angelman

does di canio have a boner going off to his left?

It was a panic appointment. Last season they very very nearly did go down, and if they hadn't have beaten Newcastle at St. James's Park, I suspect they would not have had the momentum to beat Everton and would have gone down. So from that perspective, he succeeded in what he was brought in to do. OK, he was given £19m to bring in 14 players. One way of looking at that, is that he spent less than it would have cost them should they have been relegated. On the other, he leaves a club with 14 new players and what some might consider to be overly disjointed, although I think a good man manager should be able to bring them together. Either way, if you lose the dressing room, then however good or bad you are at managing, your time's up, and by the sound of things, he had completely and totally lost the players. It's about man management, and I was surprised that O'Neill supposedly failed on that front, as that was one of the things he was known for. Have to agree with Steve Bruce who said that Di Canio's style was old fashioned. You never know what goes on behind closed doors, but on the face of it, which Italian would you want to play under - Di Canio or Di Matteo?

O'Neill

Duncan, not usually do I wish someone's career to fizzle out, but I have to agree with you. But not sure it was madness to appoint him last season. Gave them the kick up the rear end to keep them up, but naive if the board thought that it was going to be a long and happy marriage.

Good decision by Sunderland's board. Was a disaster waiting to happen, or rather was a disaster happening. Apparently Di Matteo is being lined up.

But do you think that you are a **** as per your thoughts on the build up thread (p2) seeing as you agreed with Alan Brazil that LFC had nothing to worry about?

Always a little surprised that NA didn't give him a better run last season.

ar·gu·ment [ahr-gyuh-muhnt] Show IPA noun 1. an oral disagreement; verbal opposition; contention; altercation: a violent argument. 2. a discussion involving differing points of view; debate: They were deeply involved in an argument about inflation. 3. a process of reasoning; series of reasons: I couldn't follow his argument. 4. a statement, reason, or fact for or against a point: This is a strong argument in favor of her theory. 5. an address or composition intended to convince or persuade; persuasive discourse.

Because in summer, it is still something like 35ºc+ at 2am and humid as hell. Then there is practice time, and getting spectators around the place.

Yes and no. There might be a flaw in your argument as I do wonder whether you might think differently if we hadn't have been winning? You mention 2 years ago, which I am presuming means the promotion season from L1 and nPC. They were enjoyable for sure, as we were winning. Did you enjoy the journey down to the bottom of L1 as much? But it does raise the interesting conundrum. Being realistic, we have absolutely no chancel of winning the PL - that might be being negative, but it is realism. Is there really any point in joining a competition that you have absolutely no chance of winning? That we have never won it isn't really the point, as the '80s showed that we could get quite close as could other similar sized teams. Today we can't even get close. But what is the point in being in the 2nd or 3rd tier? You may say that we would be more competitive, which is true, but the point of the competition is to try and win it and you can't do that unless you are in the top division. As about 86 of the 92 league clubs have absolutely no chance whatsoever of winning the league, it shows that the competition itself is somewhat flawed, well at least to my thinking it is. I suspect that you ask the money men and supporters of the other 6, and they will disagree.

I wonder if the money men behind the Champions League will change their format, or even cancel the tournament for one year. That would give much more time for leagues to fit their games in. But somehow I can't see that happening!! If you finish the 2021 a week earlier, start the 2022 season a week earlier, keep PL teams out of the League Cup opening rounds even more than they are, play more mid-week games, and extend the season a bit, then surely it can be all squeezed in. I am not sure how much time is needed to prep and "do" the WC - a month?

To me I get nostalgic about the First Division. But even then, the top 6 (as below) featured a lot of the same teams and of course was dominated by Liverpool. Were things any more level then than now? I guess you have to say that they were given the odd "smaller" team coming so high up, and indeed Villa winning it. But the team that shows the biggest change to today is Everton - a force in the 80s but currently have little or no chance of winning the league or even finishing top 4. 1980/1: Villa, Ipswich, Arsenal, WBA, Liverpool, Saints 1981/2: Liverpool, Ipswich, ManU, Spurs, Arsenal, Swansea 1982/3: Liverpool, Watford, ManU, Spurs, Forest, Villa 1983/4: Liverpool, Saints, Forest, ManU, QPR, Arsenal 1984/5: Everton, Liverpool, Spurs, ManU, Saints, Chelsea 1985/6: Liverpool, Everton, West Ham, ManU, Shef Wed, Chelsea 1986/7: Everton, Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal, Norwich, Wimbledon 1987/8: Liverpool, Manu, Forest, Everton, QPR, Arsenal 1988/9: Arsenal, Liverpool, Forest, Norwich, Derby, Spurs 1989/90: Liverpool, Villa, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton I don't really care who it is, whether it be us, West Ham, Swansea, Villa, etc etc but I would dearly love it if someone like that finished 4th. As mentioned it is now all about finishing top 4 for the CL, and the top 6 teams have become complacent and think it their right that they and no one else finishes there. Maybe that is a little unfair, and that it is the pundits who push this.

In short yes, and while I am enthusiastic about following Saints this season, I can see a time when I give up on football, bin the season ticket, and just watch us on TV. The PL is 6 vs the rest. And those 6 don't care about the PL too much, as they just use it as an access point to CL. You mention a European Super League and that teams should go off and set up and leave the rest of us to get on with it. If that does happen, as some in CL think that there are too many weak teams in it, then I will give up with football.

Oz, I suspect, will get paid off as in the scheme of things, their £43m that they spent is but a drop in the ocean. It had to be changed, as there was no way that it could happen in summer. We all know that, so it was just a question of a change of date or a change of location. Why you want to hold it in a country of 2 million people that is 30 times the size of the Isle of Wight is anyone's guess, even taking the financial incentives into account. A shame that the game has prostituted itself to money rather than taking the fans into account first - nothing new though.

Heard Alan Brazil this morning talking about Liverpool. He mentioned their next two games "Southampton - nothing to worry about there" were the words that he used to brush our visit off so that he could move on to a cup game vs Man U, where Suarez might reappear. While it might or might not be true, I thought want a **** to be so dismissive of us even if our record at Anfield isn't very good.

Talking about today. Not sure whether you were at the game, but especially 1st half, didn't you thin WHU were somewhat physical?

Unless Gaston has bulked up, he would have been kicked all over the place today.

Why? OK - manager comes in and inherits players. He has brought in 3 players from outside and promoted others from the academy, and for one reason of another doesn't rate Sharp but might see something in Lee. Our strikers, unless I have got it wrong... Lambert Rodriguez Osvaldo Lee do Prado Not in the plans - Mayuka & Sharp. Mayuka might come back after getting game time, but the only real mystery to me is Do Prado over Sharp, as I can see why Lee is there. If we get a couple of injuries or suspensions to say Lambert and Osvaldo, it leaves us a little light in the attacking department and that is why I think Lee is important.

Voted. If the Afghan dog thing wins, I'll give £50 to Naomi House.

I am getting re-runs of an Espanyol new conference

This has all turned into a willy waiving competition about who lives in a nicer area. The one thing that Osvaldo has said is that he knows all too well the temptations of the big smoke, hence why he wanted a move to Turin from Rome. Looking at his options..... I suspect that we were the biggest club to come in for him (or rather one that met his wage demands) as no CL team seemed prepared to come and get him, he knew the manager, the area is largely devoid of temptation but still close enough to London if he feels the need to blow a bit of steam off. A man in his position is more than able to afford to pay for a driver to take him up and down to town while he slumbers in the back, so that really isn't an issue. I am older than him, and lived away from the area, mainly in London and abroad for the best of 25 years, but wouldn't want to move away from here again. Me, I'd far rather live in the most desolate area of the country than in a City. That's my personal preference. Other people look for other things. I know that I am a little biased, as a lot of people are about their home area, but maybe Osvaldo isn't looking for nightclubs, shopping, restaurants, etc etc. No doubt one day he will be interviewed about the pros and cons of living here. The New Forest is a nice area. There are nicer areas (being subjective), but there's not much point living at Cape Wrath if you want to play EPL.

My God, what happened with the marble in the kitchen?

Ah. You are talking about an average return (goals per game or minutes per goal or some such) rather than a total. Prolific would refer to a total.

Really? You sure about that? You think that maybe a word other than "prolific" might be better, cos at 9 goals, he certainly isn't prolific.

You seem to be right, presuming you are saying £1m is £8k over 2 year, as £10k seems to be the going rate that other clubs are prepared to pay. I really can't understand SFC's thought process on this one. Sure we don't want to pay any of his wage, but it seems that we are cutting our nose off to spite our face. Mandaric was correct in what he said. He is our player to do with what we like, but he is costing us a lot. If you take the view that we won't get any of the £1.8m back for what we paid him, and that he is happy to see out his contract, then surely it is better to farm him out, and save ourselves £10k a week. Surely they can make some sort of deal with Reading and put in that if they get promoted (and maybe even another one relating to goals that BS has scored), that they pay more? Cortese seems to like all these little clauses, and in this case, Reading shouldn't try and do an Arsenal (re playing Ox for less than 20 mins) as the rewards for promotion would outweigh an extra £500k.