Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:01 pm  

How good were Athletic Bilbao to watch?

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:05 pm  

Ace. Will be following their results from now on, superb footballing team.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:27 pm  

Mun-I-Ian was fantastic, Llorenty and Martinez also classy. Utd's attitude in europe has stunk this year, gone into every game far too complacent.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:44 pm  

Matt23 wrote:

Ace. Will be following their results from now on, superb footballing team.

They have a very proud philosophy of only selecting Basque players, from their youth set up and surrounding Basque area.

Also they left Athletic, (as opposed to Athletico) in their name as a nod to the english ship builders from Sunderland who helped form the club.

They quite like the brits because of this too i believe.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:58 pm  

Dita's Slot Meter wrote:

Fair enough having an opinion, but is it that wise to come out with it, just weeks after your employer has had to carry out a huge PR exercise, trying to distance themselves from those very views?

As for the handshake and whether Evra was that keen to 'make up' with Suarez??....Well, considering it was Suarez who was the guilty party in this whole episode and Evra the offended upon, I'd be very surprised if Evra didn't harbourd a little resentment to the Uraguayan, and wouldn't expect a beaming smile and a lustily offered hand on his behalf.

Also, considering Suarez came out and admitted his refusal to shake, I'd say that Johnson's story is just a little far-fetched??

He probably shouldn't have said anything, but if you read the way the quotes are, it seems he's been answering questions more than in the sense of 'coming out and declaring whatever'. If I was him, I'd have just said 'I think everything on our side's been said, just get over it', but he obviously wanted to share his view on it, which I feel is completely up to him, considering he's come in for huge flack for siding with Suarez, he probably feels like he should air his views on it

I don't know how you can say Johnson's story is a little far-fetched, just watch the video, Evra's hand clearly isn't out to be shaken, he feels he put it down because he didn't want to shake his hand, if you think that's far-fetched, whatever, but I don't think it's too ludicrous to think that Evra's hand being lowered is because he didn't want to shake his hand, which is what Johnson says. Furthermore, Glen doesn't deny Suarez refusing to shake, Glen says he wouldn't have shook Evra's hand either if it was down by his side, which again is a fair point. He was wrong to say "Evra was up all night...etc".

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Thu Mar 08, 2012 11:41 pm  

what an exciting game, tremendous tempo, and illustrates that technique runs deeper in the spanish game than Real & Barca, I am sure if United had a half witted scouting system there could be some value™ to be had that would solve the central midfield issues

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:00 am  

just hope bilbao absolutely destroy manure next week. the arrogant fooookers.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Mar 09, 2012 8:27 am  

First time I haven't been happy after an Athleti win. De Gea was United's best player and he had to be, I mean what were Anderson and Rafael doing for Munain's goal? Most people with an interest in Spanish football know about Llorente but I've been banging the drum for Munain for a while now. Last night wasn't his best game but he showed just how good he can be.
Fair play to the thousands of Athletic Club fans who made the trip over. They made it sound like a home game for the Basques.
If I'm going to try and salvage something positive, it would be that despite a woefully spiritless performance United only lost by one goal.

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:07 am  

Catalancs wrote:

I mean what were Anderson and Rafael doing for Munain's goal?

No idea, schoolboy

Re: The Football Chat Thread : Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:49 am  

Catalancs wrote:

First time I haven't been happy after an Athleti win. De Gea was United's best player and he had to be, I mean what were Anderson and Rafael doing for Munain's goal? Most people with an interest in Spanish football know about Llorente but I've been banging the drum for Munain for a while now. Last night wasn't his best game but he showed just how good he can be.
Fair play to the thousands of Athletic Club fans who made the trip over. They made it sound like a home game for the Basques.
If I'm going to try and salvage something positive, it would be that despite a woefully spiritless performance United only lost by one goal.

De Gea kept us in it, plain and simple, starting to earn his money and prove his doubters wrong. Rafael just standing there and watching Munain score would be lambasted in sunday league football, utterly woeful that. Those Athletic fans were LOUD.