Ajaxtalk

Leander's column proved quite controversial this week...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... e-fctwente

The Purple Cow schreef:Leander's column proved quite controversial this week...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... e-fctwente

Interesting article and does indeed give hope for the future regarding the end of racism and prejudice - not too sure about the pretext that el Hamdaoui and Afellay are the 2 very best players in the Eredivisie though but still a well written article.

I've just finished reading a book about Chelsea FC in the 80's and how a section of their fans refused to recognise a goal if say (black player) Paul Canonville scored it, going so far a to say a 1-0 victory was in fact a 0-0 draw. Things have moved a long way since then but not really far enough. The point about Boulahrouz and the mayor of Rotterdam is very well made and sympotomatic I think of the idiocy of some peoples prejudices.

Always look on the Seaside of life!

Not only Ajax can play with 10 men. My first Blackpool game of the season (I know) and with the keeper sent off after 3 minutes I thought I was in for a long afternoon, but not only di we hold on for a point, we got all 3 with a 1-0 win.

Against my (not) favourite team Crystal Palace as well - Perfect!

"...not too sure about the pretext that el Hamdaoui and Afellay are the 2 very best players in the Eredivisie though but still a well written article."

Well I think Afellay is the best player in the Eredivisie by a country mile but to put El Hamdaoui in that class is stretching it a bit.

Regardless of his current performances, Suarez should be up there as well.

But that would have ruined the point of the story. Unless Suarez has some Mocro blood in him too.

Something to interupt the gloom of the current match

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7864733.stm

This is bizarre... but very funny. I think I've seen this French bloke before. He always pulls off weird stunts like this. And he's wearing a very cool retro Ajax shirt!

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/393011/ ... eest_.html

Must have been a lot of work to clean the place up

K.

Kowalczyk schreef: I think I've seen this French bloke before.

I think there was already 2 videos of him posted here, including the 'disco elevator' with his famous Ajax shirt.

Kowalczyk schreef:This is bizarre... but very funny. I think I've seen this French bloke before. He always pulls off weird stunts like this. And he's wearing a very cool retro Ajax shirt!
K.

Speaking of cool retro shirts, Toffs is selling the blue '70s away shirt on ebay from the UK for about $30. I think they're surplus from their main site.

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/toffs04?_ ... &_osacat=0

Kowalczyk schreef:This is bizarre... but very funny. I think I've seen this French bloke before. He always pulls off weird stunts like this. And he's wearing a very cool retro Ajax shirt!

http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/393011/ ... eest_.html

Must have been a lot of work to clean the place up

K.

I thought it was the old F-Side who were known as the Ajax lunatic fringe - cool shirt and cool music too (Mano Negra of course)

(Not sure if this is the right thread...)

The announcer on ESPN360 today said something about a "fan protest" at training on Friday, where they confronted the players and coaches, and some players were unwilling to come out to the training field, so confrontational were the fans. The announcer said that Emanuelson bore the brunt of the fans' displeasure.

Is this true? What exactly happened, I wonder.

ajaxusa schreef:(Not sure if this is the right thread...)

The announcer on ESPN360 today said something about a "fan protest" at training on Friday, where they confronted the players and coaches, and some players were unwilling to come out to the training field, so confrontational were the fans. The announcer said that Emanuelson bore the brunt of the fans' displeasure.

Is this true? What exactly happened, I wonder.

This is all I saw, from today:

"Last week Ajax's training sessions were disrupted by a 300-strong group of supporters frustrated at the club's recent poor run. The fans even occupied the pitch in protest and demanded an explanation from van Basten."

From:
Misfiring Ajax insist Van Basten's job is safe
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... pe&cc=5901

I'm interested in more too, hadn't seen anything about it until today.

According to Sky Sports News Guus Hiddink is to be the new Chelsea manager, to replace Scolari who was sacked this afternoon.

Other reports suggest that Hiddink is to be Director of Football with Avram Grant (!) to be first team coach.

Again.

On the bright side, West Indies absolutely crushed England at Sabina Park this weekend - shades of the blackwashes of the eighties.

Nice to see one of the teams I support doing well...

Oh I absolutely agree. Sulieman Benn is a major find for the West Indies, I reckon.

Perhaps unluckily, Xavier Marshall has been dropped from the Windies squad for the second game, and replaced by Lendl Simmons. He was named after a famous tennis player y'know.

..and he was hitting the ball like his namesake did in the tour warm up match. Hope he continues that run of form.

Hi Chugger and Dan K

As you are both from Melbourne are your families safe with these fires.

My wife's uncle lives in Cranbourne which is well away .Hope everyone you know are also safe and well away from them.

Thanks SPL.

My Dad lives at Kinglake with my little brother (aged 10). The house is most likely gone but they had a ridiculously lucky escape. They were at the local swimming pool when the fires started. Apparently from the first sign of smoke it was about half an hour until the whole town was gone. They were told to evacuate on the swimming pool's tannoy; had they been at home they would've been stuffed.

I've left 47°C Melbourne in time to get into the UK for massive snow dumps and rainfalls... weird.

Chugger schreef:Thanks SPL.

My Dad lives at Kinglake with my little brother (aged 10). The house is most likely gone but they had a ridiculously lucky escape. They were at the local swimming pool when the fires started. Apparently from the first sign of smoke it was about half an hour until the whole town was gone. They were told to evacuate on the swimming pool's tannoy; had they been at home they would've been stuffed.

I've left 47°C Melbourne in time to get into the UK for massive snow dumps and rainfalls... weird.

Wow. I'm glad that your family made it out ok, but sorry to hear that the house is gone. I'ts most important that your dad and brother got out ok, but it still sucks that they lost their house.

My thoughts are with you guys.

aveslacker schreef:

Chugger schreef:Thanks SPL.

My Dad lives at Kinglake with my little brother (aged 10). The house is most likely gone but they had a ridiculously lucky escape. They were at the local swimming pool when the fires started. Apparently from the first sign of smoke it was about half an hour until the whole town was gone. They were told to evacuate on the swimming pool's tannoy; had they been at home they would've been stuffed.

I've left 47°C Melbourne in time to get into the UK for massive snow dumps and rainfalls... weird.

Wow. I'm glad that your family made it out ok, but sorry to hear that the house is gone. I'ts most important that your dad and brother got out ok, but it still sucks that they lost their house.

My thoughts are with you guys.

Wow. Mate, those guys are seriously lucky. The whole town is pretty much gone. Very, very lucky.

SPL & Aves - thanks for your thoughts. It has been so bad back home. Although I was living in Melbourne itself, my family live in the country and were about 20km or so from one of the fires. My parents sent me photos of the sky and the ash falling. The next day everything was just covered in ash. My Dad was even finding 20cm burnt pieces of wood in his backyard. It was really crazy.

Cranbourne actually got close to one of the smaller fires, but thankfully escaped the full brunt of the serious ones (although really they were all serious I guess).

I know people who have lost their houses or worse. It is just a horrible and sad time back home, and my thoughts are with all those effected.

Glad your family are Ok , but sorry to hear about their house.

Evidently our uncle in Cranbourne said there were no real worries where he was.

Hope Chugger and his family are ok.

Thanks for the thoughts.

It turns out that my dad has been even luckier than he initially thought.

They started letting people back into Kinglake yesterday, and he discovered that the street where his house is was missed by the fire. It's in a bit of a gully, and apparently the fire front went through so fast it literally jumped over the top. One of dad's neighbours hadn't been able to get out, and he put out the spot fires that were started by falling embers. The fire front passed close enough to burn the top of his head.

It's pretty unbelievable. He's probably as much luck as anyone else in Kinglake. I'm relieved of course, but there was no reason his property deserved to be spared over anyone else's, and I feel very sorry and almost guilty about their losses.

Let's just hope we can learn something from this and prevent anything like it happening again. Australia is probably only going to get drier in the future.

Apologies Chugger for the confusion of my last line.ie Hope Chugger and his family are ok. when you had already replied. I wasn't concentrating whne I typed it and no I have not had a drink yet.!

The main thing is all your familes are Ok.

You know, as bad as things have been in the past few weeks, I think I'm starting to see some signs that the worst is over. MvB seems to have weathered the storm; Young Ajax is back up where they should be; and de Boer should be another reminder for this young squad of what they need to aspire to. I don't know, it may all be wishful thinking, but I think things are looking up again...

... assuming we beat the s*** out of F-Word, of course! :hupajax.gif: