Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 6:18 am  

CL semi finalist "issues"

The two Madrid teams are city rivals and title rivals. There's potential for lots of good and lots of bad in there.

Ancelotti and Paul Clement are ex Chelsea. Jose Mourinho is ex Real Madrid manager and the most hated man in Spain.

Chelsea and Bayern Munich played in the 2012 CL Final and 2014 Super Cup. Jose and Pep seem to really hate each other. Arjen Robben's ex-Chelsea. Bayern Munich are all that's good and pure in football, apart from the tax evading bit and the domination of Germany part, and CFC are the enemy of football and Bayern insist their man Platini takes us down.

Chelsea want Diego Costa, possibly Koke too. AM have Courtois on loan, but don't want to pay the high cost of playing him against CFC and are pleading poverty to try and get Chelsea to relent and let him play for free. Fernando Torres is ex-AM and please god hopefully returning to them next season. Jose Mourinho is an ex Real Madrid manager, hated by Barca, hated by Real, I think AM fans will probably be conflicted by him, but decide with hating him too if we're drawn together.

Bayern and AM played in the 1974 European Cup final. It went to replay, Bayern won 4-0. Luis Aragonas played in those games. Luis Aragonas died in 2014. AM fans are probably going to get all scouse and invoke the "Do it for Aragonas in Heaven" 5hit.

My least favourite option is probably Atletico. They are the underdog, they are amazingly overachieving, they kind of have nothing to lose, UEFA will no doubt condemn Chelsea if we tell AM to pay up over Courtois. I think we are focused probably too much on Costa as our main man next season. Playing them in the semi could destroy everything or it could be the impetus for massive trades between the clubs.

Bayern are probably the best team. Pep is taking plenty of criticism, but I see a ruthless efficiency that is quite frightening. Bayern have coasted as times but when they've needed to play they can they've shown devastating power. But I think Jose Mourinho AND Chelsea give them nightmares.

Real Madrid are not far behind Bayern, but Ronaldo is an injury doubt which is a massively different prospect. IMO Carlo Ancelotti is a serial bottler. He screwed up a 3-0 half time lead to lose against Liverpool, his performances against Mourinho and Fergie in the CL while at Chelsea were tame beyond belief. He nearly messed up a 3-0 lead to Dortmund. I think you need to be a ruthless MF to rule in Europe. I think Ancelotti will probably fail to win both the CL and the Spanish title.

Whoever we get I think we can win against. Whoever we get I think we can lose against. I have no preference of who we are drawn against, but I most want to avoid Atletico for both playing and political reasons.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:15 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

I have no preference of who we are drawn against, but I most want to avoid Atletico for both playing and political reasons.

Ah well.....

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:20 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

My least favourite option is probably Atletico. They are the underdog, they are amazingly overachieving, they kind of have nothing to lose, UEFA will no doubt condemn Chelsea if we tell AM to pay up over Courtois. I think we are focused probably too much on Costa as our main man next season. Playing them in the semi could destroy everything or it could be the impetus for massive trades between the clubs.

.

Total ignorance. Please dont claim you have watched much of Atletico this season because if you had, you would see how good a team they are. There is no over achieiving at all.

They will give Chelsea an absolute mullering.

Regards

King James

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 11:30 am  

Lebron James wrote:

Total ignorance. Please dont claim you have watched much of Atletico this season because if you had, you would see how good a team they are. There is no over achieiving at all.

They will give Chelsea an absolute mullering.

Regards

King James

They're overachieving in terms of not being expected to be challenging for the title or CL, but they are. I'm not saying it as a slight in any way. I said they were the team I least wanted FFS.

What greater effing compliment can it be that I would have rather faced Real Madrid or Bayern Munich than them?

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 12:16 pm  

Think Chelsea are in for two uncomfortable ties against Atletico.

Seen them a couple of times this season on Sky, tremendous work ethic ( they remind me of Dortmund a couple of seasons ago) and are very difficult to break down.

Plus side for Chelsea is the goalkeeper won't be playing against them...he is superb.

[TimperleySaint]

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 1:37 pm  

duke street 10 wrote:

Plus side for Chelsea is the goalkeeper won't be playing against them...he is superb.

According to UEFA Chelsea can't enforce that - so he will be!

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 2:02 pm  

Mike Oxlong wrote:

According to UEFA Chelsea can't enforce that - so he will be!

UEFA are being UEFA, they're making up 5hit as they go along.

Last year Celtic played some Swede's(?) and one of their players was on loan there. UEFA came out and said that it was nothing to to do with them and whatever the terms of the loan agreement they didn't really care.

This year they're pretty much trying to say CFC can't hold Atl' to the agreement both clubs signed at the beginning of the season. They're trying to make out that any agreement would be a breech of the spirit of the game.

The truth is that Chelsea and Atletico will probably be making huge trades both ways and they'll both do what is in their interests and they'll just ignore UEFA.

It's in Chelsea's long term interests that Courtois signs an extension. It's in Atletico's interest that Courtois has another loan for them next season. Chelsea are probably buying Costa and the deal will already be agreed. If Courtois plays then the fee will just be subtracted from the sum CFC pay and both Chelsea and Atletico will just tell UEFA that CFC agreed to let him play. There's also a rumour saying that Atletico will willingly not play Courtois because they wouldn't want to jeopardize next years loan.

It is starting to grate that loan deals that have been happening for decades are now suddenly an issue now that Chelsea have a few high profile ones. Wenger whines about it, even though he wanted Ba and took Benayoun on loan last year. Then there's mid season sales that are wrong. We sell Mata, clearly one of our highest rated players, and that's wrong as well. We're wrong when we spend too much money, and we're wrong when we abide by FFP and sell players to buy others.

On another forum there was a red Manc whining about Chelsea having 20 players out on loan. Pity for the stupid Mancs that United have 29 players out on loan.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Fri Apr 11, 2014 7:16 pm  

From a gambling perspective, Atletico at 7/2 to win this competition are an excellent price - I can see them tearing Chelsea apart, similar to the Super Cup match a couple of years ago, I think it will be a similar semi to last year's between Real and Dortmund in that it will turn out to be very comprehensive.

Bayern and Real is a close one... Logic says Bayern - They are ruthlessly efficient and look to be able to go up a gear when challenged. However, there is that nagging thought that an all Madrid final is where this is heading... They definitely have the talent to upset Bayern, it just depends if they can keep their bottle which seems to be their problem in recent years.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:52 pm  

Arsenal fans celebrating like they have won the premier league, champions league and world cup all in one.

After beating a championship team.......on penalties..............to make the final.

It's laughable.

Still, it looks like the fa cup final will be an unwelcome distraction to wengers main goal of winning the 'finish in the top 4' trophy.

Re: Football Chat Thread PART II : Sat Apr 12, 2014 6:59 pm  

The Arsenal keeper giving the cupped ear to the Wigan fans. Arsenal FC should be embarrassed, but they really won't be.

Wenger needs to leave, no matter what. I want him to stay because they are stuck with him, but he needs to win the FA Cup "vindicated", take over at Barca and prove himself as a top manager.