D'oh! Weekend football

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

"“Everyone speaks about the colourful character that Mino Raiola is but he has a lot of players who are happy to stay at one club. I dealt with Mino Raiola at Wigan and not many people know that he had Danny de Ridder or Vladimir Weiss, players who have been happy to stay at a club. I don’t think there is anything to read into that."

One day later

"“If we had met each other earlier, he wouldn’t have played for Everton,” said Raiola, who became Lukaku’s agent last month and immediately suggested Juventus should make a move for his client. “Maybe somewhere else, maybe he would still be at Chelsea. I want to be clear: Romelu is a better striker than Diego Costa and could have done the same as the Spaniard did this season. But the Chelsea directors had decided to buy another star than giving confidence to one of their young boys.”

Ah, colourful agent Mino Raiola.

[ursus arctos]

D'oh! Weekend football

There's also his rather idiosyncratic list of the "world's best teams".

Later on, he’ll play for one of world’s best teams: PSG, Manchester City, Manchester United or Bayern Munich. Big names, but nothing is impossible as Rom has great potential.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

D'oh! Weekend football

[strike]best[/strike] richest - there, fixed that.

[Ray de Galles]

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Assuming this is the TV thread, Arsenal savaging Liverpool in the opening five minutes where they haven't left their opponents half.

Mignolet has saved them twice already after Lucas and then Toure gave the ball away on the edge of their own box.

.

[Ray de Galles]

D'oh! Weekend football

Liverpool back in to it now but Markovic and Sterling manage to screw up a two-on-one against the keeper.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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good god that was a shocking pass by markovic wasn't it?

Watching mertesacker trying to mark sterling is like a cartoon of an elephant dealing with a mouse.

[Borracho]

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Both defences are appalling.

[Ray de Galles]

D'oh! Weekend football

Going back to the theme of the opening post, this is Leeds manager Neil Redfearn on Tuesday ;

“The bit he [Cellino] loves is the football bit. When he speaks to me it’s always with passion about the football. He picks your brains and finds out about you, learns about you as a person; he likes to know about the person he is dealing with. He likes to know that he can trust you. He’s a vastly experienced football person.

“It’s written in my contract that I have got sole right to picking the starting XI and who plays in the side. Obviously I’ll talk football with him and I’ll talk players but he never tells me who to pick. I think he realises that he’s potentially got his hands on something really big.”

My remit was to keep Leeds United in the Championship, so he [Cellino] must have realised we were in trouble. He must have done. He realised it was a mess. We’ve done that and some. I haven’t done myself any harm. But this has been six years in the making, not knowing that being head coach would be the end goal. The last thing I want to do is walk away now.”

But by Friday and the unexplained suspension of his assistant manager he'd understandably modified his stance ;

“It’s undermining, it’s undermining yes because you’re trying to put something together under the belief that you’re getting the backing that you need. It just seems a really strange decision. I would like to have known about it, definitely.

Regarding his future as head coach, Redfearn said: “I love this football club and I’ve loved working with the players. We’re a good team, me and Steve, we work together well. It makes it harder. I’ve got to have a real good, long, hard think. From where before it was a no-brainer [to stay], now I need to have a good think.

“I’ve got to think about what I really want to do. I love this football club, I love everything about it. I love all the stuff that it stands for. I was brought up on Leeds United as a kid under the Revie years and what they stood for – the principles and beliefs – shaped me as a footballer. There’s a lot of things about this football club that are really good, but this situation is a difficult situation for me.”

[Ray de Galles]

D'oh! Weekend football

Arsenal 2-0 up, Liverpool's defence usher Bellerin through to curl one in and three minutes later Mignolet leaves an inviting gap at a free kick for Ozil to put the ball in exactly the same spot.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

D'oh! Weekend football

are Cellino and Raiola trying to turn english football into the champions of said and done in the observer or what?

Is a Mesut Ozil goal against you the football version of the first time that you are offered a seat on the bus by a youngster?

[Borracho]

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Moreno was really bad for that first goal.

[Borracho]

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3-0, Sanchez. This is some collapse by Liverpool.

[Ray de Galles]

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3-0, Liverpool give the ball away again and Arsenal run through them for Sanchez to score.

Liverpool are pathetic, this is like a third round FA Cup tie at home to D4 opposition.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

D'oh! Weekend football

Moreno probably makes most liverpool fans long for the days of Stig inge bjornebye and veggard heggem.

[Nefertiti2]

D'oh! Weekend football

Stupendous ball by Mesut Özil for the first goal, and a pretty good freekick too.

But not surprised that the OTF pundits are agreeing with Robbie Savage and Michael Owen,

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

D'oh! Weekend football

The last time liverpool conceded three first half goals, Jamie Carragher scored two of them. Pity massimo taibi isn't in goal for arsenal to let them back into the game

[Borracho]

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Sturridge coming on for Markovic.

[Borracho]

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There was an ad for Nivea at half-time about "stress sweating", starring Mignolet, Henderson and Sterling.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

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how did giroud not score there.

[Ray de Galles]

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Nefertiti2 wrote: Stupendous ball by Mesut Özil for the first goal, and a pretty good freekick too.

But not surprised that the OTF pundits are agreeing with Robbie Savage and Michael Owen,

I can't work out what about you is more pitiful, your batshit- crazy conspiracy theorist paranoia or your pissy-knickered schoolgirl cheerleading.

[Borracho]

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Assuming Liverpool don't score four times in the final 23 minutes, this result will mean they have only won one of their last 20 away games against Arsenal. That is pitiful given how poor Arsenal have frequently been against the other leading teams in the last decade or so.

[Nefertiti2]

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to Hairy Harry Truscott a real football supporting man

Atrocious a fan supporting his team

And your remarks about pissy knickered schoolgirls are disturbing both for their antideluvian sexism and what I fear they reveal about your fantasy life

[Ray de Galles]

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As ever, you're trying far too hard.

[Nefertiti2]

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Harry Truscott wrote: As ever, you're trying far too hard.

of course you consider yourself the arbiter of this, as so much around here.

But a man who makes a remark like that is a very unpleasant sexist.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

D'oh! Weekend football

oooh, that was a nice way to finish off. I liked the overhead camera angle, very FM2008 that.