*Official* English Football Season 2012-13

[BoyBrumby]

Craig Levein suing the Scottish FA is a bit weird.

I mean, if you've been put on gardening leave and continue to have your contract paid in full but then resign in a fit of pique that's your business, surely? Can't have it both ways.

Maybe our legal bods see it differently tho.

[sledger]

I don't really know anything about employment law, but from the sounds of things he's probably trying to make out a case for constructive dismissal.

[The Sean]

CL last 16

Galatasaray v Schalke
Celtic v Juve
Arse v Bayern
Shakhtar v Dortmund
Milan v Barca
Real v United
Valencia v PSG
Porto v Malaga

City must be gutted, I bet they were hoping United would be distracted by Europe for months.

[sledger]

The majority of those games ought to be quite interesting.

[Pothas]

Nice draw that.

Real v United going obviously the pick, Real been poor of late, if they lose that then Jose could be toast before the end of the season.

Shakhtar v Dortmund will be a cracker though.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Well.

Posted yesterday...

[sledger]

That is rather uncanny...

[GingerFurball]

Craig Levein suing the Scottish FA is a bit weird.

I mean, if you've been put on gardening leave and continue to have your contract paid in full but then resign in a fit of pique that's your business, surely? Can't have it both ways.

Maybe our legal bods see it differently tho.

The SFA should launch a counter-suit citing the Trade Descriptions Act; I'm pretty sure Levein would have had to describe himself as a manager to get the job in the first place.

edit: in all seriousness, he'll be suing for constructive dismissal. The SFA have put him on gardening leave because they can't afford to sack him; however being placed on gardening leave prevents Levein from finding employment unless he resigns from the SFA and forfeits what he's due for the remainder of his contract.

[Neil Pickup]

Well.

Posted yesterday...

Order completely different, so only 1 in 40,320 if my maths is right.

Probably another sign of impending Armageddon.

[marc71178]

Does the 1 in 40,320 take into account that teams can't be drawn against someone from same country or same group?

[Neil Pickup]

Does the 1 in 40,320 take into account that teams can't be drawn against someone from same country or same group?

No, forgot that rule. Give me five minutes!

[Neil Pickup]

Logically:

Galatasaray v FC Schalke - chance of 1/7 (no Man Utd)
Celtic v Juventus - chance of 1/6 (no Barca)
Arsenal v Bayern Munich - chance of 1/5 (no Man Utd)
Shakhtar Donetsk v Borussia Dortmund - chance of 1/5 (Juventus already drawn)
AC Milan v Barcelona - chance of 1/3 (no Malaga)
Real Madrid v Manchester United - chance of 1/2 (no Malaga)
Valencia v Paris St Germain - had to happen
FC Porto v Malaga - had to happen

Therefore, taking the drawing order of second-place teams as a given, the chance of these particular fixtures occurring was 1/(7*6*5*5*3*2) = 1 in 6,300.

There must be are other permutations involved regarding the drawing order of the second-placed teams, but I can't be arsed to go through it in the detail required, but suffice to say that this really wasn't that unlikely.

[Marcuss]

Surely you need to consider the odds of the pot 1 teams being drawn as they were?

Anyway, anybody fancy posting up the Guardian Top 100 players in the world #71-100. My browser is too **** and forbidden from downloading a new one onto mum's laptop. From the comments section I've worked out Wesley ****ing Sneijder is 6 places below Wanyama. So should be good for some lulz.

[Neil Pickup]

The order of the pot one teams isn't going to make too much difference to the probability of the match-ups, and I can't be arsed with the multitude of possibilities it implies. Best idea I can come up with right now is a Monte Carlo sim and the time involved in writing it makes me chronically unwilling.

100: Paulinho
99: Diego Forlan
98: Javi Martinez
97: Marek Hamsik
96: Pepe
95: Wesley Sneijder
94: Shinji Kagawa
93: Samir Nasri
92: Hatem Ben Arfa
91: Moussa Dembélé
90: Henrikh Mkitharyan
89: Javier Pastore
88: Leonardo Bonucci
87: Kwadwo Asamoah
86: John Terry
85: Emmanuel Mayuka
84: Darijo Srna
83: Hulk
82: Mapou Yanga-M'Biwa
81: Victor Wanyama
80: Luka Modric
79: David Luiz
78: Patrice Evra
77: Mario Mandžukić
76: Joao Moutinho
75: Ezequiel Lavezzi
74: Christian Eriksen
73: Santi Cazorla
72: Pedro
71: Hernanes

NFI who half of those people are. Shocked by lack of Jamie Cureton.

[sledger]

Surely you need to consider the odds of the pot 1 teams being drawn as they were?

Anyway, anybody fancy posting up the Guardian Top 100 players in the world #71-100. My browser is too **** and forbidden from downloading a new one onto mum's laptop. From the comments section I've worked out Wesley ****ing Sneijder is 6 places below Wanyama. So should be good for some lulz.

Hernanes
Pedro
Cazorla
Eriksen
Lavezzi
Moutinho
Mandžukić
Evra
David Luiz
Modric
Wanyama
Yanga-M'Biwa
Hulk
Srna
Mayuka
Terry
Kwadwo Asamoah
Bonucci
Pastore
Mkhitaryan
Dembele
Ben Arfa
Nasri
Kagawa
Sneijder
Pepe
Hamsik
Javi Martinez
Forlan
Paulinho

Edit: Pickup wac