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

marin going to chelsea it seems

back up for Mata maybe. Or Di Matteo really doesn't fancy Sturridge on the right.

pan dem the general take on marin is he had a very good two seasons before but a kind of mediocre one this year, is that right?

yeah

they're going to spend about 1/4 of portugal's national debt on tbtwp, hulk

yeah, absolutely.

He is very slight of frame which obviously can work in the Prem if you also have great technique. I'm not sure I would put his technique quite that high though. I don't really see him as an elite player, though he is certainly good. Then again I confidently predicted that after 2 games this season that Bayern wouldn't even make it out of their CL group, so.

xp

not worth fighting to keep bale or modric. you can't keep 30m players while you're only pushing for fourth and run a wage cap- the effect, as we've seen, is that they don't perform to 10m player standard. Ship em out, get in the next prospect/real madrid benchwarmer, let pienaar krancjar thudd and sandro turn themselves into the next 20-30m exiting superstars by actually performing. Spend the cash on a gk, two centre halves and a brick shithouse striker, give a new manager the job of finding them.

ps i don't think pienaar krancjar et al will prove themselves 30m btw but i think we'd have been better off with dropping the above mentioned pair for underperformance before now.

what game is worth watching, idc about stoke-arsenal. wigan-newcastle?

there seems to be a rise of exciting playmaker #10 types - idk if you can replace modric's centre circle play directly but spurs def have opportunities to reinvest in something special. bale i guess will be harder to replace but like d-mac says, if they spend that on two 10m centre halves, i dont think it'll be such a big deal if they are less effective on the left wing.

I've gone with WBA-Villa. Extremely average so far.

grr. stupid pen. given away by fulham.

Watching and supporting Villa is absolutely soul-sucking this season.

Mostly Villa but West Brom've walked through them twice in two minutes there, Odemwingie missing stupidly after good work by Long.

p fucking crouch

Would you welcome relegation in some sense, EZ? For the catharsis, kind of thing.

Oof, Wolves two-down in four minutes - someone should call off the very gentle dogs.

Rvp scored. 1-1. I like our good-not-great older technical types when they actually play together. Rosicky and Benny Noon having a whole season together (and Arteta who is out today) would be fun.

Gervinho also playing really well for once.

Wigan are 2-0 up - a goal for West Brom would put them above Villa...

Can't see why anyone who wasn't a Birmingham City fan would consider the relegation of an ever-present Premiership club like Villa to be a good thing. Sacking McLeish in the summer would be the way forward. Although going down doesn't seem to have done Newcastle any harm.

I just don't want to lose the joy that is Venkys

That's the game up for Newcastle, probably? I feel like they had to keep this run going.

I like Villa as a club - used to get along to see them semi-regularly years ago - but there's a longterm decline going on that badly needs turning round somehow.

Also: big clubs going down is basically a good thing.

I don't think people see it as a good thing, more they're astonished by the scale of the collapse - reminiscent of Hull three or four years ago, or Doncaster in the Championship last year, but it's more shocking cos, well, it's Villa.

Swansea 4-2 Wolves!

Sunderland equalise.

4-2!

Wigan and Sunderland 3-0 too! MOTD is gonna be sweet tomorrow morning.

Christ on a bike, Wigan are 4-0 up.

Christ Victor Moses

Liverpool unshiftable in eighth too, really fancy us to take advantage and turn this into a points difference later.

Wigan have only scored more than 2 goals once in the league this season. In one afternoon, they may have completely unfucked their goal difference.

Would you welcome relegation in some sense, EZ? For the catharsis, kind of thing.

Sort of? I think it would force a rethink on the club, one which should have come several years ago. However, as a fan in the States I would never, ever get to see them play. So the selfish part of me wants to see them stay up, but I don't know if it's the best thing for the club in the long run.

told ye newcastle weren't a runner for fourth. i'm still not writing off third for us, not that i've looked at a table in a month

Z on Twitter: "Barcelona should have gone for Wigan manager Roberto Martinez to replace Pep Guardiola."

West Brom should feel hard done there. Obvious handball not given.

http://i.imgur.com/iHkZY.png

this game is horrible.

4-0 to everton. think i'll watch something else.

stoke-arsenal is a waste of time but i feel like something will happen so im not turning it off. better not be another shawxing but im not ruling it out.

Sort of tempting fate, but I started to look up the last time EFC scored four in three consecutive league games just after halftime. And now we have! I've gone back as far as 1975-76 so far and...no dice. We managed 12 goals in 3 games a couple of times in the mid-'80s glory years (5/3/4) but not this.

Just makes the enfeebled Wembley nonsense worse really.

btw as i bring that up, stoke fans who boo ramsey's touch can die in a fire

Was that Hutton clearing off the line for Villa?!

Wolves got another, only losing 4-3 now. Sunderland score again p much resigning Bolton to relegation.

i dont hate stoke for the crazy fouling so much as hate them for their reaction to every cynical fuck foul. "I ONLY PUSHED HIM OVER REF FOR NO BLOODY REASON, IS THAT A CRIME NOW? THE TERRORISTS HAVE WON NOW YOU HAVE GIVEN A FREE KICK FOR ME KICKING HIS SHINS" etc.

4-4!

Finally found a sequence to match this from Everton:
28/2/64 Aston Villa (H) 4-2
7/3/64 Spurs (A) 4-2
14/3/64 Nottm Forest (H) 6-1

48 years.

If there isn't a last-minute nude parachutist at West Brom, I'll've wasted my afternoon.

Benny Noon had a decent penalty shout. It was at pace and Whelan (I think) puts his arms on his back. Benny went down v. easily and dramatically though, when he most probably could have had a good shooting chance if he stayed up.

so i picked a good afternoon to take the kids swimming, basically

Ball over the line for West Brom and not given apparently? (I couldn't bear to keep watching). Villa having the luck today. Typical of them to cash in by drawing 0-0.