Looks like Nicolas Anelka's in a lot of trouble



http://www.theguardian.com/football/...itic-west-brom

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...in-France.html

"vows to not do gesture again"

he'll have to score again to get the chance...

Hahahaha

"NFL rules say teams must sell out games at least 72 hours prior to kickoff to ensure they will be shown on local TV."

the millionaires care about their devoted fans, they really do.

wrong thread man.

don't be a troll.

Correction. Billionaires.

Interesting decision now for West Ham's owners. Do they pay off Allardyce and find a replacement that might (but probably won't) save us from the drop, or do they stick with him and pretty much resign themselves to relegation? Sam can blame injuries but he's the one who blew almost our entire budget on Carroll, who already had a rep for picking up injuries, so there's no cover at all, anywhere. Plenty of reasons to sack him but is it even worth it now? And who could turn things around that'd actually come here? This is even more depressing than when we went down with Avram. At least then we knew we had some decent players we could sell. Who'd spend anything like what we spent on Andy Carroll now? Seriously grim times.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...eryone-screams

Michael Bradley back in MLS making four-times his Eurotrash "salary"..

A lot of folks are saying that this signifies the increasing irrelevance of American players as they are having to come back to the US to play professionally after essentially becoming bench warmers in Europe. Some are predicting doom and gloom for American soccer but perhaps the opposite is true?

While Klinnsman is right to talk about American players needing to step up and compete in Europe I'm not so sure this is the only way.. The NBA is a great example of what can happen domestically. Today almost 20% (THAT'S ONE IN FIVE PLAYERS!!) of the current NBA players are international and were NOT born in the US. Almost all of these played in the basketball leagues from their respective countries. Further, FIBA is getting increasingly competitive and many of the NBA's rising stars and solid glue guys/role players are from outside the US. Including some marquee names like Pau Gasol (Spain), Tony Parker (France), Nicolas Batum (France), Andrew Bogut (Australia), Goran Drajic (Slovenia), Omer Asik (Turkey), Thabo Sefalosha (Switzerland)..

Why am I talking about basketball on the futbol thread? No, not merely to troll !@#$%! (as fun as that is).. Its to point out how international competition in basketball has evolved and progressed in a short time (twenty years or so).. A lot of these players didn't start in the NBA, they worked they way up to it, and now several countries like France, Spain, and Australia are developing some competitive domestic players who compete well in the NBA. So MLS isn't necessarily a dead end, perhaps in a short time with focus it can becoming more competitive internationally. If Spain and France can become basketball powerhouses, surely the US can become a futbol nation as well.

I see this glass as half full here.. Yeah, a lot of American players are having to return from Europe, but on the plus side they are making way more money here which is a good sign of where MLS is going. For example, even ten years ago most international players wanted to play exclusively in the NBA in order to make more money, but now you see a lot of washed up NBA veterans going overseas to obscure places like Turkey to make MORE money. Its a sign that international basketball is getting better. So as MLS can afford to pay higher salaries, it can be a sign of things to come. Can the MLS become something competitive with Euro leagues? I think so.. after all there are currently over a hundred American born players playing in Euro leagues, obviously American talent isn't that shitty if these boys can make it there..

If you took away all the non-Spaniards from the Spanish league, the non-Brits from the Premier League, the non Germans from the German league, etc., you would have some SUCK ASS SHITTY teams.

Importing talent for your national team is a load of shit. Non-citizens should not be allowed to compete.

Not talking about the National teams, more so the domestic leagues (at least about basketball). I just mentioned FIBA because they are more or less setting the bar for European basketball leagues. Clearly from the talent coming out, countries like France and Spain, even Australia surprisingly are becoming better basketball countries. If those folks can rise up talent-wise to compete with the best Americans in America's biggest sport than surely Americans can do the same with Europeans at Europe's biggest sport.

you get better by playing against better competition. If US athletes play in the big futbol leagues, then return to USA, they could help improve the USA play for sure....

That is a myth. The reality is that when Americans play in more competitive leagues they tend to get less minutes and serve as more of a rotational players. US players aren't dominant players in the Euro leagues, they aren't always even given good slots as role-players. So really, that idea is moot because if they're not actually on the pitch playing considerable minutes how exactly are they evolving their game?

MLS isn't ASYO, dudes play hard. Meaningful minutes I think are more important to development than playing nominal roles on more meaningful teams. Further, US players aren't even really on any of the better teams in Europe, so are they really better off? Are some of the squads they play for necessarily THAT much better than MLS? I'd argue not.

Maybe it is about bringing top notch talent to play in MLS?

(Oops, wrong thread)

Results of the Ballon d'Or just in ...

FIFA World XI:

Manuel Neuer (Bayern Munich)
Dani Alves (Barcelona)
Thiago Silva (PSG)
Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)
Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)
Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
Xavi (Barcelona)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

Best manager: Heynckes
Best Player: Ronaldo

ugh! that asshole. so annoying.

he's a great player though. gotta admit that. but i love it best when he cries.

He cried when he won.



He deserved it. Messi's still the better player imo but he was injured at key points last season.

Thought the World XI was a bit uninspiring and safe, especially keeping Xavi in there. Not sure who I'd have put in instead though.

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...ferguson-audio

If this is legit, it's my favourite thinG of 2014 so far.