brummie

Topple these tossers.

Come on, you fuckers, fuck these fuckers, please.

Just think, if Newcastle (your second team) win tonight then that's good for us *points at you and then at me*. What a weekend that'd be for you *points at toony*

Ha ha man United.

We've got Ajax. Tasty.

Absolute horrific 80s throwbacks. Thank fuck they're out.

I think West Ham is a very complicated situation which goes beyond the manager. Moyes is doing alright in terms of results, but they've got owners who have alienated the fanbase since taking over, they've moved them to without a doubt the worst 'new' stadium in English football, an atmosphere killer but lots of seats so hey-ho, and the manager is one of the last of a dinosaur breed who play pretty austere football. I'd be absolutely distraught if our owners ever moved us somewhere like the London Stadium just because it had more seats. When Gold, Sullivan and Brady ran Birmingham City they constantly went on at the council about building them a new stadium (despite lack of interest from anybody at all in attending games at their current stadium), it was a fucking obsession. It must have been their life's ambition to get given that stadium at West Ham. Only, it's a fucking horrific venue, but they don't care, because hey, the numbers.

Fuck off Liverpool. I hate them.

Emery transcends mere comparison.

Truth is, the people are sick of the Champions League, I think you'll find the Uefa Conference League is the big competition these days.

I'd just force Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United to have a number of their team play in randomly selected specialist footwear. Clogs Crocks Espedrilles Uggs That'd level things out a bit. For De Bruyne, mind, might have to be manacles.

If part of the aim of all this were really to in some way 'level up' then the measures would not just be entirely financial. FFP only addresses one part of the picture, and does it with all the subtlety and nuance of a sledgehammer. It just reinforces the more powerful clubs where they are. It should really be accompanies by other rules which are more nuanced than spending limits, controls of transfer activity which go beyond that. I don't know what the exact answer is, but there's a fucking massive irony in the fact that the way things are at the moment, the only way ambitious well funded and supported teams can really function is to constantly sell their best players to the big 5 (I'm not including Spurs in that, for a reason).

He was excellent for us last season, tbf. Maybe it's a season too far.

Unai Emery. 2022-23 season - 25 league games managed, 1.96 points per game average. 2023-24 season - 25 league games managed, 1.96 points per game average.

When he was with us (Villa), he came with a big reputation as a proper thinker and the brains behind Gerrard. As it turned out, Gerrard had absolutely no brains whatsoever. Anyway, for all his coaching achievements, Beale - as he who did all the training (according to Emi Martinez in an interview) - really got us playing in such an inflexible way, one which clearly wasn't going to work, and which he was never prepared to change, it was a relief when he fucked off to be a manager. Knowing what Gerrard was like - archaic management by soundbite or cliche, lots of waffle about 'we need a moment of magic', alienating Tyrone Mings (a player the fans love and vital around the club) for absolutely no reason, lots and lots of other things - Beale must have happily played a part in that and bought into it as a management method. Judging on what has happened with him since, the apple clearly doesn't fall too far from the tree.

How does this work with the contracts of people who are, to all intents and purposes, not football staff. He's not a player, he's not a manager, so how would his contract be any different to that of anyone in a 'normal' day to day job? Not coming at this from an angle btw - I have no dog in this race - just wondering aloud.

No need. Politics degree *taps temples* All up here, mate.

Ha ha yes, that is true, that had never occurred to me!

'68 here and I definitely hate Liverpool more. Worth remembering, anyone our sort of age, Man U didn't win the league in the first 24 years of our lives and also managed to get relegated. That lent them a certain shitness that softened things, but Liverpool hoovered up silverware and their fucking fans, and the media, were unbearable. I don't give a fuck about Arsenal, but I remember sitting in our student house in Gateshead watching that Michael Thomas championship decider in 1989 and every single one of the dozen or so of us watching really, really wanted Liverpool to fuck it. It remains one of the best football events I've ever seen in terms of schadenfreude.

I thought exactly the same. Winter said that like no other director of football or whatever could POSSIBLY have that, whereas actually, everyone who plays FM does. It's a much more complicated job than just firing up some 'GREATPLAYAZ' database. The likes of Henry Winter are still in awe of things that became largely normalised years ago.

Yes, basically. Our set up is Emery, Vidagamy (not sure of his title) and Monchi ('President of Football Operations' - basically handles all the transfer deals) are the triumvirate who run the football side, that's totally divorced from the commercial side of the business (obviously other than the interactions over budgets). I'd imagine it's similar also to Johan Lange, who was our sporting director before Monchi came and sort of shunted him off into a random 'global' role, before he fucked off to Spurs. He knew his stuff, too, tbf, oversaw some good signings. But yeah, that dividing line between football and commercial is, I think, becoming more and more the norm.

Both of which also require a new stadium, mind.

El Crapico.

I wonder what Harry Styles is up to today.

Man United are so shit, fuck knows how they keep getting results. I still can not believe they beat us.