FOOTBALL TALKING POINTS

Splitting this topic off because of the 20 page limit...

The Suarez topic could run and run!

Blue - pleased to see that your boys managed to remain above the cut line!

What about the finish to the Doncaster/Brentford game? Last minute penalty for Brentford that was missed which allowed Doncaster to break and score the winner and send them up instead.

Just seen that incident on Sky - talk about a roller coaster! I have always found Brentford to be a friendly club, so would have liked them to go up, but Doncaster have been there, or thereabouts, all season, so I guess it's a fair outcome.

Thanks Mary, really pleased obviously to avoid the drop and hoping for a bit less of a stressful end to next season!

Who is your money on to replace Fergie at Man Utd?

I think that David Moyes is a good, long term option - rather than showman Mourhinio.

Love or loathe Fergie, I think that you have to respect his achievements.

Typical Man U though leaking the news today - just as the Chelsea/Tottenham match was getting all the headline...

Should be Moyes; replace one miserable tight scottish git with another

Apparently the season ticket prices at Old Trafford are already being reduced for next season. Seems the games will all be shorter....

All teams to play 8 minutes extra time this weekend, in recognition of Fergie's achievements.

The search is on for a replacement manager with a similar record of 13 Premiership titles and 38 Cups

Looks like you're stuck with Wenger Davie and Grumps...

Ahhhh - but did he ever go through a season undefeated?

It was very late; but at 5:53pm on May 19, St Totteringham's day dawned. Thank #%$&! for that!

GG - was it you who started the rumour at WHL that Newcastle had equalised!

Arsenal and Spurs are the only 2 out of the top 6 who will start next season with the same Manager, so things could be a bit tighter at the top.

Did West Brom and Man Utd think that it was a Testamonial match? 5 -5 scoreline, good job Fergie's packed the hairdryer away.

That's the latest I've ever known St Totteringham's day - but no less sweet for that

Never in any doubt though was it Grumps? ;-)

Congratulations to Grumps on winning the GC SuperBru football predictions league.

Mary_S wrote:GG - was it you who started the rumour at WHL that Newcastle had equalised!

Who me? No, that's the kind of thing Blue would do I bet they'll be a few Gooners claiming credit for it.

Mary_S wrote:Congratulations to Grumps on winning the GC SuperBru football predictions league.

Thank you Mary. I wonder who won the v2 league, I think Davie did pretty well in that.

Looks like I finished 7th in the V2 league. Was doing REALLY well in it earlier in the season but fell away a bit. Don't recognize any of the other names above me though

Your score would have won the v2 league by a mile!

Football fixtures out already then. Our old 'friends' Gillingham away for Colchester United's first game of the season

Couple of "derby" matches for us early on - away to Exeter and Newport.

Blue - any news of what is happening with John Joe? I see that he went on the trip to Dublin, so we've taken that as a sign that he may not be leaving after all.

Sorry to disappoint you Mary but no news to suggest that he is on his way at the moment. Personally I hope it stays like that, I think he is more than good enough to do an excellent job for us this season

Pre-season friendlies in full flow now, we are playing West Ham at home tomorrow night. First match for me is Tuesday next week against our old rivals the Tractor Boys from just up the A12...

First chance to see Sanchez Watt in full Blue n White stripes?

What do you make of these persistent rumours about Arsenal and Suarez, Grumps? Seems they won't go away and rumours are that Arsenal are going to make an increased offer this week

I've always admired him as a player, but I'm not totally convinced with his "personality" and reputation he'd be a good fit for the Gooners

Saw him already a few times last season when he was with us on loan Grumps. The other ex-Arsenal youngster Craig Eastmond was stretchered off after a horrific tackle in the friendly against Heybridge Swifts last week. Will be a big blow to us if he misses much of the start of the season.

Mary_S wrote:Blue - any news of what is happening with John Joe?

 
There have been no bids for O'Toole apparently. Joe Dunne said last week, "There's lots of talk but that's as far as it has gone. Bristol Rovers and Southend have said openly that they want him. If they want him then they know where we are"

Davie wrote:I'm not totally convinced with his "personality" and reputation he'd be a good fit for the Gooners

 
I'm not convinced he'd be a good fit for Col U...

BlueCoverman wrote:

Mary_S wrote:Blue - any news of what is happening with John Joe?

 
There have been no bids for O'Toole apparently. Joe Dunne said last week, "There's lots of talk but that's as far as it has gone. Bristol Rovers and Southend have said openly that they want him. If they want him then they know where we are"

Wardy has confirmed that he is still interested in signing him - so not sure why there is no action! There is a thread about signing JJ on the Rovers forum, it has 1259 posts, and rising - he would be a popular signing!

BlueCoverman wrote:Saw him already a few times last season when he was with us on loan Grumps. The other ex-Arsenal youngster Craig Eastmond was stretchered off after a horrific tackle in the friendly against Heybridge Swifts last week. Will be a big blow to us if he misses much of the start of the season.

Meant that he was now a full signing not a loanee. Shame about Eastmond, hopefully a quick recovery. I always wonder about he value of playing lesser teams who might want to get one over on bigger players.

Yes absolutely, the Col U bench went ballistic apparently. Heybridge Swifts immediately substituted their player involved

Davie wrote:What do you make of these persistent rumours about Arsenal and Suarez, Grumps? Seems they won't go away and rumours are that Arsenal are going to make an increased offer this week

I've always admired him as a player, but I'm not totally convinced with his "personality" and reputation he'd be a good fit for the Gooners

I think that's a crazy move from us but I do think it's part of a devious scheme which will result in the signing of Higuain. Let's see if I can articulate this; we want Higuain from Real Madrid but they want a replacement lined up before letting him go. Suarez has said recently he would love to play for Real Madrid. We bid for Suarez in an attempt to unsettle him at Liverpool but Liverpool don't want to sell one of their best players to a domestic rival. The unsettled Suarez asks for a transfer and Liverpool look for a buyer from abroad; hello Real Madrid. Real Madrid sign Suarez and then sell Higuain to us. Job done and Liverpool have sold one of their best players  

That actually makes a lot of sense Grumps - and just the sort of devious plot Arsene would dream up!

It's the kind of thing he used to do Davie. Like the signing of Sol Campbell where everyone expected us to announce the signing of Richard Wright at the press conference and then in walks Sol Campbell. Hopefully he's back to pulling off audacious moves in the transfer market.

I see you have got your man Mary, signed a three year contract for an undisclosed fee. Shame really, we could have done with him last night during a 3-0 spanking at home by the tractor boys!

BlueCoverman wrote:

Mary_S wrote:Blue - any news of what is happening with John Joe?

 
There have been no bids for O'Toole apparently. Joe Dunne said last week, "There's lots of talk but that's as far as it has gone. Bristol Rovers and Southend have said openly that they want him. If they want him then they know where we are"

So Rovers, and Mary, finally get their man. O'Toole has just signed a 3 year contract with Rovers in a deal announced at lunchtime today.

Was Walker playing Blue? I see you got another Chelsea youngster on loan too.

There's you with old news again Grumps

Yes Grumps Walker did play last night and had a reasonable game. Daniel Pappoe didn't make an appearance but I believe he has played in a previous friendly

BlueCoverman wrote:There's you with old news again Grumps

Must have been seconds in it Blue, I blame the extra miles it had to go to post on here  

Do you think you'll line someone up to replace John-Joe?

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:

BlueCoverman wrote:

Mary_S wrote:Blue - any news of what is happening with John Joe?

 
There have been no bids for O'Toole apparently. Joe Dunne said last week, "There's lots of talk but that's as far as it has gone. Bristol Rovers and Southend have said openly that they want him. If they want him then they know where we are"

So Rovers, and Mary, finally get their man.  O'Toole has just signed a 3 year contract with Rovers in a deal announced at lunchtime today.

Yay!  The rumour mill was in overdrive last night, so it's great to finally have it confirmed.  Of course, some fans are already being critical of him getting a 3 year contract - there's no pleasing some people!

Blue - word is that Dunne viewed him as a trouble-maker?

Can't wait for 3rd August!

1GrumpyGolfer wrote:Do you think you'll line someone up to replace John-Joe?

Why do you fancy a game Grumps?

I could fill a big portion of the goal Blue, but don't expect too much running

Can't say that I had heard that Mary. He's definitely a player that needs to play in order to retain his fitness though, but I think he will prove to be a great signing for you

Christ, I hope the plan is still to get Madrid to buy Suarez at 50 million quid!

But it looks like Wenger has missed Higuain who's at Napoli for a medical.

yes looks like Higuain is another glorious Wenger failure

Still can't believe Suarez would come to the Emirates but if he did my loyalties would be very torn

So the Football League has kicked off already with Sheff Utd, owners of the oldest professional ground in the world, taking on Notts County, the oldest professional team in the world. Utd beat County 2-1 in a hard fought encounter punctuated by a red card 15 minutes in for County. Drama in the first game so what does the rest of opening weekend have in store for us.

An easy 3 points at Gillingham for us

Away to Exeter today.

We have 8 of the first team squad out injured, seems to have been a spate of pre-season ACL problems. We can only manage to field 6 subs today - the match is a sell-out, so they could have let me have that spare seat on the bench!  

A great start for us with 3 points at Gillingham on Saturday.
 
We entertain Darren Fergusons Peterborough side in the League Cup tonight, looking forward to seeing the boys in action proper for the first time this season later today.