leffe186

It amazes me how people are so out of touch with the finances of their own clubs. It's such a crucial part of football life now. They've been losing money for years. The guy who says "every club has debt, it's no big deal" well, yeah, sort of, but if you can't service that debt then you're fucked. Particularly as FFP looms.

Serie A clubs like to sack their managers. There's just no continuity whereas in the PL you have Ferguson, Wenger, Moyes as long-serving managers. The current longest serving manager in Serie A has like 3 years it seems. You do wonder if it has to do with the continental set-up as 'head coach' (+DOF and other roles) instead of the English-style 'manager' that Serie A find their head coaches more dispensable. The other rule which I can't ever understand is that a manager who resigned or was sacked in a Serie A season cannot be signed by another club. It severely limits the options a club has when seeking to find a new manager and they probably have to reconsider the same guy they sacked a few months ago. If it's meant to offer some form of security to a manager, then it's not working too well either. There were 20 managerial changes last season and 25 the season before that. It stands at 20 so far this season. Mental, even if Palermo accounts for a significant chunk of the number. That rule makes sense to me. I'd expect it to minimize the likelihood of a bigger club poaching a smaller club's manager, at least mid-season. It might not work too well as a guarantee of job security, but it's surely better than nothing. In addition, if a club has limited options having ditched their manager mid-season, well, tough! Don't ditch a manager mid-season then.

We're properly old now, aren't we?

15M on Felcher too. It's classic MON.

What did he say? I imagine Lerner doesn't give a fuck.

Well the new financial results are due soon, and I presume they'll be grim reading. They lost seven million in the year up to July 2011, but that included the sales of Bent and Henderson. Operating loss was 31M. That's actually broadly in line with the previous two seasons, and in each of those their final losses were over 25M. I don't know if Johnson and Fletcher will be included in this next set of figures or not, but even if not, I can't see the operating profit taking much of a leap up. If you throw in relegation this year, I think they will be in serious trouble. Not QPR levels of serious, but serious enough.

told mon he wasnt staying in the summer imo- and got sidelined. He got injured, then went back to us for a bit to recuperate. I thought he was still injured tbh, though maybe he's been back for a bit. He was making noises about leaving to get first team football, and fair enough, although I suspect the likelihood of it being at Sunderland is receding by the day.

Absolutely. We got the tactics spot on, then a couple of silly mistakes just gave it away. I mean, I fully expected us to lose beforehand, but I don't know if I'm more annoyed having put ourselves in a position to win it and lost, than if we'd actually been shite. Most importantly, we won the passing. Everything else pales into insignificance. Joking aside, if AVB can achieve that without three or four key players, then I'm very, very impressed. I just hope we get back on the horse soon. Suarez is still an utter cunt. And Defoe, Jeez. Yet another match providing a clear argument that if we had a good centre-forward we'd have cruised into the CL this year.

Lennon's a doubt, came off against Inter with a hamstring problem. Big, big potential miss - this is where keeping Townsend would have been useful. Liverpool fans are saying that their team is: Reina, Johnson, Enrique, Agger, Carragher, Gerrard, Lucas, Downing, Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge. That's a really strong team, and as I say, I'd happily take a draw. We're likely to be Lloris, Walker, Dawson (Caulker?), Vertonghen, Dembele, Parker, Bale, Sigurdsson, Holtby(?), Defoe. Hopefully Defoe decides to have one of his games where the shots actually go in. He's due.

I mean, I get where he's coming from, but . I should preface this by saying that I fully expect to lose today, and would bite your hand off for a draw. That said, I think that both Spurs and Newcastle fans are accused of delusion more than most, and so I'll add this post to the one above: So now Liverpool are better than us at goal difference, and also (he says) Opta etc. And, of course, there will be several posts saying they're better man for man. And the reason we are currently 12 points ahead of them (in a league where less than 12 points separate the bottom eleven teams) is simply luck, bad officials and illness/injury. Despite the fact that we've actually been consistently ahead of them in the physioroom table, missing key players for extended periods of time. God, I hope we beat them yet again. What would their rationalization be then?

That's because he's an average footballer. Desperately average. Another overrated Villa youngster - just like that Albrighton a couple year ago, Delfouneso, Bannan etc. Even Agbonlahor. Best of an average bunch. Not that Lambert looks as if he has much choice. Highlights the plight of English football at youth level when Villa can field almost an entirely Academy built team, and not one of those players looks as though they have a future. Not exactly. They're young, certainly, and more Academy players than most, but only five of the players they used yesterday (including the subs) were Academy. Clark, Baker, Bannan, Agbonlahor, Weimann. Lambert has actually bought quite a few players, it's just that they're young, and have struggled to adapt to the Premiership. Five of them (Vlaar, Bennett, Lowton, Westwood and Benteke) were bought last summer, and Sylla in January. Of the five Academy products, I wouldn't say they don't have a future. It's just that so many of them have been thrown in together at the same time, partly because of injuries to more experienced players. Ideally you want to bring them in one or two at a time, with more experienced players to guide them. They haven't really had that, particularly in defence. Sides with bigger and better squads, like Man U, Chelsea, Arsenal etc, can afford to use them occasionally, such as in the Cups, or send those players out on loan. It was much easier for us to transition, say, Caulker, Walker, Naughton and Jake Livermore into the first team because of this. English football at youth level isn't too bad, and I hope more and more clubs are concentrating on technical skills rather than physicality, and winning. The level of coaching is certainly improving. The problem is that the better youth players are being concentrated in a handful of clubs, and that is being exacerbated by our loan system. Thus you get a situation where one side in a crucial relegation battle brings on a Spurs player to try to make the difference, and shortly afterwards, a Spurs player scores the decisive goal for the opposition. I hate that (while simultaneously being kinda chuffed).

Wish we kept him as cover tbh, but at least he's playing every week, and well. The troll in me wants MON to complain about loan players after the match.

So what results do you guys want today? Draws all round?

Or he could, you know, not play the same line-up every single match. its been discussed since I was a kid, and explained, that a cold winter snap can happen any time in this country from oct to march- when the fk are you going to have the break and make it fit with the unpredictable weather? The weather isn't the problem, the point would be to give the players a rest. Not that I'm in favour of it - as a fan, I love all the Xmas games. Yes but if you have a break then there's a massive cold snap and a load of games get called off, you're left with a massive fixture pile up. Well presumably the season finishes later if there's a break, so the pile-up would have been the same anyway. Either way, I'm happy with the status quo. But only a couple of songs, really.

Or he could, you know, not play the same line-up every single match. its been discussed since I was a kid, and explained, that a cold winter snap can happen any time in this country from oct to march- when the fk are you going to have the break and make it fit with the unpredictable weather? The weather isn't the problem, the point would be to give the players a rest. Not that I'm in favour of it - as a fan, I love all the Xmas games.

If they do, then they're really in the shit. Fail to win against Norwich, and they could easily lose the next four.

I'd have said us a couple of years ago, but we definitely parked the bus against Milan. Let's not get too excited though, it was a poor Inter side, and an at-home first leg. We had to go for it, really. Hopefully the return leg will be dull.

I know this isn't really the forum to say so, but I'm quite looking forward to just enjoying today's games without caring in the slightest about the results.

I mean, I get where he's coming from, but .

Fucking what. Forgot our clocks hadn't changed yet, but got on the bog and BBC text to see Wigan had just scored. Cool, I thought. Came on here to see the details. 3-0. Jesus.

Ouch. Reminded me almost exactly of a Vinnie Jones tackle.

OK. Now I understand that the League Cup has been devalued in some eyes, as has the UEFA Europa League, and to an extent, the FA Cup. I understand that getting Top 4 makes you shit-loads more money than winning any of the three, and not coincidentally makes you more attractive to players. But fuck off. Fuck. Off. Winning a trophy is fucking ace, your best day as a supporter, and if you don't want to win the thing then scratch and give someone else a bye so they can have a go.

Have to say, the ref for our game today did a fantastic job.

Never liked those chants - the ones that try to take the piss out of unemployment in the North, or sheepshagging in Wales, car nicking in Liverpool etc etc. And racism/homophobia obviously - I'm thinking of most of our Wenger or Campbell chants here. It's not that I don't like nasty chants per se (particular fave was when I was at Arsenal-Villa for the first airing of the Eduardo chant), but that stuff is usually both wrong and just unfunny.

I'd include Lazio in that, two teams if we can get through i'd like to avoid if possible. Lazio were horrendously negative against us at WHL, but then we were horrendously negative in Rome. They were decent, but really not as good as I expected. Don't they have to play behind closed doors at home? That might be useful.