Comes With Violence & Knowledge of Fine Literature
There was no joy in Magpieville, for mighty Joey has been sent out. England’s best midfielder–by his own reckoning–has been transfer-listed by Newcastle and rumors suggest the board was upset with comments Barton had made via his twitter account.
So, whichever club signs the player (put all your money on Liverpool!) won’t have to pay Mike Ashley any blood money. Also, who knew Barton knew how to use words like “echelon” and “persona non grata?”
Dirty hipster.
The Spice Girls formation appears the weakest. James T on Liverpool’s midfield. [RoP]
Screw doing an English Football League preview. This lot nailed it. [The72]
Did RBNY taking the Emirates Cup undo some of the damage to the reputation of MLS after the pastings its clubs took in this summer’s friendlies? [NYT Goal]
Pining for MON. Are Villa heading down the path of Leicester City post-O’Neill? [FFT]
Perhaps they are, as early previews from some 4th rated blog have them pegged for 12th–& Arsenal for 5th. [Guardian]
And finally, you know Kobe didn’t wash his hands after this, so did Alex Morgan’s shirt later spontaneously combust after direct contact with said hand? [Dirty Tackle]
Rumor has it Barton flipped out at halftime during the Leeds loss. Upset about Cabaye being given the set piece duty or something.
Either way, will be a loss for NUFC, Barton was our best player last season. Looks like we’re going to be in for a bit of a dogfight this year.
There was damage to MLS after this summer’s friendlies?
You think I want to read that 108-page preview? If I wanted to read first-rate stuff, I’d go do it. I come to UF for solidly third-rate previews and, well, bewbz.
@JT: The elitist commentariat over at Run of Pretentiousness doesn’t deserve you. Keep your lowbrow 3rd rate humor here where it’s appreciated.
Gag me re: that O’Neill article. He did a lot of good rejuvenating the squad, but he also bought a lot of players that he didn’t even use. And the “profit from Milner Downing and Young can subsidize the other players” is absolute bunk, especially when the resulting wage bill is nearly 75 percent of the club’s turnover, with financial fair play on the offing.
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All of this is to say nothing of the fact that he left not a week before the season, ensuring a) that Mark Hughes was good and hired by the time he left, and b) that just about any manager would have a rough go taking over for Good Old St. Martin with no preseason to drill the squad. Before the Liverpool faction bring up King Kenny’s success, a) Kenny was following two unpopular gaffers with the supporters, and b) was already a club legend. O’Neill was excellent at motivating the side, got good performances out of his XI, and had a fine eye for most talent, but was a tosser otherwise.
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Houllier was, at times, a disaster, but he was also starting to get the team to play well when he had his last episode, and would have likely been able to better set up the team to play the enterprising possession football he set out to with a full preseason.
More has come out RE: Bartongate. Apparently, he refused a 3 yr contract offer (that he had verbally agreed to, mind) a while back. Then. he lost his shit before the Leeds match this weekend…even fans saw some dust-ups with assistants on the field, pre-match. Barton was chuffed that Shola was given the armband in Coloccini’s absence as well as losing his spot kick duties. What a titty baby, kick rocks. Great player, but the last thing a club needs when trying to recruit talent is a massive baby throwing a fit.