News: General 2011-2012 Ligue 1 Discussion

you like watching big french teams play in CL
thats fine, though you have to admit every once in a while(especially in this league) some non big french club is going to be in CL
french teams are underdogs in both CL/EL, lyon is the only one who sets itself apart
as for underdogs in other leagues, bro c'mon:
Napoli(si not considered a big club in italy, looking at their last couple of years its quite evident they are not)
the rest of italy does not care about EL

Bilbao/Athl. Madrid(Bilbao, underdog in EL and its league no one expected them to go this far, athletico is not a top club in spain, its now a 4-6th place)
Villareal-former top spanish club(3-4) now look at them

Germany-Germany has all kinds of clubs going up and down, having a good league run- participating in CL in one year and near league descent the next, bremen, struttgart, hoffenheim, hamburg, wolfsburg etc. etc.

 

I wouldn't count on that, Udinese an extremely small populated city, and though a contender for the title this season has one of the smallest stadiums in italy for top division clubs(41K) and they almost got into CL this season and they might next season
Parma FC great example of a really small club that got into CL less than a decade ago,
as for Napoli:
2004 bankrupt
2005 Serie C1(3rd division)
2006 Serie B
2007 Serie A
2011 CL
sure they weren't a small club stadium and fan wise but they sure as hell weren't a mid or top club for a large portion of the 90s and 2000s
as for spain, remember Real Sociedad? Betis? look them up
what Im trying to say is its bound to happen, its all a cycle, sure MHSC is doing good right now but lets see it perform under several competitions and see how they finish off
hopefully they can become something close to bordeaux, which would be great for that little club from the south

 

greece? qatar? china? MLS? his possibilities are almost endless.

 

well, both azpi and rémy are being left out due to minor injuries and they're two of the best marseillais at the moment (all things being relative of course), and for what it's worth (not a great deal) maxifoot gives this lineup without valbuena.

Mandanda
Fanni - Mbia - Nkoulou - Morel
Kaboré - Diarra - Cheyrou
J. Ayew - Gignac - Brandao​

that doesn't look like OM's best side but neither amalifitano nor andré ayew have been dazzling. so this may be the best DD can do. the vélo isn't going to be pushing them on but they haven't been very good at that for weeks, and all of ganay is under renovation this season so that's not decisive either. all in all, neither club nor players are intentionally going to go easy on MHSC just to spite PSG, but they won't have to. montpellier can win all on their own so there should be no polemic about it.

 

it was in 2006 and the problem was about the safety of OM supporters: i think at first PSG refused to give marseille their allotment of visitor seats citing a decision from the prefect, then changed their mind... whatever the case was, pape diouf sent a mix of reserves and subs who did indeed play to 0-0.

in 2009 it was for OM-PSG that they had difficulty finding a date; the original fixture was postponed because PSG had been hit (or claimed to have been) by a flu epidemic. since OM was in the CL that year alternative dates were hard to find, and when OM's choice was refused they threatened to send the CFA2 kids again but a date acceptable to both was eventually found.

there have been other monkeyshines between these two: once at the vélo the PSG changing room was invaded by severe ammonia fumes; the actual gravity of the affair and whether it was intentional are subject to debate but it adds to the folklore!

 

he could start by giving sarkozy a job on the staff.

 

well, my original answer was that leo's first personnel move this summer should be to hang himself, but that wasn't a nice thing to say, was it?