brummie

Tell you what, we moan on and on about pundits and commentators, but I genuinely think Jake Humphrey is not just the biggest cunt in football television, he's one of the biggest cunts on the face of the planet.

What a run from Leao

Same with Arsenal and Mudryk. Boehly is engaged in a constant cock-measuring competition thinking that is how you win things at football.

I don't watch much football that doesn't involve us, to be honest, but recently watched an entire Chelsea match and it was striking how Cucurella just gets over the halfway line and instantly looks to pass it back. I'd be distraught if we spent 65m for that.

Also, a bit like a taller Arthur Bostrom in Allo Allo*. "Good moaning my froonds" * a massively underrated sitcom

I always thinks he looks like a 1950s gendarme, pottering around a provincial town in a 2cv he barely fits in to

Danny Mills is the biggest cunt in the punditry world, full stop.

It would be a depressing reflection on the nature of English football if De Zerbi went there.

Noticed something from the PFM loving media re Emery the last few days. What I am hearing is "How is he having so much success" to which the answer has been "He's concentrated on the simple things", delivered in such a way as to think Gerrard was on the right track, but Emery has changed a bit here, a bit there. That thing about Watkins saying Emery has told him to do less running for the team and concentrate on getting between the centre halves is being taken to an extreme, the lazy media thinking "Ah, it's just the simple stuff". That's not true. It is very much the complicated stuff, he's created a machine which responds to his instructions, he stands on the touchline shouting instructions throughout games, whereas Gerrard sat slumped in his seat emotionless. He's totally changed the way we play, beyond all recognition, in 19 games. That's not "the simple stuff", that's "the fucking complicated coaching stuff" which their hero Gerrard had zero idea about.

I've no idea why but they never sell booze in the away end. It makes no sense. I can confirm that even in the bits of the ground where they do sell booze, it takes so long to get served it's impossible to get a drink most of the time anyway. Also, don't know what they expect people who arrive at the ground at the most 20 minutes before kick off to do, get pissed? The ones who want to get pissed will arrive pre-pissed.

Coverciano is basically just the HQ of the Italian national team (it's just outside Florence). Their equivalent of St George's Park. There's no reason the English FA couldn't be inculcating deeper thinking in our managers using those facilities, but I bet they don't. I mean, look at some of the coaches involved in the national team at youth level for an idea of the mindset.

What is the Willock one? EDIT googled, it's the Coutinho one. I hate that one, too. Ours, I mean.

Easily the absolutely worst song sung anywhere in English football is the Spurs slow version of When the Spurs (Saints, actually you cunts) Go Marching In. It's absolutely terrible.

He's black, he's broon He's playing for the Toon Cunningham, Cunningham

No, it originated with Napoli.

Not too sure about that, I can recall hearing it sung with two pronunciations of Cunningham which lent it totally different meanings.

Yeah, everyone else hates it too. Although that one dates back to the 50s / 60s. Another popular one, Hi Ho Aston Villa is weird as Wolves and Sheffield Wednesday also use that song (as mentioned on MOTD this year when Jeff Beck died).

I fucking hate that version (everyone seems to have one) of the Napoli 'un giorno all'improviso' (ale ale ale, that one) that we turn out every 3 minutes. It makes me cringe, it's so unoriginal. I remember loads more songs from the 70s and 80s that don't exist any more. Although oddly, a couple of them which reference Nigel Spink, Tony Daley, David Platt and (Tony Cascarino) still get aired a bit. As does one referencing Paul Birch (RIP) and Alan McInally.

Do you still sing "An N and an E and a WUBBLEYOO C, A and S and T L E, U N I and T E D Newcastle United FC"? I recall that from my regular match attendance at SJP in the 80s. I also recall "We've got Mirandinha, he's not from Argentina, he's from Brazil, he's fucking brill*" plus one with some low level racism about Tony Cunningham. EDIT actually, thinking about it, not that low level. Football in the 80s, man, different planet. * he wasn't

I hate that ei ei ei ei ei ei o one, when we were in the Championship pretty much every set of away fans would sing it.

I bet he knew the Spanish for “what time’s your husband home?” too.

I think English football culture is actually extremely innovative - only it gets expressed by taking the best coaches from abroad and bringing them here.

Absolutely this (btw Pako Ayesteran is Emery's number 2). According to our players, Gerrard did literally none of the training, Beale did it all. As for detail, I read the other day Emery has got the club to agree to build an annexe to the training ground so players can stay there overnight if needed. That's his level of detailed commitment. Imagine Gerrard's reaction to a suggestion like that.

I was listening to a Villa podcast this week, they had a long interview with Alan Hutton (who in general, came across very well, was treated pretty disgracefully by the club for two years). Anyway, he was talking about his various Villa managers and he absolutely loved Steve Bruce. They asked him why, and it was all human pleasantry - always had time for you, treated the other staff at the club very well, man managed on a lower level (ie day to day) very well, etc. But absolutely no comment about how he set the team up, how he set us up to play. Gerrard was very much out of that mould, except his day to day management tactic wasn't to slap the lads on the back and tell them to do their best, it was to pull the hardman act and play mind games with them. No tactical acumen whatsoever. We played the exact same shape literally every single match, every time. So ponderous and predictable. Even a manager who did alright for us, O'Neill was the same - he had one way to play, and never ever changed it from one match to the next, always the same thing, regardless of who the opposition was. Now look at Emery. I read stuff about him and how he likes to play this way or that way, but the fact is, he changes it up a lot. He changes it to suit the opposition but also the players he has at his disposition. That's why, for example, we saw Dendoncker yesterday to muscle up a bit in midfield, and it's why we saw Moreno pushed even more aggressively upfield, as he'd identified that as a place we could get joy. Not only that, our formation changes DURING THE MATCH. Imagine that, during the fucking match, and compare that with the above mentioned PFMs. We change shape depending on who has the ball and where it is on the pitch. When we're under pressure in our own half, we'll drop another man into the defensive line. Or even two sometimes. When we move forward, we change shape again. We used to go literally months without changing formation. On top of this, the amount of preparation he does for each opponent is off the chart (as referenced in Roger's Profanisaurus this month, I saw ;-) ). The difference is you get a lot of British managers who just are not capable mentally of doing that, because their playing days were all in an era where it was belt, braces and bluster and nothing more. Or there are those such as Gerrard or Lampard, who played all their careers in winning teams and seem to think that turning themselves into top managers is just a matter of adopting the personal language and habits of this manager or the other, whilst some other sap does the coaching for you. Gerrard is the sort who will subsequently not improve any of his players, and with us, he didn't. An actual proper manager like Emery has improved every single one of them in 18 games. He has only bought one player for us - our starting line up against Forest last week, except Moreno, every single one was bought by Dean Smith (except McGinn who was bought by Bruce). The sycophantic Gerrard lovers in the media should look at facts like the above and wonder how he's ever going to get a good job in the game again, but he will, because just like Lampard he'll fall forward.

I think we've put in performances which have been as impressive, except in different ways. So, say, winning at Spurs and Chelsea were both controlled performances where we were absolutely on top of what we were doing, realised we wouldn't get that many chances, and were ruthless in taking the ones we got Today was much more on the front foot, aggressive, going for it.