English Premier League idea

[hacker]

The curmudgeon drama was just hit whining about any mention of soccer and claiming that he had a silent majority of people who will go back to SPS or make their own forum if this forum continues to turn into a soccer forum. The verdict was that EPL folks get one thread a week. It's really all we need.

I'm sure the thread will get easier to follow as it goes. This one is just extra long because it included the draft. DudyDawg is right that it will just get buried if we put it in its own subforum.

I'm ok with a thread a week! See, I missed that verdict too. I hadn't heard any plans other than to continue posting here, and this big turd is already way too long. Can we go ahead and start another one? Or we waiting until Aug 16th?

We'll just have to agree to disagree on the subforum thing.

Get ready for Arsene and the Arsenal Fly Emirates to kick all of your bloody arses. Am I doing this right?

We got a guy named Nacho.

[Brad Stevens]

Drink it in, EPL fans. This is just a taste of the excitement I will experience this year at the expense of teams such as QPR and Man U.

[DudyDawg]

Beckham is definitely in the discussion with those other three, but I personally would rank him 4th behind the other 3.

Not a snowball's chance in hell. David Villa is a good, not great striker. Xavi is a very good system midfielder. He would've likely been very average for anyone other than Barcelona, but there he was very good, nearly great. Lampard is also a very good midfielder.

That all said, none of those three were ever considered the best in the world. Beckham was in that conversation consistently while at United and Madrid

[Intramural All-American]

Not a snowball's chance in hell. David Villa is a good, not great striker. Xavi is a very good system midfielder. He would've likely been very average for anyone other than Barcelona, but there he was very good, nearly great. Lampard is also a very good midfielder.

That all said, none of those three were ever considered the best in the world. Beckham was in that conversation consistently while at United and Madrid

Excuse me? First off, the three I was referencing were Henry, Kaka, and Xavi. Not Villa and Lampard.

Xavi's honours:
World Soccer Player of the Year: 2010
Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament: 2008
UEFA Best Player in Europe Award Second place: 2011
FIFA Ballon d'Or Third place: 2010, 2011
Ballon d'Or Bronze Award: 2009
FIFA World Player of the Year Third place: 2009
Onze de Bronze: 2011
UEFA Champions League Final Man of the Match: 2009
UEFA Club Midfielder of the Year: 2008–09
IFFHS World's Best Playmaker: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011
La Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year: 1999
La Liga Spanish Player of the Year: 2005
La Liga Player of the Year: 2nd place 2010, 3rd place 2011
La Liga Midfielder of the Year: 2009, 2010, 2011.
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 2010
Euro Team of the Tournament: 2008, 2012
FIFA/FIFPro World XI: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013
UEFA Team of the Year: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012
ESM Team of the Year: 2008–09, 2010–11, 2011–12
FIFA Club World Cup Silver Ball: 2011
FIFA Club World Cup Bronze Ball: 2009

What is that you were saying? Xavi is most definitely one of the best midfielders of all time. He was voted 3rd best player in the world 3 times with two of those being behind Messi and Ronaldo.

[DudyDawg]

No need to get angry haha I obviously thought you meant Villa and Lampard. I would also attribute a lot of Xavi's personal success to Barcelona's success more so than his talent, thus my argument of him being a system guy. I don't consider him one of the best midfielders of all time. You do, that's fine. I don't. He would've been the fourth best midfielder on Beckham's united team behind Becks, Giggs, and Scholes. My opinion, as well as a lot of folks'.

[DudyDawg]

OFFICIAL: Toni Kroos has completed his move from Bayern Munich to Real Madrid

[Intramural All-American]

No need to get angry haha I obviously thought you meant Villa and Lampard. I would also attribute a lot of Xavi's personal success to Barcelona's success more so than his talent, thus my argument of him being a system guy. I don't consider him one of the best midfielders of all time. You do, that's fine. I don't. He would've been the fourth best midfielder on Beckham's united team behind Becks, Giggs, and Scholes. My opinion, as well as a lot of folks'.

Not mad at all. Just good discussion. I'm just unsure how you could disregard all of his accomplishments and awards. Xavi is who made tiki-taka work. And I would assume the majority of people would agree with me rather than you. Becks, Giggs, and Scholes did absolutely nothing on the world stage, whereas Xavi was the absolute centerpiece for what is said to be the greatest soccer team of all time. No offense, but to me its laughable that you put Giggs and Scholes ahead of Xavi. I can understand a debate about Beckham, but not the other two.

[DudyDawg]

Not mad at all. Just good discussion. I'm just unsure how you could disregard all of his accomplishments and awards. Xavi is who made tiki-taka work. And I would assume the majority of people would agree with me rather than you. Becks, Giggs, and Scholes did absolutely nothing on the world stage, whereas Xavi was the absolute centerpiece for what is said to be the greatest soccer team of all time. No offense, but to me its laughable that you put Giggs and Scholes ahead of Xavi. I can understand a debate about Beckham, but not the other two.

Reread my post. I didn't say those two had better careers or anything. I said that on THAT united team, he would've been fourth choice, furthering my point that he is a system guy. Becks, Giggs nor Scholes had what Xavi has had in Spain's team. So those things are apples to oranges. Xavi had Casillas who is probably the best goalie ever in his prime 4 years ago, Puyol, Iniesta, Torres (the Liverpool one) and more. I'm not discounting him, I'm simple pointing out the fact that Xavi has never been on an average team, he's always been on a team that could be considered top three four in the world, and it wasn't solely bc of him, whether barca or Spain.

I'm not discounting him, just saying that those accolades, to me, don't mean as much as they would for people on much lesser teams. I still think he's a damn good player with a damn good career, just not in the conversation for greatest of all time.

[DudyDawg]

And to the world stage argument, Becks has won the champions league and 5 leagues. He's the only person to hold a title in five leagues (I believe the only one), so he's done well on the world stage, and I don't think he's ever had a team as good as Xavi's best one

[Intramural All-American]

Well based on that logic, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, Zidane, Messi, and Ronaldo (Cristiano) can't be up for the greatest of all time because they have been completely surrounded by stellar players their entire careers also. If you get rated as the third best player on the world on 3 separate occasions, and voted best player in the world by another source, I think its pretty safe to assume you are one of the greatest players of all time.

But as you said, its your opinion, and I respect that you have one.

[DudyDawg]

Well based on that logic, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, Zidane, Messi, and Ronaldo (Cristiano) can't be up for the greatest of all time because they have been completely surrounded by stellar players their entire careers also. If you get rated as the third best player on the world on 3 separate occasions, and voted best player in the world by another source, I think its pretty safe to assume you are one of the greatest players of all time.

But as you said, its your opinion, and I respect that you have one.

Like I said, I think he's a great player but not in the greatest of all time talks. I think that way because those other names could go to any other team on the planet and make it a great team regardless of system because of their talent, and I don't think Xavi could do that.

And like you said, I respect yours too ha. I just like actually having people I can debate soccer with for once other than my like one buddy who knows what he's talking about haha

[Intramural All-American]

And like you said, I respect yours too ha. I just like actually having people I can debate soccer with for once other than my like one buddy who knows what he's talking about haha

Agreed. Would love to hear curmudgeon's analysis of Xavi, though. I think you and me need a tie breaker vote on this one ha.

[Brad Stevens]

This was my OP:

Hey guys!

I am a graduate student at Mississippi State in the US and a regular poster on one of our sports boards. A ton of us got swept up in World Cup fever, and didn't want it to end after it was over, so 40 of us got together, divided into pairs, and drew EPL teams to be fans of. Myself and another guy drew you guys, so I fully intend to be the biggest possible fan that I can be from thousands of miles away. I already have it set up so that I can watch all of the weekend games this Fall, and if I really get into it, I'll purchase a kit and try my best to create a mini Hull City fanbase in my corner of the world.

What I ask from you all: Can you fill me in on the need to know knowledge if I want to become a good long distance fan? This includes things like:

1. Best players on the team
2. Who are your bitter rivals?
3. What is your play style?
4. What is your best known chant/song? (I want this for my signature on the forum I originate from)
5. Expected success level for the season? I've heard lower half from most, but this does not bother me as my college Am. Football team is historically awful, though we are peaking right now.
6. Any other cool stuff a fan ought to know.

I could look up a bunch of this information from websites, but that would be boring, so I want to hear this kind of stuff from real fans.

Any knowledge is appreciated!

Cheers.

I hope you don't mind, but I pretty much copied this, edited some for my personal situation and team, and posted on Man City's message board. I already have about 15 responses. We will say there comments toward Manchester United have been less than kind. Go Blues!!!

[DudyDawg]

Agreed. Would love to hear curmudgeon's analysis of Xavi, though. I think you and me need a tie breaker vote on this one ha.

Something along the lines of he's a communist and should be killed

[BulldogDX55]

I hope you don't mind, but I pretty much copied this, edited some for my personal situation and team, and posted on Man City's message board. I already have about 15 responses. We will say there comments toward Manchester United have been less than kind. Go Blues!!!

It's cool man. It's fun to interact with other fanbases.

[Dawg61]

I just signed up and posted on the Tottenham site as well. Copied and pasted your message BulldogDX55. This should be interesting.

[Dawg61]

Learning a ton over there but it's difficult because they are busting my balls pretty fierce. Just found out that Klinsmann played for the Spurs for a bit. Awesome!!

[BulldogDX55]

Learning a ton over there but it's difficult because they are busting my balls pretty fierce. Just found out that Klinsmann played for the Spurs for a bit. Awesome!!

My day old thread is up to 80 posts and it's been nothing but positive.

Hull City folk are pretty rad.

[Dawg61]

My day old thread is up to 80 posts and it's been nothing but positive.

Hull City folk are pretty rad.

Haha my thread is at 47 already and about 45 of them are busting my balls or using inside jokes. I have had two Americans message me already though. Making friends.

[mstatefan91]

Villa won their warm up match 3-1 against Mansfield today