Oh Sam, you rogue.

Must spread more long-balls before passing to Big Sam again.

That is priceless. It was like a scene from a horror movie or some kind of big boss at the end of a SNES game from 1993. Fucking shit, that is the best thing I've seen in futbol, better than the game itself almost! I don't even need to see the context, it may ruin it. Just that moment of trash-talking stare down. Epic.

No almost about it. A very boring 0-0 at full time. That was by far the highlight.

No I meant in the broader sense, as in the game of futbol itself, not that particular match ;)

Out today, this year's Ballon D'Or shortlist:

Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
Edinson Cavani (Paris Saint-Germain)
Radamel Falcao (Monaco)
Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Paris Saint-Germain)
Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)
Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich)
Robert Lewandowski (Borussia Dortmund)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich)
Manuel Neuer, (Bayern Munich),
Neymar (Barcelona)
Mesut Ozil (Arsenal)
Andrea Pirlo (Juventus)
Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich)
Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich)
Luis Suarez (Liverpool)
Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain)
Yaya Touré (Manchester City)
Robin Van Persie (Manchester United)
Xavi (Barcelona)

FIFA World Coach of the Year shortlist:

Carlo Ancelotti (Paris Saint-Germain)
Rafael Benítez (Napoli)
Antonio Conte (Juventus)
Vicente del Bosque (Spain)
Alex Ferguson (formerly Manchester United)
Jupp Heynckes (formerly Bayern Munich)
Jurgen Klopp (Borussia Dortmund)
Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)
Luiz Felipe Scolari (Brazil)
Arsene Wenger (Arsenal)

Lukaku the man.

does sy-gossip has its own fantasy premier league?!

It used to but with fewer members now it hasn't been kept up. I'm in a league from a West Ham site I go to but it'd be good to have one for here again.

last we had one was for the euros.

i'm guessing next one would be for the world cup.

oh, the fucking world cup!!!

A great interview with Jurgen Klopp

"If Barcelona's team of the last four years were the first one that I saw play when I was four years of age ... with their serenity, winning 5-0, 6-0 … I would have played tennis."

http://www.theguardian.com/football/...-klopp-arsenal

AWESOME

thanks!

My selfish side desperately wants him to come to the Prem but I think I'll respect him even more than I do already if he stays at Dortmund.

i admire the fucker enormously. except that he's some sort of christian mule, but eh, i forgive him that.

on good and totally self-involved news, i expect to finally have my satellite link later this month. FUCKING A RIGHT!

bundesliga, here i come

I didn't know that. It's interesting though. Loads of Italian, Spanish and S'th American managers and players are very religious, even beyond local cultural norms - Kaka, Javier Chicharito Hernandez, etc - but nobody sees it as an issue. When a Northern European player or manager expresses even a hint of religion, though, it becomes a talking point.

It's similar to music. If a rapper or rnb or pretty much any black artist mentions God in a song, nobody says anything, but if a white rock band does it they're usually described as playing Christian Rock. Hmm.

Why has nobody mentioned Ramsey's goal against Liverpool?

It's the fact that he doesn't even look to see what he's doing. Brilliant.

Ramsey has to be an early candidate for player of the season

Just as this has to be an early shout for goal of the season

That's not real. Clearly some FIFA shit going on there.

holy fucking tikitaka!


clearly photoshopped

From another angle

you're in south america now. admit it.

Will you be able to watch Arsenal v Dortmund tonight? Should be great. The two most entertaining teams I've seen so far this season.

ah, i don't know if i'll be able to make it. don't have tv yet and who knows about the sports bar, plus work… aghaghagh…

thanks for the heads up though, maybe i can make it.

Bit a meh game so far. Neither team really clicking. Especially disappointed with Dortmund, considering they're at home.

i'm stuck at home searching for lost computer files. it has to be better than that.

Sometimes I see matches that are literally more boring than even that!

Well this turned out to be an average game.

I thought the second half was great. Massive win for Arsenal. Disappointed with Dortmund but Ramsey just seems unstoppable right now,

watttt????

oh noes.

First time an English team have ever beaten them at home apparently

just mentioned it to my wife. she said "good thing we didn't watch."



YES.

Haha. Both teams were poor in the first half but Dortmund had a 15 minute spell at the start of the second half when they looked the most likely to take the lead and Ramsey's goal felt a bit like a sucker punch. Both teams had chances after that but Arsenal defended excellently to keep their lead. On balance I'd say they deserved the win.

A bad day for Klopp but, fortunately for him/Dortmund, it came early enough in the tournament for them to still be able to qualify for the final 16. I hope for Klopp's sake that he treats last night as a reality check, that he thinks twice in future about making silly comparisons between symphonies and heavy metal in order to try to intimidate a manager as seasoned as Wenger.

(North) London Philharmonic Orchestra 1, Borussia Dokken 0.

i gotta see this ramsey everyone is talking about.

i really doubt he was trying to intimidate wenger. rather i got the impression he was just trying to sell his brand of football to the public. "please love me"-- that kind of thing.

besides, beethoven had more metal in his littlest toe than all of metallica.

You should. He took ages to finally hit his stride and was on the verge of being written off, but so far this season he's been awesome. We'll need to see how long he can sustain it though. I'm sceptical. Plenty of players have a golden season but the really great ones maintain it season after season. We'll see.


You're probably right but I still think/hope last night's defeat will re focus him away from playing to the media so much.

sure, but BVB is a publicly traded company, so the more publicity = the more fans = the more buys = the higher the club's capitalization = the more money they have to compete for players.

it's probably part of his job description (and good for his team) to prop up his club, even if that means running his mouth.

actually, that didn't become "running his mouth" until after the defeat. had they won, we'd be all raving about "heavy metal football" ha ha ha.

It's not a big deal. Much of his charm, and I'm sure his success, is down to his larger than life personality. I just think there was a sense last night that he felt they were gonna cruise past Arsenal. He was perhaps guilty of being too relaxed. I don't think it's a long term issue for Klopp or Dortmund so long as they take it as the little reality check it was.

Truth. The few Arsenal fans I know were moaning about him last season. Now he's their savior. I think he's got the potential to keep it up and I think Wenger saw that.

I think the offside goals for Dortmund buggered things up a little for them.

Albion should have won it today, that was never a penalty!

Pretty disgusting decision.