*Official* English Football Season 2013-14

[Jarquis]

Thought the interaction between Mackay and the Cardiff players at FT was telling. Jol and Hughton rightly the favoritesto be next to go but McKay at 8/1 is value

 

[Tom Halsey]

Sunderland aren't confirmed goners yet. Sure they're more likely to go down than they are to survive but it isn't a done deal.

I'd have Norwich, Cardiff and probably Hull as more likely to go down than Fulham.

 

[Pothas]

It doesn't have much quality but the real problem is that it's the oldest in the division. Coupled with the fact that Al Fayed has left and it's not an especially big club makes the future look a bit bleak and it's always a bad idea to take charge of a club when it looks like things are about to get worse for them. Cardiff are a mess but they at least look like they're moving in the right direction, they're the only club in a major city, the possibilities look so much better.

Depends what this new owner at Fulham is like, really have no idea if he willing to invest or not.

Cardiff certainly have potential but the owner is a total joke and these things can easily get worse, just look at a club like Hearts.

 

[Cevno]

Fulham have some good talent coming through their Youth teams now in the next 2/3 years.

They have invested a fair bit of money in doing acquisitions at that level.

Don't think they'll get relegated anyway. Their squad isn't great but it isn't that bad either. They have some players who are enigmatic but when they blow hot, they should get enough points.

 

[Cevno]

Ha yeah we all know what you think about Spurs. Decent result for them though.

It's interesting that the two best defences so far have been from Spurs and Southampton, two really proactive teams that always look to dominate. Really makes the Moyes school of defending by getting everyone behind the ball look dated.

Both of those teams like to dominate in the midfield with a extra midfielder forming a 3 man Central midfield, but are a bit blunt in attack from Open Play. (Southampton playing more high intensity game than Spurs who play a slower tempo)

Either of them have scored just 5 goals from open play so far.

 

[Uppercut]

It's true but my point still stands. If you're winning and want to shut a game down, that's the way to do it.

 

[sledger]

Wenger should be SIR Arsene and Arsenal are better to watch than Barcelona, claims Jurgen Klopp - Mirror Online

"If Barcelona's team of the last four years were the first one that I saw play when I was four years of age, with their serenity, winning 5-0, 6-0, I would have played tennis. Sorry, that is not enough for me.

"It is not serenity football, it is fighting football – that is what I like. What we call in German – English [football] - rainy day, heavy pitch, everybody is dirty in the face and they go home and can't play football for the next four weeks. This is Borussia."

WAG.

z

 

[Furball]

 

[Furball]

They have some players who are enigmatic but when they blow hot, they should get enough points.

I'd like some actual names, not woolly statements that mean absolutely nothing.

 

[Cevno]

I'd like some actual names, not woolly statements that mean absolutely nothing.

Berbatov, Ruiz, Bent, Taraabt to name a few in terms of attackers. Maybe Kasami too.

Berbatov's performances in the first half and middle part of last season kept them up last time basically when he was blowing hot. Even their acquisitions like Parker, Stekelenburg etc... who might not be very good players now but are still better than what a few of the other teams have who are competing for the relegation battle.

 

[grecian]

I know what he's saying is kind of reasonable, but honestly you'd think with his track record, he'd just shut up wouldn't you?

He really does seem to lack any self-awareness whatsoever.

 

[sledger]

He still denies that he was in any way responsible for what happened with Leeds as well doesn't he? IIRC he just blames it all on David O'Leary.

 

[Uppercut]

'Racist abuse of Yaya Touré is a smokescreen, real problem is at home' | Football | The Guardian

Corrin's best mate has written an article about the lack of black coaches and managers.

In social sciences the best test for whether there's institutional racism is whether the clubs that do employ the ethnic minority outperform those who don't. If there were a lot of talented black managers that clubs were refusing to hire for racial reasons, you'd think the smaller clubs that snapped them up would end up doing really well. I really don't think that's happened.

Of course it might just be that the few black managers that have got decent jobs have been ****ing hopeless and it's turned a lot of clubs off the idea. That'd be Barnes himself, then.

 

[sledger]

'Racist abuse of Yaya Touré is a smokescreen, real problem is at home' | Football | The Guardian

Corrin's best mate has written an article about the lack of black coaches and managers.

In social sciences the best test for whether there's institutional racism is whether the clubs that do employ the ethnic minority outperform those who don't. If there were a lot of talented black managers that clubs were refusing to hire for racial reasons, you'd think the smaller clubs that snapped them up would end up doing really well. I really don't think that's happened.

Of course it might just be that the few black managers that have got decent jobs have been ****ing hopeless and it's turned a lot of clubs off the idea. That'd be Barnes himself, then.

Haha, it surely doesn't bode well when he opens the article with:

I'm not interested in what happened to Yaya Touré at CSKA Moscow – as far as I'm concerned their supporters can abuse who they want...

The whole piece seems somewhat confused to me, it's like he doesn't really understand what he's talking about. He correctly bemoans the fact that stereotypes and societal issues are to blame for a lot of problems regarding race and ethnicity, but the fact that he explicitly states he believes that black people can only succeed if they are lifted out of "blackness", whatever that means, and that he takes it as a compliment when people say he's "not like a black guy" is surely only reinforcing the stereotypes he's complaining about.

His claim that Luther Blisset and Cyrille Regis never got to become managers because of purely racial reasons is also totally unsubstantiated. Again, him suggesting that the best career a black person can follow is that of a footballer, runner or a singer is just ridiculous. Clearly there are no black actors, doctors, lawyers, bankers etc... anywhere in the world. The whole bit about Terry and Suarez and how they shouldn't be blamed for being ****s is dire as well. Their behaviour was more or less universally condemned, if they were just products of an environment where they were conditioned into thinking that it was ok to be overtly racist, why was there such an uproar about their respective incidents?

His solution to all the problems is ridiculously simplistic as well: "players must make a stand to show that racist attitudes are not acceptable", yeah, nobody's ever thought of that before.

 

[Pothas]

For some reason I ended up on the Daily Mail Sport section and seriously what the hell is this?

Adrian Durham: Arsenal should sign Joe Hart on loan to win Premier League | Mail Online

 

[sledger]

Quality journalism.

 

[Uppercut]

Haha yeah Adrian Durham's just a professional troll. He did "Gerrard made a big mistake in not joining Man United" once.

 

[sledger]

He's also written pieces about how the Arsenal invincibles side was rubbish and too negative, and that they played for draws.

A somewhat misguided opinion, I would submit.

 

[GIMH]

He in particular excels at trolling gooners, his talk show used to (ancould well still) have a 'Daily Arsenal'

 

[Pothas]

What did actually happen with Pogba and United? Seems ridiculous that they let him go.