NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

fatlard the fat, surely

Martin O'Neill to replace Avram Grant after West Ham's match v Arsenal, BBC Sport understands.

how the fuck did that cunt cling on for so long

o'neill not a good move

Hoping this leaves the Spammers in disarray for one more afternoon but it'll probably turn out like Ipswich.

not sure what you mean there, we had nothing but disarray and confusion with keane.

Fuck Robbie Keane in the fucking earhole.

Think West Ham might be about O'Neill's level. Hopefully he'll make a great Championship manager.

Strange all round. The Hammers have just hit some form, this is hardly a natural fit, it confirms O'Neill's career on a downwards trajectory now. He must be a right contrary bastard - O'Neill'll've'd plenty better offers than that, and for better people to work for too.

I've saw a gap open up to get four apostrophes in a single word and I've went for it, and fortunately for me it's came off

Can't possibly see what could go wrong appointing a highly combustible chequebook manager at a relegation-threatened team with Gold and Sullivan in charge.

The tracksuited ferocity of the O'Neill we see on the touchlines every weekend is a far cry from the lawyer he was destined to become, had he not left Queen's University Belfast early to take up residence in Cloughy's pass-and-move midfield. 'There were some hard times,' confides the earnest Ulsterman, 'but sometimes it's the making of you.' Today he is renowned as a visitor to the public galleries of the Old Bailey, and for his unlikely friendship with the Japanese sound artist Masami Akita, aka Merzbow. 'No, people seldom believe that. But it's true, I visited an installation of his in Salamanca a few years ago. They say he's far out but really not at all, and we share certain interests you know? The classics, criminology, he's a huge PSG fan too would you believe.'

When the Forest squad released "He's Got the Whole World in his Hands" as an FA Cup final record or whatever, we all changed the O'Neill line to "There's Martin/Who's fartin'/All over the field".

I suspect that this has coloured my generation's view of the guy's touchline style.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J15wYpYosX4

To the Football board, Batman!

no merzbow no credibility

Can't possibly see what could go wrong appointing a highly combustible chequebook manager at a relegation-threatened team with Gold and Sullivan in charge.

o'neill's success at wycombe and leicester probably not due to much flashing of a chequebook.

acting like out of work manager getting a job with a PL club is some great step-down for o'neill is wrongheaded imo.

He's joined a team an entire point below his old club.

this is possibly a six month kinda thing and he leaves if they get relegated

don't think it's a step down for O'Neill but as I said reckon West Ham are about his level - tho iirc Hammers are partial to a bit of pretty pass and go and I do not believe O'Neill rolls in that direction.

O'Neill had a Celtic team with Lambert, Lennon and Petrov - none of whom passed a ball for than 10 yards. Soemtimes they went long and missed those three out altogether, but there was variety in attacking options. It wasn't all long ball at Villa either where he used a lot of pace on the counter-attack. Employing guys like Carew, Heskey and Hartson of course makes it easier to go long when under pressure but I think sticking long ball on him as a football philosophy is unfair.

Just think Villa became a really ugly team with some mis-used quick guys whose careers might not recover from their deployment by O'Neill, altho the suspicion remains that Ashley Young is just a bit shit.

If you play on the counter 90 percent of the time it sort of dictates longish passing but trying to emulate Ronaldo-era ManYoo without having a Ronaldo seems more than a little Quixotic.

Today he is renowned as a visitor to the public galleries of the Old Bailey, and for his unlikely friendship with the Japanese sound artist Masami Akita, aka Merzbow. 'No, people seldom believe that. But it's true, I visited an installation of his in Salamanca a few years ago. They say he's far out but really not at all, and we share certain interests you know? The classics, criminology, he's a huge PSG fan too would you believe.'

Sometimes you can really overdose on yr Merzbox, huh?

villa was pretty rudimentary stufff, whatever you want to call it....alright away where they had plenty of outlets, but they had no midfield, and loads of money was spent on shite like reo-coker, harewood etc

Villa was top six with two cup finals. If you look at them now its not too difficult to work out what the difference is.

Think could have done a good job at Man U/Chelsea/Liverpool and all but maybe getting passed over in favour of Daglish (?) has made him think that lower half of premier league is the best of what's left now.

o'neill's success at wycombe and leicester probably not due to much flashing of a chequebook.

― À la recherche du temps Pardew (jim in glasgow), Saturday, 15 January 2011 12:16 (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

Wycombe's wage bill when they got promoted from the conference was something like three times that of any other team. Steve Guppy doesn't come cheap. Remember he fucked off from Norwich after a month because Robert Chase wouldn't shower riches on him as well.

So he knows what's needed to meet a chairman's expectations and fucks off if the chairman won't give it to him rather than muddle along on not enough money and listen to the chairman complaining about the league table every week.

Apart from throwing away a UEFA cup one season in order to throw away a CL spot I think you have to say he did as much as anyone could expect at Villa. At Celtic he took over a team that had just lost the league by something like 21 points and won the next one by 13 or so. When he gets the money he mostly delivers.

O'Neill's transfer record in complete seasons at Leicester:

96/97: Net spend £3.925 million
97/98: Net spend £1.9 million
98/99: Net spend £4.9 million

Compare this to Manchester United:

96/97: Net profit of £1 million
97/98: Net spend of £9.325 million
98/99: Net profit of £0.1 million

He was outspending the dominant football team of its era by an average of half a million a season, in order to run up a string of lower midtable finishes.

eh, that's the most retarded comparison i have ever seen.

presumably man united already had a fairly decent squad the year they made a million in profit in the transfer window.

the o'neil hate and criticism are both overdone. I dont remember it being as bad when he left villa, for a start, and they've hardly thrived since?

What did robbie do now NV

Outstanding work there. Anyone-who-spends-zero-pounds-or-more-without-winning-the-treble out.

xpost

signed for those fucking dour twats?

oh he's not signed yet. suppose I might end up thanking him when he scores three times the whole rest of the season. he didn't look like he could bring himself to hit the target when you did us at WHL this season.

he'll perform elsewhere, when he's chin#1 again.

disaree with pienaar comments above, he's much more than a benayoun squad player, he has real class imo.

desiree with the pienaar comments there

carragher on soccer saturday has just described tuncay as the type of player whl could do well abroad

Agree about pienaar being a step above benayoun, but only cos benayoun's been ill-used this past few years too, if you catch me

am enjoying the Indian adverts so much I don't want the game to start

Toure in a snood I know I know it's serious

From AndyBulman on Twitter: "Managers can't complain about getting sacked when they are prepared to discuss taking over each other's jobs MO'N [Martin O'Neill]."

See the BBC have added the brackets to helpfully clarify for you, the reader, that M'ON means Martin O'Neill, but I'm pretty sure that's the chink in the armour his lawyers need to bankrupt Andy Bulman for his heinous accusations.

M....O'N...

I'm not sure any of these games is entertaining enough on its own, and am tempted to try and rig up some pan-Veetle-Sopcast ersatz Soccer Saturday control room so I can half pay attention to all of them, and maybe figure out if liveblogging five games at once really is far easier than those slow-ass BBC guys make it seem.

CITEH CAN'T DEFEND

:D

Classic goalmouth pinball, Milijas didn't need to cunt that one, 1-0 to the Wanderers

1508 - Belter of a chance for Chelsea. It's ping pong in the Blackburn penalty area and the ball falls kindly for Didier Drogba, who takes a touch but spoons the ball hopelessly over the bar. How. Has. He. Missed. That. Chance. It. Was. A. Really. Good. Chance. To. Take. The. Lead. Still 0-0 at Stamford Bridge.

So we sportingly let Yaya steam into the box unopposed

think we have to score again cos I wd bet my left nut that Dzeko will score today

1512: GOAL Man City 0-1 Wolves (Milijas)

FANTASTIC FUCKING BUILD UP HUNT-FLETCHER-JARVIS WITH THE FINISH straight into the centre back's face. Should've been 2-0. Citeh fans booing.