[Archived] Premier League Happenings

[M-K]

Isn't he 6th in the premier league all time leading goal scorers? (Taken from Wiki, so could be wrong)

1. Shearer 260

2. Cole 187

3. Henry 175

4. Lampard 165

5. Fowler 162

6. Rooney 156

You suspect that, should he stay in the premier league for the next few seasons he would bag more than the 32 goals he needs to overtake Andy Cole.

Still 6th isn't bad, certainly considering the players ahead of him.

That's pretty amazing, considering Lampard has been regarded as some kind of goalscoring phenom for almost 15 years, Henry was one of the best strikers to play in this country and Cole played in the Prem until well into his 30s.

Shearer, well, I guess he just punched the lights out of anyone else who dared take a shot at Newcastle.

[roverandout]

mark hughes wanting to splash 8 million on diouf, laughable, he has had one decent season in his career and that was last season at hannover, can see this one turning sour.

[Audax]

Rooney has needed a change for a long time as far as I'm concerned. Different club.

[M-K]

mark hughes wanting to splash 8 million on diouf, laughable, he has had one decent season in his career and that was last season at hannover, can see this one turning sour.

Mame Biram? Man alive, he was instantly forgettable.

Somebody failed to tell Stoke the first rule of Sparky: you do *not* give Sparky a blank cheque.

[DE.]

Indeed, limit Hughes to £4m max... he's much better at finding bargains than high-value transfers.

[Majiball]

Isn't he 6th in the premier league all time leading goal scorers? (Taken from Wiki, so could be wrong)

1. Shearer 260

2. Cole 187

3. Henry 175

4. Lampard 165

5. Fowler 162

6. Rooney 156

You suspect that, should he stay in the premier league for the next few seasons he would bag more than the 32 goals he needs to overtake Andy Cole.

Still 6th isn't bad, certainly considering the players ahead of him.

I've always liked this one as for me goals scored always seems misleading in the all time charts. You have players who start 300 odd games and those that played 200 even in the top 10. This is a good site for a break down: http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Statistical_Analysis_of_Top_100_Premier_League_Goalscorers.html

It's Rooney's strike-rate that lets him down for me he's about 2.33 games to one goal, some of those near the top are 1.7 or less. Henry has a phenomal 1.47 with ruud second on 1.58, Henry was the king of kings for goals in the EPL and Rooney will never rival him. Wyanes declined as he's gotten older for whatever reason and I'm not surprised United are forcing him out, 250K a week for 12 goals last season and his documentated behaviour.

[Rover_Shaun]

To me the King of Kings is the one who scored 30+ league goals in three consecutive seasons

[Lancs Rover]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jul/19/stoke-city-free-away-travel

Seems Stoke City have found a way of diverting tv money towards the fans rather than the players' pockets.

[Stuart]

Bravo to Stoke. Wonder how many will follow suit.

Trouble is Sky don't want away fans, they want armchair supporters.

[bennyboyt11]

Great gesture by Stoke City.

[M-K]

I've always liked this one as for me goals scored always seems misleading in the all time charts. You have players who start 300 odd games and those that played 200 even in the top 10. This is a good site for a break down: http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Statistical_Analysis_of_Top_100_Premier_League_Goalscorers.html

It's Rooney's strike-rate that lets him down for me he's about 2.33 games to one goal, some of those near the top are 1.7 or less. Henry has a phenomal 1.47 with ruud second on 1.58, Henry was the king of kings for goals in the EPL and Rooney will never rival him. Wyanes declined as he's gotten older for whatever reason and I'm not surprised United are forcing him out, 250K a week for 12 goals last season and his documentated behaviour.

That chart is a load of cobblers. The goals tally in the 'strike rate' section doesn't match the tally in the 'top 100' part, so I don't know why they knocked 30 off Rooney's total. Dubious goals panel?

Also, he appears to have the same strike rate as Cristiano Ronaldo, who everyone knows was a frustratingly inconsistent scorer throughout... oh.

Plus, if he plays for another seven or eight seasons and becomes the Premier League's all-time top scorer, he'll be - guess what - the Premier League's all-time top scorer.

Maybe you wouldn't recognise him as such because statistics show that Fernando Torres and Darren Bent somehow have a better strike rate.

[Majiball]

Try reading the part at the bottom explaining why some teams are bolded and others not (top scorer season 2013, strike rate 2011). Given his 12 goal season last year it won'y have improved.

Wayne Rooney doesn't look after himself so to be playing at the top level here at 35 will probably be beyond him unless he changes. perhaps moving to work with Mourinho will help he's good at that and perhaps a better man to rebuild Wayne given him and Moyes history. But Wayne must want to change. This is the lad who despite recieving every form of help available to get him fit for the Euro's turned well overweight. He doesn't look after himself well at present.

Wayne Rooney is a striker Ronaldo played most of his career here are right wing. I'd not be happy classing myself as a world class striker and being level on goals with a world class winger.

I's rather have Torres in his prime than Rooney, not Bent though he's really just a poacher and not my cup of tea. I like one up top and three behind (kinky) and Torres for me was better at this than Wayne.

It's a pity he's not like Scholes, Beckham, Neville or giggs who were cosumate pro's and if Wayne had followed suit. I think we'd see a much much better player than the Wayne of today.

[M-K]

Still, I think you're being harsh on Rooney - bringing up strike rate to prove that he's not so good.

Ronaldo took time to develop into a player who scored a goal per game, hence the "low" strike rate. Rooney has moved into various positions with various teammates. Sometimes he's the main striker, sometimes support. Sometimes he gets 30 goals, sometimes 15, hence the same strike rate. The fact remains that compared to pretty much everyone else in that list, he's played for a better team for longer and in more positions, yet still has the all-time top scorer in his sights and will almost certainly end up at least second.

Torres - his prime lasted about three seasons. Too many people expect Rooney to be the English Maradona, but although he hasn't won a world cup single-handed he's scored consistently at a high level for 10 years. Even the stats can't knock that, however you want to spin them.

[The Rover of Finland]

Spurs are signing another very good Belgium player to England. Nacer Chahdli should adapt English game very well. Mignolet, Verthongen, Vermaelen, Kompany, Chadli, Fellaini, Hazard, de Bruyne, Mirallas, Dembele, Lukaku and Benteke. Quite a list of Belgium internationals in PL.

[Guest Norbert]

Quite a list of players full stop. Assuming they make it to Brazil, they might be worth a sneaky each way bet, as their odds will be pretty good. Makes you wonder what it is that they have dones right 10 years ago to breed these players.

[Stuart]

Belgium remind me of Wales. They've had some great, great players but always missing something.

[roverandout]

this is by far the best squad Belgium have had for ages, far more talented than the England one, I can see them making to the quarter finals in brazil next year

[Baz]

Belgium remind me of Wales. They've had some great, great players but always missing something.

Finished 4th in 1986, not bad for a small country.

[somersetrover]

Spurs are signing another very good Belgium player to England. Nacer Chahdli should adapt English game very well. Mignolet, Verthongen, Vermaelen, Kompany, Chadli, Fellaini, Hazard, de Bruyne, Mirallas, Dembele, Lukaku and Benteke. Quite a list of Belgium internationals in PL.

Don't forget Thibaut Courtois on loan at Athletico Madrid but contracted to Chelsea absolutely fantastic goalkeeper IMO. Don't know why Chelsea loan him out a brought in Schwarzer, Courtois should already be number 1 for Chelsea.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Too right, Courtois is an outstanding keeper. I reckon Chelsea and Cech have a major connection with all his penalty saves in the Champions League and they're not happy to discard him so readily, despite Cortouis being the better keeper.

As for Belgium, fair play to them, wouldn't surprise me to see them challenge for a tournament in the near future. They've got Defour and Axel Witsel along with the other names mentioned earlier.

[beanie]

Dries Mertans has just went from psv to Napoli for 9.5 as well and Alderweield is rated highly it seems to be a very good time for Belguim football. When you compare the depth of the squad's it's better than Englands

[Audax]

Per Belgium, they use to say something that they had the best current run of consecutive appearances in the World Cup of any country that didn't host it. Something like that. Brazil I believe is the only country that has been to every single World Cup.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium_national_football_team

I can still remember a lot of those names from the 1986 team,

The team's rigorous organization was reinforced by several world-class players such as goalkeepers Jean-Marie Pfaff and Michel Preud'homme, right-back Eric Gerets, midfielder Jan Ceulemans, playmaker Enzo Scifo and striker Luc Nilis.

That was a darn good team. I even thought there were Pfaff brothers on the team but I may be wrong.

As said, Belgium finished 4th in 1986 and were in the finals in the 1980 Euro only to lose to West Germany (, so 2nd in the Euro. I have said before, I have cheered on the "Red Devils", the little country with a lot of spunk.

And who knows, Belgium use to be the big Rival to Netherlands, I'm sure they still are but we have all seen how the Dutch have taken off as one of the top powers of world football, the Dutch have been a big power since 1974. I think it's conceivable Belgium could have a good deal of success. Also, in 2002, Scolari says Belgium was one of the hardest games for Brazil to win on Brazil's way to winning the world cup. While this might be the kind of thing a gentleman would say, I think one can look at that game and wonder if Belgium was the victim of some bad refereeing.

A recent cold spell is that after the 2002 World Cup, they seemed to miss quite a few tournaments.

11 World Cup appearances.

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Also a few pages back, Real Madrid was mentioned:

http://uk.soccerway.com/news/2013/July/21/pre-season-friendly-bournemouth-0-real-madrid-6/n235344/

Bournemouth 0 6 Real Madrid

[blueboy3333]

Moyes has apparently pulled out the 'tough Glasgow upbringing' card when asked if Mourinho's mind games will bother him. Cumbernauld must be massive.

I've never liked Moyes. Back in his PNE days (think it was the 2001) he once said that Preston was a bigger 'football town' than Blackburn. It riled me. I saw him a few years later in Preston town centre. He was deceptively big so i left it.

[Guest Norbert]

He doesn't look the sort you'd go up to out of the blue and call a tw_t.

[M-K]

Quite a list of players full stop. Assuming they make it to Brazil, they might be worth a sneaky each way bet, as their odds will be pretty good. Makes you wonder what it is that they have dones right 10 years ago to breed these players.

Relaxed their immigration policy?