PaddockLad

Anyone with a titter of wit knows that Ben Arfa is this morning clocking on at the Milanello training centre near Varese

Thing is, thats the same sort of function on the pitch as Ronaldo and Bale but obviously all three play the role completely differently. I think attacking positions as I understood them 20 years ago are pretty much redundant now, everybody needs to be so much more flexible and innovative. A modern attacker has to have quite a few strings to his bow to be top class.

I'd never heard the term before Fish put it in the title of this thread Wheres @@Meenzer when you need him for a translation?..

Wiki: Müller plays as a midfielder or forward, and has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking midfielder, second striker, centre forward and on either wing. He has been praised for his positioning, team work and stamina, and has shown consistency in scoring and creating goals.

Away man Muller's a striker

I didn't go due to Xmas, spurs on Wednesday, mackems on Sunday and basically being a pussywhipped tosspot Watched it in the local labour club, a few of our old Sunday morning team were out including two brothers who are gooners who made the point that Arsenal and Newcastle are in similar situations i.e. a large number of supporters want a superficially ok manger out but their employers don't really care as long as the status quo is maintained. Saved from Niall Quinns shitfest by playing Greg Lakes "I believe in father Christmas" on repeat on the club jukebox

Fuckin turboshit, largely down to Pardews set up. Alnwick out of his depth and Abeid uses the ball a gazillion times better than Tiote does...it's fair to say he's been as good in his own way as Sissoko has this season. Travelling to spurs fearing the worst.

Is that the Doris from opposite the strawberry?

Some younger posters won't remember how utterly fuckin reviled the pre George Graham( appointed 1986) Arsenal actually were. Any gooner over the age of 50 calling for his head should be shot with shit tbh.

Yeah that's the ones, add viera to them and building a new stadium at the same time

I think post the summer of 2006 Arsenal lost about 6 players who were at one stage of their career or other we're genuinely world class iyam. They've never recovered. Nor would most sides.

well yeah it's like listening to a jumped up barrowboy but he's been a corporate placeman for decades.

The football landscape has been skewed so radically by money since the late 60s though that it makes comparison very difficult. The FA is now a huge corporate entity rather than how you accurately describe it back then. I think the overriding reason why England don't do well at international level is the strength of club culture in this country. There are a thousand and one "technical" reasons too, but we've got a higher concentration of professional clubs than anywhere else in the world. Clubs that would be part time anywhere else in Europe populate the bottom two divisions and the Vanarama premier is also basically a wholly professional division 5. The FA's chief focus has always been these clubs rather than the national team. That is changing, but as you pointed out when the Germans performed so poorly in Euro 2000 they could change their system very quickly because their culture us geared towards the success of the national team. The German clubs' (I think only the top two divisions are full time professional?) academies are basically offshoots of the German FA rather than run by the clubs,for the clubs. Can't see that changing very quickly in this country tbh.

UEFA in "doing something brilliantly" shocker....... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/11291557/Wayne-Rooney-leads-Christmas-Truce-cast-as-football-makes-poignant-tribute-to-remarkable-day-100-years-on.html

Yes a bit self righteous after afternoon beverage but it's nowt to do with nationality it's just a suspicion of people who go out of their way to be oversmart. Tbh, most regulars on here, with one or two glaring exceptions, are reasonable crack and have half an idea about the game without resorting too much to hipster bollocks. It's just not needed as far as I can make out but yeah knock yourself out....can someone actually tell me what a ramdeuter us though??

Apparently he said either give me another year or pay me my contract up (12 month rolling?). Surprise surprise Ashley isn't keen to cough up the loot...

What's funny about that?

Are you going to compare coaching numbers between the UK and Spain/Germany/Holland?

Well yeah am sure he does but that is a rule, not something that describes a function on the pitch. It's all just a level of smartarse-dom that I refuse to go to. I don't understand the need, I can express myself adequately in the footballing vernacular of the 70s and 80s thank you very much. Everyone else I know who has half an idea about the game does too

Another "cool" thing to say tbh, nothing really concrete to back it up although I completely accept we can learn much from abroad. Thing is, it's only a label. Better my mate can coach a young lad to "play in behind" a main striker than have to additionally explain what a "tetrarequesta"(?) is and also why isn't he actually speaking English.

Fish mate, it sounds like your hanging out with wankers who talk shite to sound cool. I've just asked this lad I work with what a regista is, to explain he's a 36 year old ex semi pro player who's a qualified coach and he didn't have a fuckin clue what I was on about. Hes. forgotten more about football than you and i will ever know. He doesn't talk to his youth team players like that because as I said it's not part of the football vocabulary in this country for the vast majority of players and supporters.

What position did Robert Lee play?

Because it's not part of the cultural language of the game in this country. We didn't have liberos, we had sweepers...

Portuguese/Brazilian term. refers to he who is "in the hole".According to "inverting the pyramid" anyways.. It's all bollocks really, just kids trying to be cool iyam...