The Football.....

[SpokeyDokey]

@Roadhump

Like the Suarez infection comment.

The 'bite' thing is frigging absurd. That started immediately after the incident and was mooted by the idiots at The Mail and the Metro who are masters of sensationalism.

Even Mccarthy says he was not bitten.

Brana' was pulling McCarthy away from the melee and, in my mind, overdid the hanging on. McCarthy didn't look overly bothered by it post event either - every credit to him.

Having watched it from a number of angles now there is no serious contact.

FA are going to look at it retrospectively - if they castigate Ivanovic then they are hypocrites of the first order having allowed Pearson to seemingly get away with his recent incident.

One of the problems with Chelsea being a very high profile club with a manager who plays the 'us against them' card is that the press are eager to pounce on the slightest sniff of 'trouble', Cest la vie.

Oddly - none of them are making a story out of the fact (in the wake of the £5.1bn TV rights influx) that CFC are the only Premier League club that pay the Living Wage across the board to all direct and indirect employees. Funny how they rarely report positive news for us.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Update:

FA have deemed that Ivanovic has no charge to answer.

Both Chelsea & Everton have been charged re the on pitch melee.

Seems about right to me tbh.

Looks like the Mail have pulled the online 'biting' article - I hope we sue the crap out of them.

Savage now looks like even more of a twonk.

FA Statements:

On Ivan:

"In Premier League matches, if an incident has not been seen by the match officials, a three-man panel of former elite referees will be asked by The FA to review it and advise what, if any, action they believe the match referee should have taken had it been witnessed at the time.

"For an FA charge to follow, all three panel members must agree it is a sending-off offence. In this instance, the panel did not believe the conduct was worthy of a dismissal."

On both clubs:

"Both Chelsea and Everton have been charged by The FA for failing to ensure their players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and/or refrained from provocative behaviour.

"It follows an incident in the 86th minute of Wednesday nights game at Stamford Bridge. Both clubs have until 6pm on 17 February 2015 to respond to the charge."

 

[Inertia]

Tim Sherwood odds on fave as his replacement

http://www.oddschecker.com/football/football-specials/aston-villa/next-permanent-manager

Crazy, wth has he done to earn the post? are the lower league managers that bad?

My peronsal hunch is he has some friends in the media

 

[SpokeyDokey]

The Long Ball Table (should make LVG happy):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31428316

 

[Roadhump]

The Long Ball Table (should make LVG happy):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31428316

Reading that and trying to make some sense of it, it seems that generally teams who use the long ball more tend to struggle in the lower reaches of the league, which probably isn't that surprising as they don't have the more skillful players capable of playing more intricate pass and move stuff, that's my guess anyway.

One of the problems with Chelsea being a very high profile club with a manager who plays the 'us against them' card is that the press are eager to pounce on the slightest sniff of 'trouble', Cest la vie.

Oddly - none of them are making a story out of the fact (in the wake of the £5.1bn TV rights influx) that CFC are the only Premier League club that pay the Living Wage across the board to all direct and indirect employees. Funny how they rarely report positive news for us.

You're beginning to sound like Mourhino now!! :sun:

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Reading that and trying to make some sense of it, it seems that generally teams who use the long ball more tend to struggle in the lower reaches of the league, which probably isn't that surprising as they don't have the more skillful players capable of playing more intricate pass and move stuff, that's my guess anyway.



You're beginning to sound like Mourhino now!! :sun:

@Roadhump

Jose is infectious! Wish I was paid as well as him though.

I think your guess is spot-on re keeping the ball on the ground - long balls tend to cede possession which is generally a road to nowhere.

***
Weekend is here but no footy for us! Thank you Bradford.

***

I can see Liverpool going all the way in the FA!

 

[Roadhump]

Weekend is here but no footy for us! Thank you Bradford. :rolleyes: :evil: xx(

***

I can see Liverpool going all the way in the FA!

Likewise to West Ham

It is certainly difficult to see past Liverpool, Arsenal or Utd for the cup, with perhaps West Ham as the outsiders, wouldn't it be nice though to see something similar to a couple of years ago when Wigan won it......Come on Palace!!!

I don't just say that because I'm a bitter Blue, but to go for the underdog as well, plus apparently the final is on Gerrard's birthday this year, the media love in will make me want to emigrate.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I don't just say that because I'm a bitter Blue, but to go for the underdog as well, plus apparently the final is on Gerrard's birthday this year, [B]the media love in[/B] will make me want to emigrate.

Yes - would be vomit inducing.

 

[AndyRM]

I hope you're happy @SpokeyDokey...

 

[Smokin Joe]

Likewise to West Ham

Wanna take a rain check on that? :sad:

 

[Roadhump]

Wanna take a rain check on that? :sad:

Blimey, never thought that would happen. Wouldn't have minded having a few bob on that result though, would have had my beer money sorted for a couple of weeks.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Accy Stanley won 2-1 away at "Sarrfend"!

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Blimey, never thought that would happen. Wouldn't have minded having a few bob on that result though, would have had my beer money sorted for a couple of weeks.

Was a bit of a shock that one. Same with Stoke.

Liverpool looked competent although I thought Palace gave up about 20 mins from the end of the game. Pardew has his work cut out there with motivation and fitness when you have to dig a bit deeper. Some blatant unpunished cheating throughout the match which wasn't nice to watch.

 

[MarkF]

I've good feeling about today. Like when we played Arsenal, even with their strongest line up I thought we'd win, and we were L2 then. Valley Parade is sold out, the pitch is a swamp, it'll be noisy as hell, an environmnet about as far from a PL match as you can get...and Cattermole is absent. Even with their ex-MLS star I just don't see them being able to stand up toe-to-toe when the going gets rough, which it will. I am going for Bradford City 3 Sunderland 1.

Good look to O'Shea and Brown hoping to cope with James Hanson.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I've good feeling about today. Like when we played Arsenal, even with their strongest line up I thought we'd win, and we were L2 then. Valley Parade is sold out, the pitch is a swamp, it'll be noisy as hell, an environmnet about as far from a PL match as you can get...and Cattermole is absent. Even with their ex-MLS star I just don't see them being able to stand up toe-to-toe when the going gets rough, which it will. I am going for Bradford City 3 Sunderland 1.

Good look to O'Shea and Brown hoping to cope with James Hanson.

Come on Bradford!