Premier League 2010/11 general thread

[abigsmurf]

With all the overblown hype around him he was always going to win it.

Would like to see Sturridge or Mcceachron up for it next year but that'll only happen if they actually get starts...

[EJG1980]

You haters, Bale fully deserves it Yes he's been over hyped but that shouldn't take away from the fact that he's had an excellent season.

He hasn't been inconsistent either. People seem to assume that he's had an "anonymous" game whenever he hasn't scored or utterly destroyed the fullback. There have been games this season where Bale has played well, been influential on the game, and set up chances that our inadequate strikers fail to put away, and I'll get home and see a match report that asks where Bale was during the match.

A telling stat is that Bale has created more chances than ANY other player in the Premier League this season. If our strikers hadn't been having such awful seasons his assist count would be miles higher.

[abigsmurf]

There's been a big 'stamp anti-semitism out of football' push ahead of the Chelsea vs Spurs game.

Perhaps if Spurs supporters stopped calling themselves Yids there wouldn't be chants using against them using that word? How utterly stupid.

Abramovich is Jewish, Avram Grant was Jewish. You always get the odd twat who yells something but you get that against any sort of minority, I've not noticed anti-semitism ever being an issue.

[EJG1980]

You do realise that anti-semetic yid chants aimed at Spurs fans came first and happened for many years before Spurs fans started calling themselves yids? Spurs fans adopting it as a nickname and using it in positive chants about the team was an attempt to take away its power as an insult. To try and imply that the people on the receiving end of the abuse are the problem is ridiculous. It's like saying that it's okay to abuse a black person using the N word because certain members of the black community took the word and used it for themselves.

The word yid is the smallest part of the problem anyway. I've had the pleasure of being on a train more than once that was packed with either West Ham or Chelsea fans, singing songs about paying Hitler's gas bill, Spurs being on their way to Auschwitz, and multiple times having to listen to gas chamber noises emanating from the away end against said teams. I'm sure all that would instantly disappear though if Spurs fans stopped using the word yid...

[merf]

Not saying Bale isn't a great player, just not the best over a season in the league this year. Has he even been the best at Spurs over the season on form (not potential or the odd great match) ?

Did anybody else notice the totally inappropriate bit at Arsenal yesterday during the minutes silence where Gunnersaurus was stood at the end of the players line with his head bowed ?

I know respect to the Hillsborough dead and Danny Fizsman can take many forms but surely it would have been appropriate to get the 10 foot tall green dinosaur in Arsenal kit off the pitch and out of shot.

[EJG1980]

Fair enough, but I do think that the hype about Bale has created a lot of anti-hype backlash which tries to play down how well he has done. I don't think I would describe him winning it as odd, I think he's a worthy winner, but then if say, Parker or Tevez had won it, I think they'd have been worthy winners too.

You are right about him not being the best at Spurs this season though, I think that honour goes to Modric, nearly always has a very big influence on a match. I would say that Modric not even being shortlisted is more odd to me than Bale winning it.

[abigsmurf]

You do realise that anti-semetic yid chants aimed at Spurs fans came first and happened for many years before Spurs fans started calling themselves yids? Spurs fans adopting it as a nickname and using it in positive chants about the team was an attempt to take away its power as an insult. To try and imply that the people on the receiving end of the abuse are the problem is ridiculous. It's like saying that it's okay to abuse a black person using the N word because certain members of the black community took the word and used it for themselves.

The word yid is the smallest part of the problem anyway. I've had the pleasure of being on a train more than once that was packed with either West Ham or Chelsea fans, singing songs about paying Hitler's gas bill, Spurs being on their way to Auschwitz, and multiple times having to listen to gas chamber noises emanating from the away end against said teams. I'm sure all that would instantly disappear though if Spurs fans stopped using the word yid...

It's no longer the 1960's (when Spurs started calling themselves the Yid army). Spurs, Man U and Chelsea (plus most likely a fair number of other Premier League clubs I can't be arsed to look up) all have Jewish owners, there's no need to just keep this thing going and going, one club using it 'ironically' isn't going to stop it being a hate word.

[EJG1980]

It's no longer the 1960's (when Spurs started calling themselves the Yid army). Spurs, Man U and Chelsea (plus most likely a fair number of other Premier League clubs I can't be arsed to look up) all have Jewish owners, there's no need to just keep this thing going and going, one club using it 'ironically' isn't going to stop it being a hate word.

Most older Spurs fans I've talked to about it who have been going to WHL for decades say we didn't start using the Yid nickname or chants until the 70's, after a solid ten years of anti-Jewish chanting aimed at Spurs throughout the sixties. Still that's nitpicking and doesn't really matter.

My problem is that the Baddiel video focussed 99% on the use of the word Yid, as if that was the main problem. It is not. There were anti-Jewish songs and chants before Spurs fans used that word. If Spurs fans completely dropped the use of the word Yid tomorrow those very same chants would carry on. Yet the video showed a quick clip of an Auschwitz chant almost as an afterthought.

Putting the focus on one set of fans who tried to take a negative word that was being used against them and use it in a positive way is completely the wrong way to go about it in my opinion. The big problem are the songs and chants, which have nothing at all to do with the word Yid, and were not caused by Spurs fans using the word Yid. To me it seems like the absolutely vile chants are almost being swept under the carpet.

It's arse backwards as far as I'm concerned. Concentrate on the chants first, then start trying to remove the use of the word Yid. Are we seriously saying that when a Spurs player scores a goal and Spurs fans chant "Yiddo! Yiddo!" at them in celebration, that it's as bad or even comparable to a West Ham fan singing "I'd rather be a Paki than a Jew" or a Chelsea fan singing "We paid Hitler's gas bill"?

[EJG1980]

Going back to the subject of PFA player of the year, is there an actual decent reason why the voting takes place in February and not at the end of the season? I'm sure I remember reading something about that once but can't remember what reason was given.

[prinnysquad]

Fatty has finally acknowledged what most fans have said for months:

"(Darren) Bent wanting to leave, Campbell re-injuring himself, it's all affected us. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but we took a calculated gamble in January and, looking back now, it's made things very difficult."

Well, duh. Think you'll find, Stevey Boy, that many of us had foresight - we didn't need hindsight to see this piss-drenched cock-up on the cards.

[Adrock]

How comes people are typing yid with gay abandon but dont wish to type nigger? Only referring to it as the N word?

Surely, to the target, both words are as distasteful. Either way, chants like those mentioned above and the multitude of others keep me away from football grounds. I cant enjoy watching a game when I am surrounded by idiots baiting total strangers because they choose to support a club.

As for magboss (thats his nickname isnt it?), he has been hilariously distasterous recently. Gyan is finally showing the form that has blighted his career so far. A goal ever 4 or so games just isn't good enough for the kind of money Sunderland punted on him

[abigsmurf]

It's because it's pretty low down on the ladder of anti-semetic terms, at least, compared to the K word or holocaust related slurs.

[Flabio]

Going back to the subject of PFA player of the year, is there an actual decent reason why the voting takes place in February and not at the end of the season? I'm sure I remember reading something about that once but can't remember what reason was given.

The BBC answer that very question today.

[EJG1980]

It's because it's pretty low down on the ladder of anti-semetic terms, at least, compared to the K word or holocaust related slurs.

Indeed, which is why I think that they've got it wrong making that the focus of their campaign (calling it the Y-word campaign, etc). To clarify I'm not saying it's right for Spurs fans to chant it, but given the reasons it's used, and the context it's used in (i.e. in support of Jews who have been on the receiving end of chants, throwing it back at those who use it as a slur, to express happiness with the team doing well, etc) then it should be quite near the bottom of the priority list. I'd hope that eventually, if we're lucky enough to see a day when the really sick chanting is wiped out, that Spurs fans would also stop feeling the need to use that word as a nickname.

I did see a David Baddiel statement on the responses he received to the video though; he made some decent points and made me look at certain things from a different angle. It's going to be very tough to get rid of anti-Semitism whatever angle you approach it from (especially as he said, it seems to be treated as being "less serious" than other forms of racism).

Anyway I'll stop rambling about it as I'm sure I've gone on far too much

The BBC answer that very question today.

Thanks for the link! Not the greatest of reasons really, I don't think many people would be upset if the two different awards were handed out closer together.

[Flabio]

Diouf continues to win friends and influence people.

http://www.football365.com/story/0,17033,8652_6883954,00.html

What a tool that man is.