Redslo

Worst Brooke Shields movie ever. Is that a bad thing? Obviously, he was exaggerating since clearly even the worst of those 11 would be high quality for the Championship. On the other hand, at most four of those players get into our current best 11 so it was a weak side for Southampton FC 2015-2016. Certainly, they are not "barely" championship standard--unless barely means something different in English English than it does in American English. Perhaps he was saying they could play in the Championship even if nude.

I am not convinced talk sports is right. They certainly chose a complicated way to explain it (while pretending to make it seem simple). As I have said before, I have read the actual rules and they are not particularly clear. However, I am not convinced that an 8th place finish will ever qualify a club for Europe (barring disqualification of a higher placed club). That does not mean that an 8th place club cannot qualify by winning the Champions League or the Europa League, of course. I also think that, after the midweek results, none of this matter to Southampton this season. I just read Dark Munster's comments and I mostly agree with them. My disagreement is rather a form of hypertechnicality. For example, If Manchester City wins the Champions League and finishes fourth, fourth place does not provide entrance into the Champions League in a qualifying round. It technically provides nothing because Manchester City is qualifying directly into the group phase in another way. But aside from points like that Dark Munster does, I believe have things right.

I think that is correct. But if the same thing happened except that Tottenham had won the league cup instead of Man City, then 6th place would still qualify for the EL and it would be 5 and 4. But I might be wrong.

The rules, as I read them, are not completely clear but I think how it works is that the seven clubs who qualify for Europe through domestic competitions will get to play in Europe no matter what. It is possible that the fourth place league finisher will get moved to the Europa League under certain circumstances. If I am right, it means that 8th place will never qualify (or 7th place will never qualify, if the FA Cup winner is not in the top six). On the other hand, if Liverpool and Manchester City both finish in 8th place or lower, England should end up with 9 clubs in Europe, five in the Champions League (top three, Liverpool, and Manchester City) and four in Europa League (4,5, and 6, plus FA Cup winner). I could be wrong because Manchester City qualifying for the Europa League by winning the League cup might take away one of the Europa League spots.

To take the subject of this thread a bit seriously, it is worth pointing out that this year we will not be along. Leicester, West Ham, Stoke, Bournemouth, Everton, and, possibly, Spurs should face similar pressures to sell important players to richer clubs. Certainly, their fans will be worried about the possibility.

I disagree. If you look at the contract lengths of our players the real worry should be summer 2017.

He signed a five year contract and was undoubtedly told that he was staying for more than a year. I would be surprised if he left this summer.

They often talk about the future of the club in a way that suggests both of them intend to be here for a while.

I understand that Koeman also believes that if a football is damaged during a match at St. Mary's, Southampton FC needs to be prepared to provide a replacement ball so the match can continue.

On the other hand, Liverpool's victory helps England's UEFA coefficient making it less likely Italy will take away the fourth champions League spot for 2018-2019. (It is already safe for 2017-2018.)

are we sure this isn't a late April fools joke?

I have been feeling sad for him and having trouble watching the videos through to the end. It was one thing to seem him get furious over a loss when they were a little too frequent. It is completely different to watch him as his club falls apart. I understand (from the pre-game show on NBCSN) that their highly placed players do not have contracts with clauses that drop salaries following relegation. This could create severe Financial Fair play problems for them if they do not come right back up. I actually discussed the consequences to the clubs that would be relegated this year in a blog post from November 2014. The implications of these rules for Newcastle are interesting and would be well worth a blog article if I were blogging about Newcastle. http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/2014/11/what-happens-if-southampton-is.html

Good point and it is consistent with one of the weird parts of the rules where if both competition winners are from the same country but do not qualify for Europe through domestic competition, the nation (assuming for this purpose that it is a four champions League entry nation) gets 5 champions league spots and four Europa League spots which would mean that (ignoring cup qualifications) the clubs who finished 1-3 qualify for the Champions League and the clubs who finish 4-7 qualify for Europa. This certainly suggests an intent to ensure that a club that qualifies for Europe through domestic competition will get to play in Europe--albeit under certain circumstances it would drop from the Champions League to the Europa League.

I was unable to observe that on American TV. Lucky me.

Nothing bipolar about this. It is perfectly rational. Although it would slightly help us if one of the two of them won their European competition while finishing 5th or lower--more coefficient points in England's ongoing fight with Italy over the extra Champions League spot.

I assumed it was because Long was coming back from an injury and could safely be taken off at that point.

To be fair, this mockery should wait until we get one more point.

This makes sense, but I couldn't find it said so clearly in the actual rules. Also, it doesn't say what happens if that club doesn't qualify for Europe at all, but that would still not allow the 8th place club to qualify. It might mean that there are three Europa league spots to go with the five champions league spots.

That type of qualification no longer exists. http://www.espnfc.us/blog/tactics-and-analysis/67/post/2539566/qualifying-for-europa-league-via-fair-play-soon-to-be-relic

I have read and reread the rules and this appears to be correct except in the rare circumstance but those circumstances might include Liverpool winning the Europa League and finishing in a Europa League spot (assuming 5th for purposes of illustration) and Manchester City finishing in the top seven and the FA Cup Winner finishing in the top seven. Consider the following table: 1 Leicester 2 Tottenham 3 Arsenal 4 Manchester City (won League Cup) 5 Manchester United (won FA Cup) 6 Liverpool 7 West Ham 8 Southampton 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 play in the Champions League 5 and 7 play in the Europa League I cannot figure out whether 8 plays in the Europa League. The rules do not seem to say what happens. Possibly it will depend on whether Wolfsburg wins the Champions League. Eighth place can also qualify for Europe when a club is disqualified from the competition before it starts for some reason such as a penalty for failure to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the UEFA rules are perfectly clear about this in a very confusing way. Article 3 of Regulations of the UEFA Champions League 2015-18 Cycle cover all the scenarios. Here is a link: http://www.uefa.org/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/Regulations/02/23/57/51/2235751_DOWNLOAD.pdf I will limit my discussion to possible scenarios for England this year rather that address what could theoretically happen to any club in any league in any year. Manchester City has qualified for the Europa League by winning the league cup. If they win the Champions League, but do not finish in the top four of the League they still qualify for the group stage of the Champions League and England only gets two entries into the Europa League instead of three. I believe that the third round playoff spot is the one lost rather than one of the direct entries into the group stage but I am not sure. Assuming Liverpool does not finish in the top three, if they win the Europa League they will usually qualify for the group stage of the Champions League, but not always. It depends on the Champions League winner's situation. If the Champions League winner would have qualified for the group stage based upon their domestic performance, Liverpool would get their group slot. Otherwise they would start in the playoffs. I do not see a clear statement as to whether England would get 2 or 3 Europa League slots under this scenario. Give the current league position of all the clubs that are still alive in the Champions League this scenario would only come into play if Wolfsburg won the Champions League. For the rest of this discussion assume that both Liverpool and Manchester City win their European competitions: If both would have qualified for the Europa League through their domestic performance, then the fourth place club in the Premier League is dropped to the group stage of the Europa League and England only gets two Europa League spots. If Liverpool does not qualify for the Europa League then the fourth place club in the Premier League is dropped to the group stage of the Europa League but England gets three Europa League spots. (This seems very strange to me but that is how I read the rules. In fact, if neither European winner qualified for the Europa League, England would get an extra entry into the Europa League for a total of nine entries into Europe--but that can't happen this year.) I should mention that the rules are somewhat different for nations that do not normally have four Champions League representatives.

I just posted "Predictions 2015-2016 (Round 33) With Magic Numbers, Relegation, and Other Stuff" and concluded that last week's results have made us mathematically safe from relegation. Woohoo.

I think my point was more about the consequences of that loss of pace and how it can vary by both position and the ability of the player to make adjustments. And about the misconception that players who do not rely upon pace as much will age better when, in fact, they age worse. Peak is not some clear cut thing that can be attained and then maintained. At some point, no matter how much conditioning work you do, your physical abilities will drop. The question is then whether you can make other adjustments to keep your career going longer. In some sports and at some positions you can make the downhill road seem very gradual and long lasting. NFL quarterback is probably a good example of this. Knuckleball pitcher in baseball would be another. Goalkeeper is a third. Some sports or positions leave less opportunities for this gradual decline--sprinters come to mind. http://www.axonpotential.com/athletes-and-age-of-peak-performance/

I just posted "Southampton Weekly Salaries (Update final FM 2016 database)" http://redsloscf.blogspot.com/ http://redsloscf.blogspot.co.uk/

I just posted "Predictions 2015-2016 (Round 32) With Magic Numbers, Relegation, and Other Stuff."