Yeah, supposedly we've made an offer of 1.7 million euros and a two year contract.

Basinas would be a top signing, though i'd keep Darren Carter personally. Basinas and Muzzy would be a good pairing though, both very creative, with Basinas sitting deeper and Muzzy making forward runs from deep.

Forgot to mention the confederations cup semi yesterday, it was a pretty good game and finished 3-2 to Brazil. Mexico/Argentina is on at the minute but no score as of yet.

Damn i missed that game, just watching the Mexico game on channel 5.

I hope this is the only time I do hear that.

I've been hearing that since they won the European cup.

Shithouse game, lots of errors. 0-0 at end of normal time and 1-1 at the end of extra time (2 scrappy goals) but Argentina won 6-5 on penalties. So Brazil-Argentina final...

Can't believe how tough Arsenal's opening schedule is

Who the fuck is Darren Carter?

No, I am no fucking happy, they are both stars of the future, we need to keep them both.

Huth pushing Adriano over was great :cool:

Spurs accepted something like £8m in compensation for Arnesen, with no players involved.

That second confederations cup semi was pretty terrible, yeah :(

Can someone please explain to me why we are going to sell Darren Carter to the baggies. He was looking good last season and was definetly our best player in the 2 derby games against Villa, I cant help but sense another Andy Johnson scenario here.

Sounds explosive... :meh:

AHAHAHAH Gooner...apparently later today (1:30am here now so later this morning) Football Federation Australia are gonna have a press conference saying they've given Farina the arse! :D

I think that's a bad decision, with the world cup qualifier and all.

Who the fuck would take over...Graham Arnold? :shudder: - fucking Johnny Warren had to go and die :mad:

Berti Vogts is available.

As is Claudio Ranieri :cool:

Bobby Robson :cool:

AHAHAHAHAHAHA HE'S GONE! FUCK OFF WANKER!!!!!!!!!

Guys I don't give a fuck if it's 5 months off from the Play-off, ANYONE is better than that shit cunt. We had NO CHANCE whatsoever with him in charge, with the pathetic line-up he put out. I hope to god they replace him with someone decent ie no fucken Australian coach except Ron Smith, who apparently is an excellent coach AND pretty much trained every member of the team when they were young at some stage, so they have enormous respect for him.

Fuck off Frank, just fuck off idiot. Now we have half a chance of making the Cup...which is better than none at all :D

Oh yeah Gooner u do have a point, if Arnold is appointed I'll shoot the cunt myself.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/img/sport...k_farina_a.jpg
Farina steps down as Socceroos coach


18:21 AEST Wed Jun 29 2005
AAP
Frank Farina has stepped down as Australian soccer coach.

The decision ends Farina's six years as head coach of the Socceroos.

He will be replaced on an interim basis by national technical manager Ron Smith.

Farina said he did not want uncertainty about his role to impact on the team.

"Ever increasing speculation on my position is not something that I want to see affect the performance of the team and the potential for that happening has led to this announcement," he said in a statement.

"We have the players and the backing to get us to the World Cup and no single element of our approach should be allowed to undermine that."

<SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript>spac_writeAd('/SITE=NEWS/AREA=SPORT/LOC=TOP/AAMSZ=MEDIUM')</SCRIPT><SCRIPT src="http://direct.ninemsn.com.au/jnserver/SITE=NEWS/AREA=SPORT/LOC=TOP/AAMSZ=MEDIUM/PAGEID=1120034923581/ACC_RANDOM=1120034925384?"></SCRIPT><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>http://ads.ninemsn.com.au/ads/rich/common/ad21.gif</TD></TR><TR><TD bgColor=#666666></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><NOSCRIPT>http://direct.ninemsn.com.au/scripts...P/AAMSZ=MEDIUM</NOSCRIPT>Football Federation Australia chairman Frank Lowy paid tribute to Farina.

"Frank Farina has been a dedicated coach over the past six years who has given his all for Australian football and we wish him well with his future endeavours," Lowy said.

"However it is important to now move on and focus on the World Cup campaign.

"Our responsibility is to do everything possible to ensure that Australia will be competing in Germany in 2006.

"We have said that we would be leaving no stone unturned to qualify for the World Cup."

Calls for Farina to stand down escalated after the Socceroos left this month's Confederations Cup winless.

The team lost all three games and conceded 10 goals in the process, losing 4-3 to host Germany and 4-2 to Argentina before being humbled 2-0 by Tunisia.

FFA chief executive John O'Neill had made it clear he expected a good performance from Australia at the tournament.

"We are treating the tournament as a World Cup trial, we're not going there to make up the numbers," O'Neill said prior to the Confederations Cup.

"We'd certainly be keen to get past the first round, and Frank Farina shares our objective of making the semi-finals."

Farina has had an uneasy relationship with O'Neill since he joined the FFA in February 2004.

It reached a head in May when O'Neill called for Farina to seek anger management counselling following the coach's run-in with SBS television reporter Andrew Orsatti after a friendly match with Iraq in Sydney.

Farina's national coaching record included highs of beating England in a friendly 3-1 in 2003 and guiding the Socceroos to third in the Confederations Cup in 2001.

That tournament included victories over heavyweights Brazil, France and Mexico.

But Farina failed in the major task of getting the national team through to the 2002 World Cup.

Up 1-0 after the first leg play-off match against Uruguay at the MCG, the Australians faltered badly in the return match, going down to the South Americans 3-0 in Montevideo.

Many questioned Farina's tactics after the loss.

He also presided over the national team when it hit"rock bottom" in July 2002 after losing to New Zealand in the Oceania Nations Cup (ONC) final.

Last year the Socceroos also posted a shock 2-2 draw against the Solomon Islands in an ONC match.

Speaking on a video link-up from Frankfurt, Germany, Lowy said there was no debate in reaching agreement with Farina.

But ideally, he would have liked Farina to have departed sooner.

"If the change, if any, would have happened 12 months ago I think we would have been better off. But given the history of football, things happen when they happen.

"It's happened now and it should not diminish our opportunity to go to Germany."

Lowy said there was no fixed deadline to appoint the new head coach.

lol I couldn't read all that, I got distracted by the Jetstar ad

:roll:

Frank is gone, u cunt, GONE!

that's all you needed to say

I've said it about 400000 times this past 2 months :p

Anyway Venables is definately not taking up the gig...fuck just throw a heap of cash to some South American cunt who can do something with our defence and make it hold out over 2 legs. Attack is fine it's just the fucken defence that needs shaking up. Once that's sorted we're a good chance.

We had him on loan last season, good player. Birmingham are daft for not playing him.

Zola has retired, by far the best player I have seen play live, fucking quality, so many memories.

Kezman for the Pachichi :'(

Unless I'm mistaken that leaves Chelski with 2 strikers. Oh, and Carlton Cole.

One striker, Eidur Gudjohnsen plays centre midfield.

We are gunna get Gilardino most likely.

Get Andy Johnson. Man, I'd cry with tears of joy if that happened.

We have enough money to get someone half decent thank you very much.

Also, the Sun linked us with RvN the other day.

Gilardino wants to go to AC Milan and AC Milan want him.

Top footballers still prefer going to the prestigious clubs over Chelsea.

Yes, but top footballers also care too much about money, I bet he comes to us.

I'd be surprised, he said a while ago he would only go to AC Milan, and Milan have made him their top priority for the summer.

Well, prepared to be suprised, if we give Milan Crespo on loan for another season as rumoured, then I bet we get Gilardino, we will pay more then Milan for him for starters and give him a bigger wage, he will come.

Yeah, like E'too left Barcelona, like Shevchenko and Adriano left the Milan clubs.

Eto'o *, seriously ECG, you need to learn how to spell players names. They are all at really big clubs already, Parma are nothing comared to us, that is the obvious difference.

Milan are a bigger club though, and they're after Gilardino. So if it's between choosing more money or playing for a famous club, maybe Gilardino will be like the rest of them and go to Milan.

Fernando Torres too. Snubbed the Blues. Not having much luck getting a striker.