Shak

Where is his excuses? I read that and didn't see one excuse for the teams performances more of his take on the clubs shifting attitude towards him. He doesn't criticise the chairmen or players, luck or referees. He'd lost it at Sunderland, he was taking them nowhere and spending plenty to do it. It's mostly because he's a shite manager, but the reason he's giving here is that there were some tensions with some new guy that came in. Spot on Liam O, Keane is and will always be a wanker of the highest order. And a desserting cunt as well.

People would start to actually support them, leading to eventual world domination.

Shearer. He was still playing very well at that time, it was 2004-2005 where he started to decline badly. Even in his early 30's, his all-round game shat upon that of what Owen's gives you right now. Also wasn't made of biscuits.

Really well put. The tagline for Alien vs Predator comes to mind. Whoever wins, we lose.

I assume that the linesman wasn't sure if Giggs touched it, and didn't want to flag unless he was sure. Consult with the ref who tells him there was a touch, then you can rule it out. Thought they did well, tbh.

Did Gomis start Spence ? Aye he did. Was nowt special either really, Sakho looked good. Bassong and Sakho for the Black Power Force! I remember when half this forum thought we had that in the Faye + Cacapa combo :blush: Best CB partnership we've had in years. They can't have played together for more than 6 or 8 games, and were hardly exactly the iron curtain before Cacapa lost the plot against Portsmouth. Regardless, they didn't play well together for anywhere near long enough to warrant such praise. Coloccini and Bassong are a better duo anyway.

Does anyone honestly think Kinnear would pick him ahead of Butt? I'm not even joking btw.

The England jersey looks like one of those shitty free t-shirts you used to get at soccer camp back in the late 90's.

Is the Argentina game on TV?

Eh? I've seen the replay and I can't find any reason for it. The ball does go near the Georgia players arm, but clearly never touches it. Besides, the offside decision should have already taken effect if that's what it was for. Worst award of a penalty I've ever seen tbh.

The fisting of Georgie looks to be complete. 2-1 Ireland.

Amazing penalty award in the Ireland game. Georgia player tries to clear the ball, rebounds off Kevin Doyle to a clearly offside Robbie Keane. Linesman flags for offside, referee gives a penalty for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

Ireland getting beaten at home to Georgia and not looking at all likely to change things. Trappatoni insists on two holding midfielders at all times, even at home to shit teams. Duff has been absolute shite btw.

Exactly. This is not like last time (although we're not out of the woods yet). But the situation is more under control than the last time that Hughton was thrust into it. Situation is not perfect, but better than last time. I do wonder if they are NOT hiring a proper manager, so that they can start afresh during the summer without an incumbent in the way. That's the only explanation that makes sense. They'll leave it until the last minute, make what they'll describe as a generous offer for a quality manager the Friday before the season gets going. Then when they're rebuffed they'll flounder around, shocked, and eventually hire Kinnear again and vow that everything was done to get the best manager they could.

I don't think we'll see any noticeable drop-off, Kinnear was absolutely useles after all. One clueless fuck out, another in. I'd wager the epic shitness of Houghton last time out was as much due to circumstances at the time as anything. He'll do better this time, though he'll still be shite. The real issue here is that the board can now give Kinnear the job full-time in the summer, even if we go down.

What was the explanantion for Kinnear being offered an extended contract btw, anyone?

It'd be a pretty big improvement on our net spend, to be fair. I assume he just meant that it'll be definitely added to whatever our summer budget is going to be btw. Of course, our summer budget could be zero or we could be trying to make a profit again for all we know.

Agree with that. Lose-lose situation tbh.

The Premiership has been more or less the exact same for the last 10 years, with the odd slight reshuffle of the middle clubs every so often. The emergence of Chelsea is pretty much the only thing that's changed since ten years ago. Man U the ongoing dominant force in contention every year. Arsenal sort of lurking about. Making a push every second or third year due to how good Wenger is, falling away in other years due to their inferior players compared to Man U. Liverpool being good, but not quite good enough to mount a worthwhile challenge. Yet comfortably consistantly better than other pretenders. They've not finished anywhere other than between 2nd and 5th since 98. Every so often a team comes along that looks like they might emerge as a contender before fading away. Leeds, Newcastle and now Villa. Same shit, different season every year tbh. Something needs to happen, but I've no idea what.

Just can't see Kinnear going for it though, he does like a big man up front. Regardless, I don't think our CM's could give them the service to feet they'd need to be an effective duo. If you're playing two small, pacy guys up top then you need midfielders who are a lot better passers of the ball than what we've got. Our team at the minute needs a big man to play off IMO, at the moment Carroll and Martins would be first choice for me. Very encouraging stuff from Lovenkrands yesterday though, looks a useful replacement for Oba when he's out injured.

Hope it's nothing serious.