*Official* English Football Season 2012-13

[sledger]

G'wan Saints. Send crap 'Arry down.

[GIMH]

Bah.

[superkingdave]

Played our part.

[GIMH]

You'll play your part in us getting back to normal next week as well...

[Ikki]

Weird statement. Longevity in itself is a factor how a player is rated. Would you prefer someone like Ronaldinho who went and had 2 Alll time class seasons and then became just a good to mediocre player ?

It depends on the discussion, but Giggs seems to be getting rated higher for performing well despite his age. It is not as if in the last 5-6 years he has been one of the best players in the league...he clearly hasn't, and him winning the PFA award a few years back was basically a life-time achievement award.

Giggs was not a Mata - he's probably more a Mata now than when he was young. Giggs was a pure 4-4-2 winger which doesn't really exist anymore these days. And while Giggs was seen as a fantastic player in that side, he was not on the Keane/Cantona/Ronaldo level.

Giggs was considered one of the best players in his position (winger) during his youth, but he was basically never considered amongst the top handful of players in the world. That just never happened. The difference is Bale is frequently being considered. Longevity does say something about ability and we'll see how Bale's career ends up; but as of now he's hitting heights that I'd say are debatable for Giggs ever achieving at his peak. And who even knows if this is Bale's peak because he seems to be getting better.

tl;dr version: Bale looks a better player and is playing better than Giggs probably ever did; but whether he keeps that up is yet to be seen.

[flibbertyjibber]

Tight at top and bottom of League 1. Gutted with todays result, getting stuffed by the gypos is too much to take. At least most of the other results went with us.

Stevenage are in trouble. Lost 6 in a row, 12 of last 13 and have 6 of the top 7 still to play. Ouch.

[GIMH]

That Suarez bloke, bloody hell

[Ikki]

That Suarez bloke, bloody hell

Should be frontrunner for PFA/FWA player of the year award right now.

And that's two brilliant performances from Coutinho now. Had my reservations, despite his obvious talent, since Inter were getting rid. But his play/vision for both assists was fantastic.

[GIMH]

Well it'd be hard to begrudge any of Van Persie, Suarez or Bale the top awards this season.

[The Sean]

Yeah hard to judge between the three, still too much football to be played to really make a call either way. Suarez has been blitzing low-ranked teams all season (not a bad trait, incidentally), doing so again today didn't really tell us anything new in that respect.

[Ikki]

Well, he's scored against City, Arsenal and Chelsea so he's no flat-track bully. For me it is between him and RVP (Bale, while good, hasn't been good all season like these two) and it depends if credence is given to United winning the title for those individual awards. I think in terms of just their own game, Suarez is the better player. He does a lot more with less help.

[Tom Halsey]

Actually I think if the season ended tomorrow I'd just about give it to Bale, but as The Sean said, there is still much football to be played and it's close between the three of them so I can see it going to any of the three.

[The Sean]

Given how the British papers are talking about Bale right now I reckon he'll win the FWA award - I think they've decided to back the great young British hope. A big performance in the derby tomorrow will only strengthen their case.

No idea how the players will vote though.

[Neil Pickup]

Tight at top and bottom of League 1. Gutted with todays result, getting stuffed by the gypos is too much to take. At least most of the other results went with us.

Stevenage are in trouble. Lost 6 in a row, 12 of last 13 and have 6 of the top 7 still to play. Ouch.

Wonder what the odds are on them asking Westley back...?

[Pothas]

Come on the Bees, not great today but 3 points is all that matters, we just might do this.