Kenny Dalglish Won't Be Delivering the Module: English Premiership 2011-12

ps I was wrong, a whole bunch of ilxors were there. Did Boro really lose that single game 0-4?

Yes! And this after their aggregate recoveries from 0-3 or 1-4 or whatever in earlier rounds.

I have turned up a written account of pretty much every amusing thing you said that night. How about this for a highlight:

Cabbage praises Xabi Alonso and Dean Kiley for liking 'indie', and says that most players like Nelly or Kelly [?]
Mike: or Belly !! Feed the tree ... and it will grow.

^
This must have been the same motif as 'feed the Yak and he will score' or whatever - 6 years ago?

Were you taking notes for a pub-based sitcom?

Kelly [?]

That would be R Kelly

Usually.

the Kaiser, arguing against vegetarianism: 'we're naturally omnivorous ... and no other animal seeks to be humane'.
Mike: it's true - lions seek to be leonine!

commentary as 4th goal goes in:

"it’s the last nail in the coffin ... they’re *building* the coffin ... Steve McClaren is lying in state ... it’s going to be nailed together with plastic filler, that’s even harder to pull out ..."

I can hear Mike saying that now.

just had a look at xabi alonso's twitter feed. lol he's such an indie kid.

Xabi Alonso ‏ @XabiAlonso
Yes, once in Liverpool's Empire Theatre RT @ponkytonk
@XabiAlonso did you get into Morrissey whilst playing in England?

that's practically worthy of the Empire Theatre.

he likes the wire though, so all is forgiven

i mean i'm not saying it was more luck than judgement on everton's part but i think he's done much better than they expected

― r|t|c, Monday, April 23, 2012 4:23 PM (2 hours ago)

yeah im a bit surprised hes done so well

cissé will never be this good again, but hes def good enough to score 15+ a season on the reg

the pfa player of the year trophy is surely the ugliest trophy ever cast

the la liga and copa del rey trophies get my vote

‘Chelsea made eight changes to play Arsenal and still looked good. I only had one striker and two centre halves — Ledley King and William Gallas — and if one of those got injured I was bang in trouble and would have had to use Bongani Khumalo, who has been on loan at Reading this season and didn’t get in their side. We were desperate.'

no other high level manager talks like this

he paid for khumalo, a 25yr old south africa international, if he is so terrible that he can't even be sixth choice cb then that's his fault

either way it seems rather disrespectful to effectively disparage him like that

Responding to a question about foreign investment in the Premier League, Redknapp replied: “Where they find some owners now, I don’t know. I remember the first guy they brought in at Portsmouth from Saudi Arabia somewhere. He looked like they pulled him off the stall outside. He looked like the only Arab who didn’t have oil in his garden.”

Redknapp appears to have been referring to the former Portsmouth shareholder Sulaiman Al Fahim, who had to relinquish his stake in the club in 2010 after failing to deliver on a £50 million investment the club said they were promised.

The FA, which has yet to approach any candidate or their club with a formal request to discuss the England vacancy, declined to comment on Redknapp’s remark.It is believed the view within Wembley is that Redknapp remains the Tottenham manager and unless his comments breach FA rules then they are a club matter.

The comment will be widely interpreted as light-hearted and with no intention to cause offence, but it has nonetheless provoked raised eyebrows in football’s anti-racist community. One senior campaigner said: “That’s just part of Harry’s humour, a comment like that, and I wouldn’t take it in any other spirit than how it has been delivered.

“He’s quick and he’s got that cheekiness. But if he is the England manager it’s different. There is a different conduct and etiquette required.”

Another warned that similar comments would backfire if he were to be appointed to English football’s top job. “Harry is not a racist — he’s always had black players around,” the source said. “But he is always going to be clumsy with what he says. You can’t say that sort of thing in the England manager post."

so gonna happen

Harry is not a racist — he’s always had black players around

Bongani Sandile Khumalo (born 6 January 1987) is a South African footballer who plays as a centre back for English Premiership side Tottenham Hotspur and South Africa. He is known for his brute strength and ability to injure the strongest players while tackling cleanly.

no other high level manager talks like this

Hodgson. You're after high level though aren't you.

saying jelavic is a bargain and spurs should have signed him is kinda 20/20 hindsight btw - loads of clubs looked at him and were unconvinced, little knowing that it was all part of a deceptively casual berbzishness

I'm not claiming Pinefoxian foresight here but I said when Everton signed him he'd do well and I was glad to see him leave Rangers. I even sort-of compared him to Berbz.

I think he's of Premier League standard. Good with back to goal, runs the channels, strong, shoots on sight, good goals record, doesn't look overly arsed about anything ever. I'm delighted he's leaving Rangers.

Hodgson. You're after high level though aren't you.

― Chris, Tuesday, 24 April 2012 00:00 (25 minutes ago) Bookmark

meow

hodgson seems like actually a nice person, there wasn't a hint of rancour in the duration of his bbc interview on sunday

i doubt hes ever thrown a player to the wolves to deflect attention from general failings as redknapp likes to do

that wasnt supposed to be a bassong reference

na, he just hangs the kids out to dry to deflect attention from his shite tactics against the "formidable" northampton town

dalglish would never do that, even if he lost 3-1 to relegation candidates

not got a problem with giving senior players a kick up the arse, but labelling reserves and youths as the B team and giving the impression he views them as separate from the rest of the club, and refusing to give a bit of praise to shelvey when asked about his performance wasn't a great move.

i defer to your superior knowledge of liverpool but i don't think blaming a whole team, even if they're largely kids, is as poor form as isolating a single player
for public criticism

ferguson is great at this, he gently upbraided ashley young but made it clear his actual failing was in allowing himself to become the subject of a media witchhunt

yeah seems obvious the word he had with him was "the bastards are all out to get us, lay low for a couple of weeks"

i defer to your superior knowledge of liverpool but i don't think blaming a whole team, even if they're largely kids, is as poor form as isolating a single player for public criticism

a single player who hasn't even played for them, at that. now he'll definitely be in the right frame of mind to step up to the task if called upon.

redknapp used to complain about pavlyuchenko all the time too, didn't he? then he sold him, and somehow he's ended up with only one striker.

just one striker who refuses to play, and jermaine defoe

harry on ade:

"He has done well for us. He has worked hard but he is on amazing money. The other week, one of the lads told him that he had not paid his £50 fine for being the worst player in training on a Friday morning. One of the lads said to him: 'Bloody hell, Ade, you are on 200 grand a week and you can't afford to pay a £50 fine!' He replied: 'Don't insult me, it's 225!'"

The laughter that followed the anecdote was followed up by a serious message from Redknapp, who admitted: "He certainly isn't getting that here."

he has a strange approach to motivation

i defer to your superior knowledge of liverpool but i don't think blaming a whole team, even if they're largely kids, is as poor form as isolating a single player for public criticism

aye that is poor form. hodgey was partial to blaming individuals mind. glen johnson got it in the neck, and he made sure we all knew he had nothing to do with joe cole's arrival.

anyway, redknapp. didn't bent ask for a transfer cos of something he said to him?

'You've got to be careful. I once said, "My old woman could have scored that", about a goal Darren Bent missed.'

'Bent then sulked, rang his agent, his agent rings the chairman and says he ain't happy and wants to leave. It was only the truth, wasn't it?'

lol i like how his wife has turned into 'old woman' in the retelling

You wonder what he might have said to his only striker after docking him £50 for poor training on a Friday, presumably before a weekend match.

http://www.expressandstar.com/sport/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2012/04/23/how-wolves-can-come-back-stronger/

The Express and Star is home to some of the worst journalistic suck-ups i've ever read, guys who were swearing McCarthy was the greatest manager of our era even as we sank deeper into the mire. It's really heartening to read somebody who gets it. Praying the Board has a long read of this.

But I am afraid for all the mighty progress the former manager brought, he ultimately added to the view that he is a major player for the second tier but a man who struggles in the first.

In choosing their man to take the club forward, Wolves need to embrace a radical change of style. One that still brings successful football but football more pleasing on the eye, more threatening to the opposition and executed by more technically-focused players. Football that can go back into the Premier League with more to offer than parking the team bus across the penalty area.

Mick coming back seems so inevitable from here, but you'll be pleased to know I'm entirely uninformed.

if we're gonna talk managers who hung players to cover his own failings, the first i think of isn't roy hodgson.

arry's motivational chops are of the loveable drill sergeant type, jokey but the boss. Trouble with that is when things get tough the jokes ring hollow and the edge seems too sharp.

His preference for isolation and mockery of very good players that he's (wrongly, usually) not finding minutes on the pitch for has always been a problem.

Olympics draw is this morning. Is this tourney worth its own thread? Cos we'd need a title. I'm inclined to say no personally, but there is potential humour a-plenty from Team GB.

D-Mac right on every count.

not even planning on noticing it tbh

sean o'driscoll out as far as 66-1 for the wolves job, same as rafa and peter reid

O'Driscoll is 54 which may count against him, and his management record looks slight - Bournemouth and Donny. I think he did solid work at both, and Doncaster were a delight to watch at times. I don't think he's "achieved" enough to get a serious look-in, and I don't think fans are patient enough to get behind his brand of possession football. He has got experience of getting a lot from a small budget but it won't be enough. The fact that he is a Wolverhampton lad will count for nothing.

very few fans are gonna be in the mood for taking a chance or patient experimentation, they're already talking about keeping the squad together and bouncing back. a tiny bit worried about the idea that most of our guys are worth holding onto, tho i'm hopeful there's a core of talent there somewhere.

like i wd argue that Doyle, Fletcher, O'Hara, perhaps Kights, perhaps the new boy Davis, are worth sticking with. I like Stearman but I'm not sure, likewise Zube. As for the rest, I don't see much prospect of them being good Prem players, tho some might make effective squad members.

Jarvis is absolutely gash and we shd snatch the first bid we receive, if any.

forgot Hennessey but he's out for months anyway.

Edwards, Ward, Foley, Berra, Johnson, HENRY - useless, get rid

SkyBet are running a Daniel Agger book, 6/4 to join Barcelona in the summer. Where has this come from?! Of all their transfer specials, only Van Persie to City and Cavani to Juve are shorter odds.