Football

Cornelius - you're not wrong there but Tim Vickery is the equivalent of Sid Lowe for South American football, it's probably the only reason why I listened to it, he's one of my favourite football journalists. He's the Wisden of South American football and his passion for the game is infectious.

The presenter on the other hands is tedious as anything. Football weekly is a lot easier to digest but that Fernando Duarte rubs me up the wrong way, a certain someone would probably call him a twerp or twunt.

I reckon Duarte - he's the Brazilian one isn't he? - is one of the better performers on the FW podcast. Glendenning gets on my tits massively. I can't see any purpose for him being there, he fucks the whole show up for me. He just slows it down with his drawling laboured delivery. Anti-Arsenal bias is astonishing too. Wanker.

Bullshit. Sorry, I disagree.

Bribery is illegal (in the country as a whole as well as football specifically) and I completely disagree with it. It should be punished most severely.

Diving is illegal under the laws of football and I completely disagree with it. It should be punished most severely.

Time-wasting encompasses a huge range of things,

You can get a yellow for timewasting therefore it is illegal. I'm talking about picking up the ball and holding it, kicking throwing it away etc. Possessing the ball well is good football. clinging onto it like a child is shit for everyone.

I reckon Duarte - he's the Brazilian one isn't he? - is one of the better performers on the FW podcast. Glendenning gets on my tits massively. I can't see any purpose for him being there, he fucks the whole show up for me. He just slows it down with his drawling laboured delivery. Anti-Arsenal bias is astonishing too. Wanker.

That's right, Brazilian and supports Liverpool...
Glendenning can get a bit on my nerves, not my favourite but as deputy sports editor I guess he's a token one to be on the show. Honigstein, Sid Lowe, Richardson and even Sean Ingle make up for it

Ooooff!! Fab's given Wenger a total fucking bashing.

By saying he became a better player whilst playing for the best team in the world?

Now you're wasting my time

By saying he became a better player whilst playing for the best team in the world?

and saying he was 'tactically not very good, I could do whatever I wanted' at Arsenal - something everybody knew full well when we threw away games after he streamed forward late on in matches when we were 1 or 2 goals to the good, leaving us trampled in midfield on the inevitable counterattack!

Mikel Arteta has performed brilliantly in central midfield for us this season. He doesn't have the magical pass, but he contributes defensively, something Fab didn't do.

Jaw, Football Weekly Favourites

Sid Lowe,
Philip Auclair,
Paul Doyle,
Johnathan Wilson,
Amy Lawrence,
Barry Glendenning
Fernando Duarte,
Rafael Honigstein,

in that order.

I like some of the other bods that they have on, but can't remember their names,

He scored some very important goals too

Liverpool allocation announced... not a fucking chance of a ticket through legitimate means

FA are jokes

Sid Lowe's alright. His Barcelona bias is so blatant though. Anyone would think he blows Messi to heaven and back every night. Auclair is also always first class, as is Jimbo.

+1 to Amy Lawrence, but i've only ever heard her on there once, I think it was at the very beginning of this season. I haven't tuned in for about 6 months so I might be wrong.

lpg, as far as I've heard sid Lowe doesn't have any bias, barca or otherwise, is columns try to run the spectrum of the spanish league, and no matter who he writes about he always seems to get flak for it. Messi is possibly the greatest player to play football in my lifetime, and is only a worldcup away from joining maradona, and pele up there, he's done pretty much all there is to do in club football.

Why would appreciating this special talent be seen as anything than a good thing, regardless of who he pays for. If he'd come up through the ranks at Real, would that make Sid a Francoista (sic) for talking about him.

I think we're far too quick to tar people with football bias and saying that this sways how things are viewed/perceived. You only have to look at the blinkers that CliveO or MikeC or Manc Ronnie habitually place over their eyes in relation to their own teams, and their results, failings, triumphs.

As Sid has mentioned many times, you can't really commentate on spanish football without viewing it through the prism of barca/real madrid, and that makes the perception of spanish football all the poorer. Because there is some beautiful football and some great teams in La Liga and they deserve better recognition..

^Amen...

lpg - I think we can agree on Arteta, if only he moved on to a decent club 3 seasons ago. As for the Fabregas, I don't think it's necessarily a dig at Wenger but more like a bit of self criticism saying that he has matured and a better understanding about football tactics and this kind of sums up the problems that Arsenal, and many other English teams, have. They're technically and tactically so far behind some of the other nations. When you have a couple of good forwards who can bang in the goals regardless of how you play than it's easily disguised.

When you have a shift in style, like we are experiencing now, where teams are playing possession football than the shortcomings will be all the more obvious.

This is exactly why I like football so much, it's cyclical, playing styles develop, evolve and get adapted, teams and countries will dominate and a few years later it will all change again.

I'm in the US at the moment and I was expecting ESPN to be showing the game. However it seems that Fox now have the rights and I can't get that channel in my hotel. Anyone know any good streams? The internet here is decent so should be ok to watch if I find a good feed

3rd placed team in La Liga, Valencia, is currently closer to relegation (20th) than 2nd place. 29 Points off Barca, 26 points off Racing Santander. That's how skewed it is. The prem blows it out of the water, it has to be said. Admittedly if Barca/RM were competeing in the PL they would come 1st and 2nd every time. But I get the impression the other 18 (maybe 17) teams in La Liga are there to make up the numbers. Wins are so routine for BC/RM that a draw is seen as effectively seen as a 'loss'.

@CB Fair enough Sid isn't really super biased, it's just he only ever talks about Barca and Ronaldo..but like you said it's hard to remove the whole league from the BC/RM prism. Glendenning most definitely is biased, though. From tirades against Wenger, to basically smugly gloating whenever Arse cock up. His football knowledge is decidedly sub-par for a journo too, i've never heard him say anything remotely enlightening. The best you'll get is "Well, they played pretty badly" or some other pub punditry nonsense :)[/rant]

lpg - I think we can agree on Arteta, if only he moved on to a decent club 3 seasons ago..

Do you mean 'club' or 'team'?

Last time I knew Everton were the 4th most successful club in English football. But you're Dutch and plastic so you wouldn't necessarily know that

Chelsea are where exactly?

....forgot these

Tonight I shall mostly be supporting FC Barca

I'm in the US at the moment and I was expecting ESPN to be showing the game. However it seems that Fox now have the rights and I can't get that channel in my hotel. Anyone know any good streams? The internet here is decent so should be ok to watch if I find a good feed

try firstrowsports.eu

There are some others I think, myp2p.eu or.com. As it's being broadcast on terrestrial UK telly you should have less difficulty finding a good quality stream. Here is a pretty handy website for showing you what games are on what channel, the world over. Useful is you have satellite as you can get champions league games and occasioanlly prem games broadcast on free-to-air foreign channels.

look out for Ray Hudson on one of those streams, possibly the most excitable Geordie I have every heard commentating on a football match. Takes Barcelona favouritism to a whole new sky high level

FC Barcelona 4 - 1 Real Zaragoza 2007/08 Highlights, Ray Hudson prime time - YouTube

"Madrid's defence stretched out like Spandex on Miami beach, and Casillas is left naked once again" - hahaha

Do you mean 'club' or 'team'?

Last time I knew Everton were the 4th most successful club in English football. But you're Dutch and plastic so you wouldn't necessarily know that

Chelsea are where exactly?

Hook, line, sinker...

Didn't you say that Arteta was a bit shit and you were glad to see the back of him?

Che - Bar post game ruck predictions :)

Chelsea turn up at Barca hotel rooms after heavy defeat. Lamps takes a swing at Messi, he misses - it goes over his head and it all kicks off. Torres starts swinging at every Barca player but it's all in vain, he misses the lot and goes outside to sit on the bench in frustration. Luiz and Puyol start pulling at each others hair. Busquets rolls around on the floor, Drogba trips over him, rolls on the floor crying "it's a fucking disgrace".

Mourinho comes in and pokes Valdez in the eye.

Tonight I shall mostly be supporting FC Barca

Plastic.

lpg - likeable plastic/proper gooner?

It's Valdes btw