Moneyball won't win the Premiership 2012-13

The analogy is not so exact as to require you to decide which team represents which fast food outlet.

What are the political views of the person that runs mcdonalds?

Sunderland are shite but their average attendance is roughly the same as Chelsea's and not far off Liverpool's (and about five times Swindon's). They're a big deal.

i still think it's a bit off to suddenly start investigating the guy as a fascist now he has got a slightly bigger job. it's not like having the job makes him a bigger fascist.

plus he was all over bbc and stuff in recent times, with a lol di canio feel to a lot of the stuff. nobody ever seemed to mention the fascist stuff. that seems wrong in hindsight.

personally i only knew about the salute - didn't know there was a case to be made for him being a fully fledged fascist.

sorry i realise my point has been made upthread - but yes to the undervaluing of swindon being a problem.

What is a fully fledged fascist

what are the political leanings of the person that runs mcdonalds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Thompson_(executive)

Thompson is a graduate of Purdue University and holds an honorary doctorate from Excelsior College.

Filet-O-Fishist

do you not think there's a difference between "political views" and "possibly considers non-white people to be degenerate scum"?

Anyway, fuck you Chris Samba with your comical defending. Only consolation last night was that the Cottage under lights is the nicest place to watch football I've ever been to.

Customers at McDonalds generally don’t think they can get away with racially abusing the staff. As far as I know, Sunderland have generally been pretty good at cracking down on fans pulling this kind of thing but the Premier League and England as an international team still have a significant problem with fans aligning themselves, however loosely, with far-right causes.

The appointment has significance beyond the club – it’s being interpreted by quite a few people that football is still willing to overlook bigotry when it’s convenient to do so. Whether that’s fair or not, I don’t know but di Canio’s statement was weak and his flat-our refusal to engage beyond what has been said is weaker.

i think it's probable that di Canio will be "encouraged" to make a stronger statement in the next few days. if he refuses, that could be the tipping point.

Customers at McDonalds generally don’t think they can get away with racially abusing the staff.

ime they do!

i don't mean that as a jovial suggestion that i've done so myself. just seen it often enough.

If pdc keeps his mouth shut and sunderland manage to get a result at Chelsea I don't think he'll have to clarify anything. It'll all go away and the papers will be more interested in whether Chelsea will finish top four or not etc. If there were any English teams still in the CL this week this story would be over by Thurs imo.

When asked if QPR needed a miracle Redknapp remained indignant at the prospect.

“No, not miracles. Is it? A miracle is, if you are a cripple and I touch you and I cure you. That is a miracle.

“It is not a miracle to win some football matches.”

lol Arry sounded really pissed off after the match last night

Yah especially at samba's decision to play CF for the last ten minutes!

Scandalous goals

his face was an absolute picture the entire match, tempted to compile

also jamie mackie's on the bench when arry was ranting at no one particular after the pen miss

Last night was your Istanbul, except that Xabi followed up his penalty

yeah i really dunno about this samba up front thing, if arry's right that he did it of his own volition then it's a quite epic shifting the blame fail

funny you should mention istanbul as i only arrived at half time for both... i was thinking i'd jinxed rangers yday but maybe i just used up all my comeback power on lfc :/

guhh that penalty was so bad though. yet more evidence that remy is thierry henry's shit cousin

commentator on 5 Live said "where were your players for the first 40 minutes?" and Arry snapped "I dunno probly the same place theres was for the last 40" then appeared to stomp off

is that qpr down then basically? seems a mountain to climb

Still hoping for Sunderland/Newcastle double relegation tbh

Bottom two are down, you can't make up a point a game on everybody above you. They'd need six wins out of seven most likely.

"U all moan about players and wages,but we don't just entertain u we entertain millions around the world,with out us what would u tweet about?"

big chris otm, gonna think of the greater good from now on

I'd been thinking if QPR managed to win yesterday that with decent performances from Remy they might manage to overhaul both Villa and Sunderland. Looks pretty unlikely now though.

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6342/dropwf.png

The final place is pretty interesting now thanks to Wigan. It's hard to see West Ham going down, but anybody else might. I'd had it in my mind at various times that Southampton, Norwich and Newcastle had saved themselves, but no. Never thought that Stoke were still in this.

Newcastle, Stoke, Villa would all be nice.

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/form-guide.html

Current form guide is pretty interesting reading, I hadn't really noticed how badly Stoke were doing, or even Chelsea for that matter.

Chelsea will be fine, probably just need a couple of big signings

Newcastle, Stoke, Villa would all be nice.

Villa have stuck by their manager. Plus it's Lambert. Stoke is not going to happen, that would be too perfect.

The Villa goal difference is a real killer, though they could conceivably catch Norwich.

still think it's Sunderland and Ducegate just makes it more likely

Up in Scotland at the weekend, two of my friends were discussing a match they'd seen at the weekend, an Italian game, "Nah, I don't watch the Premiership anymore, it's shite" quoth one.

Sunderland games in April: Chelsea away, Newcastle away, Everton at home, Villa away. Could very likely get 0pts from that lot.

stoke always rack up the points midseason and fuck off turn of the year tbf. possibly cutting it finer than usual this year though yeah

don't care about villa as a club but that cunt lambert has got to go, i wish him all the ills available

Ooh Wigan v Villa on the last day of the season, tasty.

Wigan will be safe by then, not sure about t' Villa

Wigan have still got to play City, Arsenal and Spurs, but the rest of their games are against midtable fodder like Swansea and West Brom who will have long stopped trying by then. And they've got QPR. They're probably going to be okay.

Have City got any reason to be trying?

I don't dislike Sunderland at all. But I think maybe I would now like them to be relegated. Would others be happy with that?

"It was a big surprise but I had the fire in my stomach. I said yes after a second and I said I come by swim, no problem."

Despite his new team being perched precariously one point above the relegation zone and facing trips to Chelsea and Newcastle, he professed absolute confidence in Sunderland's ability to survive under his idiosyncratic, inexperienced, brand of leadership.

"People are sceptical but I see managers with more experience than Paolo Di Canio, they are relegated," he said. "Why not change this habit one day. I hear people talking about my statistics but it doesn't mean anything."

So how much would money would he be prepared to gamble on Sunderland still being a Premier League team next season. "You call the Mad Italian," he said. "I bet what I have got."

"You call the Mad Italian,"

is he referencing that stupid ad here?

Warnock now available (unless genuinely retired) - Reading and Sunderland have missed out

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/01/leeds-united-neil-warnock-exit

Leeds and di Canio might have been a powerful combination

Somehow I don't think Warnock is the go-to guy for when you want to stay in the Premiership. They might as well have gone for Iain Dowie.

Leeds and di Canio might have been a powerful combination

lol

more than a few of my friends stateside have mentioned the juxtaposition of di Canio joining Sunderland not long after Robbie Rodgers retired (from Leeds) & came out of the closet