Richard Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 "As for Richard's argument about selling tickets, it ranks as one of the most laughable ones I have ever heard." Maybe you should tell THAT one to the Whitecaps marketing people. What the average Vancouver ticket buyer likes is a team that plays entertaining football and WINS games. How many Whitecaps games have you attended in the past three years Jeffrey S. or are you developing your expert knowledge of the club from afar, via third party reports? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue and White Army Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Jeffrey, wasn't Mike Franks also in his 30s.... and also from Hibs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youllneverwalkalone Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Don't think he's yet thirty, certainly not when he returned from Scotland. His brother is older though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calgary Boomer Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 Middlesborough in England have perhaps the best youth academy program in the UK. They currently have 2 players who graduated from the program in their senior squad. The best youth training academies in the world are arguably in Holland and France, and many of the top graduating youngsters don't stay with the club that developed them. To say that after 3 years of this program the Whitecaps should be fielding a team of kids who trained at SFU every weekend is completely ignorant. It's going to take a LONG time to get the academy program yielding results. The fact that they even have one is a luxury, and nothing more than good start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted April 17, 2006 Share Posted April 17, 2006 quote:Originally posted by Grizzly Since you did not answer my question I will post it again: Jeffrey, don't you find it somewhat unethical to be making angry posts criticizing the Whitecaps/CSA or whoever else for not playing certain guys who unbeknown to us are friends/acquaintances/e-mail pals of yours? This holds regardless whether I agree or disagree with you or whether you are right or not. It is doubly true for someone who regularly accuses other posters of having hidden ties. Ethics requires you to post your relationship to the player at the start of the thread and in his interests also to disclaim that you are speaking for him. Concerning your other points: Caig is not a retirement age keeper, he is in fact 31 years old, the age that many people consider the prime age for a keeper. A third string keeper for an EPL is probably a pretty good level player for the USL and he has also started at levels higher than USL, most notably the Scottish Premiership with Hibernian. In addition he won the job on a tryout not from his pedigree. The Caps sent several European tryouts who did not live up to their club history back so Caig must have impressed. I agree that the Caps have been less than impressive in developing young Canadian talent. However, keeper is much different than other positions. If you take a chance on a young guy at another position you still have enough other players to replace him if he disappoints and a couple of failed prospects is not going to ruin your year. A keeper who is not ready to start can completely ruin the year for the club especially if his backup is also a keeper not ready to start. Starting a keeper to soon can also destroy his confidence and ruin his career as well. I will admit to not having seen any of these keepers play. On the other hand I don't have the impression that you have seen them play enough either to make such judgements. Those on this board who have seen the two young keepers play do not seem to share your opinion that they are ready to start. If they threw Olivieri into the mix I might agree that between the three prospects they could find a decent starter since Olivieri has shown he can play well at this level. However, the Caps also have a responsibility to their fans to not be a team like the Lynx or else they will not have any fans and I think they were right in ensuring they have a solid starter for this season. Well I will ask you this: is it unethical for a fan to contact a player to give him encouragment? I have done this on a number of occasions, sometimes with no response, sometimes with an appreciative one. I don't think I understand players any more than anyone else, in fact sometimes I realize I don't have a clue, but that is how it was with those I am supporting in this case. I simply contacted a player who was a fellow Vancouverite and said good show, keep going, like what you are doing. As I continue to do. I won't tell you about other players I have been in touch with as it is not relevant, or I have no complaint about what is happening with them, but let this be clear: I don't support them because I am a "friend", I supported them, and in some cases some degree of "friendship" emerged. So you are wrong you see. I am doing what Voyageurs does when we sent Xmas cards, or e-mails of support. We don't do so as friends, we do so as fans. If some degree of trust emerges later, well then we are fortunate to have been the type of fan the player appreciates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 quote:Originally posted by Jeffrey S. Well I will ask you this: is it unethical for a fan to contact a player to give him encouragment? I have done this on a number of occasions, sometimes with no response, sometimes with an appreciative one. I don't think I understand players any more than anyone else, in fact sometimes I realize I don't have a clue, but that is how it was with those I am supporting in this case. I simply contacted a player who was a fellow Vancouverite and said good show, keep going, like what you are doing. As I continue to do. I won't tell you about other players I have been in touch with as it is not relevant, or I have no complaint about what is happening with them, but let this be clear: I don't support them because I am a "friend", I supported them, and in some cases some degree of "friendship" emerged. So you are wrong you see. I am doing what Voyageurs does when we sent Xmas cards, or e-mails of support. We don't do so as friends, we do so as fans. If some degree of trust emerges later, well then we are fortunate to have been the type of fan the player appreciates. Number One: You still have not answered my question. Number Two: I have no problem with anyone here being friends with players and would in fact encourage it. However, if someone here is friends with a player, if they are going to post anything about the player, and especially angry diatribes about why they are not given a spot with the MNT or a club team, I would like to know at the beginning that this person is a friend of the player. I mean even Fernandez friends who accused everyone of being HATERZ had the decency to say they were his friends. You may not think it affects your opinions but I and every other poster should be able to decide for myself. Cheney will also tell you his relationship with Haliburton has nothing to do with Iraq or contact awarding but I would rather know his relationship and form my own opinion. Surely we can expect better from someone constantly accusing other on this forum of unethical behaviour with very little evidence to back this opinion, ie. if you are going to rightly or wrongly accuse others of bad behaviour at least be lilly white yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analyst Posted April 20, 2006 Share Posted April 20, 2006 Its past time for this thread to end or at least get back to the topic. Speaking of which, the Whitecaps have signed Matondo, Stefan Leslie, Diaz Kamber and Donatelli. Leslie and Kambere signed amateur contracts. Both played for the reserve team in the PCSL last summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loyola Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 quote:Originally posted by analyst Its past time for this thread to end or at least get back to the topic. Speaking of which, the Whitecaps have signed Matondo, Stefan Leslie, Diaz Kamber and Donatelli. Leslie and Kambere signed amateur contracts. Both played for the reserve team in the PCSL last summer. Well, if you don't mind, I would like to hear Jeffrey S. answer to Grizzly question. I think Grizzly is making an interesting point by highlighting the unethical conduct of Jeffrey in this thread, promoting a friend. I want to hear what he has to say about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 quote:Originally posted by loyola Well, if you don't mind, I would like to hear Jeffrey S. answer to Grizzly question. I think Grizzly is making an interesting point by highlighting the unethical conduct of Jeffrey in this thread, promoting a friend. I want to hear what he has to say about it. I think I answered the question clearly. This is a fan forum. It is for soccer fans. If you think it is unethical to support a player because he is of your nationality, or from your city, or coaches your kid when not training, or seems like a nice guy, or any other subjective reason, you are in the wrong place. I support players for all these reasons. I support players by posting their results on this board. As I have done for literally scores of players on this board. If you think this is unethical, you are being severely tainted by reading this board. Go get yourself put in quarantine, you might have been infected, and you might pass the bug on to someone else, lord forbid. The Canadian soccer fan bug. As I am one of the people on this board who has posted most frequently over the longest period in favour of the greatest number of Canadian players all over the world, usually arguing in their favour as I want to see Canadians succeed, I have no qualms about continuing to do so if a player contacts me, I get in contact with a player, or we happen to meet in a bar. I posted on Menezes, for example, when he was still playing in Brazil, then posted his Chinese 2nd tier results. I posted Kusch's results in Sweden 2nd tier. Don't know either of them, but would be honoured to meet either and give them my support. And that would not stop me from continuing to post about them if they were active. That is how fcking crazy I am about Canadian players. So you see, you are wrong to insinuate I post differently about players I know; case in point: of the four keepers on the original list for the UAE World Juniors in 2003, Rayner, Karim, Fernandes and Djekanovic, I was the only person to post on the first when he was playing in Wales, I posted weekly on his results, a whole year. I don't know him personally. Last summer I was the person who followed Karim at his PDL team (I doubt even 10% of this board could even cite the team without having to look it up), and in previous years I posted on his Syracuse results. Don't know him either. Both direct rivals of the other two at a certain period for our U-20s. I am scrupulously fair and even-handed in my support of Canadian players. If this bothers you, or you have never had a player show their appreciatation personally to you and are jealous about it, or you have never met a professional player on a friendly basis, that is your problem. I have never let a personal contact affect my opinion of the quality of a player, indeed in posting about Fernandes I am the one person on this board who can give you an analysis of his flaws as well as his virtues. I know where he could and should improve probably better than anyone here, and I have posted accordingly many times. The Whitecaps player policy could be a lot better, Lynx and Impact do better to support young Canadians and see them move on to real professional careers, which playing in Division One USL is not. I support them signing Sita, think that is great. And the kids moving up from the reserves. Serge could easily handle USL Division One and be successful at the level, I know this not because I have met him, but because I have followed his career and have heard positive third party remarks about him. The Caps are cowardly to not give him and Wicks a shot; all Bobby L is doing is living out a pipe dream about what type of team the Caps are supposed to be, with this stupid idea about signing the fading guys looking for a retirement package on the Lower Mainland. If the Whitecaps had had that policy when he was coming up, none of the Lenarduzzi brothers would ever have played NASL. This way of acting and thinking, apart from not getting the Caps better results, is useless for the future of Canadian soccer. Which you clearly do not give a damn about, judging by the way you are posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MM2 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Back to soccer...... USL 2006 season preview http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/129401.html Toronto - Could they actually do worse then last season? Montreal - Should be another first place finish. Vancouver - 4th 0r 5th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 What happened to the Kickers by the way?? They were in USL1 for ages, weren't they?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurosawa1555362267 Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 Montreal starts their season on sunday against Miami Fc and striker Romario. Too bad we won't get that one on TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analyst Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 The line-up for tomorrow's Caps game vs Portland is as follows. Goal - Wicks Defence - Klein, Kindel, Cann and Lyall Midfield - Nash, Testo, Alberts and Clarke Forwards - Jordan and Gjertsen That makes 3 new starters in tomorrow's game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivan Posted April 21, 2006 Share Posted April 21, 2006 quote:Originally posted by analyst The line-up for tomorrow's Caps game vs Portland is as follows. Goal - Wicks Defence - Klein, Kindel, Cann and Lyall Midfield - Nash, Testo, Alberts and Clarke Forwards - Jordan and Gjertsen That makes 3 new starters in tomorrow's game. No Harmse? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MM2 Posted April 22, 2006 Share Posted April 22, 2006 Toronto Lynx add Niels Dekker and Paul-Anthony Perez to 2006 roster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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