There has been plenty of dissenting voices to the apparent barmy decision to have international friendlies only a couple of days before the start of the Premier League kick off. I'm one of them and think its pretty ludicrous and seemingly pointless. However as I ventured on to that there twitter this morning I saw that our Asamoah Gyan seems really up for Ghanas friendly mid week. I haven't seen any of pre season unfortunately but from what I've heard Gyan has looked a little uninterested and a few yards off the pace. I was dissapointed in the calibre and scheduling of our pre season opponents, surely we should be playing better opposition than Hibs away, surely try and get a European giants at the Sol? Back to my point, I think getting an extra 90mins in gyans legs could do us the world of good and if he scores he could be brimming with confidance. If Baby Jet has got his swag on them.scousers could be in trouble.
I will reserve judgement on Gyan until I see how he is performing in our league games...I have a sneaky feeling he is going to steal the show at Liverpool...
Fifa seem to have NO IDEA what the general "FAN" wants by arranging these completely stupid and pointless friendlies 2 days before the season starts. It's a joke of an organisation run by corrupt individuals who care only about lining their pockets (IMO)
The trouble is that clubs now complain every time we have international friendlies regardless of when they are..In the past, when footballers had to live in the real world, the extra income that players received for playing for their respective countries was meaningful. Now it all seems to revolve around the 'investment' of clubs on players which can be jeopardised by internationals. In other words, the game seems increasingly to revolve around money, money and more money.
Parker - just a quick query - Pre season is not a matter of "winning games" - more a matter of trying things out in a non-competitive arena. The opposition are the ones that are available and willing to partake in friendlies. From my youth, in the 80's I can only remember that we had poor seasons when we did well in pre-season and vice versa - maybe the manager knew what went wrong when we got beat and could build on it in the season but if it worked then he couldn't find a problem and the season started badly as the pre season had gone badly. Friendlies are exactly that - friendlies and they mean nothing in the grand scheme other than a kick-about. My little lad plays football (under 7's) for Lumley FC and they play friendly games on a Thursday night when they train and these give the coach a bit of food for thought to work out what he's doing on a weekend - much smaller scale but same basic ideas and the opposition are just whoever we can put together on a Thursday night - the kids still want to win but the ethics are more about getting things right
I'm hoping for a gyan/sess master class. I think.Sess could bring out Gyans A game as I get the impression he likes to be the main man.
Here's a good quiz - think of some good comedy acronym explanations for FIFA - I'll Start: ****ing Idiots ****ing About Ignore this - I'll start a multi club thread with it!!
I think friendlies are like sparring is for boxers, good quality sparring partners are a god send come fight time. I'm noy fussed who we play early on to shake the rust off but I think the opposition should pick up nearer k.o time. Leicester hosted Real Madrid last week. If we did that wed get 30k+ in the sol, tenner on the door for adults kids a fiver, few extra coffers in the jar for the club and an open day for our fans to show off our new signings. Could have had a fair outside the sol and all sorts.
Yeah but getting 20k adults (c£200k) + 10k Kids (c£50000) gives us £250k in the clubs coffers. Then there's all of the stewards, police, groundstaff and players appearance fees we'd have to pay out - which means it may actually cost the club money - sad reality of business is we don't pu games on pre-saeson as cost outweighs the income (We'd be very lucky to get 30k for a pre-season game against anyone I believe)
Your not taking into account food and drink sales, club shop sales etc. Curious to know, do we have to pay players appearance fees for a friendly game. I think wed easily have gotten 30k in the sol if we were playing Real Madrid Saturday gone.
Sunderland boss Steve Bruce critical of friendly schedule Sunderland boss Steve Bruce critical of friendly schedule IN ASSOCIATION WITHPage last updated at 14:59 GMT, Monday, 8 August 2011 15:59 UK E-mail this to a friend Printable version Sweden international Sebastian Larsson is among the players called up from the Sunderland squad Sunderland boss Steve Bruce has criticised the decision to schedule international friendlies three days prior to the new Premier League season. Phil Bardsley (Scotland), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana) and Sebastian Larsson (Sweden) are among the players drawn from the Black Cats squad. Bruce told BBC Newcastle: "We've got seven away in meaningless friendlies, it's a bit ridiculous. "I can't understand friendly internationals days before the start." The former Wigan and Birmingham boss added: "Knowing our luck in games over the last year, plans may be laid to rest." Simon Mignolet (Belgium), John O'Shea and Keiren Westwood (both Republic of Ireland) and David Vaughan (Wales) are the other call-ups. Meanwhile Saturday's goalless draw with Scottish Premier League side Hibernian ended Sunderland's pre-season preparations, with a trip to Liverpool awaiting the Wearsiders on the top flight's opening day. "I've never been a fan [of pre-season], I always despised it as a player," Bruce continued. "It's a means to an end to get eveybody right and together, and the most important thing is everybody is ok. "Apart from John O'Shea, who is touch and go for next week, everyone's come through it. "We had some big players needing a pre-season, [Michael] Turner, [Titus] Bramble, [Kieran] Richardson and [Lee] Cattermole who all came through it, and David Meyler joined in as well the last week which is excellent after all the problems we had last year." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/14446258.stm
got to look at friendlies as the chance to try things out, formations, pairings etc but competition against good sides is vital. Remember playing a Russian side in the 80's, around the Len Pascoe era , they were well into their season and they ripped us apart. game time to get the legs is vital and will always be friendlies against whoever they are. hopefully the team has been decided, got their heads around who they are playing and can see Sess getting 1 and maybe a midfielder. Got 2 bets of 10 bucks on over here ( we've got the draw) So Come on !!!!!
I think it has been cancelled due to the riots! Perhaps for the best, we dont want any injuries before the big kick-off.
