Oct 23
To Steven Gerrard, for this comment about Young Theo’s inclusion in the World Cup squad:
Walcott had no right to be in Germany. None at all. I was gobsmacked to find him on the plane.
Instead of running his mouth, Gerrard should concentrate on what he does best, like getting substituted in the Merseyside derby, begging referees to hand out cards to his opponents, missing sitters in England’s Euro qualifying campaign, and choking in a World Cup quarterfinal shootout.
I’m not a big believer in bulletin board material, but I imagine Young Theo will have read that quote by the time next Sunday rolls around.
24 Responses to “The Return of the UCI (pre-Liverpool Edition)”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:33 am
Gerrard is a brilliant player and a nice guy, so criticising his footballing ability for a quote you don’t like is pretty lame. Where’s the rest of the quote? In isolation, things usually sound worse than intended - some people here moan about tabloid quotes and headlines and here you are writing them.
Personally I agree with Gerrard’s sentiment, as taking Walcott was idiotic. He was 17, what they hell did they expect him to do and under what circumstances would he have played? Better to take someone with experience if you want to win a World Cup. For the players jetting out there with hopes of winning it they probably all felt the same - why??
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:20 am
to be honest….as an engineer, if my company was going for the biggest project in years and the company had to choose 4 or 5 “point” men and chose an utterly inexperienced intern for one of the positions i would be “gobsmacked” as well. infact i would be furious. you have to understand that in a team your teammates have to trust you. they have to feel deep down that you are very competent.
you will always notice that during play the least experienced guy or the worst on the pitch hardly gets passed to. while teammates will always look for the “best” player even though he might not be in the best position to receive the ball. if hoyte was free with just one opponent a couple of yards away from him but fabregas had two on him who would you pass to. most will always give to fabregas.
so in that sense i understand where gerrard is coming from.
i dont think he is that great but he is a very good player. and considering walcott is just starting to show a glimpse of his real talent taking him to the WC was a blunder. sven just didnt want to take defoe understandably so he spun the wheel and took a random, unthought out choice.
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:26 am
I hope AW makes a few changes for today’s game. I would like to see Gilberto start at center back with Kolo. No sense in making Gallas play two games in four days after such a long layoff and Liverpool at the weekend. I also would like to see Diarra get a run in midfield. Perhaps Denilson can come on as a sub for Fabregas as well. Those two guys bossed the midfield against a good Newcastle side, so they should be able to handle the challenge of Slavia. Still no place for Jens. But you have to feel as if it is coming soon. Rightly so, Wenger is typically focused on the game at hand. But I hope he has one eye to the weekend for this game.
Almunia
Sagna - Kolo - Gilberto - Clichy
Diaby - Fabregas - Diarra - Hleb
Adebayor - Eduardo
Walcott for Hleb
Denilson for Fabregas
Bendtner for Adebayor
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:37 am
Do any of the state siders know which games ESPN is showing today? All of the listings keep saying teams TBA. I assume it will be Barcelona and ManU (isn’t it always) but I’m still holding out slight hope for Arsenal.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:10 am
Brendan, on ESPN2 Rangers v. Barcelona is on live at 2:45pm.
If you are in NY you can watch Arsenal v. Slavia Prague live.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:42 am
I was glad to see Walcott go as I’m an Arsenal fan but if I were an England fan I would have been pissed. Just being a competitor, you have to go into battle prepared to win and Theo was not going to help England win. He’s a great talent and his time will come but 2006 was not his time.
Wenger won’t change much tonight. He’ll want to ensure qualification as soon as possible so he’ll play the squad he has been playing. While I want to see Diaby and Denilson get some PT, we can’t disrespect Slavia Prague or any other team that has managed to qualify for the Champions League. We saw Milan and Liverpool (last season’s finalists) beaten by lesser teams on the last match day. It’s a statistic that happens every year and with big games coming up we don’t need to disrupt the team or become a statistic. Besides, I believe Slavia are better than Newcastle.
I truly don’t miss ESPN’s CL coverage. It’s amazing that even today they still only show Barcelona, Man United, or Real Madrid. Strangely enough even Sky is showing every CL game tonight except the Arsenal game. Thank God for German Premiere. They show more Arsenal games than Sky.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:48 am
hey jack……..so in NY we can get the Arsenal match live on espn 2?
funnily enough since i came stateside i havent watched an arsenal match on tv……always at a bar or on my laptop strategically placed beside my work pc LOL. god bless those chinese and their pirating!
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:52 am
yeah josh, miss the german premiere……and i miss late afternoon and evening games in europe. mid afternoon CL games are just totally weird.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Lehmann has really lost it now.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/7058711.stm
he is actually WARNING wenger. LOL…and this is the bbc not some random site.
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Big Jens is not a guy you want to row with, hope Arsene sorts this situation out soon, I don’t want to see this get ugly
October 23rd, 2007 at 12:55 pm
It’s already ugly! What’s the German for ego?
Lehman’s remarks effectively mean he will be gone in January unless - cue fleet of airborne pigs - he takes a humble pill. It’s one thing to moan about not getting playing time, but he is a) threatening to go public with private matters and b) belittling his teammates.
The humiliation is all in his head. After his two consecutive howlers, and the team unbeaten in his absence, he can’t expect to waltz straight back into the line-up. He is like an old grouchy lion with a thorn in his paw. Meow.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Hes far 2 old and uneeded to be running his mouth like this. Even gallas during the summer didnt warn wenger. He simply said he thought more superstars are needed at Arsenal.
It is unarsenal to talk 2 the press about internal matters. It never used to happen. Lehmans been at arseal long enough to know that he is close to, if not crossed the line. He is not good enough to talk like this. Wenger is good enough to sell him (probs free) because of this.
Goodbye Lehman, hello fabinsky - any of u think hes got the skills to make first team? maybe a decent keeper which Wenger can groom - cant remember him really doing that before.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
@DannyT - How do you know Gerrard’s a nice guy? I’m just going by what I see - the comment about Theo, lobbying the ref for a red instead of a yellow. What a douche. And I’m sure the players probably thought they knew better regarding team selection - the selfish ones often do. That’s why Gerrard is throwing Theo under the bus, that’s why Terry was instrumental in axing Mourinho at Chelsea, and that’s why people here are upset with Jens. In the end, I’d trust Sven to make the personnel choices instead of Stevie Me.
@Fred - I agree with your first point, so it’s a good thing Theo wasn’t one of the 4-5 “point men” for England. Or even one of the 14-15. He was the last guy on the bench, what the hell harm is he doing there? Who got left off the squad who could have made a difference - Jermaine Pennant, big deal.
In the end, England had a chance to move on to the semis, but the famous English grit was exposed for the myth it really is, and the “Golden Generation,” especially Gerrard, proved they have balls the size of chicklets when it comes to penalty shootouts.
None of this was Theo’s fault - what’s he supposed to do when asked to join the team, say no? Wenger lobbied pretty hard for this, Sven respects him, and that’s why it happened.
Gerrard could have done 3 things: 1 - Completely ignored Walcott, 2 - taken him under his wing and offered advice, guidance, suggestions, or 3 - he could have thrown him under the bus. That he chose the 3rd option is complete and unmitigated crap. Maybe Stevie Me was still too gobsmacked by Theo’s presence to convert that PK…
The Arsenal match seems to be on Setanta tape delayed, and it doesn’t seem to be scheduled to be shown on ESPN Deportes later this week, either. Pretty sure the espn2 live match is Rangers/Barca.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Lehman is working very hard to lose his place in the squad. Almunia is doing great. Fabianski needs some time between the sticks. I think Jens has had enough.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
@dwinkler - well I go by what I see as well, and having watched Gerrard playing in England for a hell of a long time I have always been impressed by his attitude and sportsmanship - whereas you seem to be slating him for one incident in one match and some quotes, probably taken out of context, which by and large are totally justifiable opinions regardless.
And so what if Gerrard told the ref to give that player a red? It WAS a red, Gerrard was fouled when clean through and when he saw the yellow come out was probably wondering what the hell the ref was doing. He was doing what’s best for his team, as any player would do. I can bet my last pound you’d say the exact opposite if it was an Arsenal player who told the ref it was a red.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:49 pm
Thanks for the updates. The guide on my television just updated. It is the Barca vs Rangers game on ESPN2 at 2:30 and the ManU vs Dynamo Kiev game on ESPNC at 5:00. Oh well, gotta love Sopcast.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:55 pm
@ Jens Lehmann saga - I think the outbrust is more about the Germany #1 place concern for Jens than Arsenal #1. Jens fought very hard to win the Germany #1 spot from Kahn, at a grand old age. That rarely happened in football. So that tell u much about Jens’ character. If he doesn’t regain his Arsenal place, chance is that he may end up losing the Germany #1 spot comes next summer’s Euro 2008.
Consider his age - he will not have a second chance for another major internatonal tournament appearance.
So let’s try to understand his situation. Afterall, if AW did not plan to play him, why extended his contract last summer?
Jens is a winner. U can imagine how frustrated he is at the moment.
Having said that, I support AW’s decision to stick with the winning formula. As we simply cannot afford to give in to players just because they made noises. Otherwise if every players who don’t get to play and go out and making noises to the press, the team would be in a big mess.
@ The Gerrard issue of the things he wrote about Theo - let’s face it, it’s simple - he was only trying to sell his book!
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Who was it that said Hleb is not a decisive enough player? What a joke. Brilliant work by Hleb and a cool finish from Fab! Hopefully, we can get some of the key guys off and rested pretty early.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:15 pm
now let him do that more consistently and especially when we are losing or drawing in a crunch match like say in the next 2 PL games. there is nothing a “joke” about that, except you have problems reading or understanding my comments.
2-0 hleb deflection goal. good for him.
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:37 pm
@DannyT - You’d lose your last pound - a douche move is a douche move, no matter who does it. I’m pretty sure most members agree with me - Eboue gets a lot of crap from Arsenal fans for diving. It’s completely unsporting to do what Stevie Me did. And it’s not just those things you mentioned. I also remember the douche diving to get a PK in an England/Hungary friendly - a friendly! (Here’s the story if you doubt it: http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/matchreport/0,,1786561,00.html)
If you want to further explore your Man-Crush on Stevie Me, maybe there’s a Liverpool America website where it’s more appropriate. On the week leading up to such a big game, I don’t expect to hear any sort of rational defense of an opponent, especially on this site.
(By the way, I think it’s OK to have a Man-Crush. I think I have one on Hugh Jackman, of all people.)
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:04 pm
massacre at the emirates is in progress….hleb, walcott and fabregas get a second each to make it 6 good. beautiful football.
hleb on hot hot form. happy for walcott and fabregas. the sixth goal was awesome.
prague are like the derby county of the CL!
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:06 pm
Let’s not forget the dive by Stevero in the first game of the 2006-2007 season to win an undeserved PK. Stevero was subbed for the kid Lucas in the Everton game and was none too please. Youth will be served Stevero. Lucas took the shot that earned the PK when Neville played GK.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:56 am
it would be great if Walcott got a chance to show Gerrard this sunday at Anfield exactly why he was brought to Germany!
October 24th, 2007 at 4:58 am
It’s not Walcott’s fault he was in the team. Gerrard was brutally honest and he was right as Walcott didn’t deserve to be on the plane. They could have done with an Andy Johnson, Jermaine Defoe, or even Darren Bent. I know you’re thinking Bent, wtf. but he was in very good form before the World Cup. I guarantee Sven regreted bringing Theo once Owen got injured.
I don’t think Gerrard’s statements were an attack on Walcott but when you’ve busted your ass to make the World Cup squad and the coach does something like bring Walcott, somebody who hasn’t earned the right to be there, it’s going to piss you off. The media asked him and the truth just came out.