Messages

Hopefully bring in the Torino guy. Chelsea left back on loan should be good. Probably need a rb and gk still.

Another question for those who selected Option E for opposing England's national team, can you tell me your reasons? Select all that apply:

• Fed up hearing about 1966 and dread hearing it for another half century if they were to win the damn thing again
• Fed up with the attitude of them expecting to win every time and having a big post-mortem every time they don't
• Hooliganism
• Don't like the English personally
• Bad experience with British solidiers during the Troubles
• Bad experience with English people when living in or visiting England
• 800 years of oppression, colonisation, famine/genocide, etc.
• Other, please specify ...

I think i wanted them to win Euro 96 and was gutted in 1998 as Michael Owen was amazing to watch. By 2002 i was delighted when Ronaldinho scored over Seaman. Maybe i changed when i went to big school too lol

[It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

More late 80s to late 90s. Was it 89-97? I was born in 1984 so you're probably looking about 1995/96ish as i found once they went to big school, lads i knew from the local estate where i lived changed in terms of religion.

They became more hostile when they went to secondary school?

Yeah, boys i was friends with as youngsters would be lads who would end up trying to start fights with us as we got older. Larne would be a very much protestant town and it would have been a regular occurance to get chased or hit as a teenager in the town. Few times it was by those same lads who i had lived beside.

[It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era]

I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

So mid-80s to mid-90s then? How old would you have been at the time? That'd certainly be enough to put anyone off supporting the local team. Mad stuff.

More late 80s to late 90s. Was it 89-97? I was born in 1984 so you're probably looking about 1995/96ish as i found once they went to big school, lads i knew from the local estate where i lived changed in terms of religion.

[Leeds United]

Which team do you support? Leeds United

2 - How long have you supported them? Since 1990/91 season

3 - Are you from the same town or city as that club? If not, do you have any personal or familial connection to it? Did you live there for a while? Do you live there now? no connection


4 - If the answers to 3 are all no, why do you support this team? How did you pick them out of all that's available? my dad started to get into football at time of the 1970 fa cup final between leeds and chelsea, he picked leeds.


5 - When England plays in international competitions, how do you feel about them? Do you
a - Root for England, particularly any players from your favourite EPL club?
b - Don't have a strong opinion one way or another, but would lean slightly towards wanting England to do well
c - Don't have any opinion at all
d - Have a mild preference for England to lose
e - Vigorously support England's opponents, and yearn for the English to do on the receiving end of a bloody good hiding

6 - Are there any local clubs in your own town or city that you could give your support to? If there are but you don't, why not? Is the quality of the competition not worth your while? Are the facilities crap? Did you just never get into it? Is it not well publicised and you don't know the games are on?
I grew up in Larne and won a season ticket in a competition when i was 8 or 9. I went to most games for a few years then got chased home by local protestants for being a catholic a few times. It was in the Rangers 9 in a row era and the loudest cheer at Inver Park was them winning or Celtic losing every week so by 12/13 I realised they weren't for me and i wasnt for them.

Wish MON all the best with his health

People that go to cities and complain about prices need to not bother going, it's the same in every city.

There on Sunday to enjoy the craic with family, didn't worry about the price of a pint or the food. Atmosphere brilliant and while there no issues

Stingy gurning middle aged feckers stay and Home and count the pennies

You'd make a great Tory.

Not discussing last nights game....

Having played the game and managed I can understand at this level that frustration is normal, people will complain, people will question and people on the sideline will feel aggrieved, the 30 meter rule has been brought in to combat abuse to the referee, its totatly down to the referee to decide what crosses the line of frustration and targeted abuse..

A chat and explanation can temper that, I personally have my level of tolerance and its the same for both, these are mine, others will have theirs..

Taking away passion and bite isn't what we (we as in a supporter of our games) want, understanding abuse from frustration is (for me) the difference in moving the ball or having that little chat..

I'm bored with the chat on how the elite teams/players have bias though, I've seen that a few times and it's bollocks   

Good post. Had a couple of issues recently. One ref brought a free up for one of our girls asking was that not overcarried before the foul? No communication to players, just moved up which led to frustration.

Another one, i had words with the ref over where a free was being taken from. Our girl fouled on 40m arc but she only kept going another 10 or so metres then ref gives a free on 20. I queried it and he came over to explain that initial advantage had expired and free was for another foul. Fair enough imo.

I heard there was some motion in place to reduce the size of div 1 but has to wait a year as it came in too late for this season?

Gary Neville had him taking corners when he was on the English coaching staff

Seen Neville give an explanation for this recently. Said Kane and Rooney were the only two who could really whip the ball in with their right foot and Rooney was better in the air so Kane took the corners.

Think he was the man most people expected. Had been with the u20s the last two years and obviously had some good days with Slaughtneil and Tyrone so feels like the natural successor.

57 mins for Nico Williams at this tournament. I think hes better than that.

How many of those lads will start for Loughgiel in the championship? I know of a few of them and theyre extremely talented young lads but pretty sure when grading was done they probably weren't thought of as players they should be grading.

Maybe showing well in training etc and the senior management wanted a look at them in this and the 2nd or 3rd string management are relying on them week in, week out so didnt want to drop them.

I've seen a few of them in Mageean Cup matches so if the lads are that young and pushing for a place in one of the strongest clubs in the county then fair play to them.

Love how they felt no need to edit Mugsy's hair.

Wee extract from an article i wrote on Escobar, his mates snd the narco-soccer era in Colombia.

Before long Escobar realised that football was a perfect opportunity to get his money washed. All of the match tickets were paid for in cash which meant if the gate receipts were worth $1 million, they would say it was actually $2 million which legitimised some of his huge income. He invested in two Medellin clubs, Atletico Nacional and Independiente Medellin although it was Nacional that was his preferred team.

With Escobar's money, Nacional became a major club overnight. They were able to spend huge amounts on their squad. New players arrived as well as them now being in a position to hang onto the good players they already had who would almost definitely have left the team and probably Colombia before the drug money arrived.

Escobar wasn't the only drug baron to be putting money into football. Millonarios of Bogota were funded by Gonzalo Gacha, aka El Mexicano. Some say at one stage he killed a previous club owner before eventually taking over himself. America de Cali were run by Miguel and Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela. Independiente had Hector Mesa and Pablo Correa Ramos, as well as some support from Escobar himself and Santa Fe, had been financed by Fernando Carillo until he was charged with being a drug distributor in 1981 which led to Silvio and Phanor Arizabaleta-Aryayus taking over from him.

As the money from drugs came into Colombian football, the standard improved massively. Some of South America's finest players were arriving at Colombian clubs. In fact, the great Diego Maradona almost ended up at America de Cali but the approach came a little too late as he had already agreed on a deal with Barcelona. As well as the foreign players, the standard of Colombian players improved too as they were playing alongside better players and one of Escobar's spending projects was to build top-class football facilities in many of Medellin's poorest neighbourhoods which ended up producing some very talented players.