La Parka

Boro are out?!

Brilliant weekend, best FA cup for years. Hope a Championship club makes it a win!

.................Harper.............. Beye.....Faye..Tayls.Enrique Milner..Geremi.Butt......Zog .........Carrol..Martins........ Best we can chuck together! How dire is our central midfield! Ouch!

Same with Bowyer, and to a lesser extent, Alan Smith. Definitely Bowyer, he was really good at leeds making those lates runs into the box, not sure about Smith though, though he was definitely a good player im not sure he had the talent to be considered potentially great. Ronaldihno is antoher player who could be a bit of a waste. He was entirely responsible for Barcelona becoming champions agains after so many years with his outrageous talent, and even though he's still good, i think he definitely has/had the potential to be one of the worlds greatest. Aye, Adriano threw it all away, Ronaldinho needs to sort himself out, a lot of bad press about his lifestyle especially when you compare him to Kaka who seems to have a good head. Can we chuck Gazza in here? I really don't think he got near his potential.

No. I'm not in the business of making footballers, I'm in the business of letting kids play football for fun and nothing more, especially those of younger ages. I couldn't care less about improving their technique or whatever, too many kids don't get to experience football freely for what it is, playtime. So kids under me don't get told what to do or screamed at if they make a mistake, they just play. Alex you really have to understand the shift that has taken place in kids' football and youth football development. The reason why our national team is getting shitter and why our clubs are producing less better players is because the shift has changed. It's now not so much about ability but physical strengths. Clubs believe they can coach technique and ability and they can to a degree but it's at the expense of flair, freedom of expression and creativity, natural ability, hence why most players coming through are nowt special. Honestly, you could join a course tomorrow and be able to do every trick Ronaldo can do in a matter of months. The academy mentality is now spreading to kids' football outside those walls, youth teams are full of big, strong quick kids - cloggers who battle hard and run all day, while the smaller and weaker skillful kids stand on the touchline getting the odd minute here and there. Because street football is dead kids aren't learning the game naturally or being allowed to become individuals. I try to recreate the street football environment by just letting them play. No coaching even though I'm qualified, no win at all costs attitude, no screaming from the touchlines, nothing. In fact I actually join in with some of the games. Fantastic fun. Played today, mixed ages, some as young as 6, some as old as 17. One goal, huge game of sides. Me and the street wardens who also facilitate plan on creating a team based on the "just let them play" format which kids don't get enough of these days. Quality post HTT. There is an article along the same lines in last months 4-4-2. One thing I notice less and less: Kids playing football with balls/stones/bottles/gloves on car parks/roads/parks/alleys. When I was a kid we were out till it was dark kicking anything round. Sad really.

Same with Bowyer, and to a lesser extent, Alan Smith.

That is so fucking depressing. Pathetic.

Luc Nillis should be included too. Good record in Holland, mega hyped up and career ended horrifically Chris Casper too, his career was destroyed by injury.

Spot on Brummie.

Game of his life probably. He's hardly scoring for fun in the Championship is he? Scored once.

Fair play. Its about time this was realized!

More solid, . POSTING SMILIES IZ COOL LYKE

Finally, someone without their head up Keegans arse! Form the outside its different, my housemates all feel similar to the above (arsenal, Blackbuurn and Tramemre fans). And they don't watch us, so what has they think got to do with anything? I've been at every home game, I was at Wigan and Fulham. I know exactly how s*** we were under Allardyce. Don't really give a toss what casual outsiders think (no offence intended, 1878, or indeed you, SpinS. I'm not trying to play the soopafan card or anything.) I agree, SA football was s***, but we were more solid and probably wouldn't be in this mess. Casual outsider I may be, but a bit of realism sometimes hurts. I dont know what that means ? I am giving up on the football section for now. This speculating about things we can't change is pointless

Finally, someone without their head up Keegans arse! Form the outside its different, my housemates all feel similar to the above (arsenal, Blackbuurn and Tramemre fans). And they don't watch us, so what has they think got to do with anything? I've been at every home game, I was at Wigan and Fulham. I know exactly how s*** we were under Allardyce. Don't really give a toss what casual outsiders think (no offence intended, 1878, or indeed you, SpinS. I'm not trying to play the soopafan card or anything.) I agree, SA football was shit, but we were more solid and probably wouldn't be in this mess. Casual outsider I may be, but a bit of realism sometimes hurts.

Finally, someone without their head up Keegans arse! Form the outside its different, my housemates all feel similar to the above (arsenal, Blackbuurn and Tramemre fans).

Speculation is pointless, it's not speculation that we were s**** under Allardyce and now Keegan, and the players had (and still have) no confidence. I agree with this btw. The whole changing of managers did more damage than good ultimately.

Hmm.. Habib is probably the only one I guess. Oh fuck it. Lets just blame everyone.

We'll never know what would have happened but Allardyce doesn't have a good record of signings while here and we were s**** under him so we could easily have been where we are now. He could easily got lucky with his signings, got the team playing well, and finished in mid table though. That is why all this speculating is pointless

Great reply Wullie, good to see you countered my post with solid debate. Jesus wept. How can you offer solid debate to the idea of a point at Villa Park, given his shambolic away record up to then? So what, one point difference? We still would have strengthened in the window, and be about 7 points up on where we are, putting us about 12th. When he was sacked I laughed, when Keegan appointed I cried. We missed the boat here lads. Strengthened? He's signed some of the worst players seen at SJP in the Premiership era! Having signed Smith, I wouldn't have offered him a penny. Good to see Keegan did well with his penny too! Who knows who Sam had lined up, all I am saying is with the players playing in his system I think we would be a little better off.

End?, its 7 games in you idiot! Seriously, some of you are mentally retarded. Yeah thanks for calling me a retard. My brother has learning disabilities, and you think it is cool to use it to abuse people. I am holding back here, but you should really watch your words.

Great reply Wullie, good to see you countered my post with solid debate. Jesus wept. How can you offer solid debate to the idea of a point at Villa Park, given his shambolic away record up to then? So what, one point difference? We still would have strengthened in the window, and be about 7 points up on where we are, putting us about 12th. When he was sacked I laughed, when Keegan appointed I cried. We missed the boat here lads.

Great reply Wullie, good to see you countered my post with solid debate. Jesus wept.

Nope, although this is more the fault of the timing of the sacking. We would have got a couple of players in in the window and be floating round 12th. We would have picked up points at Boro/Bolton and a draw against Villa and Blackburn.

The problem here was the timing of SA sacking, which wasn't really needed until the summer, but lets forget all that.. Wasn't it? You reckon Allardyce would have done better than KK has with these players? I don't think he'd be doing any worse (technically not really possible). I think he'd have beaten Bolton though. On the run of form he was on? Couldn't beat Derby ffs. Changing the manager hasn't really helped though has it? The whole change process is complex, getting people onside, new methods of doing things, if anything it caused more disruption and more negative impact on our results. Sure SA football was dire, but I would have had confidence in him leading us to ~12th, and being replaced in the summer. I never said it had helped, but the run of results we've had makes Allardyce look better than he was and Keegan worse than he is. Bet Keegan wouldn't have gift wrapped 40% of Derby's points. Sure SA dropped points to some shit teams, but we were picking up points here and there, something we really don't look like doing at present. No doubt if Keegan was here form the start he hight have been able to buy himself results, but in all truthfulness, a chequebook manager was the last thing we needed.

The problem here was the timing of SA sacking, which wasn't really needed until the summer, but lets forget all that.. Wasn't it? You reckon Allardyce would have done better than KK has with these players? I don't think he'd be doing any worse (technically not really possible). I think he'd have beaten Bolton though. On the run of form he was on? Couldn't beat Derby ffs. Changing the manager hasn't really helped though has it? The whole change process is complex, getting people onside, new methods of doing things, if anything it caused more disruption and more negative impact on our results. Sure SA football was dire, but I would have had confidence in him leading us to ~12th, and being replaced in the summer.