The Banter Thread

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What do people reckon about Aston Villa? I reckon they could be the next club to hit financial difficulties if Lerner loses interest and/or they struggle this season:

-They have a debt:turnover ratio of 124% (more than double that of most clubs)
-Dunne has a serious injury and Collins & Cuellar have both left, leaving them very light at centrehalf
-They have an obscene wage bill relative to their stature in the game, well in excess of 80% of turnover. The average salary per player is in excess of £47k/week
-Yes some big earners have moved on since figures were published but equally they no doubt had to stump up a few million to get rid of McLeish and replace with Lambert.
 
cm1179 said:
Tottenham pair Steven Caulker and Jake Livermore have been handed shock call-ups for England's friendly against Italy!

caulker i can maaaaybe understand but as much as a good person and appreciative of his position i know that livermore is, he is not and i doubt ever will be, international standard.
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It's pretty much the bog standard post tournament Dailymail/Sun fob off "youth" team without the "old guard" or as little of it as possible involved. The appearance of experimental teams right after tournaments, a bunch of people the papers have decided are hot prospects is certain, then when real qualifiers come 9/10 of those prospects disappear never to be seen again and most of the old team is back.

Why anyone would take the England job I don't know, its a pre determined motion of events that every manager has followed. McClown, Capello, Sven, Pearce, they've all picked the same teams they all would have. When Parker wasn't beloved by the nation he couldn't get a look in, when he was suddenly the "it" DM he was first choice. Same rubbish different managers, either weak managers too scared to pick against the nations stupidest paper readers, or the FA is mostly picking the team.
 
Jee's

Blackburn looking for a season of unity. Get on their press/fan conference currently showing on ssn.

Putting the heat on steve keane is one thing, doing it for the pleasure of the assembled ramble is just incredible. For me id be suprised if the lma, or indeed the pfa would't wish to contact the club.

Gamst pedderson took a right hammering, realy can't see whats to be gained by slaping down on players before a balls been kicked.
 
So for a bit of fun I came up with my first and second choice teams for The Big Six (TM), note this is not the top 6 from last season as I have excluded Newcastle due to not being confident enough to pick their second team. They and Everton both finished above Liverpool last season but have yet to usurp them in my own personal standings.

Before people dive in I am fully aware that I have some players playing out of position, particularly in the second XIs. This is because I've tried to force them into some sort of formation involving the better players rather than some random youth products that I've barely seen if at all. There are also some typos in player names :)

I haven't done this with any particular objective in mind (e.g. proving how good a squad teams have as some Spurs fan tried to do last year), but rather because I just like coming up with teams, so read in to it what you will.

Manchester City:

.....................Hart
....Richards...Kompany...Lescott
Milner..........De Jong.......Kolarov
............Y.Toure....Silva
.............Tevez...Aguero

.................Pantimillon
Zabaleta...K.Toure...Savic.....Clichy
Nasri........Rodwell...Barry.....Johnson
..............Balotelli...Dzeko

Reasonably happy with these two lineups, I've essentially gone for Mancini's 3-4-1-2 formation on the first XI except that I've got Toure a bit further forward. 2nd XI has Nasri in an unfamiliar wide right role, but at least the suspect centrehalf pairing should get good protection from Rodwell and Barry.

Manchester United:

..................De Gea
Jones....Vidic....Ferdinand....Evra
..................Carrick
Valencia..Young...Kagawa....Nani
.................Rooney

...............Lindergaard
Rafael....Smalling.....Evans....Giggs
..Fletcher....Cleverley....Scholes
..Wellbeck...Berbatov...Hernandez

The reserve team is a bit hilarious, with Fabio being out on loan I felt forced into putting Giggs at LB.

Arsenal:

....................Chesney
Sagna...Koscielny...Vermaelen...Gibbs
.......Arteta....Carzola...Wilshere
.....Chamberlain..Van Persie..Podolski

.....................Mannone
Jenkinson...Mertesacker...Djourou...Santos
......Rosicky......Song.....Ramsey
.......Walcott...Giroud....Arshavin

Difficult to really pick teams here until we see more from the new signings, probably the real dillemna was who to play alongside RvP and Podolski. After bagging a few goals in preseason Gervinho may be disappointed not to get a look in on the 2nd XI but Arsenal have too much depth in that area, he can link up with Chamakh and Bendtner in the 3rd XI :)

Spurs:

...................Friedel
Walker..Kaboul..Vertonghen..BAE
Lennon....Parker...Modric....Bale
..............Van der Vaart
..................Defoe

..................Cudicini
Naughton..Caulker..Dawson...Gallas
Bentley...Jenas..Huddlestone..Rose
.................Sigurdsson
................Dos Santos

Defence was tricky to select, another day I might pick different defenders as Gallas probably lacks the pace to play LB now. Also a big ask for Dos Santos to play as an out-and-out striker. Sandro might feel hard done by at not getting into the reserve side.

Chelsea:

................Cech
Ivanovic..Cahill..Terry..Cole
.........Essien...Lampard
....Hazard...Oscar...Mata
...............Torres

....................Hilario
Ferreria.....Luiz.......Mikel......Bertrand
Ramires...Romeu...Meireles....Malouda
...................Benayoun
...................Sturridge

Chelsea's 2nd string looks remarkably weak, their failure to secure Hulk could end up costing them given that they've loaned out Lukaku.

Liverpool:

................Reina
Johnson...Skrtel..Agger...Enrique
Gerrard....Allen...Lucas...Downing
............Suarez..Carroll

...................Jones
Kelly...Carragher..Coates...Flanaghan
Shelvey..Henderson..Spearing...Adam
...................Cole
..................Borini

Another day I might bench Carroll and lineup with a slightly different formation (perhaps 4-2-3-1), as Gerrard probably doesn't fit too well on the right of a four. For the second string I basically bunged the 4 lads in there but question marks would probably be raised about the widemen (I can't see Adam skinning the fullback too many times); a 4-5-1 with Cole filling one of those slots might work better.
 
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HangTime said:
What do people reckon about Aston Villa? I reckon they could be the next club to hit financial difficulties if Lerner loses interest and/or they struggle this season:

-They have a debt:turnover ratio of 124% (more than double that of most clubs)
-Dunne has a serious injury and Collins & Cuellar have both left, leaving them very light at centrehalf
-They have an obscene wage bill relative to their stature in the game, well in excess of 80% of turnover. The average salary per player is in excess of £47k/week
-Yes some big earners have moved on since figures were published but equally they no doubt had to stump up a few million to get rid of McLeish and replace with Lambert.
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I think they are contenders for the drop this season as they were last. OK they have Bent coming back but I doubt he will hang round. They are average at best and are going the way Newcastle/West Ham/Bolton and other "established" teams went before they got relegated, i.e. getting worse each year and paying daft wages in hope that the average players they have left will keep them up.
 
Happy for people to post their first and second elevens for other clubs but beyond those six clubs I think I would struggle to avoid making serious booboos (backup defenders in the wrong place etc).

Perhaps the main thing I noticed during this excercise is that Arsenal's squad is probably too big in terms of reserve players, i.e. the likes of Denilson, Diaby, Chamakh, Bendtner, Gervinho, Squillaci, Park, Lansbury, Ryo, Frimpong, Coquelin etc can't even get in the second XI and those boys are not going to be on YTS contracts, you are talking £20m/year there. And that's before you even consider all the youth players chomping at the bit for their chance (Bartley, Aneke, Afobi, Eastmond, Yennaris, Miquel etc)
 
Tom84 said:
I'm confused as to why you feel that team is hilarious? :confused:
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I edited it from the original form, so it is marginally less hilarious than it was when I wrote that paragraph. Main reasons were:

-I had cheated to get Fabio at LB by recalling him from loan. I decided this was unfair as I'd blocked Chelsea from having Lukaku.
-Scholes was playing the central role of a three and being relied on too much for tackling.

By "hilarious" I didn't mean talent of the players, more how I had them lining up. Tempting to go 4-4-2 now I've decided I can field Fletcher, play him wide right with Anderson in the middle or something....
 
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Shamikebab said:
What the hell is that :confused:
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I'm not sure. Originally I had something like this for the front six:

Valencia...Carrick...Scholes...Nani
..................Kagawa
..................Rooney

I then decided that I wasn't happy leaving Young out and decided to drop Scholes to the reserve team, giving the 4-1-4-1 formation.
Actually I had a 4-4-2 with Rooney and Berbatov at front at one stage as well but some problem in terms of fitting Young, Kagawa, Nani and Valencia in the same side. If I went 4-4-2 for both 1st and 2nd XIs it would probably give a better feel overall, something like:

Valencia..Carrick...Kagawa...Young
..........Rooney...Berbatov

Fletcher...Cleverley...Scholes...Nani
...........Wellbeck...Hernandez

....but then there'd be less fun and controversy :p
 
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HangTime said:
I'm not sure. Originally I had something like this for the front six:

Valencia...Carrick...Scholes...Nani
..................Kagawa
..................Rooney

I then decided that I wasn't happy leaving Young out and decided to drop Scholes to the reserve team, giving the 4-1-4-1 formation.
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If Moyes went to United, then they'd probably set out like that.

Everton first team

..................Jelavic..................
Peanuts.......Naismith.......Coleman
..............Fellaini......Gibson
Baines....Distin.......Heitinga....Neville
..................Howard

Reserves

..................Vellios..................
Gueye.............................Anichebe
...............Osman..Barkley.........
Junior........Duffy........Jagielka....Hibbert
..................Mucha

Not bad, still a tiny squad though,
 
Ah didn't see that one, I've always liked doing it for other big clubs rather than just my own for some reason, even in the pre-internet days I used to scribble out teams in the back of notebooks, plus random stuff like "London United", max 3 foreigners per club (bet that would be fun these days!) etc

Usually what happens is that I end up with slightly over-ambitious formations i.e. cramming in too many attacking players (see my Chelsea team for example), either that or weird formations like playing with wingbacks at clubs with players that have little/no experience of it if I'm not happy with their wingers. Only this afternoon I had this crazy formation in my head for Chelsea if Ivanovic was suspended, basically it was Terry Cahill and Luiz as the three at the back, Cole and Ramires wingbacks.
 
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