Brand New Premiership Thread 06/07

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
*dropping my loathing of English sports teams for a minute:wink:*

England should have at least won another world cup or European championship in the past 40 years, the talent has generally always been there, but coupled with absolutely crap management and poor team picking, you have been let down again and again and seemingly will be for the near future, unless there is a major change in management structure and new ideas injected into the FA.
 
Having listened to phone-ins on five live before I really shouldn't be surprised at some of the things that get said, but this from their website;

"Why does everybody seem to place the blame for England's recent poor form at the feet of Steve McClaren?"

I wonder if the person who asked this, normally listens to one of those recorded messages certain people need to listen to, you know, the one that just keeps repeating, "Breath in- Breath out," 24 hours a day!
 
jimmmm said:

"Why does everybody seem to place the blame for England's recent poor form at the feet of Steve McClaren?"


F***ing hell. I don't think you can overestimate how important a good manager is to a team. Look at what Guus Hiddink has done with those lowly teams that he has managed to get qualification to the world cup with. Look at what fergie did with aberdeen and united. Look at what o'neill did with leicester. Look at Klinnsman at the last world cup with Germany. Every one of them regimes has had a manager that had the ability to pick the right team, drop any big time charlies that weren't pulling their weight and get the tactics spot on. I don't think you can attribute any of those qualities to steve mclaren thus far.

Klinnsman with Germany is a fine example. Touted by many to be the worst german side in 40 years, they managed to get the world cup semi finals. Granted home advantage probably made a difference but i liked Klinnsmans enthusiasm and his ability to drop anyone he thought wasn't performing. An example being playing Lehmann instead of Oliver Kahn. Lehmann was clearly the man on form and it benefitted the team to have him instead. He also happily dropped Ballack for the good of the team. Ballack is probably Germanys most talented player but Klinnsman wouldn't play him if he wasn't going to pull his weight. They reaped the benefits.

Can you ever see Mclaren dropping lampard or gerrard? :(
 
jimmmm said:
With you on that 1Step, how Phil Nev has won so many caps has always been a mystery to me(big club syndrome?)Gerrard & Lampard CANNOT perform to the top of their undoubted ability together, so whoever is in charge should have realised that by now. Also, just watching skysports news, mclaren, explaining Fosters inclusion, "Paul Robinson has absolutely nothing to worry about, he IS Englands no.1, " well why not let him think he's got something to worry about, let him think, unless he performs to the very best of his ability, he will lose his place, or are all footballers so mentally fragile mac doesn't want to risk poor paulie waulie having a breakdown, for F%^KS sake they're grown men treat them as such!

On the subject of Barry, obviously you've seen more of him than I, 1Step, but listening to any reports from Villa matches on the skysports results service, most analysts agree he is having a great season, also Joey Barton, in the squad but no start, Kevin Nolan, surely this is exactly the sort of match to try these players, instead we go for the tried, & failed Gerr-Lamp, midfield pairing, such lack of imagination is what has pissed me off about England since I've been interested in football.

Yep Barry has been excellent this season. It's a friendly, why not try him? If he plays badly then fair enough, there's Bridge and Cole still to come back who are fine left backs too. Surely the point of a friendly is to try out new things on the pitch. I'd love to see Barton in midfield, hopefully showing the kind of battling form he's displayed for city this season but no. Mclaren gave the pitiful excuse yesterday that the likes of barry and barton being around were great for the "atmosphere". The incompetence of this man blows me away. If he wants a great atmpsphere then why not get peter kay to come down and do a few stand up routines?

I've never been this annoyed at a manager since Graham Taylor at the villa a few a years ago :madspit:
 
RONALDO FIRES TRANSFER SPECULATION

By Editor Wednesday 7th February 2007

This one will run and run.

From the Sun:


Ronaldo has cast doubt over his future by refusing to pledge himself to Manchester United.

Ronaldo, a £40million target for Real Madrid and Barcelona, said:

“I don’t know where I will be in the space of the next six months. For the moment, I’m only thinking about training well every day. The only thing I am sure about is I want to continue at the level I’ve reached and aim to improve even more.”

Barca’s director of football Txiki Begiristain watched Ronaldo play for Portugal against Brazil in a friendly at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium last night.

The winger also hailed Barca ace Deco:
“He is one of the best players I’ve ever shared a team with.”


I've said it before, if thats how he feels, United should boot him out straightaway, if he's still "Not sure" where he'll be in 6 months, Umited should make it clear there's one place he certainly won't be, & that should be Old Trafford, great a season as he's having, if he's not happy & wants away lob him out!
 
I think deep down he wants to join Barca. And i don't blame him. United are the biggest club in the world and he's on tremendous form but i can imagine him being lured in by the culture and the climate of Spain. I'm sure he would feel more at home there than in Manchester. Not to mention the fact that he'll be at probably the best team in world. Barcelona with ronaldo would be a frightening prospect. Deco, Messi, Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Ronaldo all in attack would be unstoppable.

It'll be a shame for the Premiership though because he's been mesmeric this year (apart from the diving).
 
Another amazing England performance, we will get fuck all against israel.
 
Another amazing Ireland performance, pass me the shotgun I don't want to live anymore:wink:
 
Just when everyone thought ingerland had sunk as far as they possibly could they go & prove there really is no depths to how far down they can sink, YET another abysmal showing, totally devoid of creativity, imagination, effort, skill, you name it they lack it, the most OVERPAID, UNDER-ACHIEVING, useless bunch of WANKERS ever to wear the THREE LIONS, mclaren gets more & more out of his depth with every passing match, & if those tired old dinosaurs who laughingly "run" the FA don't act very soon, ingerland WILL be watching Euro 2008 on TV, & if the FA don't act, thats exactly where they will deserve to watch it!
 
Ah, all has been explained as to why ingerland are so shite!

From the BBC Sport website;

Top clubs 'not helping' McClaren

Steve McClaren needs to be judged at the end of his term not less than one year into it

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson
Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson says the big Premiership clubs - and not manager Steve McClaren - are to blame for England's problems.

So there you have it, after decades of supplying the national side with talent, its, Man. Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal,& Chelsea to blame, nothing to do with the fact the FA have constantly overlooked any manager with any kind of winning mentality, instead opting for "safe" unimaginative, dull, dreary, losers, & that goes right the way back to the late '70's, only 1 country in the world could have opted for Ron "nice man" Greenwood, over Cloughie, who, even after Greenwood's departure should have been given the post in front of Bobby Robson, yes I know Booby took us to the semi's in 1990, but for years I've reminded people, who get all misty eyed about that, exactly how fortunate england were to reach that stage, in Italy '90 england scraped through, what has since been widely regarded as the worst group in the history of the competition, no, not the teams in the group, the quality of football, they scraped a fortunate 1-0 win against the mighty Egypt, & fought out draws against equally drab opposition in the shape of Eire, & Holland, in the 2nd rd. after being under the cosh against Belgium for almost 120 mins. Platty admittedly scored a cracker to secure a place in the quarters, Cameroon were the opposition, & we needed 2 pens, 1 of which was extremely fortunate to be given, to get beyond them. Other tournaments under Booby weren't quite as memorable were they? not many england fans ever talk about euro '88 do they? world cup '86, most people were calling for his head until Linekers hat trick squeezed us through in the last group match, so Booby wasn't the world beater many would have us believe, & then graham turner, the less said the better, Venebles was IMO, a more inspired choice, but then, hoddle, keegan, WTF were those decisions based on, one a former LONDON favourite, the other a man whose managerial career is littered with a history of walking away when the shit hits the fan, at least he had the decency to hold his hand up & say he wasn't up to the job, now we've got Steve "interesting" McLaren, alright its not as if there's a wealth of managerial talent at their disposal, but O'Niell has said publicly he wanted the job, compare his record with macca's, who else would have chosen the interesting one? not many, only the bloody incompetent english FA!
Off the top of my head I can't think of all the talent the big clubs have supplied the national side with over the years, but I'm off for me brekkie, & I'll return with a comprehensive list for your perusal, so you can decide is it the big clubs fault england are so shite!
 
Having thought about it, I'm not going to list every player who's represnted the nation from those teams, rather, players who've come through the ranks of those teams, or, who were bought by those clubs, & turned into top class players.

Liverpool; Clemence, Keegan, Neal, Kennedy R, Kennedy A, Thompson, Hughes, Lee, Beardsley, yeah he was a top player at Newc. but in my opinion he became a truly world class player at Anfield, same for Barnes, Mcmanaman, Carragher, Gerrard, Owen.

Man. Utd; Hill, Coppell, Pearson, Greenhoff J, Robson(same as Beardsley), Sharpe, Neville G, Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Cole.

Arse; Seaman, Adams, Dixon, Keown, Rocastle, Davis, Wright, Cole.

Chelsea; Wilkins, Dixon K, Lampard, & Cole,(same as Beardsley).

Now along with players from other clubs over the years I haven't included, Rooney for eg.(class at Everton) if any manager can't do anything with players of that quality, you reall have to ask yourself about the quality of the manager!

If Gibson is just having a dig because the top clubs are also buying in top class talent as well, he should remember, all clubs have a duty, IMO, first & foremost to their fans, who pay hard earned money to support their clubs, & want to see them competing with the best, not only at home but in the C/L as well.

Once again though, we seem to have double standards on this issue, the press, & other people in the game can marvel at how Real Madrid can buy "Galactico's" from every corner of the world, but if the big English clubs buy big, thats whats "ruinning" the game in england!
 
I have to question Steve Gibsons integrity and honesty if he really thinks that Englands downfall is the big clubs fault and not the managers. I think i've written enough on here about what annoys me about mclaren and his inablility to do the job.

Gibson cannot blame the big clubs for bringing in foreign talent, as you said jimmm, all clubs have an obligation to their fans to put out the best team possible to compete for honours and if that means buying a foreign right midfielder who is better than any english right midfielder for example then so be it. It improves the team.

The sooner mclaren goes the better. He should swallow his pride and step down. The future of the england football team is vastly more important than the remainder of his contract.
 
1stepcloser said:


The sooner mclaren goes the better.


Yeah, its not nice calling for a guy to be sacked, but its not as if he'd be strapped financially, & I really do think its time the English football supporters in general showed those incompetent old twats at the fa how strongly they felt, & boycott a couple of friendly matches, its only that kind of action those old dinosaurs would listen to, to let them know we're sick to the back teeth of being fobbed off with LOSERS! I really couldn't care less if the next manager comes from england or timbuktu, as long as, firstly he could get the team to actually play like a team, with entertaining, exciting, attacking football, & secondly he could get the team in with a chance however small of actually winning some silverware, but I'd take the first option to start with, to actually be able to look forward to an england game and expect to see FOOTBALL, what a nice feeling that would be!
 
i'd just like to see a coach that doesn't have a personal agenda, that's all.

mclaren's a complete tosser, and what's up with managers telling the press to give him time???

THERE IS NO TIME LEFT.

if england lose to israel, what real chance do they have of even making it to euro 2008??

it's absurd.

quite honestly, i think i could coach this side to better results than he has.

did ANYONE think playing crouch alone up front against spain would produce results?? ANYONE???
 
I feel sorry for Crouch. He played the lone role against Portugal in the World Cup and slogged his guts out. I dont think he played too badly against Spain either, that ref definetly had it in for him. But he does need someone up there with him.

Lampard should be dropped NOW. He does nothing for England anymore. Carrick was absolutely dire. But until Joe Cole comes back, who is going to play on the left hand side?

I'll be honest, I don't know much about Joey Barton's game, is he an attacking or a more defensive midfielder? Can he play on the wing even? I would like to see him given a go over Carrick and Lampard.

Fully fit team is as follows:

Robinson

Neville Terry Ferdinand A.Cole

Hargreaves

Beckham J.Cole

Gerrard

Owen Rooney


On a lighter note, QPR and China are declaring war!
 
Another cracking result for Sheff. Utd. today, I have relatives who live in Sheffield, all Blades fans, hope for their sake they stay up, looking highly likely at the moment.
 
jimmmm said:



After todays results I think you may well get your wish 1Step.

Especially if wigan start picking up points. West Hams result cheered me up a bit after villa's poor showing at reading. Nothing worse than seeing your team miss chance after chance and eventually come away with nothing. Well, due to unfortunate fixture circumstances we have 3 weeks to put things right before the next game!

Sheffield United have really impressed me. I mean they don't play attractive football by any stretch of the imagination but at the start of the season i wouldn't have said their team was any better than watfords and look at the difference between the two.
 
Remaining fixtures for top 2

United

Fulham away
L'pool away
Bolton home
B'Burn home
Pompey away
Sheff. U home
Chelsea away
Boro home
Everton away
City away
West Ham home

Chelsea

Pompey away
City away
Sheff. U home
Watford away
Spurs home
West Ham away
UNITED home
newcastle away
Bolton home
Arsenal away
Everton home

from those 2 lists I can see United dropping points at Anfield, fancy a draw, Stamford Bridge, defeat, & Goodison, another draw, which would give United another 26 pts, added to 66 already total 92. I can see Chelsea dropping points at West Ham, draw, St.James,draw, & The Emirates, defeat, which would also give them another 26pts, making a total of 86, which would see UNITED win the league by 6 points, but then again if it was that easy to accurately forecast results, I'd be a millionaire by now!
 
Fixtures for teams at the bottom;

Watford;

Wigan, Everton, Charlton, Chelsea, Pompey, City, Newcastle - Home
Spurs, Boro, B'Burn, Sheff. U., Reading - Away

Charlton;

West Ham, Newc., Wigan, Reading, Sheff.U., Spurs - Home
Watford, City, Everton, B'Burn, L'Pool - Away


West Ham;

Spurs, Boro, Chelsea, Everton, Bolton - Home
Charlton, B'Burn, Arsenal, Sheff.U., Wigan, Man.Utd - Away

Wigan;

Newc., Fulham, Bolton, Spurs, West Ham, Boro, - Home
Arsenal, Watford, City, Charlton, Villa, L'Pool, Sheff.Utd., - Away

looking at those fixtures I can see, Wigan just scraping enough points to avoid the drop with 39 pts, Charlton putting in a late run but just falling short finishing with 38, Watford overtaking West Ham, but like Charlton too little, too late, & finishing with 36pts, & The Hammers rock bottom on just 32pts, but don't take my word for it, what do the rest of you think?
 
so after more than a month off the pitch, beckham comes back, scores and helps set up another as real madrid win 2-1.

simply put, beckham at the very LEAST deserves to be on england's bench. the man is absolutely deadly on set pieces, and his pace today was great by all accounts.
 
Having just seen the highlights on MOTD i don't know how West Ham did not score against Watford. They seem absolutely lifeless and with zero confidence. Harewoods penalty miss summed it up really.

I've always said that Beckham should be in the England squad. He's a class act and would serve far more of a purpose than the likes of Jenas, Crouch, ect..
I don't think he should start, i'd give the right side of midfield berth to Aaron Lennon as he offers more in terms of pace and skill, like a right winger should. But nevertheless, Beckham should be in the squad i think.

Jimmmm, a quick question. Why do you sometimes write 'united' as UNITED in block capitals? On other message boards i go on i've seen man united fans do this and i'd quite like to get to the bottom of this mystery. Is it because you see man united as the only true 'united' team as opposed to west ham united and newcastle united? or am i miles off? :wink:
 
1Step, Re, The UNITED thing, I suppose for me, & maybe for other UNITED fans on other message boards, it goes back to the '70's,& maybe even earlier than that, when I were nowt but a lad, one of the chants heard more often than others around OT was, "There's only 1 UNITED" & its stuck with me ever since, no doubt fans of other united's, leeds, Sheff, Newc etc, will think we're a bunch of arrogant F%$£ers, but thats what football rivalry's all about, isn't it?
 
1stepcloser said:
Having just seen the highlights on MOTD i don't know how West Ham did not score against Watford. They seem absolutely lifeless and with zero confidence. Harewoods penalty miss summed it up really.

Just watching that now on the Sun. AM. repeat, you're right 1Step, they look like a team as good as resigned to the inevitable, & looking at the table, realistically they can only catch Wigan, imo, & also looking at their remaining fixtures, I really can't see anything other than relegation for them.
 
Back
Top Bottom