World Football Thread XV - Life after the World Cup

[Cort Haus]

Oh well - it means that some England games will get held at The Grove meantime, which will be a nice bit of income. Who knows, Wenger might even be able to buy a player.

[CerberusIV]

He could even buy Vieira back.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/5233954.stm

Probably better to let ManU pay too much though.

[Cort Haus]

It's been a while since we had any of this sort of thing ...

[Cort Haus]

Beavis : Your mother's a slut, Butthead.
Butthead : Shuddup, fartknocker {WHACK!}

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by CerberusIV
He could even buy Vieira back.

I wish. Oh well, we've got a Ghanain defender on loan, apparantly.

[Cort Haus]

I see that Arsenal have signed Vincent van den Berg (from SC Heerenveen).

Locutus, can you tell me anything about this attacking midfielder?

[Imran Siddiqui]

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=374851&cc=5901

Interesting... Leeds' chairman Ken Bates reports his former club, Chelsea, for tapping up players.

[duke o' york]

Who have Leeds got that any Premiership team would want?

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
I see that Arsenal have signed Vincent van den Berg (from SC Heerenveen).

Locutus, can you tell me anything about this attacking midfielder?

Never heard of him. I remember reading about that transfer on Dutch teletext a while ago and thinking: Who?

So I very much doubt he's played more than a handful of matches for Heerenveen's first team. Why Arsenal would want him is beyond me -- is he a very young player perhaps? In terms of the youth football I only follow the national teams from around U19 upwards, so if he's much younger than that he might be an upcoming talent Arsenal sees more in than the coaches of the 'older' Dutch national youth teams (of course, we have a lot of youthful talent so the competition is stiff).

[Imran Siddiqui]

****ing UEFA!!

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=374860&cc=5901

LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - UEFA gave AC Milan a reluctant go-ahead on Wednesday to play in this season's Champions League, but only after heavily criticising the club for its part in the Serie A match-fixing scandal.

Yeah, 'heavily criticising' Milan was a suitable punishment for picking refs. If it wasn't Milan, I bet, UEFA would have found a way to ban them from competition.

WTG, UEFA, slap on the wrists are so effective after all!

[Locutus]

It seems the UEFA these days is only interested in the commercial aspect of the game In recent years they let Liverpool in the CL against all regulations and Internazionale and now Milan get a slap on the wrist despite hooligianism and fraud respectively. 10-15 years ago theose things wouldn't have happened, and if they had happened to a Polish team or whatever you can bet your arse they wouldn't have come off so well...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Well, I guess we know who runs who, right?

[duke o' york]

Well I distinctly recall all English teams being banned from European competition after the disgraceful actions of a few "Liverpool fans", so it would appear that the boot is on the other foot now. at both.

[Locutus]

Edit: Wrong thread.

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Locutus
Never heard of him. I remember reading about that transfer on Dutch teletext a while ago and thinking: Who?

So I very much doubt he's played more than a handful of matches for Heerenveen's first team. Why Arsenal would want him is beyond me -- is he a very young player perhaps?

Le Boss likes signing young players who no-one has heard of. Who was Kolo Toure? Emanuelle Eboue? Alexander Hleb? Cesc Fabregas?

Yet these guys got to a Champions League final. As we say round these parts ... "Arsene Knows."