Ruthless

I know it's preseason and all, but how the fuck do you lose to the Kansas City Wizards who were down to 10 men for most of the game?

Because they're not wizards!

I put Manyoo in a multi bet to win against Kansas City Wankers and United were the sure things, or so I thought.

Fucking sports betting pisses me off sometimes. Well, probably more than sometimes.

Anyone who bets on pre season friendlies is crazy. You cannot judge fitness or motivation, plus, Paul the octopus is not interested.

Yeah I know.



Luckily it was only $20.

Sorry Harry, is the Champions league getting in the way?

Not for long.

You're a top man sometimes bones.

Thanks. On an unrelated note, it's probably not a good time to check the What Are We Thinking? thread.

edit: Too late. /

I must admit, scheduling a round of internationals three days before the domestic league kicks off is really fucking unfair to the clubs. Especially clubs who have 13 World Cup participants.

My god, I am still under shock from the latest arsenal friendly. Full team, and 5-6 to Legia fucking Warsavia. I have never seen worse defending by a supposedly good team. If I had managed to develop at least a little bit of optimism, I have officialy lost it now. Fabianski was Laughable, Vermaelen looked lost without a defensive leader, Koscielny was terrible, clichy and Sagna were gash, and sczezny pulled off some miraculous saves and still let in 2.

My god. We. Are. Terrible

The most mystifying thing is that Wenger inherited a team with Adams, Keown, Dixon, etc. - grizzly old bastards who knew how to lead. If he really doesn't recognise the difference between them and Fabregas' captaining basically being him bailing the rest of that shower out with raw ability it really is time to give him the bullet and find someone who's not too proud to spend a few quid and admit that he can't assemble a team of Ultimate Footballers from scratch. What do you think Barca are going to do when Puyol becomes past it?

Also, I think it's his repeated reluctance to build players up that keeps making them shrug their shoulders and fuck off for other clubs, although obviously winning nothing and the pay deals a lot of them walk into helps.

Even if you leave out the team he inherited... look at the team he built, the Vieira-Henry-Pires Axis if invicibility. Every player we have now is worse than the respective player we had what? 6 years ago. Every single one. Thank god we won the emirates cup or we would have ended the season empty handed. No wonder Cesc wants to fuck off.

I can handle having a shite side, I can handle being a mid table side, but what drives me up the wall is this incessant worsening of the team, while Wenger keeps on going on about how close we are to a title, like Baghdad Bob talking about victory while the American tanks stream in behind him. Christ I hate football.

Dude, you have three England internationals in the team. Cheer up!

In anticipation of the new season, some thoughts and predictions we can all laugh at in 10 months time. Please share your own.

Overachievement of the season.

Liverpool having a major say in the title race. And by major say I don’t mean holding Arsenal to a 0-0 in May and costing us the league, but making a genuine push for the title, and while maybe not winning it, comfortably finishing in the Champions League positions.

Underachievement of the season.

I was going to go with Man City not making the top 4, but that doesn’t seem like it’ll be that much of a surprise to everyone. So instead I’ll go with Sunderland getting themselves mixed up in a relegation battle. Steve Bruce has long been one of the league’s most overrated managers, and this season he should hopefully get found out. Their form for the second half of last season was gash, they have signed Titus Bramble to improve their leaky defence, sold their best midfielder in Cana, and their only real hope on staying up is Darren Bent forgetting that he’s actually really shit for the second season running.

Forumite that will suffer the most this season.

Normally a shoo-in for the Liverpool contingent this year I see the pain and embarrassment being dished out more equitably. SSW has already got a glimpse of the horror show that Celtic and Neil Lennon are going to offer up and Bones will realise the profundity of the Greek maxim that Gods punish a man most by answering his prayers through Spurs European campaign. And then we have Arsenal. No keeper. No experienced centre-back. Our captain and best player held against his will. And a manager, entering the final year of his contract, now saying that his Champions League record is a fitting legacy to his approach. The Wenger era doesn’t deserve to end this way.


Premier League Champions - Liverpool
Champions League Winners - Chelsea
Relegated - Blackpool, Wigan, Sunderland.

I'll take a Man City implosion over anything else this season, for ideological reasons. They still have to offload seven players, as Milner will probably have weight made in his deal by Ireland - who deserves better than Martin O'Niels' great glass ceiling at Aston Villa, by the way. If Spurs can get Bellamy off them on loan they'll have decent strength throughout the squad on a good day and depth everywhere but defence. Champions League could go either way, so it's hard to give a fuck, really. Probably best for their Premier League campaign that they get knocked out too late to get parachuted into the Europa League, though.

Hard to see any major changes from last season, really. me.

I'm finding it hard to agree with Jamie's not-at-all-blatant attempt at nielsing our season in the bud. Maybe we will not lose to Arsenal on the first day and avoid a spanking at Maine Road the following week and all of a sudden Liverpool will have turned a corner. Fleet street will revel in a short lived revival because a) Rafa was always their whipping boy and they will feel vindicated b) Roy is English. We will make fourth, Man City will collapse under the weight of Mancini's prada overcoat and Spurs will get their pants pulled down by some European middle weights (French, I'm hoping).

Martin O'neill quits five days before the start of the season



It has to be something to do with the Milner saga...

Or with him being a twat.

Wrong meeting, Jamie.

Spurs are in for Ashley Young, too. If he was told those two were off you could forgive him thinking 'fuck it'. They'd be pointless acquisitions for Man City and Tottenham, respectively, which must make it even harder to keep giving a shit.