Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:11 pm  

On behalf of Darren Fletcher, Manchester United wishes to announce that he is taking an extended break from football for health reasons.

Over the past year he has had several absence periods which we have attributed to a viral illness in order to respect his right to medical confidentiality. Darren has, in fact, been suffering from ulcerative colitis (a chronic inflammatory bowel condition) for some time preceding this.

Whilst he was able to maintain remission of symptoms for a considerable period this has proved more difficult recently and Darren’s continued desire to play and his loyalty to both his club and country has probably compromised the chances of optimising his own health and fitness.

He has therefore accepted medical advice to take an extended break from the demands of training and playing in order to afford the best chance possible of achieving full remission once again.

We request that his privacy is respected and hope that the removal of the additional stress associated with speculation regarding his health will also aid his recovery.






United's centre midfield options take another turn for the worse, no doubt still no spending in January despite the 'war chest', due to their being 'no value' no question about that.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 4:17 pm  

D.D. wrote:

Superbowl Scott wrote:

Massive win for the blues. Thought Man City were lucky to have 10 men on the pitch.

Yaya certainly could have gone but, then again, Meireles should have gone and we should have had a penalty to make it 2-0. Would have been more or less all over before Chelsea had passed it to a fellow blue shirt if the ref had been on the ball.

Thought Kompany was lucky aswell. Agree about Meireles, he should have recieved a 2nd yellow.

Silva didn't help his case the way he went down imo. It was a penalty for sure though.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:14 pm  

Gutted to hear the news about Fletcher and all I can do is wish him a speedy recovery.

I have Crohns Disease which is a pretty similar thing and I can only commend him for being able to go on for as long as he has at the top level of football whilst living with Ulcerative colitis. Hopefully it won't be too long before he is in remission and doing what he does best again.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 5:37 pm  

Bad news about Fletcher, read this tweet of Berbatov's though, made me giggle.. he seems like a top fella... ''Almost feel like my seasonal batches of 'croquette camembert al a canneberge' have something to do with Darrens problems...''

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:33 pm  

Mark wrote:

Stoke (a) very tough. Everton (a) very tough. I think you've lost at both in the past 12 months. Still some hard away games to come. It's in United's hands as well now.

How is it in United's hands? You are two points behind and have the harder set of fixtures to deal with come the new year. I'd say City are still in control despite the set back. Arsenal at home on Sunday takes extra significance now though.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 6:52 pm  

Blobbynator wrote:

Mark wrote:

Stoke (a) very tough. Everton (a) very tough. I think you've lost at both in the past 12 months. Still some hard away games to come. It's in United's hands as well now.

How is it in United's hands? You are two points behind and have the harder set of fixtures to deal with come the new year. I'd say City are still in control despite the set back. Arsenal at home on Sunday takes extra significance now though.

win every game including @ city?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:34 pm  

Mark wrote:

Everton (a) very tough.

.....Clutching at straws with that one mate.....As an Evertonian, I can tell you now, City will pick up 3 points from Goodison.

Most Evertonians are just praying that the likes of Blackburn and Bolton continue to perform as badly as they presently are, otherwise, with the combination of our desparately poor squad and Moyes's pitiful tactics, we will be slipping down a division come May.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Tue Dec 13, 2011 9:40 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Mark wrote:

Everton (a) very tough.

.....Clutching at straws with that one mate.....As an Evertonian, I can tell you now, City will pick up 3 points from Goodison.

Most Evertonians are just praying that the likes of Blackburn and Bolton continue to perform as badly as they presently are, otherwise, with the combination of our desparately poor squad and Moyes's pitiful tactics, we will be slipping down a division come May.

I don't think it'll be that bad, sooner or later Moyes will grow a pair and not be negative then a few wins will come, which will be enough....I hope anyway.

Lucky this year the league seems to be worse than ever.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:01 am  

flipper wrote:

Blobbynator wrote:

Mark wrote:

Stoke (a) very tough. Everton (a) very tough. I think you've lost at both in the past 12 months. Still some hard away games to come. It's in United's hands as well now.

How is it in United's hands? You are two points behind and have the harder set of fixtures to deal with come the new year. I'd say City are still in control despite the set back. Arsenal at home on Sunday takes extra significance now though.

win every game including @ city?

That's it.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:59 am  

Everton (A) isn't very tough. It used to be, however it isn't no more. Stoke won there the other week. Anfield, Old Trafford, The Britania and Eithdad Stadium are the hardest away trips, followed by Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham.