All true Dec .... Liam Messam used to play soccer with two of my kids till he was about thirteen then switched to rugby , second bloke you refer to ; Beauden Barrett did the same .

More money , much higher profile for our rugby players .

Represented NZ at soccer ...oh yeah ... yawn ....... he was an All Black ...wow


Guy who works at the Op Shop is an ex All Black .. Hika Ried .... he did a bit of coaching in Ireland for a club supported by some well heeled Irish building contractor Ray O' Rourke ....who now shouts him and his wife first class air fares , top accomodation , tickets to all the games at every world cup .

In SA, the ridiculously bloated super whatever it is, and the draw of club rugby in Europe, mean that the Curry Cup now now roughly equivalent to the league cup in terms of relative status. Rugby in places like the Eastern Cape (which has a massive rugby culture in the poor coloured and black populations) has been cast adrift.

https://www.facebook.com/rebelgirls/vid ... 996306766/

Just saying ...

... to the extent that the first thought that pops into my mind when I hear the expression 'Kiwi footballer' is: "he must be crap at rugby".

Evening Decaf

Chris Evert commented something to the effect of that while you see male tennis players breaking these sort of rules and getting code violations, they almost always rein it in before they get docked a game. Serena lost it completely. What is the official supposed to do when he's called a liar and a theif?
Quite interesting too that the male players being cited are McEnroe and Nastase - who were in their prime about 40 years ago! Couldn't they think of anybody more contemporary?

Spot on, Bromley. You cannot call a referee or umpire's integrity into question. She was totally out of order.

Ahhh but you don't understand old people Brom ............. Mac , Nasty it seems but yesterday plus the mention of them shows his expansive knowledge of the tennis world ...hoping to pitch a bit out of your league so to speak .

Oldies have no idea what they had for lunch two hours previous but total recall for events from fifty / sixty years back .

Bet Old Man is searching through his clippings in the attic this minute to see if "Big" Bill Tilden or Jean Borotra had any disagreements with officials .

You want something a little more modern ; how about Jeff Tarango https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzQ2-EwgdXQ

Oh there wasn't just Jeff Tarango. Here's a list.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/people.com ... story/amp/

Didn't see the match, so Xhaka bossed the midfield?
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... s-15140253

I think you're right about Xhaka, Babu. One of the players I've read most utter claptrap about on this forum, although I exclude the likes of Hazuki from that observation. I'm not sure the people I don't exclude from it are all English though.

Hmmm ........ well if he is this reincarnated Roy Keane / Patrick Vieira combo ....how come the Arsenal midfield gets steamrolled more often than not .

Jesus wept, if a "Roy Keane / Patrick Vieira combo" is your starting point for judging midfielders, are you sure your expectations are high enough?

Monreal on Emery's tactical objectives: “This is our idea for this year – have more possession, don’t lose stupid balls in the middle of the pitch and be more compact than how we were before.”


Speaks volumes about what they thought of wengers approach

Hello ...Swiss German ...that's good enough.

Since Mertesacker hung up his 20 kilo boots ... I'll move my Kraut leanings to Granit

One of the things that attracted me to the EPL in particular was the atmosphere and the chants. Sometimes I'd hear some chants at the pub but it was never the same obviously. When I went to my first Arsenal match I strained to hear every chant.

I'd like to see him and Torriera together as the article suggests. The terrier/Weimeraner combo.

He is far from being exceptional. He wouldn't make the first 11 for any of the other top 6 clubs.

In the right system he would. Dyer has played plenty of games in midfield for Tottenham and I think Xhaka is comfortably better than him.

For anyone who follows the Arsenal youth players more than I do, how good is Smith-Rowe? He’s scored again for the U21 team tonight.

Every year there seems to be a mini break through in pre season from a young player, but so few break through to establish themselves in the first team.

Smith-Rowe is in probably the toughest position along with CB for a young player to make it at a top team. Players in his position and often young strikers have to forge their way in to the first team by playing out wide

What is the right system? And what is even his best position? It's definitely not defensive midfielder (a role that Dier is far superior at). It's not box to box midfielder as he doesn't have the pace or athleticism. Lomekian has suggested a Pirlo type role but he is simply miles away from being that good. Can he play a position like Eriksen or David Silva? Not to their level. So a sort of neat and tidy continuity player?

American football training is completely nuts. We were doing this as 10 year olds. Called "bull in the ring", the players form a circle, someone is chosen to be in the middle, the coaches call out a players number and you have to charge the guy in the ring at full speed. The coach often tries to call a player behind you and if you are late reacting..well, it's not pretty. Also, the coach sometimes is sadistic (or more sadistic) and tries to toughen up a weak player by calling a number of a player much bigger. I hated this drill because I was small for a 10 year old. The coach should be calling players of equal size but my coach didn't like me and would call bigger players. Luckily I was popular and they took it easy on me. I was also a running back, with pace and was needed. I broke my ankle in high school doing a similar type of drill. A lineman (one of the big guys) fell over one of my legs and sat on my ankle. Never really healed right. To this day, decades later I can tell you when its going to rain or snow.

There is a reason why we are so militaristic, we start those kinds of tendencies early.

You seem quite sniffy about being neat and tidy or a continuity player. Comparing him to Pirlo is about as useful as comparing him to Vieira or Keane. There are very few as good as Pirlo in his role. If Xhaka isn't, that doesn't mean he can't do a good job for Arsenal. Koscielny was never as good as Adams or Campbell but was still a very fine player, even though I think he now needs replacing. Mkhitaryian isn't as good as Brady but will, I expect, be a fine signing. I'd say the same of Aubameyang even though he's not as good as Henry.

Xhaka isn't a defensive midfielder, so is it fair to criticise him when he was asked to play there? Dier couldn't play Xhaka's continuity game, so would it be fair to moan about him there? Babu mentioned a midfield of Torreira, Xhaka and Ramsey working. My guess is that this may well be Ramsey's last season due to his contract situation. But I can see Torreira, Xhaka and Guendouzi also working.

You had ample opportunity to 'toughen up' in the states...lol.
Dodge ball...sadistic PE teachers is a cliche. A lot of them former marines. Girls weren't immune either. Girls would often feign cramps, etc, and many a PE teacher sent them to the nurse for a note knowing they probably didn't even have their first period yet. Girls hated dodge ball because it was co-ed and nerdish, bookish girls got beaned in the head. Dodge ball was revenge time. The class bully was either doing most of the hitting or getting hit. No middle ground. I've seen teammates of class bullies get out of the way and give the other side free reign on him..haha.

What makes these things far worse these days in the era of snowflakes (per you Babu) is that the students are much, much bigger. Did you see LeBron James in HS? There is a reason he could go straight to pros and handle the physicality. 2 or 3 generations of families eating steroid enriched meat has produced some man-boys.

HS football is now big business. These kids are huge, quick as cats and strong as oxes.

Despite all this you’re still *%^@ at football.

I can see how someone could make that a possibility but I don't see Gazidis doing that to the club. Maybe its in him. I don't know the man obviously but I have to think he has a certain amount of loyalty.

https://www.football-italia.net/127905/ ... msey-milan

All points bulletin out for Hodd. Where have you been hiding? Big changes at The Arsenal. Emery's era has begun and not a peep. Report in!

I'd say Guendouzi is technically a lot more gifted than Parlour.

Wot? The Romford Pele? Surely not.

I see Parlour as a club legend but not that technically gifted.

I'm not the one labelling him exceptional so I'm certainly not expecting anything like Pirlo or Brady levels from him. Actually, I don't expect much of him at all. He's a central midfielder with poor discipline, poor defensive abilities and a decent passing range when not under pressure.

Also, for what it's worth, I think Mkhitaryan has been disappointing. He looks like a pure fair-weather player and the biggest thing going for him so far is that Sanchez has been atrocious at Utd.

You just strike me as taking every opportunity to moan about him. You may well deny it but I almost get the impression you simply don't like him. Perfectly normal for fans of any club regarding the occasional player, even when it's not based on their quality. I feel Xhaka is better than some give him credit for, and that 'some' includes you.

Weighing in on the Xhaka debate, I rate him 5.5/10. Good enough to be a key player in teams not challenging for major honours. But, not near good enough to be a key player (not even substitute), in a top honours challenging team. I think if he fundamentally change his attitude towards the game, he will improve exponentially. By that, I mean to give his game more urgency and to cut out his casual passes (which had led to quite a number of calamitous defending by the defenders or goals). My view of him is bias because he has both proven his worth and his weakness, albeit the end result from his weakness is more telling.

Once Kos comes back the defense will be a bit more steady. That's our weakness, the defense and secondarily team defense. We are a very decent side once that is resolved.

We are visibly behind City, Liverpool and Tottenham. Chelsea and Man Utd are better but reachable. I have afith in Emery. I'm still surprised at how impatient some fans are.

Good points mentioned. I hope Xhaka improves his urgency soon.

I like Xhaka, flaws and all. What I particularly like about him is that he gives precisely zero *%^@* about who hes going up against, he isnt a bottler, he doesnt back down, and hes a unit. As a result Im not looking at Fellaini and Matic at Utd, for example, and thinking theyre just gonna squash us. Hes not fussed, so neither am I.

Ive had quite enough of us being pushed around physically and ld rather have a few more Xhakas in the team than any more mhikis and mesuts and other assorted pussies who disappear when it gets a bit tasty.

Me too.

I think you make some good points there.

Dear God ... the vaunted All Blacks are playing like sh^^%$%$ t .

. an idiot of throw in gifts them 7 points , kicking away possession , dropping the f**&& ball ..... not kicking the ball out after the half time siren gifts them another 3 .

meanwhile South Africa are playing really well .

Well done South Africa .... we were awful ....... Beauden Barrett missed three easy conversions

Why didn't they just go for the drop goal? It was there for the taking.