YankeeToon

Even if a bid IS imminent (and not wanting to impugn the reputation of the fine Icelandic press corps, let's assume it is) what makes anyone think Ashley's going to sell? Didn't we already get a quick bid from some Chinese group earlier this month that he turned down? Patience, and let's just see what happens, eh?

I'm happier with a point from a boring goalless draw than I was when we'd go out, get caught vulnerable on the counter, and concede against shit teams like we did under Roeder.

The booing at the end was just disgraceful. Villa was always going to be our toughest game until at least the Hammers or Man City (I didn't rate Bolton without Allardyce at all...) Yeah, we lacked any real creativity going forward but so did Villa. Sam's still trying to find the best squad for us, and our fans really need to learn some patience unless they WANT our players to start dreading home games. Look at the massive upheaval of the club over the past few months. Half our players have still only played a handful of games together and even in a boring, goalless draw they still looked more comfortable and cohesive in defense than half our performances under Roeder. So fuck's sake, have some patience and don't expect a top-6 team to magically form overnight. (Not directed at anyone on here, just a general reaction)

HT. Shaky start, but we were in control for the last 20 mins. Still feel this one may end up as a goalless draw, though. We'll see if Big Sam makes any tactical changes at the half.

Big Sams dietician won't be happy when they go to training tomorrow Stevie Taylor in the cinema for Rush Hour 3 munching on popcorn and nachos as well. Disgraceful. Yeah, what horrible taste in films...

Nail on the head, CaliMag. It was a tactical decision once they pulled one back to close down the game and maintain the lead rather than try and increase it. Sam pulled out our three most attack-minded players and switched to a wholly defensive mindset. And it worked. I'm fully expecting to see this every time we have a significant lead at the half. Why go for goal #4 or 5 and leave yourself open for a counterattack when you can shut the game down and ride out a win? It may be boring but it's effective, and that's what counts. Long may it continue, indeed, as long as there's 3 points at the end of it.

Yep, but it counts all the same!

Fucking hell, case in point. Setanta's feed of the mackems game just went all to hell. Picture & audio in & out. It's not a game I really care about, except as far as rooting against the mackems goes, but still, if you're gonna have near-exclusive coverage, GET YOUR FUCKING ACT STRAIGHT!!!

He spat on it. Bastard! Get rid!

I wander why...

Still no good outside the UK, though

I'm in Japan and I'm listening to Radio Newcastle o.k. Cut and paste Skirge's link on page 3 and everything should be fine. Working in the US, too...

Well played sir! Fat Sam blatantly out of ideas and trolling message boards for advice... [/Vic] We'll all miss you...

Excellent. Gonna be visiting my sis in SF sometime in October, and needed a place to watch.

Fox Soccer Channel, but I think it's only in North America...

Really? I always thought Setanta had a better picture quality than FSC, didn't have tons of loud and annoying commercials, actually had a decent half-time and post-game presentation, didn't delay games so they could start their programs on the hour like FSC did, and used Sky coverage quite frequently, which is always a good thing. FSC are amateurs when it comes to presenting soccer, unlike Setanta. FSC's commentary is cringe-worthy, but I've never had any real issues with them other than that. Maybe it's just me, but my Setanta coverage has had a lot more dropped feeds and technical errors (no commentary, lost audio, etc.) I remember one of the league games last season on Xtra where they didn't get the satellite feed up until almost half an hour into the 1st half. I wasn't happy, to say the least.

Setanta plus FSC was the way to go last season. I only missed maybe 3 or 4 league games. Setanta's coverage is terrible, though. Tons of tech problems, dropped feeds, late starts, etc. Hopefully they'll do better this season. Plus, with DirecTV you get Setanta Xtra, which gives you more coverage.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19955222/ Fucking hell...

Mental ability? No. In fact, I'd pretty much state that mental ability would be the exact opposite of what would be needed to make that particular leap. The man's a professional football manager. His job is to work with players. And you're using a strawman again, maintaining that his desire to bring in Taylor is proof that he CAN'T work with anyone else, rather than a sign that he'd prefer to work with someone he knows. Same straw man again. We're not talking about him NEEDING to bring in his old staff in order to do his job properly. We're talking about a personal preference in hiring. Show me where Allardyce has said "If I can't get Mark Taylor on board, I don't have any other ideas." Finally, something we agree on. It's not a "nice" thing to do at all. It's very poor form, to say the least. But that's also not what we're talking about. You're trying to maintain that Allardyce should be held to a higher level than others, for no reason other than you don't like what he's doing. If you can tell me that Allardyce is the only manager in the history of the football world who has tried to bring some of his staff with him to a new job, then I'll say he's completely in the wrong. Otherwise, he's just manipiulating the system to his advantage like anyone else. For the record, there are aspects of this deal that I'm not comfortable with at all. It's a shady thing to do to Bolton after 8 years at the club, and if he's willing to do it to Bolton, he'll be willing to do it to us when he leaves. It may show that he's a ruthless bastard with no loyalty, but I don't think it shows that he has a lack of ideas or that he won't be able to manage the team properly. 2 different things entirely. It doesn't. Bolton's Performance Director Mike Forde was offered the general manager position to try to keep him from defecting to us.

You're right, it probably doesn't happen in the steelworking and heavy manufacturing industry too often. I just assumed that it was apparent we were discussing white-collar business. I may be wrong, but aren't you still in school? It's not an official practice, but it's what happens. If your boss has a liking for you and gets a new job, he calls up and says "Hey, I've got a position open at my new place and I want to bring you in. Interested?" At least, based on my experience and the expereince of just about everyone I know. It doesn't happen every single time anyone lands a new job, and it only happens if the person in question has the pull to hire new people, but it happens frequently. Not sure I follow your point here. I highly doubt that Mark Taylor was in consideration to replace Sam Allardyce or Sammy Lee, which I believe are the only recently-vacated Bolton positions. Blatant straw-man argument. In the first part, you're stating that Sam has no other ideas other than to re-use his staff, based solely on your own feeling that he shouldn't bring his old staff with him. There's never been any indication at all that Allardyce would be incapable of finding anyone new for the position, just that he'd prefer to bring in someone he already knows is capable of the job. As I said earlier, that doesn't bother me at all. It saves time in filling one of the new positions he's established, allowing him to focus on finding people for the other positions. As for the second part of your "argument," that's got to be one of the most ridiculous extrapolations I've ever seen. Because he wants to bring in his old sports medicine man, he's incapable of working with players other than his Bolton team? Even you can't seriously think that's a valid point. At least you could have mentioned Ben Haim with that to give some kind of credibility to it. Not that it would have given much.

I would, but I'm strangely compelled... He has spooooooky powers...

FFS, Vic, it's pretty much standard business practice anywhere in the world. If a boss brings someone in, teaches them just how he likes everything done, and then eventually leaves the company for somewhere new, they'll try to bring their favorites to their new job with them. It happens everywhere, in every industry. People you've worked with before are more likely to want to work with you again. That's exactly why they say that "it's not what you know, it's who you know." Bolton could try and fight it, but chances are Allardyce's people would rather come here and keep working with him then stay at Bolton without him, which is probably why Bolton has said OK to the talks. And why the hell would you want him to waste time conducting countless interviews when he already knows someone who's suited for the job and that he knows he can work with, when there's so much that has to get done over the summer regarding the shape of the club? If he can land one qualified staffer for a position he wants without conducting a drawn-out interview process, it leaves more time to address other problem areas.

In general, surveys are only as accurate as their methodology. Without knowing where their answers came from, whether it was weighted to accurately reflect age and population distribution, etc, it's hard to tell. Plus, remember that these surveys are only made up of the people who actually bothered to take time and answer a long, boring string of neverending survey questions, so... make of that what you will.

Proves it, then! Lazy ungrateful bastard Parker, doesn't care enough for the shirt to spend his holiday sitting at home talking to the press. Get rid!

Wow, I really have 245 posts? Not that it's all that impressive compared to some...