[Archived] Other Pl Happenings 2009/10

[American]

Speaking of weakened teams, interesting that the Wolves team that won big last week used 8 players from the weakened squad that played United.

[mickbrown]

Any manager should be able to field any team he wants in any competition.

Premier League are heading down a dangerous road with this one....

[they_think_its_all_rover]

Didn't Wolves only get a 'suspended fine' i.e. they didn't get fined, but if they did it again, they would?

[modes98]

Any manager should be able to field any team he wants in any competition.

Premier League are heading down a dangerous road with this one....

Too right. Why should Fulham, who have nothing to play for in the PL, field a full strength team when they have a potential european cup winning run to think about later in the week.

[gumboots]

Too right. Why should Fulham, who have nothing to play for in the PL, field a full strength team when they have a potential european cup winning run to think about later in the week.

the West Ham fans ringing in on Talksport all think their owners are barmy and are doing Hodgson's team talk for when they play Fulham at the end of the season for him

[Blue n White Rover]

Read in the Daily Mail today West Ham are to be sponsored by Ann Summers, also had a picture of their new kit, pink stripes along with their Claret and Blue.

[Hughesy]

Read in the Daily Mail today West Ham are to be sponsored by Ann Summers, also had a picture of their new kit, pink stripes along with their Claret and Blue.

It was an April fools

[ffan]

Where can I complain about West Ham playing a weakened team all season?

taken from a fulham board

[LeChuck]

Funny how Rooney, Fabregas and Drogba all pick up injuries at the same time, isn't it?

I think that's Arsenal pretty much out of the race now, if they weren't already. Their only hope is that Nasri can step into the breach and Walcott can stay fit on the wing, but whilst Nasri can be world class, he's nowhere near as consistent as Fabregas.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Drobga injured? Where did you hear that?

Hope it's not true...

Already swapped him for Rooney in fantasy football.

[LeChuck]

I read this morning he was injured, but just Googled it now and he's been declared fit for the Man Utd game. Lucky!

[philipl]

Fabregas broken fibula- out for the rest of the season and at risk for not making the World Cup.

[Tris]

Fabregas broken fibula- out for the rest of the season and at risk for not making the World Cup.

Pure karma ... for his comments to Mark Hughes in 2007.

Rovers battled for a replay with a defensive gameplan that clearly irked Fabregas, who asked Hughes after the match: "Did you really play for Barcelona?" That comment drew an angry response from the Blackburn manager who gestured at the Spainsh midfielder as he went down the tunnel. And the four-times FA Cup winner with Manchester United and Chelsea insisted: "I thought the boy showed disrespect to somebody who has won a lot more FA Cups than him."

He added: "He came off the pitch and asked me if I had played for Barcelona and when I said that, yes I did, he said something to the effect of 'that wasn't Barcelona football, was it?'"

Welcome to Barcelona football Fabregas ...

[Grabbi Graeme]

Just what are West Ham hoping to gain from reporting Fulham, Wolves got a suspended fine and they made 10 changes, if the Premier League take any action I would think it's only going to be the same thing as Wolves got, it's not as though they are going to take the points off Hull or have the game replayed.

Very desperate move from West Ham and they are doing a great job of winding Fulham up for when they play in 4 weeks.

[Eddie]

I was against the Wolves thing at the time and it looks like more and more of a joke as the weeks pass. Managers have openly admitted to resting players since and United happily admitted to the fact that they rested Rooney and Ferdinand against Bolton and thought that the team they sent out could do the job (which they did), but it just is a complete joke. Either teams have to be punished every single time a full strength team isn't put out or you can never punish them for it (unless other factors are coming into it; ie match-fixing, collusion, etc).

[LeChuck]

United happily admitted to the fact that they rested Rooney and Ferdinand against Bolton and thought that the team they sent out could do the job (which they did)

That's the key point though, they put out a team which they thought would be able to win the game. Wolves deliberately gave up the match before it had even begun.

It's very difficult to put a hard rule in place, obviously it's totally incorrect to put a blanket ban on squad rotation, but at the same time it's difficult to say where the line is between rotating a few players and giving up on a game.

Until the Wolves incident there had been a level of trust there that meant such a rule was not needed, but McCarthy's selection destroyed that, and I think that's what annoys me most about it.

I guess, ideally, you'd want to judge it on a case-by-case basis (if a complaint was made), but that's only ideal if you can rely on the opinion of the person judging, and I don't think that's the case with the PL.

So...yeah, thanks Mick.

[den]

Well put LeChuck.

People quoting teams with "weakened squads" are missing the point of the discussion.

[American]

But again, 8 players from that "weakened squad" were just involved in an important match which they won 3-0.

[Eddie]

Shhhh...they were humped at Old Trafford...they must have been doing something wrong!

Let's not forget that West Ham rested players the match before the Wolves game...and they lost. Did they not rest quite enough?

[gumboots]

Would they still have fined Wolves though if the whole thing had gone pearshaped for United and they'd lost. stranger things happen when minnows play giants in cup games and given the odd results we've had in some games this season, it could have happened.

[Hughesy]

West ham need to shut up.

They rested some of thier team - it backfired and they lost

Then prior to Stoke they gave players 4 days off - it backfired and they lost

Now they kick off because a team rests players ahead of a far more important game....so what - thats what happens in football and has done for years!

[ffan]

Fulham after Semih Senturk.

[thenodrog]

Just as a thought if the players selected are all members of the first team squad there is surely no issue to address. The FA cannot be allowed to decide who is better than who and in what formation. That is the managers job and his job alone.

Hodgson is spot on...... also Dempsey is a miles better player than Zamora imo.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11681_6069975,00.html

I rem when Bryan Robson cocked up big-time by not turning up at BRFC (relegation rivals) for that pre-christmas fixture in 1997 in the belief that he could re-write the rules to suit Boro (like Fergy did and still does at Man Utd). He claimed they only had 12 / 13 fit players from the first team squad and that two of those were goalkeepers. Because those 12-13 fit players were from the first team squad and therefore deemed of sufficient quality Boro were docked 3 points, fined and made to replay the fixture which I think we drew 0-0. By that time Boro needed all 3 points desperately and as it turned out they could have been thumped 6-0 or similar at Ewood at Christmas and still have avoided relegation without the deduction of those points. Amidst much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes the FA were unmoveable and Boro went down and justice was served.

Turns out post Tevezgate that Boro's biggest prob was that Middlesborough isn't south of the Watford Gap and they didn't have Sir Trev brown nosing behind closed doors or the fine might have been bigger and the points deduction would never have happened.

Point being that most public opinion was against Boro cos they attempted to cheat and that is the exactly the same with WHU. Their standing in the eyes of the public would be much higher if they had simply said 'Fair enough, it's a fair cop. We've cheated, been caught red handed, and we will accept whatever punishment is deemed necessary and not select either player again until they are properly registered with the club. They didn't, they carried on with the deception and ultimately profitted at the expense of a fellow Prem club. That was very wrong.

btw Having some experience of Sheff Utd's 'finest' I'm rather suprised the Boleyn ground was never torched.

[ffan]

West Ham are to sue Ricardo Fuller for scoring the winning goal in last weekends Premier League fixture against Stoke City. The one nil defeat left the Hammers level on points with Hull City at the bottom of the league table.

A club spokesman said "Mr Fullers actions have seriously impacted our chances of survival."

West Ham have refused to rule out further action against captain Matthew Upson and keeper Rob Green for failing to stop the Jamaican and therefore classes them as co conspiritors.

[DeadlyDirk]

I don't think Fulham have a case to answer for, as thenodrog said, the FA can't decide on what their best team and formation for that game is. If the FA are that good then they should all be managing clubs. I think only in cases like Wolves where they made 10 or 11 changes does it look a little obvious that it's a weakened team.

It's a strange rule though, how is it actually written? Everywhere I see it always stresses the 'weakened team' part, surely any game where Manure rest Rooney or another big club rests their best player it could be argued that it's a weakened team? I don't think anyone could argue Rooney isn't one of Manure's best eleven players in any formation. (Not that he's been rested a lot this year.) (Many of our fans would argue that we field a weakened team every time Keith trots out - Glad to see that the abuse is decreasing though)

Regardless of the current rule, in my opinion it should only be a rule that's worked around the fans. They are the ones that pay the money on the basis of seeing their best team go out to try and win the game. Although it can be frustrating for when it affects us I don't think the FA should be worrying about what rival clubs think of their oppositions team selections. If they'd done better earlier in the season then they wouldn't have to worry.

Fulham are in the hunt to compete for major honours with a relatively small squad, I think they have every right to rest players and choose the games that they go all out for, especially given their success in Europe has proved it worthwhile.