midds

Genuine question: Can Birmingham claim Villa have breached Premier League rules (forbidding any club from poaching another PL club's manager) when they aren't in the PL any more? They've gone down and are now a Football League club so the rules don't apply surely?

Fully expect him to sign for the Arsenal in the next week or so. Never mind.

I see it as a lose-lose situation. He does well, and fucking Cardiff and their arsehole supporters are in the Premiership. He does badly, and we have to suffer him as a pundit again. So I'm hoping for a mediocre, mid-table kind of performance. Which won't be good enough for Cardiff.

It'll be like Robson went to Boro. He'll be ok for them but it's a tough task to get a team out of that league next season.

Chances of this appointment being a success? 1%.

Aye, arrived this morning and sent back (pre-paid 2nd class, natch) this afternoon.

Don't think he's had/got any intention of signing a new deal with us. Him announcing that he'd "wait until we were safe" followed by "waiting to see who we sign" were purely stock phrases to buy a bit of time with the fans before fucking off. Wouldn't surprise me if we eventually find out his agent has had this next move lined up for months.

Birmingham, funnily enough...

Mick doesn't.

I'm not expecting him to produce it but I dare bet the new owners are expecting big things very quickly. They signed the cheque and if he can't produce then they'll be asking some difficult questions of Dalglish. They backed his judgement when they could have spent the cash elsewhere.

If you spend £35m on a striker then you've got a right to expect the finished article imo. I know football doesn't work like that and big fee =/= goals and performances but if he can't produce the goods then he'll be branded a flop. Had Liverpool spent £35m on a European striker like Ibrahimovic or Aguero or Higuain or someone else like that then you'd expect instant results. He'll have the same pressure even though the (massively inflated) fee had nothing to do with him. It'll be a millstone around his neck.

For £35m I'd be expecting the sort of numbers Drogba was putting up 3 or 4 years ago. He's also got to sort himself out off the park. Stop being a pisshead and try to be a better footballer.

Never mind. Looks a cracking player from what I've seen but if he wants to play for PSG then fair enough. Got to respect his decision and move on to the next one. At least it's happened in June which still leaves a couple of months to sort someone else out.

Huge season for him. Up here he was given far more leeway than he'll get in Liverpool. He's also got a massive fee hanging round his neck and his new fans and owners will want an immediate return. The big bastard could turn into the next Robin Friday if he's not careful.

McLeish going to Villa would go down like a shit sandwich I'd imagine. I could only compare it to Souness from our point if view.

Asamoah Gyan. £8m buyout clause. You heard it here first etc.

Sow.

Proper scally.

I'm still flabbergasted by the fact we have a striker who is even worse at playing the offside trap than Shola. Best plays off the shoulder, Shola wanders around. Pretty much, Best's offsides are usually from trying to get into a goal scoring position. With Shola its random It's not random. It's a lack of intelligence. The amount of times he caught offside and he just grins like a gormless idiot as if it's some kind of novelty really annoys me.

For fuck's sake.

Nope. Bit amateurish like. I think I could have paid the full whack over the phone but not the direct devote.

Zip it Deborah.

Can't afford to be too picky tbh. He's better than what we've got currently and costs nothing. He's going to want a canny wage which is fair enough, the only issue is his fucked knee but the club obviously know about it and would presumably put something into the contract to prevent us getting burned on the deal.

They're clearly on the bones if their seer if that's all they can muster up. Would never say the deal won't go through but they'd need to triple it before it would even be considered. Part ex for Cole could be a goer maybe?

They need to send the direct debit mandates out through the post, they couldn't do it over the phone. They told me it would be 8 payments of about 70 notes. My seat is reserved until they receive the completed forms.