I'll be this has already been posted before, if so, well I just can't be bothered trail through all the releveant threads to check, but this was doing the rounds at work last week.

(click on the mouse to make him react)

They don't have to. What seems to happen in this country is:

Ferguson rants on in the press about how such and such a referee is "incompetent" and not fit to referee top flight games etc whenever any decisions go against them.

Result:

1) That referee mysteriously seems not to be given control of any game involving ManUre for five or six seasons.

2) Other referees are intimidated into not giving any decisions against ManUre.

3) Ferguson gets off scot free.

Another example is Mourinho complaining about us being "bully boys" and being borderline libellous about a fellow manager.

Result:

Others teams are scared stiff of tackling a Chelsea player, or if they do referees feel duty bound to take action.

It's also my impression that Wenger has become far more out spoken about referees in the last couple of years, although I can't quote any specific examples.

A ten point deduction every time we have one of those sort of outbursts would do just fine.

Everyone knows that the big clubs get more than their fair share of decisions go their way (eg. Alan Smiths 4min of extra time equaliser against us after Fergie managed to get another min added on to the original 3 mins )

but what I dont understand is why the officials are intimidated by these clubs in the first place? Just what is it they seem to have over them? Maybe someone could explain it to me.

It reminds me of the character of "Grouty" in Porridge. Even the screws and the Governer wouldnt dare cross him!

I had a feeling Lampard would miss as he has seemed nervous in front of goal all tournament. I was very suprised at Gerrard though.

agreed. Was not surprised at Lampard at all. he has had a very poor tournament by his standards.

... Ok - only 18 days until our pre-season starts against Accy. Cmon Rovers!

its all over

I cant believe how bad our penalty taking was. Take a bow Hargreaves but as for the rest of you ....

here we go again - another England match decided on penalties.

*bites nails*

Its not looking good for us

the ref has made some howlers. We're in extra time and i'm not feeling positive about our chances at all

Germany will knock Argentina out, but probably not in 90 minutes. It wil take ET/shootout and possibly a dodgy penalty, selective blindness by the referee to fouls/handball for Germany to win

good shout R4E. Was glad to see Argentina knocked out. Germany looked weak at the back but managed to hold on and home advantage never hurts.

I suspect a Brazil Germany final with Germany the eventual winners.

Have just seen the second round game between Argentina and Mexico and they just look a class apart. It pains me to say that I can't see anyone beating them.

That second goal in extra time was just breath-taking.

The next round tie with Germany looks like being a game and a half.

our last 5 fixtures are:

watford (h)

fulham (a)

chalton (h)

newcastle (a)

reading (h)

with the run in last season being pretty exciting with the chase on for europe, what ever is on the cards this season our run in looks alright on paper.

newcastle away is a well good day out to finish the away days on.

We could send Reading down.

Dillo, you have to move Preston Nob End into the 'rival/we hate' catergory!!! Maybe not a lot of people on this site are from blackburn, but most Rovers fans (from Blackburn) hate Nobend with a passion, as what happened on McDonalds Car Park after the last meeting at ewood between us goes to show.

I'm with you on this. When Preston play Burnley I just don't know who I want to lose more. It's very close.

Thank goodness they lost their manager. We can't be doing with Preston in the Championship/1st division/2nd tier (or whatever it's called these days) never mind making forays in the the giddy heights of the playoffs (as they have the last two seasons).

cant believe we have three goals in the goal of the season! This has just been the most fantastic season for us. Plus it was refreshing to see (with the exception of gerrard) no 'big name' scorers (thierry who?) which means that its based on the actual quality of the goal rather than just picking the best strike of the current media favourite.

my personal fav is the tugay goal against fulham - the same game as MGPs brilliant strike that did make it on the list.

Anyone know when the result is announced?

Spurs have the most expensive season ticket at £1350 last season.

Quite an interesting read

409093[/snapback]

nice work ricky. Cant believe the £70 ticket at spuds. we 'only' got charged £32 last time but i know of gooners that complain about the prices at WHL. Ive heard £50 quoted but not as much as £70

My two-penneth

Not a season ticket holder coz I live south of Watford but ticket prices at London clubs are much higher than at Blackburn.

(49 quid to go to Chelsea? no thanks!)

I would be interested to see comparitive season ticket prices for other Premiership teams. My guess is we would fare quite well (plus you get to watch an unpretentious quality top-6 team!)

good work MC.

lets hope we make it to 63 (MH's target at begining of the season).

the stats go to show- it doesnt get much better than this!

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im just a sad statto!

Last I heard (Socceram last week as I remember) it was £450k a place.

Dunno if anyone has mentioned this, but, I've been looking at our previous points totals since we won the table, and our biggest premership points finish was the year after we won - 1995-1996 - when we got 61.

We're already on 60 so we're set to finish with our highest prem total since the championship winning season

2005/2006 6th 60

2004/2005 15th 42

2003/2004 15th 44

2002/2003 6th 60

2001/2002 10th 46

2000/2001 Div 1

1999/2000 Div 1

1998/1999 19th 35

1997/1998 6th 58

1996/1997 13th 42

1995/1996 7th 61

1994/1995 1st 89

I have the game on tape (courtesy of Sky Sports Gold from a couple of years ago).

My abiding memory of the end was the tv commentory

"This is like a fairy tale

They're 2-1 down and they're embracing!!"

Beautiful day

what a game! What a result! I dont care whether it was their 2nd string side. Days like today are exactly why we watch the beautiful game.

nice to see the attention switched from the 'big clubs' today for a change. So very very happy at work all day europe here we come!!!

great result without playing all that well (in the 2nd half at least) because charlton were just so poor.

Just what the doctor ordered

"we are going on a european tour"

It's funny a post for this game should be on the board as only last Saturday I dug out my tape from this game (it had been on Prem Plus) to cheer me up following Saturday's disappointing results.

What a game! Despite the obvious bias in favour of "Wet Spam" by the commentators, it was a truly glorious event. The more goals went in the funnier it was the more I laffed

Cheered me up no end it did!!

(also kudos to the Rovers tannoy people who dug out and played the tune to the magnificant seven after the final whistle. Pure class!)

couldnt agree more T4E. We have gone from strong european contenders to gifting newcastle our place in europe. What happened?!

This is a perfect example of the old adage "the only thing guaranteed in football is disappointment"

today is not a good day for us

Cheers you guys.

I had been looking around the site and through this thread for a definitive answer to the 'what are the rules determining European places' question.

I had seen the question asked and partially answered before (esp in the case of the champions league) but had never seen a complete answer containing all the possible permutations of uefa cup places (whether they were possible this season or not) and that is what I was looking for so thankyou - esp to dillo dillo.

I know it's annoying when the same thing comes up more than once and I did attempt to read through this thread first to see if there was already a link to the answer included.

Can someone tell me definitively what combination of results adds to or reduces the number of UEFA cup places in the league?

I know that if Arsenal win the Champions league then they will go into the competition next year and 4th place won't be an automatic place for the Champions league.

I know that if the winner of the FACup is already in Europe then the loser gets a UEFA cup place and if they both are then there is an extra place in the league.

I don't know the rulings regarding the league cup. I know Wigan (as losing finalists) aren't allowed a place in the UEFA cup since Man Utd are already in Europe, but is there an extra UEFA cup place in the league because they won the league cup?

Are there any other rules that affect the places?

Tight game this one. 0-0 or 1-0 Spurs

I can remember from the last couple, their defence was a credit to them and there was no way we were going to get past them.

Hope I'm wrong

WEST HAM

For similar reasons to Spurs cited above - they think they're bigger than they are.

They get FAR too much air time on the football call-in shows and they're always winging.

It was a tough choice between wanting them or Preston to get promoted from the playoff final in May - actually decided on Preston!

what was the name of the pub we were at last time (and the time before that)?

Was it the Weatherspoon?