Pandamninator

Yep, real time looked like a penalty, but on the replay Neymar went down like a bitch from the lightest of accidental tugs.

Lolmar.

Oversold it you prancer.

Brazil snapping at it and not handling the heat. Can see Costa Rica muscling thier way to some BS 88th minute goal. FM in real life.

There won't be, it suited Putin to cause a ruckus in France, but any local getting hot headed this time will be on a one way train trip to Siberia... if they're lucky.

Rumbled on the slow mo replay, he even fumbled it before dragging it back. Cheeky bastard.

Their contracts were expiring and both had telegraphed well in advanced that they weren't going to stay on. My only issue with what the Spain guy did is that he had just signed a new deal - if you weren't sure or wanted to see what club opportunities were out there, just tell the federation you want to solely focus on the tournament and see what happens from there.

Hierro is well-respected. His career as a manager is an anecdote, though, so not sure this is the best way to go. International Football is a different beast I guess - being well respected and getting your players to mesh is half the battle. Seems the top national managers seem to either be former national icons or people who flamed out at the club level.

SBR did the same in 1990 if I recall without the announcement. Not really the same tbf Yep - happens all the time - Conte did it with Italy/Chelsea, Hiddink has done it multiple times with different countries - difference was they telegraphed their decision ahead of time, their contracts were expiring and gave the FAs a head up they wanted to go back to club management. Lopetegui apparently told them 5 minutes before the announcement that he was on his way out... and had just signed a new deal.

Interesting. The amount of international games they play in CONCACAF is mad. Gold Cup every two years, plus each team has to play a minimum of 16 games each World Cup qualification cycle (even more if you start in the earlier rounds and don't get a bye). Plus tack the usual BS friendlies on top and the Copa America invites that get handed out.

Classic Real Madrid, don't even bother speaking to Tottenham first. SSN also say that there is no release clause attached to his new deal. Looks like they haven't learnt their lesson after the Bale saga, no doubt Levy just stuck an extra digit on his starting point for compensation.

Sound's just like us to be honest (at least hopefully pre-Rafa), only difference being that they win trophies in the process. Looking at our current squad, I think Paul Dummet is our elder statesman and the only one to have played over 100 games for us along with Perez. He is also our only proper homegrown player since Carroll.

I think it's going to be a disaster personally - it's Scolari all over again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurizio_Sarri His wikipedia/career history makes for interesting reading, especially the 4 straight jobs where he was gone in 18 games or less. Hiddink will be waiting by the phone for another working holiday in London by November.

Seem deadset on Griezmann don't they? They should loan Dembele out but they will probably need the money. Outside of experienced purchases Barcelona have tended to struggle in the transfer market for a long-time. Neymar, Suarez & Rakitic couldn't fail. BUt you look at the other signings in the squad post Guardiola and it's not great at all. And it's too easy to rely on Messi, in a way Real don't rely on Ronaldo. Ronaldo will be the difference in terms of scoring important goals when nobody else would. But the rest need to create the chances. At Barca, you can play off Messi totally and other players can take less responsibility. Even during Guardiola they just lit money on fire with their transfer spending. https://www.transfermarkt.com/pep-guardiola/spielertransfers/trainer/5672/plus/0?station_id=28649 They pretty much gifted Inter the treble with the Zlatan transfer (only to ditch him a year later) and blew 40 million (back when that actually meant something) on an endless parade of crappy Brazilians. Their biggest successes were Mascherano & Alves (both no brainers) and Pique (who was a Barcelona Academy anyway).

Pardew is probably now radioactive for a while, but Allardyce his reputation in tact, at least amongst the media and even the dross fans of other clubs judging by message board sentiment - alot are buying the "He saved them from relegation!!11! and got them to 8th" cries (they were 13th and he had most of the season with a cray cray expensive squad)

Tottenham asking their fans the important questions : https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/mar/14/tottenham-apologise-survey-womans-place-home

To forward thinking for their backward ways. https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-carver-5495512a/

Gif Version of that photo is required to make a more accurate comparison.

6 years in Wigan? Sound's like a pretty inhumane sentence to me.

Do people rate Emery? he's a known big match flop, i mean he's not a bad coach but he's constantly been bad when it matters going back to his Valencia days. Mentally he's just not strong enough to manage a club that aims to win trophies every year. Disagree on Allegri mind, he's consistently had to retool the Juventus squad because they keep selling their best players and they remain competitive. He did win 3 Europa League titles in a row with Sevilla, so he has achieved at a high level when it matters in the past. I think his issue is that he is one of those managers who suits a lesser team that is looking to over achieve rather than a side in the limelight that has permanent high expectations, a younger, slicker version of Roy Hodgson.

Same. I also don’t trust some of the players, Hazard in particular as in he seems a psychopathic self-centred little scroat. His form picked-up in good time for the transfer window, but suspect he is undermining of the manager as I suspect he has been in the past with Mourinho. It was very very odd to see a team of their quality finish 10th. I would go as far as to say they would have to be trying hard to fail in order to do that. And feels a little bit like here we go again. A Chelsea work to rule, to shift the manager or because they just fancy it. Mourinho is pretty much the Alex Ferguson of that club, he has the 2 longest management stints since the takeover and Ancelotti is the only other one to last two full seasons... a list Conte is probably only 50/50 to join depending on our dire things get in the race for 4th.

But Leeds, Portsmouth, Ashley saved the club, Keegan wanted to spend 200 million on Beckham, we finished 5th once don't you know.

Obviously got some local in-jokes, but this latest one on the Socceroos Manager search tickled my fancy, just for the perfectly drawn of Harry Redknapp (the level of detail on dem chops...) : https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ng-interactive/2018/jan/18/david-squires-on-the-runners-and-riders-to-become-socceroos-coach Didn't realise he did a regular series of Australian themed ones in conjunction with the usual Premier League ones for the UK site... does he live out this way?

There is no way he lasts past March West Brom owners will panic and bring in Martin O'Neill or Mark Hughes (if already sacked by Stoke)... or Redknapp.

The Portland Timbers' fans actually have a really strong connection with Sunderland. They've done a lot of cross-Atlantic work together. If you go on a Timbers' forum there's quite often talk of Sunderland in a positive light. Random as hell - what's the link that started it all? Shared players / manager or was it a commercial hookup?