General Football Thread

[Lineker]

9 hours ago, MDK said:

DOG ON THE PITCH!

@RPS

[Baddar]

Off to another Barry Town match tonight. Carmarthen the visitors, who happen to be down near the bottom too, but won 4-0 at the weekend. Baddarina's joining me up to now as well, but it's meant to piss it down later.

[Lineker]

Quote

Carlos Tevez has hit back at suggestions from Shanghai Shenhua’s chairman that he is unfit to play, describing Chinese players as “not naturally skilled” and doubting whether they will be able to compete with the best nations “even in 50 years”.

The former Manchester United and Manchester City forward to signed a lucrative two-year contract with Shenhua worth an estimated £630,000-a-week in December but has featured just 13 times in the Chinese Super League this season, scoring three times. That led chairman Wu Xiaohui to admit the 33-year-old had “not met their expectations”, with reports that he has been warned to lose weight by new head coach, Wu Jingui.

But in an interview with French television station SFR Sport on Wednesday, Tevez spoke out against the general standards of football in China and suggested that they will struggle to make an impact on the global stage.

“Chinese players are not as naturally skilled like South American or European players,” he said.

“Like players who learned football when they were kids. They’re not good. Even in 50 years, they still won’t be able to compete.”

Reports in Argentina have suggested that Tevez, who has been regularly booed by Shenhua supporters, may be ready to return to boyhood side Boca Juniors in the coming months despite more than a year remaining on his contract.

“Our intention was to bring in an influential star player with high quality, and we all think Tevez could fit the bill,” Wu Xiaohui said earlier this week. “However, due to a lack of winter training and match fitness, he didn’t meet our expectations.”

 

[Baddar]

Tevez in "bit of a dick" shock. 

[Arjen Robben]

Luis Suarez kid wearing a Boro kit is... odd.

[Baddar]

A 3-1 win for Barry Town last night! Had a few quid on 2-1 but never mind. Gf's cousin played from the start and assisted the 2nd. Seems he's on all the fk's and corners too. It'd be great if they can stay in the division this season.

Edit: Oh shit, almost forgot. We waited around after the full time whistle to speak to him. They were playing Bobby Roode's 'Glorious' theme as the players walked off. Amazing.

[Baddar]

Back to Jenner Park tonight. Barry Town are facing Afan Lido in a cup match. Hopefully they can build on their weekend away win over Bangor, who were top of the table at the time!

[Adam]

Chinese fan flies over to find Runcorn FC stadium after career with them on Champ Manager 01/02

Now that's devotion. Basically a bloke brought his family (who must think him insane) all the way from China to go in search of the home of Runcorn, after he guided them to the Premier League playing CM 01/02. He got a tour of the ground and his little lad got to play on the pitch, so a nice story all around.

[DavidMarrio]

25 minutes ago, Adam said:

Chinese fan flies over to find Runcorn FC stadium after career with them on Champ Manager 01/02

Now that's devotion. Basically a bloke brought his family (who must think him insane) all the way from China to go in search of the home of Runcorn, after he guided them to the Premier League playing CM 01/02. He got a tour of the ground and his little lad got to play on the pitch, so a nice story all around.

Bet going to Runcorn was an eye opening experience for him. Poor guy.

[Lineker]

Quote

Former footballer Clarke Carlisle has told how a stranger in a Liverpool park persuaded him not to kill himself and to contact his family after he was reported missing last month.

Lancashire police issued an appeal for information about Carlisle’s whereabouts on 15 September after his family reported him missing from his Preston home. Following a 12-hour search, the 38-year-old was found “very unwell but safe” in Liverpool and was taken to hospital.

Speaking to Radio 5 Live on Tuesday morning, the former Premier League player described traveling to Liverpool with the intention of taking his own life. “I didn’t know what was going on, I didn’t have my phone with me,” Carlisle told the presenter Adrian Chiles.

“Obviously I was lurking in the shadows, looking for, you know, this place and that place, trying to mind my own business, and this car pulled up while I was sat in a park and a guy came over and said, ‘Oh I thought it was you, you know your family is looking for you’. I guessed as much, but I didn’t know the extent of how far it had gone,” said Carlisle.

“This guy you know, sadly for him, his friend had killed himself a few days earlier and he said ‘I thought this was you and I could not go by not checking’ because he’d heard the state that I was in ... I didn’t want his help sat in the park, but this guy came and sat next to me and he hugged me and he cried on my shoulder, just urging me to get in touch with my family.”

Carlisle is a former chairman of the Professional Footballers’ Association and made more than 500 appearances for nine clubs during his playing career from 1997 to 2013. In 2002 he was named “Britain’s brainiest footballer” in a television quiz show and, in 2010, he beat the defending champion on the gameshow Countdown.

He has spoken openly about his battles with mental ill health and founded the Clarke Carlisle Foundation, a charity for people with Dual Diagnosis – a condition that has been described as “mental health problems co-occurring with drug or alcohol misuse”.

Carlisle told the Guardian last year how he was attempting to turn his life around after trying to kill himself in 2014. “It overwhelms me in a positive sense how miraculous it is to still have motor functions and use of my body,” he said. “I’m delighted, blessed that I can use my life.”

Also speaking on Radio 5 Live, Carlisle’s wife, Carrie, said she was at home, pregnant, when her husband went missing last month. “I didn’t expect to hear from him again to be honest, I thought that was it,” she said. She described receiving a call from a stranger who told her he was sitting next to her husband.

“I heard his voice and it was literally like the best moment of my life because I thought I’d never hear from him again, and this wonderful gentleman stayed with him,” she said, describing the people who helped her husband as “little Scouse angels”.

Carrie Carlisle admitted that she struggled to fully understand her husband’s condition. “I’ve never had depression,” she said. “I wouldn’t know it if it bit me in the bum. I’m just not equipped for it.”

“I judged a crisis by my own standards. What I thought was minor was literally the end of the world for Clarke and if I could go back I would stop using my own mental framework as a reference.”

[Colly]

Barry Davies is 80 today and is brilliant. Not that you'd know that from looking on the BBC Sport site. #jerks #Lineker

[The Lusophone]

48 minutes ago, Colly said:

Barry Davies is 80 today and is brilliant. Not that you'd know that from looking on the BBC Sport site. #jerks #Lineker

They're too busy asking ridiculous questions like 'Giggs or Bale? We're asking about these two because WELSH'.

[Lineker]

Our football website has been crap for ages.

[The Lusophone]

It died when you got rid of Tim Vickery's column tbh.

[Adam]

@Baddar what a win for Barry Town today, 1-0 at the mighty New Saints!

[Baddar]

59 minutes ago, Adam said:

@Baddar what a win for Barry Town today, 1-0 at the mighty New Saints!

Amazing. I was at the Nomads game last week and Barry were shocking. Mighty Kayne McLaggon again!

[Baddar]

It might be the internationals this weekend, but Barry Town have a huge game at Jenner Park on Saturday. Llandudno are 3pts better off, and defeat would keep Barry very much in the bottom half. A win opens things back up again. Really looking forward to it.

As it happens, I saw a couple of my old football mates at the Nomads game. Hadn't seen them in at least two years, and they wanted to go to a game so ended up in Barry. They travel everywhere for Cardiff and Wales tbf, and are going to France for the match tomorrow night.

[Adam]

2 hours ago, Baddar said:

It might be the internationals this weekend, but Barry Town have a huge game at Jenner Park on Saturday. Llandudno are 3pts better off, and defeat would keep Barry very much in the bottom half. A win opens things back up again. Really looking forward to it.

As it happens, I saw a couple of my old football mates at the Nomads game. Hadn't seen them in at least two years, and they wanted to go to a game so ended up in Barry. They travel everywhere for Cardiff and Wales tbf, and are going to France for the match tomorrow night.

This is the one week we'll not be rooting for you mate! My dad is moving to Llandudno when he retires as it's near his wife's hometown, and he got temporarily excited when they were top of the league at the start of the season.

Come on you Duds! (Hope that isn't their actual nickname)

[Baddar]

I doubt it as it's pronounced Llan-did-no, I believe. 

Got a message earlier from my mate who drives us to Old Trafford saying he'd join me so I won't be alone for this one either.

[Lineker]

This definitely won't end badly.