jdckelly

He's probably the best defender at the club atm. Certainly the best full back when it comes to defending we have

The biggest problem would be the remit of "do it without spending any money". Rafa does not do parsimony, as Brummie will attest. not to mention his wage demands which won't be in the mike ashley pittance (by premier league standards) range and he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy to act as a human shield for whatever stupid thing the club is doing next

bit odd all in all, everything looked like it was set up for Sherwood to walk in there with Ferdinand as DOF and Ramsey as his assistant.

he hasn't really done enough to be this choosy, he's ruled himself out of pretty decent jobs like WBA and Palace

feel bad for him, not nice to see a career fall apart due to injury

and the polar opposite for ambition, McLaren strikes me as somebody who will at least want to try to compete, he did get Boro to the UEFA cup final (god knows how but there you go) which is taking it a lot more seriously than basically any club in England has except Fulham have in the last 10 years.

neither side has looked up to much from what I've seen if there was a way to award both teams 0 points then it would be used here

I think the forum would break if he did come back to win and with 2 set pieces floated to the back post, just be thankful sholas not there because if shola scored the winner the forum would never recover

hell of a cross by Janmaat

Perez down

how long until Sherwood rules himself out?

who knew our defense could actually pull off an offside trap

City 1-0 Aguero

Lambert gone

honestly for me you can flip a coin as to who to pick out of Colback or Anita, at his best Tiote is better than either of them.

have to say I'm surprised, it did rather look like literally everything had been set up for Sherwood to step in at QPR and had been set up that way for months.

They earn their money. Of course, sometimes their advice doesn't pay off, but most of the time the players are still well rewarded financially. Players aren't like fans, most of them don't have a dog in this fight. They look after themselves and fair play to them. I imagine the average worker doesn't really care about their company. They care about it doing well when they're there, but if they leave? It's just another company, like the millions out there. The players feel the same way, IMO. Agents also handle stuff like contracts and negotiations which most players don't have a clue how to do. They also have contacts in the game that family members of players don't. Look at someone like Mendes who will move players to clubs where he's close to the owners. This is obviously to the benefit of the players because Mendes' influence allows him to get players higher wages. I don't understand the hate for agents. They're the best thing going for players. I don't see agents that act against their client's best interests regularly and without them, more of the profit in football would go to owners. I don't see why the system should be like that that. Anyway, the craziest thing about this deal is that it's a domestic deal. I don't understand why people in England pay so much to watch football on TV and why no other country is willing to pay the same? The difference is becoming an order of magnitude. Why do Dutch people don't want to pay to watch Ajax on TV? Why are they willing to pay so little? We're not even talking about foreign money. We're simply talking domestic, which is crazy. Pip, you're a staunch free market neoliberal, I'm unsurprised you support the role people like agents who are essentially a parasite making money for not really doing, creating or having any discernible talent themselves. Like I said, there's numerous people fulfilling jobs like this now who are making money out of nothing which apparently makes them commendable. You mention Mendes. Is he good? Is he good for footballers? He doesn't seem to have done much for Falcao's career or Hulk's career in recent years. Unless all that really matters is making 300k a week instead of 200k. I'm sure looking at the fees and wages involved for the players he's made himself a lot of dodgy Russian money in the process though. And this guy is supposed to be an example of a top agent. I dread to think about all the low end agents pushing their clients between various clubs to get their slice. As much as I hate to say it and despite agreeing with you regarding the parasite reference, Pips does have a point. Agents are there to give a service to players because they know the market, just like a real estate agent. Doesn't need to exist, but their expertise helps the seller or buyer get the best deal possible. I dislike agents just like you, but I do understand that for most of these uneducated footballers they need to exist or they'd not be getting their right share. I'd argue the players would be better off using the PFA (who do provide that service if needed) or a solicitor than let an agent in but thats just me, the pfa in particular could be argued it would help players further down the pecking order by getting the fee the agent would otherwise get.

I think he decided to put a hold on it after the carroll sale which didn't go down well with the club and that combined with his sudden appearance on twitter and everything that entailed (and his agent is will mckay which is enough reason to get rid of him to begin with) plus his history meant screw it take the loss and just get rid of him more trouble than he's worth. Which is the ultimate summation of his time here, a very good 6 month period (launching the ball to Carrolls head) compared to 3.5 years of bad headlines for the club, bans, injuries and prison.

honestly it sounds half the time like he'd welcome the sack (and thus the payoff) wonder if he regrets not just leaving after last season, the fact he kept them up with a miracle run at the end would have enabled him to walk into any bottom half team and probably get paid more

I do know you have to have a certain amount of ego to last as a premier league manager with the constant criticism if even a single game is lost from phone ins and pundits etc but Hippo Head has to take the basic concept and shove it up to 11 million. Not even sure Mourinhio is as in love with himself as Allerdyce is

iirc it seemed certain he was going to sign a new deal but decided to wait after the Carroll sale

No chance. Untouchable. Even if we go down. To think, tonight was the first time the fans have *really* turned on him. Here's his record since September 20th: LLLLLLDDDWWLDLDDLLLLL (P21 W2 D6 L13; 8 goals for, 33 against). Staggering that he's still here. So at which point was the improved contract offered? Brummie can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure it was after four games this season which went WDWW including a 0-0 draw against us. Even then, Villa only scored four goals in those matches 1-0-2-1 Yes, it was after four league games. We'd taken 10 points from 12, yes, but even then there were warning signs. As you said, we hardly scored, we played you at home and didn't have a shot on target, and we got knocked out of the League Cup to Leyton Orient (a game in which we failed to score). On the back of that, new four year contract. I can not believe what has become of Lerner. Four years of being very good, followed by 4, approaching 5 years of making Ashley look good. Honestly, I just can't believe it. It's utterly bizarre, like. Even more bizarre than Pardew hanging on for so long imo, as difficult as that is to comprehend. 12 league goals in 25 goals all season, man. He has spent most of this season doing a Pardewian thing of saying things which blatantly are not true. We'll get beaten by Palace and he'll say "I thought were were excellent", which he says after every match. Then he shrugs off defeats with "we pick ourselves up and go again". He basically has a little soundbite for every situation. Apparently at the match tonight our fans were putting them to song, singing "We pick ourselves up, we go again" to the Tom Hark tune, "I thought we were excellent" and "I can't fault the effort from the lads" (to the "what the fuck is going on?" tune). Sometimes I hate football managers. fair few managers guilty of that, Rodgers and Martinez more than most

Nope. how? What? how wasn't he charged? you'd think grabbing a player by the neck might be worth a game or three touchline ban

Nope. how?

question has Person been charged by the FA for what he did at the weekend?