Football Focus

[trisonic]

They are advertising it like crazy in the ‘States. I must say I like watching a Premier League match Live whilst having breakfast............

 

Best, Pete.

[CUTLER2579]

The 2014/15 Football League season starts back in only 2 weeks time, yay!

 

C'mon you Owls!

 

My goodness, you sound just like "Ben Jones".

 

Doctors should be able to supply medication to such people to be taken most Saturday Afternoons at 3 pm.

[peanuts]

to honour his long and distinguished service to the club manchester united fans are stating a fund to erect a statue at old trafford  to honour that club stalwart Howard Webb after his announcement of his retirement from the game 

[Colin]

I made the mistake of watching the Hammers lose to Malaga in the Schalke Cup tournament on Sunday - Gawd, what a horrible shambles. It's hard to imagine them beating anyone on that dismal showing - no attack (Zarate playing the Carroll role, ie on his own up front with no support, the guy didn't stand a chance), poor defensive display and a near-static midfield. Best player was Jarvis on the left wing, but there was no one there to get on the end of his crosses.

It seems to me that our best hope for the coming season is that 3 other Prem teams manage to play even worse!

[Horsetan]

I made the mistake of watching the Hammers lose to Malaga in the Schalke Cup tournament on Sunday - Gawd, what a horrible shambles. It's hard to imagine them beating anyone on that dismal showing - no attack (Zarate playing the Carroll role, ie on his own up front with no support, the guy didn't stand a chance), poor defensive display and a near-static midfield. Best player was Jarvis on the left wing, but there was no one there to get on the end of his crosses.

It seems to me that our best hope for the coming season is that 3 other Prem teams manage to play even worse!

Normal service resumed, then?

[Colin]

Normal service resumed, then?

It certainly looks like it - we're even starting the season just like the last one, Carroll's probably out until Christmas!

What irks me is that the same "hoof it up to the big man" tactic is still used, even when said "big man" (ie Zarate) isn't actually that big!

[BoD]

What irks me is that the same "hoof it up to the big man" tactic is still used,

Does Mr Allerdyce know any different?

Yet he must be doing something right, he always seems to have a job in the premiership.

[cary hill]

Does Mr Allerdyce know any different?

Yet he must be doing something right, he always seems to have a job in the premiership.

 

 Well I've no idea what it is......

 

Allardyce said, when leaving Bolton , "I have had praise for what I've done, but there's nothing at the end of it. I want silverware. I'm determined to get it before my days are over."

 

Career managerial honours:

 

Limerick

• League of Ireland First Division (1): 1991–92

Notts County

• Football League Third Division (1): 1997–98

Bolton Wanderers

• Football League First Division play-offs (1): 2001

West Ham United

• Football League Championship play-offs (1): 2012

Time must be beginning to run out for him re winning silverware, but he still just needs that lucky break, because "if he was manager of Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea or Manchester United, clubs he claimed to be "better suited" to managing, that he would win multiple trophies every season." (Allardyce 2010).

 

Dream on Sam....

[gwrrob]

I always remember Sam the player in a tutu as part of some ballet training towards his fitness with his time at Cov in the early 80s.Bobby Gould trialled it out to improve posture and balance.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1144902/I-looked-like-Magnum-recalls-ballet-man-Allardyce-tutu-times-Coventry.html

[cary hill]

I always remember Sam the player in a tutu as part of some ballet training towards his fitness with his time at Cov in the early 80s.Bobby Gould trialled it out to improve posture and balance.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1144902/I-looked-like-Magnum-recalls-ballet-man-Allardyce-tutu-times-Coventry.html

 

I didn't realise Big Sam was a Coventry legend but I sat next to another Coventry legend at a wedding celebration meal last month:

 

 

Pictured on the left with two other decent footballers, unfortunately their skill levels didn't rub off on him.

 

He has been listed by one newspaper as the 48th worst player since 1970 to represent England at Full International level.

[gwrrob]

I didn't realise Big Sam was a Coventry legend but I sat next to another Coventry legend at a wedding celebration meal last month:

 

whoisit.jpg

 

Pictured on the left with two other decent footballers, unfortunately their skill levels didn't rub off on him.

 

He has been listed by one newspaper as the 48th worst player since 1970 to represent England at Full International level.

I'm old enough to remember Jeff Blockley playing for Cov. I wouldn't call him a legend though.

[cary hill]

I'm old enough to remember Jeff Blockley playing for Cov. I wouldn't call him a legend though.

 

Unfortunately I'm old enough to remember him playing later in his career for Leicester and he was a leg-end by then.

 

Not one of Jimmy Bloomfield's finest London Mafia signings for Leicester, when compared to the likes of Weller, Sammels, Rofe, Kember, Birchenall, etc., who were all still decent enough footballers, but Blockley was already a traffic island when he was signed.

Edited August 7, 2014 by cary hill

[Colin]

I wonder if Blockley was playing when I went to Filbert St some time around 1975; a lively Leicester were 3-0 up against the Hammers by half time, and we all had the feeling that we might just have wasted our time & money trailing up in my car, all the way from Essex.....

However, the game finished 3-3 with the Hammers equaliser (a Pat Holland header - hardly a common occurrence) being the last touch of a real "game of two halves"!

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Just as you thought football could not get any more ridiculous...

 

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/28701951

 

Sure, it was a dumb thing for Legia to do...one would have thought the suspended player would not have even been on the bench...but there can be no way the punishment fits the 'crime'. They were 6-1 up on aggregate and the offending player was on the pitch for the last two minutes or so. Had it made a material difference to the score-line, then fine, but this is just daft!

 

I really hope this was a UEFA referral and Celtic did not raise the complaint. They were annihilated over the two legs, and deserved losers by all accounts. They are very lucky on this occassion, but if it is as a result of a Celtic complaint then that is a very poor show.

 

I accept rules are rules; but then again, this is a sport where the punishment is greater for a player showing their of underwear with a non-approved sponsor than racial abuse from fans.

 

Just goes to show that 'proportion' is just one sense the football authorities are lacking...

 

[cary hill]

I wonder if Blockley was playing when I went to Filbert St some time around 1975; a lively Leicester were 3-0 up against the Hammers by half time, and we all had the feeling that we might just have wasted our time & money trailing up in my car, all the way from Essex.....

However, the game finished 3-3 with the Hammers equaliser (a Pat Holland header - hardly a common occurrence) being the last touch of a real "game of two halves"!

 

Donning my anorak - 13th September 1975 - scorers for Leicester City - Frank Worthington, Jon Sammels 2 - scorers for West Ham United - Billy Bonds, Pat Holland and FrankLampard(Senior).

 

Alas Jeff Blockley cannot be blamed for letting the three goal lead slip, as he didn't play for Leicester until 18th October 1975, so it's likely to have been partly down to this Leicester legend:

 

 

Alan Woollett a.k.a "Woollett the Bullet" by Leicester fans due to his lack of pace.

 

Perversely, despite his and Blockley's lack of pace, Leicester climbed from 20th place (when Blockley signed) to 7th place in the League that season.

Edited August 8, 2014 by cary hill

[peanuts]

BREAKING NEWS: 
Oscar Pistorius has sacked his legal team. 

He has hired Celtic's instead as he heard you can lose both legs and still win.

[62613]

BREAKING NEWS: 

Oscar Pistorius has sacked his legal team. 

 

He has hired Celtic's instead as he heard you can lose both legs and still win.

Poor taste, Bro! Celtic didn't complain. In all English cup competitions at least, a club fielding an ineligible player will be expelled from the competition, no ifs, buts or maybes. Doesn't matter how simple the error is. In a league competition, I can remember docking 3 points from a club because a player's registration hadn't arrived in time, and they played him. All it needed was a phone call.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

...a club fielding an ineligible player will be expelled from the competition, no ifs, buts or maybes. Doesn't matter how simple the error is. In a league competition, I can remember docking 3 points from a club because a player's registration hadn't arrived in time, and they played him. All it needed was a phone call.

 

Indeed, but I suspect Legia have a very strong case to appeal this decision. As I said, Celtic were absolutely destroyed in the first leg, and well beaten in the second. Uefa have, in my view, disproportionally punished Legia for fielding a player who had absolutely no material impact on the match...a lack of perspective and of common sense that come from an organisation who blindly follow the letter of the law. This is not a straight-forward as the Sion situation a few years back, who fielded ineligible players for the entire match(s).

 

Whilst I don't want to go on too much about racism in football, this punishment of Legia could potentially run into millions of pounds. When was the last time such a fine was imposed by Uefa for clubs whose fans racially abuse players, or assault the opposition fans?     

[BoD]

Whilst I agree with your sentiments entirely, it would be very difficult to do any other than expel the team if that is the rule. If you did allow for common sense where do you draw the lines? If a player plays fir 10 mins or 20 or what? If the other team only gets beat by 2 clear goals but not 3? How do you judge if the player has made a difference or not?

When the criteria for punishment becomes subjective and each case is dealt with differently it would become an absolute minefield..... and the legal teams would have a field day.

Obviously, there are cases when subjectivity has to come into it but by and large, as an administrator, you would want this to happen as little as possible.

[pH]

A point - Legia were not expelled from the Champions League. Quoting from the UEFA news release:

 

"The match has been declared as forfeit meaning Legia Warszawa have lost the match 3-0. As a consequence, Celtic have qualified for the UEFA Champions League play-offs on away goals (agg: 4-4)".

 

It would seem that, had Legia won the first leg 5-1 (and apparently, that was a definite possibility at the time), they would have won the overall tie 5-4.

[BoD]

I also notice that the player concerned had missed three matches as per his suspension but Legia mistakenly hadn't registered him in the squad for the first two games so they didn't count toward his suspension. That must make the pill even harder to swallow.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Is a 3-0 defeat a 'set' result for match forfeiture? 

[cary hill]

Hurray! Our Leicester City Premiership Season Tickets this afternoon. No idea what the postie was up to, but I suppose a few more hours "delay" after a 10 year wait is neither here nor there.

 

In celebration I thought I'd list a few "memories" of the managers and players of the "twilight decade" of Leicester City, lest their contributions be forgotten (in no particular order):

 

Danny (Yellow Card) Tiatto (73 apps, 3 goals) - mostly a dangerous looney when on the pitch

 

Patrick (Red Card*) Kisnorbo (126 apps 10 goals) *occasionally rescinded on review after poor refereeing decisions.

 

Holloway's Hungarian "Dream Duo" - Zsolt Laczko (9 apps) and Gabor Bori (6 apps) - how could we forget them - quite easily as it turned out.

 

Ian Holloway telling us to "chill out and have a sarnie" as he worked his miracle of relegating the club to the Third Tier for the first time ever.

 

"The Golden Age of Gary Megson" - thankfully it only lasted 41 days.

 

Elvis Hammond (58 apps, 8 goals) - a fraud as a "striker" at Leicester and more recently a jailed money launderer.

 

Hossein Kaebi (and his translator) (3 apps) - apparently a famous Iranian International with 89 full caps.

 

Milan Mandaric promising "I'll get you out of this division (Championship) (within 3 years) and keeping his promise by getting us relegated.

 

Stephen "Treatment Table" Clemence and Lee Morris also known as Lee Morris-Injured to give him his full name.

 

Prolific strikers such as Barry Hales, Geoff Horsefield, and Mark ("Big Dave") De Vries - almost 100 appearances between them and only 12 goals.

 

Rubbish team kits by Jako and Joma and their cousin Burqa Burrda

 

Martin "Mad Dog" Allen - a big clue in the name might indicate why his managerial tenure was brief.

 

Full backs Alan Maybury and Robbie Neilson - both fondly remembered for having no recovery pace whatsoever when caught upfield.

 

Great goalkeepers like Rab "The Brickie" Douglas, Kevin "Watch the Bounce" Pressman and Chris "Watch the Back Pass" Weale, not forgetting Mark Bunn.

 

Astrit Ajdarevic and his headband  no, it was actually a "headstring" - that's all I can remember about him.

 

Ricky Sappleton (1 app) - his almost complete lack of first team action gave him time to win the "Tour de France" twice using only a stationary exercise bike at the club's Belvoir Drive training ground.

 

Wayne Brown and his divisive political views - a bit right-wing for Leicester.

 

Ryan Smith throwing his City shirt to the ground - subsequently he threw his football career away as well.

 

Other players (mostly past their "sell-by" dates), whose contributions should not be forgotten include Scot Gemill (son of Archie), Patrik Gerrbrand, Jason Jarrett, Kelvin Etuhu, Andrew Johnson (the famous Welsh International not the English serial diving one), Darren Kenton, Jamie Clapham, Carl Cort, Radostin Kishishev, Josh Low, David Martin (son of Alvin and decent goalkeeper) ,Chris Makin, Nathan Blake, Miguel Vitor,Momo Sylla, Lee Hendrie......

 

 

Thank goodness that's all over... well at least for a season....

Edited August 9, 2014 by cary hill

[pH]

Is a 3-0 defeat a 'set' result for match forfeiture?

 

I don't know if it is under all sets of rules (FIFA, UEFA, individual national association rules), but it's certainly common.

[SHMD]

Why complicate player legibility?

 

It's simple now:- You're out if you break the rule.

 

 

If you fudge the rules then clubs WILL push the boundaries.

It's as simple as that.

Everyone knows where they stand at the moment.

 

 

Kev.