''Soccer'' 2017-2018

[John Ossie]

Ranieri is at Nantes, over performing like he did at Leicester. It's nearly FA Cup draw time!

Ah ok, so he is unavailable anyway LOL. Mind you that's never stopped clubs going for a manager before.

As for the draw, enjoy watching it. I'm on my way home but I'll have missed it by the time I get back and won't get to check it until we've watched I'm A Celeb, which we won't finish watching till 11 LOL.

[FluffySheep]

Ah ok, so he is unavailable anyway LOL. Mind you that's never stopped clubs going for a manager before.

As for the draw, enjoy watching it. I'm on my way home but I'll have missed it by the time I get back and won't get to check it until we've watched I'm A Celeb, which we won't finish watching till 11 LOL.

We're a day behind with I'm A Celeb. Gotta try and catch up on that tonight too.

I'm still predicting Swansea to get a top 6 team, but if we get Crewe away (in the hope they beat Blackburn in the replay), I'll be well pleased!

[FluffySheep]

Wolves v Swansea in the 3rd round! My 1st team and nearest decent local team! No places between them in the tables either. I may be going to that one!

[dzub]

As far as Gattuso is concerned, guess we'll find out how he gets on as Manager, I mean Klopp, Benitez and Mourinho to name a few didn't have great careers before becoming managers (as far as I'm aware it's Gattuso's first managerial role).

Not for me personally. Still, different strokes and all that.

IIRC Gattuso has worked with smaller clubs, had a great defensive record with 1 of them i think.
He has'nt really convinced me but time will tell.

I do want Milan to do well, the team from the early 2000s was fantastic..but still lost to liverpool :P

Ranieri is at Nantes, over performing like he did at Leicester. It's nearly FA Cup draw time!

Ahh..thanks for that Fluffy, was wondering where he went.

[Ken Ashcroft]

Woodburn is on the reserves as well and frankly, he was never going to get many opportunities this season as we have a stronger squad than we did when Judas broke through in '97 as Fowler got hurt and we didn't really have any other option but to take a chance on a 17 year old back then.

LOL. why all the hate for Owen? Because he left you for Madrid or because he went on to play for Man Utd?

[Ken Ashcroft]

Milan are hardly 'giants' now.
pretty sad considering their history and the fact they signed so many wonderful players in the summer.

Remember an magazine article a few years back, could have been in FourFourTwo where they came to the conclusion that the Milan team that won the 1989 European Cup was the greatest club side ever. Very interesting but it was before the Ronaldinho/Messi Barcelona era.

[John Ossie]

Wolves v Swansea in the 3rd round! My 1st team and nearest decent local team! No places between them in the tables either. I may be going to that one!

I thought that'd you'd be interested in that one when I saw that. Liverpool v Everton must be one of the ties, if not THE tie of the round on paper though. Hopefully it'll be a repeat of the 80s where we beat them in 2 finals rather than a repeat of 1991 where they beat us in the replay.

IIRC Gattuso has worked with smaller clubs, had a great defensive record with 1 of them i think.
He has'nt really convinced me but time will tell.

I do want Milan to do well, the team from the early 2000s was fantastic..but still lost to liverpool :P

Milan losing in 2005 to Liverpool was their best moment of the 2000s. Not that I'm biased of course

As for Gattuso, yeah time will tell with him.

LOL. why all the hate for Owen? Because he left you for Madrid or because he went on to play for Man Utd?

Man Utd of course. He would've been forgiven for going to Madrid, after all McManaman went there and he's still popular, but going to Man Utd? He'll never be forgiven around here for that. He wasn't popular to begin with even when he was scoring goals for fun as even then the fans never really took to him (well the locals didn't anyway) as he never felt like he was ''one of us'' even though he came up through the academy, but the fact that he chose to join United killed off any chance he had of being cheered at Anfield again. Funnily enough he did have an opportunity to rejoin Liverpool after it became obvious he surplus to requirements at Madrid but for whatever reason it didn't happen and he went to Newcastle instead.

Should've seen the charity match where he got booed mercilessly every time he kicked a ball and that's when he was wearing a Liverpool shirt, I'm talking about 2 years ago as well. Hell, he got booed when the tannoy guy was announcing the starting line-ups. Biggest cheers he got was when he missed a bit of a sitter and when he substituted at half-time.

[Ken Ashcroft]

Man Utd of course. He would've been forgiven for going to Madrid, after all McManaman went there and he's still popular, but going to Man Utd? He'll never be forgiven around here for that. He wasn't popular to begin with even when he was scoring goals for fun as even then the fans never really took to him (well the locals didn't anyway) as he never felt like he was ''one of us'' even though he came up through the academy, but the fact that he chose to join United killed off any chance he had of being cheered at Anfield again. Funnily enough he did have an opportunity to rejoin Liverpool after it became obvious he surplus to requirements at Madrid but for whatever reason it didn't happen and he went to Newcastle instead.

Should've seen the charity match where he got booed mercilessly every time he kicked a ball and that's when he was wearing a Liverpool shirt, I'm talking about 2 years ago as well. Hell, he got booed when the tannoy guy was announcing the starting line-ups. Biggest cheers he got was when he missed a bit of a sitter and when he substituted at half-time.

That seems a shame. I liked Owen.Well, at least I did when he was playing and scoring for England. Didn’t like him much though when he won you the FA Cup in 2001 against the Arsenal with 2 very late goals just when I was convinced that the gunners would win. Still,Liverpool have always had great strikers/goal scorers with Rush being the earliest one that I can remember and following him with the likes of Aldridge, Fowler, Owen, Torres and Suarez. Liverpool fans might not like him but IMO, Owen should still be placed amongst that acclaimed group.

[John Ossie]

That seems a shame. I liked Owen.Well, at least I did when he was playing and scoring for England. Didn’t like him much though when he won you the FA Cup in 2001 against the Arsenal with 2 very late goals just when I was convinced that the gunners would win. Still,Liverpool have always had great strikers/goal scorers with Rush being the earliest one that I can remember and following him with the likes of Aldridge, Fowler, Owen, Torres and Suarez. Liverpool fans might not like him but IMO, Owen should still be placed amongst that acclaimed group.

He won't be, at least not amongst the Merseysiders anyway, none Merseysiders who support Liverpool do put him there though. As I say, he was never very popular amongst Merseysiders. Frankly, not a lot of Merseysiders care about England so it wouldn't have helped or hindered him popularity wise anyway. On Merseyside at least. Then again, former players and managers etc will put him there as well.

It all came down to him joining Man Utd. If he hadn't then he wouldn't be the controversial figure that he is and would be popular if not universally liked amongst the Liverpool fans on Merseyside.

Speaking of the 2001 F.A. Cup final though, I remember that. You were by far the better team of the day, just couldn't kill us off. Hell, you had such a good team in the first half of the 2000s that I even bought the 2004 season review DVD for Arsenal where you won the league without losing a single game. As well as the Liverpool DVD of course LOL, even though we didn't have a good season that year compared to 2001.

[Ken Ashcroft]

Yeah, you’re right, the first half of the 2000s right up to when we almost won the champions League in 2006 against Barcelona was probably the finest period in Arsenal’s history. Some of us still live in hope that Arsene Wenger can come up with a team that can bring those days back but as each year goes by, it looks less and less likely.

[John Ossie]

Yeah, you’re right, the first half of the 2000s right up to when we almost won the champions League in 2006 against Barcelona was probably the finest period in Arsenal’s history. Some of us still live in hope that Arsene Wenger can come up with a team that can bring those days back but as each year goes by, it looks less and less likely.

I remember how great Arsenal were at times in the 2000s. Like Carragher states in his book there were times when you were watching them and you'd be convinced at the end of the game that you had just watched the best team in the Country, even in the years when Man Utd were champions instead.

From the outside looking in, because for obvious reasons I don't know as much about the Arsenal fan view of things, it appears that more and more Gunners fans have ''lost the faith'' in Wenger, so-to-speak. Would that be an accurate assessment, from what you can tell? Or is it exaggerated by the media coverage?

[Ken Ashcroft]

Speaking for myself and my circle of Arsenal supporting friends, I think that the majority of our fans still believe that under the leadership of Stan Kroneke, the largest Shareholder, that there isn’t anyone out there (who’s available) that can do a better job than Wenger is doing. Of course you are going to get section of fans who want change especially after a loss but with our club, they tend to appear a lot more vocal especially in this day of mass social media. You get ‘celebrity’ fans like Piers Morgan constantly berating Wenger on Twitter and disgruntled ex-gunners like Paul Merson and Stewart Robson attacking Wenger and the state of the club at the drop of a hat, on football discussions shows and printed media outlets. This makes like look like a far more dramatic situation and bigger club crisis than it really is. That’s just my opinion and personally I think Wenger will go anyway when the 2 years on his current contract is up, whatever happens and it’s going to be a end of an era.

[John Ossie]

Speaking for myself and my circle of Arsenal supporting friends, I think that the majority of our fans still believe that under the leadership of Stan Kroneke, the largest Shareholder, that there isn’t anyone out there (who’s available) that can do a better job than Wenger is doing. Of course you are going to get section of fans who want change especially after a loss but with our club, they tend to appear a lot more vocal especially in this day of mass social media. You get ‘celebrity’ fans like Piers Morgan constantly berating Wenger on Twitter and disgruntled ex-gunners like Paul Merson and Stewart Robson attacking Wenger and the state of the club at the drop of a hat, on football discussions shows and printed media outlets. This makes like look like a far more dramatic situation and bigger club crisis than it really is. That’s just my opinion and personally I think Wenger will go anyway when the 2 years on his current contract is up, whatever happens and it’s going to be a end of an era.

Thanks for the response, this is my favourite part of this thread. Being able to discuss football with fans of other clubs in a civilised manner.

I was curious mostly because it's hard to tell in this day and age what the real opinion of a fan base is (well, part of the fan base anyway LOL). I hate Twitter with a passion so I avoid that like it's the plague, nothing good comes from it IMO. As for Merson, I remember he said that Leicester were going to get relegated when Ranieri became manager, then they won the League LOL.

But yeah, I don't see Wenger staying beyond his contract either, just doesn't seem likely to me.

[FluffySheep]

It'll be an end of an era for the Premier League when Wenger does go, let alone Arsenal. Really can't imagine any managers at any team having longevity like he's had at Arsenal in the future.

Although Merson was a decent player, he is useless as a pundit. I'm sure he's only on Soccer Saturday for comedy value because he can't pronounce names and get's predictions wrong. Every season Swansea have been in the Premiership, he's predicted us to get relegated. 6 years later and we're still there (until May at least!)

[John Ossie]

It'll be an end of an era for the Premier League when Wenger does go, let alone Arsenal. Really can't imagine any managers at any team having longevity like he's had at Arsenal in the future.

Although Merson was a decent player, he is useless as a pundit. I'm sure he's only on Soccer Saturday for comedy value because he can't pronounce names and get's predictions wrong. Every season Swansea have been in the Premiership, he's predicted us to get relegated. 6 years later and we're still there (until May at least!)

Yeah, Merson did have a comedy weekend when Liverpool beat Brighton because Thompson had your game which finished 0-0 and for the first three Liverpool goals, we scored them just when Thommo was trying to talk about your game but Merson, due to the goals, kept doing the whole ''goaaalllll'' thing that he does which only made me laugh due to the timing of it. Stelling even made a joke out of it after the third one.

I might be remembering this wrong, but wasn't Merson a manager of Wycombe for a little bit as well? I know Tony Adams was but for whatever reason I think Merson was as well, didn't go well IIRC.