DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,915 Posts
J i m s t e r said:
Keegan
LOL.
Woy is having a mare, he seems tactically out of his depth with this squad which should on paper provide him with more options than he had at Fulham. The squad have to shoulder some of it doe, there is a lot of money out there with not many points to show for it.
Are they crocked or summik?
Gerrard was supposedly 70% fit last night but despite that, Our Glorious Leader was rushed back (even though our football has largely been better while he's been out), and proceeded to go missing for most of the second half. Gray and Tyler couldn't understand why Konchesky's substitution was greeted with cheers last night, which makes me wonder if there exists a parallel universe in which he's a cultured ball-playing full back in the Cafu mould.
chelsea still doomed
citeh movin on up
kinda depressing holidays for me and i have no high hopes for the reshceduled (when?) ManU-Chelsea clash
so many games though! this is not the NFL
It's never good when the Director of Football dictates transfers and the Manager has to bite his lip. Woy has no say apparently. Would you take a job under such circumstances? (Well, I would on that money, but I mean, as an established manager?)
While I can understand the scepticism over the Director of Football position, it's not exactly the English way. I doubt that Comolli will be undermining Hodgson with dodgy transfers to line the pockets of various agents.
I've heard a mixed opinion on this guy from Spurs fans who've finally realised his legacy after being delighted to see him sacked to some unnamed PL manager describing him as a 'clown'.
I don't see Commolli having that much to do with Tottenham's success. Arneson laid a good foundation before him.Plus there have been plenty of flops along the way..
Elia could be a great buy for Liverpool, he seems like he has his head on his shoulders from interviews I have seen.
Could also be another Babel..who I think wasn't given a good enough chance and could be a different player under the right manager.
Ronaldinho would be an absolute joke - he will go to Brasil where he can party, play and still not be reprimanded for doing so.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,915 Posts
J i m s t e r said:
It's never good when the Director of Football dictates transfers and the Manager has to bite his lip. Woy has no say apparently. Would you take a job under such circumstances? (Well, I would on that money, but I mean, as an established manager?)
While I have serious misgivings about the whole Director of Football thing, that may be down to the fact that, whenever a DoF has been brought in at an English club (Spuds and Toon being the most high-profile recent examples), it's usually been against the wishes of an incumbent manager and has created conflict. If FSG's long-term plan is to bring in a manager who is used to, and is happy to continue working with, a DoF, then I can't see what the problem is.
Hodgson didn't take the job under those circumstances anyway. His brief when he was brought in by Purslow and Broughton was to provide a steady hand on the tiller, to get the most out of the existing squad because there was little to nothing in the kitty, and to prevent the previous season's drop-off turning into a slump. There was also the matter of the boardroom shenanigans, and how they didn't want a manager who'd kick up a stink while everything was being straightened out backstage, but that's no longer relevant.
Even though he's only been there since the summer, Hodgson is still effectively a hangover from the old regime. What's more, there's been no steady hand, he clearly has no idea what to do with the squad (even those players he brought in), and people are beginning to openly talk of Liverpool as relegation candidates. Pleading to be allowed to spend his way out of trouble or, if you're feeling generous, remould the team in his own image, suggests that he now believes (thanks, perhaps, to his cheerleaders in the papers) he's the man to take Liverpool forward, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Since he'll be gone this summer, I see no sense in giving him any say (or at least not much) over who comes in during this window. We'll do it big in the summer instead, by which time it'll be someone like Deschamps, Villas Boas, Rijkaard or Jurgen Klopp running tings. If FSG aren't going to bin him off and bring in a caretaker until the end of the season, the worst thing they could do would be to give him the green light to sign the likes of Carlton Cole and saddle the next man with him.
In any event, for all his 35 years of experience and his LMA award, Hodgson can't have established much of a network of scouting contacts if the only players he could identify were someone who got their first pro break from him, and a mediocre English left-back from his previous club. I'm no longer convinced Meireles was one of his either, since Hodgson's subsequent tactics suggest he'd never actually seen the lad play before he came to Anfield.
Don't Citeh still have about 5 or 6 extra players they need to ship?? Former future England stars Lescott and Shaun 'skippy' W-P, not to mention Jo, Adebayor (LOL) and Santa. The once great Patric Vieira seems to be enjoying paid retirement also.
I don't see Commolli having that much to do with Tottenham's success. Arneson laid a good foundation before him.Plus there have been plenty of flops along the way..
Apart from signing Bale and Modric, he's done nothing!
can someone name a team with 3 rising stars as bright as pavliachenko,modric,bale
villareal has two (nilmar,rossi) but i am sure they won't be able to keep them
Modric's stock is definitely on the rise despite being 25 or so. He's proving to be on par with VDV and Bale in helping Spur's take it to 'the next level'.
The D of F title just doesn't make sense if the role dictates players and doesn't dictate tactics, when ultimately the tactics depend on the players you have at your disposal (call me old-fashioned, but it's not much use going to Stoke with munchkin strikers and trying to whip crosses in all day etc.) Cloughie would spark the board out if such a move was suggested whilst he was at the helm.
I could understand it if the manager says "Look, we need a 6'4" left-footed left-back" and the D of F is left to do the available deals with the board, thus freeing up the manager's time to work with the squad - but this isn't happening at LFC and I guess Roy has lost the battle already. I have respect for the work he did at Fulham on a tight budget and as far as I know LFC are still not solvent enough for ??20M-a-man shopping-sprees but every scouser I know wants Roy out. I think from the names being banded about, Rijkaard looks the best bet.
Citeh need to offload all those mentioned (well, apart from Adebayor, who I still rate). I see we are not fielding Silva tomorrow which I think will mean another 3 points for Arsenal. He's been the creative force for the last month or so. Balotelli out too so another 90 minutes requried of Tevez. He's going to be knackered. Masterstroke would be playing Adebayor again; he does well when he's fired-up.
Modric has always been a very good player. It was only ever a case of whether he'd be able to hack it in the PL that left any doubt about him. Otherwise I think he would've gone to a bigger club than Spurs. I know Arsene considered him, but I imagine Chelski & Fergie would consider him too light-weight a player.
Welbeck has impressed me this season, he's been scoring for fun at Sunderland and Cleverly looks like a quality player.
Arsenal have 'rising star' NaNaNaNaNasri. And 19yr old Jack Wilshere (recently voted the second best young player in Europe) Jay Emanuel Thomas will soon be added to that list.
did not know pavli was that old
yep arsenal if you count chamackalackin
chelsea needs neymar in a bad way
if citeh finish 2nd and sell off some dead weight to recoup some capital
their tactic may have worked
balotelli's facial expressions makes tevez look like loyal player
Arsenal have 'rising star' NaNaNaNaNasri. And 19yr old Jack Wilshere (recently voted the second best young player in Europe) Jay Emanuel Thomas will soon be added to that list.
Yes. And hopefully Aaron Ramsey will be back to 'rising star' form next season after his stint at Forest.
I have logged on a few times.
A confluence of board events and ambiences have aligned in disturbing manner, and have mitigated my desire to post more often.
In no particular order...
Lack of technical skillz means my configuration (or whatever, zzz) means that virtually every picture and video is unavailable for me. In one sense this is good, in that I don't have to be subjected to reams of moronic posts in modern soul threads where dudes put up Prince vids and mid 80s electro funk turds in an effort to deny middle aged Briddish dudes of their rightful place in the pantheon of mobo - a stance I find ignorant and extremely disrespectful.
In the opposite sense this is bad, since many threads are just desolate and windswept white-space wastelands of spartan minimalist brutality.
Then there's the influx of imbecilic breakz-yo dudes who are as boring as fuck, cosigning endlessly and declaiming how Four Symbols or Superfly is great because it has breaks on it. These doofii would be wearable if they would only show a bit of flair, a flourish at the keyboard, and original idea on occasion.
Then there's a gang of dudes who seem to have developed an overtly aggressive streak of late, as witnessed in that Aussie rap thread, where xenophobia and racism and downright grandstanding ignorance seems to be congratulated by the majority. I want no part of it. Dudes like dropabollock droning on yet again about Benny Hill and Lonnie Donegan....some folks believe the publicity their fawning fanboy cheerleaders pump out a tad too much methinks.
Then there's the influx of imbecilic breakz-yo dudes who are as boring as fuck, cosigning endlessly and declaiming how Four Symbols or Superfly is great because it has breaks on it. These doofii would be wearable if they would only show a bit of flair, a flourish at the keyboard, and original idea on occasion.
It's not just me then.
Happy New Year to you and yours Skel. Always good to hear from you when you get the chance.
Hey gang, yeah I'm still hovering about but had a suddenly unexpected demanding period at work which meant that I had to frequent the boards less and, to be brutally honest, wasn't missing it that much.
I'd have to cosign what Ste*e's written above (minus the technical bit obviously, LOL U OLD ;-) ) and would add to it the influx of people who insist that only Rap that was made, or sounds like it was made , between, 92 and 96 is of any value. I'm got a reasonably thick skin and the place is big enough for everyone but the absolute lack of self awareness, blinkered view and, for want of a better word, moronic posting on offer has started to really grate to the point where I'm sympathising with L*o when he said that he was afraid that he was going to just start ranting on here.
I've always come on the board to cheer myself up at work and at the moment I think it's making me angrier.
Obviously the Brits thread is always calling to me (especially when we're top of the league and I'm top of the FPL) but I think stuff like the Kanye thread pretty much exhausted me for now and also things like the xenophobia seems to be on the rise again. All in all I'm much more up for meeting people on here for a RL drink than posting right at the moment.
Realise the above sounds like a preachy old man grumble which wasn't the intention as I'm entirely uninterested in another State of the Strut discussion but there you go. No doubt I'll be back up to speed again shortly once the new year sour mood is out of the way.
Comments
Gerrard was supposedly 70% fit last night but despite that, Our Glorious Leader was rushed back (even though our football has largely been better while he's been out), and proceeded to go missing for most of the second half. Gray and Tyler couldn't understand why Konchesky's substitution was greeted with cheers last night, which makes me wonder if there exists a parallel universe in which he's a cultured ball-playing full back in the Cafu mould.
citeh movin on up
kinda depressing holidays for me and i have no high hopes for the reshceduled (when?) ManU-Chelsea clash
so many games though! this is not the NFL
What rumours you heard/Got?
Probably be pretty quiet I think..
Bridge and (I think) Bentley to Newcastle.
Edin Dzeko to City is said to be a goer. Shame - I was hoping he might head our way in the summer.
Eliero Elia and Sylvain Marveaux to Liverpool looks like the first fruits of Comolli's manoeuvrings.
I've heard a mixed opinion on this guy from Spurs fans who've finally realised his legacy after being delighted to see him sacked to some unnamed PL manager describing him as a 'clown'.
Elia could be a great buy for Liverpool, he seems like he has his head on his shoulders from interviews I have seen.
Could also be another Babel..who I think wasn't given a good enough chance and could be a different player under the right manager.
Ronaldinho would be an absolute joke - he will go to Brasil where he can party, play and still not be reprimanded for doing so.
While I have serious misgivings about the whole Director of Football thing, that may be down to the fact that, whenever a DoF has been brought in at an English club (Spuds and Toon being the most high-profile recent examples), it's usually been against the wishes of an incumbent manager and has created conflict. If FSG's long-term plan is to bring in a manager who is used to, and is happy to continue working with, a DoF, then I can't see what the problem is.
Hodgson didn't take the job under those circumstances anyway. His brief when he was brought in by Purslow and Broughton was to provide a steady hand on the tiller, to get the most out of the existing squad because there was little to nothing in the kitty, and to prevent the previous season's drop-off turning into a slump. There was also the matter of the boardroom shenanigans, and how they didn't want a manager who'd kick up a stink while everything was being straightened out backstage, but that's no longer relevant.
Even though he's only been there since the summer, Hodgson is still effectively a hangover from the old regime. What's more, there's been no steady hand, he clearly has no idea what to do with the squad (even those players he brought in), and people are beginning to openly talk of Liverpool as relegation candidates. Pleading to be allowed to spend his way out of trouble or, if you're feeling generous, remould the team in his own image, suggests that he now believes (thanks, perhaps, to his cheerleaders in the papers) he's the man to take Liverpool forward, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Since he'll be gone this summer, I see no sense in giving him any say (or at least not much) over who comes in during this window. We'll do it big in the summer instead, by which time it'll be someone like Deschamps, Villas Boas, Rijkaard or Jurgen Klopp running tings. If FSG aren't going to bin him off and bring in a caretaker until the end of the season, the worst thing they could do would be to give him the green light to sign the likes of Carlton Cole and saddle the next man with him.
In any event, for all his 35 years of experience and his LMA award, Hodgson can't have established much of a network of scouting contacts if the only players he could identify were someone who got their first pro break from him, and a mediocre English left-back from his previous club. I'm no longer convinced Meireles was one of his either, since Hodgson's subsequent tactics suggest he'd never actually seen the lad play before he came to Anfield.
F*cking cowboys.
Apart from signing Bale and Modric, he's done nothing!
villareal has two (nilmar,rossi) but i am sure they won't be able to keep them
I could understand it if the manager says "Look, we need a 6'4" left-footed left-back" and the D of F is left to do the available deals with the board, thus freeing up the manager's time to work with the squad - but this isn't happening at LFC and I guess Roy has lost the battle already. I have respect for the work he did at Fulham on a tight budget and as far as I know LFC are still not solvent enough for ??20M-a-man shopping-sprees but every scouser I know wants Roy out. I think from the names being banded about, Rijkaard looks the best bet.
Citeh need to offload all those mentioned (well, apart from Adebayor, who I still rate). I see we are not fielding Silva tomorrow which I think will mean another 3 points for Arsenal. He's been the creative force for the last month or so. Balotelli out too so another 90 minutes requried of Tevez. He's going to be knackered. Masterstroke would be playing Adebayor again; he does well when he's fired-up.
-
Modric has always been a very good player. It was only ever a case of whether he'd be able to hack it in the PL that left any doubt about him. Otherwise I think he would've gone to a bigger club than Spurs. I know Arsene considered him, but I imagine Chelski & Fergie would consider him too light-weight a player.
Welbeck has impressed me this season, he's been scoring for fun at Sunderland and Cleverly looks like a quality player.
Arsenal have 'rising star' NaNaNaNaNasri. And 19yr old Jack Wilshere (recently voted the second best young player in Europe) Jay Emanuel Thomas will soon be added to that list.
yep arsenal if you count chamackalackin
chelsea needs neymar in a bad way
if citeh finish 2nd and sell off some dead weight to recoup some capital
their tactic may have worked
balotelli's facial expressions makes tevez look like loyal player
With Modric, Levy jumped into negotiations as soon as the season ended and got him before other teams got a chance..
Gareth Bale was known but 'Arry was close to putting him out for loan before he became 'The Best Player In The World (2nd only to Messi)'.
Bale was a jinxed player last season, Spurs couldn't win a game when he played. Who ever said he was a left back??
It's all happy families at Citeh I see..
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Pictures-Man-City-training-ground-fight-as-Kolo-Toure-and-Emmanuel-Adebayor-are-pulled-apart-by-shocked-team-mates-article663373.html
For him and Modric(who has just started to live up to the hype imo) there were plenty of flops too.
Routeledge, Taarabt, Dos Santos and Bentley to name a few..
Skel seems to have given up on us since he was barred at work :-S
(google image result for Skel turns up some surprising results.)
Ali has just ghosted though.
Yes. And hopefully Aaron Ramsey will be back to 'rising star' form next season after his stint at Forest.
A confluence of board events and ambiences have aligned in disturbing manner, and have mitigated my desire to post more often.
In no particular order...
Lack of technical skillz means my configuration (or whatever, zzz) means that virtually every picture and video is unavailable for me. In one sense this is good, in that I don't have to be subjected to reams of moronic posts in modern soul threads where dudes put up Prince vids and mid 80s electro funk turds in an effort to deny middle aged Briddish dudes of their rightful place in the pantheon of mobo - a stance I find ignorant and extremely disrespectful.
In the opposite sense this is bad, since many threads are just desolate and windswept white-space wastelands of spartan minimalist brutality.
Then there's the influx of imbecilic breakz-yo dudes who are as boring as fuck, cosigning endlessly and declaiming how Four Symbols or Superfly is great because it has breaks on it. These doofii would be wearable if they would only show a bit of flair, a flourish at the keyboard, and original idea on occasion.
Then there's a gang of dudes who seem to have developed an overtly aggressive streak of late, as witnessed in that Aussie rap thread, where xenophobia and racism and downright grandstanding ignorance seems to be congratulated by the majority. I want no part of it. Dudes like dropabollock droning on yet again about Benny Hill and Lonnie Donegan....some folks believe the publicity their fawning fanboy cheerleaders pump out a tad too much methinks.
All in all, nagl.
I remain with you in spirit.
Happy New Year to you and yours Skel. Always good to hear from you when you get the chance.
Stay Classy, Zlatan.
I'd have to cosign what Ste*e's written above (minus the technical bit obviously, LOL U OLD ;-) ) and would add to it the influx of people who insist that only Rap that was made, or sounds like it was made , between, 92 and 96 is of any value. I'm got a reasonably thick skin and the place is big enough for everyone but the absolute lack of self awareness, blinkered view and, for want of a better word, moronic posting on offer has started to really grate to the point where I'm sympathising with L*o when he said that he was afraid that he was going to just start ranting on here.
I've always come on the board to cheer myself up at work and at the moment I think it's making me angrier.
Obviously the Brits thread is always calling to me (especially when we're top of the league and I'm top of the FPL) but I think stuff like the Kanye thread pretty much exhausted me for now and also things like the xenophobia seems to be on the rise again. All in all I'm much more up for meeting people on here for a RL drink than posting right at the moment.
Realise the above sounds like a preachy old man grumble which wasn't the intention as I'm entirely uninterested in another State of the Strut discussion but there you go. No doubt I'll be back up to speed again shortly once the new year sour mood is out of the way.