2015/2016 Barclays Premier League Thread

[Senator Clay Davis]

Coquelin thinks Mata's red card was idiotic.

[Locke]

That was wild.

Liverpool are on a decent run of form and must have been thinking:

"What will it take to stop us now?"

Then looking up at the schedule and seeing: Palace at Selhurst.

Yup. That'll do it. Thats as close to 'Guaranteed Loss Night' as it gets in the EPL.

The Palace, losing in 4 in a row must have wondered what they have to do to win a game, then looked at the schedule and saw: Liverpool at home.

The perfect tonic. Guaranteed win.

Then as the match begins and the first half ends 0-0 with Palace having had the better of the chances both sides must have thought things were progressing nicely.

Then Palace go up from an unlikely scorer right after half-time and soon after Liverpool lose Milner to two yellows.

This is unfolding exactly as predicted.

And then Boom! A goalkeeping mistake, an ill-advised double-substitution and the world's softest penalty and Liverpool win!

Whats that? Insane weirdness goes Liverpool's way?

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead—your next stop, the Twilight Zone!

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Coquelin thinks Mata's red card was idiotic.

like the ref idiotic or Mata idiotic?

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Also Aaron Ramsey scored....this is freaky

Nancy Reagan just died. Wanna guess who scored yesterday?

[devo22]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

like the ref idiotic or Mata idiotic?

Mata. I mean, Mike Dean is a terrible ref, but this was 100 percent on Mata. Like, what the HELL are you doing?!

[Locke]

Originally Posted by devo22

Mata. I mean, Mike Dean is a terrible ref, but this was 100 percent on Mata. Like, what the HELL are you doing?!

It should be noted that if anything, going down a player, and as I type this down a goal, should be an advantage.

[devo22]

"one step forward, two steps back" ... I bet this is the players' official jam this season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHCwU9rUdY

[d_phaneuf]

it took about 15 views to actually spot that Benteke wasn't diving, Delaney's Knee clips his heel

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

it took about 15 views to actually spot that Benteke wasn't diving, Delaney's Knee clips his heel

and Delaney left his feet so he's in a bad position.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

it took about 15 views to actually spot that Benteke wasn't diving, Delaney's Knee clips his heel

Theres no question that there was contact, its just a matter of how consequential that contact was.

[St. Pats]

Originally Posted by devo22

"one step forward, two steps back" ... I bet this is the players' official jam this season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTHCwU9rUdY

More than a little unbelievable / actually the whole EPL season is just so weird but yep every little bit of progress gets undone by injuries, dumb penalties, stupid lineups / teams of nobodies playing way beyond what they are worth on paper etc. etc.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Locke

Next year is going to be a European coefficient nightmare with Leicester, West Ham, Tottenham and Arsenal in the CL.

oh BTW, the champions are automatically seeded so the Leicester's coefficient of 0 won't come into play.

Arsenal in Pot 2, Spurs in Pot 3 (maybe Pot 2 if they do well in Europa) )and West Ham Pot 4
http://www.uefa.com/memberassociatio...rankings/club/

Seeds would be
Defending Champs
Spanish - Barcelona
German - Bayern
English - Leicester
Italian - Juventus
French - PSG
Portuguese - Benfica
Russian - CSKA(?)

if the defending champ is a league champ from one of these countries then Ukranian champs will be seeded

[Barnet Flame]

[troutman]

The Foxes title hopes are up to almost 70%:

http://www.sportsclubstats.com/England/Premier.html

14 more points could do it.

[devo22]

not sure I can take Piers Morgan seriously, but if true ... holy crap. Apparently the Chinese offered Rooney more than £100m for 3 years after tax.

My phone rang at 11pm tonight. It was England football captain Wayne Rooney. He wanted to discuss his forthcoming Manchester United testimonial plans this summer.

But we also talked about reports in the papers this week that he’s been offered ridiculous sums of money to go and play in China for Shanghai, a team managed by Sven-Göran Eriksson.

‘It’s true,’ he said.

‘How big a salary are we talking?’

Rooney chuckled.

‘Come on,’ I prodded, ‘make me sick.’

He then revealed a figure, based on a three-year deal, so stupendously, stratospherically gigantic that it did indeed make me feel instantly nauseous. (Without giving too much away, let’s just say it included eight noughts...) I literally gasped in horror, prompting him to add a final killer blow: ‘After tax!’

‘There’s another advantage I can see,’ I said.

‘What’s that?’

‘The Chinese fans won’t realise how slow you’ve got.’

‘**** off!’

My guess is Rooney won’t leave United for another year or two. But one thing’s for sure, the Chinese are coming for world football and as with everything they do in business, they seem to have almost limitless sums of cash with which to dominate it.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/even...r-urgency.html

just do it, Wayne ...

[Locke]

Originally Posted by devo22

not sure I can take Piers Morgan seriously, but if true ... holy crap. Apparently the Chinese offered Rooney more than £100m for 3 years after tax.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/even...r-urgency.html

just do it, Wayne ...

Yeah, I vaguely recall discussing this a few pages back but the main thing is that there are periods when players dont get paid.

But even then, if you get paid most of the time, hell, half the time, you're still rolling in cake!

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah, I vaguely recall discussing this a few pages back but the main thing is that there are periods when players dont get paid.

But even then, if you get paid most of the time, hell, half the time, you're still rolling in cake!

yeah we've already discussed that stuff at length, but the sheer amount of that apparent offer is just shocking. I mean, Rooney is already one of the richest footballers around, but more than £33m/year after tax would put him in another stratosphere in comparison to other top players. How can you offer that kind of money to Wayne ####ing Rooney?! Unbelievable stuff.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by devo22

yeah we've already discussed that stuff at length, but the sheer amount of that apparent offer is just shocking. I mean, Rooney is already one of the richest footballers around, but more than £33m/year after tax would put him in another stratosphere in comparison to other top players. How can you offer that kind of money to Wayne ####ing Rooney?! Unbelievable stuff.

Because he sells tickets and memorabilia and the 'tax laws' in China are hypothetical at best.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by devo22

yeah we've already discussed that stuff at length, but the sheer amount of that apparent offer is just shocking. I mean, Rooney is already one of the richest footballers around, but more than £33m/year after tax would put him in another stratosphere in comparison to other top players. How can you offer that kind of money to Wayne ####ing Rooney?! Unbelievable stuff.

And quite frankly devo, any self-respecting and genuine United fan would have Rooney tied up and gagged in the trunk of their car and be heading at top speed for Shanghai immediately!

[devo22]

Originally Posted by Locke

And quite frankly devo, any self-respecting and genuine United fan would have Rooney tied up and gagged in the trunk of their car and be heading at top speed for Shanghai immediately!

so my "just do it, Wayne" wasn't clear enough?