Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

Arsenal will improve again
they will return to top 4 sooner or later

1 Man City
2 Man Utd
3 Tottenham Hotspur
4 Arsenal

holy cow we did that quick pinefox!

If we're still there by April 22 it'll be a fucking miracle.

there you go - Arsenal are top 4 team, so no sea change

Fuck it, I'm predicting Arsenal for 3rd!

yes, seems likely
I have never backed Spurs for top 4
only for 5th
still think LFC 6th

arsenal- wenger or board holdong them back- nobody sure which imo. no reason to see a change in fortunes there while the status quo remains

spurs- will be upset by arry leaving, his replacement will determine medium-term outcome. board is exceptional, no reason to predict trouble there

utd- no reason they're top 6 imo so my analysis of them obv isn't worth much. they'll be fucked when fergie/giggs/scholes/bobby charlton go etc

city- no troubles forseeable, mancini being given time and doing well

chelsea- see above, reverse. while roman remains they won't be ruined

lfc- doing it wrong

newcastle- doing it right

Arsenal 'no change' still = CL every year

spurs will be top four this year, tbf, we could eat lasagne from here til may and there's probably none of the stragglers good enough to even catch us for third tbh.

otm obv

i'm actually much less concerned about the reality of dropping out of the champions league spots this year than i might have previously. partly because, within reason and man city aside, massive wealth actually seems like less of a barrier to a certain level of success at the moment than it did a few years ago. dropping out, as spurs have demonstrated, doesn't mean you're doomed to the purgatory of the europa league for the rest of your days but could just as easily return the following season.

aside from that and as i've said many times before, I don't show up (to the pub or the amirites) because I expect a win or to be playing milan every week (fuck those guys btw) but because I expect a minimum standard of quality, entertaining football, although I appreciate there's a large degree of overlap there. to the extent to which my interest this season has waned, it's down to them playing some dog-ugly football as much as not actually winning. any bitterness aimed in spurs' direction is more to do with how much nicer your football is to watch that ours, rather than the fact that you're further up the league.

still, 4th eh. never in doubt.

Upt0tm

I think next season should be a lot better. Hopefully Wilshere will be back, AOC will have fully replaced Theo and Ryooooooooo already has Bolton fans raving, so hopefully he can make the same step up that Wilshere/Sturridge did post-Bolton. Oh and to have full backs again! Theo&AA are the biggest problems in keeping us from playing nice football atm - even when they do play to a high standard, it isn't pretty.

PS I only see Newcastle as being a threat to 4th now. Chelsea look a right fucking mess at the back and the front and Liverpool just can't be taken seriously. Even if Liverpool come 4th by some miracle, I think it would have to be taken with a grain of salt. Shit I fear Sunderland more than I do Liverpool.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/feb/15/forgotten-story-17-november-1993
^ Worth a read

Levy is a cunt for not forking out for those affordable homes, at some point ethics have to trump footballing concerns and it's clear Boris is just going to bend over backwards and offer Levy anything if it means staying in Tottenham.

If Spurs don't qualify for the CL now it will be an absolute catastrophe, so it's between Arsenal and Chelsea. If Chelsea don't qualify they can just throw money at the problem but Arsenal I think will be in trouble if they don't make it. Players will leave, they'll find it even harder to attract the right players, we could see a Liverpool situation develop. To that end I reckon Arsenal will get fourth because they need it more. That said, Chelsea have room for improvement, I think Arsenal are basically operating at maximum capacity now and they haven't been that great.

I mean room for improvement this season, with no transfers etc btw.

ethics?

'oi, you- pay for all this social housing, or not.'

'not, thanks'

'ETHICS! ETHICS!'

deems i know u love the local govt hardman stuff but u gotta admit its a bit shitty when a club that doubtless stresses its community involvement etc just takes the name of a famously deprived area and cant even spare half a bassong to actually improve it

....going for a song?

maybe they should move to chiswick and create a few potemkin village kebab shops and burned out storefronts to give that edgy tottenham feel but without the obligation to help anyone or the chance that future rebrovs get scared off

i dunno what my 'local govt hardman' steez is, but in this case it's exactly the local govt to set stipulations in place.

If they rescinded some of their requirements because of a weakened bargaining position vis a vis the club then yeah that's a pity, just not from the club's POV- levy 's not exactly breaking role nor character there. All for the club engaging in local partnership but one of levy's roles is to keep that as cost-effective as he can, obv.

Not expecting a round of applause for it anywhere, least of all ilx, but 'cunt' it doesn't make him-imo.

local govt hardmanism is making pronouncements like 'all for the club engaging in local partnership' then doing nothing about it

i dont think levy is a cunt but probably a hypocrite

lfc- doing it wrong

newcastle- doing it right

is this pardew's work or do newcastle have an excellent scouting system?

newcastle have an excellent scouting system

i think bit of both, chris. Longer term looks ok for lfc, it almost always will because the club is huge - no snark. But dalglish tenure has not progressed as quickly as it was maybe expected to, and that's without taking weak chelsea/arsenal into account, really

Newcastle started from where they started and tbh wouldn't really make a proper analysis except for exceptional short-term performance.

Levy's a hypocrite, fine.

both, i'd say. The result at the weekend aside they are very well organised defensively, especially wrt the wide players helping out the full backs so that they can go narrow across the back four and shorten the spaces in between the defenders (g nev did a bit about this prior to their game away to Stoke)

also cabaye/tiote were p great 'bargain' signings. Players who i'm not sure if they were even on the radars of other clubs or not. Obviously the 2 Demba's are more of a known quantity. Putting in Krul ahaed of Harper also a good move,

*ahead*

dalglish tenure has been pretty shit except he is almost impossible to fire so the mgmt have to wait for him to flake

https://p.twimg.com/AlsN0umCAAEIZZo.jpg

Fuck Nike. Might as well put a cock on it.

btw has anyone seen Zenit St Petersburg or Benifica this season? Trying to decide whether to catch the early 5.00 pm kick off or not.

Oh God, that checked shirt abomination really is real.

dalglish tenure has been pretty shit

To play devil's advocate: from narrowly missing out on the league in 2009* Liverpool were in steady decline, first under Benitez and then under Hodgson. While they're still mediocre, even by the standards of the past decade (never mind the 70s & 80s), Dalglish has arrested the decline. You could argue they'd been in a worse position now without him. I know he seems to have wasted a fortune on players who haven't made the grade, but it's not as if his predecessors didn't do the same thing.

*cue Darragh "they were never in the race"

they'd been = they'd be

otm

*cue Darragh "they were never in the race"

darragh otm

*

walks way from computer

Wayne Rooney has named his new race horse Switcharooney.

even the horse looks embarrassed
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/02/15/article-2101475-11BF7F5F000005DC-963_468x414.jpg

thudd out for season

theyre a worse side than they were when rafa left even though their spending last summer was beyond the sort of sums rafa spent and dalglish/suarez has added a rly unpleasant feel to their traditional resentment politics

rafas last season they had 63 pts, at current rate they will finish with 59

four points ahead of norwich atm

rafas last season they had 63 pts, at current rate they will finish with 59

4 points different = playing man city twice?

p sure they played Man City under Rafa.

sorry i meant mansour city

even then, i suppose actually

whateves.

was rafa's last season good enough

btw has anyone seen Zenit St Petersburg or Benifica this season? Trying to decide whether to catch the early 5.00 pm kick off or not.

I don't think Benfica's very exciting to watch. Zenit were great earlier but without Danny (injured, missing Euros) probably not as much.

OTOH temperature will be -10 so that might make it an interesting tactical struggle.

thx boxall

*drudge siren*
Luis Suárez 'does stupid things', says Ajax manager Frank de Boer

lol