'Even allowing for inflation, this thread is not worth 198 Terry Francises' - EPL 2017-18

Also scouting networks etc - the buck for Sunderland's woeful organisation and lack of spirit last year probably stops with Moyes but I get the impression that player recruitment is more complicated than that.

his recruitment was a shambles at Utd too

chased Fabregas/Bale all summer, then defaulted to Baines/Fellaini and only managed to get in the latter for an inflated price. This from a man who was alleged to have one of the best scouting networks in England when he was at Everton

Did he take that scouting network with him?

I thought the story was that he gave the Man Utd hierarchy a list of the players he wanted and they failed to get almost all of them? I don't follow prem stuff very closely, mind.

To what extent have West Ham's scouting/recruitment personnel changed over the last couple of years? They made some great + progressive signings a few years ago with Payet/Antonio/Lanzini etc but their recent acquisitions have been pretty dodgy, signing the likes of Arnatovic, Snodgrass etc without thinking about how they'd fit into the team.

Arnautovic.

he didn't take the scouting network with him, but you would hope he'd at least be aware of some non-star names on the continent

Bale & Fabregas were patently ungettable, so surely you have back-up targets?

he also decided not to sign Thiago Alcantara

^^ for real on Thiago? I'd rather not have known that, christ.

presumably can blame ed woodward or whatever for a bunch of this as well.

players that moyes signed at man united:

Guillermo Varela - £2M
Marouane Fellaini - £27.5M
Saidy Janko - £700k
Juan Mata - £37.1M

they didn't give him anything like the budget lvg or mou have had. not to defend him, he obv did a terrible job.

Yeah that's patently true!

I have this ill-informed and half-formed thought in the back of my head that too much importance is attached to a manager overall, particularly when the manager's role is usually closer to first-team coach these days. Some of these clubs seem to behave like sick organisations and it takes more than a football manager to sort them out.

Neither should they make the sick organisation worse, mind, and one gets the impression that DM has left his last two clubs in a sorrier state than he found them.

The budget was there

Utd outbid Madrid for Bale

Ah did they though

United have always been prepared to fling gigantic amounts of money at marquee signings, it's the squad-building elsewhere that's been at fault. In recent years they've tended to be short of the sort of unglamorous players that knit the team together and/or provide cover when they need it. I mean I know Fellaini is basically one of those players but that's a lot of money to spend on one.

According to his agent, yeah

that summer was p sparse tho. i mean i don't think you can blame moyes entirely for not spending the money - who's actually in charge of transfers? how powerful was he?

xpost

Oh it's Woodward's fault as well for sure

It was a perfect storm of incompetence

as an institution it must have been hard to anticipate that the team would be so shit the next year, like years of fergie squeezing every drop of potential made them blind to the possibility of failure.

you can kind of see that in the wild spending sprees that followed

Marouane Fellaini filed a suit against New Balance claiming their shoes injured his feet.

Fellaini says the boots he wore as part of an endorsement deal caused him "loss of enjoyment, inconvenience and impact on performance" and is asking for £2.1 million.

Fellaini signed an endorsement deal with New Balance while playing for Everton.

"Although we cannot comment on pending litigation, New Balance can confirm that the company plans to vigorously defend itself and its longstanding record of manufacturing excellence and surpassing the needs of athletes around the world," New Balance said in a statement.

"New Balance is confident that it has acted appropriately and is grateful for the services historically provided by Mr. Fellaini."

For some reason that was actually on Dutch radio news every hour tonight. Footballer sues shoes sponsor. Novelty value maybe? It sounds ridiculous all the same.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/09/revealed-scheme-gary-lineker-tax-barbados-home?CMP=twt_gu

shat on barbados

Moyes, who replaced Slaven Bilic on an initial six-month contract, said he is confident of bringing success to West Ham. “I don’t think it’s a bad team, a bad squad. But I can’t be bothered with any drivel. I’m going to be direct with the players. If they don’t like it, then I’m sorry. We’ve got to make sure we get through to them quickly. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then I’ll see the East End of London for seven months, then I’ll go elsewhere.”

Straight out of a ripper reboot that quote

"the truth is we're going down. all of us are getting relegated each day, in various ways, in our lives, our relationships with others, in how we think of ourselves. we have to face up to it."

― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Monday, November 6, 2017 12:07 PM (one week ago)

xp but lol

Also during that intro video I swear Moyesy's eyes keep flicking up and to the right (which is one of those tell-tale body language signals that you're lying) as he says "I'm sure we can get the right results between now and the end of the season".

It's such a nailed-on calamity I'd almost like to see him succeed now.

Should've been 1-1 already

who's the bigger club then

Arsenal really are very poor arn't they?

deems on sissoko on my desk in five pls

haha

on my desk in TWO

deems on this ref NOW

Very harsh, as that was never a free kick to begin with (D. Sanchez's tackle was nowt wrong with)

and off-side too, lol

Ayo

Second off-side goal

LOL at this now y'all

small club mentality

*rubs hands* revelling in evil.

There's no doubt that mike dean is a piss weak ref and we're probably not the only team will feel that his 'inconsistency' has cost them against yr historical big four clubs over the years

But I wish someone would tell the cheating coward that we are now actually a big club. That'd be good.

That said, pochettino is at fault for his straight-line risky defence of set plays and for not spotting long before now that Vertonghen and Davies would wave trucks in between them all day.

Lloris isn't fit, so that second (onside imo) goal really goes down as a set of systematic and individual errors

But the crucial first one, yeah a ref might miss a foul in error but when the cunt invents what he claims he's seen then you know what you're dealing with.

This is, btw, sissokos best 45 mins in a spurs shirt that I've seen. More driving all knees and elbows, less shit passing and shit touches. But I still have no idea what he's doing out there.

Eriksens worst run of form in a spurs shirt ( but not a Denmark one the bollix) continues.

Kane also not fit.

D Sanchez is quality and very good to see Dembele skating around again.

A game of fine margins so it's strange to see us risk so much in the first half. Over now. Poch out.

otm on all of that. i'm really impressed w D Sanchez and it's fucked he got a foul there.

Wenger's smile after the 2-0 was one of a man who'd forgotten how to smile. Muscles trying to get into formation very awkwardly.

Tbh even when we put in dangerous balls we're miles away from looking dangerous

Let it be said that arsenal look a very good team

Then, we've made utd Chelsea and Burnley look that this year. Still to find a solution this season to mid-level clubs raising their game for us

Was Kane fouled there in the box on a Sanchez/dean scale?

Doesn't matter at this state. The opener is the killer.

Winks off for dembele

Not sissoko

Love u poch but sometimes I think you like testing us as much as your players

Dembele off smdh. Nothing matters.

Still don't think Arsenal look good. A+ work rate though.

Dean is a cunt.

He's a serious operator. You'd never catch him swinging a game but balance up the small, momentum killing decisions he does or doesn't give, the inch here that generates a mile.

A fuckdog cunt

D Sanchez tho

the first goal was like a centimetre off

cop on

oh wait you were talking about the free

yeah it was a soft one I guess

That's how Wenger always smiles tbf.

Gonna be so dope in spring when Spurs really hit their straps and are hammering teams every game and finish second by like five points