Ozil off to Bayern?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2789920/mesut-ozil-wants-leave-arsenal-january-bayern-munich-line-30million-bid.html

Certainly hasn't done much at Arsenal

this has been the biggest news for the last few days in the Netherlands. Analysts on TV have been talking about it for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours now

what happened between Huntelaar and van Persie?

nothing! that's the whole point, it's a pointless discussion
Van Persie tried to kick the ball in the goal, and Huntelaar was pissed that he didn't pass it to him. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78lvVYarUHI

place your bets now!
When will the Dutch coach be fired? Today, tomorrow, next week?

I know RVP's had to come out and publicly defend Hiddink. I don't know what it is about Hiddink but I really don't like him. Nothing to do with him as a manager, just something about him.

Oranjes!! Thats my "dudes with names like the villains in a van damme movie" team.. plus im always a sucker for that undergod contender who nobody likes and is the villain but also respected because nobody really wants to play them because they know that Netherlands is actually talented enough to pull of any upset. If they finally break through and win a big trophy it would change the current power structure of the game. Theyd change the narrative from choker to threat

FYI Germany-Ireland 0-0 at halftime. Looks like Podolski is coming in.
--
ps- Kroos scored from outside the area and then a last-minute goal by Ireland's O'Shea tied 1-1! BAM! Jogi Low will eat a lot of booger tonight.

USA Honduras was the sweatiest friendly I've ever seen.. and Honduras celebrated their equalizing goal like they were making up for shitting the bed at the World Cup instead of tying up a friendly ;)

USA Honduras was the sweatiest friendly I've ever seen.. and Honduras celebrated their equalizing goal like they were making up for shitting the bed at the World Cup instead of tying up a friendly ;)

Good god, do I long for the days when bringing up pro sports or sports in general in an ostensibly underground music crowd would inspire shouts of derision and eventual ostracization from said crowd.
Jocks suck. Team sports are for assholes and this kind of crap is the thing that helped ruin this forum. There was a time when anyone into this garbage would be justifiably branded as a lamer. You guys are fucking lame jock sympathizers and this shit makes me sad.
Fuck team sports culture in the face. With a rusty chainsaw.

(I have to say that every so often. Carry on with your jock bullshit.)

How?


The Euros are definitely in the silly season right now. Big teams falling all over the place. Give England they're due, they're at least winning the games they should be winning.

Saw the highlights. Looked like USA just sat back after their goal, which was asking for trouble against a Honduras side who, you know, if nothing else, will be full on and work their arses off. And against the US, they'd likely be even more motivated than usual. A bit of arrogance from Klinsmann there, or at best naivety.

Hell on Earth happened at Serbia-Albania match.

Someone flew a drone carrying a flag of independent Kosovo over the pitch(Serbia and Albania have been in a long dispute over the ownership of this land) and afterwards, a real chaos erupted.

These Balkans are some wicked, wicked people.

"be like me or be branded a lamer"

are you 12?


terrible. everyone should reunite, if only for the sake of fielding better teams to international matches. i'm dreaming of course. i remember milosevic, the clinton air war, etc.

And yet something I do like about football is the way it can make public, certain tensions that governments and politicians try to hide or pretend aren't there - at least to the outside world. Like the way Spain is having to deal with a racism problem its government pretended it never had, largely because the world sees how it treats black players in football matches. Not saying football solves these problems, but it does a good job of bringing them out into the open.

bayern played a weird match in russia the other day (couple of weeks ago?) in an empty stadium, due to sanctions stemming from racist behavior by cska moscow fans. it was eerie but also hilarious as the russians played chants over loudspeakers.

one would think that decades of communism had taught russians the notion of universal brotherhood or some such shit. evidently not.

speaking of yahoo behavior, check out these scarves sold outside a german stadium yesterday:

point taken.I don't know why I get the urge to say those things every now and again, but I do. It could just as easily be argued that the sports talk kept the forum going during the lowest activity.
And people like what they like and I don't have to read it.
Yep, pretty 12 year old I suppose.

we all have some high school trauma (i have many), so i'm not pointing the finger at you or anything for having one, but that's probably the reason. back when jocks ruled the world in totalitarian ways (it's probably an american thing) ranting against them was a necessary act of resistance, lines had to be drawn, cliques formed, etc.

but this is another place & time, and nobody who likes sports here today does not also enjoy some kind of art or philosophy or culture in general-- sports are just one more thing to like rather than an either/or choice between opposing tribes/lifestyles.

albert camus was a goalkeeper until he was sidelined by tuberculosis (but he didn't quit smoking).

i read the other day that raymond pettibon is a huge baseball fan btw.

http://www.juxtapoz.com/current/raym...on-on-baseball


the nice thing about games of this sort is that there's always some unpredictable thing happening-- so it makes for good excuses to talk. and there is more drama (and comedy) than the theatre. i don't know that keeping this forum going is a redeeming action of any kind though ha ha.

Got this in the post today. Just started reading it. Absolutely fascinating so far.

Boy does Pep fucking LOVE Lahm. It's never said directly (yet) but you could reasonably wonder if the main factor in him going to Bayern was to coach him. He seems to hold him in as high esteem as he places Xavi. Seems a bit frustrated with Robben though.

El Symbols seriously needs to get hold of a copy.

HOLY SHIT.

i will try indeed, if it's published here (or, i'll pay your postage to send it to me and i'll return it with something else)

re: robben: he's the only player with real teeth up front. when the opponents of tikitaka park the bus, robben cuts through that bus like the jaws of life



ps= jeezus fookin krist: http://www.theguardian.com/football/...nich-barcelona

No problem.


A lot can happen from now till 2016, when his Bayern contract runs out, but I'd be surprised if it's renewed, and if he does become a free agent, only very few clubs could realistically afford him.

Of the potential English clubs:

Van Gaal has started poorly at Man U but most people see the problem there is with the team left behind by Fergie rather than with Van Gaal himself, although pressure is increasing on him to improve things. He'll get another season at least but after that (when Pep could become available) who knows.

Chelsea are on a high with Mourinho right now but he has a habit of being at clubs for only a few seasons at a time and we know Abramovich desperately wants Pep. The bigger question there is if Pep wants to work for Abramovich.

Pellegrini seems safe at Man City but there's always a sense that they could improve. They'd take Pep but I'm not sure how interested he'd be in going there. They're a rich club but they haven't really established an identity yet.

damn, this would have been fun to do, but it's only $9 on kindle!


if pep took over a mourinho team he'd probably have to sell everyone and buy a bunch of tiny spaniards.

Pep would have a reasonably long honeymoon period in the prem but I don't think he's a natural fit. If he was getting results, fine, but his style would soon become an issue if he wasn't. Fergie for me defines what the Prem stands for: attack-minded, spirit over technique, never say die. Mourinho (when he's on the offensive) works perfectly in that sense. Pep might ultimately be seen as a bit too much of a fancy dan foreigner here, in the same way that he is in Germany. I get the feeling that fans of the Prem and the Bundesliga are looking for quite similar things in their football, and we know the Bayern fans haven't quite taken to Pep.

he would at least make a better wenger, since wenger has been doing all that without the results. so that would be more of the same only perhaps the chance that it might be a little better. what i meant is: arsenal. or liverpool. did liverpool really want casillas? i heard rumors.

chelsea/man u no fucking way-- the honeymoon would last 3 days before he's burned in effigy.

klopp is who you really want. klopp + man u money = unbeatable.

(right now, dortmund bleeds)

Well on the whole picture I'd disagree with that.

Yeah, Wengers not been as successful relative to his early years but he's consistently made the champions league alongside teams considerably richer than Arsenal. Pep's his natural successor though, but I don't think they'd have the money for the kinds of transfer budgets he'd expect. And for Pep, it'd represent a definite step down after Barcelona and Bayern. (ditto Liverpool - in terms of a step down)

If (massive if) he comes to the Prem, it'll be to either Chelsea, MU or MC. MU can't compete financially with Chelsea or MC but he does seem to favour them, and he's more than rich enough not to be motivated purely by money.

But if he is, I'm sure Beckham would be happy to have him coach his Miami team. And Pep does enjoy the glamorous life.

Although he never quite gelled with the Bavarian club scene

haaaa haaaa haaaa haaaa that photo!

--

i didn't mean arsenal / liverpool would be a step up (they definitely wouldn't be these days), just that pep's philosophies would be a good fit there rather than in the other teams you mentioned (though man city appears more malleable from my distant perspective).

as for wenger, maybe i've started to believe mourinho's "specialist in failure" insult ha ha ha. i mean whenever i've watched arsenal i've tried to like them, but it's always been an exercise in frustration. like watching a constipated trying to shit--a great effort, and little comes out. i'm saying this regardless of where they place on the table.

it's funny that we're talking about pep as if he was already leaving bayern. just because he's had a hard time adjusting it doesn't mean he can't learn to love lederhosen, renew his contract, grow old in munich, etc. yes, he looks awkward in the pictures, yes not all fans are crazy about him, but people change and time passes. we'll see what happens this year & the next…

ps- here's a different look: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/footba...ss-pep-4449807

gundogan is back, reus is back, and dortmund is still managing to go down by a goal at halftime vs. fc koln. how… why… what the fuck!?!?!?! lots of wasted passes and too much confusion at the front from what i can see. mkhitarian for all the flash rather useless and got himself carded for diving.

meanwhile, heard that bayern is up 4-0 at halftime… good thing i'm not watching that… too easy!

4 goals for Aguero today .... and he missed a penalty.

Costa's not even in the squad cos of his hamstring.

Fantasy football armageddon

i heard about the agüero goals.

bayern ended up winning 6-0. too fucking easy!

what puzzles me is the dortmund debacle i just witnessed. they ended losing 2-1. i can't fucking believe it. one could say "oh, but dortmund has been pilfered." well, sure, immobile is not lewandowski, etc., but dortmund still had, man for man, a much better team than cologne. and yet-- horrible defense, sloppy midfield, ineffectual attack. how does this happen? will dortmund be making progress on teh champions league while fighting relegation at home? how fucked is this? too fucked!!

It's obviously taking their new players time to gel and they can probably write off any title challenge this season (assuming they ever realistically thought they'd make one) but it's far too early for talk about relegation. Interesting to see how Klopp responds to the pressure though. I've only really seen him while Dortmund were doing ok, and he looks like someone who easily loses his cool.

I, like seemingly like seemingly every man and his dog expected Southampton to struggle this season. How very, very, very wrong we've been proved. Good on them.

well sure but they're dropping to the bottom of the table fast at #13. schalke is #10 but they have a game starting in a few minutes so they could move up.

Yeah, amazing. I thought they'd be in a relegation battle. But you have to look at Sunderland today. I don't care how good a team is, if they beat you 8-0 you have to look to yourself. From what I've heard, Sunderland just gave up completely towards the end. But yeah, Southampton are flying.


Yeah, but only a couple of wins away from being right back up there. A bad start but too soon to think about relegation. West Ham are in a CL spot right now. Guaranteed they won't be anywhere near it by the season's end.

well theyve dropped to 14 and hamburg has a chance to leapfrog ahead because they haven't played yet. so they could still drop to 15. there's 18 teams.

i can't get this damn stream to work ha ha--- oh finally-- schalke up 1-0 already

Just watched Messi score his 250th goal for Barcelona. That's just absurd. Apparently just one away from the all time La Liga record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE86mGDnTrM

hamburg just tied 1-1 vs. hoffenheim so dortmund manages to retain their 14th place on the bundesliga table