Following on from Juve's decision to change their badge Arsenal has decided to do the same and to mark their ambition to finish fourth.

11 hours ago, Kinkladze1871 said:

You can bank on the tv networks to pick the wrong tie to broadcast, So instead of televising a local derby in Wimbledon v Sutton, They show us a rubbish championship side away to a conference side with no back drop or story line to the tie.

Football doesn't start and end at the premiership. 

1 hour ago, stevo said:

Football doesn't start and end at the premiership. 

I don't think Kinkladze was implying that it did - none of the teams he mentioned are Prem.  He meant that Sutton and Wimbledon are local to each other so there was an added dimension to the tie.  Whereas Lincoln v Ipswich had little to interest.

3 hours ago, stevo said:

Football doesn't start and end at the premiership. 

I don't really get how you got that from what he said. 

17 hours ago, carrickblue said:

ahhh...the romance of the Cup. Just need Plymouth to do the business tomorrow night.

Would be nice and romantic but if that happens Klopp will have a week to prepare for our game.

Just noticed United have @Stoke @Hull Wigan Hull coming up. Brace yourselves for a collective media orgasm when they win all of those matches 

with a few more offside goals no doubt...

6 hours ago, stevo said:

Football doesn't start and end at the premiership. 

Wimbledon and Sutton are in the premiership?

19 hours ago, Kinkladze1871 said:

You can bank on the tv networks to pick the wrong tie to broadcast, So instead of televising a local derby in Wimbledon v Sutton, They show us a rubbish championship side away to a conference side with no back drop or story line to the tie.

I'm assuming the "core target audience" went to the match instead of watching it at home and would've done so even if it had been on the telly.

21 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Generally I'm not a huge fan of attaching personal feelings to footballers (although I am very often guilty of it), or at least ascribing some kind of moral failings to football figures just because I don't like their team, but, if certain allegations are true, John Aldridge is genuinely an appalling human being, and has never been held accountable for it.

The website on which the original article is hosted has since shut down, but it seems to have been reposted in its entirety on this Man City site. In short, the article claims that while he was Tranmere manager, he bullied a youth player to the verge of suicide:

http://www.mcfcforum.com/index.php/forum/other-football-and-sport/125947-john-aldridge-s-a-vile-excuse-of-a-human-being

Read this a while ago. f**king scumbag. 

 

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/10733469/van-basten-scrap-offside-rule

Some madness today from Marco Van Bastern:

Quote

FIFA technical director Marco van Basten has floated a radical blueprint for the future of football which would see offside abolished and sin-bins introduced.

The former World Player of the Year was employed by FIFA in September to oversee all technical areas ranging from innovations in technology to refereeing.

And the Dutchman's long-term vision for the game includes scrapping some of its most established rules.

"We must keep looking for ways to improve the game," Van Basten said in an interview with Sport Bild.

"To make it more honest, more dynamic, more interesting, so that what we offer is attractive enough.

"There are lots of variations which need to be tested in the coming years."

Van Basten says abolishing the offside rule would mean an end to games which "resemble handball where nine players, plus the goalkeeper, pack the penalty area and [the defence] is like a wall".

He argues sin-binning players would prove a greater deterrent than the yellow card system.

"That would frighten teams," he said. "It is hard to play 10 against 11, let alone with eight or nine."

Among Van Basten's other ideas is one to replace extra-time and penalties with ice hockey-style shootouts involving players dribbling towards the goalkeeper from "25 metres out".

The 52-year-old also suggested clamping down on time-wasting, stopping any player but the captain from speaking to officials and cutting the number of games in a year.

Now some of these I'd agree with, sin-binning for example, but scrapping the offside rule and ice hockey shootouts seem ludicrous to me.

Defintely think sin binning would work  interesting idea about scrapping offside, would defintely lead to more goals and would be difficult to defend against  

Defintely think could be more innovative  it takes them ages to change the slightest thing  

 

I don't like any of those ideas from Van Basten. Sin-bins i can live with but removing offisdes, extra time and penalties is not what i would call improving the game. I like the offside rule, it tests the defenders and attacking players, this would just be like dumbing-down the game by making things easier for attacking teams. I also like extra time and penalties. I mean, who doesn't love to watch a penalty shoot-out from time to time ? I hate it when my own team is involved because it's the most tense experience you can get out of watching a game of football, but it's one the best experiences as a fan when you win it, by the way the players react i expect it's one of the best for them too. Why bother changing it to Hockey's style ? Watching a player run from the half way line just to beat the keeper is a waste of time. Just put it on the penalty spot and hit at the goal.

I'm not a fan of trying to bring all of these rules into football. Let football be football, don't try and copy other sports. This is FIFA we are talking about here though, they will probably be all for it.

 

 

 

I'm shocked City hasn't signed anyone 2 weeks into the Window. If there's a time for panic buy, it is now. I don't think money is the problem, they either put all in eggs into 1 basket for the summer window, or Pep believe he could ride it out with the team he got.

5 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Defintely think sin binning would work  interesting idea about scrapping offside, would defintely lead to more goals and would be difficult to defend against  

Defintely think could be more innovative  it takes them ages to change the slightest thing  

 

I think it's a terrible idea. It will ruin the game in my opinion. There will be no organisation in the defence. You will have one defender marking a player on the corner flag, one of the edge of the area and one half way up the field. It would be a complete mess. I also don't mind the rate of goals we are currently get in the game, i don't think the game is in need of more goals. If we got rid of the offside rule i think we would rarely see clean sheets and we would have games with about 10 goals in them. It will ruin the excitement of seeing teams score a goal. I'm also unsure about sin-bins in football. If it's the same as Rugby then we could end up with a 5 a side game for certain periods.

Personally, i think these changes would turn football into a farce .

Scrapping offside would be a game killer, how are teams going to defend, pack 6 defenders in the 6 yard box?

It's surprising none of the recommendations are related to use of technology. How about 1 video referee call per half, for those difficult penalty, offside, red card decisions? The game is too good to be ruined by poor referee calls ( deliberate or not)

 

11 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Just noticed United have @Stoke @Hull Wigan Hull coming up. Brace yourselves for a collective media orgasm when they win all of those matches 

Now that we've sold Depay we have a chance at winning away to Stoke...

 

 

I think all those Van Basten ideas suck balls, sin binning is an American influence and it should stay part of the sports it's already part of. As for scrapping offsides, why don't we just give tests an extra man so they can sit in the box. Bloody ludicrous suggestions.

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I think it's a terrible idea. It will ruin the game in my opinion. There will be no organisation in the defence. You will have one defender marking a player on the corner flag, one of the edge of the area and one half way up the field. It would be a complete mess. I also don't mind the rate of goals we are currently get in the game, i don't think the game is in need of more goals. If we got rid of the offside rule i think we would rarely see clean sheets and we would have games with about 10 goals in them. It will ruin the excitement of seeing teams score a goal. I'm also unsure about sin-bins in football. If it's the same as Rugby then we could end up with a 5 a side game for certain periods.

Personally, i think these changes would turn football into a farce .

All the recent (last 15 years) batsman friendly innovations have made cricket half the sport it used to be. The bowlers never have a chance anymore and they certainly can't outshine batsmen.

If they remove offsides, a whole tactical dimension of defending will be lost and we'll see football go down the same path. Enough goals in the game as it is.

The ONLY thing we need are video referrals.

Getting rid of offside?

I can't wait for the inevitable 'Premier League side make £30m bid for Darren Bent' article which will immediately follow.

Getting rid of offside would reduce football to the school situations where you have one fella goal hanging just waiting for a loose ball. All tactics would go out the window and the game would become a farce

the return of the goal hanger !! how about "rush goalies" be like being over the park again

Stop touch football, current rules, the current game is fantastic, no changes needed. Removing offside would destroy a lot, players will be lazy. All these changes will kill football.

In the football rich list issued yesterday http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38655480, Man City are now 5th. How on earth have they got there so quickly? When you compare them to us, they have had a fairly similar attendance until last season (and even then, their tickets are generally cheaper), they haven’t had as long a period of ‘top club’ status and haven’t had as big a trophy haul and they aren’t in the prime tourism spot that we are. In addition to that, I read the other day that there official website is miles behind us in visits. We even managed to get some briefly record breaking sponsorships in the last couple of years.

I know that this kind of thing doesn’t really matter, but it does make me wonder how they are generating such income. Despite some completely ineffectual punishment a couple of years back, they have seemed pretty immune to FFP and it’s almost certain that they will spend perhaps more than has ever been spent by any club this summer to give Pep the kind of superior squad he is used to.

I appreciate our own rise up these kind of lists was initiated by the money that Roman pumped into the club, but it has taken over ten years and many trophies, including a European Cup, to get amongst the longer established elite.

Edited January 19, 20179 yr by Snedger