The Barclays Premier League Thread 2013/14

[Kaney]

That's cos Arsenal are better than them.

[Rafael]

Stop being such a crybaby Jimmy. You guys threw it away long ago, and then a demotivated Newcastle has to clean your mess?

[Jimmy]

No no, we only threw it away two weeks before that game.

And I find it shocking that the French can't find the motivation to win a battle

[Kaney]

Arsenal are better than Spurs too

[Jimmy]

I agree. They finished higher in the league. So yeah, better team.

[Summers]

Rafa is touchy tonight.

[METALMAN]

Promoted teams will go straight back down. Man Utd will win the league, same times as last year will be in Champions League, and all will be decided before the final day.

Another boring season, but you guys will eat it all up.

[Rafael]

Rafa is touchy tonight.

No, I'm not!

[Crybaby Bunting]

City to win the League Cup

Newcastle to win the league, FA Cup and Euro Vase for some bizarre reason.

Man United, Liverpool and Spurs to be relegated

That'll do me just fine.

[Noah]

You're all just lucky Brighton didn't get promoted. This league title race would have been over by October.

[brenchill]

It says much about what I've come to expect from this board in that I assumed brenchill was making a really pedantic geography joke.

I wasn't but I wish I had done now.

[Lineker]

Peter Hill-Wood has stepped down as Arsenal chairman, and has been replaced by Mr. Chips.

[Matt]

Amazing.

[stokeriño]

This is really little more than an anecdote, but I found the bit about the circumstances of Shevchenko's transfer to Chelsea interesting so I thought I'd share.

Striker Fernando Torres has been described as ­“so-so” by Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

He is convinced that owner Roman Abramovich will let him rule on whether or not Torres has a future at Stamford Bridge.

And Mourinho has rejected ­suggestions that Abramovich forced Chelsea’s last big transfer flop, Andriy Shevchenko, on him during the Portuguese’s first spell at the club.

“Torres so far is so-so,” said Mourinho. ­“Somebody could expect more because of his potential, because of what he did before. But not so bad as people sometimes try to say.

“There is a balance. Normally, the tendency is to say it was a big mistake. It was a big mistake because it didn’t work.

“Shevchenko? It’s not true the owner forced him on me.

“Never, never during my time did the owner interfere in the basic things of the manager – training sessions, team selection, the profile of player I want to bring. Do you want to know the truth about Shevchenko? I hope the board is not upset with me. We wanted to buy Samuel Eto’o, he was our target. We wanted Eto’o and the owner was more than ready to do ­everything to bring Eto’o here.

“He was the player I wanted. Why? Because Eto’o was the only player I could play with Didier Drogba, changing the system for two strikers.

“But he was also ready to play with Drogba with the system we had at the time, with three ­attacking players with Eto’o ­coming from the sides. I did the same with him at Inter Milan. We wanted Eto’o and the boss did everything to bring Eto’o and Peter Kenyon did everything.

“In the end, Barcelona said, ‘We don’t sell, forget it, forget it. Not any price’. The owner did everything to get him, but it was not possible.

“After that, we went to other options and got to Shevchenko. I was happy with him.

“Even with the top dogs – when you buy for £30m, £40m, £50m, or £60m – sometimes it doesn’t work. It doesn’t mean you or the club made a big mistake. It just doesn’t work.”

Certainly flies in the face of the narrative that's been accepted for the last 6 years, i.e. "Roman wanted Sheva because he loves Sheva and so he bought Sheva and Jose was all like 'What the hell man' and Roman was like 'Deal with it' and thus the Russian mafia equivalent of Handbags at Dawn did so develop and ruin everything."

[Baddar]

I hope Jose makes more "I hope the board is not upset with me" comments in the future. He says what he wants!

[Dan]

Suarez is at it again:

Evil Kagawa ‏@evilkagawa

24m

Last night Suarez text-a-message Kagawa "Good play Shinji, you were everywhere on pitch. It was like I see 11 Kagawa's." YOU RACIST BASTARD!

[Pesci]

Chelsea to win the league if they buy a decent striker. If not, Man City to win the league. Man Utd 3rd whichever outcome. Arsenal 4th again, obviously. Spurs 5th by default. Liverpool to finish 6th and everybody will laugh at Rodgers' insistence that we're making progress. Owners might start to get itchy feet and start looking for a new manager towards the end of the season.

Pards to be sacked before the end of the season and everyone laughs loads at the 8 year contract. All 3 new sides to go back down. Southampton to finish 7th.

Bayern to win the Champions League again. Everton will finish bottom half.

[Dan]

Joe Kinnear is the new Newcastle Director of Football.

[brenchill]

[therockbox]

News that won't be topped this summer. Amazing.