The 2011/12 Gary Speed Memorial Thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Ahhhh I love Twitter. Where else would I know that Rafael Van der Vaart and his wife Sylvie had renewed their wedding vows in the Las Vegas Chapel of Love?

I also got to see three lovely pictures from his twitter. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Bless.

[IAceI]

It's alright, Sir/Dame and Lord's are essentially redundant now because most people get them.

I'll no doubt get made a Sir for my FM-related achievements in the near future I should imagine. Can't wait.

[stokeriño]

Fixtures released in, oh, about 11 minutes or so...

Hoping either for the opening day to be an away fixture I don't give a damn about (e.g. Wolves), or a home fixture that will get moved to Sunday. Blasted wedding!

Will probably be away though. Or at least it should be, since we've started the season at home for the last 5 years in a row.

Also hope that our Tuesday night fixtures aren't all away in the far north like they were last year.

Finally, look for Chelsea to be away to United/Liverpool/City in one of their last 3 fixtures of the season...as ever.

[IAceI]

And remember, don't post full fixtures, copyright of the Premier League and all that jazz!

Rumours have been circulating on the Sunderland board, so far we've had about 38 different predictions so I'm confident someone will be right!

And I have a couple of days where I need an away match coz I might not be able to make it. That said once Sky have looked at the usual suspects' lists then they can just change the entire thing anyways.

[IAceI]

Visiting Henderson's new home on Merseyside in the opener, and then hosting the Mags in the next match. ... Jesus.

[Baddar]

Ugh, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea as United's first three home games. Wonderful. :/

[IAceI]

In the ensuing chaos, McLeish to Villa is confirmed. Well Villa, that was a timely introduction while we were all fapping over fixture lists.

I suspect my friend will follow through with his claim and denounce Villa after 30 years of support and never go to Villa Park again (not sure if he even goes anyways to be hoenst..).

And once more... our first home match agaisnt the barcodes. Bloody hell man. No time to settle in to the season now.

[Summers]

Big Eck's Claret & Blue Army!

We also have 7 winnable games to start the season, so here's hoping.

[Berober]

Wigan start with all 3 promoted teams, that interests me.

And I like that start to the season, I see 14 points from 18 games if we play well under McLeish.

[Lineker]

Everton first up. Not bad.

[Hobo]

It looks like Liverpool have better opening fixtures than previous two seasons.

[Plubby]

Tough run to start, Everton first as Lineker said but we should coast past those last five relatively easy fixtures. Good thing Fulham is at home to close up though.

[Lineker]

You say that but our way is to play like world-beaters against the big guns and lose to Wigan the next game.

[stokeriño]

I got my wish - Stoke away on the first day. No trouble missing that for the wedding! I'm now wondering whether we'll be back from the honeymoon in time for West Brom at home the following week...

Away at Liverpool for the second-last fixture AGAIN. I know Sky have their hand in these and have their preferred big 'Super Sunday' weekends and one of those is early May, but why do we always have to be away in that one??

Otherwise, little to comment on really. No real 'month of death' (just a few occurances of two difficult games in a row), although obviously the Champions League could complicate that. Another set of early fixtures that will be written off by everyone else as an 'easy start' for Chelsea (our first three home games are West Brom, Norwich and Swansea FFS). The Tuesday night games are at least more reasonable than the trip to Sunderland we got handed last year, with only Spurs away and a semi-reasonable trip to Swasea this time. I will miss Norwich away when I'm on holiday in January though, which is annoying.

Pretty unremarkable fare, really.

[Liam]

Easy first game, Villa at home, 3 points no problem.

[Colly]

Copied from the football league thread as I'm useless...

Arsenal at home first game, I'll eat my hat if it stays a Saturday 3 o'clock. Dare I say I fancy at least a decent display, we do have a tendency to surprise teams early on, especially at home.

Bonus for me is away games and international breaks for my two holidays, and boxing day and new year away surrounding our potential due date (see The Lounge for details...), so barring an early or late arrival I may go a season without missing a home game finally.

[Lineker]

Anyone else seen the latest David Gold interview with his helicopter once again in the background? Prat.

[Berober]

Maybe we've uncovered the secret as to why Kevin Nolan joined West Ham

[stokeriño]

Season start date irks Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish

The man is IRKED.

[britneyspearsisgod]

Old people generally do tend to be quite irked a lot of the time

Although he is completely right.