VFB just lost in the first round of the DFB Pokla to 2nd league team Bochum.

not that i expected us to win, our team is even worse than last year, since we just kinda didn't buy anyone worth anything \:D/

yeahyeahyeahhh wrote:

http://gfycat.com/NeedyRemorsefulHornedviper

WTF IS THAT

shity moment hahaha

What a fabulous day for football. Swansea winning at Old Trafford, Ramsey clinching the winner for us at the very end. God bless Wales.

I'm sorry to say this in front of you, but Fabregas had a wonder of a match. I swear Mourinho just told Cesc to do whatever he wants, because he just turned Chelsea into his team. I didn't see the day to watch one touch passes being made in the penalty box.

schalke lost against third league team dresden in the first round of the DFB pokal and joins stuttgart on the list of teams that embarassed themselves before the season even really started.

good job german bundesliga teams. good job.

Edit: mainz and augsburg too.

Edit2: also stuttgarts season starts with games against bayern, dortmund and gladbach. the perks of almost having relegated a season before!

That's poor by the Bundesliga clubs but it's good for the German league system overall, it shows the depth in quality in both leagues. That's a tough few opening fixtures, but think of it as getting those sides out of the way. Try grinding out results against them but if not at least you won't have to play them until after December.

bmin11 wrote:

I'm sorry to say this in front of you, but Fabregas had a wonder of a match. I swear Mourinho just told Cesc to do whatever he wants, because he just turned Chelsea into his team. I didn't see the day to watch one touch passes being made in the penalty box.

At the end of the day many Arsenal fans, myself included, are indifferent towards players like Cesc. It's not worth paying attention towards him or any of their sort. Keep in mind that we moulded him to our style, just like we did for Brady, Rocastle, Limpar, Ljungberg and Ramsey.

I definitely got a good laugh out of Schalke's match yesterday, seeing how I don't live -that- far away from Dresden. Nice to see a team from my region progressing there. Though Bremen's match was a bit hard to watch the day before. Glad they progressed though. Now onwards to the first game of the season against Hertha!

15 year old Martin Ødegaard set to make his international debut for Norway quite possibly in a friendly against England scheduled within the coming weeks. This kid has been tearing up the Tippeligaen (Norway's first division), literally running rings around players twice his age. Very promising future prospect, I just hope he doesn't get poached by Bayern, Real Madrid, Barca et al.

LaVolpe024 wrote:

15 year old Martin Ødegaard set to make his international debut for Norway quite possibly in a friendly against England scheduled within the coming weeks. This kid has been tearing up the Tippeligaen (Norway's first division), literally running rings around players twice his age. Very promising future prospect, I just hope he doesn't get poached by Bayern, Real Madrid, Barca et al.

Wow o_O impressive kid

LaVolpe024 wrote:

15 year old Martin Ødegaard set to make his international debut for Norway quite possibly in a friendly against England scheduled within the coming weeks. This kid has been tearing up the Tippeligaen (Norway's first division), literally running rings around players twice his age. Very promising future prospect, I just hope he doesn't get poached by Bayern, Real Madrid, Barca et al.

If he comes to Germany, he couldn't play until he turns 16 though, which would be in December. Stuttgart and Bayern already showed interest in him, and plenty of other clubs as well. It seems like it won't be an English club since his father disagrees with the mentality regarding young talents there, though I have no clue what he thinks about the other leagues. I actually do hope that he stays with his club for a while longer until transferring, really.

LaVolpe024 wrote:

15 year old Martin Ødegaard set to make his international debut for Norway quite possibly in a friendly against England scheduled within the coming weeks. This kid has been tearing up the Tippeligaen (Norway's first division), literally running rings around players twice his age. Very promising future prospect, I just hope he doesn't get poached by Bayern, Real Madrid, Barca et al.

honestly tippeligaen isnt anything special of a league to play in, hence why he is allowed to play as he does. sure the guy probably has talent and probably big talent as well, but in all honesty, if you put him in a league with a bit more of a competition and higher skill cap, he'd probably struggle a lot more.

A lot of people have said that to me and I acknowledge that Tippeligaen is not one of the more high profile, high standard leagues in Europe but you can't ignore the fact that he's only 15. He can only improve from here onwards. Every major Norwegian prospect began in the Tippeligaen, Riise, Pedersen, Carew etc., they all start there and there's every chance this kid can be world class the way he's going.

Jindujun93 wrote:

If he comes to Germany, he couldn't play until he turns 16 though, which would be in December. Stuttgart and Bayern already showed interest in him, and plenty of other clubs as well. It seems like it won't be an English club since his father disagrees with the mentality regarding young talents there, though I have no clue what he thinks about the other leagues. I actually do hope that he stays with his club for a while longer until transferring, really.

The attitude and management of youth players in England has come under criticism for being too generous in terms of wages, many believe that it spoils the players or puts too much pressure on their shoulders to perform in top flight football. He's definitely staying for now but if he continues like this until he's 18-ish there'll be a host of clubs lining up to sign him.

0-0 against Besiktas in a fiery game adjudged by a completely incompetent ref.



Not a bad result though, we should clean up the job in the return leg next week.

yeah but dude you're forgetting laudrup

Coming back from Turkey with a draw is never bad.

Considering that we're nowhere near full strength, Arsene's making laughable tactical decisions like putting Cazorla out wide, not starting Ox and only bringing him on late and that we weren't playing up to our standards it's a decent result. Thank Thierry we're having the Germans back this weekend, we've missed them. We lost 3-0 late last season at Goodison, it's a tough fixture and we need to be up to our best.

Also EPL is outrageously far ahead of the other leagues in Europe when it comes to net transfer spending. That's the value of marketability and the fact that everyone speaks English.

transfers into league - transfers out of league = net spend of league

LaVolpe024 wrote:

Also EPL is outrageously far ahead of the other leagues in Europe when it comes to net transfer spending. That's the value of marketability and the fact that everyone speaks English.

transfers into league - transfers out of league = net spend of league

that or you guys hve no clue how to spend money, massively overprizing players, and going deeper and deeper into debt

It's causing concern for the locals, many Britons seem to believe that the amount of foreign talent being brought into the league is reducing the chances of their youth to succeed by stunting the growth of younger Englishmen who are being replaced or being prioritised below foreign players. They're using this as an excuse for the failures of the national team and its future.

>AC Milan selling Balotelli to Liverpool

Yeah looks like it's happening. Unsurprising really considering how poor Balotelli was last season at Milan. He was excellent when he came in two seasons ago but last season he seemed lazy, unmotivated and out of touch on the pitch. Looks like he's going for a low price though, this is all quite sudden. Liverpool is one of the last clubs I'd have expected to go for him, they let off one dysfunctional striker and now they seem to be after another.

oh lord now they have Balotelli? loooool

Why always transfer
If he do not wrong things, There is good deal for Liverpool.

Seeing news that Poldi may leave us, apparently Juve and a few Turkish clubs are after him. I'd miss him if he leaves :^(.

Also some guy on Twitter claims we've bid for Cavani and PSG have accepted the offer, the same guy said that we had our bid accepted for Sanchez a month-ish ago and that Barca would need that money to buy Suarez.

Also Angel di Maria and Sami Khedira have reportedly turned down contract extensions from Real Madrid and are closer than ever linked to a move to the EPL, specifically to Man UTD and Arsenal respectively.

LaVolpe024 wrote:

It's causing concern for the locals, many Britons seem to believe that the amount of foreign talent being brought into the league is reducing the chances of their youth to succeed by stunting the growth of younger Englishmen who are being replaced or being prioritised below foreign players. They're using this as an excuse for the failures of the national team and its future.

what english youth lol? the english national team is basically the same since almost 12 years (to compare it to germany: only player who played in 2002 who also played in 2014 was Klose). english youthwork is nonexistant, and i don't see them doing anything about it. when germany started having troubles with result, we sounded the alarm bells and started extensive talentfounding and youth programs. now we are considered by far the deepest roster on the planet, with our entire substitute bank prolly being better than some of the teams that showed up to the world cup. england is stabbing themselves continously with their "only league results are important" mentality. last year the english league was irrelevant internationally too, with not even a single of their multi hundred million teams making it to the ro8 of the championsleague. that senseless moneyspending your folks are doing is just overinflating playerprices, making them sell for prices that are quite unreasonable (50 million for ozil? were you guys for real?!? i wouldn't pay that much even for messi himself).

That's the issue, as opposed to funding youth systems Premier League clubs prefer to invest in foreign talent. At Arsenal we've found a compromise and have produced some decent English players through our academy. There's a greater percentage of foreign talent in the EPL than the other top flights in Europe, many believe the emphasis on foreigners is causing a decline in English talents.

Tanzklaue wrote:

last year the english league was irrelevant internationally too, with not even a single of their multi hundred million teams making it to the ro8 of the championsleague.

Chelsea made it to the semi-finals.

Let's not forget that English clubs have won the European Cup four times in comparison to Germany's three since the competition was re-branded and reorganised into the Champions League in the 92/93 season. Player prices were inflated long before we purchased Ozil, primarily due to Ronaldo moving to Real for the world record fee at the time, Torres going to Chelsea for 50 million quid and Carroll going to Liverpool for 35 million quid. We desperately needed a player of Ozil's style and Real charged a high price, considering the stadium debt had finally been paid off we finally had the transfer funds available to make a big purchase and rebuild the squad.

In England club football is intended to produce a more level playing field, that's why clubs maintain an equal share of TV and advertising rights and revenue. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't matter to me how England performs, it's my club and Australia that matters the most. There's no doubt England has disregarded it's national team and youth system in exchange for promoting its domestic football scene but the idea is to prevent the league from becoming a monopoly like the Bundesliga or Spanish first division where only a select few teams take the silverware and are very rarely upset. The same goes for the performance of clubs in the continental context, the Premier League's coefficient and status is carried by several clubs as opposed to just Bayern and occasionally BVB representing Germany. In 07/08 there were three English clubs in the semis of the Champions League, followed by an all English final. In 08/09 there were again three English clubs in the semis. Since then the other leagues have caught up but Chelsea still won miraculously in Bayern's backyard in 2012.

English football is by no means declining, it's just that the other top flights and their juggernaut clubs have caught up. As for the national team, it's slithered into mediocrity and if the youth systems in England don't pick up the pace it won't change anytime soon.

My god, I thought we were going to have another Sunderland match. Thank heaven Chelsea had a better 2nd half.

Poor marking and commitment on the first goal for Everton, terrible decision making on the second which was offside on top of that, Ozil playing out wide for some reason, Arsene chooses to put Giroud on for Sanchez at half time...

As cliche'd as it sounds the ref hasn't been with us the entire game, aside from one yellow card that went to Baines I have no idea how Naismith hasn't drawn a yellow and why some blatant fouls on their part have been ignored. All the same it doesn't excuse our performance, especially the disturbing trend we've seen since the first game which consists of maintaining possession for periods of the game but not producing any genuine chances with it.

[EDIT]: 2-2!

[EDIT 2]: Our away crowd is singing "Two nil~, and you've messed it up! Two nil~, and you've messed it up!"

[EDIT 3]: Take that you Evertonian pricks! Especially you Naismith, trying to wind up our lads. I don't think Giroud could've done a better job of redeeming himself after that shambolic performance mid-week. To go to Goodison, go down 2-0 against a powerful counter-attack and a referee who was against us the entire time and to score twice in the last ten mins to seize a point...that's grit, that's how we need to grind out results, something we failed to do in the second half of last season. Well played boys, well fucking played in the end.

New head coach of Leverkusen had good match to dortmund.
+)Leverkusen's first goal was bundesliga's new record. It was fastest goal!

My favourite part of the game.

naturally we lead for 30 minutes, then got the 1-1 in 2 minutes before the end.

fuck this.

Unlucky mate.

Di Maria on his way to Man UTD for a reported fee of 60-75 million quid depending on the source. They're breaking the British transfer record to sign a player who is world class but nonetheless not what they desperately need. Rojo isn't enough to add strength to their defence, Smalling, Jones and Evans are abysmal in general. Apparently Van Gaal is lining up 2 or 3 more signings this week.

What about Vidal ? i've heard Manutd are interested in him.

Nah everything says they've forgotten about him.

Those consecutive slider tackles at the end by Arsenal players, was really something interesting to see

Nervy finish, the ref lost the plot giving about 10-ish cards to both teams and there's no doubt Debuchy's sending off was harsh. Either way we're through and that's all that matters, Ramsey and Debuchy may be suspended for the opening games. The draw for the group stage is tonight.

The desperation from United is real lol