too and so hopefully over the next month or so, we could really start to see Tottenham flourish even more.

Yep, our bench is crazy strong right now! And when you consider that we let players such as Huddlestone, Assou-Ekottu and Parker leave and also that Adebayor has been sent to train with the reserves, it shows how wisely we spent the Bale transfer money. Although only Spurs could spend £110m in a transfer window and still come out of it having made a profit!

As for Norwich, I'd like to think that it was our fine display that made them look poor lol. In truth, I was very surprised at how little they were able to show especially as last season we did not beat them at all in three games (and the seasons before that they caused us problems too). As you say, Hughton needs to make his mind up about the kind of style he wants to go with. If you're gonna go defensive and hope for a point, you have to pick the right players and that certainly wasn't the case on Saturday.

A lot of the magic has gone from the Italian game, hasn't it? Even during their last heyday of the 90's when they prided themselves on perfectly executed defensive football, they still were absorbing to watch. But now as you say, even the big games just don't get the blood pumping. It makes you wonder how the Italian game will evolve over the next 10 years or so. Will it end up being a kind of 'feeder' league to England, Spain and Germany as we sort of see with the French and Dutch, or will they manage to re-invent themselves and once again attract the star players?

I watched the first 45 minutes of Villarreal v Real Madrid. Naturally Bale was the main focus and quite frankly he looked dreadful up until his goal. He pumped a few crosses from the right way into the stands and just looked very lost. He probably wasn't helped by the fact Madrid's defence was appallingly bad and Villarreal will be kicking themselves that they were not 3 or 4-0 up before Bale's tap-in equaliser. This came about after he and Ronaldo swapped flanks and he started to look more at home. Which was curious to me, as he spent a large portion of last season playing from the right and cutting in at Spurs and is also where he play for Wales. Still, after a very shaky start, it all got glossed over after the goal.

Did you see any of the Swansea v Liverpool game last night? It was a pretty entertaining game, although Real Madrid would have been proud of the defensive errors by both sides for the goals :-p Jonjo Shelvey was hero and villain by scoring Swansea's opener against his former club, only to gift Liverpool an equaliser minutes later. He then gifted them another goal before setting up Michu for a second half equaliser! Liverpool regain top spot in the league and remain unbeaten, but the return of Suarez is fast approaching... Sturridge, who scored the first Liverpool goal last night has now score in all four league games and he looks like being one of the stars of the season. Will he continue to be the main main upfront or will Suarez be happy to play second fiddle?

Which Champions League match(es) will you be watching tonight and tomorrow? The two Manchester matches are the ones being shown along with the match I will be most interested in watching, Galatasaray v Real Madrid. Tomorrow night I will probably skip between the three games - Chelsea v Basle, AC Milan v Celtic and Marseille v Arsenal.

Would I right in thinking that Holland will need to move up two places to be in pot 1 for the World Cup group draw? I'm thinking that Brazil will be in pot 1 automatically as hosts, unless FIFA stopped that? It's not something England need worry about though - we're currently 17th - our worst position since 2000. It's quite an achievement to have dropped from 4th in March this year to 17th! lol.

[Gert-Jan]

Drew, can you please tell me why Jonjo Shelvey is still playing in the Premier League?! He is one of the worst players I have ever seen on a Football field. Why have Liverpool been holding on to him for so long? And why do Swansea need him? I mean, he doesn't have any technical skills whatsoever, he collects yellow/red cards as if he is collecting stamps, and I've lost count of how many times he has scored an own goal. Just my opinion though, lol.

Daniel Sturridge on the other hand has surprised me alot. Not good enough for Chelsea, but he's doing amazing at Anfield Road. Suarez' comeback is going to be interesting as I fear it will be the end of Liverpool's success. Sounds weird, let me explain.... you and I agree Suarez is a player who likes to operate on his own, and the way they are playing right now is like a real team. Eleven players defend, eleven players attack, kinda like an accordion, lol. Aspas, Sturridge, Luis Alberto, Coutinho, Victor Moses; are they willing to put their egos aside in favor of Suarez. Or, will Suarez put his ego aside, in order to maintain the balance of the TEAM. When does his suspension end?

Tuesday 17th September
Manchester United 4-2 Bayer Leverkusen
Real Sociedad 0-2 Shakhtar Donetsk
Galatasaray 1-6 Real Madrid
Kobenhavn 1-1 Juventus
Benfica 2-0 Anderlecht
Olympiacos Piraeus 1-4 PSG
Bayern Munich 3-0 CSKA Moscow
Viktoria Plzen 0-3 Manchester City

Watched Galatasaray vs Real Madrid, too. First 20 to 25 minutes, Galatasaray were the better team and should have scored at least one or two goals. Real Madrid's Casillas had to be replaced after a clumsy incident with Sergio Ramos. You said it right, Ramos/Pepe, Madrid's defense, is aweful. In the second half though, a perfect counter strategy by Real. So fast, so effective. Ronaldo, Benzema, Bale. Top quality players in combination with the superb Ancelotti is why they are going to win the trophy in May! Uhm, calm down GJ, drawing conclusions after 8 matches is way too premature, lol.

Yes, the country which is hosting the World Cup will automatically be placed in pot 1. So, pray for us please?!

(Will be watching Barcelona vs Ajax tomorrow. I just hope Messi and Neymar stop running after 5-0.... pray for us, AGAIN!?)

[WalterB]

Isn't the object to actually kick the ball?

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Even cheerleaders got moves.

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Carly Rae Jeppsen - Who cares if she can't throw.

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Lower level races have cheaper trophies.

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You want this guy on your team.

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[TheBoy]

Honestly, I'm not sure I can answer your question about Jonjo Shelvey, other than to suggest he's English and thus helps make up the numbers! My guess as to why Liverpool kept hold of him for so long is a little more detailed though. They brought him amid a lot of talk that he would become a star and I think that quite frankly they felt they needed to justify the talk. This also happened mainly during a period of time where Liverpool were for some unknown reason, investing heavily in English/British players - Henderson, Carroll, Adam and Allen along with others such as Jay Spearing and so I guess he just got lucky at being there at the right time. Quite what Swansea saw in him to spend £5m on him though... that needs a mind much greater than mine to explain lol!

Here's a quick thought about Sturridge for you: If he were still at Chelsea, would he not be their best striker? I think he would and so it just goes to show once again what terrible business they can do when it comes down to appeasing the whims of Ambramovic.

I totally agree with you on Suarez and the points you make. This is exactly why I think Liverpool missed a big chance to sell him this summer and make a lot of money in the process. I believe that his suspension is over after this weekend, leaving him free to take the field against Manchester United in the league cup in midweek. Now that would be an interesting game to see if he played! But surely Brendan Rodgers will have better sense than to do that... won't he? ;)

Some high scoring games on the first week of Champions League matches. Not many shocks on Tuesday, but take a bow FC Basel for beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night :) Mourinho's much vaunted home record disappears with a whimper and now we have to wait and see how they react to losing back to back games. I'm sure you'll afford me a couple of slightly petulant comments here: Firstly, maybe Chelsea would have been better served buying players they required to strengthen, rather than simply buying rival team targets such as Willian. Secondly, it provides me with much satisfaction that it was Basel who beat them, as I recall last season when Spurs were losing 2-1 at half time against the Swiss side in the Europa League that the Chelsea pitch announcer asked the crowd for a round of applause for the two Basel goalscorers. I wonder if he asked for the same last night?

Real Madrid were indeed mightily impressive. Di Maria in particular looked well up for making it hard for Bale to take his spot. Although I think we both know the deal and it won't really matter if Di Maria scored a hatrick everytime he gets a start, as Ancelotti will be almost forced to play Bale.

After the warm up of the Champions League, we have the glitz and glamour of the Europa League tonight ;) Spurs play Tromso in what should be a relatively straight forward game, whilst a far juicier (for the neutral) match takes place as I type this with Valencia playing Swansea.

Haha, ok GJ, I'll pray for Holland although if we meet in the World Cup, you have to promise to go easy on us, ok? Sorry about Ajax!

[Gert-Jan]

I'm not gonna make any more comments about our results in Europe this week. I mean, PSV 0-2 Ludogorets says it all.

Honestly, I wouldn't necessarily say Sturridge would be Chelsea's best striker, if he was still playing for Chelsea. More like, one of the very few forwards they currently have. I really don't get why one of the "wealthiest" clubs in England doesn't open its wallet and starts digging for more pounds to buy a real killer. One that's not gonna leave the box for the next 90 minutes. One that finishes chances as soon as he gets one. Chelsea have a load of attacking midfielders running around, who can pass the ball with the same precision as Xavi and Iniesta can, but what's the use of having them without a no 9?

Fernando Torres hasn't been his old self after suffering two serious injuries during his Liverpool days. Eto'o IS a real killer, but 32 years old, and a player with a mind of his own. He and Mourinho have successfully worked together in Italy, but it remains to be seen if Eto'o can do it again at Stamford Bridge. Basically, what I'm trying to say here, is that Sturridge ain't a bad forward at all, but if Chelsea had done what a top club battling for the Premier League title is supposed to be doing during the transfer window, which is signing players for the positions in the team you consider to be weak spots, I'm afraid Sturridge would have sat on the bench for most of the time. Willian is a midfielder example we've both pointed out before, Chelsea don't need him. They only bought him to restrain the competition (ie Tottenham) from becoming more competitive. Maybe I am turning into a Spurs supporter too, lol.

... SUPER SUNDAY...

Club Brugge vs Anderlecht
Manchester City vs Manchester United
PSV vs Ajax
PSG vs Monaco
Roma vs Lazio

Gotta love how matches like these are always being played on the same day, lol.

[TheBoy]

Gert-Jan, you are 100% on the money with the Chelsea striker situation. I think the current problem stems from Mourinho's conviction that he would be signing Wayne Rooney without any issues. Once that dragged on and it became clear Rooney would be staying at United, they had to turn to the ageing and questionably motivated Eto'o. What this also illustrates is that the Premier League is a different beast to the one he left behind in 2007: Chelsea are no longer the only team with an unlimited money cheat and there are 3-4 genuine teams who will be competing for the title.

We also should mention the current treatment of Juan Mata. Last year he was in the top 3 players of the league and a firm fans favourite. So one wonders the reasoning behind Jose's decision to basically alienate him to the point of him not even being in the squad for the Basel and Fulham games. Again, back in Jose's first reign, he could get away with this sort of trick, but now that he has lost a couple of matches the fans and media are starting to ask questions.

Quick run down of the notable weekend Premier League fixtures:

West Ham 2 - 3 Everton. Leighton Baines with two beautiful free kicks and a Lukaku debut goal gave Everton the win. Baines must be one of the unluckiest players around at the moment, as in pretty much any other era he would have 70-80 caps for England by now. Personally, I would pick him ahead of Ashley Cole for England, purely because I think it would make the England team a happier place to be! Lukaku is another striker who surely must be better than the ones Chelsea currently have? He has a very good touch for a powerhouse of a striker and looks to be a real Drogba in the making.

Liverpool 0 - 1 Southampton. Liverpool's great start to the season comes crashing down with defeat at Anfield by a determined Southampton. Worth noting from this game is that Liverpool's signing of Mignolet looks to be inspired as he continues to make tremendous saves that keep Liverpool in games. Also interesting timing wise after their first defeat is the impending return of one Luis Suarez. They play Manchester United on Wednesday night and one assumes he will play at least some part in what promises to be a very intense game, due to:

Manchester City 4 - 1 United. The absence of RVP for United made little difference as City tore into them with venom. This was no freak result as City pummelled a quite frankly average looking United side who simply had no tactical ideas. David Moyes must be feeling under pressure after so far losing to Liverpool, drawing tamely with Chelsea and now this humiliating defeat. I somehow think the fans will be expecting a strong team to face Liverpool, even if it is 'only' the League Cup.

Cardiff 0 - 1 Spurs. Spurs full and deserved winners against Cardiff, although it took a 93rd minute Paulinho winner and a couple of hairy moments for Lloris to come away with three points that take us joint top of the league with Arsenal. It's impossible to deny that Spurs were not at their best despite dominating in all areas of the game but it has to bode well that we still managed to find a way through in the end.

We have had our first managerial sacking too with Paolo Di Canio leaving Sunderland after just 13 matches in charge. He managed just 3 wins in that time and despite signing more players in the summer than he had games (14 players), the Sunderland board have pulled the trigger early. Whilst it's to the surprise of absolutely no-one that Di Canio hasn't worked out, the decision to fire him smacks of clueless owners. Why give the guy nearly £20m to spend on so many players if you're not at least going to give him some time? Any new manager coming in will have to deal with a mismatched squad and either work with Di Canio's backroom staff, or piss away yet more millions paying them off. It's crazy.

Elsewhere we had the news that Bale injured himself during the warm up to what would have been his home debut for Real Madrid. Isco stepped in and promptly scored a nice goal. I saw that in Italy Roma had beaten Lazio 2-0 and Inter had placed 7 past a team I have never heard of! Also in France PSG and Monaco had drawn 1-1 with strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Radamel Falcao scoring respectively.

Speaking of Zlatan, my sister picked up on the hint and brought me his book for my birthday today :) I just finished the book I was reading last night (Phil Tuffnell, the former England cricketer's biography) so I'll jump straight into it as soon as possible. You may have seen me on Twitter too this morning as I showed off my new Sandro 30 Spurs home shirt (I thought it was a nice memento to have his shirt number on my 30th birthday). I'm hoping he might see it and reply, lol ;)

I've probably forgotten some other things to mention, but I think that's plenty to be going on with for now haha.

[Gert-Jan]

Personally, I would pick him ahead of Ashley Cole for England, purely because I think it would make the England team a happier place to be!

But I'm sure Ashley Cole's girlfriends look better than the women Baines brings with him to the national team.

Why give the guy nearly £20m to spend on so many players if you're not at least going to give him some time?

Better question would be.... why does a decent club appoint a racist like DiCanio in the first place?

I watched Man City vs Man United Sunday afternoon and I was shocked by what I saw. Seriously, SHOCKED! Manchester United are a team totally depending on Robin van Persie. In case he is unable to play, they still have Rooney and Wellbeck, but that just ain't the same. Credit to Wayne for always working his ass off, no matter what the score is. His free kick was simply sensational. I'm not too fond of Wellbeck though. He's as fast as a Formula 1 car, but missing way too many chances, and he seems to be lacking basic technical skills. What happend to Javier Hernandez? I know Ferguson didn't use him much either, but he sure knows how to score a goal.

Next, their midfield. It's terrible. By signing Fellaini, they.... errr.... well, nothing has changed! Moyes HAD to get him to Old Trafford, just because he's another Everton player. Buying Fellaini equals more of the same. He doesn't add any creativity to United whatsoever. Plus, can he please go get a haircut? It looks ridiculous. Sorry if I sound a little frustrated again, lol.

Their defensive players are either young and unexperienced or old and slow. The most used couple Ferdinand/Vidic is becoming a little pathetic to look at, honestly. Evans, Jones, Rafael, Smalling; all are average. Did you see what happend before Aguero scored 1-0? Or more specifically, what Antonio Valencia did NOT do, when Kolarov ran from the left back position all the way to the front? I could go on and on about how the current composition of the squad is simply insufficient to win the Premier League title. I predict they will even have a tough time getting far in the Champions League...

David DeGea ~~>

Happy Birthday! Sandro shirt looks really cool. I hope you've had an awesome day.

[TheBoy]

I think the only companion Baines brings with him to England games is his guitar lol!

Haha, yes that would be a better question to ask with regards to Di Canio! Surely the only job that he will ever get now is at Lazio? I can't see another team in England touching him, even lower down the leagues. But there is always the disappointing side to football and you can never discount someone else with no morals or common sense coming along to heap misery onto their club...

Wellbeck confuses the heck out of me. I have no idea how on earth he is still at United! The running joke with him is that it's only a matter of time before he finds himself at Sunderland, but for some unknown reason Fergie, Hodgson and now Moyes all keep picking him. I honestly can't see any redeeming qualities to his game other than that he's taller than Hernandez lol. Along with Hernandez, who must be wondering what on earth he needs to do to get a game, there is also Kagawa who must have farted in David Moyes' office or something because he seems determined not to pick him. Amazing really when you consider how weak United's midfield is right now.

Brendan 'David Brent' Rodgers latest foot in mouth moment: He declared in yesterday's press conference that Luis Suarez is "chomping at the bit to return". I kid you not! It wouldn't be so bad if it was said tongue in cheek, but that really is a pretty foolish comment to make without realising.

Have you heard the latest rumblings about the Qatar 2022 World Cup bid being under threat? The always trustworthy Sepp Blatter voted for USA to host the WC. Now it seems he would still rather like that to happen as he asked Michael Garcia, an American lawyer, to investigate the voting. Garcia claims to have uncovered numerous cases of political influences over certain voters, which if proven is enough to strip Qatar of the tournament. As much as I despise Blatter, and you know that he's only doing this because it's what he wants, I hope very much that some good comes of this. It's farcical that such a tournament could be held in Qatar and fairly obvious that less than honest ways were used for them to win the bid in the first place.

Cheers buddy yep is was a fun day :) I shall be wearing my Sandro shirt with pride tonight for the Aston Villa league cup game. Hope it turns out to be a lucky shirt!

[Gert-Jan]

Blatter is a ***********. (Uhum, excuse my language.)

Guess this latest move is Blatter's way of admitting Qatar were given the WC organization after shady bidding procedures. He'd be making an even bigger fool of himself if he IS able to give it to another country. In the end that would be for the best though, as playing Football in the desert where it's 50C with A/C on is simply unbearable. In addition to all of this, what do you think of UEFA's plan to hold 2020's European Championship throughout Europe as opposed to just one country?

Bert van Marwijk has been appointed as the new manager of Hamburger SV. Little bit surprising as he was actually aiming for something bigger. Van Marwijk had high hopes that an interesting English club was gonna make a move after we won silver back in 2010. He even explicitly mentioned how he would have loved to go to Liverpool. It's no secret the Reds have been signing way too many managers ever since, suggesting they didn't really know which way they wanted to go after the Benitez era. I'm clueless about what draws him to Hamburger. Van Der Vaart is the captain and still a fantastic player, but in my honest opinion, the rest of the team sucks. HSV are the only team that have never been relegated, so maybe that historical fact was some sort of trigger? I don't know.... seems to me all he can achieve there is failure. Gee, Gert-Jan, don't be too optimistic, lol.

Congrats on Spurs' awesome win last night! Watched Man United vs Liverpool today, but didn't pay 100% attention to it as I wasn't feeling that great. Think I've been eating too much of that damn delicious apple pie all afternoon. From what I did see though, United were playing with Kagawa & Hernandez. And whaddya know, Moyes' first victory over a top club as manager of United is now a fact.

[TheBoy]

Your language is easily excused when it comes to Blatter! As I understand it, if political influences can be proven (and chosen to be made public, considering this is FIFA we are talking about) then it would essentially trigger a fresh bidding process rather than Honest Sepp simply saying "Here USA, you can have it now". However, with Russia hosting the 2018 tournament, I believe the rules are that the next tournament needs to held on a different continent, so one would assume that the USA would still be in the front seat.

As for holding the 2020 Euros throughout Europe, I'm not totally against it but only if it is handled sensibly. Which it almost certainly won't be ;) For instance, are the games going to be held in countries and stadia where normally they wouldn't have a chance of holding the full tournament, or will it be held in all the usual places in which case why not just give them the full tournament. And will it be able to generate that tournament atmosphere like we see when a single or joint nation hosts? So yeah, short answer: I don't quite understand the point of having it scattered and would prefer a proper tournament. But I am prepared to listen to the idea.

Interesting you mention Bert van Marwijk as to be honest I had forgotten the guy even existed! By that I mean he was never linked with any of the recent job vacancies in England that I can recall and quite frankly everyone gets linked with jobs over here by the bookies. For instance right now on the Sunderland vacancy you can get odds on:

Rene Meulensteen - 15/1
Andrea Stramaccioni - 17/1
Murat Yakin - 30/1
Ralf Rangnick - 5/1
Bob Bradley - 4/1
Bruce Arena - 2/1
Hope Powell - 3/1 (Yes, she really is listed)

For the next Arsenal manager you can get anyone from Blanc, Rijkaard, and Lippi through to van Basten, Klinsmann and Leow. But as I say, for some reason van Marwijk just doesn't seem to get linked. Which is very strange considering what he achieved with the Dutch national team. I wonder why? Well I wish him luck at Hamburger, but it doesn't sound like a very promising situation he has got himself into! But hey, maybe if he can keep them up and turn things around, it will get him noticed over here?

Btw, I still miss van der Vaart dreadfully at Spurs :( Until my Sandro shirt, he was the only player I had ever had a name shirt of. Well, unless you count me cutting out the letters 'SHERINGHAM' from scrap fabric and making my mum hand sew them onto my yellow away shirt when I was about 9 or 10 years old :-p I still have that shirt too!

Yeah Spurs were mighty impressive against Villa. We shouldn't get carried away though as it was a very weakened Villa side, but you have to beat what is in front of you and we did so with just 3 players retaining their place from the weekend Premier League match against Cardiff. Saturday will be the real acid test for us as we face Chelsea in the lunchtime kick off. Amazingly Spurs are currently the meanest team in all of Europe with just on goal conceded in all competitions and 22 scored. I was chatting to my fellow Spurs fan at work and he said that would come crashing down after the Chelsea game to which I replied but what if... He said he would would cry (with joy). I said I would weep like I was having a religious experience!

I too watched the United v Liverpool game (but I didn't have any of that delicious apple pie, unfortunately). Of course the main focus was on the return of Suarez and he looked decent. I think within a few games he will regain his sharpness and return to last season's form. You could tell he was only at maybe 75% match sharp last night and that was probably the difference between losing 1-0 and probably winning. I'm not sure if David Moyes will have seen enough to be persuaded that Kagawa or Hernandez deserve a start from last night, but of the two, Kagawa perhaps did the most to impress.

Hope you are feeling better today G-J!