midds

My abiding memory of his time here was during the defeat to City at home last season. Mpenza had scored and our heads had dropped. The camera then panned to Roeder and stayed on him for about 6 or 7 seconds. He was stood there, arms folded giving his players nothing. No encouragement, no change in tactics, no subs warming up - nothing. He looked totally and utterly clueless. He simply didn't know what to do to change it round and he'd just run out of ideas. Just a rank shite manager. It doesn't augur well for Norwich and I can't think of a more uninspiring and inappropriate choice to drag them up the league. They might still turn it round but if they do, it'll be despite him - not because of him.

Fabregas is in a decent run of form right now but... 1. Gerrard 2. Essien 3. Fabregas.

Pray tell us more. We're starting to see the effects of the disastrous summer transfer window. The bizarre allegiance to Knight, the pointless signing of Harewood, the lack of a RB with Mellberg forced to play there, and teams realising that is our weak point and attacking it, like Bolton did today. He's not lost me, but I'd be lying if i said I wasn't a little concerned at some things. It looks like you're missing Hughes. Do you know what, about ten minutes ago, i said to my Mrs, "I never thought I'd say this, ever, but I wish we'd held on to Aaron Hughes, he'd be better at RB than Mellberg". She looked at me disdainfully, said "stop talking about football, I don't care" and went back to Friday's episode of Ugly Betty. Women. Mental. My significant other like that too. However, she also likes her football. Which is nice.

He plays better when we DON'T have the ball tbh. That's his job.

He was superb on the 22nd but dogshit on the 27th? I don't get it. He obviously turned into a bad player in 6 days. He'll never be good again...

Spot on. The fact of the matter is that your average football fan these days is stupid, at least when it comes to football anyway. Andy may be right but that post was in response to jack j who i think went to his first game in the early 60's. You're thinking of jackyboy! jack j is the one who always bites to Crumpy's wind ups.

How on earth is the price irrelevant? You've paid out an extra £15.5M for a pair of strikers than McCarthy cost Blackburn and those strikers only managed 5 more goals than him. And I'll rate a pair of strikers on how many goals they get between them. If that's more than another pair of strikers then the first pair is the better strike force. You can cry on about "judging the movement, passing and how well they work together" all you want, but if that doesn't produce as many goals as a strike pairing that doesn't play as fluently together then it's all irrelevant in the end. Are you really that slow?. The price is irrelevant because we are discusiing who the BEST strikeforce is NOT 'Who's the cheapest strikeforce' or 'which strikeforce would you prefer for the price they cost?' . No, I took everything into account when I choose my best strike partnership. Price, previous clubs, age, previous goal records etc. McCarthy and Santa Cruz came out on top. I didn't see any restrictions as to what to consider when I asked you originally tbh. And nice of you to ignore the last bit, you don't agree that the goal record outcome is more important than having two players who are fluent together? I'd much happier see Owen and Martins get 30 goals between them this season whilst falling over each other than see them play beautiful together and scrape 15. So you judged the strike PARTNERSHIP of Cruz and Mccarthy on what they've done at previous clubs and there previous goal records despite the fact that they've never played together until this season . Very clever indeed. Scy im afraid to tell you that youre actually judging what each player has done individually and then just combining the 2. Oh and Berbatov and Keane are a younger partnership so i fail to see why youve mentioned age. You've been as quiet as a fucking lamb all week. Amazing what a sacking can do...

You can't really make a comparison as all teams have changed since then. Exactly Mick. blueyes.gif The results of last season bear no relevance whatsoever on the performances and results of this season. It's a futile exercise imo.

The thing that worries me is that every team in the League will have seen exactly how Reading and Derby managed to beat us away from home and do exactly the same. Starting with Sunderland...

He's been pulled off a few times. :giggle:

The bloke's a tit. Next England manager if he wants the job though tbh.

Yes! Fantastic game in store.

If ever an avatar intermingled nicely with a post, this is that instance. Why thank you kind sir. Just wish more people would open their eyes and accept things change. It's 2007 and clubs aren't run the way they were 30 years ago. Football is a worldwide sport and the Premier League is the most popular going. Introducing it to a whole new audience in America is an opportunity to be embraced, not rebuffed. Fucks sake.

Wish people could see the the bigger picture... Losing a home match opposed to raising the global reputation of your club and raising millions of pounds in the process..... tough one...

The language thing is not an issue for me. It might surprise you that almost every country has its own terminology for the sport. Regards the topic, a PL match will never, ever happen. UEFA/FIFA will fuck that right off. A Charity Shield match might, though. On what grounds? Not disagreeing btw, just curious as to how they could stop it.

Obtaining 20 autographs of the current squad triggers an account upgrade. i will still get them mixed up I know you will Kev....I know.

Obtaining 20 autographs of the current squad triggers an account upgrade.

1 game? Dear me!

I doubt any of the major US channels would show it because nobody would be bothered, a bit like the NFL that's in London that 99% of England doesn't care about or even know is happening. Why do the friendly games attract so many fans? A Football match between say Man Utd and someone shitty... would sell out in USA in minutes. I'll fight the cause with you! Just like the NFL game in the UK having over 500,000 people interested in tickets. They could sell that place out twice over with relative ease if they sorted the ticketting fiasco out. He says 99% of people don't know the NFL thing is going on, but I think you'd do well to prove that statistic mate. I'm not saying its great for tradition, or that i'd want NUFC going over there, i'm just saying - it WOULD be a massive success and if Man Utd wanna fuck off for 1 game a season then go for it. My point precisely.

Got a horrible feeling about the game tbh.

I doubt any of the major US channels would show it because nobody would be bothered, a bit like the NFL that's in London that 99% of England doesn't care about or even know is happening. Why do the friendly games attract so many fans?

How would they make a fortune? Americans don't care about football. They'd probably lose all the money they would make due to a large number of fans giving up on the sport if this happened anyway. Do you honestly think it would be played in an empty stadium? Do you think they'd attract more fans.....who would buy more merchandise and pay to see their new team play either online or via PPV? Wonder if they could sell the TV rights and have it broadcast...hmmmm.

Any clubs that did do it would make an absolute fortune tbh. For that reason alone I wouldn't rule it out in the future.

As you usually are, spot on. As I've said before, if MJ had been as good tactically as he was mediawise with the press, he would have been as good as Mourinho. But he never had the killer touch to press hiome an advantage. 2-0 up against the Scum kids in the Carling Cup semi finaland decided to go defensive, 3-1 up away against Chelsea in the FA Cup then replaced Berbatov with Mido because 'I'd promised Mido half an hour' is not the way forward. I still have doubts about Ramos, big doubts tbh especially after having watched Santini try to settle in, but there is no doubt Ramos is far more tactically astute than MJ ever will be. The Uefa Cup ties against Sevilla last season proved that totally. Although Ramos has now fallen out with Monchi (the DoF) over how the style of play should evolve for Sevilla, as you say Ramos is well used to working with a Sporting Director and apparently know each other pretty well and got on well when that infamous meeting took place. Ramos was Comolli's #1 choice and it seems he could be in place for the Carling Cup against Blackpool next week with Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe looking after training and the Blackburn game. Poyet is Ramos's choice for his assistant, not Spurs, I have no idea how they know each other or just how good a coach Poyet is, though I do know he was coaching the u12's and doing his badges when he was at Spurs. The encouraging thing I suppose is Ramos is very keen on fitness coaches, dieticians etc a la Wenger/Allardyce which MJ was never a great believer in. MJ was never going to stay beyond this season though, even if the top table hadn't been caught with their trousers down in Spain. Almost certain he will be taking over as Dutch national manager next summer when Van Basten moves on. I assume you'll be requiring a change of user name shortly?

His position was undermined back in August though. Two games in and they were smashing the panic button with a mallet. Things may have sorted themselves out if they hadn't done that and made it clear he was on borrowed time from the start. I agree with that, except that he deserves to be sacked for his poor work in the transfer window this summer. Everyone knew that his defence needed to be sorted out, and he didn't do it. He spent too much money on the players he brought in, and - with the exception of Bale - he didn't really add anything worthwhile to the club. I also agree with Wullie, but would point out that their transfer set up is a bit of a mess, and it is difficult to know who actually chooses the transfer targets. Watching SSN. Isn't Gary Stevens a total cock? Is he the former Everton fella? If that's him, then yes. That's Gary Steven. Blond lad.