Soccer thread 07/08

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:37 pm

Martin Jol, maybe ? Quite good in the transfer market, but I'm not sure how he is tactically...I don't remember them beating any of the big 4.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 6:43 pm

davet010 wrote:Martin Jol, maybe ? Quite good in the transfer market, but I'm not sure how he is tactically...I don't remember them beating any of the big 4.

He's one of candidates. Also favourites are Lippi, Klinsmann and of course Mourinho. Hunting for the 7th manager in eleven years. Not good. Shearer has ruled himself out.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Wed Jan 09, 2008 10:50 pm

davet010 wrote:Martin Jol, maybe ? Quite good in the transfer market, but I'm not sure how he is tactically...I don't remember them beating any of the big 4.

HE's at least gotten into the Champs League

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:09 am

I don't think Spurs have finished in a Champs League spot since it started. They've finished 5th a few times.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:35 am

Current favourite for the Newcastle job - Harry Redknapp.

Cool move - from one fat, bung-taking nobhead to another.

Quite plausible, as Redknapp has a huge ego and might see this as his chance to show up the 'big boys' in a situation where he actually has some money. Personally speaking I wouldn't trust him with 5 pence of someone else's money, but it'd be worth it just to shut him up about never giving English managers a chance for once.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:46 am

davet010 wrote:I don't think Spurs have finished in a Champs League spot since it started. They've finished 5th a few times.

nevermind, I mixed them up with Everton.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:12 am

fsquid wrote:
davet010 wrote:I don't think Spurs have finished in a Champs League spot since it started. They've finished 5th a few times.
nevermind, I mixed them up with Everton.

The bitters didn't get into the Champions League either, they did finish 4th but lost the CL qualifier to Villareal.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 9:28 am

FSC and Setanta here in the states are spliting up the FA Cup rights starting next season.

http://www.epltalk.com/breaking-news-th ... ta-sports/

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:17 am

Apparently Jurgen Klinsmann has agreed to manage Bayern Munich from the start of next season.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story ... 29&cc=5739

He's got no club managerial experience though - is that a good thing or not when taking on a club with the resources of BM, squid ?

In other Bayern news, apparently Daniel Van Buyten is looking to leave, with Celtic one of his suitors. Has his game really deteriorated that much ? I thought he was great when City had him on loan in 04, just couldn't afford him at the time.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:55 am

In an ideal world, I'd have Hitzfeld there until he took his last breath, I really admire him. Klinsman is an unknown DaveT, so I have no judgement. It will certainly be interesting to watch and frankly a big surprise as I never heard his name mentioned.

I like Van Buten too, he's 6 foot 6 and wins everything in the air. however, Lucio and Demicellis have played so well that he can't break into the first team. Everton are also looking at him. Maybe people don't think he's fast enough?

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:15 am

N. Anelka will be playing for the Blues after all. The question is where will D. Drogba be heading?

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 11:50 am

That's a great signing for CSKA London.

Liverpool sign some scary looking mofo I've never heard of. Seems like Momo Sissoko is off to Juve, he's been poor this season but he's still one of my favourites and at only 22 years old I thought he had lots of time to improve - but then again our midfield is packed. I'll always remember his performance in the FA Cup final against West Ham - even in Extra Time he was running his ass off.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:20 pm

10spro wrote:N. Anelka will be playing for the Blues after all. The question is where will D. Drogba be heading?

Wait to see where Mourinho ends up in summer.

Anelka has actually been OK at Bolton, I think he appreciated that Fat Sam had rescued him from Turkey when a lot of clubs wouldn't look at him again. Be interesting to see whether Bolton can get anyone in to keep them up, as they may be able to invest the Elk's receipts but Bolton is not exactly the most appealing of destinations - they may end up having to pay someone ridiculous money.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:13 pm

10spro wrote:N. Anelka will be playing for the Blues after all. The question is where will D. Drogba be heading?

Ghana

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:41 pm

Sky Sports News is reporting that Portsmouth and Newcastle are discussing compensation for the bung-taking Cockney halfwit with the son who should be burnt at the stake for crimes against punditry.

The Toon 'faithful' and our 'Arry - truly they deserve each other.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Sat Jan 12, 2008 6:52 pm

Oh Newcastle....

Liverpool haven't scored at Boro in almost 6 years so I don't know why all the Pool fans were so suprised we dropped points - hell I was happy we scored at the Riverside. The battle for 4th continues!!! lol

Voronin is officially up there with Torben Pieknik and Paul Stewart as the worst Liverpool players I have ever seen play. As much as I think Kuyt is crap at least he tries, Voronin's just useless and surely even if Rafa caught Crouch sleeping with his wife he's gotta play him instead.

Sami Hyypia is so slow it's scary. That said, if it wasn't for a great save from Schwartzer he'd have scored the winner.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Sun Jan 13, 2008 4:18 am

Macca00 wrote:
Voronin is officially up there with Torben Pieknik and Paul Stewart as the worst Liverpool players I have ever seen play.

Paul Stewart was great at City in the late 80s - he was one of the three players who scored hat-tricks when Huddersfield were dispatched 10-1. Unfortunately he got into what I suspect was a 'Barry Bonds' scenario and added far too much muscle mass for someone who's game was largely built on speed.

I remember seeing him play against City for Liverpool in 93 or 94 - he looked like a tank (and had a similar turning circle and reaction time by then).

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 8:09 am

Gillette and Hicks need to sell Liverpool pronto, I can't believe those two idiots - Hicks actually confirmed that they talked to Klinsmann about Rafa's job. How the hell is a manager supposed to concentrate on managing his team when those two retards are lining up a successor but don't even have the balls to fire him. I am f ucking appalled, Hicks hasn't a clue about football.

EDIT: From the official site Hicks is quoted as saying;

".....and Rafa and we were having communication issues over the January transfer window, George and I met with Jurgen Klinsmann to learn as much as we could about English and European football."

'Communication Issues'? Why the hell didn't they just fly over to Liverpool - nice to see the club is being run via fax and email.

And why couldn't they have learned about English Football and European Football from an FA cup winning, UEFA Cup and Champions League Winning manager? Oh right, better to learn from someone's who's managed SIX competitive matches. Man, I compared those two to Statler and Waldorf but I think that's being unfair on the muppets. And why is it always that cowboy Hicks who comes out with this shite, at least Gillette keeps his mouth shut?

What a joke we've become.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 9:51 am

Klinnsman can actually speak proper English, maybe that's why?

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:13 am

fsquid wrote:Klinnsman can actually speak proper English, maybe that's why?

I don't know. Having heard Rafa speak quite a bit, I find him easier to understand than many of the Carolinians I've seen interviewed around primary time lately

Hicks is quite clearly an idiot with absolutely no understanding of the English press or European football. They seem to view the manager's job as more like that of a baseball manager than as the GM/Coach/Beloved Leader role that they actually play.

Both owners should be a hell of a lot more concerned with restructuring the debt than with nitpicking Rafa.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:37 am

It now strikes me as being very similar to the situation with Martin Jol earlier this season...Rafa is a dead man walking.

Part of me is wondering whether Gillette and the other one are looking for more of a European structure, with a Director of Football doing the deals and the manager operating on team selection and coaching., If so, Klinsmann would be an odd choice, as he has no experience of transfer dealings and they surely couldn't promote Benitez to Director as they already have been moaning about his transfer dealings.

This model is also prone to breaking down if manager and Director don't see things the same way - see Valencia over the last two years or so for examples of that It is also been tried a number of times here with limited success (Spurs under Jol/Santini, Pompey under Grant/Redknapp).

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:54 am

davet010 wrote:
Part of me is wondering whether Gillette and the other one are looking for more of a European structure, with a Director of Football doing the deals and the manager operating on team selection and coaching.,

Dave, I speculated about that as well when the first evidence of a rift appeared. I characteized it as a US-model, where GM/Coaches are rarely unified...and usually fail when they are, but you're right to refer to it as a Continental model as well. From November:

The interesting part of this story is whether Hicks and Gillett are really going to insist on turning player acquisition responsibilities over to Parry, and if so if they are consciously eschewing the traditional European structure in favor of a US-style GM/coaching paradigm.

I don't care if it works or not, they have to all get on the same page. And with the Dubai group growling outside the door, they may not have a hell of a lot of time to do so...

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:03 pm

What's the deal with this Dubai group - are Gillette and co going to sell on for a profit ?

As for the two tier model, it seems to break down quite often, particularly if the Director thinks he has a better idea of what's wrong than the manager.

By all accounts, the relationship at Valencia between Carboni (Director) and Quique Sanchez Flores was terrible. I did hear that one of Carboni's signings turned up at the training ground to be informed by Flores that he'd been getting a run out in the first team...if there was an outbreak of the plague.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:41 pm

davet010 wrote:What's the deal with this Dubai group - are Gillette and co going to sell on for a profit ?

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Sto ... 66,00.html

That's the most detailed report that I've seen.

Edit :

ACK! Talk about something you never want to see said about your club

In football things can happen very quickly but the players hope that, if there are arguments, they can be sorted out," Hyypia said. "We seem to be becoming like Newcastle. Every time we pick up a paper there seems to be something new."

pk500 · Post by **pk500** » Mon Jan 14, 2008 3:16 pm

RobVarak wrote:
In football things can happen very quickly but the players hope that, if there are arguments, they can be sorted out," Hyypia said. "We seem to be becoming like Newcastle. Every time we pick up a paper there seems to be something new."

Ouch! But true.

Liverpool should sack Rafa now so he can come to Newcastle. At least he'll be accustomed to the level of chaos. But he won't be accustomed to the lack of talent.

Take care,
PK