Colos Short and Curlies

Nice to have coaches who look like they have an interest in keeping in shape.

Bellamy Robert Shearer Adding Bellamy and Robert to the team in 2001 transformed us immediately

Alnwick Cacapa Campbell Krafth (possibly harsh, was Rozenthal as bad as my memory makes out?) Obertan (full backs are pretty hard, they've all been a bit meh with a handful of decent options so he is a wing back here) Colback Smith Gonzalez Cabella (see Obertan) Riviere L D Jong

The problem here is that you are happy to use data in isolation to prove a point on how good Vieria is and ignore data in isolation that shows the same level of performance from managers we know to be below average. How did Mclaren do at Twente? He took them from 4th to 2nd to 1st with year on year progress in Europe. With Boro he took them from 14th to 12th to 11th to 7th in the Premier League, won a trophy and got to a European final. You take them in isolation and you can make a case for Mclaren being a very good manager. These were his first 2 club jobs by the way, so very much a good comparison to Vieira

True, but you're comparing a manager at the beginning of his career to 2 who have done it all but who are now very much on the way down. Vieria should be compared to the likes of Potter, Ole, Howe, Gerrard, possibly Rogers at a push. The question is does his achievements to date put him above or below this cohort?

I can't shake the feeling that Vieria is benefiting from a combination of player reputation bias and comparisons (in the media) to a very low set of expectations. When Roy announced he was leaving there was a huge void at Palace with what seemed like 75% of the squad either being loans or having contracts expire over the summer. The expectation was for them to pretty much implode this year. You have to give Paddy credit, he's definitely steadied that ship and the brand of football is more pleasing on the eye than Palace fans have been used to but no more than that so far. A solid c+ start. As for player reputation bias? We all loved Vieria and that Arsenal team (through gritted teeth sometimes) and he has that in the bank with fans. Keane was respected but loathed outside of Old Trafford, Vieiria was the anti-hero standing up to him. We pretty much want him to succeed where it was funny to see Keane fail. Vieira has managed three clubs, in three different countries, in their respective top flight leagues Steve McLaren has managed in three of the major European Top Flights and as an international manager. Pardew is in his third international league. As a CV point these would out rank the MLS Vieira took charge of NYCFC in Jan 2016 and improved its position in the combined MLS standings in each of his years with the club, improving from 17th in 2015 to 4th in his first season in 2016 and then to 2nd in 2017 McLaren took Boro to a European final and won there first trophy. Pardew took us to 5th. In isolation both as impressive Vieira left NYCFC with 44.44% win percentage and led the club to it's first ever playoff appearance Mclaren has a 44% overall win ratio and as above took Boro to a Eurpean final and won a trophy Vieira took over OGC Nice in June 2018 after Lucien Favre, in his first season he bettered Favre's previous campaign by finishing 7th in Ligue 1, in his second season he bettered that again finishing 5th and qualifying for the Europa League, he left with a 39.33% win percentage I'll give yo uthat one, not going down the McLaren/Pardew wormhole any more! At Crystal Palace, in his first 11 Premier League games he has managed to claim impressive victories over Manchester City (2-0) and Tottenham (3-0), whilst drawing with Arsenal, despite having a 27.27% win percentage in the Premier League, he has only lost 2 of the first 11 games, those coming from Liverpool and Chelsea Timing is everything. Until the City game they had only won 1 from 10 with 6 points from 33. Not taking away the wins v City and Wolves at all but from such a small sample of games a period of 7 days massively distorts the picture He basically has an extended period of grace where the positives will be highlighted and the negatives hushed. Hes got a crucial set of games up to Christmas. If he is as good as made out he will get another 4 wins out the 6 games, and there are 4 winnable games in the run. If he is a decent young manager with everything to prove he'll probably get 2. Any less and the first half of the season is likely to drop to a c / c-

Didn't know that Sawyer (the mum not the son) had been a Soccerette.

You couldn't be more wrong

Cardiff had Fly Malaysia with no flights from tits airport to Malaysia

On Aguero has there ever been a more understated great striker/player? His record speaks for itself and he's by no means under rated but there hasn't been a fanfare around him that the likes of Neymar, Henry, Shearer, Batigol etc had. One of the Premier League greats

Probably was, such a low bar it was easy to come in and get some initial momentum.

There may be some other reasons linked to Shrove Tuesday keeping Mrs G and the kids in Liverpool

Is it? 1 domestic trophy out of nine since he went to Rangers with the resources available to him being significant for the league. I'd say its a promising start to a career but nothing exceptional and nothing to suggest that he will be bale to take Villa up a notch

Ronaldo completes it every day before breakfast I reckon

She never caught up with you for child support then?

You may know my sister then!

Queen Elizabeth in Hexham - this was like 1996 give or take a year

Back in middle school I made the criminal mistake of taking a cross country run seriously and getting a decent time. Following week that time was used to set an expectation in the beep test. Fucking evil things they are

When the club shop was a portacabin

We've a couple of centre mids you can have if you like?

The media are going to struggle here. Young English manager who they have bigged up in the past. A NUFC fan base that is fully behind a Southern manager Saudi Arabia and us being evil incarnate

You may be looking at different levels of player in the first place as well. In touch / pulled out of the bottom 3 and you look for players who will kick on next season In trouble and you are looking for either a real short term gamble or players who are better than you have but who are more likely to stick around for a promotion push

Loved that sketch. Asking Sting if he let one rip as he threw his message in a bottle into the sea

There's a rogue 0 in there I think

Would Howe be allowed in the changing room at half time? Or failing that can Amanda go down and give them a rocket?