Barry the Badger

Well at least the rioters have acheived something productive.

This debate was in full swing on another thread. This regular first team football playing every week stuff is nonsense. Players do not need to be playing every week at 17 in order to develop to their full potential.

This doesn't really have much to do with Afro-Carribean or Asian gangs.

http://www.twitvid.com/4JTZH

Whilst I agree that action needs to be taken against these idiots, I'm not sure running battles between different ethnic communities is going to make things any better in the long term.

It is possible to think there are deeper reasons for this happening, without in any way condoning it or thinking it's any excuse.

But do you not think that maybe they are protesting against all that stuff, they're just too stupid to realise it?

Spot on really. The police have been guilty of over-reactions on many occasions, but it's too easy for the press to pick their actions apart with the benefit of hindsight. It does seem as though the police are expected to act with absoultely zero room for error, and they no longer seem to know where the line is so they're hesitating.

I dunno... They've definitely cottoned on that there's relatively little reaction from the police, but I reckon this has been coming for a while, just needed somebody to start it.

Ah well. Not sure I fancy travelling to London this weekend anyways.

I'm guessing the army option will have been discussed, they wont want to make the situation worse I guess, but some authority needs to be excercised and quickly.

This is mental. Can't decide if this can be attributed to general disenchantment (not as an excuse but a reason), or if it's just people being idiots.

Really? I find stuff like this really odd. I'm not doubting what you say but being in the Northam the atmosphere was f***ing brilliant.

Oh god, this argument AGAIN. It's about context. When Lowe sold Walcott we had just been relegated, the club was in a mess on a downward spiral, and Walcott was our best hope of turning it around. Cortese has sold Chamberlain but we've just been promoted, the club is in a healthy state on the up, and we have a team that will cope without him. Of course people will react differently to these two ENTIRELY DIFFERENT situations. That said, I don't remember Lowe being particularly abused for selling players anyway, more for a series of total **** ups. I would suggest it says more about you than this forum that you can't see the difference between now and then.

God you're infuriating to argue with :-) I can't believe that Saintwebs number one pedant would write Beckham without checking though ;-) He didn't play 'regularly' until the 95-96 season, by which point he was 20. But back to the point. I KNOW there are lots of top players who DO play regular football when they are 16,17,18. What I'm arguing is that it's nowhere near as important as you are making out. To illustrate this I picked 5 players at random. I was prepared to be wrong and actually thought Messi and Kaka would have both been playing regularly at 17, but they weren't. Playing regularly for the first team at 17 or 18 is not as important as you make out, although each player is different. I don't believe being at Arsenal will harm Chamberlain one bit. Now come on, for my sanity, accept that you may have overestimated the importance of 'regular' football at these young ages.

Ok lets put this theory to the test. I will pick 5 'top' players randomly (I promise) off the top of my head. Lampard Gerrard Kaka C.Ronaldo Messi Right, now you are arguing that a lack of regular first team action will hinder Chamberlain, as it supposedly did with Walcott and Bale. So taking Walcott as an example, he played 16 games for Arsenal in his first season so that's obviously too little in your opinion. So what I will do is find the first season that the above players played at least 20 games, and we shall call this 'regular football'. Lampard - Born 78 - First season of regular football 97/98 - Age 19 Gerrard - 80 - 99/00 - 19 Kaka - 82 - 2001 - 19 C.Ronaldo - 85 - 02/03 - 17 Messi - 87 - 06/07 - 19 So four out of the five top players I chose at random did not play at least 20 games in a season until they were 19. I have just looked these figures up quickly so hope they are correct. Assuming they are will you accept that many top players do not in fact play regular football until their late teens and that 'regular match experience' or whatever you want to call it does not have quite the influence you say it does? And YES (just to cover off the inevitable) I know in the quote I've used you say 'teenage years' and all those players played regularly by the end of their teenage years, but the discussion we're having is that Chamberlain will/wont be handicapped by not playing regular football at 17/18.

In my opinion it's a bit of a 'Football Manager' mentality to believe that players will only improve if they get 'pitch time'. Of course it helps but it's less important than good quality coaching and training alongside quality players to learn from.

Spooky. I think that's Portsmouth's new marketing tag line... "Visit Historic Portsmouth - About 2 feet of diluted urine with floating turds on top"

He was obviously trying to put pressure on Lowe to release funds for signings, but it failed spectacularly when Lowe held firm and Harry was left with the players he'd spent months trashing. If Seaborne plays I desperately hope the bloke who stands near me has gone, I'm not sure I can cope with 90 minutes of "Seaborne you ****ing useless bastard blah blah blah" at the first game of the season.

Agree completely. Too often we write players off forgetting how much a player can improve. Seaborne has got potential, playing alongside Fonte can only help him improve.

I had to go for one at wembley 10 mins before kick off. Not one of the nicest experiences of my life.

I think you mean... and have course my favourite "of" instead have "have". HTH

I don't think he would have anything to do with ticket logistics though.

Sounds like you are the clubs ideal customer!

It's not the whole point though. Yes of course he will get to watch the game but probably at a fair amount of hassle to himself. Having already had to phone and chase, if they don't arrive he will presumable have to get to the ground early to make sure it gets sorted out. It's hardly the end of the world but it is an unnecesary pain in the arse I'm sure, and he's well within his rights to have a moan about it.