Football (Soccer)

[Oriphus]

To be honest, do any of you ever watch the Spanish La Liga. I watch it every week (bloody Real betis lost again) and Zidane really is a top class palyer. He is so comfortable on the ball and passes with such accuracy. Its like Roy Keane. How many teams has he personally destroyed? Not many. Is he the best midfielder in the world? Probably, in my opinion. Why? BEcause he holds the team together with his great passing, his vision and his ability to tackle and hold up the ball. Zidane has all this, but he adds a bit of flare to it when he gets forward.

Thiery scores goals, and some cracker ones. But is he really as good a footballer as Zidane? I dont think so. In my opinion, Rudd Van Nistelroy is a better player than Thiery henry. Imagine having, Rudd Van the Man, Henry, Zidane and Keane on the same team. They wouldnt need any other palyers. Well maybe a few. Stick in Puyol, Nesta, and Silvestre, and a few others and you have the greatest team in the world.

[admin]

Henry has as many assists as goals (scored 1 less than RVN last season, but with 23 assists!!), and I don't think any modern forward/striker can compare with his record. Ruud is a striker and nothing more, and if you did sell him to Real Madrid, I suspect you can find a striker or two striker combinations (like Yorke and Cole) for the money you get, that can score as many goals, if not more.

Even our least necessary striker, Wiltord, could probably score that many goals if he had the same service (and if he started all the games in the right position - Wiltord usually plays on the right of midfield, yet he bangs in ~15 goals per season in the last 3 seasons). He also plays in right-mid for France, yet scores 4 goals in 5 games for them.

The fact that Zidane has already won it twice (Ronaldo 3 times) shows that it's not about the best player, but about the best known player (I suspect there are lots of people in football that have never watched Henry, or the English league for that matter - and I'm thinking about the South Americans here, and possibly parts of Asia now that Beckham has gone to Madrid). The fact that Roberto Carlos got 19 more votes than Ruud van Nistelrooy and the fact that Raul never gets any acclaim, probably sums it up.

I guess another reason is that Zidane is getting old, and this will probably be his last award. Henry is still young, and there is plenty of time for awards.

[admin]

And Henry's loyalty and desire for the club should win him all the awards in the world :

Henry's latest quote :

As long as people are happy with me at Arsenal I want to stay there.

Arsenal gave me a hand when I was down and if I am among the last three players alongside Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane for the FIFA World Football Player of the Year award, it is thanks to them.

I want to feel priceless for them and them to be proud of me ...

I have got that feeling of passion for Arsenal, I could talk about it all day

Obviously we have to win the Champions League and bring some more amazing players to be recognised better.

This is a big plan and as far as I am concerned I am fully part of it, there is no way I am going to leave the house now.

I am 99% sure Henry won't leave Arsenal for at least 3 or 4 years, whereas I am not so sure that RVN will stay that long. I feel that the attraction of playing for Real Madrid may be too tempting for RVN

[Oriphus]

Yeah, thats alll fair enough comments. However, i wouldnt be so sure about Rudd Van Nistelrooy leaving United either. i think it would be a grave mistake to sell him. Want i want to see happening is United buying the very tallented young skillful world class striker Robinho fro Sau Paulo in Brazil. I watch Brazilian and Argentinian football every week, as well as dutch, german, spanish and of course English and Scotish. (dont like the french leagues).Robinho is truely a star player. If he and Puyol came to Man United in January and no one left, i would be over the moon. The situation with Arsenals money will probably mean it is more likely that Henry will leave Arsenal than Rudd will leave United. But who knows what will happen.....

I watched Ronaldo and friends play Zidane and friends last night after they both were at the afternoon get together for player of the year. Ronaldo and friends beat zidane and friends, with zidane scoring two. It ended up 4-3 to Ronaldo. The stars only played one half each. With other stars coming on to replace them. It wasnt played at the pace of a normal game and there were no bad tackles. Luigi from italy was referee with Ricardo, van der sar, casillas and someone else in goals. There were too many stars on the pitch to name them all. Ronaldo, zidane, beckham, roberto carlos, rivaldo, suker, robinho, zizou, etc...

[admin]

To be fair, the only club "bigger" than United for Ruud would be Real Madrid - I can't really see him join the likes of Chelsea or something (and Arsenal won't have him either, not unless they want to get a really expensive punching bag for Keown). Players like Ruud would either go for the money, in which case United can compete with any other team in the world, or go for glory, which possibly means leaving for Real. Who knows ...

As for Arsenal, the publicity Henry gets will probably pay for his salary, no matter how much it is (it's similar to Beckham, where sales of Beckham related items in Asia would probably make back his tranfer fee within a few months). That's why the club was very quick to sign a new 4 year extension for him just before the FA Cup final.

The fact is that Henry doesn't want to leave (he just married a London girl, so his pretty much settled now), and the club doesn't want to sell him, means he isn't going anywhere. And anyway, the stadium money has already been secured, and it's just a matter of time now before the new stadium is completed. Arsene Wenger won't be leaving either, if his latest statements about Arsenal being his last club are true.

And Ruud's latest statement regarding interest from Real :

What do you want me to say? You know that in football everything is possible

Sorry Oriphus, just trying to stir up a "Real wants ManU player" rumor ... we seem to get lots of these rumors every transfer period (Vieira, Henry, Pires, Wenger ...), just trying to act like the media, t'is all

[admin]

Also just realised that Henry (and also Vieira) probably gets an extra £20,000 per week compared to RVN. That's probably why RVN is after a new deal - might be using the Real Madrid interest as a bargaining chip ...

But you're right, ManU would be making a huge mistake by selling RVN (just like if Arsenal sold Henry). I doubt they would be willing, but then again, that's what everyone said about Beckham as well, and we all know where he ended up

[Oriphus]

Yeah, wages could be a problem with RVN. Man United has always tried to keep its wage bill less than 45% of its profit. Its hard to do that when you have a big club with big names. Chelsea's will be around 65% and likewise with Real Madrid. Money tends to be a factor in everything today. I read also that RVN said that he is in talks with United over a contract extension, but he also said "Im not ruling anything out" when asked about speculations on moving to Madrid.

Its getting close to the transfer window and speculation will be rampant now. Im looking forward to some good news i hope on the United front.

On another topic, ill be heading off to Antwarpe in Netherlands in March for the International Universities Cup, where ill be playing for Qeens University Belfast. Really looking forward to that

[admin]

Good luck with your game

[Oriphus]

Oops, Queens has a 'u' in it. lol.

Cheers mate,
Looking forward to the football in 3 months
I see Arsenal won 2-0 last night.

[admin]

Was worried about the West Brom game, since they've already knocked out Newcastle and United, and it's Arsenal's first away game in the league cup. From what I've read, WBA had the better game, but Arsenal were quick to benefit from their errors. Not bad from the youth, considering the Arsenal first team barely beat West Brom last season, and West Brom has pretty much the same team.

Chelsea lost to Villa. They had practically the first team out (after substitutions), and still couldn't beat Villa. It's Chelsea's second defeat in a row, and hopefully, another defeat/draw coming against 4th Fulham this weekend.

Arsenal away to Bolton this Saturday - could be a very tough game. We'll either edge out a draw, or score 5 past them, so I don't know ...

And it's the old enemy versus the new enemy on Sunday, as Tottenham plays United. I hope for a draw, but United will probably win (although Tottenham don't have Sheringham anymore, who usually tries to score for United and not score for Tottenham whenever you two play).

[Oriphus]

although Tottenham don't have Sheringham anymore, who usually tries to score for United and not score for Tottenham whenever you two play

He certainly tried to score past us when we played Portsmouth. To be honest, all Premier League matches can be tricky these days for the big clubs. Anyone can get beaten on the day. I do feel though that Spurs will not draw or beat UNited this weekend. Chances are that we will score a couple past them. Im really looking forward to Ole Gunner coming back. Did you hear we already signed a new player for £250,000 and a further £750,000 based on performance. He's only 16 at the min, but apparently he is good. I do hope that United arent going to make him our only January signing lol. Robinho come to United please, oh and Puyol, come too.

I listened to the game between Arsenal and West Brom on the radio and honestly it sounded like after Arsenal scored the first goal, West Brom couldve equilised on atleast five seperate occasions until the West Brom keeper made a blooper and gave the ball away to that young french star of yours who scored a tap in.

[Oriphus]

Rio got his 8 months and £50,000 fine, so he wont be playing for England, which as a United supporter im happy about. Also, i think he got a bit more than he deserved. I was expecting less than 6 months, ah well. I hope we strengthen our defence while he is going. Also, i hear that Spurs are very interested in Nicky Butt since he hasnt been starting much for United. I can only blame the amazing performances put out by the tounger Neville that is keeping him off the team. He just keeps getting better and better.

[admin]

The thing is that missing a drug test is just as bad as being tested positive for drugs - with drug testing, you're guilty until proven innocent. And the penalty has to reflect this.

8 month is a long time, but it could have been 2 years!!

[Oriphus]

true, but it does take an average of 5 days fro drugs to leave your system and he was tested 2 days after he missed the original. He also rang up 3 hours after he was supposed to be tested and was told that he couldnt be tested until two days later. Ah well, it will force UNited to buy a good (i hope a good) defender in January.

[admin]

but it does take an average of 5 days fro drugs to leave your system

Well, Rio may not have taken drugs, but if another player took drugs 3 or 4 days before the missed drug test and didn't bother to try and get re-tested until forced to do so two days later, then he would be cleared.

Sepp Blatter did say that since Rio did miss a drug test, then all the games he has played since should be void (ie. points taken away for all the games Rio has played since missing the drug test). But then again, Sepp Blatter is an idiot.

As for buying a good defender, we've got a few that we might sell. So would you prefer Cygan or Stepanovs?

(to be fair, Cygan has played extremely well the last few games he has played for us)