I think there will be a minimum of 3 signings in the summer including a new striker. Benjani was a long way from Sven's first choice and I don't think he is good enough from what I've seen for where the club is aiming to be. I agree a replacement for Hamann, I don't think Gelson is quite good enough to step into that role on a permanent basis. The foreign players will also be much more settled next season, Elano has been a little found out but will get used to it. Look at Fabregas' first season at Arsenal for example.

ledders, I don't think I could go to an away match because I would probably start a fight and get my ass beat, however I am a big dude.

Holy fk thats some funny **** Oski.

No doubt. But too bad little lio can't stay healthy, he has been spectacular, IMO better than Christiano when fully fit.

If Bojan and company can help fill his shoes v. Shalke, he just might be ready for the big lights against maybe Ronaldo. How fun.

Agree. How close to first choice do you think Bojinov was and have you heard anything about his return yet?
Rumour is he`s awesome but whose seen him play?


Salt, get yourself to an away game. Didnt i read you were in england at the moment?

Just go with any club, it doesnt have to be your team. Well worth it.

Get to the away end of the ground and ask everyone if they have a spare ticket. Someone always does. Failing that, pick your moment and jump the turnstyle. Punishment for this offence is ejection from the ground. Hardly a big deal. Or get up close to the person infront (pick someone small) and push through with them. As you`re pushing start off a chant really loud to distract any police/stewards who might be paying attention. I usually go with "We love you City..." Something popular everybody`s going to get behind. The stewards get confused and dont know where to look.

If it doesnt work first time because a steward wanted to check your non existent ticket just circle round and do it again. Get somebody between you and the ticket checking steward this time though, or try a different turnstyle.

Once you`re in its usually best to get yourself to the back of the stand where you can stand up as theres often lots of others up there who either did what you did or couldnt be arsed to find their seat. This is very ground dependant though and you`ll have to weigh it up yourself when you get in. From memory West Ham and Fulham are ideal, Spurs is a nightmare, not been to Arsenal or Chelsea since they were redeveloped.

Consider seeing a Championship game too as an away fan with a team who bring a big following.

good luck.

The fact that Raju is a manc = confirmed.

raju, I live in Oregon, a state in the USA (haha).

No seriously, I have a timetable in mind for going to a game or games. probably 5 years. It would be sick to go to a few games.

Right, I thought i read you were in the uk this week. Must have been somebody else. I`d scroll back and look who it was but....I`m not going to.

Heh heh, I forgot one important bit of advice for anyone thinking of jumping in anywhere:

Once you`re in and you`re stood at the back, its very important to keep one eye out for any rogue stewards and/or police coming up the steps towards you. Some will just insist you find a seat but some of them will want to see a ticket so if you spot them heading your way you need to go for a piss immediately.

Its not a major big deal as they only throw you out but who needs that ****?

uh, unless you`re in the west midlands in which case they`ll drag you out by your hair, punching and kicking you, slam your head into their van a couple of times and strip search you before locking you up and letting you out around 3am so you cant get home having not even questioned you.

Yeah, so just be careful of that.

Trip Report please.

I'll second that

And on top of it, Chelsea now has to play 2 matches in 72 hours. Such BS to move a fixture between 2 clubs still very much playing for big things this season:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ea/7319619.stm

KJS

looking forward to my annual trip to horwich parkway fc tomorrow, i wonder if fatshaft dare shows his face??

im with raju on all that getting into grounds free. havent payed to see a brentford game for ~2 years now, got a m8 who works on the turnstiles who just lets me walk through.

He is in the West Stand Lower, if that helps.

By the way, not to pile on (okay, I'm piling on):

One of the funniest comments from the Bolton NFL Fans thread: "I'm a Steelers fan, but I've been following them long before they won the Super Bowl." LOL! ... not by Fatshaft, but still quite good.


Also, on the Aberdeen Dons message boards (don't ask), they actually have a debate that its okay for Scottish football fans to be ManU fans. It turns out that a good number of them ARE ManU fans, but some go to great pains to point out that they became fans during Man U.'s leaner years. LOL. Its quite interesting to me that FatShat didn't chime in with his glory-hunting spiel over there.

For what its worth, both sites seem to be made up of nice chaps. The Bolton ones are split as to why they still support the team ... a good number seem to agree that the team is rubbish and perhaps its not worth following anymore.

One funny topic on the Wanderer was about what an s...hole Warrington is. F.S. jumps in to defend it.

- Anyhow, even though I got tons of ammo, I don't want to draw this out. F.S. seems like a decent enough guy (has a family and kids, too). He just came at me the wrong way, and I was sick of his insults.

*** I will probably take an ice pick to my eye (Bill the Butcher style) if Arsenal lose to Bolton this weekend.

i might have to actually kill myself if we lose 2moz, but there will be a good poast to be made if we stuff em 3-0

I'm actually starting to feel sorry for him, he's taken quite a beating in this thread lately. While I disgaree with his stance on foreign fans glory-hunting by choosing a successful team (it's to be expected due to media coverage etc.) I do draw the line at foreign fans taking the piss out of my team <cough> kdawg </cough>. It's like where do they generate this pseudo-hatred from without growing up with it? Far too fake and assumed IMO. It's too easy to reply with humiliating put-downs so in this case I just think of the six points and

That nasty little incident happened to a freind of a freind at villa about 10 years ago maybe longer. The police werent in flourescant jackets yet so however long ago that was.

The only parts I can confirm are him getting dragged out, and it was a violent ejection that sparked off some heavy fighting with the police, and him not getting home till the next day.

The rest of the story none of us on the trip witnessed because we were still in the ground. 2 of his mates waited in Birmingham for him and the rest of us got on the train home.

City back dem coppers off though. Loads saw the punches go in and didnt like it, some blues were making to rush at them and some were climbing out of the Doug Ellis stand to get involved.

The police moved a mob of around 15-20 in, batons drawn, and city just backed them off.

His story is pretty standard for west midlands police though (minus the strip search. But if you piss them off it wouldnt suprise me).

I should probably mention that he was ****-faced so it is likely that it was more than just not having a ticket that got him thrown out in such a manner.

Hopefully they`ll be in a good mood tomorrow because I`m taking my nine year old boy.

Pretty sad raju, if you think casuals have anything to do with football, in fact, the very fact that there is no trouble at football matches, and casuals don't even wear the colours of their teams, more or less sums up how much it has to do with football.

If you want to talk football, carry on, if you want to talk about thugs, then put in OOT or BB4L perhaps?

The fact you know this happened, and your previous views on the munich silence are pretty damning for you however, perhaps you should let it lie eh?

Lol, apologies raju, ignore my previous post as I hadn't read the whole thread, it seems you think fighting is big and clever, you clearly are a prize twat.

Actually, I did nothing of the sort, but I can't be arsed going back over my posts. The original was something to do with glory hunting per se, not actually US football fans at all. The US gadgies took umbrage, presumably because they dominate the thread, without having any understanding of the overwhelming number of inadequates that come under that umbrella in the UK. It wasn't aimed at them, but they've decided to make a point of it. Well fair enough, that's their choosing, but they can't try to then justify their support without falling under that umbrella themselves.

Then we have a cake and eat it point from someone about supporting one of the better MLB teams. Well that doesn't wash because there is no strong following for any particular team in the UK, as is also the case for NFL, so there's just no comparison.

But hell, what do I know, I support the Dons, Bolton, Dolphins and Blue Jays, I must be a glory hunting hypocrite myself

Jesus, are you from the Chatsworth estate?

Ah, so being a Chicago Bears and an Illinois basketball fan must therefore grant me anti-glory hunting salvation. Excellent. Thanks. I feel much better now.

now this is the kind of trainwrecking that makes 2p2 so awesome. good show

do it and have fun. I went to see Chelsea play and went to craven cottage and sat in the away section for a ManU/Fulham match and was a blast. I still regret not getting to the QPR match I had tix for even though that match may have been a bit ambitious for my friend and I to get to as that was the next day after we got into london and we did get delayed like 6 hours in both jersey and gatwick






whatever. Do you draw the line at TSC calling Spurs the spuds when he only started supporting them recently, do you draw the line at any of the american fans taking the piss out of their rivals that goes on consistently in this thread?

If you ever met me, you'd find out that my passion for ManU is far from fake, which is exactly what you are implying and I do take offense to that. Obviously I don't live in Manchester and didn't grow up with them, but I do my best to follow them as well as I can even though I work on saturdays and can't watch the games in real time.

I am going to say, fatshaft, even though you bug me, I do like reading most of your posts. However, I think you need to lay off the glory hunting witch hunt because in all honestly, it makes you look bad, especially considering you like the Dolphins and Blue Jays. There is no reason for you to like either team other than them having past successes, presumably during periods when you followed leagues. I don't take issue with that either, so I don't think you should do the same.