lol 'hear united sing'

i need to find another reading fan and get them to post in this thread. you guys have turned it into a big pile of suck

There are other Reading fans?

You praise of the obviously superior Chelsea is much appreciated.

Arsenal are total rubbish btw.

THEOSU, what happened to Bobby Convey?

I read somewhere a little bit back that Frank Arnesen was trying to lure Barca manager Rijkaard(sp) to the bridge.

Fabio Capello names Rio Ferdinand captain for there match against France. Oh what must John Terry be thinking.

Probably what he has always been thinking.

Anyone outside the big 3 & Liverpool would be nice, but as this is an American forum you're not going to get it.

Haha, hasnt beckham got a call up? Best captain IMO.

An apt characterization of your team.

You are not English; you were not born in England; you do not have any specific birthright regarding a team. You moved into an area and made a choice to support a team outside your "geographic zone." You picked a crap team and have wasted your time and money and for some reason you think you get a special star by your name for doing so?

What does Bolton do better than the big 4 teams to earn your money? Nothing. One of your own, Adam Smith, developed a theory that we are all better off when one acts in their own self interest. Obviously, you are not interested in supporting quality football. So, what is your self-interest?

Its friggin' obvious. You hide behind a piss poor team so that you can throw stones at everyone else. It takes no guts to choose a crap team like Bolton. There are no expectations and you are "immune" to others capping on your team. Should you win, you can run around like a village idiot and proclaim how you were on this team years and years ago. Its a lifetime freeroll. If you win, you win, if you lose, nobody is allowed to call your team out as crap because the big bad 4 holds them down every year.

Like it or not the Prem is international and savvy teams market outside the UK to maintain their status. Just because other teams have histories of crapping the bed does not give them rights to lure fans from abroad.

On the other hand, a big 4 supporter has to put up with punks like you all the time and, if the team does not fare well, it has to put up with pot-shots and ridicule. That's fine, we make the choice to be brave and put our support behind our team that actually has expectations for itself. Take your shine box down the road and I hope you don't get run over while you are pitching pennies in the alley.

meh i dont know about all this. i didnt think i was making any sort of brave move when i started supporting united during the year they won the treble (disclaimer: i was like 15, living in america, and knew very little about international football other than that the german exchange student that was living with me supported united). i just wanted to watch a team play amazing football.

over the past several years, some of which have obviously been better than others and none of which have matched up to the first, i feel like ive gained some credibility as not being a total glory seeker. but i still dont view my support of united as some noble pursuit which i soldier on with in the face of the derisive cries of city supporters when we lose a derby. truth be told, its pretty nice to be a manchester united fan.

and maybe a lot of the american "glory supporters" are in a similar situation to me -- all of my local sport teams that i support here are terrible, and lose every year. its depressing being a fan when your teams never win. so its nice that each spring i can look forward to at least one of my teams being in the hunt for something special.

he's playing in the reserves. i mean, in coppell i trust and all that, but why oster and kebe are getting runs in the first team at convey's expense is beyond me.

Come on....Bobby Convey is not a very good player. I'm surprised he is still playing with Reading in the premiership.

Oksi, apologies for not replying, you were one of the posters that I blocked a while ago, if mlagoo hadn't quoted you I'd never have seen it.

Why so defensive. Funny isn't it, that the NFL is widely supported in the UK, and yet if the sample on here is anything to go by, only the teams with winning histories in the recent past gain any support from our North American contemporaries?

for example, Tampa Bay had a big following in the UK long before they won a superbowl, can't somehow see the same happening for Derby, despite their American ownership.

Anyway, don't bother replying, your posts are hidden.

Aye, not much surprise he's not in the picture.

Hide all you want ... hypocrites are not too keen on seeing the truth thrown in their face.

The NFL is structured differently than the EPL. You mentioned yourself that the guys in Scotland will watch La Liga for the game itself, no rooting interest. Obviously, the point of your story is that the quality of football matters. Now, you support a compost pile like Bolton for no other apparent reason than that you are loath to choose a sucessful side ... even when you live in close proximity. Not only that, you go on (and persist) in insulting everyone one who supports the big four as if that is inherently bad. You even go so far as to scoff and rail at the Super Sundays where the big four are featured.

Tell me, similar to your La Liga example, what teams are likely to draw soccer fans based on their play and players? Outside the big four, there are only a handful of teams. You said so yourself, the enjoyment level for fans is less than that of 20 years ago. The fact that a large number of teams are not competitive is partly to blame. Yet, you blindly throw your money at a total crap hole that has not shown any commitment to winning.

In the NFL, there is a level of parity as the national television contracts are shared and a salary cap is in place. If someone wants to follow ANY TEAM (even the Lions) they will be competitive at some point or another. Yes, some teams, due to incompetence will be down longer than others, but the league is cyclical. Why are there large amounts of Tampa Bay fans in the U.K.? Who the eff knows. Jersey colors, pirates!, cheerleaders, granddad lives in Florida. Again, who knows? The NFL is very savvy at marketing all of its teams and its no surprise that all of the teams pick up fans.

The EPL is fundamentally different, don't even pretend its not. In a lot of respects, the NFL is socialist while the EPL is a meritocracy. However, you wish to deny that fact and give your support and money to a team that has done nothing to earn it.

Again, you may take this as an ad hominem, but I think you are fundamentally unfit. You love to be miserable and your choice of football club furthers this desire. Accordingly, you can hide behind your crappy teams and throw mud at better teams when they fall short, all the while knowing that the tables won't be turned because nobody expects anything from your poor boys.

Remember, you moved into England and broke your OWN RULE about following the local club (personally, i don't give a flying about what others want to do ... unless they are sitting there, like you, preaching about what they have done and what others should do) and essentially declared yourself a free agent. Did you choose wisely? No. Just like you in general ... a fantastic failure. If you told me your cousin was the ball boy (or that your cousin did the ball boy) or whatever, I can see why you would follow the team. At least you would have some justification for the choice. But, you don't. You want a little blankie to hide under so that you can enjoy the occasional win and not have to worry about losses ... because, hey, you were supposed to lose anyway.

Oski, Why must you bring up the Lions and make me remember that i'm a season ticket holder of that suckfest??

Anyways I was on the official man utd board and came across something fairly interesting about Uniteds performances with Scholes in the lineup and it looked something like this.

I know Scholes is a red legend through and through but it's pretty interesting to look at those and see how the teams performance goes when he is in the lineup.

alreet thanks, knew i was a bit off but was a bit goosed when i poasted that

I did enjoy it. I assume you whined about it to someone, when the fact was you were the one looking at it completely biased.

Secondly, empire, funny you show up now to spout off. You are a class act as well. For some reason you weren't talking **** the whole season, but once your boys get past us you start spouting off. Its apparent reading your post you have no clue what you are talking about. Fact is Grant is coaching arguably the best team (talentwise) in the Prem and and they are 5 back of ManU. Does he really deserve any credit for this teams success( and in all honesty, their lack of). They already lost one championship game, gotten bumped out of the FA Cup by a Championship side and have sputtered between form and out of form since he took over.

If you want to talk about Adebayor, then read everything I said about him. He was playing lights out for several months, but due to several factors has been off form for weeks.

So essentially you are flat out wrong about everything.

Why? He didn't buy anyone during the off season and lost his best player during the summer. He's as much to blame for their position as anyone.

Arsenal's performance over the past 5 games has nothing to do with choking. The team lacks depth, especially at on the wings and at CB. If we had a healthy Eduardo, Rosicky, and RVP(fully fit) things would be somewhat different. However it was the same story last year as well, and Wenger did jack **** about it.

Secondly, I also think the injury to Eduardo has negatively impacted many of the players on the team.

That being said, Arsenal can beat any team on its day, and thats without debate. I also think Arsenal can beat Liverpool over two legs.

Anyone who says the league is over is crazy. If Arsenal can turn their form around and Chelsea keep playing this way anything can happen. ManU have two massive games, albeit at home, against Arsenal and Chelsea. Plus, they have two potentially tough games against Villa and Blackburn. I said this earlier, Chelsea have the easiest remaining games, with only ManU and and Everton to really bother them.

Chelsea has had almost every player out for some time due to injury or ANC. Every team goes through injury problems, and to use it as an excuse when you begin to lack form is quite sad. Rosicky & RVP have been out almost all season, and Eduardo didn't start getting PT until RVP had injury. You have more than capable backups up front in Bendtner & Walcott.

The wheels came off the bus for Arsenal after the 0-4 embarrassment vs United, the Edwardo incident which happened I believe a week later is just a convenient cover up.

It would one thing if you were drawing against teams challenging for Uefa cup or CL spots, but instead it's the likes of Birmingham, Wigan, & Boro.

Face it Arse fans, your team pulled a choke job.

You really don't know what you are talking about, admit it. Two kids are some how capable back ups for three established international senior team players? Since when? Also, Eduardo didn't play much because he was coming from a worse league and took time to settle in. The team was playing really well with him about half way through the season, essentially when he was hitting his stride.

Secondly, Chelsea and ManU have a lot more depth than any one else in the Prem. They can absorb injuries with less effect than Arsenal can, at least currently.

Finally, I won't "face" anything, because its simply not true. You act like you know what you are talking about because you look at what happened and are assuming they choked, because its the only explanation, right? I mean, how many people said this team wouldn't even finish in the top four before the season started?

The facts are this:
-The team has suffered long term injuries to three players, all of whom start or could start (Rosicky, RVP, and Eduardo)
-The team is still young and lacks experience (Walcott, Bendtner, Diaby, Denilson, Hoyte, Traore, Djourou, Song)
-They have no options out wide
-They have been over performing for the whole season.
-At this point, I think only Chelsea have played as many games as them

So what do you get? A team choking or a team running out of energy because they lack depth? At this same point last year Arsenal had 55 points, 12 less then they do right now. Also, they went through a rough spot at the exact same time last year. From games 27 through 31 they picked up 3 points, this year and last. Thats not a team choking, thats a team that is running out of energy, again.

Myles Palmer said that Arsenal have 2/3 a full squad and subsequently "won" the league for 2/3 of the year. Thats pretty damn true. Or if you don't know jack, they are just choking.