The World of Football/Soccer. - Page 5

Raderick · 06-12-2009, 02:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Hopefully they don't, not the football factor that bothers me as can get my fill and more on other channels but they also show Australian rugby league games and the AFL games live.

Yeah, no doubt that Setanta has done a ton for non-EPL football and other sports.

Raderick · 06-12-2009, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Dumb stupid awful move by Man Utd. Ronaldo is the best player on earth. Where else are you going to get 97 goals in three years from the midfield?

And I do not understand the Tevez love. He is a forward who has scored 19 goals in 63 games. Yawn

Darren Fletcher was arguably the best player on Man U this season, if not in England, yet scored, what, 3 or 4 goals all season long? The amount of goals you score isn't exactly the greatest gauge of how to rate a player.

phightin · 06-12-2009, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raderick

Darren Fletcher was arguably the best player on Man U this season, if not in England, yet scored, what, 3 or 4 goals all season long? The amount of goals you score isn't exactly the greatest gauge of how to rate a player.

I was going to say the same thing. Cristiano is one of the greats currently but IMO Iniesta is hands down the best player in the world right now and he isn't going to grab you a ton of a goals. He'll run the center of the field though better than anyone else which is more important.

mlyons · 06-12-2009, 12:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raderick

Darren Fletcher was arguably the best player on Man U this season, if not in England, yet scored, what, 3 or 4 goals all season long? The amount of goals you score isn't exactly the greatest gauge of how to rate a player.

Darren Fletcher? Seriously? The guy who started only 37 of their 66 matches despite not having any major injuries? Would you care to explain how he was better than Vidic and Rooney?

Don't get me wrong, Fletcher seems like a useful enough player with room to improve, but he's nowhere close to the best in England. Not by a country mile. Just for the sake of having some sort of impartial starting point, Actim (which tends to overrate players on winning teams) had him at #88 on their 2008-2009 rankings. Obviously, that's not any sort of definitive judgement or anything, but you're going to have to come up with an awfully persuasive argument to convince me that a guy whose manager selected him less than two thirds of the time at the position the team was weakest at could possibly be the best player on his team.

rudel.dietrich · 06-12-2009, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raderick

Darren Fletcher was arguably the best player on Man U this season, if not in England, yet scored, what, 3 or 4 goals all season long? The amount of goals you score isn't exactly the greatest gauge of how to rate a player.

I know your not joking but for your sake I wish you were.

Ronaldo is the best player in the world. End of discussion. United did not need the money.
He will be sorely sorely missed next season.

phightin · 06-12-2009, 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I know your not joking but for your sake I wish you were.

Ronaldo is the best player in the world. End of discussion. United did not need the money.
He will be sorely sorely missed next season.

I wouldn't be too quick to proclaim him as hands down the world's best as it changes from season to season. One of the best in the world no doubt, but there's a couple others that come to mind who are right on his level. Anyway, your right united didn't need the money and would have been fine with the team they had with him, but the fact is he hasn't really wanted to be there over the past couple years and they sold him at his peak value which was a smart move on their part. Ronaldo is a world class player and one of the best of this generation, but 130 million dollars will buy united 3-4 very good players who they can now add their team thus they may in fact be a better team when all is said done. Let's wait and see who they bring in and what they decide to do like i said before. Real Madrid has tried to buy their way to championship before and failed miserably.

rudel.dietrich · 06-13-2009, 01:26 AM

United don't need 3-4 mediocre to good players. Where and when will they play them? United do not really have any glaring holes. They need one dynamic player whom when he has the ball as his feet can spur one of the deadliest attacks in the sport.
United have made the CL final two years in a row and are going for the EPL title for the 3rd straight time. What are 3-4 players going to add to that? They would struggle to even crack the bench much less the starting 11.
Finally, if every team sold every player who has ever asked to be transfered, then every team would turn over it's roster every two seasons.
Ronaldo has asked out for three seasons now and has still produced 25+ goals a season and won world player of the year.
Despite what he says, I think the motivation is there.

ukhotstove · 06-13-2009, 02:00 AM

They said the end of the world was coming when they sold Beckham, guess it didn't arrive.

ukhotstove · 06-13-2009, 02:02 AM

You also have to take on board the effect his constant moaning was having on the team, ever since the transfer broke I've yet to see 1 United player come out crying that Ronaldo is leaving them.

Tommysixfingers · 06-13-2009, 04:23 AM

.

mlyons · 06-13-2009, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

They said the end of the world was coming when they sold Beckham, guess it didn't arrive.

No, but it did take them four years to win another Premier League title.

ukhotstove · 06-13-2009, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlyons

No, but it did take them four years to win another Premier League title.

Good deal of that had to do with Chelsea and Roman the cashcow and not just losing one player.

bababui · 06-13-2009, 05:04 PM

Ronaldo is the worlds best player and can single-handedly win a match for you several different ways. No matter who they bring in they will be less dangerous next season. Ferguson is a stubborn and arrogant man. He basically lost the CL final with his bizarre starting XI. This is all about Ferguson shouting 'I am the Man here'.

However, Ronaldo is 24 and has some injury issues. A lost step or two can basically reduce him to being a Beckhamish FK specialist. He is also petulant and spoiled.

From a business perspective, its a perfect time and a perfect offer to dump him. From a footballing perspective, its a disasterous move.

Russ · 06-13-2009, 06:12 PM

I just think it's the perfect "sell-high" move. I'm also glad he's out of the EPL.

ukhotstove · 06-13-2009, 07:31 PM

At this moment in time it's Man Utd who have the better part of the deal, United get rid of a player who didn't want to be there and get £80 million to spend on about 3 players who will make their squad stronger. Madrid on the other hand get a player who doesn't improve their main weakness in fact probably makes it weaker and that's defending.

ukhotstove · 06-13-2009, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raderick

Yeah, no doubt that Setanta has done a ton for non-EPL football and other sports.

Setanta goes down it means the loss of many sports to the viewing public, I'd prefer to be able to watch numerous sports rather than just a handful which sky show.

mlyons · 06-14-2009, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Good deal of that had to do with Chelsea and Roman the cashcow and not just losing one player.

That just points up how thin the margin of error is for the top teams. Chelsea and Arsenal were close enough to Manchester United at the time that the loss of one major player was significant enough for them to close the gap. Chelsea and Liverpool are that close right now, and Chelsea's cash cow looks to be just as willing to spend now as he did four years ago.

The big problem for Manchester United is that Ronaldo was a relatively rare player -- a goalscorer who is also a winger. They need to replace his position on the field as well as his goals, which means they need two players (unless Berbatov or Rooney really step up their strike rates). If they sign Ribery or Valencia or someone like that, they'll do great and give them terrific width and playmaking, but they aren't going to score 25 goals. Likewise, if they pick up Benzema or Eto'o or some other top-level striker, they'll replace his goals, but they won't replace his width. If they get both, someone's going to lose playing time, whether that's Berbatov, Giggs, Park, or Rooney.

I'm sure Man U is going to have an excellent team next season, but there isn't really any way that Ferguson is going to get away with the luxury of having three strikers who look to be playmakers rather than scorers again.

phightin · 06-14-2009, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

I just think it's the perfect "sell-high" move. I'm also glad he's out of the EPL.

exactly my point. people forget so fast that for how good ronaldo is it takes much more than one player to win trophies, and they never will get more for him than they would now. If the rumors hold true and United use that money to bring in players such as or on the same level as Ribery, Mouhtino, Benzema, and Glen Johnson I'd hardly call that bringing in 3-4 average players, they would in my opinion have a better team than they had last season, would be the odds on favorites to win the premiership, and have a shot a europe as well. And I'm sorry in terms of the world's best Ronaldo is not the end all and be all that you guys are making him out to be. Dare I say if I had to pick one player in the world out of everyone to have on my team with my first pick it wouldn't be him. Sure he is the most dangerous, he has flair, skill, better than anyone else on the ball in the world, but a complete footballer he is not there other areas that are lacking. IMO Iniesta who along with the skill has vision, defensive awareness, and overall can run a midfield better than anyone else is currently the best player in the world from what i saw after this season. Him and xavi are better together than any two players in the world out there and it showed against united. I'm sick of people talking about CR7 like he's second coming of christ when in reality he still has to prove he is on Zidane's level.

ukhotstove · 06-14-2009, 01:24 AM

Thing what people look at and it's the same with Gerrard at Liverpool, they see X ammount of goals and that Ronaldo and Gerrard are classed as midfield players but in fact both players played mostly as forwards for their clubs this past season. If you look at Ronaldo and Rooney the past season it wouldn't surprise me if Rooney actually played more on the wing than Ronaldo did also don't forget that Ronaldo was Uniteds penalty taker so how many goals did he score from the spot the last few seasons, I'm thinking somewhere in the region of 15 - 20 the past 3 years. Don't get me wrong he's one of the top players in the world but unless Madrid buy at least 2 top class defenders I'd bet against anybody that come the end of next season Man United will have won more than Madrid will have.

ukhotstove · 06-14-2009, 01:30 AM

Touching on what phightin said, if I was building a team and had to choose my first player who would be the cornerstone of my team I'd be looking at someone like Essien, Vidic (although bit clumsy couple times last season) or Terry somebody who turns up every game and not just when it suits them.

06-13-2009, 04:23 AM	#90
Tommysixfingers All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 1,500	. Last edited by Tommysixfingers; 06-13-2009 at 09:08 PM.

06-13-2009, 06:12 PM	#94
Russ All Star Starter Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Essex HON! Posts: 1,923 Infractions: 0/1 (1)	I just think it's the perfect "sell-high" move. I'm also glad he's out of the EPL. __________________ If you don't love Russ, you don't love America. This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

06-13-2009, 01:26 AM	#87
rudel.dietrich Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Zürich, Switzerland Posts: 8,608	United don't need 3-4 mediocre to good players. Where and when will they play them? United do not really have any glaring holes. They need one dynamic player whom when he has the ball as his feet can spur one of the deadliest attacks in the sport. United have made the CL final two years in a row and are going for the EPL title for the 3rd straight time. What are 3-4 players going to add to that? They would struggle to even crack the bench much less the starting 11. Finally, if every team sold every player who has ever asked to be transfered, then every team would turn over it's roster every two seasons. Ronaldo has asked out for three seasons now and has still produced 25+ goals a season and won world player of the year. Despite what he says, I think the motivation is there.

06-13-2009, 02:00 AM	#88
ukhotstove Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of England Gods Country Posts: 7,175	They said the end of the world was coming when they sold Beckham, guess it didn't arrive.

06-13-2009, 02:02 AM	#89
ukhotstove Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of England Gods Country Posts: 7,175	You also have to take on board the effect his constant moaning was having on the team, ever since the transfer broke I've yet to see 1 United player come out crying that Ronaldo is leaving them.

06-13-2009, 07:31 PM	#95
ukhotstove Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of England Gods Country Posts: 7,175	At this moment in time it's Man Utd who have the better part of the deal, United get rid of a player who didn't want to be there and get £80 million to spend on about 3 players who will make their squad stronger. Madrid on the other hand get a player who doesn't improve their main weakness in fact probably makes it weaker and that's defending.

06-14-2009, 01:24 AM	#99
ukhotstove Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of England Gods Country Posts: 7,175	Thing what people look at and it's the same with Gerrard at Liverpool, they see X ammount of goals and that Ronaldo and Gerrard are classed as midfield players but in fact both players played mostly as forwards for their clubs this past season. If you look at Ronaldo and Rooney the past season it wouldn't surprise me if Rooney actually played more on the wing than Ronaldo did also don't forget that Ronaldo was Uniteds penalty taker so how many goals did he score from the spot the last few seasons, I'm thinking somewhere in the region of 15 - 20 the past 3 years. Don't get me wrong he's one of the top players in the world but unless Madrid buy at least 2 top class defenders I'd bet against anybody that come the end of next season Man United will have won more than Madrid will have.

06-14-2009, 01:30 AM	#100
ukhotstove Hall Of Famer Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: North of England Gods Country Posts: 7,175	Touching on what phightin said, if I was building a team and had to choose my first player who would be the cornerstone of my team I'd be looking at someone like Essien, Vidic (although bit clumsy couple times last season) or Terry somebody who turns up every game and not just when it suits them.