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Does SOS Stand For 'Shame Of Shankly'?
There's embarrassment from Liverpool fans after Spirit Of Shankly's talk of 'chaos' at Anfield. Plus; big-ups for Roberto Martinez, perfect penalties and lots more...
It's Time For Liverpool Fans To Trust FSG
FSG seem to have adopted a scattergun approach to appointing a new manager, but one chap says it's time to trust them. Plus, Spurs fans looking up and saving money...
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Feeling Silly About Trivialities
Sad scenes in the name of football from Egypt yesterday. The underlying issues are deeper than just football rivalries but sad to see that hooligans can still cause such bloodshed. You feel a bit silly getting worked up about trivial football matters when these type of things happen.
Parmjeet Dayal
Slowly Turning Into Stewie
This is just embarrassing. It just boggles the mind how a player can be useless , game after game, but yet he gets to play. I'm talking about none other than Theo f**king Walcott. The guy is a sorry excuse of a footballer and without his pace, he would barely make the championship level. Yet I have to endure watching him play while our real threat gets subbed for the legend, who should be starting by now, given the recent performances.
With the brief luck that was Villa, is there anything to lose for Arsene by starting Henry? There can't be any excuse. Arteta and Sagna are back. Santos is the only one left. It is the attack that doesn't give a sh*t about scoring. Even when they have glaring opportunities, they cannot seem to just stick the ball in. And RVP hitting the post for the 335th time is not an excuse to not win a game. Every top team tries to find another way to score or at least has the urgency to score. Not Arsenal.
I don't care about Spurs. I don't even care about the CL spot because at this rate, even hoping for the Europa seems a hard task. All the life that Arsene may have put into this club, he is sucking it out like a vampire, waiting for the break of dawn to then move on while the team lies there like a drained corpse. I love Arsenal, but I can't stand this manager. He's finished as far as I'm concerned. I used to wonder why Stewie Griffin had so much angst for Arsene. Well, now I feel like I'm slowly turning into him.
Carl, AFC
Congrats For Arsene
I'd just like to take this opportunity to reaffirm that Arsenal's current league position is a direct result of Bolton ( and Citeh's) "financial doping".
If you take them out of the equation, Arsene is performing par for the course.
Congratulating Arsene on his first league point for 2012. £6.5 mil well earned!
Stewie Griffin (and apparently bankers are tw**s for trousering big dosh for their ineptitude)
Wenger Out
As I sit here watching Arsenal play Bolton I am struck by a number of things wrong with this team.
The most pertinent is that I cannot remember an Arsenal team who couldn't pass the ball, until now. We cannot string three passes together in a row! This is not the arsenal that I know and love.
In all honesty, I would only say that 8 players from the current squad are good enough to wear the jersey - Szczesny (but should be a back up to a more experienced keeper), Sagna, Vermaelen, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Van Persie, Ramsey (again, as a back up only), Coquelin and Wilshere.
The rest are just not good enough. Yes, that includes the like of Gibbs (always injured), Song (can't pass the ball and has no physical presence) and Walcott (can't beat defenders, cross or score so what is he for?)
I just don't understand what Wenger is thinking anymore. Is this the same man who brought Henry, Pires, Campbell, Fabregas and Vieira to the club?
Please get your head together and just get rid as soon as please. Leave with your dignity intact and your head held high. Or just leave.
Dave (incredulous Gooner) Aberdeen.
Walcott Love
The fact that Theo Walcott has a regular starting position at Arsenal is either a sign of the lack of depth in the Arsenal squad or proof of Wenger's annoying senile persistence. Take your pick.
Kushal (We're destined for 6th place) Mumbai
Lots Of These
So is Van Persie now the best player outside the top 6??
Jon (this could be a long running thread this season) Leeds.
Brucey Bonus (Or Not)
I enjoyed Sarah's article on Steve Bruce and the impact of his successor, though one is required to ask - did Steve Bruce 'have' a reputation?
Like a lot of ex-Man United players, he seems to have careered through clubs and money and time in order to try to 'establish' one, but utterly failed to do so wherever he has managed. Nothing against the bloke personally, and guy with well over 700 league apps and 12 honours with United behind him surely stood out as a great candidate for managerial staus, but he there must have been plenty of Sunderland fans who thought long and hard after his appointment to the Black Cats hot-seat?
Aside from a brief (and bitter) fling with Palace, he never again topped the 40% win average he achieved when he started out with Sheff United, he actually never even got close, and at the Blades it was only over a modest 55 games!
With Sunderland he was down to 3 wins out of ten, 29.5% to be precise. Whilst O'Neill dropped below 40% during his long tenure at Leicester, he won two league cups and fought with the best in the Prem for a while, and elsewhere in his career averages as a manager 54% wins.
Certainly a positive shift for Sunderland however you look at it and I agree with Sarah - who the hell is going to take on Bruce ever again?
Joe - Wallingford
Tevez Pangs
Is it just me that thinks Tevez could still have a part to play in the title race this season? His current realistic options are heading to the a*** end of Russia or kicking his heels for the next 8 months. In addition we need him.
We've not played well for 2 months now and whilst I like Aguero his link up play is not as good as Tevez and he doesn't seem to be able to have that one decisive explosive moment as consistently as Tevez does.
I don't think Dzeko & Aguero like playing with each other. Dzeko looks peed off every time Aguero doesn't pass to him and Aguero looks to the heavens (which means he'll soon have permanent neck-ache) everytime Dzeko mis-controls it. The long and short of it is - we need Tevez and he needs us. Perhaps we could bring in Kofi Annan to mediate?
Mark Matthews
Fondness For A Rival's Player
I am a Liverpool fan yet one of my favourite players in the Premier League is the apple of my bitter rival's eye... Chicarito - there I said it!
It all started as soon as he started playing well at Utd and was cemented in my mind when he ripped it up at the Gold Cup last year with Mexico. I know it's wrong and I'm probably going to get slaughtered by fellow Pool fans but I just can't help it. He's a joy to watch when he's on song, his movement off the ball is up there with the best and he can finish where others can't.
His attitude as well is a breath of fresh air as every time he scores a goal the celebrations and the look on his face convey to me a man that is truly grateful for his position in life... Not a mercenary c**t like some of his noisy neighbours!
It also helps that we don't see him falling out of nightclubs, or messing about with his teammates wives or setting fireworks off etc... A real professional. I really hope that he stays at Utd, not only so I can watch him continue to develop and play (just not against Pool) but also so that he doesn't get his talent wasted and have his good attitude sucked out of him at the likes of the big 2 in Spain. Mark (Does anyone else harbour a guilty fondness to a player from a bitter rival or is it just me?) LFC
...As was pointed out in an article on this site, it is time to give Carroll a bit of positive feedback. On that note, am I the only one delighted for him?
Now being a London born and bred Chelsea fan, I am no fan of Liverpool, or of anyone Geordie, but I caught myself week after week hoping the big Northern lump would enjoy a good game and of course score goals. Not really sure why, maybe it's his general attitude: after all, he's never complained, whinged to the press, blamed bad luck/other people/Liverpool's style of play. In the face of a storm of criticism and general mockery, he's kept his head down and (presumably) worked hard on the training ground and in games when he was given the opportunity.
I say good on him, and hope he'll have a successful 2nd half of the season. He seems a likeable enough character, maybe even a throwback to old-fashioned centre-forwards of decades past.
Mike, Auckland Blue
Time To Get Behind Kean
...I, like Kean, am feeling optimistic and wouldn't write Blackburn off completely. For all his inexperience and his hands tied behind his back, he is doing a decent job in my opinion. The performances this season indicate that we never get battered in a game by anyone and we just have to work on shutting the door a bit better. We have picked up big wins, famously at Old Trafford that show team spirit. Not getting battered and getting the occasional "against all odds" decisive win is the mark of a team who play for their boss. Maybe the fan vitriol has spurred the players on?
Maybe Kean would actually be even better if he could concentrate on further team building and not be preoccupied with stupid threats towards him? We are not in an ideal position today but we are not perilously away from safety either, and our Goal Difference is the best of the lower teams, and will remain that way on current form.
Season is not over anyway, plenty more of twists and drama to come as well. Now if the small minded section of our fans will concentrate on helping out rather than hindering the team that would be great to see. The abuse of Kean isn't getting us anywhere as a club, even if it feels like the only option available.
We have a young squad that seem to have some potential and a bit of bite, we don't recruit big names but some guys who may have a bright future in the game (who knows?) and somehow have kept hold of "transfer bound" talent like big bad Samba and young Hoilett. For the record, I don't blame the likes of Samba putting in a transfer request, he's given us service and has to think of himself. As long as he doesn't pull a Tevez I'm happy with him.
Dave S (Sorry to lose the legend that is Ryan Nelson to Spurs, his opportunities will be limited but he can do a job no doubt)
Accepting FM Is Not Real
Have just read Daniel Storey's Should Managers Get Transfer Bonuses? and to be honest, until recent events unfolded, I had no idea that some managers were receiving such bonuses. It immediately sounds well dodgy to me!
But that's not why I felt the need to write in, the reason for my mail is to ask this: Do football managers really have much involvement in the actual transfers?
In saying this I mean in terms of the money involved, transfer fees, contract negotiations etc. I have no doubt that it is the manager who identifies what player(s) are needed/wanted and also who of their current squad is deemed surplus to requirements but the 'wheelings & dealings' by managers seems to be refined to just the select few - no need to mention names 'Arry.
It seems that more and more clubs have appointed directors of football and other gentlemen of such titles and I'm happy to be corrected on this matter, but does transfer negotiations not fall right under their job descriptions?
As much as most of us would like to think that 'Football Manager' represents exactly what it would be like to be in charge of your favourite team, it would appear that with the amount of money involved these days that this side of the business is, rightly or wrongly, generally left to the business men.
Gary (it took a lot for me to admit that FM is not real) Kinsella, Dublin MUFC
