NAMING RIGHTS THREAD: Liverpool really won't win the Premiership 2010-2011

Liverpool's 3rd goal at Wolves was better than that Berbatov team goal btw.

I'll say it again here, wtf was Motson going on about re. Arsenal's "more attacking formation"?!

I think Berbatov team goal the best goal of this season
not scored by Tottenham Hotspur

Berbs best, VDV best one I saw in thuh flesh-uh, Tiote still kinda robbed by the quirks of the system

In the camp of thinking that the Rooney one is actually good but still never want to see it again, already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoUNrjrRXw8

can't stop laughing at this. well done wolves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OQT1psCoAc&feature=watch_response

http://www.offthepost.info/wp-content/uploads/mccarthy_o_GIFSoup.com_.gif

Gareth Barry is trending on Twitter, but I didn't really think his miss today was that significant in the grand scheme of things

He was totally anonymous yesterday.

yesterday was fun. blackpool should come straight back up tbh - it's not like they have to sell everyone as their wage bill is p small and the adams money should be decently reinvested.

also LOL PORN BARONS AND CUNTINGHAM

give olympic stadium to the lower league club who deserves it: orient.

http://i.min.us/ict9GK.gif

oh i take it all back, let's keep the useless gets forever :D

1. are people still open to a 'ilx favourite/greatest player of all time' poll?

2. possible summer thread titles anyone?

1. for sure
2. "there's an important goal to come from my client next season" - off-season and transfer speculation thread 2011

lols.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/may/22/carlo-ancelotti-roman-abramovich-chelsea

kinda crappy article really, smacks of them wanting someone to express that opinion first and foremost, regardless of what they say.

yeah, it's a poor piece of contrarianess.
there is a case to be made that CA failed to motivate the players for key matches, showed tactical inflexibility and was irritatingly risk averse when it comes to using young players.
you could also point out that Chelsea's managerial-carousel approach has proved more successful than Arsenal's consistency, and also that Chelsea and United have won exactly the same amount of major trohies since 2003 (albeit at a ridiculous rate of spend). so the chaos system isn't quite as self-destructive as it may appear.
but there is so much to set against that, i don't really know where to begin.
it's all very embarrassing. most chelsea fans i know are really struggling to give a shit about who takes over as they know whoever it is won't be around for more than a year.
this policy wouldn't be a problem if there was some stability elsewhere at the football level, but we have lost some very good coaches (Villa Boas, Brendan Rodgers, Steve Clarke, possibly Ray Wilkins) and that is something to worry about.
if hiddink comes in as a long-term director of footballthat will go some way towards mitigating that, but the concern is he will soon lost abramovich's ear if he doesnt play the political/sycophant game (the cabal around RA are extraordinarily vile and mediocre).
I also think Van Basten would be a stone-cold flop.
the rumour is Hiddink and Van Basten + five players, with the intimation this has been planned for a long time, maybe even pre-Wilkins.

yeah kinda surprised van basten is even linked...like didn't he mostly flop in the dutch job? or am i missing something?

the claim is it is Hiddink's pick and van basten would just be the frontman, doing the legwork and media stuff (hiddink hates all that).

you could also point out that Chelsea's managerial-carousel approach has proved more successful than Arsenal's consistency, and also that Chelsea and United have won exactly the same amount of major trohies since 2003 (albeit at a ridiculous rate of spend). so the chaos system isn't quite as self-destructive as it may appear.

It's quite destructive in terms of building a long-term squad that can ride out transition periods in the way that United have this season. Chelsea's success has been built on (largely) the same core personnel since the Mourinho era but, good as David Luiz is, I don't really see a second generation emerging that can match them. Also United have won one more league title and a Champions League trophy in that time so the standings are not really equal. Reckon Arsenal and Wenger would have won much more with Abramovich level resources at their disposal as well.

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yeah kinda surprised van basten is even linked...like didn't he mostly flop in the dutch job? or am i missing something?

― Suggest Banter (Local Garda), maandag 23 mei 2011 13:37 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

Nope, you're not missing anything. Van Basten being linked to Chelsea is laughable. His time at Ajax was all lols, he went on a shopping spree, bought loads of players for ridiculous prices and in the end got no results whatsoever and had to leave. His work with the Dutch national team wasn't too good either, and he's been deeply criticised for his ways of communication with both the players and the media. Seems like Chelsea would be appointing a mostly failed and relatively inexperienced trainer solely on the merits of him having been a great footballer. Which in a way sounds a perfect LOL Chelsea move.

yeah that's what i thought, his dutch sides were poor as ever.

Wait when did Villa Boas work for Chelsea?

@PeteW, You have no idea how much Van Basten hates the media and dealing with them. Journalists seem to bring out the autist that is hidden in him somewhere.

He did something or other under Jose. When he must've been around his mid-twenties - guy's resetting the bar for when one should be taking a long, hard look at oneself.

i'm not really disagreeing with that, just pointing out that the team has been consistently successful despite the difficulties and that may have made RA believe he was on to something.

there is the core of a decent younger team out there (Cech, Ivanvovic, Alex, Luiz, Ramires, Torres *cough*, Mikel) plus kids like McEachran, Sturridge and Kakuta, but obviously replacing lampard/Drogba is the key. the club pretty much put a halt to spending after shevchenko and the first team has ossified since then. some of the teams put out by CA were exactly the same as those fielded by JM, which is hella weird but was kind of neccessary because of the uncertainty at the rest of the club.

think villa boas put together those epic coaching manuals for upcoming games, worked at chelsea all the time JM was there. brendan rodgers was also there at the time and steve clarke,. three good ones that got away.

interesting about Van Basten and the media. I don't understand the link, i know he was a failed manager, so that was the only explanation i could offer. not sure that would be a classic chelsea appointment - grant aside, all managers we've brought in have been proven winners.

I;m surprised van gaal isn't being mentioned. does he have a dutch rivalry with Guus?

It was a horrifying moment when I realised that Villas Boas is ONE YEAR older than me. But if I was him I'd have a crack at the Champions League with Porto first, safe in the knowledge that the Chelsea job will come up again. Unless Porto aren't really that good.

dick advocaat? frank rijkaard? ronald koeman? jan wouters, aaron winter, ed de goey dreamteam?

Ray from 2 Unlimited as Chief Scout.

Winston Bogarde as financial adviser.

Brendon Rodgers seems like he's really good. How do you rate Borini Pete? He's been class every time I've seen him for Swansea.

Van Gaal doesn't have a particular rivalry with Hiddink, no. He's on especially bad terms with Ronald Koeman, and doesn't get along with quite a lot of the famous Dutch football people. But Hiddink is Hiddink: he doesn't really have rivals nor creates them, he gets along with most people and vice versa.

Van Gaal is on bad terms with RK, to prevent any confusion

Think i've read somewhere that villa boas is already a bit pissed off with the mini-mourinho tag so doesn't want to follow directly in his footsteps by coming from porto to chelsea.
i don't think it's an option. hiddink is much more likely.

borini never really looked the past last season, but was very young and he couldn't even get on the bench this year for some mysterious reason - i assume because his agent refused to sign a contract cos he'd already lined up a return to italy.

he looked great for swansea, but don't think he'd get near the chelsea first team. it's a massive difference and loans to the championship are almost pointless because of it.

be nice if he'd been given a chance though.

feel particularly sorry for Jack Cork who has been at the club since he was 9, spent most of his professional career on loan and just been released without even a five minute appearance in the dead final two games of the season. it's sad.

Villas-Boas seemingly got his first notable role in the Porto coaching staff (as u15 coach) aged 20. Thirtee years to finally hit the big time? Slow developer that one.

Other than Hiddink and Villas Boas, doesn't seem like there's a lot of likely appointments out there. Maybe Deschamps?

there was an interesting quote from tony adams the other day, mourinho told him that the advantage of not being a player was that he was able to spend his 20s watching football and learning about it as a coach, without having to worry about being a player. that gave him a massive head start.

'Mourinho said I was 15 years behind him. He had been out there watching (Louis) Van Gaal and Bobby Robson and I'd been playing football. There is a lot of catch-up to do. He said it's different for me because I was a player. I watched a game with him and the keeper collided with the centre half and the striker scored. "That's you, isn't it?" he asked. "That's David Seaman and you're turning round and screaming at him. But now it's half-time and you're a manager, so what are you going to do?"

rijkaard, dunga, emery, spaletti, holloway all names i wouldn't be surprised to see get it.

Sam Allardyce has made it known he's available as well.

Grant/Rafa double-header would be a carcrash to behold.

Think Emery is good but clashes with players from time to time so would probably last around 2 months at Chelsea.

"My client became a YouTube sensation at the age of 12" - rolling off-season/transfer speculation thread 2011

Read some terrifying rumours on Twitter last night that Birmingham have opted out of Eurovision and that UEFA will ask Liverpool to take their place.

That Mourinho/Adams exchange is great.

AVB might not like being tied to JM but I do think he's got a cult of personality well-established at Porto. Maybe I'm reading too much into comments from a club who've just won three trophies but it sounds like none of their best players are even considering a move this summer, they want to make the CL qfs at a minimum, etc. Frightened of that guy tbh.

and also that Chelsea and United have won exactly the same amount of major trohies since 2003

is this true?

No