stknowle

I'm tempted to go there right now and give them a list of things that we have done before ANY other club!!! (ps - are there any?)

Yes! My younger brother!!

I have followed Emery's career closely, and am happy to provide a few snippets: Born in Hondarribia, Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Emery was a youth graduate of Real Sociedad, but never really broke into the first team (aged 24 he appeared in five La Liga games, scoring against Albacete Balompié in an 8–1 home win[1]). After that, he resumed his career mostly in Segunda División. Emery retired with Lorca Deportiva CF at the age of 32, after one season in Segunda División B. Managerial career[edit] Lorca and Almería[edit] As he was seriously injured in the knee while at Lorca in the 2004–05 season, Emery was offered the vacant manager position by the club president, and immediately helped it achieve promotion to the second division for the first time in its history,[2] while beating top level side Málaga CF in the Copa del Rey. In his second season, the Murcian club's first ever in the second level, the team finished fifth with 69 points, only five points off promotion to the top flight.[3] It suffered relegation the following campaign, after the manager's departure. Emery then moved to UD Almería in division two,[4] and again helped his squads overachieve: after guiding to a first ever promotion in 2007,[5] the Andalusian side finished eighth in the following campaign.[6] This prompted a move to Valencia CF, as he succeeded Ronald Koeman.[7] Valencia[edit] In his first season with the Che, Emery led them to a sixth place-finish, with the subsequent qualification to the UEFA Europa League, in spite of the club's serious financial problems. He led his team to the round-of-32 in the UEFA Cup, a 3–3 aggregate loss against FC Dynamo Kyiv, and the quarter-finals of the domestic cup, exiting against Sevilla FC. In 2009–10 Emery led Valencia to the third place, with the club returning to the UEFA Champions League after two years. In the season's Europa League the team lost in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Atlético Madrid, on the away goals rule, and exited in the round-of-16 in the Spanish cup against Deportivo de La Coruña, losing 3–4 on aggregate; in May 2010, he renewed his contract for another year.[8] The 2010–11 season started without David Villa and David Silva, sold to FC Barcelona and Manchester City respectively. Still, Emery managed to win five out of the first six league games (one draw), starting the Champions League campaign with a 4–0 win in Turkey against Bursaspor, a competition in which Valencia was eliminated in the round-of-16 by FC Schalke 04, being ousted in the same stage in the Spanish Cup by Villarreal CF. In the domestic league the team finished third, thus again qualifying to the Champions League. Emery left the club in June 2012, after repeating the league position.[9] Spartak Moscow[edit] On 13 May 2012, Leonid Fedun, owner of Russian team FC Spartak Moscow, announced Emery as club coach for the following two seasons.[10] On 25 November he was sacked after a run of poor results, the last a 1–5 derby home loss against FC Dynamo Moscow.[11] Sevilla[edit] Emery with Sevilla in 2015 Emery returned to his country on 14 January 2013, replacing sacked Míchel at the helm of Sevilla.[12] He led the club to the fifth position in his first full season and, on 14 May 2014, also won the Europa League after defeating S.L. Benfica on penalties.[13] After finishing the 2014–15 campaign in fifth place, one point behind former club Valencia, Emery again won the Europa League after defeating FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk,[14] thus qualifying for the following Champions League.[15] The victory meant that Sevilla became the most successful club in the history of the UEFA Cup/Europa League, with four trophies,[16] and he signed a one-year contract extension on 5 June 2015 which kept him at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium until 2017, after reported interest from West Ham United and S.S.C. Napoli.[17] In 2015–16, Emery led Sevilla to the seventh position, having played the last games in the domestic league with several reserves and youth team players after the team confirmed their presence in the Europa League final.[18][19] On 18 May 2016, after trailing 0–1 at half-time, one goal from Kévin Gameiro and a brace from Coke resulted in a 3–1 triumph against Liverpool at St. Jakob-Park.[20] Personal life[edit] Emery's father and grandfather, respectively named Juan and Antonio, were also footballers, both in the goalkeeper position. The former appeared for several clubs in the second tier, whilst the latter competed with Real Unión in the top level;[2][21][22] his uncle, Román, played as a midfielder.[23][24]

Agree, and so we would if we had kept Koeman. I like(d) but he had his limitations, and therefore I remain not particularly bothered that he is leaving. For the money they are shelling out, Everton are welcome to him.

Agree, this keeps things fresh if nothing else. I'm simply not that bothered about him going, just feel we can do better.

On the plus side this place is actually quite entertaining again for the first time in months. Cheers Ron.

To be fair mate I'm sure Everton (or any other club) are capable of turning the heads of other team's managers without having the official permission of their current employers to speak to them direct

I'm already more interested in who we get in than worried about the loss of Koeman. He's done very well, I like him, but if he wants out bye bye.

No mate, when Roy has ****ed up and off they'll just look for another uninspiring yes man who'll tow the line.

Not controversial at all mate. He's been utterly ordinary.

To make some people think something's happening when really nothing is happening? To make others think nothing is happening because he said something is happening when really something is happening? To make others think nothing is happening by saying something is happening when really nothing is happening? To make others think something is happening by saying something is happening when something really is happening?

Agreed, probably the most clumsily misspelt thread title ever committed to the net let alone Saintsweb. As for the list of alleged leavers only Tadic remotely falls into the category of being in any way a surprise.

Oh right. Thanks for clarifying Einstein. Anyway onward to another summer of fretting over losing all our best players!!!!!!!!

It is going to be humiliating f'sure. I'd rather we just gave up football altogether than play in Europe knowing it's only thanks to that smug Dutch ****er!!!!

Whilst Spurs' (who I hate more than words can express) failure to finish above Arsenal is the story of the day, our finishing above Wham (who I also hate more than words can express) takes an honourable 2nd place. 6th place at worst, another year on year improvement GET IN!!!

What you gotta ask yourself is do you really believe that or do you feel lucky. Well do ya Punk?

I don't think it's strange to say at all. I think he is bang average at the absolute best and I seriously hope we don't extend his time with us. He hasn't made any real howlers that I can recall (this added to the fact that he can kick a ball in a straight line a fairly long way consistently which - ridiculously - neither KD or Gazza can makes him the best of 3 very bad options), but neither has he done anything outstanding that I recall and unless a shot presents him with a routine save, it presents us with a goal against. Feckin awful for this level really.

We clearly buy too many players who still believe in father christmas and are too excited about what they will find at the bottom of their beds on christmas morning to even think about taking football seriously in the run up to the big day. It's no coincidence that our best performance of the season came on boxing day with the anticipation over and the present-fuelled adrenalin rush still kicking in. The black box needs to be fitted with a "belief in Santa" filter.

Stekelenberg is outstandingly shyte, but hanging failure to win the league on him for getting injured is a tad harsh. For most teams a keeper as bad as him getting injured should lead to an improvement in results, but when your back up keepers to the back up keeper are KD and Gazza........... The most pertinent 'what if' would be what if we didn't have such one star awful back up keepers. O.P's question perfectly valid by the way.

I think it was us that caused it. They looked a very good team but we ground them down and they ran out of ideas.

Fekin ell I enjoyed that!!!!! We really owed them that after some seriously unlucky defeats against them since we got back up. Leicester had similar results to ours at the back end of last season. Just saying, like.

Reads like the penultimate scene of a Mr Logic cartoon from Viz. The one before he gets punched.

Equal or better over 2 games with all those teams shows just how good we are capable of being. Damn that mid season sticky patch.

That kind of praise could go to his head and he may start resting on his laurels so please don't dare say it. Great performance from him today though, mom for medespite Mane scoring 3. Virg and Tadic also superb, Vic his had one of his good days too and even successfully completed a pass in excess of 10m!! C'Mon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Really good idea mate. Good luck with it.