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

Some Ajax fans seem te believe Fergie left Evra at home because the crowd would give him a hard time, backing up their hero Suarez. The ego on them there, srsly

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

― Monkee Trial (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, February 15, 2012 1:32 PM (5 hours ago)

That was brilliant, thanks for linking.

love all this shit upthread, not least the ceremonial wheeling out of the most stupid minority theory in the history of ilx. it doesn't merit any more in-depth comment than that.

that rob smyth article is one of the best pieces about football i've ever read, and i normally don't like the guy.

most stupid minority theory in the history of ilx

Really hard to narrow that down from such a wide field but I'm guessing darragh's Ununified Theory Of Liverpool Not Challenging In 2009 Despite Taking The Title To The Final Week?

<3

i keep dismissing all the new manager stories as newspaper talk, but it seems like Morgan and Moxey really think it's worthwhile interviewing Bruce and Warnock. i can just about see the logic in "let's get somebody who'll keep us in the Prem" but i'm certain that if they appoint somebody who does that they'll be kept on for next season. so depressing, the prospect of anti-football under either of those. i'm really lukewarm on Curbishley but he looks like Mourinho compared to those other two. fuck "premier league experience" tbh and fuck a business model that excludes the playing of yr actual football.

bring back mick

think i might start following baseball

If you want to find a football manager just go to a colliery in Lanarkshire and shout down the pit-shaft - of course, it won't do you any good, they're all shut

Lee Clark? Huddersfield played decent football under him I think?

it seems our board has already decided that the next charlie must be big time enough

I think I said it upthread, but I'm not sure if an upcoming non-EPL manager would come to Wolves at present, no offence NV

Have you seen Pat Murphy's article at the BBC site? His sympathetic piece about the candidates for the Wolves job includes this detailed analysis of Steve Bruce's tenure at S'Land

Bruce brought players in during the summer and was not given enough time to see them bed in. Received wisdom is that he wasted a lot of money at the Stadium of Light, but he finished about evens on his transfer dealings. He ran out of luck last autumn and that scuppered him.

He ran out of luck last autumn and that scuppered him.

Stick to cricket, Pat

I'm not sure if he means Bruce was lucky for the previous 2 years or unlucky for 3 months.

It does include this ringing endorsement which I feel it is safe to say ticks all of NV's metaphorical boxes

Bruce knows about fire-fighting, raising morale in the dressing room and grinding out results.

Here comes the new boss same as the old boss.

tbf to Bruce, he brings exasperated Geordie whingeing to the table in place of bluff Yorkshire reasonablness

Bruce is better than McCarthy and Warnock - he's taken loser clubs like Birmingham and Wigan to comfortable midtable Prem positions. I'm not sure he's very good at fixing things when they start to go wrong though.

I think I said it upthread, but I'm not sure if an upcoming non-EPL manager would come to Wolves at present, no offence NV

― Charles Kennedy Jumped Up, He Called 'Oh No'. (Tom D.), Thursday, 16 February 2012 11:57 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Board not prone to rash decisions, decent set of players if you can get them playing, a forward (fletcher) who can score... it's worse than a kick in the head.

I really hope Bruce gets it, just to see NV's spluttering reaction.

wow yr channelling five types of schadenfreude today huh

vg

why was Lee Clark fired? and what team will he manage next?

my Bruce reaction's ready to go tbh, it'll mainly be "fuck this i'm following Nick Barmby's Black and Amber Army"

The Barmby Armby

armber amber bamber

why was Lee Clark fired? and what team will he manage next?

― the pinefox, Thursday, February 16, 2012 12:52 PM (54 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Fell out with the owners? Leeds? At least he can't fall out with them as nobody knows who owns Leeds iirc

that world cup qualifying article was a joy to read

Glad you (& IK & LG) liked it (not that I wrote it)

AVB LANGUAGE

"Players compete, in the end, for their place and for their place towards the future in the team. So if you want to be in the team in the future, you are competing to win something against your colleague. I would put it exactly like that: performance to have reward ... reward in terms of results and reward in terms of future continuity.

"My authority is total because it's the owner's authority. I have told you that we set out this team to try to win four trophies, believing in this team. Next year it's another one because there are different ongoing situations regarding contracts which will have to be addressed so that means different changes. Two players have already departed and further will depart in the future and won't make part of the project, which more or less they expect but this is the reality of any football team. We prepare to be more competent in the present and we have to prepare the future as well.

"They know there is a manager in position holding on for a project of three years so, if they want to be part of that project, [it is about] performance level, or continuity of performance level and display. I think that's pretty basic of any football team. You don't contemplate with a reward people who underperform in any football team."

That we are nearing the end of the Frank Lampard era fills me with such joy.

Must admit I had a grudging respect for his 'I don't care if the players are on my side as long as the owner is' from yesterday. If he still has the job in the Summer he's going to ship out half that team isn't he? Malouda/Lampard/Mikel. He might want to do something about the fact that Ashley Cole has declined an alarming amount this season imo

xp ha, what Matt said

it's impossible to know exactly who the culprits are at Chelsea thru the fog of third-hand newspaper reports but there have been so many stories over the last decade that i've no doubt there's a poisonous clique who think they run the club and fuck players like that tbh

We've been ignoring this all week - stand-up row; obvious briefing from both sides; now this. He might as well double up, he either emerges with full authority or gets sacked, there's no other way.

double up? is that a gambling term?

"I would put it exactly like that"

Abramovich either wants a successful club - which can only come about via a manager with dressing room authority imo - or he wants to dick about like a playboy gangster with a real life subbuteo kit for the rest of his tenure

That clique, if it's the same old clique, are all quite old (older than avb!) except Cech, who's shite atm anyway. There's almost a whole team of his men there now anyway, assuming recent arrivals and younger types like Luiz or Sturridge are on his side

It's nonsense anyway, most of these "senior players" are well into their 30s and past their best. They all need to be shipped out or to at least settle for a bit part like Scholes/Giggs do.

That said, AVB hasn't been great in the transfer market - Mereiles not as good as at Liverpool, Cahill just a bizarre transfer, did Mata precede him? Areas screaming for improvement haven't got them either, and not playing Sturridge at centre-forward looks increasingly unwise.

Not Sturridge if he wants out so he can play up front somewhere else. xpost

AVB may well be too vain and too aloof and too downright odd to turn that club around but the job still needs doing and i feel for him in terms of the unnecessary friction he's got to overcome.

Judging by Luiz' not even token effort in closing down an Everton shot after a poor Ashley Cole pass that they highlighted on MOTD I'm not sure he's on AVB's side. Or he's just crap.

Incidentally I have only just caught up with last weekends MOTD and Pienaar looked like the 3rd best player in the world!!

Yeah, pretty sure Luis is shit.

I'm really just hoping the "turmoil" continues for the rest of the season. A Tevez-esque walkout from Lamps/Terry/Cashley might go down well but I suppose it's unlikely.

Napoli game will be fascinating

So Chelsea need, in the summer:

- A new goalkeeper
- At least two central defenders
- A proper creative midfielder
- Another winger/wide forward
- At least one reliable goal-machine who can lead the line

That's a long long way off a title/CL-winning team. It's the fault of flawed recruitment/squad building policies for years really. Sacking AVB and reinstating the old guard is just repeating the mistake.

Which really, is what I hope they do, but not before the summer. Suspect that installing Hiddink at this stage might give the players someone they want to play for which could be the difference between 4th and total ignominy.

I'd be quite happy with AVB at Anfield if he gets the boot tbh. It won't happen obviously.

So, Hiddink is cashing in, he's off to Anzhi

hmmph, leaves only capello, mourinho and mccarthy for spurs