Alone in the Park - it's the Prem 2020-21 thread

back in 2017, then Villa boss Steve Bruce was keen to use Grealish as bait to lure Middlesbrough striker Jordan Rhodes to Villa Park.

Bruce had a strained relationship with Grealish for the majority of his spell in the Midlands, with the former boss frustrated by the midfield ace's tendency to complain to referees as well as his antics off the pitch.

Rhodes was lined up to add goals to a Villa side desperately struggling for firepower - even if that meant sanctioning the loss of a future star.

so Bruce was willing to do a Grealish/Rhodes swap deal, that would have been an alltime classic.

"if Ashley Young is worth £9 million then what must Gary McSheffrey be worth?" also a legit Brucey quote

The man knows the price of nothing and the value of nothing

it was his legacy signings that got Town relegated twice and with one spell of administration in between. Any proper manager would have judged Kenny Irons to be a player with some considerable skill in striking a dead ball, but nevertheless an overweight pisshead who would have struggled to be fit enough for 70's football. And perhaps not sanctioned a 4 year contract on 9 grand a week! I could go on at great length about his ineptitude in the transfer market, but also he probably got lucky a few times.

In 2008, Kenny signed for Liverpool Veterans Side Sacre Coeur, who compete in the I Zingari Combination League. However, following the 4–1 defeat on 9 April at the hands of Bootle side Jawbone FC, Irons finally retired.

At the age of 46, Irons helped England win the 2016 Seniors World Cup, for retired professionals, in Thailand.

Any old Iron came good in the end! I used to talk to this bloke in the bookies who drank with him and said he'd often be knocking back the pints at the bar in the George Hotel before a match day.

https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/callum-wilson-makes-graeme-jones-21201344.amp

Some wonderful glowing praise for Bruce from Callum Wilson here, for balance

“I think Graeme Jones coming in as a coach (in January), definitely complemented the manager because he’s a little bit more tactically aware and up to date, whereas the manager has his different strengths and attributes," Wilson revealed.

If I was a club owner I'd save money by simply employing a manager who doesn't need a ghostmanager to do the job for them. To quote DJ Martian "Systems Thinking can solve this problem"

i wonder if anybody's ready?

Covid's ready!

Someone has to start a new thread. You have 2 minutes or it's me

fobttll!

ahaha JINX

lol I knew you had that thread title primed and ready to post!

ironically it's what they should be telling us whenever we post there lol

I'm amazed that Calzino knows who DJ Martian is.

A meeting of two eras, fully 20 years apart!

someone resurrected that classic thread on here recently and I saw it linked on twitter once as a pisstake in response to some bullshit Dom Cummings sloganeering