Kuwabatake Sanjuro

27 minutes ago, Cizzler said:

Why?

They traditionally only wear all white as a first choice in European matches barring the odd exception. 

37 minutes ago, Zatman said:

British Channel cheering on a British team

Whats the issue?

Think it's the writing European cups out if history as they are somehow less valuable when they didn't include non champions.

41 minutes ago, sne said:

It's pretty basic but it's also pretty clean which I do like.

Bold move from them going all white without their European football. I'm sure Nike never considered the possibility.

Yeah he always struck me as someone who might be a talented coach/manager in future. Good to have him involved.

58 minutes ago, BOF said:

Jefferson Lerma to Palace on a free is a good signing

Palace are a good transfer window away from being a threat for European places.

Wrexham have the 3rd largest airline sponsoring them while we are stuck with the shitshow of BK8 destroying our kits, slightly annoying from a prestige point of view.

1 minute ago, TheAuthority said:

What a terrible cross from Rice

Has been fairly anonymous on his last and biggest game for West Ham

Benrahma should get a second yellow for jumping into the crowd 

Will be a penalty but horrible to see matches decided on such innocuous handballs. I'd love to see accidental handballs in the box being indirect free kicks.

7 hours ago, Zatman said:

I would always cheer for Fiorentina even when they went a bit far right with a kit its still better than West Am

Was a bit unfortunate alright

5 minutes ago, useless said:

Ferguson left Scotland for Man Utd 36 years ago, so comparing him coming from Scotland to England to Ange doing the same doesn't make much sense, as completely different times and eras of football, would be the same as someone back in 1986 comparing Ferguson coming to England from Scotland as someone who did the same back in 1950 as that was 36 years previous to Ferguson joining Man Utd.

Ange might have done well previously, but it's definitely a risk by Spurs, as it's very rare a manager steps up from inferior league and does well in Premier League at a club with lofty expectations, it's actually rare that manager steps up from inferior level within in the PL and does well at a team with higher expectations never mind just from inferior league, something we've found to our cost numerous times over the last ten or so years.

The only managers I can think of that have come from inferior league and done well at big PL clubs are the above mentioned Wenger and Ferguson, but as mentioned that was a long time ago now, I didn't realize Wenger had managed in France and done well so can't really count him, and as for managers at lower levels within in the PL and stepping up to do well at big clubs I can't think of many that have done that either, maybe Rodgers and Pochettino but neither won anything,  a big reason that the succesful clubs do as well as they do is because they don't mess about with managers that might make the step up, they just go out and get ones already proven as winners at the top level.

All that's not to say Ange Postecoglou can't do well, I don't know much about him other than he's meant to be one of the nicest people in football, the football his teams play is generally regarded as scintilating, and Celtic fans speak of him in the most glowing terms - or at least they did, maybe he can buck the trend.

Erik Ten Haag has done this season, there are some stylistic similarities between the 2. 

Will be heading over to Wembley in August to see The Weeknd with the girlfriend. We will stay in Newmarket with my sister for a few days beforehand but would probably consider staying in 
London the night of the gig, any hotel recommendations or tips on how best to get in and out of Wembley?

15 hours ago, MrBlack said:

It's less bland than virtually any other striped shirt I've seen so far this season.

I actually think it's one of the best shirts posted here..  although it's competition is virtually none existent. 

Yeah Macron are looking good this season

23 minutes ago, bobzy said:

By "released", his 1 year contract ended.

Cost them about £4m - sort of gamble a promoted side can/should take, even if it didn't work out.

Yeah if he had performed like he did for west ham it would have been a masterstroke but that's looking like his last flash in the pan now.

Astonishing the levels of self confidence both Neville's had in thinking they could be successful managers despite having so few qualities required. Phil always seemed the duller of the 2 also. Surely finished now but he might get a chance to mess up at Salford city at some stage yet though.

On 29/05/2023 at 17:42, srsmithusa said:

Marvelous was one of the best we have had in the last 20 years at reading the movement of the opposition and moving to the right place to cut ot their options.  I bet his number of intercepted passes was huge...  the problem always was, he had trouble finding the open man once he got the ball.   I always thought he had fantastic potential.  But a lower tier is probably the best place to learn that.  (Kamara is the second best at reading the opposition and then is much better with possession)  All IMO of course.

Before we signed him he was definitely on the radar of Liverpool's data analytics teams (at a time when they were ahead of the curve in that area), he is an exceptional talent in some areas but his creative limitations are what stops him from fulfilling his full potential.

On 29/05/2023 at 21:03, Rugeley Villa said:

Is that the idiot who came up with the idea of the  “Villa Engine” or summat daft like that . 

That was Steve Round, was assistant manager to Moyes for years, we made him director of football, sacked him when Xia's gamble failed, but he is now assistant manager for Arteta at Arsenal so he was a football man at least. Wyness was just a spoofer who liked to outsource things to ensure that clubs end up broke in the long run. 

9 hours ago, VillaChris said:

 

Pretty much a minor miracle he still signed a new contract as there was no guarantee back then that Gerrard was getting sacked anytime soon.

He must have known Emery was on his way at that point. The deal with Emery was being done while Geralrard was still in the job I'd say.

50 minutes ago, Mantis said:

Apparently Leicester have the 7th highest wage bill in the league, ahead of us in 8th. Astonishing if true.

Not really astonishing, they were competing for champions league just 2 seasons ago.

Labour "centrism" is now getting indistinguishable from the BNP.

They will have Conor Coady's wages back on the books again next season too.

How often do all 3 promoted teams stay up?

Sinn Féin having a very good day in the local elections in NI, as a political machine they are hugely impressive but are going to only let people down when they hope for progressive improvements in society. This goes for in the 26 counties where they are likely to lead the next government.

3 hours ago, MrBlack said:

They haven't exploited their dodgy sponsorship deals yet to sign players they otherwise couldnt afford.  This summer that will change.

In that respect its quite an achievement, even if they have spent a lot, so have the rest of the league.

In every other its a crying shame. Sportswashing their owners image being a huge issue. 

There's also suspicions that they came back from their Saudi trip being world beaters. Some suspicion that they may be adopting Liverpool's inhaler drug tricks. 

There is no way anti doping officials can operate properly y in a place as corrupt and dangerous as Saudi Arabia. I'd also have an issue with premier League referees getting paid to do nixers there given one team is owned by the Saudi dictatorship.