2013/14 UEFA Champions League

[Halie Satanus]

Foul, yes, red card offence, I didn't think so. Neymar has earned himself a reputation which, all things being equal, will come back and bite him in the proverbial..

[torongill]

You two do know that the rest of the people in this thread are either laughing their arses off or tearing their hair out in despair, don'tcha?

That's not the point. It's the principle of the thing.



P.S. Aye, that reputation. My guess is you haven't watched any matches since Valencia - Barcelona. I used to be concerned about the same reputation myself, but from the Barcelona - Sevilla match on I haven't seen the acting. My guess is most of you guys talk about his reputation from memory. There has been a statistic, since he came to Barcelona Neymar has been the most fouled player of the whole Barcelona team. Not even Messi draws as many fouls. Watch this video and tell me where he's acting.

start watching from 2:00 the build-up to the first foul.
As for the Brown episode, and this is my final paragraph on it, you can't call "unsportmanlike" response on an illegal action. It's just bull. Yeah, I know it goes against your grain to admit it, because once you strip the denigrating "playacting" accusations you'd have to admit that he was just too good for the bigger and stronger Celtic defenders.

[white-wolf]

You two do know that the rest of the people in this thread are either laughing their arses off or tearing their hair out in despair, don'tcha? Yes it was a foul, yes Neymar's a playacting arschloch. There.

Seconded.

[Cold_Mac]

You two do know that the rest of the people in this thread are either laughing their arses off or tearing their hair out in despair, don'tcha? Yes it was a foul, yes Neymar's a playacting arschloch. There.

[sabaku_no_gaara]

Meh, Barca and Madrid shouldn't even be in the Champions league, with all the debt etc... and the state of their country.


Now who saw RSCA - Olympiakos, and what did you think of that game? Did you know that Tielemans the young midfielder recently turned 16, and totenham is aledgedly preparing a bid of 1.7 milion for him, which I hope the board will refuse? And that our other young midfielder Praet is only 19, I think our youngsters preformed very well. We where by far the better team with the most scoring chances, too bad we failed to score. The 0-3 was not a fair result

[Treva ★]

It goes against my grain to admit Sellik are shite. Hmmm. Food for thought.

[Adar]

You two do know that the rest of the people in this thread are either laughing their arses off or tearing their hair out in despair, don'tcha? Yes it was a foul, yes Neymar's a playacting arschloch. There.

I am more inclinced to look at it as a good example of the complexity of human behavior.

It is quite clear that torongill come with a worldview that the first wrongdoer (Brown) give the victim (Neymar) freedom to replicate the bad behavior while Erebus Pascha look at the situation and feel disgust towards both participants.

[torongill]

It is quite clear that torongill comes with a worldview that the first wrongdoer (Brown) gives the victim (Neymar) freedom to replicate the bad behavior while Erebus Pascha look at the situation and feel disgust towards both participants.

the way that overrated flop Neymar acted to get Brown sent off was disgraceful. The ref didn't cover himself in glory either.

I know, right?

[The Great Montrose]

Jumping in,

Point 1, I hate Celtic so I in no way have celtic tinted glasses on.

Point 2, I have no idea who you're referring to about Celtic coaches, Danny McGrain was one of the hardest footballers to come out of Scotland (And we've produced a lot) tough as nails so he is. I've been told about a time where he was tackled in a match and the guy should have been sent off for it, instead of rolling about like a baby acting like he'd just been shot McGrain got back up and told the ref not to send the player off as he wanted to get his own back.

Point 3, I in no way think it's ok for Samaras to dive about either, I give him some amount of abuse for it when we play Celtic.

Point 4, Broony is a smashing player, one of the few players left still to play the game its meant to be played.

Point 5, Football is a contact sport, it's a physical game, People that dive about are a disgrace. It's a real shame football is slowly turning into a non contact sport.

[torongill]

P.1. I don't hate Celtic.
P.2. Lennon. Juanjo anyone?
P.3. Personally I think diving is bad practice, but this is not what happened in this case. What happened was a player trying to hurt deliberately another and trying to get away with it, trying to abuse the system. Diving may be a bad practice, but very often the dirtiest acts are deliberately done as hidden as possible. Remember Pepe's stomping of Messi, Marcelo's standing on the knee of Pedro. It's all good to call against bad sportsmanship displayed by diving, but what's much more important is to call against the absolute lack of sportsmanship displayed by some players trying to hurt another player.
P.4. [citation needed] . Sorry, but it's true. What's the way the game is meant to be played? The way it was played when there was a dedicated shin-kicker? The way it was played when a player could break another's leg, or destroy his knee, and the only thing he would get would be a red card?
P.5. Football is a contact sport, that's true, but it's not rugby. There are rules to the game. Apart from that, it's easy for a player of the stature of Alex (P$G) for example, to tell Messi or Neymar to stop rolling around and get up and continue. I wonder what would his opinion be if he were thrown around by a 2.2m 120 kilogram player.

[Cold_Mac]

You won the game and Brown got punished. Thats what relevant. Whats the gain of derogative posts like that? To demand public ritsu-rei apology from all users who disagree with you?

[Erebus Pasha]

Meh, Barca and Madrid shouldn't even be in the Champions league, with all the debt etc... and the state of their country.


Now who saw RSCA - Olympiakos, and what did you think of that game? Did you know that Tielemans the young midfielder recently turned 16, and totenham is aledgedly preparing a bid of 1.7 milion for him, which I hope the board will refuse? And that our other young midfielder Praet is only 19, I think our youngsters preformed very well. We where by far the better team with the most scoring chances, too bad we failed to score. The 0-3 was not a fair result

There is another young ex-player of yours, Januzaj, who is gaining some headlines at Man Utd at the moment. It's sad because you want to see players develop at Anderlecht but foreign clubs are willing to pay for young Belgian talent as they want to unearth the next Kompany, Hazard or Vertonghen.

[Mausolos of Caria]

On Anderlecht: Your team seems to have plenty of wonderful talents indeed. But that is not the first time that a young, promising team in the Champions League plays well and is still being defeated by their opponent. It's and old saying, but experience is really decisive in European football and especially in the Champions League. Your players will learn and improve. Belgian football is a positive example for all other little countries right now and Belgium has a wonderful squad to choose from- dark horse for the World Cup!

On that incident: I hate Neymar and I hate Celtic so I better won't comment on this one

[torongill]

There is another young ex-player of yours, Januzaj, who is gaining some headlines at Man Utd at the moment. It's sad because you want to see players develop at Anderlecht but foreign clubs are willing to pay for young Belgian talent as they want to unearth the next Kompany, Hazard or Vertonghen.

The sad truth is that these players will develop more if they play in the best clubs and the best leagues. One reason why the Spanish don't cry too much about Spanish players in the EPL(or Germany for that matter). They learn a lot, get paid a lot, and their experience helps in the national team.

[Erebus Pasha]

It depends on the club torongill. Teams like Man Utd and Arsenal have always given youth a chance but others like to rely on experience and tend to prefer players that are 'ready made'. There will always be the temptation for a player(or if I'm being cynical, his agent) to strike it rich early by getting a contract at a big European club, but I don't think that this is always beneficial. I've seen on countless occasions top Premier League sides buying young players with great potential from the Championship only to these players disappear into reserve team football and then reappear on loan again at some Championship or League One side a season or two later. Young players develop by playing competitive regular football week in and week out and not by sitting on the bench or playing in reserves in front of one man and his dog. Again the cynic in me thinks that a lot of clubs buy young talent to stop other clubs pinching them, and the effort that these clubs put into developing their young assets comes almost as an afterthought. However, there has been a trend lately of clubs buying players and loaning them out for a season at another club to give them experience, which I do think is a positive move - for example Chelsea sending out Kevin De Bruyne to Werder Bremen, Romelu Lukaku to West Brom and Everton and Thibault Courtois to A. Madrid.

[Treva ★]

The system is only sustainable for as long as you can keep buying kids 'cheap' (if paying millions of dollars for someone to kick an air-filled bladder is 'cheap') and then doing financial juggles with them. If TV stops paying this all goes to hell, I don't think even Abramovich's money laundering could keep a club afloat.

[torongill]

@Erebus Pasha, So you're talking about Premiership clubs only? In that case I agree, but it's connected to the huge money that clubs get from the TV contracts. It gives them the ability to buy talent, or even potential and then sometimes waste it completely. There's no real pressure on developing players, because the money next year will still be there, and there still aren't rules that restrict effectively poaching the promishing youths of another club's academy. The complacency about the creation of players is astonishing to be honest.
Remember Denis Suarez? The guy is a charm, he'd been doing great in the reserves of City, was voted Young player of the season of City, and City, the club with no real need of money, sold him to FC Barcelona for IIRC 2m euro or something less, which means less than 1m Euro profit(he was signed for 850k GBP).
Barcelona signed him for Barcelona B, set his release clause to 12m Euro, to be increased to 35m Euro when he starts with the first team. Not "if" but "when" he starts. And this is the Barcelona midfield, which already boasts Iniesta, Xavi, Fabregas, as well as Sergi Roberto(La Rojita starter) competing for two spots in midfield. That's how promising Barcelona considers him.

[Nazgûl Killer]

We all know Football can turn cool minds to rash and heated ones, but let's just relax a bit. Insulting and name calling will not be tolerated.

[Cold_Mac]

We all know Football can turn cool minds to rash and heated ones, but let's just relax a bit. Insulting and name calling will not be tolerated.

Apologies.

The system is only sustainable for as long as you can keep buying kids 'cheap' (if paying millions of dollars for someone to kick an air-filled bladder is 'cheap') and then doing financial juggles with them. If TV stops paying this all goes to hell, I don't think even Abramovich's money laundering could keep a club afloat.

What plausible reason would make the TV stop paying? Even if it goes down, I expect Man City to skirt around the FFP by amortisations.

Their 89.5m GBP transfers only account to 21.7m in their accounts, with only a small rise of expenditure despite an annual wage bill of over 148m GBP.

As far as I know Abramovich turned his injections into loaned equity, hence the 680m debt.

It depends on the club torongill. Teams like Man Utd and Arsenal have always given youth a chance but others like to rely on experience and tend to prefer players that are 'ready made'. There will always be the temptation for a player(or if I'm being cynical, his agent) to strike it rich early by getting a contract at a big European club, but I don't think that this is always beneficial.

For the club or the player?

For the player it has to be a growing concern that the average debut age in the EPL has risen up to 23, even the very gifted & pricy talents get loaned out for 2,3 or even 4 years. Most clubs don't do it in the volume of Chelsea and keep the number below 10. Its a crude way to to sift chaff from the wheat but its not always to their worst.

Speaking of my club, the U20 is simply not good enough to fill the squad. Or injured...Had a talk with Filip Twardzik, who is in hospital for his 3rd operation and he got injured in november 2012, the day after he was told that he'll be an importan part of the first team from now on. If your players professionalism doesn't match his talent, loans can be a test of character, which is the case with Tony Watt.

The Champions League isn't the place to nurture your youth in any case.

[Treva ★]

What plausible reason would make the TV stop paying? Even if it goes down, I expect Man City to skirt around the FFP by amortisations.

The TV going bankrupt because football in itself is a bubble and this fiction known as money might burst if they have shady deals of their own? Also,a t some point Internet broadcasts will get good enough for people to ignore idiotic commentators such as those provided by Faux or ESPN Disney.

Their 89.5m GBP transfers only account to 21.7m in their accounts, with only a small rise of expenditure despite an annual wage bill of over 148m GBP.

I'd like to have a look at City's real books and see what's in there.

As far as I know Abramovich turned his injections into loaned equity, hence the 680m debt.

Of course, people like him never lose money.