Official 2012/13 Premier League thread

[Colly]

To be fair, he's a penis.

[Pesci]

I don't see why you should have to shake the hand of somebody you don't like in the name of "fair play" though. Fair play is a core principle of the game as it is, shaking somebody's hand doesn't make you an iota more likely to uphold the rules or play the game in good spirit. If Anton Ferdinand dislikes Ashley Cole, a handshake won't mend any fences between them or positively affect the level of fair play between them, just as the lack of a compulsory handshake ritual won't negatively affect the level of fair play between them. So it's pointless to keep the ritual. But if they insist on keeping it, issues like this will come up and you can punish players for not shaking hands but there'll come a point where even that won't deter somebody from snubbing somebody. And I can't understand why the FA would want to persist with these difficulties when it doesn't actually add anything to the game.

[Colly]

It gives about fifteen seconds to show that silly sign and play the silly tune which are what the league owns and sells to tv companies in some bizarre contractual way. It's going nowhere.

[Gazz]

Professional sportsmen are role models. They should conduct themselves in a professional manner.

[Pesci]

They sure should and why the FA would want to persist with something that's so prone to indiscretions I don't understand.

[Summers]

Players should be fined for causing these incidents.

[Colly]

Sky have confirmed there will be a handshake before QPR v Chelsea.

[Thrilla]

Phew.

[brenchill]

Are you serious? That was actually a news flash?

[Gazz]

They sure should and why the FA would want to persist with something that's so prone to indiscretions I don't understand.

Because 36 weeks of the season, 220 Premiership players alone manage it without incident. Then 3/4 players have a tantrum and ruin it.

[Plubby]

3/4 players? That's no reason to single out Aaron Lennon.

[Colly]

They sure should and why the FA would want to persist with something that's so prone to indiscretions I don't understand.

Because 36 weeks of the season, 220 Premiership players alone manage it without incident. Then 3/4 players have a tantrum and ruin it.

And even they shake ten (ish. Did Rio or someone not shake Suarezs hand after the Evra snub?) players hands, plus the refs team. That's 121 between players plus 66 for the officials times number of games which I can't be arsed to do, less the one or two per season...

[Lineker]

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel is set to keep his place in the Tottenham team for the Premier League game at Reading despite the recent signing of France captain Hugo Lloris. Manager Andre Villas-Boas said Lloris may not even be on the bench on Sunday as he has only trained with his new team-mates once since signing from Lyon on deadline day.

Can't help but feel like AVB is playing with fire, here.

[brenchill]

He really is a pretentious twat.

[Jimmy]

I agree with Friedel keeping his place, the guy's been playing really well so there's no reason for him to lose his spot straight away. I didn't agree with Carroll getting dropped for Rooney in the Euros, so I've not got a problem with it. Put the guy on the bench, though. He's gonna be the long term #1, let's not piss him off.

[Lineker]

Exactly that, Split. Even if he's only trained with the team once, he's still a vastly superior option than Cudicini.

[Colly]

Are you serious? That was actually a news flash?

Missed this, yep it was an actual BREAKING NEWS!

Spurs lot, is Vertonghen and Gallas your likely back two at the mo, or is it just whoever AVB likes that week?

[Lineker]

It's been Vertonghen and Gallas.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel is set to keep his place in the Tottenham team for the Premier League game at Reading despite the recent signing of France captain Hugo Lloris. Manager Andre Villas-Boas said Lloris may not even be on the bench on Sunday as he has only trained with his new team-mates once since signing from Lyon on deadline day.

Can't help but feel like AVB is playing with fire, here.

Signing a player for about £8m with the intention of them being a first choice keeper and then looking to integrate him towards the middle of the season would only really make sense with a very young goalkeeper, like De Gea or how Gomez should really have been handled (he's still in the Spurs squad isn't he?).

With a player who was a first team regular at a decent European team however, chances are they can read the game enough to fit straight into the first team squad. Unless there's problems with the language barriers, but a 25 year old player like Lloris should be able to read players and team mates without even hearing what they say.

The one training session is the piece that sticks out the most though. How could he have only been in one training session since the end of the transfer window? Even discounting the week of international fixtures that still leaves seven days where only one training session has happened. Has he not shown up for another training session?

[Gazz]

I'd imagine he would have been given a few days after his transfer to sort out living arrangements etc.