Any idea how much they paid? Because Figo is a good addition...

I would be guessing around £2million, thats what I think they wanted from Liverpool for him.

Saha is injured, again.

yeah around that amount. Real Madrids loss, Figo was one of the few that was still playing to win titles.....good for inter

Figo is quite old (30+) and his last two seasons have been nothing to be very proud about. I am actually not sad to see him go.

Very cool avatar, by the way

It was a free transfer.

Can´t wait fir the football season to start... (I mean in England, Italy and Spain, the leagues I follow).

What if we make a "european leagues" thread? Or maybe just a footie one, CL included...

A name change of this one would do

So when exactly does the Spanish league start up? I know its not too soon as it finished a few weeks after the premiership. The Prem starts in 3 days

I renamed the thread...but new one could be nice as well.

Spanish League Primera Division - Sunday 28th August
Holland Eredivisie League - Friday 12th August
Portugal SuperLiga - Sunday 21st August

Couldn't find when Serie A starts, and they have yet to make fixtures (14th I think)...but seen August 28th to be mentioned. That's sunday, so think the actual start will be day before.

First leg fixtures of Premiership:

[table][row color=#333333]Saturday[col color=#333333][col color=#333333]13th August[col color=#333333]Time[row]Everton[col]vs[col]Manchester United[col]13:45 CET[row]Fulham[col]vs[col]Birmingham City[col]16:00 CET[row]Manchester City[col]vs[col]West Bromwich Albion[col]16:00 CET[row]Sunderland[col]vs[col]Charlton Athletic[col]16:00 CET[row]Aston Villa[col]vs[col]Bolton Wanderers[col]16:00 CET[row]Portshmouth[col]vs[col]Tottenham Hotspur[col]16:00 CET[row]West Ham United[col]vs[col]Blackburn Rovers[col]16:00 CET[row]Middlesbrough[col]vs[col]Liverpool[col]18:15 CET[row color=#333333]Sunday[col color=#333333][col color=#333333]14th August[col color=#333333]Time[row]Arsenal[col]vs[col]Newcastle United[col]14:30 CET[row]Wigan Athletic[col]vs[col]Chelsea[col]17:00 CET[/table]

Btw, anyone in mood for some predicting game? Scores or such?

Spain will start on saturday, always does (although the official date is Sunday)

I´m all for a predicting game, but I´d either have to get help from you mates ( ) on the less known teams or we could do it just with the two or three big matches of the week... also with Spain and ITaly?

I was going to start something similar, but there isn't much interest these ways.

But heres my prediction :

PREMIERSHIP
[table]
[row]1 [col]Chelsea
[row]2 [col]Man Utd
[row]3 [col]Arsenal
[row]4 [col]Liverpool
[row]5 [col]Tottenham
[row]6 [col]Middlesbrough
[row]7 [col]Manchester City
[row]8 [col]Everton
[row]9 [col]Birmingham City
[row]10 [col]Bolton
[row]11 [col]Newcastle Utd
[row]12 [col]Aston Villa
[row]13 [col]Charlton
[row]14 [col]Blackburn
[row]15 [col]West Brom
[row]16 [col]West Ham
[row]17 [col]Portsmouth
[row]18 [col]Fulham
[row]19 [col]Sunderland
[row]20 [col]Wigan
[/table]

Top Scorers -

[table]
[row]1 [col]Henry
[row]2 [col]Defoe
[row]3 [col]Van Nistelrooy
[row]4 [col]Cisse
[row]5 [col]Earnshaw[/table]


Fa Cup - Tottenham
League Cup - Arsenal

Champs League - Barcelona

2-3 games each leg would be nice, same for Spanish and Italy leagues...7-9 games wouldn't be too much, right?

Would be good if we could find some system where those that don't predict sometime don't get too penalized.

Ah, nice hans...here are mine.

PREMIERSHIP
[table]
[row]1 [col]Man Utd
[row]2 [col]Chelsea
[row]3 [col]Liverpool
[row]4 [col]Arsenal
[/table]

Not sure now about the others.

Top Scorers -

[table]
[row]1 [col]Van Nistelrooy
[row]2 [col]Henry
[row]3 [col]Drogba
[row]4 [col]Defoe
[row]5 [col]Rooney[/table]


Fa Cup - Man Utd
League Cup - Chelseal

Champs League - Man Utd

Fulham 1:1 Birmingham City
Manchester City 0:0 West Bromwich Albion
Sunderland 0:0 Charlton Athletic
Aston Villa 1:1 Bolton Wanderers
West Ham United 2:0 Blackburn Rovers
Middlesbrough 2:2 Liverpool
Arsenal 3:1 Newcastle United
Wigan Athletic 0:5 Chelsea
Everton 1:2 Manchester United
Portshmouth 0:2 Tottenham Hotspur

Bold : Important matches. . . . . . .

BTW, what do you guys think of the FIFPro 55 players shortlisted to make up the world 11?

The 55 player shortlist in full is: (Home country/ Club 2004/2005)

Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy/ Juventus)
Iker Cassillas (Spain/ Real Madrid)
Petr Cech (Czech Republic/ Chelsea)
Nelson Dida (Brazil/ AC Milan)
Oliver Kahn (Germany/ Bayern Munchen)

Defenders: Alex (Brazil/ PSV)
Roberto Ayala (Argentina/ Valencia)
Cafu (Brazil/ AC Milan)
Sol Campbell (England/ Arsenal)
Fabio Cannavaro (Italy/ Juventus)
Roberto Carlos (Brazil/ Real Madrid)
Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal/ Chelsea)
Ashley Cole (England/ Arsenal)
Rio Ferdinand (England/ Manchester United)
Gabriel Heinze (Argentina/ Manchester United)
Lucio (Brazil/ Bayern Munchen)
Paolo Maldini (Italy/ AC Milan)
Alessandro Nesta (Italy/ AC Milan)
Carlos Puyol (Spain/ Barcelona)
Walter Samuel (Argentina/ Real Madrid)
Jaap Stam (Holland/ AC Milan),
John Terry (England/ Chelsea)
Lilian Thuram (France/ Juventus)
Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy/ Juventus)
Javier Zanetti (Argentina/ Inter)

Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Germany/ Bayern Munchen)
David Beckham (England/ Real Madrid)
Joe Cole (England/ Chelsea)
Anderson Deco (Portugal/ Barcelona)
Luis Figo (Portugal/ Real Madrid)
Gennaro Gattuso (Italy/ AC Milan)
Steven Gerrard (England/ Liverpool)
Ricardo Kaka (Brazil/ AC Milan)
Frank Lampard (England/ Chelsea)
Claude Makalele (France/ Chelsea)
Pavel Nedved (Czech Republic/ Juventus)
Andrea Pirlo (Italy/ AC Milan)
Arjen Robben (Holland/ Chelsea)
Ronaldinho (Brazil/ Barcelona)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal/ Manchester United)
Paul Scholes (England/ Manchester United)
Mark van Bommel (Holland/ PSV)
Patrick Vieira (France/ Arsenal)
Xavi Hernandez (Spain/ Barcelona)
Zinedine Zidane (France/ Real Madrid)

Forwards: Adriano (Brazil/ Inter)
Hernan Crespo (Argentina/ AC Milan)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast/ Chelsea)
Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon/ Barcelona)
Thierry Henry (France/ Arsenal)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden/ Juventus)
Ronaldo (Brazil/ Real Madrid)
Wayne Rooney (England/ Manchester United)
Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine/ AC Milan)
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Holland/ Manchester United).

Too many to choose from!

Im wondering how some of them players got on the list, with sub-par runs last season.

Yeah...and while it's good to see Van Nistelrooy and Ferdinand there, but they haven't played even half a season.

I would pick out : Sol Campbell, Ricardo Carvalho, David Beckham, Joe Cole, Luis Figo, Paul Scholes, Patrick Vieira, Didier Drogba, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney and possibly Zidane as question marks within the list.
Viera, Campbell, Carvalho and Van Nistelrooy especially had crappy seasons last.
Mostly Premiership players here, dont get to see much else really.

Ok, here are mine:

1. Liverpool
2. Chelsea
3. Man U.
4. Newcastle
5. Arsenal

Kind of wishful thinking but hey, no guts, no glory.

I think we could do 9 matches, yeah... people shouldn´t miss many weeks, It´s not like box office where you have to make calculations or wait for theatre counts... and you have a full week for them. It should be fine.

Maybe I am jumping the gun a little bit, but could we do something like this?

1 point if you don´t get the right result but you predict correctly one of the team´s goals (for example, you say 2-0 and the final result is 2-2)
2 points in you get the right result (local victory, draw, away victory)
1 point on top of that if you get one othe team´s number of goals right (You predict 3-0 and the final result is 3-1) OR
3 points on top of that if you get the right score sheet.

Would this be fine?

My picks

Casillas

Puyol
Nesta
Carvalho
Ashley Cole

Gerrard
Lampard
Zidane
Robben

Van Nistelrooy
Ronaldo

Samuel is another one that had an awful, terrible year last.

Wow, you cant be serious about Newcastle can you? 4th? They'd be lucky to finish 14th with only 1 decent striker, who is retiring at the end of the season.



Yes, that would seem plausible. 3 big matches from the 3 big leagues each week.



5pts: Exact correct result (Prediction - 2:1 ~ Actual 2:1)
2pt: Correct Winner (Prediction - 2:1 ~ Actual 5:2)
1pt: Correct goals - either team (Prediction - 2:1 ~ Actual 5:1)

EPL winner: Chelsea

La Liga: Real Madrid

Serie A: Inter Milan

CL : Real Madrid or Chelsea

EPL first week prediction:

Everton 1-2 Manchester United
Fulham 2-2 Birmingham City 16:00 CET
Manchester City 2-1 West Bromwich Albion 16:00 CET
Sunderland 1-3 Charlton Athletic 16:00 CET
Aston Villa 0-0 Bolton Wanderers 16:00 CET
Portshmouth 2-3 Tottenham Hotspur 16:00 CET
West Ham United 0-1 Blackburn Rovers 16:00 CET
Middlesbrough 3-1 Liverpool 18:15 CET
Arsenal 4-2 Newcastle United 14:30 CET
Wigan Athletic 0-3 Chelsea 17:00 CET


HALA MADRID



btw do any of you go to football forums????

I sometimes visit Big Soccer Boards, but they're full of bloody yanks. :razz:

If you know some good ones, with nice layout, post a link.