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

Really? I was talking (very briefly) to one of Echobelly yesterday!

the pinefox is quite right about redknapp -- he is an in group/out group manager who has his favourites and then another pool of disaffected failed transfers who he begrudgingly calls upon in extremis

when he starts to alienate ppl like adebayor and walker then u know things are bad

fyi the singer of The Pooh Sticks was pumped about having one of his songs played on last night's MOTD2 in a bit lauding the team he supports (Swansea)

Jelavic first player to score in five consecutive away games for EFC (incl Wembley) since Duncan McKenzie in 1977! He's awfully good. But I'm not getting my hopes up because Johnson, Bent, Saha and Yakubu all started something like this... McBride and Jô (though not Joe McBride) in smaller, on-loan doses too. If Vaughan and Anichebe had stayed fit, perhaps... Beckford and Beattie had half a spell like this each, maybe.

Genuinely quite excited to have James McFadden back! All we need now is some ridiculous goal-of-the-season volley from him on the final day vs Newcastle.

xxp assuming this whole thing is true and not just twitter malarkey it will (in the longer term) usurp his extended dumping on Pav as the most damning example of the in/out thing you mention

Thanks Nakchivan!

Tim, yes they did. I bought the CD 45 in a cardboard sleeve in 1995 and liked it a lot and I think, really, I still do.

Just remembered that last night Robbie Savage ACTUALLY SAID - yes, ACTUALLY SAID:

"Liverpool for me are FIVE OR SIX QUALITY PLAYERS away from challenging for Champions' League ... that's FOURTH PLACE, not the title!"

yes he actually said Liverpool were 5 or 6 quality players off challenging.

That's extraordinary! We were riffing on this precise phrase a week ago in New York!

the pinefox is quite right about redknapp -- he is an in group/out group manager who has his favourites and then another pool of disaffected failed transfers who he begrudgingly calls upon in extremis

when he starts to alienate ppl like adebayor and walker then u know things are bad

― The term “hipster racism” from Carmen Van Kerckhove at Racialicious (nakhchivan), Monday, 23 April 2012 15:44 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's true generally but i don't think it's quite what's happening now - seems to me redknapp is being decidedly stubborn in a crumbling situation and is subconsciously leaving the players out there to be blamed. mexican standoff between the players saying "fuck you you sold us a dream and now ur off, ps you're a dinosaur anyway", arry's saying "fack off this worked before ps i'm untouchable" basically

saying jelavic is a bargain and spurs should have signed him is kinda 20/20 hindsight btw - loads of clubs looked at him and were unconvinced, little knowing that it was all part of a deceptively casual berbzishness

i mean i'm not saying it was more luck than judgement on everton's part but i think he's done much better than they expected

i agree, but spurs should have bought someone who was scoring somewhere instead of saha

cisse and moussa sow the most obvious choices probably.

I can beat pinefox's oracle feats:

You know Spurs *really* could win the league

― Back Shift Backline (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, 11 January 2012 21:46 (3 months ago)

Europa League? Next season?

I hope my oracular feats are recorded somewhere. I think I originally thought 6th behind Liverpool, then 5th behind Chelsea, or at best 4th behind Chelsea or Arsenal; but basicall that Chelsea and Arsenal were immovable.

I think winning the Europa League would be a fantastic achievement for someone. United, City, LFC, none have managed to make the final. If a UK team does win it it will be a big deal, really.

I know Fulham were in the final which was fab in itself

and Middlesbrough

I recall half-watching that Boro UEFA Cup final in a pub with various ILXors and everyone being rather pleased that, on this occasion, they only managed to magically transform a three-goal deficit into...a four-goal deficit. Was it just because of McLaren that we were so anti?

Mike, I thought it was just you and me watching it! This would be May 2006 wouldn't it. Definitely the era when ilxors were swapping a lot of soccer stickers.

We were very anti-Mc and thought him a disaster waiting to happen to England ... didn't we?

NBS, surely the EL, UEFA Cup or whatever was a different format back then - fewer matches? the sheer number of games seems to be what makes it so hard now.

ps I was wrong, a whole bunch of ilxors were there. Did Boro really lose that single game 0-4?

Yes! And this after their aggregate recoveries from 0-3 or 1-4 or whatever in earlier rounds.

I have turned up a written account of pretty much every amusing thing you said that night. How about this for a highlight:

Cabbage praises Xabi Alonso and Dean Kiley for liking 'indie', and says that most players like Nelly or Kelly [?]
Mike: or Belly !! Feed the tree ... and it will grow.

^
This must have been the same motif as 'feed the Yak and he will score' or whatever - 6 years ago?

Were you taking notes for a pub-based sitcom?

Kelly [?]

That would be R Kelly

Usually.

the Kaiser, arguing against vegetarianism: 'we're naturally omnivorous ... and no other animal seeks to be humane'.
Mike: it's true - lions seek to be leonine!

commentary as 4th goal goes in:

"it’s the last nail in the coffin ... they’re *building* the coffin ... Steve McClaren is lying in state ... it’s going to be nailed together with plastic filler, that’s even harder to pull out ..."

I can hear Mike saying that now.

just had a look at xabi alonso's twitter feed. lol he's such an indie kid.

Xabi Alonso ‏ @XabiAlonso
Yes, once in Liverpool's Empire Theatre RT @ponkytonk
@XabiAlonso did you get into Morrissey whilst playing in England?

that's practically worthy of the Empire Theatre.

he likes the wire though, so all is forgiven

i mean i'm not saying it was more luck than judgement on everton's part but i think he's done much better than they expected

― r|t|c, Monday, April 23, 2012 4:23 PM (2 hours ago)

yeah im a bit surprised hes done so well

cissé will never be this good again, but hes def good enough to score 15+ a season on the reg

the pfa player of the year trophy is surely the ugliest trophy ever cast

the la liga and copa del rey trophies get my vote

‘Chelsea made eight changes to play Arsenal and still looked good. I only had one striker and two centre halves — Ledley King and William Gallas — and if one of those got injured I was bang in trouble and would have had to use Bongani Khumalo, who has been on loan at Reading this season and didn’t get in their side. We were desperate.'

no other high level manager talks like this

he paid for khumalo, a 25yr old south africa international, if he is so terrible that he can't even be sixth choice cb then that's his fault

either way it seems rather disrespectful to effectively disparage him like that

Responding to a question about foreign investment in the Premier League, Redknapp replied: “Where they find some owners now, I don’t know. I remember the first guy they brought in at Portsmouth from Saudi Arabia somewhere. He looked like they pulled him off the stall outside. He looked like the only Arab who didn’t have oil in his garden.”

Redknapp appears to have been referring to the former Portsmouth shareholder Sulaiman Al Fahim, who had to relinquish his stake in the club in 2010 after failing to deliver on a £50 million investment the club said they were promised.

The FA, which has yet to approach any candidate or their club with a formal request to discuss the England vacancy, declined to comment on Redknapp’s remark.It is believed the view within Wembley is that Redknapp remains the Tottenham manager and unless his comments breach FA rules then they are a club matter.

The comment will be widely interpreted as light-hearted and with no intention to cause offence, but it has nonetheless provoked raised eyebrows in football’s anti-racist community. One senior campaigner said: “That’s just part of Harry’s humour, a comment like that, and I wouldn’t take it in any other spirit than how it has been delivered.

“He’s quick and he’s got that cheekiness. But if he is the England manager it’s different. There is a different conduct and etiquette required.”

Another warned that similar comments would backfire if he were to be appointed to English football’s top job. “Harry is not a racist — he’s always had black players around,” the source said. “But he is always going to be clumsy with what he says. You can’t say that sort of thing in the England manager post."

so gonna happen

Harry is not a racist — he’s always had black players around

Bongani Sandile Khumalo (born 6 January 1987) is a South African footballer who plays as a centre back for English Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur and South Africa. He is known for his brute strength and ability to injure the strongest players while tackling cleanly.

no other high level manager talks like this

Hodgson. You're after high level though aren't you.

saying jelavic is a bargain and spurs should have signed him is kinda 20/20 hindsight btw - loads of clubs looked at him and were unconvinced, little knowing that it was all part of a deceptively casual berbzishness

I'm not claiming Pinefoxian foresight here but I said when Everton signed him he'd do well and I was glad to see him leave Rangers. I even sort-of compared him to Berbz.

I think he's of Premier League standard. Good with back to goal, runs the channels, strong, shoots on sight, good goals record, doesn't look overly arsed about anything ever. I'm delighted he's leaving Rangers.

Hodgson. You're after high level though aren't you.

― Chris, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 00:00 (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

meow

hodgson seems like actually a nice person, there wasn't a hint of rancour in the duration of his bbc interview on sunday

i doubt hes ever thrown a player to the wolves to deflect attention from general failings as redknapp likes to do

that wasnt supposed to be a bassong reference

na, he just hangs the kids out to dry to deflect attention from his shite tactics against the "formidable" northampton town

dalglish would never do that, even if he lost 3-1 to relegation candidates

not got a problem with giving senior players a kick up the arse, but labelling reserves and youths as the B team and giving the impression he views them as separate from the rest of the club, and refusing to give a bit of praise to shelvey when asked about his performance wasn't a great move.

i defer to your superior knowledge of liverpool but i don't think blaming a whole team, even if they're largely kids, is as poor form as isolating a single player
for public criticism

ferguson is great at this, he gently upbraided ashley young but made it clear his actual failing was in allowing himself to become the subject of a media witchhunt

yeah seems obvious the word he had with him was "the bastards are all out to get us, lay low for a couple of weeks"

i defer to your superior knowledge of liverpool but i don't think blaming a whole team, even if they're largely kids, is as poor form as isolating a single player for public criticism

a single player who hasn't even played for them, at that. now he'll definitely be in the right frame of mind to step up to the task if called upon.