Off Season Footy (All Leagues, but real fans only. LOL)

It's all good news for the Swans so far. We've got a Portuguese international keeper in to replace De Vries; Orlandi, Rangel, and most importantly Allen have signed long-term contracts, and we've just had a £2m bid for Wayne Routledge accepted. Add those to the signing of Danny Graham and the loan of Steven Caulker from Spurs, and we're looking pretty good.

I fully expect Man City to batter us in our first game, mind you.

[Phlashman]

I wouldn't be so sure, we held them at the Walkers... sorry, the King Power Stadium last year in the cup and they fielded proper starting line up.

I think at £2m we wouldn't be in the fight for Routledge anymore. But who knows.

[Phlashman]

So everyone about reading for the new season? Glamour ties next week around the country for many lower league clubs. We've got Kettering and erm. some little Spanish team from Madrid, I don't know if they're any good but they might play well in a hope of maybe impressing Sven and some interest from us!

We've had a decent pre-season, but we took our first pre-season defeat for years, though it was against Valencia, who finished top in the (rest of the) La Liga last season and it was only 1-0. We drew against Bouraspour (who were in the Champions league last season) and beat 2 random Swedish sides. The games against Bouraspour and Valencia were on TV in other countries so there were streams online, we're looking much stronger at the back. Matt Mills looks like a great investment and Kasper seems to command the back line much better than Weale (our Keeper for most of last year). Konchesky looks really solid too.

All in I think 1-2 strikers and we'll be there. Any 2 of Maynard/Yakubu/Heskey and we're going to be ready to take up the favourites tag many have given us.

[Phlashman]

Well, Sven has eased our striker problems... by signing 2 more midfielders!

Michael Johnson from Man City, had that good season under Sven but got hit by injuries and well, Man City are hardily lacking for depth in midfield and Gelson Fernandes, from some foreign team, use to be at Man City when Sven was there, scored against Spain for the Swiss in the world cup.

We've just agreed terms with Leroy Lita ... not convinced.

[Phlashman]

Yeah, as per all transfers this window we were rumoured to be pinching him at the last minute, the reaction on our forums wasn't good. I think agents leak a rumour about us pinching the deal to get a few more quid at the last moment.

[Phlashman]

Can you believe it? Real Madrid won!
2-1

We're looking very good.

Torres scored after being on the pitch for 15 secs....

Looks like we are getting Routledge. So long as we're not paying him silly money, then I'm really happy.

[Phlashman]

I've heard that one before.

We've moved on, it's all about Beckham, Adebayor and Robbie Keane for us now...

Looking forward to the season getting under way now. Got a feeling we'll end up losing away at Cov though, we never get a result at the Ricoh and they always get off to a good start, normally top of the league after 3-4 games, but then slowly fall down the league over the season.

I hope not, but got a feeling...

Saw a rumour in a paper at the weekend saying you were also going to be in for Long before the window closes phlash

Are you enjoying whats happening at Leicester Phlash? Do you feel like the clubs lost its identity? I'm obviously very proud of my club in that we got promoted the right way, the only way you should do it really. Not sure how I would feel if we got taken over by foreign owners tomorrow, even if they pumped silly money into the club. The thing I love about Swansea is that the fans own part of the club and its the club of the City, it represents us. Every board member is a Swans fan who knows what its like to support our club, and as a result they act in the correct way.


Supporting Leicester must feel like cheating in Football Manager.....empty.

[Phlashman]

I think I speak for most City fans when I say YES.

To be honest I've tried to write this a few times to try an explain, it's quite hard.

Maybe the best way to answer it is to ask the fans of clubs who've had a similar fate in the last few years, Forest & Leeds. They'd both love a setup like ours. I don't feel like anything that goes on off the pitch can change or lose our identity. I know year in year out I see the same people in the seats around me, they've been their at Premiership, Championship and League one. We're Leicester City, not the players, not the Stadium, not the owners. What can be changed by the off pitch stuff, is how much enjoyment we're getting. The quality of football we've had over the last 8-9 years since administration has been so dire, the thrill of being back in the chase, of having the expectation of achieving something has breathed life back into us and all for the "cost" of changing the stadium sponsor, from one that wouldn't help us out in our hour of need, to one of someone who wants to pump their own money in to the club seems like a no-brainer.

We didn't even have this buzz even when O'Neill was in his prime.

And if it all goes tits up? we'll I'm sure I still see the same faces down at the King Power Stadium, Leicester city will always be there.

People are saying we're buying the league, the facts are we're going to have to play 46 games first and there isn't a single Championship club who wouldn't prefer to be in our shoes.

Well it had been a few weeks since Newcastle had it's name dragged through the mud in the media.

So Barton has continued to be an unprofessional twat and had another twatter rant about Mike Ashley and Dekka Llambarse which has resulted in him being released from the club.

So last season our 4 best players were Nolan, Barton, Carroll and Enrique, none of whom are going to be at the club come the 1st of September. We have yet again made a net profit in a transfer window with no sign of the Carroll fee being reinvested in the team. The club has yet again had it's once good name dragged through the gutter by idiot players and even bigger idiots running the club.

I've said it before on here but I genuinely wish that I didn't care about this sodding football club as I'm becoming increasingly sick of goings on off the pitch.

I honestly thought that it would be impossible to end up with an owner more incompetent than Freddie Shepard but the fact that his reign is now looked back upon in a favourable light says it all.

Why oh why can't somebody who isn't a total arse see the potential in Newcastle the club and get rid of the odious cretin currently in charge? I can honestly see us becoming a yo-yo club if we continue to be run in the manner demonstrated since January.

You were lucky to go straight back up after going down last time. If you go down again I think you are going to find it a lot tougher to come back up nex time.

As for Leeds I am not optimistic tbh. I think we are a marginally weaker team than last term, and we missed out on play offs then and I see nothing to convince me we will do any better this time out. I think if we do not start well there is going to be a lot of unrest over Bates and his ambition for the club this season.