The 2011/12 Gary Speed Memorial Thread

[EddieG]

Time to photoshop a knob into his hand.

[iiMarco x]

To be fair Arshavin saves his goals up for when he plays against Liverpool...

Exactly

How many goals did he score against us last season?

Don't get smart, bad Eddie - they're obviously referring to this.

That was amazing

[MJB]

To be fair Arshavin saves his goals up for when he plays against Liverpool...

Exactly

What about the other 36 league games?

[Lineker]

QPR will make an annoucement on Thursday amid speculation that Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes is to take a majority share in the club.

The Air Asia boss's interest is not confirmed by the club, but he attended the 4-0 defeat by Bolton on Saturday.

Fernandes has previously been linked with takeovers at Norwich and West Ham.

Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, who has a 69% stake in the club, held talks with a separate party earlier this year but they ended in March.

More to follow.

This is awesome. Fernandes is a legend and will actually run a football club properly. Unlike a certain anonymous Briatore.

[Starvinho]

2141: NEWS - Abductors have made a 20m naira (£78,509) ransom demand for the release of Chelsea midfielder John Mikel Obi's father, Nigerian police have said.

That's just a bit of pocket change to someone like Mikel, he should just get it paid and get his Dad safe.

[iiMarco x]

2141: NEWS - Abductors have made a 20m naira (£78,509) ransom demand for the release of Chelsea midfielder John Mikel Obi's father, Nigerian police have said.

That's just a bit of pocket change to someone like Mikel, he should just get it paid and get his Dad safe.

Has this really happened

[MJB]

No guarentee that's the end of it though. I mean you're right, it's peanuts to Mikel but who's to say they would give his dad back?

Plus, if you were the kidnapper and you knew who he was, wouldn't you demand more that what is essentially a weeks wages?

[Summers]

To them, in they're country, that's more than enough.

[IAceI]

Exactly, they can get that amount of money because they're pretty certain they'll get it. They don't have to take a couple of the coast of Somalia from a yacht then deal with a government who refuse to cater to the demands of pirates/hostage takers: like what happened with the Chandlers last year.

These abductors know that the odds are, Mikel will front up the money as it's his dad's welfare and very little money to him but will make a great deal of difference to them. Then they'll move on to the next rich person/relative they can abduct and probably do it all again.

Sadly it all seems to be very common in Nigeria.

[Starvinho]

1206: FOOTBALL-Manchester United are to sell off a significant stake in the club in Singapore to partly pay off their £515million debts, BBC Sports Editor David Bond reports. It is understood the club have now lodged a listing application with the Singapore Stock Exchange and could float by November.

If it pays off some of the debts then it sounds good to me.

[iiMarco x]

1206: FOOTBALL-Manchester United are to sell off a significant stake in the club in Singapore to partly pay off their £515million debts, BBC Sports Editor David Bond reports. It is understood the club have now lodged a listing application with the Singapore Stock Exchange and could float by November.

If it pays off some of the debts then it sounds good to me.

Yep, about time.

[stokeriño]

Cech is out for 3 or 4 weeks with a ligament injury. May or may not be back in time for the United game.

Doooooooooooooomed.

[Starvinho]

Cech is out for 3 or 4 weeks with a ligament injury. May or may not be back in time for the United game.

Doooooooooooooomed.

You've got Turnbull and Hilario to cover, you'll be fine

[IAceI]

If only you hadn't loaned out the 9 foot Thibaut Courtois! Hilario or Turnbull to the rescue. On the upside it means he 'may' miss the match at the Stadium of Light.

[stokeriño]

It will probably be Hilario, if only on the basis that he's been the sub keeper as of late.

He has been known to play very, VERY well...but only on rare, random occasions which no sane person could rely on.

[Noah]

You should get Mark Bosnich out of retirement.

I'm not just saying that because it means I wouldn't have to listen to him on Fox Sports anymore.

Oh and does anyone want a slightly used Robbie Slater?

[Starvinho]

Lotus boss Tony Fernandes completes QPR takeover

Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes has completed his takeover of Premier League newcomers QPR.

The 47-year-old has secured a 66% stake in the club, buying out previous majority shareholders Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone.

Fernandes will work alongside the Mittal Family, who have retained their 33% stake.

"QPR is a raw diamond and hopefully I can contribute into turning it into a diamond," said Fernandes.

[King Ellis]

Play Delac!

[HailtotheYo]

SSpeaking of dooooooomed, Wilshire is out for the Pool and Udinese return, and only 50% for the ManU match. Fucking lovely

[therockbox]

As if the summer departures of Gael Clichy, Cesc Fabregas, Emmanuel Eboue, Denilson and Samir Nasri were not sufficiently restricting, another eight members of the current first-team squad are set to be ruled unavailable this weekend.

Both Gervinho and Alex Song are suspended, while Tomas Rosicky and Armand Traore have become the club's latest injury casualties, with Traore limping out of a reserve team match on Tuesday and Rosicky aggravating a groin injury during the victory against Udinese. The pair will thus join Abou Diaby, Kieran Gibbs, Jack Wilshere and Johan Djourou on a treatment table that is presumably close to collapsing.

Deprived of almost any other options, Arsene Wenger will almost certainly select novice right-back Carl Jenkinson at left-back, with a second teenage rookie, Emmanuel Frimpong, thrust into midfield alongside Aaron Ramsey for his Premier League debut. The identity of the third member of the Gunners' midfield will perhaps be of greatest interest, however, with the only obvious solutions available to Wenger to be either the use of Andrei Arshavin in a central role or a debut for 18-year-old Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

In attack, Marouane Chamakh is set to start despite his woeful outing in midweek purely on the basis that, if Arshavin is employed as an emergency midfielder and the want-away Nicklas Bendtner isn't considered sufficiently focused to be considered, there are no other attack-minded players remaining in Arsenal's accepted* first-team squad who are eligible for selection.

Expected Team: Szczesny; Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Jenkinson; Frimpong, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain/Arshavin; Walcott, Van Persie, Arshavin/Chamakh.

* We're aware that 'accepted' isn't quite the right word but it's the best we have at the moment.

- F365

We'll still find a way to lose.