brummie

Sorry, late to the party. I don't think it made you look fickle at all. And that's coming from a supporter of a club whose under-pressure manager once called their fans fickle. This after a cup defeat against Doncaster Rovers. What fickleness, expecting not to get limply dumped from cups like that, eh? Which says it all about the f-word for me. Whenever I hear it, I tend to turn off, because 99 times out of 100 it is being used as a way of waving a shitty stick at a group of people (in this case fans), who are accused of not matching with the opinions of another group of people (usually journalists), who have absolutely zero idea of being what a fan is. Journalists will look at your club and use the same well-worn yardstick that other journalists use, they'll fish out the same bunch of cliches, because they're playing to an audience, and that is what they usually tell that audience. In my mind, the biggest change in the dynamics of football since the Premier League inception has been between clubs and their fans. It used to be "club" and "fan" (who, rather charmingly, often use to think of it as "his" club in a sense beyond just turning up to matches). Now, it is far more about "product" and "consumers". The product is a massive, global industry and the locals who were buying it for years count less and less. The thing journalists and clubs don't seem to get is that, it wasn't the fans who made it this way, it was the clubs. They now treat us like "customers" to be "marketed" at, like some Ford trying to flog you a Fiesta or something. The dynamic between them and us has changed, and they - and the press who support them - have no right whatsoever to moan about it. If they think that ultimately they can treat fans as "customers", part of the relationship being that they can continue to up prices as high as they like, then they also have to accept the flip side of it, which is that supporters are going to demand in return better quality, better football, competitiveness. What the likes of Ashley, Lerner and every other half-arsed unambitious chairman in the top flight want is to have it both ways. They want to continue to stick the prices up, to continue to rake in more and more money from far eastern television rights, to have matches moved to stupid times and dates without thinking about supporters in the ground, they want all of this, but at the same time, they want you to just shut the fuck up and suck it up. That's the bit that makes me angry.

A performance which is pretty much a textbook example of the concept of a team being "on the beach".

Can't quite understand how you've managed to keep clear of the relegation mix if this is something you've seen a lot of this season (this level of bilge, I mean).

Rumours starting up again re our takeover, some bloke called Boehly who apparently owns some American rounders team. I hope it happens. Not so much for the money (FFP has put paid to that) but just to have someone with a brain running things.

I think McClaren is a decent manager, and his record shows it. History also teaches us, surely, to totally forget about how managers do when they get the England job - that is a job which over decades and decades has ruined managers. These days, for example, Sven is a joke, but when he took the England job, his record was excellent. See also Capello, one of the highest achieving managers there was, but not good in the England job. Graham Taylor, too. Managed to get a dreadful Villa side out of the second division in one go, and within two years had us finishing second in the league. Goes to England, gets slaughtered, looks awful. Even Bobby Robson had similar. Got to the semi finals, yes, but people tend to overlook that before that, he got absolutely slaughtered by the press almost continually, because the results were so poor. It was right till the first round of the 1990 WC that the press wanted him sacked. Basically, the England job is at worst a proven graveyard for managers and at best a stain on their CV, and that applies to McClaren. I'd have taken him prior to Sherwood. In fact, I'd swap him now, given the chance.

I was at a mini talk in with Micky Quinn last night and he absolutely slated Hodgson. Literally called him "fucking shite". That needs to be tempered with the fact that Micky Quinn is the dictionary definition of "know-nothing, semi-literate gobshite", mind.

Imagine going on a night out with Roy Hodgson and John Motson. The level of conversation would be extraordinary.

racist abuse I know that, but how bad, how much etc? I've read a few things here and there, but nowt really reveals the true extent. Watching the documentary on the Chelsea player, fucking hell man, what a vile society/game at the time. I wish Pat Nevin had revealed the player who was racist to Paul Canoville. Btw Pat Nevin seems a top bloke like! You really only need to watch a bit of telly from the 80s and earlier to get an idea of how different things were in general back then.

That song was about Howard Gayle. I remember being in the scoreboard in the 80's and it was towards Cunningham. The song went, He's black, he's broon, he plays for the toon, Cunningham, Cunningham to the tune of the Mickey Burns ditty I was in the Gallowgate this season, and Cunningham was never sung it was altered to a double oo. Unacceptable - yes, nasty - definitely no - he was well liked for his effort That's the era I watched you a lot, and I can remember that song and the double-o bit. I remember coming from Birmingham hearing a lot more racism in Newcastle (in general, I mean), but there were just so few Asian and black faces around the city at the time, it didn't really surprise me. Of course, you need to see all the above in the wider context that Britain itself was a lot more racist back then than it is now.

The problem you have is that, if you finish mid-table, for Ashley that's basically a result. Not going down, still be here for another year of mega tv money, still probably be here the year after next for the even bigger mega-money. If Carver gets you there, then Ashley has the perfect situation - a cheap, low ego, low profile (compared to some of the others) manager who isn't going to stand up to him or throw his toys out the pram if he doesn't get the money he wants to spend, and who is basically just over the moon to be Newcastle manager. And that is the problem with the premier league for the likes of us, you, Everton. Maybe Sunderland at a push. Finishing half way is acceptable, it'll rake in the cash, the difference between finishing there and, say, sixth or fifth is a run in the Europa League (which earns almost zero money). To go from 10th or 11th to 6th or 5th is going to cost money - better, spendier manager, better, more expensive coaching team, better players. More half decent players so you've got a decent bench. Maybe you'd also get a decent cup run, it'd be nice, but hey ho, you're probably not going to win it, so getting to a semi final, as we have, is seen as an extraordinary achievement. The fans will get a nice day out at Wembley, it'll keep them off your back for a bit. That is the mindset that is slowly strangling clubs with a history of being in amongst the top clubs, winning bits of silverware, being in the Premier League almost all the time. It is what makes supporting clubs like ours actually one of the worst positions to be in. Even the plucky recently promoted sides get more out of it, they're just dazzled by being in the money league. It's all a big adventure for them. Just like it is for the Champions League sides with their top flight experience utterly, totally different to ours. It's going to be a long time till we get to play Barcelona again. No mid week trips to Monaco for us. It is just to involving for the likes of Lerner or Ashley - time and money - to really try to be anything better in the long run, so fuck it, just bob along in nothing-land and try to keep the supporters (who they probably call "customers" these days) happy enough not to give you too much grief. I'll tell you what got Sherwood our job, for example. It's the fact he's worked with youth coaching, and when you say that to Lerner or Fox (our CEO), their eyes light up. Youth players = cheap players. We tried that for two whole seasons under Lambert, naively throwing kids in when they're not ready, basically in the hope that they'll muddle through and in time sort of magically become good enough. It doesn't work. it makes it horrible to watch. I bet what you like that's exactly what they try again, though.

*salutes*

I'm starting to warm to Sherwood. I mean, he's an idiot and whatnot, but he's at least our idiot. And he has some interesting ideas. Last week at Sunderland, he put Rushian Hepburn-Murphy on for the last 15 mins or so. A 16 year old even people who watch our youth team had barely heard of. I think what I like about Sherwood so far is he renders things at least very interesting. He said this about it on our official site:

Some people are such f***ing idiots and dicks, and will do anything to get one over on opposition team. At Old Trafford this season, a Newcastle fan responded to the 'disgrace' of ManU not joining in with our 17th minute clapping by starting to sing about the Munich Air Disaster. The mind boggles (and despairs). Did none of the Everton fans sort him out? I'd like to hope so. The thing is, there are a lot of absolute cunts in society, and football is nothing different. I always try to remember that people like that are a tiny, tiny minority, and the vast majority of people are actually decent.

Is there another forum on earth that sees as many new threads as RTG? Look at it now, every single person who has something to say does so via a new thread. Like a bunch of squealing kids fighting for attention. I have no axe to grind with Sunderland, but that truly is the worst football forum on the internet

Man City's problem in the long term - despite the odd bit of short term joy - is that they're not a "big" club (in the sense that they need to be), they're a rich club, and the difference between those things is massive. It explains why you get so many really expensive players who totally go missing when the chips are down, and at the moment, they seem to have a lot of that type of player. The money is there, yes, but not much else is.

Poyet's in the basement Mixing up the medicine I'm on the pavement Thinking about the government The man in the SAFC coat Badge out, laid off Says he's got a bad cough Wants to get paid off..... *applause*

Honestly, if Gabby scores twice against you - in the same match - you've got big problems.

This. It's refreshing to hear a manager of a club like Villa come out and say that he expects his team to win and to attack. Unlike talking up the opponents and saying we can't compete. Then setting up his team and instructing them to do just that instead of keeping it tight and hoping one of your better players can produce some magic. I have to give him his due, he's sent us out with more attacking intent in the last couple of weeks than Lambert did in months. Not only that, for all the piss taking about "tactics Tim", he's looked tactically astute so far. In the last week and a bit, we've twatted Albion twice, reached the cup semi final, and won an away game 4 nothing. After the previous four years, that's exciting stuff for us.

62% possession, 7 shots on target. Crikey

This is like we're playing us two months ago.

Especially if you look at the end of Lambert's reign and count back how long a period it took to score our last five goals under him and realise it was in fucking December.

NB I rounded down 1.909 to 1.9 but it should actually be 1.91 I guess, which fits with Ronaldo's figures.

If you had owt about you as a poster you'd have done that for me. Just a criminally bad effort by Mistle. Spurs would've finished 3rd with their form under Sherwoord stretched over a full season. They're currently 6th. Vast improvement indeed. Over 28 games he averaged 1.64 points per game, which would've given them 62.4 points over the course of 38 games. This would be less than the 69 points they actually ended up with. They would have finished 7th and not 6th. Obviously it's just an average, but to state that he'd finish 3rd (>82 points), is rather far fetched. Surely if you're extrapolating something over a period of time to come to a theoretical league points total, you have to only look at league matches rather than throw in league cup or europa league games. In league games he picked up 42 points in 22 games, which is 1.9 points per game, which over 38 games equals 72 points. That's pretty good.

Sherwood is a bit of a bell end. He did a "checking pulse" thing to the Holte End after the league match against Ollbeeyun last week which was cringey along the same lines as that salute thing. I thought it was a fucking stupid appointment. Having said that, though, we've just been Ollbeeyun twice in five days, played some more than decent (by our recent standards) football in doing so, and secured at least one Wembley trip, to a semi final. Given that, it seems churlish to moan. He's also managed to get a decent performance out of Charles N'Zogbia and Tom Cleverley, which is something I never thought I'd see. He can open his big gob as much as he likes so long as he carries on making it actually pleasurable to watch us play. Before the second Albion game, I was poking around having a look at a few of our forums, and someone posted something along the lines of "I can't get over the fact that I'm actually looking forward to the match". Which basically said it all about what it had become. See also that pitch invasion. I would have preferred it not to have happened, it is a bit smalltime. But then again, this is a club which has had its two worst home seasons in 140 years last season and the season before. A club that had just put together a run of seven consecutive league defeats. A club which had managed a run of over 11 hours without scoring a single goal. A club whose fans have basically had big steaming buckets of liquefied horse shit syringed directly into their eyeballs at home matches for four years. Given all that, I don't blame anyone for running on, and I can see why people would like Sherwood. It is very, very early days, but it feels like I imagine VE Day felt. Thank fuck that is over.

So, it turns out that in the pitch invasion at our place the other night, that cunt McManaman was filmed shoulder barging several supporters trying to get them to kick off, and James Morrison was spotted tripping one up. Clearly trying to get it to kick off to elevate the problem.