ponsaelius

The top four was an extreme closed shop for 4 or 5 years. Jol managed to finish 5th two season in a row (one year being extremely unlucky on the final day with half the squad coming down with food poisoning). His net spend during that time was £6 million in '06, £6 million in '05 and £13 million in '04. Then when they stepped their spending up a notch (£40 million in 07) he was given the boot after 2 games of the season. They had Ramos for a year then spent another £40 million in the summer of 08. Redknapp came in and steadied the ship but essentially took over a much improved side from Jol and finished 1 place higher, helped out by Liverpool having an abysmal season compared to the previous 5 years. Not massive progress at all and certainly not done a better job. He's just lucky that that Ramos in between makes him look like he turned round a terrible team when it was anything but.

That's nonsense and you know it. Like saying we were flukey to finish 5th. How is it nonsense? We improved massively last season, Spurs improved barely from Jol's tenure if anything at all.

That's debatable, plus Jol is a good manager anyway so I don't really see the point? Probably because Jol never got the same plaudits as Redknapp did. Shame that he never got to finish the job he started.

Was Pardew just flukey that Liverpool and Chelsea were shit last season? Even if they'd done well we'd have still overachieved and moved forward massively on a limited budget.

That's debatable, plus Jol is a good manager anyway so I don't really see the point? The point is that he hardly took them forward.

Did no better than Jol ever did, just got flukey that the top four opened up with Liverpool falling away.

Maybe they're sick of his classless antics. Or his lack of commitment when other jobs were open. Or just the fact he's a tactical pygmy.

Pile of fucking shite this game.

Good. Fucking fraud that he is.

Sneijder is Holland's best player by a mile.

Eh? How long have yee been watching football like?

Always liked St Nicklas of Bendtner me like. Glad he's not a spackem anymore.

Penalty central anarl.

Euros are backwards land.

Bendtner just hates the Portuguese.

Eh, so will BT be launching a channel? Was hoping Al-Jazeera would get it, the package they've done in other countries is mint.

Aye it's alright. Goals seemed to come randomly rather than the result of match rhythm from either teams though.

Yeah. Looks like he isn't up to the hype. Still a bairn really.

Disappointed with Eriksen so far this tournament.

Nicky B

Ahhh rights. Rules in this are wank like. Fuck you James Taylor.

I'm shit. With the transfers isn't it important to make sure not to use them all now, since in the knockouts you will need to basically change the whole team to the players that are left?

Woonie's new haircut http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/552925_461020907259643_751949993_n.jpg

Giroud rejected Valencia, Malaga, Zenit & QPR in favour of Arsenal. All 4 clubs offered much higer wages than #afc (via @GrooverBlog ) Fair play to him.

Like they'll still be around