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

and havent ajax been doing so well in recent years to stick with the status quo after all

they are a shambles

xxp i'm sure kenny isnt as lumpen as the stereotype but i can't quite figure him seeing eye to eye with cruyff on either philosophically

besides that they are both dominant stubborn big man legends and idk if cruyff really does backseat the way fsg are probably thinking

dein would probably be a smart move if a bit cognitively dissonant idk

are the liv kids really all that btw? like, actually break into the first team good? non-bobblehead answers appreciated

i know a norwich fan who raves about ayala btw

ajax having to sell any players that start to look good cant help

i dont think anyone in football knows how to sort this out. having the best youth team in the world at any given time doesnt hurt though.

dein i dont have a read on. when he was good, he was the best. but also he is a massive ego and is prone to very stupid mistakes and needs people to reign him in. if they could get cryuff to do the football side and dein to be the business guy (and they could fit both of their egos into one room), it could be a hell of a partnership.

i get a strong 'arry/venables "friends in high fleet street places" vibe with dein and never know whether to believe the hype

henry was pretty distraught when dein left wasnt he, not that his say should amount to anything

i mean if you're after a figurehead who's going to ensure there's a philosophy and style of play running through the club then wouldn't it make sense to either move dalglish upstairs or promote the academy directors who were brought in to establish that continuity in the first place and who know the blueprint better than anybody?

― Chris, Friday, 13 April 2012 13:52 (38 minutes ago) Bookmark

seems to me like this is the most sensible way of sorting it

are the liv kids really all that btw? like, actually break into the first team good? non-bobblehead answers appreciated

aren't they already starting to make it? kelly has overtaken johnson, spearing isn't useless, a couple are starting to make the bench (flanigan and robinson)

there are a couple guys who get mentioned like they could become big things - sterling obv and a couple other names from the kiddy cl run.

Sterling, Suso, Adorjan and Wisdom all could come through imo - though I thought the same about Pacheco :(

Flanagan did put in possibly the worst defensive performance season the other night in fairness to the lad

yeah wisdom looks good

would bet against sterling making it but i'm not quite sure why really

getting a bit of a Ravel Morrison vibe from Sterling

xposts. it's 4231, possession-based, and they press. they play with a traditional number 10. they're very good to watch. always hard to tell which youngsters are going to make it, no matter how good they look at youth level, but they're very good teams in the true sense of the word. there are a few who look very promising and different to the type of kids we've produced in the past - you can see the impact the barca guys have had on them. i mean i can't think of any spearing-type players there, coady sits and lets the forwards get on with it, there's a lad in the U18s who's very alonso-esque. you can never really tell with kids, but i'd say you've got a better chance of unearthing someone if the teams 'play the right way' from an early age and are surrounded by players who've been learning the system from day one. doesn't help that the 1st team hven't been playing a pressing, possession-based 4231 this season but nevermind.

yeah p sure spearing is useless tbh

he will grace nakhchivan's dream team midfield alongside cattermole for years to come i'm sure

Shelvey was actually looking pretty decent in the "Gerrard role" before it all fell apart against Blackburn

xp sterling's not a bad boy i don't think but erm yeah, seems lightweight in temperament shall we say

find it hard to take shelvey srsly

Mancini just added another "football is strange" to his collection on SSN.

He's been a bit odd this week - refusing to concede the title at 8 points/6 games then saying it's all over at 5 points/5 games. I think he's probably just fed up being asked.

it's either gallows humour or the die hard with a vengeance "just pretend ur crazy" method

not sure jose would have agreed anything already so probs the latter

He's all set to bring back Balotelli in the last game to score the goal that wins them the title.

getting a bit of a Ravel Morrison vibe from Sterling

― Number None, Friday, 13 April 2012 13:40 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hoping this post comes up on all future velvet underground searches

(xposted from the MLS thread, feel free to SB me for spamming if you like)

http://www.xiquarterly.com/

a couple of friends are wrapped up in trying to start a quarterly north american soccer mag in the vein (I think) of the blizzard. in the interests of good taste I'll skip posting the direct kickstarter link but take a look at their page and decide for yourself if you think it'd be cool.

So the Bebe transfer is under investigation. I can't think why - if ever there was a transfer that no right-thinking person would consider dodgy, this was it.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/13/article-2129512-1289D331000005DC-331_634x412.jpg

i've seen lfc youth teams a few times lately and nobody shone except for one big lad up front whose finishing was spectacularly inept. Relying on youth messiahs is well and good but there are good players in the first xi right now that aren't being managed to anything like potential.

Hyped british wonderkids, what's the actual success rate there since say utd's 95 team?

Would be a good xi with cadamarteri obv leading the line, i dunno but joe cole doesn't get a game with bentley tbh

you must have caught them on bad days my friend ;) success rate since 95 isn't great, but the ones who are coming through now are good enough to at least fill the squad out and provide decent back up, ya spearing, kelly type players, and it's still too early to evaluate just how successful the 2009 overhaul was. not saying they're all good enough to start at wembley tomorrow, but the building blocks are very much in place, and there's lots to be optimistic about.

Right, off to West Bromwich. The Roy Hodgson-Mark Hughes tactical battle is one that promises scintillating football in every area of the pitch.

Hyped british wonderkids, what's the actual success rate there since say utd's 95 team?

hyped i'd say a rough 50-50 split? for the west ham vintage you have the hyped up man city kids who came up under stuart pearce. an ashley young for a delfounso. wilshere for jet. bale and aoc for victor moses. etc.

pick out the players there that were hyped from youth teams, tho, cf sterling. I'm not talking players that break into full teams while young, that's kinda almost the opposite of the pacheco syndrome i'm referencing

Lolled pretty hard at the Cruijff to L'pool rumour. Never going to happen. He'll only work for Barca and Ajax, and lives far too pleasantly in Barcelona to go to Liverpool.

Other than that, it would indeed be disaster. Cruijff wants to either work like a dictator, or not at all (and why not, if he's in the position to desire this). He's not flexible and doesn't tolerate other opinions. He'd be gone before you can say 'Liverpool won't be on dis ting '12-'13'.

Van Gaal though, I could see him do it. Equally despotic but more up for a challenge.

Looking ahead to what will happen at the end of the season, Connor said: "We will all sit down, assess what has gone on over the course of the season and discuss the last 13 games.

"The club will find their path for the future and, if that's with me, fine. If not, I accept that as well."

STFU YOU FUCKING IDIOT

idk seems like a reasonable answer

the reasonable answer wd have been "Clearly I am shit and incapable of transforming this terrible squad into a functional football team, and I will be going into a hot bath to open my veins as soon as the season finishes. I can fully understand why the supporters want me as far away as possible from the fucking shell of a club I've helped to create and I promise to never, ever work in football ever again."

you're too harsh on managers imo

it's not so much managers as managers who were previously assistant managers and logically bear every bit as much blame for the team's ineptitude as the gormless twat they were working alongside until 8 games ago

and then have the fucking gall to beg to be kept on at the club they've fucked up as if it's perfectly reasonable and everybody wd be cool with it

maybe, just every now and then, an apology and an admission might be in order

wouldn't serve any use from him, and wouldn't serve any use without a resignation, which wouldn't help at this stage

it wouldn't hurt either

staunton dilemma, imo. shouldn't have taken the job, can't blame him for doing so, must hate him for doing so, complex imo

i'm just kinda disgusted that it's been left to drift to this whimpering, hilarious exit. Morgan and Moxey are quite rightly getting just as much blame from the supporters, and McCarthy and Connor both seem like decent people, but there's a spinelessness to the endless positive talk when sometimes you just want to hear "we weren't good enough, we fucked up, sorry"

Connor at least hasn't taken Mick's combative approach to the fans, which was just another indicator of the guy's mulishness. Bone-headed and no nonsense is a fucking terrible look in top flight football in 2012.

ah this is just getting a weight off my shoulders. we're unwatchable this season and not because of the defeats, the unwatchability is the prime cause of the defeats if anything.

eh you know if you were in connor's shoes you'd have stayed on too once asked. couple of months extra pay before the inevitable

i read something this week saying curbs didnt take the job cos he wouldnt accept a wage reduction on relegation, so uh maybe morgan's sensible book-keeping is kind of a silver lining at least

otoh megson in the stands, ruh roh

idk it's no good to say it but maybe yo-yo is not the worst place you could be. I'm no expert on what it takes to make the leap up to staying in the top division for good but more fail, and fail with disastrous effect, than succeed and keeping a lid on spending is certainly an inhibitor but it's also the safe path in the medium/long term.

i can't fault the sensible book-keeping, i don't wanna throw stupid money at the problem. if i was Connor i'd have snatched their hands off, obv.

Morgan and Moxey don't appear to know anything about football, is the problem. the book-keeping part of the equation ideally shd happen alongside an imaginative approach to getting the right management staff, having a vision for the club that goes beyond "being in PL as cheap as possible" and trying to play football. if we sit mid-table in the Championship on those terms i'd be happier than the farce that's unfolded over the last 3 seasons tbh.

Albion and Hodgson have their flaws but appear to be a much better model of this kind of approach than we've ever managed. and that's on the back of a smaller fan-base.

hmmm failure at a higher level is kinda often a necessary step from succeeding at a lower. I mean I'm just devil's advocating here i'd have had connor poisoned by now obv.

the thing is that the flaws are systemic, have been there since we got promoted, and Connor's been part of that system from the beginning

tbf to Connor I have no idea how much involvement he had in transfer policy, and obv we're not likely to find out now. maybe he wd have realised the importance of having full backs or something.

Tevez is gonna do it for these fuckers isn't he

there's a little sick part of my stomach that thinks the cunts cd still offer him the job in the Championship next season. continuity's a good thing but ffs there are limits.