Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

West Brom, Dortmund, the four in Scotland, one each in Ukraine, Slovakia (or Slovenia) and Hungary, plus one more I've forgotten. I didn't count Wales because epl. There might be more by now I suppose.

Sorry for posting that btw, I happened to notice the absence of away success and had to do *something* with the knowledge.

I believe Onimo was making a joke

Erm...as are you

You give me too much credit

How much would you pay to take on a team of ex-pros? I was musing on more ways for clubs to make money, and wondered about making more use of former players, only instead of Charlie George working in the Arsenal museum, they stuck him on a pitch with say Gus Caesar, Franny Jeffers, Marouane Chamakh and a few others (it'd have to be old-timers who didn't get rich off the game) and unleashed them on rich blokes having midlife crises, investment banker away days, etc. Could make a killing I reckon.

drudge siren

daily mail says we are going to pay ten million in january for stewart downing

drudge siren

yeah mackie's missed a few opportunities like that

fitba brain pretty rudimentary bless him, can frustrate but the drive and bustle is worth it.

You could have heard us lot say pretty much this about him when he was with us in the Conference.

Hughes had agreed to ditch Jose Bosingwa, Esteban Granero and Junior Hoilett from the team he would have selected for yesterday’s game and to reinstate some of the old guard of Jamie Mackie, Shaun Derry and Clint Hill, along with Nedum Onuoha. They are not better footballers but they are battle.

Weird imaginary street talk from today's Telegraph.

Nedum Onuoha isn't a battle. He's a capitulation.

Where the chants of 'you don't know what you're doing' toward wenger clearly audible at villa park y'day? Didn't watch the game myself.

Not sure I can really ever wish Chelsea well but the following scenario would amuse me

Chelsea win the league
Benitez gets sacked anyway cos' for some reason Pep wants the job
Man City's failure to win the league results in Mancini getting the sack
Rafa gets the Man City job
Throw in Fergie retiring and R Madrid winning neither the CL or La Liga meaning Mourinho takes over at Old Trafford.

Amusing? That sounds like a nightmare.

Pep's year sabbatical is because he's supposed to be doing a year-long course in New York, right? Does anybody know what the course is?

zonal marking 101

Given the state of United and probably Chelsea at the moment, City have enough good players to win the league comfortably even without Mancini even doing particularly well, especially if they bomb out of Europe altogether.

Yeah they're unbeaten so far this season playing at roughly 75% of the level they were last year.

I suppose it's probably English lessons xp, but it'd be amusing if Pep were studying something entirely unrelated like divinity or electrical engineering.

i wonder if the barca board contingent at city definitely precludes mourinho cos otherwise that would be the most obvious eventuality

reckon pep would totally take the arsenal job were arsene to find the noble self-sacrifice within

“I never really wanted to sell him at Tottenham to be honest. I had a good relationship with him. I never had a problem with Adel.

“At times his problems were self-inflicted, but I let him go because he wasn’t playing and the Chairman felt it was a good time to let him go."

Will miss Redknapp on MOTD: Player x has a good game, cue Harry "yeah i tried to get him at Tottenham.."

iirc when we sold taraabt (did we really only sell him once?) arry lamented his performance in a friendly the week before when ''ee was drivin poor luka mad'

Is the Liverpool game on actual telly?

Sky Sports, right now. Is that actual telly? I'll be wondering about that for next 2 hrs now.

Downing having to play LB behind and ACTUAL LB is trolling of the highest order btw.

Can't be as bad as the League Cup trouncing today surely?

thanks p - the question you can't help me with is whether it's worth seeking this out

it's pretty lively so far

People-who-used-to-be-linked-with-things and CL Miscellany news: Unai Emery sacked from Spartak Mockba

good match this, v absorbing

lpool obviously more limited but still seem more likely to score purely out of swansea defensive deficiency

two halves of a great side basically, stick agger skrtel and suarez into swansea and you'd have title challengers probably

gerrard just looking confused and lost now, so very old and tired you can see it in his face

swans midfield giving a real masterclass, constant intelligent swarming interchanges, much improved from overrated last season

pablo h is dope

if they keep it focused and tight tho and this will still end up lpool 1 or 2-0

am i really the only one watching this

farmers market aficionados must actually be at farmers markets

I knew this was going to be a great one so I was up at 5 my time

I decided on the radio instead, turns out some nomark is filling time with Lewis Hamilton instead ffs

I will be at the market later when they're open tho

I've just started watching it, forgot that the Spurs game doesn't start til 4. Also I've got Pablo H and Routledge in my FFL team and Suarez upfront so I've got a lot riding on it.

enrique is better than downing at lw tho surely

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/nov/24/eric-cantona-20-years-phone-call

20 mins in and the saints fans are already cheering ironically every time gazzaniga manages not to fuck up a clearance :-/

Ech, I was looking forward to slotting in two points behind Arsenal, I could've lived with that.

GET INVOLVED

Chris in Leigh-on-Sea via text on 81111: "I don't care how many times people say good things about Jonjo Shelvey. They're wrong. He's not good enough. But the same could be said about a few others wearing the Liverbird."

hmmmn does anyone know chris in leigh on sea's view on lucas leiva perchance?

Ech, I was looking forward to slotting in two points behind Arsenal, I could've lived with that.

Look on the bright side: just three points behind Allardyce's West Ham now and effectively a point and a half ahead of Norwich when you take into account how bad their goal difference is.

I hope you don't win the league

Actually, I suppose West Ham do have a game in hand.

and get put out the Champions League in the next round

enrique is better than downing at lw tho surely

― Nilmar Honorato da Silva, Sunday, 25 November 2012 15:19 (29 minutes ago) Bookmark

v much so imo

movement off the ball still not good enough for what brendan's wishing for though

saints all over newcastle so far. if we keep a clean sheet today i might start to ~believe~

lol at sky trying hard to make "three amigos" happen

already looking forward to motson washing the memory of "vinqt-cinq kompany" away on motd2 later tbh

How long have City had this away kit?