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PICTURE EXCLUSIVE: New images show Jack Grealish leaving the scene moments BEFORE police arrive after £70k Range Rover crashed into parked cars, as Aston Villa captain faces police and club probe over 'all-night lockdown party'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8166699/PICTURE-EXCLUSIVE-Jack-Grealish-pictured-leaving-scene-Range-Rover-crash.html

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The Premier League intend to resume matches for this season behind close doors at the start of May. The plan needs to be endorsed by the Government, public health bodies and the PFA, and there is a conference call on Friday

The season will then end on July 12th. 

If it doesn't get the go ahead, the Premier League will have to pay back TV companies £762 million

(Reuters)

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https://www.redcafe.net/threads/united-v-chelsea-2006-2008.453894/page-2

United v Chelsea 2006-2008

I strongly disagree with Utd fans who all think they were better side in this period. They were so lucky to win it in 07-08 season. Both PL and CL.

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1 hour ago, NikkiCFC said:

https://www.redcafe.net/threads/united-v-chelsea-2006-2008.453894/page-2

United v Chelsea 2006-2008

I strongly disagree with Utd fans who all think they were better side in this period. They were so lucky to win it in 07-08 season. Both PL and CL.

Moscow, May 21, 2008 grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

worst sporting night of my life :(

I will say this

Manure is the ONLY Big Six EPL team I respect, as a club

I hate their yank owners and that cunt Woodward

but as a team, they were brilliant for so long

I would so love to go back to us v them and streets ahead of all others

we were so close to each other in talent from 2004 to 2010

they won 3, we won 3

2007-8 was such a gut punch, both the league and the CL, that was arguably, on paper, our best team too, overall (obviously 2004/5 was the greatest Chels team every)

CR7 was a difference maker, we only had a player like that once, and for only a few years, Jimmy Greaves

their MF stars were really ageing towards the end of this period

we both had the two best set of Cb's ever in the EPL

its flip a coin for me

if we had beat them for the league and CL in 2007/8, then easy, we were better

but we did not

seeing as they won 3 EPL trophies in a row, and then after this period won 3 in a row again, and we each had 1 CL (Barca fucked them after this in 2 CL finals, that 2010/11 Barcelona team was probably the best single season football team ever, even Fergie said so  )

probably go with Manure, but it's so close

2008 was a great year overall for me and all things (until the crisis)

but my dog, footie wise, grrrrrrrrrr

a3964fff63f4af670f013b0cde4562cd.png

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Premier League clubs hold talks about wage deferral agreement

https://theathletic.com/1711625/2020/03/30/premier-league-clubs-hold-talks-about-wage-deferral-agreement/

Premier-League-coronavirus-wage-deferral-scaled-e1585598866625-1024x700.jpg

Premier League clubs are in active discussions over forming a collective agreement to defer top-flight wages to safeguard their financial future.

The Athletic has learned senior executives at several clubs are making calls to form a joint agreement that would see the Premier League make a statement of solidarity. Some of the division’s most prominent voices are conscious of the need to secure an agreement across multiple stakeholders, as they seek to strike a deal that will appease players, the Professional Footballers’ Association and agents. Should the clubs reach a unanimous view, it is then expected to be fiercely negotiated by those who represent the players’ interests.

The clubs are engaging in these talks because they believe their wage outgoings are unsustainable in the absence of the usual match-day income. There are also doubts over the fate of existing broadcast deals, in addition to concerns over how future negotiations with sponsors and broadcasters will be affected by the overall economic impact of coronavirus. Even the largest clubs, whose revenue streams are hugely diversified, will lose millions of pounds if games are cancelled or take place behind closed doors. One senior director said: “We simply cannot spend all the money we usually spend while missing significant amounts of what we usually bring in.”

The Premier League initially suspended fixtures until April 30, but after the country’s deputy chief medical officer warned on Sunday that it may be six months until the country returns to “normal”, clubs are now hastening measures to protect their finances. Failure to complete the season would mean broadcasters demand £762 million in recompense, as revealed by The Athletic earlier this month.

Last week, Leeds United secured an in-house agreement that saw senior executives, playing staff and coaching staff agree to defer their wages until Championship football resumes. Across Europe, similar moves have taken place. On Monday, Lionel Messi announced that Barcelona players have agreed a 70 per cent wage cut to help tide the club over, while Juventus announced at the weekend that the playing and coaching staff have committed to wage cuts that will save the club up to £80.7 million during the next four months.

Premier League clubs have been criticised in some quarters for being slow to make the same moves, but executives have been at pains to point out that social distancing guidelines from the government arrived later in the United Kingdom than they did in Spain and Italy. Indeed, only a couple of weeks ago, the government was advising that matches and crowds should continue as normal.

Now, however, the reality is setting in for the clubs and The Athletic is aware of top-ranking executives at Premier League clubs — from those competing in Europe to those battling relegation — attempting to broker a unified agreement across the Premier League. However, not every club in the division was immediately aware of the discussions as of Monday afternoon. Indeed, some clubs were surprised by Newcastle’s decision to place all academy and scouting staff on furlough. This means they must apply to the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme, which allows staff to claim 80 per cent of their wages, to a maximum of £2,500 per month, with the club paying the remaining 20 per cent.

Across other clubs, there is hope of a collective deferral agreement by their high-earning staff to protect jobs across the board and ease cash flow issues. Some smaller clubs are more openly contemplating not only deferrals, but also reductions in salary, particularly if play restarts behind closed doors and clubs do not have access to the usual match-day income.  The larger clubs, meanwhile, are not all under the same urgently pressing need to defer wages but recognise the long-term damage that could ensue for the Premier League if a deal is not secured.

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Unwritten: The American college duo plucked from obscurity for a year at Everton

https://theathletic.com/1702859/2020/03/27/unwritten-the-american-college-duo-plucked-from-obscurity-for-a-year-at-everton/

Anton-Peterlin-1-scaled-e1585254533923-1024x683.jpg

This is a story about two young Americans, signed out of nowhere to play for Everton for a year and where life has taken them since; including the front-line of the fight against Covid-19.

The pair were one of David Moyes’ thrifty experiments, in an era when financial constraints fuelled the Scot’s hunt for diamonds in the rough.

Cody Arnoux and Anton Peterlin were college boys playing semi-professional football when they were recommended to Moyes by the coach of Californian club Ventura County Fusion, and former West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper, Graham Smith.

The pair travelled to Merseyside for a successful trial in March 2009 and that summer became Everton’s first bit of low-key transfer business, signing 12-month deals.

Arnoux was 21, studying communications at Wake Forest University near his home in North Carolina. A prolific marksman, Smith wondered if the stocky youngster’s eye for goal would translate across the Atlantic. Peterlin, a year older, was a star on the college soccer circuit. A tough-tackling midfielder for California Polytechnic State University, he was being watched by several Major League Soccer outfits.

They didn’t know one another but became firm friends after making what Peterlin called at the time a “miracle” move to the Premier League, where they largely trained with the reserves alongside players such as Seamus Coleman, Shane Duffy (now at Brighton & Hove Albion), and Jose Baxter.

“I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into,” says Arnoux, now 31 and back home in Wilmington, North Carolina, running his family’s construction business.

“The leap from college soccer to football in England was huge and in the end, there’s no getting round it, I wasn’t good enough. But it was some experience. I’d watched the Premier League all the time back home and suddenly Louis Saha was talking to me on the training field. I was like, ‘This is insane’.”

The two Americans were given an apartment in Liverpool city centre, next to the newly-constructed Liverpool One retail and leisure development, built as part of the city’s 2008 Capital of Culture year.

Arnoux hadn’t been to the UK before. “I was a homebird,” he says. “It was tough adjustment to leave my bubble in North Carolina and go to England. The level was just so much higher than I could have imagined.

“I really had no business being close to the first team. Our first training session, the thing I’ll never forget is the tempo. There wasn’t a minute to switch off or rest. Of course at first too, the other players don’t really want you to do well. They’re all competing to make it at Everton and you’re a foreign guy who is coming in adding to that, so it takes time to make friends. We had me, Conor McAleny, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Kieran Agard all vying for a striker spot.

“Then there’s the coaching. In the US college scene, we’re probably too nice. This was much tougher. I wasn’t used to an environment where players hold each other to account so much. If you made a mistake back home your team-mates were supportive, but at Everton you really knew about it. You had four guys unloading on you. It toughens you up.”

Despite the culture shock, the pair began to win respect for their work ethic and ability to take knocks and keep going.

Cody Arnoux

Arnoux scored a header against Burnley on his debut for the reserves, and soon the pair were taken under the wing of Coleman, who knew what it felt like to be a fish out of water at Everton. The future Republic of Ireland captain had joined that January, also making an implausible leap from the League of Ireland.

“We became pals and he would come over to our apartment after training,” says Arnoux. “It was the season he broke through into the first team. We were at Goodison watching when he was man of the match against Tottenham in his second game. Afterwards he came to our place and we had Papa John’s pizza and played FIFA. He had this perma-smile on his face all night.”

Although his homesickness eased, Arnoux was still dazzled by the standard when the reserves trained with the first team.

“They were unbelievable,” he says. “I remember one session we had a pick-up game of the young guys against the first-team and we didn’t have the ball for 15 minutes. Pienaar, Saha, Arteta… they were just laughing at us while we were running around.

“Finishing sessions were the same. If I scored one in three I’d be happy, but you’d have Yakubu and Saha and they didn’t miss.”

Arnoux and Peterlin were close but different. The former more gregarious, the latter was older with the edge on discipline and focus.

“I’m pretty sociable and would go out for the occasional beer every few weeks,” says Arnoux. “I wanted to meet people. I wasn’t out partying by any means but even then I should have been focusing on my game more. Anton would always stay behind after training and do extra work.”

Peterlin, though, says he too became increasingly aware their time at Everton would not be extended. Unlike Arnoux, he had been to Europe several times; the son of a Danish airline pilot mother and Slovenian doctor father. He found it easier to settle, if not to match his new club-mates’ technical prowess.

“They saw the play so quickly,” he recalls. “In a split second they already knew what they were going to do with the ball before they got it. Arteta just passed it forward all the time, always clever, into space.

“I was exhausted — mentally and physically — after every session with the senior players. The banter was lively too, with guys like Jose and James (Wallace) running the reserve dressing room. We made friends but I was kind of used to not being accepted. In the US when I was a kid, soccer was considered a girls’ sport. Some of the kids in school would puncture our balls and make fun of us for playing it.

“Seamus becoming our friend helped massively. He’s such a good guy. Then there was a taxi driver called Billy Lawler who kind of took us into his family and invited us to Sunday roasts. It made a huge difference. We’re still in touch now.”

Peterlin played against Paul Pogba and Michael Owen in a game against Manchester United reserves, and lined up for the first team in a pre-season game against Bury.

“It was mainly reserve football though, with Alan Stubbs as coach,” he says. “I remember a game against Blackburn and I was tackling everything that moved for 90 minutes and Stubbsy said, ‘Anton, you’re an English player now.’

“One day, Stubbsy and Taff (assistant Andy Holden) said to our group that this would probably be the highest level we’d play at so to appreciate it. The first team were in the Europa League that season and on Tuesdays and Thursdays we’d help them train so we’d be under Moyesy. He was very old-school and demanded a lot but he was respectful to us and us to him.

“It’s a cut-throat environment. True Darwinism really, in that it’s survival of the fittest. For every Ross Barkley or Tom Davies that come through there are scores of other lads with their dreams crushed.”

Towards the end of the year, Moyes called the pair to his office, thanked them for their efforts and confirmed they would not be kept on. He would, though, help them find another club in England if they wished.

After a brief spell trying out at Motherwell and Plymouth Argyle, Arnoux returned to North America, playing for Vancouver Whitecaps in the second tier and MLS side Real Salt Lake, where he finished his college degree. He wound up playing for lower-league hometown club Wilmington Hammerheads for a couple of seasons.

“Injuries stacked up on me,” he says. “I had a bad knee and then I kind of forgot how to score goals. It was innate when I was younger but something in me just stopped doing it instinctively.” He hung up his boots aged 28 and now loves running a business and watching Everton games on TV. Coleman still gets tickets for Arnoux’s father to fly over and see them play live once a season.

“I’ve got no big regrets,” he says. “I guess if I could speak to my 21-year-old self I’d say you can always work harder but just to have the opportunity was amazing. I’ll always be an Evertonian.”

Peterlin got a contract at Home Park. Peter Reid knew a tough-as-boots midfielder when he saw one and picked him as much as possible before he was sacked.

Devon life suited him. A true Californian, Peterlin would surf in his spare time and was disappointed to be released.

“I went to Walsall then and I still loved playing in League One,” he says. “It was just different than Premier League reserves.

“The gaffer was Dean Smith (now Aston Villa boss) and it was very competitive. Every point mattered. There was relegation and a bunch of pressures but I liked it. We played 4-4-2 and I was the midfield engine next to a lad called Adam Chambers but then younger guys on loan from Premier League clubs came in and there was a pressure for them to play.”

Peterlin made an important decision.

Sensing that his options were dwindling he quit English football and moved to Denmark, enrolling at the University in Copenhagen to study medicine while still playing part-time.


That’s where this also becomes a story about these troubled times. About bravery, dedication and selflessness.

Peterlin is 32 and right now his time in English football feels a long time ago.

He is a recently-qualified doctor working in an A&E department just outside Copenhagen, treating a growing stream of coronavirus patients. His wife Josephine is also a doctor on the A&E ward of a different hospital in the city.

Anton Peterlin doctor

    Peterlin is now a doctor on the frontline against coronavirus

They have 18-month-old twins Bjorn and Luka (Slovenian for light), and Peterlin admits his present challenge is harder than trying to make a name for himself in football.

“After graduating from med school here you do an ER rotation and then general practise,” he explains. “I was already doing my GP year but we’ve all been called back to ERs because of the pandemic.”

Image-from-iOS-4-1.jpg

Denmark went into lockdown on March 12 and has significantly less confirmed cases of Covid-19 than the UK, but it remains a worrying time.

“Numbers here are slowly increasing but we’ve haven’t seen the peak in most places in Europe yet,” he says. “Me and Josie talk about the risk of getting it, of course. We take precautions and disinfect ourselves as much as possible after work.

“You hear about shocking cases of kids aged nine in hospital with symptoms. It’s always in the back of our minds how much more serious it could become. But we swore an oath as medical professionals to care for people. We have to do as much as we can. My parents back home in the States worry but I worry just as much for them because, like Britain, the US was slow to go into lockdown even after the WHO declared a pandemic. It’s mind-boggling.”

Saving lives, raising babies, worrying about his wife’s health, his parents, himself. How does Peterlin cope?

“Football gives you a way of focusing,” he says. “It makes you mentally tough. I’m very happy with my life. It’s had a good flow to it so far. I’m thankful just to have had the chance at Everton. I told David Moyes that when he let us go.

“Now I’m glad to have the chance to make a difference here.”

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38 minutes ago, Vesper said:

Moscow, May 21, 2008 grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

worst sporting night of my life :(

I will say this

Manure is the ONLY Big Six EPL team I respect, as a club

I hate their yank owners and that cunt Woodward

but as a team, they were brilliant for so long

I would so love to go back to us v them and streets ahead of all others

we were so close to each other in talent from 2004 to 2010

they won 3, we won 3

2007-8 was such a gut punch, both the league and the CL, that was arguably, on paper, our best team too, overall (obviously 2004/5 was the greatest Chels team every)

CR7 was a difference maker, we only had a player like that once, and for only a few years, Jimmy Greaves

their MF stars were really ageing towards the end of this period

we both had the two best set of Cb's ever in the EPL

its flip a coin for me

if we had beat them for the league and CL in 2007/8, then easy, we were better

but we did not

seeing as they won 3 EPL trophies in a row, and then after this period won 3 in a row again, and we each had 1 CL (Barca fucked them after this in 2 CL finals, that 2010/11 Barcelona team was probably the best single season football team ever, even Fergie said so  )

probably go with Manure, but it's so close

2008 was a great year overall for me and all things (until the crisis)

but my dog, footie wise, grrrrrrrrrr

a3964fff63f4af670f013b0cde4562cd.png

United had the luxury of having stability with SAF.
Towards the end of 2007-2009 our spine essentially managed themselves. We saw a title challenge, European cup final, and a league cup final in that time. 
 

The real question is whether that United side could project that same level of competitiveness without SAF. A huge portion of which were already heavily influenced by him. Rooney, Hargreaves, Nani, etc. 

We’ll never know. 

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On 3/28/2020 at 5:53 PM, Jason said:

That is assuming things die down by July or August for football to resume but if it doesn't, then what? Say if it's only safe to play again in November, then how do you manage the schedule with Euro 2021 happening next summer? I'm kinda bemused by the fact that people are so rigid about following the football calendar schedule. 

Also, tribalism aside, I wonder if we were in Liverpool's position, would people be so casual about just saying "just declare the season null and void" OR if we weren't in the Champions League spots, would people be so dismissive like now? And that is without mentioning the financial repercussions for all the teams. 

How do you manage as well players needing a pre season?

After this long break players will be neading that, so it's best to start a new season when ever possible with a pre season. 

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Just now, Fernando said:

How do you manage as well players needing a pre season?

After this long break players will be neading that, so it's best to start a new season when ever possible with a pre season. 

So, 'players needing pre-season' is really your justification here?!

You're not wrong in saying players would need pre-season but they are gonna need it either way. Could give the players for example a 3-week pre-season, then resume the season and finish it by say by December. There's no guarantee now that we will start 2020/21 begin on time in August and if that's the case, then what? Say if we can only resume in November, how do you manage the crazy club football schedule along with international football and ensure everything related to 2020/21 is finished by end of May next year for Euros? Think there's a big elephant in the room that is yet to be addressed, which is the football calendar for the 2022 World Cup!

Furthermore, if we just declare the season null and void now, there is gonna be a lot of financial repercussions. How do you determine who is champions, who gets promoted? Can you really just deny teams who've worked hard to win a championship and then is suddenly denied by something that's not even their fault? How then do you determine, say, the European qualification for 2020/21? If this season is declared null and void, do you take the 2018/19 league table to determine the teams qualify for Europe? If so, then you would have the likes of Manchester United making complaints about it. If you take how the table currently stands to determine it, then the likes of Wolves, Spurs and especially Sheffield United who will complain about it - mind you, Sheffield United have played one game less than the teams around them for the Champions League spots. If they win the game in hand, they'll go above Man United in 5th and 5th will be a Champions League spot if Man City's ban sticks.

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40 minutes ago, Jason said:

How then do you determine, say, the European qualification for 2020/21? If this season is declared null and void, do you take the 2018/19 league table to determine the teams qualify for Europe? If so, then you would have the likes of Manchester United making complaints about it. If you take how the table currently stands to determine it, then the likes of Wolves, Spurs and especially Sheffield United who will complain about it - mind you, Sheffield United have played one game less than the teams around them for the Champions League spots. If they win the game in hand, they'll go above Man United in 5th and 5th will be a Champions League spot if Man City's ban sticks.

Imagine they take UEFA clubs ranking and we miss CL :lol:

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