• Help Support The Rugby Forum :

Football Thread

A

An Tarbh

Guest
Makes sense to have one thread where we can post any general football news.

Big news today sees Gerard Houllier leaving Liverpool after 6 years. Let the hunt for the new manager begin. Obvious candidates would be Alan Curbishley, Martin O'Neill, Jose Mourinho or Rafael Benitez. Probably won't be any of those 4 but they're the names being bandied about.
 
Fourth place obviously not good enough for liverpool, nor for madrid, as carlos queiroz got sacked today, and has already been replaced by the former spain coach jose camacho.

feel a little sorry for houllier really, getting 4th place and then sacked, but then it seems poor old claudio ranieri is going to get the push, and he finished second.
 
Not saying Liverpool is a bad team but 4th place is about as good as you can expect plaing in a comp with Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea.
 
Houllier had plenty of chances, but really the poor buys he has made in his time is the main reason for dumping him..............Liverpool though 4th still finished closer to the bottom of the premiership than the top.......since his time as Manager the gap between Liverpool and the two/three top teams has grown considerably.

Curbishley would be odds on favourite to take over would he not??? Has done wonders really with a much smaller player budget.
 
O'Leary would certainly be an interesting choice, and may have reason to leave especially with Ellis complaining about not getting European football when only months earlier they were close to being involved in a relegation dogfight.
 
Just read on BBC that Michael Owen is going to wait and see who the new manager is and what direction the club intends to take before he signs his new deal. Fair enough.
 
O'Leary is pretty ambitious and if Liverpool were to make an offer I'm sure he'd take it.
 
Leeds have appointed Kevin Blackwell as their new manager, apparently there'd been a delay beacuse Steve Parkin who had a takeover bid wanted Iain Dowie, but after the collapse of that move the club went for Blackwell.
 
Alan Smith has joined Man Utd for £7 million on a 5 year contract. Waste of money in my opinion, he's too ordinary a player.
 
Lot of money but his agression will help the Mancs, if not his lack of goals.
 
If there is a league in New Zealand, it operates at a higher standard than the SPL...
 
The only good thing to come out of NZL soccer wise was Wynton Rufer......

WYNTON RUFER (Oceania's Player of the Twentieth Century)


A graduate of Rongotai College, Wynton played for Wellington United, Stop Out and Miramar Rangers prior to signing a professional contract with Norwich City on October 23, 1981.


Unfortunately, work permit predicaments prevented him from playing for The Canaries' first team, so he joined FC Zurich in May 1982, prior to playing in the World Cup Finals for New Zealand, whose passage to Spain had finally been confirmed by Wynton's memorable strike against China in a play-off.


He subsequently played for FC Aarau and Grasshoppers Zurich in Switzerland, winning the Swiss Cup with the latter club in 1988-89, before he moved to Werder Bremen in July 1989.


After almost six years of success at the Bundesliga outfit, with whom he tasted domestic league and cup glory, not to mention scoring one of the goals in Werder's 2-0 defeat of AS Monaco in the 1992 European Cup-Winners Cup final, his footballing travels took him to JEF United Ichihara.


He joined the J-League outfit in February 1995, but rounded out his offshore career back in Germany, fulfilling a six-month contract at Kaiserslautern in 1997 which concluded with another championship medal, this time of the Second Division variety.


Home called, the opportunity to set up his own coaching school - WYNRS - proving too great a chance for the Pied Piper of New Zealand soccer's youngsters to resist.


At the same time, he was still well capable of playing to the standards he had come to expect of himself, and go-ahead Auckland club Central United were quick to sign Wynton up for the remainder of the 1997 season, at the end of which both club and player had their hands on the Chatham Cup for the first time.


Joined by brother Shane, Wynton took on the player-coaching duties at North Shore United the following year, and was appointed coach of the national U-16 squad as they began preparing for the 1999 Junior World Cup Finals.


Then the advent of New Zealand's first professional soccer club, Kingz FC, in 1999, saw him appointed player-coach for the newcomer's first two seasons in the Australian National Soccer League, both of which concluded with eighth place finishes.


The 2001-2 campaign saw Wynton relinquish the coaching reins, but the club, for whom he scored ten goals in forty-eight appearances, retained his services as a player. However, further changes in circumstances ultimately prompted Oceania's Player of the Twentieth Century to announce his retirement on December 12, 2001.
 
Another good win for Ireland tonight as they beat Romania 1-0 at Lansdowne Rd. Roy Keane made his comeback and played the 90 minutes and the fans seemed far more positive than negative although there were some inevitable jeers. Liam Miller also had a decent game and it'll be interesting to see what sort of role he plays at Man Utd next season. More positive news for Ireland in that we've been given permission from FIFA to play our world cup qualifiers at Lansdowne Rd.
 

Latest posts

Top