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Reply | Pelle & Long
at 13:00 10 Aug 2015
I don't think we're learning our lesson with Long while we don't start with him. We were terrifying teams at home in the first few months of last season when we started with him: he always seem to force an early opening goal (typically having already been denied a blatant penalty) that broke the deadlock and usually led to comfortable afternoon.
Then we dropped him from the starting line-up... Then we started him against Villa, and the match was over by the 20th minute.
Less obvious away from home, but I fear we'll keep on treating him as an "impact" player and making life unnecessarily hard for ourselves. |
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Reply | Next Season's Fixtures
at 13:38 26 May 2015
West Ham away last match... just like we spoiled the last game at Maine Road. |
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Reply | I'm bedwetting
at 11:36 12 May 2015
But your response implies that the Europa is a through-route to the CL, and there's no evidence for that. Teams that have qualified through their league performance since the group stages were introduced in 2004 are:
Middlesbrough
Newcastle
Everton
Bolton
West Ham
Blackburn
Spurs
Aston Villa
Liverpool
Fulham
Only Spurs and Liverpool have had a tilt at the CL since then, and their latest qualifications came in seasons when they weren't in the EL.
Leaping into the CL is a big ask for any team of our size, but the EL is pretty much the death knell for it happening, and is more likely to set us rolling down a gradual downhill slope like many of the above.
It's crap that these are seemingly the only options to all but the big boys, but hey - that's modern football, and the EL exists to promote the status quo. |
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Reply | I'm bedwetting
at 11:10 12 May 2015
Bang on. Nobody at these clubs wants to be in it. For very sound reasons. |
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Reply | The Europa league
at 20:50 26 Feb 2015
Agreed... (though don't think I can face more Sunday matches and the SWT "Sunday service" shambles after last weekend).
Modern football's a Machiavellian business, and the Europa League increasingly looks like a means of keeping smaller teams from crashing the real cash cow - i.e the Champions League - at the expense of the old guard, with its convoluted format and parachuting of CL teams into the knockout phases (most likely to then win the EL and therefore take the pass back into the CL).
There's no precedent for any British team using the Europa League as a stepping stone to better performances domestically or in Europe (i.e. reaching the Champions League). Fulham and Middlesbrough took it seriously and were relegated not long afterwards, and Man City vaulted into the main competition directly courtesy of their dirty cash. |
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Reply | That Bolton pen...
at 12:31 6 Feb 2015
... and the same commentators make their hypocrisy explicit whenever a defender is out-muscled in the penalty area, i.e. "he's got to be stronger than that in that position." |
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Reply | Fonte
at 09:55 22 Dec 2014
I think it's been said before, but few other players seem to be as affected by his partner at the back than Fonte.
Generally he's excellent when playing along side Alderweireld or Lovren, and much less so when next to Hooiveld, Yoshida or Gardos. |
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Reply | One year on with Pochettino
at 15:26 30 Dec 2013
Vaguely sensible conversation until Dirk's last comment.
Where is the evidence that we would have been relegated last season and currently be "9th in The Championship". That's wild speculation that flies in the face of what was happening until mid-January, i.e. after a rocky start (inevitable given the fixture list) Adkins was steering us upwards, improving the defence (without a significant change in personnel) and scoring plenty of goals with attractive, attacking football. He was sacked with us in 15th: why was decline so certain?
It will doubtless be shot down as "just one match" but if you compare the recent matches against Chelsea, it doesn't look too good for MP. In January we caught them in the break of European competition, but Adkins played things pretty smart and got out of there with a credible point, whereas earlier this month we arrived as serious contenders, selected Osvaldo and created absolutely nothing for 90 minutes (the goal being gifted to us). The 49% possession in the recent match isn't much of an improvement on the 45% in January.
MP has doubtless brought some positive improvements in certain areas, but his recent team selections have been highly questionable and I find he gets far more credit than he deserves, having taken over a team on an upward trajectory. [Post edited 30 Dec 2013 15:26]
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Reply | New keeper
at 16:57 14 Dec 2013
If Pochettino was as good as a manager as you think he is, he'd have started with both of them. |
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Reply | team for QPR
at 14:58 27 Feb 2013
sotonian has it spot on. Ramirez ahead of Rodriguez every time. |
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Reply | Our fans last night
at 14:33 22 Jan 2013
Aye, well you can't really win these days. You have to keep swallowing the shit with a big grin on your face, lest we upset "the team". Felt like a mug for the whole of the game.
Personally, I'm not remotely scared of being banned by Cortese; he'd be doing me a favour by taking any sense of being in a moral dilemma (over whether to continue supporting the club into a fourth decade as it spearheads football's plunge into the moral vacuum) completely out of my hands.
At the very least, could we demand retiring all that marketing bullshit about standing "Shoulder to shoulder", "United we stand" etc? Even the most fervent Cortese sycophant couldn't deny that he doesn't give a **** about the opinions of 90% of the paying customers, so it's preposterously shallow. |
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Reply | The only negative about yesterday...
at 19:36 19 Nov 2012
Yeah, you're right. The pro-Terry camp ran rings around me on the racism issue: it was like coming up against Alistair Campbell in his prime.
I believe that Billy's son was raised by some sick Twitter posts (staged or otherwise) after the Pompey game in April, so sadly not a fictional creation. However - given that I raised this as a logical question - you clearly think that there is a moral code that supporters should adhere to, so I'd be fascinated* to know more about where you think the line should be drawn.
And those good old days, eh? What happened to those days when you could slag off somebody in the workplace in racial terms and he'd buy you a pint afterwards? Heady days. I bet the black and Asian stewards (possibly my neighbours) - who were employed at our end and had to listen to our fans singing the praise of a man caught on camera doing just that - must feel they've really missed out.
Anyway, off to do some sewing or similarly effete activity that seems to be associated with anybody with an ounce of human decency.
* For "fascinated", read "I couldn't give a f**k". |
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Reply | The only negative about yesterday...
at 23:32 18 Nov 2012
So if Billy Sharp played for us again, and some ****s made a vicious comment about his son, that would be fair game, too, right?
I think we'll give credit for the own goal to some intelligent play from Schneiderlin rather than the reflex chanting of some odious tools, but whether it affects the player or not isn't a justification. It just makes the chanters - and sadly by association all of our fans - look like a bunch of provincial halfwits a few decades behind civilised society. |
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Reply | Its about time people started to take Puncheon seriosly
at 10:50 18 Nov 2012
But at least the guy shoots! Too often we pass up great chances to pull the trigger (see Lambert and Davis second half yesterday), and Puncheon's goal was vindication of the need to have a poke when you get the chance. |
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Reply | Boruc...
at 15:19 29 Oct 2012
Was sat just behind this. In an unfortunate reflection on his distribution (okay, cheap shot), the bottle thrown appeared to overshoot the hoarding and hit a steward (or come very close, the fellow in question has a splendid afro) who was in front of the fans concerned.
Couldn't hear what was said to him, and not big on the idea of fans berating their own team, especially when so many fans behave like spoilt children, but....
a) exchanging "banter" is fine, but throwing a bottle towards fans (which was indisputably the case), when the return action would prompt an instant (life?) ban for a supporter from all football grounds is not, and
b) it makes me sad that Boruc is that easily riled, and rather than be determined to turn the whole thing round with a solid performance, he thought his home debut was a good opportunity to get into a slanging match.
Heat of the moment, I guess, but Gazza seems the pick of the keepers so far by some margin. |
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