₦airaland Forum

First blood...So'ton!

Is it me. . .or Ba hasn't touched the ball - past 10mins into the game now!

Torres on the bench for this one!

Very quiet in here lately. . .whats happening!!?

maclatunji: Her words carry serious weight. The only reason some people who are not married is that they understand the complexities of marriage and know that they are not in the best position to be successful if they enter it at this moment.

Conversely, the only reason some people are married is because they were foolish enough to enter marriage without realising that they were ill-prepared to make it work.

The former can and should advise the latter.

Word!!!
Fantastic response. . .absolutely spot on, I couldn't have expressed it any better!

@ OP.

I think you've written well. . .quite a lot of it make sense. Nice try!

Point #8 is just absolutely spot on!!!

advocate666: There are many instances, especially in the old testament. But consider this about Jizz-Us himslef.

Hebrews 5:7

7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

Look at the bolded and tell me again why it was reported that Jizz-uz's prayer was answered!

[quote author=MurphyInc ]My friend you are so right in this article.God bless you so much.though,many nairalanders will call you horrible names for this exposion i will tell you not to look there corners cos they are so retarded and unexposed.
Everyday, I tell people about how this same people are usind music, movies, and other reality programmes to control the minds of the masses.I don't care if they believe it or not,reality TV programs such as project fame, Gulder ultimate search,American/Nigerian idols etc are used to ''program'' our minds.
As anybody ask why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer in Nigeria.the answer is because our mind is busy with foolish programmes on TV.
Our govt will rather sponsor reality programmes, sports, entertainment etc but when it comes to doing things that will benefits the masses they look the other way cos they believe nobody will ask them.
If you don't believe what this guy is saying here,trust me, your children's and great children will suffer it cos its real.[/quote]After you've stopped watching TV and all these 'silly' programs you've mentioned, please do us all a favor - quit your job or school, throw away your internet modem, thrash your TV, books, house, phones, car, laptop, desktop, cooking gas, clothes, clipper, biro, pencil, eraser and any other 'agent of mind control' which you happen to have or have access to; in fact just stop talking to people all together and go back to the stone-age!

Practice what you preach!!!

May-D was invited to perform on that show, no way he could have shown up there uninvited. . .was he going there to do his own songs or feature with P-square!!?

I want to assume that since it was reported that he wasn't in the P-square entourage and moved about solo, then that might mean he was billed to perform alone or do his own tracks and not necessarily be on stage with P-Qsuare at the same time.
For the organizers to pull the plug on him at the last minute; that is just unreasonable and totally unprofessional. If it was due to P-Square's influence, then that is just gross and speaks very badly of them, irrespective of whatever (if anything at all) May-D may have done to them!

RVP:
He appears to be revelling in the challenge of being a United player too, explaining yesterday, in words that are sure to twist the knife for any Arsenal fans reading this morning: "We have to look at it game by game but everybody wants to be champions. I feel that I'm surrounded by champions.

"This is a special team. Everybody wants to help each other. Everybody's keen for everyone to score. Defenders are working their socks off for the midfielders, the midfielders are working for the strikers... everybody wants to run and everybody has one target in their mind. They know how to win and that makes it really easy for me."

excerpt from - http://eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/2013-van-persie-again-085517817.html

Top man, that RvP...top, top man!
Funny I never regarded him much when he was at Arsenal!

The moral of the TW14 story so far. . .sometimes, even the very top managers should listen to their players - hats off to Theo - he's talked the talk and is walking the walk. Even TH14 in the stands was impressed!

Guards at "The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier" Arlignton Cemetary (one of many around the world)

Legend has it that "The Old Guard" has guarded the tomb every minute of every day since April 6, 1948 be it in rain, sunshine or whatever. They live by the Sentinel’s Creed which in part says “Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability.”

Awe-inspiring stuff!

Idanre

Scenery from Idanre Hills

Fanstastic photos. . .nice job Rocktation and other posters. . .Fantastic stuff!!!

[quote author=p.wiz]Never, you can't use one leg in driving a manual car.[/quote]Actually. . .in a sense, only one foot is used in driving manual cars. Its only when you want to slow down or stop that both legs are used!

coogar: valencia is predictable, nani isn't.
the unpredictable is uncontrollable and rooney doesn't want that. valencia has been our most useless player this season. he cannot beat his man again, he slows the attack down and with no rafael making decoy runs, the ecuadorian has been found out by prem defenders. although, to be honest, he has been found out since 2009 but his sheer pace still allowed him to beat his markers.....these days, that pace is gone and he has no trick up his sleeves. he should be sold!

montelik: Starboard and Ruudie aren't going to be pleased with this news. I wonder if extended doses of Valencia has softened their apprehension to Nani.

For what it worth I believe everything SAF said is total dross. He said the same thing about Pogba and Berba at this point last season and they end up gone at the end of the season. My gut says we keep Nani till the end of the season and then he is let go and we bring in another Winger or 2.

Personally, I don't have beef for Nani. . . he is head and shoulders, a far better footballer than Valencia can ever be. In fact, I regard Nani more than I do CR7 because I think he is a more "naturally gifted" player. But that said, one fact we all and most importantly, Nani himself have to realise is that he has to do more, challenge himself to raise his game!

Lets take the case of Ando. . . we all knew he has potential but wasn't living up to it. Even he came out publicly to admit that this season was going to be his most important because he realised he needed to make or break time; he'd either play better or go bust which he has from the start of this season.
Nobody told him. . .within himself, he already knew!

http://www.manutd.com/en/News-And-Features/Exclusive-Interviews/2012/Jul/anderson-exclusive-interview-my-most-important-season-yet.aspx?pageNo=2


Nani first has to do some deep soul-searching and be honest to himself. Has he really performed like a world-beater, like someone who deserves special mention!!?
Perhaps, it is we the fans (Coogar et al.) who are at fault here. We take the morsel he offers and blow it out of proportion when, knowing fully well, he is capable of much more! I know its all part of encouragement but sometimes, 'sterner' treatment rouses positive response better especially when too much patience has been shown.
While I applaud Nani's efforts and contributions thus far, he can still do a whole lot more. I know and believe so, I don't really want him to leave - what I really yearn for, is that he does an "Anderson" or "DDG" and shuts critics like me up with spectacular performances frequently - Manchester United would be the better for it if this happens, or not so!!?

...please nobody should mention Welbeck; he doesn't belong at MUFC (how he got into our academy in the first place beats me) and nothing he ever does will change my opinion!

bxg: How come Rooney neva seems to lash out at Valencia.......To me, Rooney is Nani's biggest critic. Anytime Nani is indecisive, makes a bad pass or takes a wild shot Rooney would throw a tantrum on the pitch and cuss at him buh u neva see im giving valencia d same treatment as horrible as valencia as bin

Thats because Rooney knows he is quite capable of much more. . .no one can really get mad at Valencia; you know he has limited skill-set, so you take what he has to offer and make the best of it!

Nani is a very talented guy, he is just not giving us as much as we expect of him. He goes to Portugal and plays well but doesn't carry it over to here!

coogar: any of us here would dominate a midfield of giggs/scholes.
they are only good when we are in possession of the ball. without the ball, it's like playing 9 players versus 11. they are the real reasons our back four are exposed. newcastle had 15 attempts including 7 on target and people blame de gea.

I know we struggle most times when Giggs/Scholes are playing; but it goes far beyond this. Its more like a general malaise.
We basically almost always "suffer" in defence, it doesn't matter which combo we put in the midfield area. It is only the wingers, particularly Valencia and Young, that are really 'alive' to their defensive responsibilities.
Perhaps, it is this new found urge to storm forward at every glimmer of a chance, when you have a Wazza, Chica and RvP at the top of their game, who wouldn't.

The center m/f area is weak and to firm it up now, is to lose one of Wazza or RvP, not necessarily to the bench, but not have 'em play very close to themselves - on the run we are on currently, i don't think this is going to happen unless results start turning drastically against us. The best we can do for now, is try to encourage the guys to get as many bodies as possible behind the ball when we lose possession and mark aggressively, not all this shadowing or ball-watching. Mass attack, mass defend sort of thing!

coogar: the evidence is there.
one of giggs/scholes or both have started in all the games we have lost this season. against everton(giggs started)....against spurs(giggs/scholes started), against norwich(scholes started)......the other game against swansea - the strikers and valencia were the culprits!

The best result we've had 4-0 in terms of goal margin/clean sheet etc was against Wigan - Giggs and Scholes played throughout; not seperately but together. So!!?

chamotex: Don't be myopic and look at the bigger picture...your team is leaking goals left, right centre and you are happy because the forwards have been bailing us out?

I don't care where other teams with more clean sheets are in the table, I care about my team's inability to stop conceding pathetic goals.
The point here is not about the clean sheet per say, it's about the high number of goals we are shipping in and the amount of chances/opportunities that opponents get ...more especially at Old Trafford. Newcastle had more shots on target than us, when we played Sunderland they had over 10 shots on target, the same Sunderland that barely had shots on goal earlier in the season not to talk of hitting the target.

Its not just about keeping clean sheets, we can concede goals in every game and still have one of the meanest defence in the league - If we only conceded one goal in all 19 games so far, we would not have kept a clean sheet but still have the 5th best defence in the league. Right now only the bottom 6/7 have conceded more goals than United.

We are only 7 points clear which is nothing to rely on considering we let an 8 point lead slip in the last few games of last season. If we don't improve our defending and other teams improve, it could cost us. I might be okay if it was only happening away from home but it's even worse at OT where we are meant to be more solid.

The composition of the defence unit needs to be well structured and aim to improve. It could be our down fall in the Champions League where 'away goals' is a determinant factor.

The forwards will not always bail us out as proved already this season. Even the manager is worried about our defending so if you are not worried about it, I am!

Better get used it because unfortunately for you, we have come this far and cannot turn back now. Its either one or the other - tightening up at the back and lose a bit of our attacking impetus or riding our luck with the status quo. I'll stick with the latter!
A mean defence doesn't score goals and winning football matches is all about scoring goals! As long as we win, it doesn't matter what the scoreline is - we'll have three points and positive goal difference - and that is all that counts at the end of the day!
You think SAF isn't happy the way things are!!? Sorry oh. . .shebi he could have shored up his midfield/defence before season started, instead he went for a striker. . .and what were his words after we lost the title on the last day; "Never again will we lose the title on goal difference"!
My bro, worry all you want - but we're going with the Brazil of '70 approach this term!

coogar: mourinho is lenient
alex ferguson bans obnoxious journalists from his press conference. if a journo wants to be a snivelling rat - then he should be treated like a vermin. i hate sports journalists - their main objective is to twist comments made, sensationalise it to sell papers. mourinho should start banning them from attending his conference.

I am not talking about banning journalists or stuffs like that. . .he is well within his rights to do all those.
My problem is with his utterances, the things he says, the manner with which he addresses people and issues sometimes. There is nothing wrong with "bigging" up yourself, especially when you've got the ability to perform, but its just plain wrong to blurt out certain things, that can easily be termed derogatory, in people's faces.

Arsene, Grant, Del Nido, Pellegrini. . .just to mention a few, he's made comments about, wether true or not, that are far from nice!

coogar: don't mind the charlatans....
de gea is actually the best goalie in the division - the goals he has conceded this season can be blamed on fergie's selection and an unsettled back four. when you line up 2 players whose combined age is 77 yrs then i cannot blame the goalie or the defence......

was this not the same toon army we bludgeoned @ st james' park when fergie chose the right players? did de gea not keep a clean sheet with competent midfielders and defenders on the pitch? the rule is simple - start either one of scholes/giggs in a match and we would struggle offensively/defensively.....

[b]our offensive play has bailed us out far too many times this season and the only reason we are staging comebacks is because the starting team was wrong in the first place. [/b]the moment cleverley replaced scholes, the pendulum swung our way - carrick got the instant license to roam knowing cleverley would cover for him unlike scholes who cannot press or make tackles without getting booked. i don't blame de gea, our manager is our weakness!

Coogar. Enough of this your roadside newspaper-stand analysis and generalizations abeg. . .can you categorically prove that in all the "come-back" games we've played, Giggs/Scholes played or started!!?

I just love this piece!

How is it possible that a football team as crassly inept as Manchester United can be seven points clear at the Premier League's halfway stage?

Despite two largely shambolic displays over Christmas, they are thundering towards 2013 bolstered by a Rik Waller-sized cushion over City.

United have 46 points - at this rate they'll finish on 92 - more than any team since Mourinho's Chelsea juggernaut plundered 95 in 2004/05.

In theory we are looking at one of the best teams ever. And yet look at them. Really, look at them.

Goalkeepers: A highly-promising but error-prone youngster with a dodgy beard who keeps getting dropped for a limited understudy whose only purpose seems to be to erode the other guy's confidence.

Defence: The biggest collection of crocks this side of a First World War sanatorium. It comes to something when a papier mache model of Rio Ferdinand has played more games than any other centre-back.

Midfield: United fans have been calling for Fergie to sign a top central midfielder to replace Paul Scholes for nearly a decade. Can we all just assume it won't happen? Scholes and Ryan Giggs should only ever be in the same side at a charity match. And even then they'd be getting run ragged by Jonathan Wilkes and Harvey out of So Solid Crew.

Forwards: OK, they're pretty good here. We can safely say, if it had not already been abundantly clear, that Robin van Persie is excellent at football.

And there you have it. Manchester United are a team blowing raspberries in the face of the conventional wisdom that you need to build your team on solid foundations.

They are little more than a bunch of excellent strikers routinely bailing out the gaffe-prone clowns at the back.

Fergie's chuntering over Mike Dean's decision to allow the second Newcastle goal at Old Trafford yesterday ignored one key fact - Jonny Evans didn't have to shin the ball into his own net.

Just as David De Gea didn't have to pat the ball into James Perch's stride, and the entire United side didn't have to leave Papiss Cisse unmarked 10 yards from goal. But hey, if there's an official you can blame - well, it'd be rude not to.

They have already conceded 28 goals - one fewer than City did in the whole of last season.

The United vintage they most resemble is the 2001/02 side, when the lamentable decision to swap Jaap Stam for a creaking Laurent Blanc led to defence-o-geddon - in this case 27 goals conceded in the first 15 games, of which they lost six.

But of course this side haven't lost six. In fact they have only failed to win four times, despite keeping all of three clean sheets in 19 goes.

They have spotted the opposition a goal no fewer than 11 times, yet ridiculously they have come back to win eight of those matches.

Alex Ferguson responded with a gruff "no" when asked if United can afford to continue going behind - but clearly they can.

It is this sort of thing that makes you wonder what will become of United when Ferguson does finally retire.

By any normal standard, they are a hopelessly imbalanced side with clear and urgent weaknesses.

They have less solidity than City, less creativity than Chelsea and arguably less depth than Tottenham. Even though the Glazers have blunted United in the transfer market, Ferguson could and should have addressed these issues, but he hasn't bothered.

Yet somehow he has them firmly on course to make it Liverpool+2 domestic titles.

Maybe, and Early Doors is going to go out on a limb here, the most successful manager in English football history does know what he's doing after all.


http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/clowns-seven-points-clear-084143730.html

Here is someone's response to the above article. . .MINT!

Victor Meldew lol • The reasons these clowns are seven points clear is the rest are even bigger clowns lol.

chamotex: I don't understand how someone wont be worried about the amount of pathetic goals we've been conceding, especially at OT.
Yea the forward will keep bailing us out _{my foot}. 3 clean sheets in 19 games? FOH

Look at the table and tell me where all the other teams with better defences and more clean sheets are!!?

usbcable: @ Mr Ajanlekoko,

which parts indicates he is self worshipping.

And guy no lie say Marca is as objective a newspaper as can be. They tend to want to pull anything and everything they dont luike out of real madrid.

Pellegrini comes to midn likewaise shuster and capello.

they all bore the brunt of the editors from the news house.

And unlike the rest Jose is just a bigger juggernaut to deal with and is not scared of taking the fight to them if what they wrote up there is anything but true.


As I've always said Marca is the only BIG problem I see to Jose staying in RM. AS is even much more reasonable and I dont know why Marca acts in this manner always.

In the history of World Sport, I don't think any professional athlete talked sh*t or blustered more than Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay). . .but why do still people love and respect him, even many years after!!? Because behind it all, we all know he was just playing games, "fooling" around, trying to "mess" up his adversary's head. But can we say the same for Mourinho?
It is a very, very thin line between confidence and cockiness especially when you know your worth and believe in your ability; if sufficient care isn't taken you can scarcely know when you've crossed that line!

I am not taking anything away from him, he's paid his dues and earned his coins! He is a genius when he is really focused but pride. . .is a very dangerous thing! We love the entertainment value of many of antics but when he takes it too far, he should be called to order.

Johnpaul88: Sometimes i ask myself;
are real madrid fans actually Real madrid fans or Mourinho fans ?

Very good question. . .!

We can persever with DDG - eventually, he will come good!

At least his blunders aren't as ridiculous as Massimo Taivi's

Nwo'kem. Who is the Jega here. . .When was this election done oh!?

I am going to court to contest this oh. . .I was not notified in due time so as to mobilize my campaign and rigging machinery!

@ Coogar.

No disrespect bro. . .

But how the fvck did you win this!!?

StarBoard: David De Gea is equally as dodgy as Anders Lindegaard.
He Palmed the ball for Michu to score Sunday.
Did same again today for Toon's opener.
Generally shaky.
Please i Hope the Begovic link is valid.
We Need a decent ans consistent Figure between the sticks.So far none of the two clowns we Parade van help generate any confidence.

IMHO. De Gea is okay and will still improve...he's won me over; good to see him command his area a bit more and come out for crosses confidently. Lindergaard too has done well, so we really don't need to get another GK!

I don't why you guys keep ranting about Giggs; Scholes is a bit of liability but Giggs (as long as he can be kept on the Left not in the Middle) is still relatively ok!

Last night, he had a good game and is probably still the best crosser of the ball in the team. Every time he puts in a cross, the delivery is more than decent and the combo with Evra yesterday, going forward, they gave that Newcastle defence a very torrid time.

I think Carrick, for the most, played a bit higher up the field and that perhaps meant there was a lot of space in front of the defence but on the other hand, gave the attack more bite. But my word, I've never seen Carrick this tenacious, I saw a bit more aggression from him than I've seen in all the seasons his played in OT!

Couldn't believe my eyes when Chicha missed that header Valencia put on a plate for him...at that moment, I thought we were not going to be able to win it. On a more positive note, it is fantastic; scoring four goals without Rooney on the pitch - last season I doubt if we could have ever thought this possible.

Anyway, I am still not worried about the goals we conceed sha, as long as we can score more than we let in and at the moment, looks like we're more than capable of this