Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

5 yrs at 40k pw to get fat & stocious drunk on the reg no doubt

ppl who have figured out how to live

That Eriksson-era City side was one of the most talented-but-flakey teams I can remember.

Except Didi Hamann obviously.

I'd like to see them contest a run-in with Keegan's Newcastle, Bowles' QPR; blood everywhere and clinical competence be damned. Maybe add some late-era Wenger.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2013/1/15/1358260760268/Sven-Goran-Eriksson--008.jpg

Sven-Goran Eriksson joins the coaching staff of 1860 Munich
• 'He is a coach of the world,' says the club's chief executive

what fixtures have The World got lined up then?

Didn't he actually coach The World against Gordon Ramsay/Robbie Williams XI?

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa469/kasper36/Newcastle%20United%20FC%20-%20The%20Animated%20Series/qpr.gif

nice

Easy fixture:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTkwNTczNTMyOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzUxOTUyMw

http://www.cinemotions.com/data/films/1018/91/1/affiche-Scott-Pilgrim-vs-the-World-2009-1.jpg

home park's always a tough ground to go to in fairness

Ugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsZzkxGs9hM

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/queens-park-rangers/9801632/Joey-Barton-and-former-Liverpool-and-Man-City-midfielder-Dietmar-Hamann-in-frankly-hilarious-Twitter-altercation.html

Hilarious, and according to someone on a famous gossip website entire true re the financial situation of one of them.

The same site also suggests the reason Fat Frank, Cashley and EBJT haven't been given new contracts is because Abramovitch blames them for making AVB's position untenable.

hamann was doing the confessional shite wrt gambling last year

hes probably famous enough that he could make a quarter million a year just lingering around fitba / tv studios / afterdinner circuit, even if he has squandered the big money already

would dearly love the Abramovitch/AVB stuff to be true but can't see it

The Telegraph is as trustworthy a source on Chelsea as there is imo.

Except for the fan fiction stuff, that's a nonsense. They splashed the Ballon d'Or last week with a 'Chelsea snubbed' headline iirc.

I dunno - I reckon Abramovich is probably looking at what AVB's done so far with Spurs and thinking he might have been too hasty, but my guess would be that he sees the three of them as obstacles to change and when push came to shove he wasn't prepared to back AVB to push through that change if meant losing their Champions League status in the process.

One year on and it's only really Lampard who looks like he might genuinely be missed, the old guard has declined in relevance very rapidly, everyone can see it's Hazard and Mata who are the key players now.

Found the same story elsewhere from a Chelsea fan site, posted over the weekend (but with Essien instead of EBJT).

What's going to happen with Oscar? Criminal if that boy gets turned into an occasional sub.

in Rafaland, everybody's an occasional sub

One year on and it's only really Lampard who looks like he might genuinely be missed, the old guard has declined in relevance very rapidly, everyone can see it's Hazard and Mata who are the key players now.

― Matt DC, Tuesday, 15 January 2013 18:54 (1 minute ago)

that is nearly as fickle as the guardian's talkingpointstastic '10 things we learned' column which makes grand proclamations based on 90 minutes

lampard is not a starting quality cm, ashley cole as well as being a more conventionally skilled player for his position, is still in very good physical condition and is two years and half years younger

mata and hazard are another thing

I note Coutinho's being hawked about atm, he's another victim.

as a squad player it would be worth keeping lampy wamps around, the finality of this decision does suggest abramovich feels slighted and the avb mutiny is a likely reason

abramovich allowed lampard to spend his honeymoon on one of his yachts, apart from shevchenko he is the only chelsea player that seemed to have that personal relationship with him

countinho had his breakthrough in rafa's strangely cavalier inter side

also biabany, now of parma iirc

Lampard probably isn't starting quality but he's still scoring regularly. Cole's head tends to go down for months at a time and he isn't the player he was - left backs don't exert that much influence on the team and even ones of Cole's quality are replaceable if you have Chelsea's kind of money.

yeah, Leighton Baines probly isn't that dear

yeah anyone can pick up an elite level fullback for a few quid, which is why chelsea have spent about £70m on ferreira, johnson, bouhlarouz, bosingwa, ivanovic, azpilicueta, wallace etc

baines is 28 and not that fast, he will decline within a couple of years and isn't as good a defender as cole

they will probably go in for coentrao

also whatever shitty music ashley cole likes and skintight d&g james dean t-shirts >>>>>>> whatever shitty clothes leighton baines wears and miles kane

Ivanovic is a pretty great right-back I think, good enough at least.

Wonder whether Ashley Cole visibly lying through his teeth at the JT enquiry might have something to do with it as well, but I doubt Abramovich is a man to worry about such trifling concerns, it's possibly that he's a poisonous presence in the squad.

yeah i rate ivanovic at rb but he and cahill are probably their most reliable cb partnership

Baines was a joke mostly, I'd still argue he's the better English left back at this point in their respective careers but obv not really a Chelsea target

someone is going to buy baines

could see ferguson dripping poison until he gets him for a bit over £10m

'yis cunts got darron gibson, a TWENTY MILLION POUND PLAYER, for nothing'

bae is the obvious choice

Who actually decides transfer targets in the current interregnum?

yeah anyone can pick up an elite level fullback for a few quid, which is why chelsea have spent about £70m on ferreira, johnson, bouhlarouz, bosingwa, ivanovic, azpilicueta, wallace etc

Otm. Full back surely the toughest position to fill.

there's also this dude, £8m

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrlR1JrN8qA

i think FB has the biggest gap between 'looks like a player' types like figueroa, pranjic, gebreselasie, mathieu and actually reliably great players

in the latter group there are seldom more than half a dozen split between left and right backs, and even someone like maicon who i would have rated highest circa 2008, had a fairly short shelf life at the top

part of that is due to it being the most athletically demanding position (speed and stamina necessary, power a huge asset) but also a sort of confidence trick too

so someone like kyle walker looks like an incredibly athletic prototypical modern fullback last season, but a few instances of his iffy positioning being exposed and it's clear that, at least for the time being, he isn't quite there

problem for a lot of full backs is that that ability to surge forward relies on having somebody in front of you who can cover the gap, positioning is less of an issue if the wide mids have some defensive nous

in the extended clip does del horno mouth 'played the ball' and do the ( ) hands

tbf, and as a spurs fan i don't underestimate a good'un, but chelsea overspending on a chute of dross isn't a discussion ender

I dunno, we're conflating right backs and left backs here and they're treated differently by clubs, will explain more when I'm not on a phone.

clubs generally have better right-sided midfield options therefore right back is generally a more defensive role than left back?

i feel like most of the great attacking full backs of the last decade have been left backs, anyway

The other way round surely? I always get the feeling that left-backs are valued more highly as defenders by clubs than right-backs because there are more good right-sided attacking players.

There's a general sense (and not just in English football) that right-back is the easiest position on the pitch to play - Philip Lahm is the one genuinely world-class right back I can think of when it comes to both attacking and defending over a sustained and consistent period of time, and he can play on either side anyway. People like Maicon and Dani Alves tend to great attackers first and foremost, the position isn't valued as highly because there are fewer great left-sided attacking players.

Obviously this is changing in the era of yer modern wide forwards who play tucked inside a bit, but if anything that means full-backs are expected to get forward even more to compensate for that. It also explains how Gareth Bale can become one of the most sought-after players in Europe pretty much overnight after making a player as highly-rated as Maicon look like a clown.

There always seem to be more elite left-backs around (although maybe fewer left-backs generally), I get the feeling managers and chairmen take more care to have LB covered and to really develop players in that position. Chelsea have spent a lot of money on right-backs but mostly of the flakey attacking variety - that's why most Chelsea fans I know seem to rate Ivanovic so highly.

i think we're arguing more or less the same thing, except as to whether full back is valued primarily as a defensive or attacking position.

i suppose the bias toward right-footedness in the UK - not sure about abroad, better technical ability blah blah - means that it's common to convert a centre back who can run a bit into a right back whereas the left back position seems more specialised? if you've got a left-footed defender you're gonna automatically push him towards full back. i guess this accounts for why any left back who shows promise is immediately touted as being a candidate for left winger/left-sided mid

and duh stupid me left backs' defensive duties valued more highly precisely because of the plethora of pacey right wings (most of whom can't cross tbf) they'll be confronted with in a season