The Community Shield

[Gromit]

Good wasn't it.

[SeaJayPea]

I can't think of a more exciting club game at Wembley or the Millennium since Liverpool v West Ham. Cup Finals tend to be so bl@@dy boring these days.

[B00]

sorry to go off the topic, but on the other thread of yours Groms (assuming it got pulled, i can't find it?) did you call me an imbecile? I was joking when I said i was the one who removed your threads you know :-(

[Gromit]

No Boo,
I saw you hadn't pullthe thread.

[B00]

Ahhh, i posted my joke, then noticed you'd posted the word imbecile again, i obviously put two and two together and came up with fifteen....again.

Sorry, as you were!

[Brenden]

How do you know who pulls the threads?

[weecalf]

Got united to win 3 2 at 25/1 .Left it late but a wins a win

[Gromit]

I had miss typed "but an imbecile" in my post. The "by an imbecile" was a correction to my own post, not a comment on yours.

[Barmaid]

<<Bangs head on wall>>

Ed pulls the threads!

[Barmaid]

Ed posted a few weeks ago to say that only Eds can pull threads. Mods can't. Therefore if a thread is pulled and the user remains active it is an editorial decision.

Gromit - did this used to be called the Charity Shield? I went to a Spurs v Arsenal CS match years ago. It was terrifying being with someone wearing Spurs colours amongst a sea of red at Kings X.

[Brenden]

Thanks barmaid.

[New Judge]

Yes Barmaid, it was known as the Charity Shield until 2002. Despite the FA putting out a positive spin on the change (“We want to ensure that good causes continue to receive financial support from football”) the name change was forced by the Charities Commission. The FA chose the charities that would benefit from the proceeds of the match but the Charities Commission insisted that if the name was to be retained they would have to determine how the cash was to be distributed.

On a wider note competitive football should not be played in England in the first week of August. The closed season is far too short and people need a longer respite from the game's idiocies and nonsense. I think I’ll start an “e-Petition” to make it illegal for the season to begin before September 1st.

[trt]

Who are you New Judge to say that people need a longer respite from the game's idiocies and nonsense.

You obviously don't like football so get back to your bowls or crib!

[New Judge]

Apart from the diehard fans who would watch it 365 days a year, trt, most people I know (many of them football enthusiasts) believe that the season begins too early in the year.

Most teams play around 50 matches a season at most. At two matches per week this should take 25 weeks. So starting on September 1st and allowing a bit of leeway for Christmas and bad weather the season can be comfortably completed by the end of March. This would leave five months where all we would read in the newspapers about football would be who is being transferred to whom (rivetting stuff), who is sleeping with whose wives and what tattoos the players have had added to various parts of their anatomy.

Instead of that today on Radio Four there was a five minute article about what was essentially a pre-season friendly. God alone knows how much Radio Five Live devoted to it !!

[Gromit]

Manchester United played 60 competitive games last season, not including friendlies.

[New Judge]

OK, they (and their oppenents) have New Judge's special dispensation to go into April.

[Ric.ror]

It was brilliant - best match I have seen in a while and showed how good the new young players are and how we are a class above everyone else even the noisy lotto winners next door
Who were, once again, put back in their place;-/