Dudley wrote:ALAN FUCKING GREEN

Yeah, good one, Dudley. Like I needed to think about Alan Fucking Green tonight.

As Alan Shearer seemed to improve over the course of the season, this clown, if possible, got worse. After the Champions League final, I switched on Five Live to be away from Clive Fucking Tydesley as soon as possible. I was met by Alan Green's "commentary" on the trophy presentation, which consisted of him complaining at length about the lack of organisation as the players lined up (turned out Milan were going to applaud Liverpool up the steps) which included the phrase, "good one, UEFA"; and as Milan were presented with the trophy, did we hear a description of the scene? Did Green's words conjure in my minds eye a true picture of the events? No. All I heard was, "IF YOU ASK ME, THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN IN THE TOURNAMENT ANYWAY."

Grr.

One thing I like to imagine to cheer myself up, is that in between every word of the phrase "Chief Football Correspondent, Mike Ingham", Alan Green gets a sharp pain in the balls.

Chief - OW! - Football - OOH! - Correspondent - AW! - Mike - UNH! - Ingham - wimper.

I would much rather have preferred that MLS used a small fraction of the David Beckham money to lure over any of John Champion, Alan Parry, or Martin Tyler. Granted, the Premiership matches broadcast over here have the proper English commentary (for now), but the American commentators for La Liga and Serie A really make me wanna gouge my eyeballs out sometimes.

Next season's English and Scottish fixtures are out. Leeds start away to Tranmere. Hear that sound? That's reality biting.

Bournemouth away has been cleverly scheduled for a Tuesday night in November, rather than a May Bank Holiday, like 1990, which the shopkeepers of Bournemouth still feel ended rather badly (I worked for a while in Leeds with a young man from Bournemouth, who never missed an opportunity to explain how much he "hated you fucking Leeds cunts").

Nottingham Forest have signed Neil Lennon, which is a coup. Leeds United have signed precisely nobody, because they're not allowed, which is fair enough. Leeds can't sell anybody either, so David Healy might just have to suck it up if all the wranglings drag on past August - there must be a South American precedent for keeping a relegated squad captive through the close season and forcing them to play the next?

daniel robert chapman wrote:Next season's English and Scottish fixtures are out. Leeds start away to Tranmere. Hear that sound? That's reality biting.

Here are next season's French fixtures

daniel robert chapman wrote:Next season's English and Scottish fixtures are out. Leeds start away to Tranmere. Hear that sound? That's reality biting.

Fancy coming down for Forest v Leeds on August 25th? I'll be there with my dad.

Would this mean having to watch Leeds United play? I'm not sure I could endure that. Put me down as a maybe, end-of-August seems a long way away. Owt on in Sneintonville that night?

Sly Bug wrote:
Here are next season's French fixtures

Merci! It will be interesting to see if Houllier's departure from Lyon will disrupt their plans at all. Is it Alain Perrin who replaced him? He only seems to get good results in Ligue 1.

sleepkid wrote:

Sly Bug wrote:
Here are next season's French fixtures

Is it Alain Perrin who replaced him? He only seems to get good results in Ligue 1.

Yes, he left Sochaux to Lyon.

Next season will be very difficult for OGC Nice...

Dear Dudley,

You have my most heartfelt sympathies on the impending takeover of Man City by Thaksin Shinawatra and the impending arrival of Sven-Boring Eriksson. A takeover by a man who obviously knows nothing about football appointing the man who represents the pinnacle of not having a managerial clue to mismanage a team that has been shedding players like leaves in autumn.

Really, City have had it rough over the years, but this will represent a new low.

I'm going to carefully pack the Colin Bell replica shirt that my friend sent me into a secure box, so that it won't have to witness these dark years.

Hopefully a few years down the road, after Thaksin has finally been extradited and is safely in jail, and Eriksson and his vengeful lawyers have finished wringing the last pound his contract demands and they go on their way, and David Beckham and Michael Owen , who have played every game - despite decrepitude and no longer having knees, have finally retired at ages 42 and 37 respectively, and their £150,000 a week wages are no longer a burden on the club....

...then City can look forward to a relatively quick recovery under administration, and possibly even promotion from the Conference North that same season.

I am sure that even tommydski and daniel robert chapman sympathise with you at this moment.

God Help You.

sleepkid wrote:Dear Dudley,

You have my most heartfelt sympathies on the impending takeover of Man City by Thaksin Shinawatra and the impending arrival of Sven-Boring Eriksson. A takeover by a man who obviously knows nothing about football appointing the man who represents the pinnacle of not having a managerial clue to mismanage a team that has been shedding players like leaves in autumn.

Really, City have had it rough over the years, but this will represent a new low.

I'm going to carefully pack the Colin Bell replica shirt that my friend sent me into a secure box, so that it won't have to witness these dark years.

Hopefully a few years down the road, after Thaksin has finally been extradited and is safely in jail, and Eriksson and his vengeful lawyers have finished wringing the last pound his contract demands and they go on their way, and David Beckham and Michael Owen , who have played every game - despite decrepitude and no longer having knees, have finally retired at ages 42 and 37 respectively, and their £150,000 a week wages are no longer a burden on the club....

...then City can look forward to a relatively quick recovery under administration, and possibly even promotion from the Conference North that same season.

I am sure that even tommydski and daniel robert chapman sympathise with you at this moment.

God Help You.

Absolutely I do. I feel a kinship with City for various reasons including growing up on that side of the Pennines, a teenage culcation from rabid supporters, and the play-offs against Wigan and Gillingham that I'm sure were covered earlier in this thread. I spent a day as an honoury member of Levenshulme Branch. I appreciated it. Don Revie was a helpful common denominator.

This takeover is crap, waffle factor entirely due to my warm feelings towards the bitter blues.

Shinawatra did a major interview on Five Live last night, in which he laughed off both the nickname of 'Frank' (because people pronouce it 'Sinatra'), and the accusation that he ordered the deaths of two thousand people. "As if I could order two thousand people to die!" he laughed. "Could you? No! Could I? Of course not!"

My affection remains intact for the supporters of this fine football club. The sooner this guy is fucked off, though, the better.