Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[IAceI]

EDIT: Deleted on the grounds of being wrong..

Edited August 5, 2012 by IAceI

[Nerf]

Chelsea's poor pre-season ended today with an even more awful 3-1 loss to Brighton (and yes, we were playing our first team), being our third straight loss out of four. Looking forward to getting spanked in the Community Shield next weekend.

Robbie out!

[Cheeky Hughes]

Meanwhile Manchester City beat Wolfsburg last night 2-0 with goals from Aguero and Yaya, before beating Limerick tonight 4-0 with a brace from Dzeko, and a goal apiece for Boyata and Scapuzzi. Two totally different starting XI's.

Which means we're going to choke in the Community Shield again. :/

[MJB]

Well one out of Ryan and Stok is going to be wrong.

[Colly]

Unless its a draw, then both are wrong.

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

Looking forward to the community shield, Chelsea look like they might be really entertaining to watch this season, I'm basing that on the signings rather than the pre-season performances!

[Blaze09]

The community shield is going to be fun to watch only because it's gonna be a case of who wants to lose more.

[Lineker]

Community Shield this weekend coming?

[MJB]

Yes.

[Lineker]

Cool.

Scotland captain Darren Fletcher will train with the squad ahead of next week's friendly against Australia.

The 28-year-old Manchester United star has not played for nearly 10 months due to a chronic bowel complaint.

"Darren will be with us at the weekend, he is back in training and he played 45 minutes in a practice match last week," revealed Levein.

"He is not in the squad because he has not played for Manchester United but he will do a bit of training with us."

Fletcher, who won the last of his 58 caps in October last year, has been promised another role at Old Trafford should he not manage a comeback.

However, the midfielder remains focused on a return to full fitness.

"I'm desperate to get back playing for Scotland and get back to captaining my country, which I take great pride in doing and relish every moment of," he told BBC Scotland in March.

Southampton left-back Danny Fox has been recalled for the match at Easter Road.

The 26-year-old former Celtic player made his one previous international appearance against Wales in 2009.

Levein said he will start with QPR's Jamie Mackie in attack, with Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes in line to appear as a substitute.

Rangers defenders Lee Wallace and Kirk Broadfoot have not been picked, with the club relaunched in Division Three, but the former was offered a glimmer of hope on his international future.

"The best scenario is for players to be playing at the top level to play international football it makes it so much easier to step from one to the other," explained the manager.

"It is very difficult for anyone playing in the Third Division in Scotland to be up to the speed of an international match.

"No way am I closing the door at all I just think it is more difficult for Lee to get in now than it was previously."

There are only three Scottish Premier League players in the 24-man pool - Celtic duo Charlie Mulgrew and James Forrest, and Hearts defender Andy Webster.

Celtic skipper Scott Brown is suffering from a hip problem, while Norwich full-back Steven Whittaker is also recovering from injury.

Makie will lead the line in the absence of Kenny Miller, who has recently switched to Vancouver Whitecaps.

Goalkeeper Craig Gordon, still searching for a new club after his release from Sunderland, is overlooked.

Scotland have played Australia on four occasions, the last of which saw the Socceroos win a Hampden friendly 2-0 in 2000.

Scotland squad

Goalkeepers: McGregor (Besiktas), Gilks (Blackpool), Marshall (Cardiff)

Defenders: Bardsley (Sunderland), Berra (Wolves), Caldwell (Wigan), Fox (Southampton), Hanley (Blackburn), Hutton (Aston Villa), Martin (Norwich), Mulgrew (Celtic), Webster (Hearts)

Midfielders: Adam (Liverpool), Bannan (Aston Villa), Cowie (Cardiff), Dorrans (West Brom), Forrest (Celtic), Morrison (West Brom), Phillips (Blackpool), Snodgrass (Norwich)

Forwards: Mackie (QPR), Maloney (Wigan), Naismith (Everton), Rhodes (Huddersfield).

Irish police are investigating claims that a banana was thrown at Gael Clichy during Manchester City's 4-0 friendly win at Limerick on Sunday.

Gardai and Thomond Park staff are studying CCTV after Clichy was allegedly targeted.

City have not made a formal complaint about the incident.

But Clichy tweeted: "How sad to see 'bananas thrown on the pitch' tonight... Knowing people around the world need food. No words for this."

Limerick have promised that any fan found to be involved in the incident will be banned from Limerick matches.

A statement released on behalf of Limerick FC and Thomond Park Stadium said: "The Gardai and stadium officials are reviewing the CCTV recordings to attempt to identify an individual involved in the throwing of an offensive object onto the playing field.

"Any individual identified as being involved in an incident of this nature will be banned from future attendance and the matter will be handed over to the Gardai.

"All those involved with the friendly game fully condemn all forms of unacceptable behaviour of this nature."

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

It would be great to see Darren Fletcher back this season, I had a sinking feeling he wouldn't play again.

Has Owen Hargreaves been picked up by any one yet?

[Dingle]

It would be great to see Darren Fletcher back this season, I had a sinking feeling he wouldn't play again.

Has Owen Hargreaves been picked up by any one yet?

QPR got him I believe.

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

I don't think he's actually signed for them.

I only heard today about them swapping the reserve league for an under 21 league, surely it's going to make it more difficult to get players back to match fitness after injury (assuming they're over 21)

[TCO]

My main concern is how I'm going to get my over 21 players back to match fitness in FM.

[Adam]

We don't have a reserve team and to get players back to fitness in recent seasons we'd just play behind-closed-doors friendly matches through the season against other teams needing to do the same.

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

That's true with FM, setting players lacking first team fitness to be available for the reserves is a great feature

[Fudge]

They can have 3 over 21 year olds in the team can't they?

[Pesci]

If you need match fitness there's the three over 21 spots, which I think should be enough unless you're in the middle of a mad injury crisis where everybody is coming back at the same time. Hopefully the limit and the rules on squad sizes will cut back on teams keeping hold of players over 21 and not doing anything with them.

[If_You_Wanna_Be_The_Man]

Ah OK well that's not as bad then, even if you did have an injury crisis you'd be unlikely to have that many players coming back to fitness at once!

[Colly]

I'm sure Newcastle will manage it.