Europa draw

eurosport at 12.

I wonder who we'll get?

http://video.uefa.com/video/Competitions/uefacup/Season=2011/liveDraw_videoFlash.html

juve

Salzburg

Lech Posnan

Juventus
Salzburg
Lech Posnan

should qualify from that

Decent group. Should be enough to qualify at least.
Nice to see that BM is slower than a snail's walk again.

Well we should qualify comfortably, do 2 go through from the group stage ?

bluealf wrote:Well we should qualify comfortably, do 2 go through from the group stage ?

Yep; top two in each group go through (24 in total), to be joined by the eight teams that finish third in the CL groups. Could be a bit twitchy if we need a point in that last game at the Stadio Delle Alpi (sp?) to qualify!

Im sure we wont NEED a point but all 3 will make a big statement of intent.

bluealf wrote:Im sure we wont NEED a point but all 3 will make a big statement of intent.

Agreed. Go out there and knock over one of the giants of European football (regardless of their current form), and the meeja might just start to take us seriously. As it is, there seemed to be a bit of a shift in their thinking post-pitypool.

Even that Howard from the sun was at it today.

THE late 1960s and early 70s, to us old goats, were the golden age of English football.

Leeds United, Manchester United and Brian Clough's Derby County. And, for the purists, Chelsea and Manchester City.

The Chelsea of Peter Osgood, Alan Hudson and Charlie Cooke - antidote to the anti-Christ of Don Revie's immensely successful, but equally cynical, Leeds.

And the Manchester City of Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee, the swashbuckling entertainers who dared gatecrash their neighbours' 1968 European Cup-winning party by winning the title the same year and giving City fans their own heroes to match the Holy Trinity of Best, Law and Charlton.

They were wonderful times, with Chelsea and City cocking a snook at the powerhouses of the two Uniteds with football that put a spring in your step.

Their relative underdog status made them even more popular.

Now look at the them. Rich as Croesus, dominating the transfer market, obliterating the opposition because of their financial power and attracting envious glances and snide comments alike as they go about the business of using their astronomical funds to buy success.

We do not like money being the deciding factor. In a country that always roots for the little fella, it is seen as foul play and a bit vulgar. As such, I have been trying to work myself up into a state of righteous indignation over City for some time.

You may have noticed - and it is not working. Despite Thaksin Shinawatra, the absurd Sulaiman Al Fahim and a couple of own-goals from chief executive Garry Cook.

Yet there was no problem when Chelsea started throwing Roman Abramovich's money around. We did not like Peter Kenyon. We were even less enamoured with his sidekick Simon Greenberg, the club's aloof and extremely selfimportant communications chief.

And when Abramovich saw his first match at Liverpool, p***- taking Chelsea fans chanted his name waving wads of notes around, yelling "Loadsamoney".

The memories came flooding back on Monday night, as the young Sheikh Mansour visited Eastlands for the first time to see what his £355million had bought.

We liked what we saw. Mansour, with his wide-eyed enthusiasm, seemed almost a proper football fan, while there has always been something a little sinister about Abramovich and his Russian coterie.

We did not like the whole idea of Chelsea. Yet they have probably done City a massive favour, as our natural antipathy towards the new northern giants has been diluted by the fact Chelsea got there first. Much of our spleen, sadly, has been vented.

City also appear to be learning from what Chelsea did. They saw how the London club, despite everything, got it right on the pitch.

How, to offset the image of a club weakening English football by bringing in so many foreign players, they built a team with an English core - John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard and Joe Cole. Something to really appeal to the fans.

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Just as City have added Adam Johnson, James Milner, Joleon Lescott, Gareth Barry and Wayne Bridge to a squad blessed with players like Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Michael Johnson and, before them, Shaun Wright-Phillips from a time when City had to grow their own.

Even boss Roberto Mancini is tuning into the Feelgood Factor.

The long hair and knotted scarf have been replaced by a short back and sides that somehow adds to the innocence of it all - despite the brutality of transfer plunges that, in the case of defender Aleksander Kolarov, have even seen off Real Madrid.

On Boxing Day, 1977, I was at Maine Road to see City's greatest-ever player - Colin Bell, the King of the Kippax - make an emotional comeback against Newcastle after a long spell out with a knee injury.

All present, including Bell, knew it would never be the same. Within two years he had retired.

If that was the end of one era, City's 3-0 win over Liverpool on Monday was the dawn of another.

Despite protests this is a work in progress and they will be happy with a Champions League place, there is little reason why City should not make a serious push for the title. They have pace, power and cover in every position - ingredients that saw Chelsea land their first championship for 50 years.

Sheikh Mansour's money has made all this possible. It may not be fair, it may not be right but it is the way of the world.

I will continue to do my best to rub them up the wrong way, to moan and jib and carp as I did last week when claiming they had signed a few B-listers. That went down extremely well.

It will not be easy but I will give it my best shot.


Trying to make a joke of his previous articles, spineless cunt.

Fuck him. Er; not literally, you understand!

[quote="jimharri"]

bluealf wrote:Could be a bit twitchy if we need a point in that last game at the Stadio Delle Alpi (sp?) to qualify!

It'll probably get Twitchy, too, in the knockout rounds.

Dont you be putting words in my mouth you.