That rap is slightly more credible than Chris Waddle's
—no matter how hard Basil Boli tries to make Chris Waddle seem credible.
At this point, in b4 "Gazza Rap"
I'm also hearing that Jose Mourinho was spotted
◊ today wandering around London in a dazed stupor. He appeared as if he was lost and confused by his surroundings
◊ and did not know where he was or what he was doing.
edited 29th Feb '12 3:11:28 PM by SeanMurrayI
As always, The King of Kings does it better
.
You are my Larsson, my Henrik Larsson...
edited 29th Feb '12 3:19:45 PM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)And nine years later he was the manager of Celtic FC. He should have stuck with the rapping, he would have done better.
In other news - if, purely hypothetically, a cash-strapped football club - say this hypothetical club wore blue and played their football in the Southside - arranged a hypothetical charity match on the hypothetical date of 30 March with a hypothetical club from Milan who wear red and black, then kept a chunk of the profits for themselves, would that be illegal? I mean purely hypothetically?
Martin O'Neill
is 60 today. Love that man <3
Actually, as unethical as keeping for oneself a chunk of profits raised for charity may sound, I don't think it's actually illegal. Appalling, deplorable, shameful? Maybe. But it probably isn't violating any written law.
Just to give a more high-profile example, Susan G. Komen for the Cure (a lucrative, alleged charity that aims to raise money for breast cancer research) gives less than 20% of all the money it gets through private donations and hundreds of corporate sponsorships (including one with Smith & Wesson
) to cancer research. Much of the money the charity gets is kept for itself and even used by the millions filing lawsuits
against other cancer charities over use of the phrase "for the cure". Totally fucking wrong but, again, not illegal.
edited 1st Mar '12 11:11:25 AM by SeanMurrayI
Also, Piers Morgan has been called out as a Twitter troll with a bent fixation with English football.
At present,
Man U's Michael Owen took the bait. Unfortunately, he doesn't have the cool wit of a Gary
Lineker.
Man, I can't believe I've been avoiding this whole thing with Piers Morgan all this time. This shit's hilarious.
edited 1st Mar '12 12:49:32 PM by SeanMurrayI
Neil Lennon
's Twit-Fu is coming along nicely, too. I'd love to be a fly on the wall during these staff card games we here so much about (but hopefully on a wall far away from Big Dolph)!
I'm watching Match Of The Day right now and I have no idea how Liverpool didn't win that game.
Also, there was something I noticed at the Celtic game today that made me lol - Neil Lennon took off his trackie jacket... only to have the exact same jacket on underneath! It was the most surreal thing.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Apparently, Dirk Kuyt and Luis Suarez both hit the post (though Kuyt also scored once) and van Persie's second goal came in added time after the second period.
ETA: I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet: rumours abound that José Mourinho might be making a return to Chelsea. He recently bought a super-expensive flat in London (despite the fact that he currently lives in Madrid, where he's the manager of frickin' Real Madrid.) He's also sought to get his daughter enrolled in a super-fancy London school. (Don't know the details.)
If he's moving to London, that means he thinks there's a position opening for him there. Three big London clubs could potentially be looking for a manager when the season is through (or possibly earlier!)
First, there's Chelsea. André Villas-Boas is in trouble, as we all know, and it got worse yesterday when his team lost to West Brom. That is not a game you wanna be losing when you're struggling to keep your fifth place, let alone fight for top-4. Lots of pressure is on Villas-Boas, and if he's kicked out, there probably isn't a person on Earth that Chelsea fans would like to see more than Mourinho.
The second team that could be looking for a manager is Arsenal. Currently, things are looking better for Wenger, what with having won the crucial North London Derby and Liverpool after that. If he could resurrect his group from the 4-0 hold that Milan has on them, he could rescue their Champions League campaign; but if not, he can only look forward to a defensive victory this year.
Arsenal has to finish in the top-4 in the Premier League or they're out of Champions League next year. That would be a disaster, because the club needs that money for player transfers even though it currently has a huge cash reserve already.
If Wenger fails, he'll probably be kicked out, and that would open the door for Mourinho.
The third London club that might be in need of a new manager soon is of course Tottenham. If Redknapp is chosen by the FA to lead England (and if he accepts the job,) his club will lose their manager just when they're rapidly ascending and evolving. At that point, the new manager would have to be at least as good as Redknapp.
By the way, the thing about a club evolving could also be said about Arsenal. The new young players haven't really stunned us with their performances yet - well, at least not in a positive way - but in the past, Wenger has always bought potential superstars and helped them sealise that potential years later, so it's entirely possible that these guys we're looking at now as almost a burden on the club might very well develop into something beautiful soon, and if that is the case, the worst that could happen would be Wenger's exit.
edited 3rd Mar '12 7:46:01 PM by BestOf
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.They paid £17m in compensation to get a 33 year old manager then only gave him 6 months in the job. That's not taking into account compensation paid to him or Ancelotti. They also have no one to take the job and have put Roberto di Matteo in charge for the rest of the season. What?
Whoever will comes in will need to have a big clear out in the summer which AVB was likely to do anyway. Assuming, of course, that the manager makes those kind of decisions at Chelsea which honestly doesn't seem likely right now.
edited 4th Mar '12 11:17:21 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Wait, I thought he was there for 9 moths? Because sacking a manager after 9 months is totally different from sacking one after six months.
If you take a peek at my previous post, you'll see something that connects rather nicely to this.
AVB was in the process of modernising the team but was also reliant on the performances of the older, well-established stars that apparently had no respect for him. The owner probably thought that he was doing so much damage to the team that he had to go before he could do more.
Can't be bothered to find it right now, but some pundit in BBC wrote an article about how the older players were at fault for the recent lack of success, as they were consistently giving sub-par performances and apparently failing to obey instructions or something. I actually find that plausible.
edited 4th Mar '12 1:47:46 PM by BestOf
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.After yesterday's defeat to West Brom, "The Shit One"
tallied more losses than both Phil Scolari and Avram Grant combined. There was no way things weren't gonna get ugly after that.
Actually, I believe that, despite the older, established stars still being the best players for Chelsea, it's that AVB wasn't relying on them very much and wasn't fielding them as often as they would have liked (at least, that's what recent drama with Frank Lampard would suggest); Nicholas Anelka and Alex both left during the winter transfer period just because they did not like how AVB was doing things (Alex, in particular, even chose to follow Carlo Ancelotti at PSG). Regardless, team morale took a nosedive and AVB had little control over anything.
edited 4th Mar '12 3:42:30 PM by SeanMurrayI
I think the big problem at Chelsea is that everything is focused on "Mourinho's boys," who are over-the-hill, overpaid, underperforming and, let's face it, mostly a bunch of rich idiot arseholes. That Chelsea have spent so much money constantly replacing managers rather than on replacing these idiots raises serious questions about the running of the club.
Villas-Boas did make plenty of mistakes of his own and I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at a club in another country, but I doubt very much that any manager post-Mourinho has met the likes of John Terry and thought "there's a mature, reliable guy who I want to be a senior member of my squad!"
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)The big problem at Chelsea is that they've been losing*. Had the Mourinho "old guard" been complaining if AVB was winning games without them, I don't think much would've ever come of it (at least, not until the end of the season, had Abramovich not gotten his damn Champions League trophy, anyway).
By all means, Chelsea needs to become less reliant on its aging talent if the club wants to have any hopes of moving forward, and I credit AVB for moving in that direction. The only problem is that he hasn't been getting results.
Beyond that, we can make further complaints/criticism about Abramovich's habits of picking which players to sign and going through managers like Elvis did TV sets, the lousy form of Abramovich's signings (Raul Miereles, Romelu Lukaku*, and, of course, Fernando Torres) that have pretty much left Chelsea with a stunted attacking front all season, how the best Chelsea players are still the "old guard" AVB wanted to become less reliant on (at least, Lampard has been pulling sufficient weight on the pitch), and so on and so forth.
Chelsea is just a mess.
Anyway, a few rumors now abound that Rafa Benitez will be sworn in as manager by sometime tomorrow. If that's true, goddammit, I'd rather stick with Di Matteo. A Benitez appointment would make sense though, as it would be in keeping with both Abramovich's comical pursuit of the Champions League trophy and the mounting investments he's been making to get Torres to stop sucking by surrounding him with old acquaintances from Spain and Liverpool.
edited 5th Mar '12 11:00:29 AM by SeanMurrayI
In FIFA Manager 11, Lukaku is indeed one of those players that cost a shitload to buy and deliver for every penny for years on. I know because in all of the games I've played, I've tried to get him but have eventually budged 'cause he costs many times as much as better players with less potential. (I mean, he isn't amazing at first, but he develops into something incredible, much like Vaclav Kadlec.)
Then, when the player I settled with (who can still be an excellent player like Eden Hazard) fails to reach level 90 ratings, I'm always sorry I didn't bother to buy Lukaku before his price went to like €60 million.
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.Rangers' players have rejected an offer to accept cuts to their wages. Gregg Wylde and January signing Mervan Celik have offered voluntary redundancy without compensation and as such have left the club with immediate effect.
It is expected that others may leave the club soon. As in, "in talks with the administrators right now" soon.
EDIT - Rangers' captain Steve Davis has possibly asked to leave and may be on his way to Aston Villa.
The animals went out two by two,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The animals went out two by two,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The animals went out two by two,
The Celts all say "Get it right up you!"
And the 'Gers all went down the road to on at the broo!
edited 6th Mar '12 6:51:27 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)![]()
Last I heard, Rangers players had already agreed to wage cuts. Were these additional cuts that they were rejecting (or larger cuts than they weren't expecting)?
Anyway, I caught today's Arsenal-AC Milan Champions League tie today. AC Milan lead 4-0 on aggregate before the start of the game. Arsenal fought back to 4-3 before halftime. Unfortunately, in spite of a number of big chances (and in spite of an impotent Milan side that was seemingly fated to never get a fifth goal and pretty much seal advancement for certain, in spite of their big chances), Arsenal never got that fourth or fifth goal in the second half.
So Milan advances.
T-Crud, naturually, had a frustrating day with his beloved Rossoneri, being unable to cope with an incredible turn of events for Arsenal at 1:45, being dumbfounded with the halftime scoreline at 3:15, being made fun of by his rival commentators at 4:30, but still being able to celebrate a "victory" at 5:15.
Also, Benfica beat Zenit at home 2-0 and will also be advancing to the quarterfinals.
edited 7th Mar '12 5:29:07 AM by SeanMurrayI
There's been no deal struck between players and administrators yet. The administrators say they were close to a deal that would see Rangers players losing between 25% and 75% of their wages but for whatever reason this has fallen through.
Meanwhile, I'd like to share with you a truly spectacular piece of Timpostery by "Tommy from Glasgow," a free-speech campaigner, Celtic fan and contributor.
Posing as "influential Rangers blogger John Patterson," our man managed to get into some email conversations with Craig Whyte. Read them here
.
This led to Mr Whyte getting in touch with the fictitious "Stewart Henderson," a Scottish-born millionaire living in America who wants to invest in Rangers. In reality, Mr Henderson is in fact our man on the wind up. Listen to the call here
(transcript at the bottom).
There's a lot more to come, too. We're all laughing ourselves silly at the very real possibility that the "millionaire waiting in the wings" they've been talking about is actually the bold Tommy here.
Oh, they aren't a happy bunch this morning!
edited 6th Mar '12 11:11:02 PM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)Lionel Messi tallies five goals (a first for any player in the Champions League) in a 7-1 rout over Bayer Leverkusen. Barcelona advances in the Champions League 10-2 on aggregate.
Meanwhile, Lyon and little Apoel are tied 1-1 on aggregate and have just begun the first half of extra time.
EDIT: Second half of extra time just begun. Score still level; Lyon, however, has the attacking edge.
EDIT THE SECOND: Extra time is over; Apoel and Lyon will be heading to penalties, but not before Apoel's goalscorer, Manduca, gets sent off after a clumsy tackle...
FINAL EDIT: Little Apoel wins 4-3 on penalties. What an ending!
edited 7th Mar '12 2:28:18 PM by SeanMurrayI
The administrators of Rangers have said that negotiations to cut player wages have failed. If by Friday the club is not sold nor received a large financial injection then the administrators will be forced to enact savage cost cuts to keep the company operating for the short term. This would certainly involve firing players, coaches and other staff and perhaps also other arrangements such as cancelling season tickets and asking supporters to pay at the gate.
Alternativley if there is no prospect of anyone buying the club in its current state by Friday then the club may face immediate liquidation. It's unlikely that this will happen before cost cutting measures are utilised although this would only buy a very short amount of time. Former directors Paul Murray and Dave King have announced their intentions to submit seperate bids for the club but how reliable they are is in doubt as is their ability to pass a fit and proper persons test having overseen an mismanaged EBT scheme and other irregularities dating back to 1998 that are being investigated (Dave King also has significant legal problems with the South African Revenue Service that would only add to his unsuitability for running a football club).
Liquidation is inevitable even before we take into account the "Big Tax Case." If they sink in the middle of the season then, we suspect, every League match they have played in this season will be declared void and they will be left with -10 points which will obviously relegate them. There are no provisions to allow a liquidated club to remain in the SPL nor for any club to automatically join the Scottish Football League at Division 3.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)

Oh man, that brings a lot back. Firstly, that Jose Altidore is still alive. He was a legend in Football Manager 2007 then disappeared completely after that.
Also, about rapping. Way back in the collective WTF Mind Screw that was the 1980s, the Celtic first team produced this rather infamous little number
. Oy.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)