Football 17/18

[mjsell]

Interesting that Sane is back in the city squad just 2 weeks after being injured and supposedly being out for 7.

Almost like Pep was using his injury to empasize the 'bad tackling' argument city have been pushing the last few weeks...

[pink_triangle]

6 hours ago, mjsell said:

Interesting that Sane is back in the city squad just 2 weeks after being injured and supposedly being out for 7.

Almost like Pep was using his injury to empasize the 'bad tackling' argument city have been pushing the last few weeks...

That’s a bit unfair on city. They are the 12th most fouled team in the league!

[thetime]

I thought pulls was the problem at the baggies. 

[eFestivals]

14 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

De Bruyne .... does it every week

this season, anyway.

He's a great player, but his previous seasons have been a bit up and down.

[zahidf]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

this season, anyway.

He's a great player, but his previous seasons have been a bit up and down.

He was out 2 months last season and around 5 the season before wasnt he?

[eFestivals]

17 minutes ago, zahidf said:

He was out 2 months last season and around 5 the season before wasnt he?

so there you go, up & down.

 

[Hugh Jass]

1 hour ago, thetime said:

I thought pulls was the problem at the baggies. 

Pulis is one of the reasons we are in this mess.  Sacking him was absolutely the right decision, the big mistake was not getting rid sooner. The malaise around the club all stems back to him, an aging squad, attacking players will all attacking intent and confidence coaching out of them, a reliance on set piece goals which have now dried up. Pardew hasn't been great, and frankly he should go when we're relegated too, but I do have a degree of sympathy for him as I don't think anybody outside the club really understood how bad things were.

The most depressing aspect will be the pundits who know fuck all about our club claiming that we went down because we sacked Pulis. We didn't, we went down because we didn't sack him sooner.

[Hugh Jass]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

this season, anyway.

He's a great player, but his previous seasons have been a bit up and down.

He was great last season before getting injured.

[Hugh Jass]

8 hours ago, mjsell said:

Almost like Pep was using his injury to empasize the 'bad tackling' argument city have been pushing the last few weeks...

Interesting that he didn't mention Fernandinho's stamp on Krychowiak last week that lead to our best midfielder being unavailable for a must win game against Southampton... It didn't matter, as we just had another £60m player we could use inste... oh, hang on.

[pink_triangle]

15 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Pulis is one of the reasons we are in this mess.  Sacking him was absolutely the right decision, the big mistake was not getting rid sooner. The malaise around the club all stems back to him, an aging squad, attacking players will all attacking intent and confidence coaching out of them, a reliance on set piece goals which have now dried up. Pardew hasn't been great, and frankly he should go when we're relegated too, but I do have a degree of sympathy for him as I don't think anybody outside the club really understood how bad things were.

The most depressing aspect will be the pundits who know fuck all about our club claiming that we went down because we sacked Pulis. We didn't, we went down because we didn't sack him sooner.

Surely the best plan would be to sack Pardew and give him his job back. You may get that Pardew bounce second time round!

Who is responsible for transfers at WBA? To me the Sturridge signing looks mad. For a team in desperate need of goals I could understand bringing him in with another forward, but throwing all your eggs into that basket seems mad.

[Hugh Jass]

Just now, pink_triangle said:

Surely the best plan would be to sack Pardew and give him his job back. You may get that Pardew bounce second time round!

Who is responsible for transfers at WBA? To me the Sturridge signing looks mad. For a team in desperate need of goals I could understand bringing him in with another forward, but throwing all your eggs into that basket seems mad.

Sturridge was a desperate roll of the dice, according to the club we are up to our limit in terms of wages and FFP so we couldn't afford to bring anybody in permanently on high wages. I believe we are not actually paying his wages but have paid Liverpool a high loan fee that covers them. There's no denying that he has the class to save us, it's just too bad that he's made of breadsticks.

The entire club has been horrifically mismanaged for the last 4-5 years ever since Dan Ashworth left us to join the FA. It has been a parade of awful decisions since then, both in terms of player and manager recruitment, which has led us to where we are now. We deserve what's happening to us.

[pink_triangle]

51 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Sturridge was a desperate roll of the dice, according to the club we are up to our limit in terms of wages and FFP so we couldn't afford to bring anybody in permanently on high wages. I believe we are not actually paying his wages but have paid Liverpool a high loan fee that covers them. There's no denying that he has the class to save us, it's just too bad that he's made of breadsticks.

 

In that case wasn’t there a case in cashing in on Evans and using the money to try and find some goals?

[Hugh Jass]

4 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

In that case wasn’t there a case in cashing in on Evans and using the money to try and find some goals?

We gambled on Sturridge staying fit, which meant we could have kept Evans.

[jyoung]

Gutted for Ryan Mason having to retire from football aged 26. Hasn't played since fracturing his skull against us in Jan 2017. Such sad news. Hope that everyone in the sport rallies round him and he has opportunities to stay in the game one way or another.

[pryce]

just booked tickets to Fc Koln vs Bayer Leverkusen! should be a good atmosphere...nothing like a good euro football trip

[pink_triangle]

52 minutes ago, jyoung said:

Gutted for Ryan Mason having to retire from football aged 26. Hasn't played since fracturing his skull against us in Jan 2017. Such sad news. Hope that everyone in the sport rallies round him and he has opportunities to stay in the game one way or another.

While it's sad news for a footballer to retire in their mid 20s, I think talk of football needing to rally around him is a bit strong. There are loads of professional footballers that have to retire due to injury, many with mortgages to pay and without a big bank balance.

[mjsell]

1 hour ago, jyoung said:

Gutted for Ryan Mason having to retire from football aged 26. Hasn't played since fracturing his skull against us in Jan 2017. Such sad news. Hope that everyone in the sport rallies round him and he has opportunities to stay in the game one way or another.

Always tough when any sportsperson is forced to retire early but Mason is actually the same age as me, from my town and went to a neighbouring school to mine that I have several good friends that also went there. Never knew him personally (did see him in a takeaway just before I left for NZ tho) but by all accounts he was/is a genuinely nice guy so am gutted for him

[TheGayTent]

53 minutes ago, pryce said:

just booked tickets to Fc Koln vs Bayer Leverkusen! should be a good atmosphere...nothing like a good euro football trip

Cologne are having a stinker of a season but that will still be a cracking local derby, I’m jealous, especially if you have standing tickets. Have done virtually all the big teams in NRW bar Cologne, despite staying there on three occasions. If you get the chance, stick some photos of the ground up when you’re back 

 

[pryce]

8 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Cologne are having a stinker of a season but that will still be a cracking local derby, I’m jealous, especially if you have standing tickets. Have done virtually all the big teams in NRW bar Cologne, despite staying there on three occasions. If you get the chance, stick some photos of the ground up when you’re back 

 

will do, ive done Dusseldorfs and Leverkusens before. no standing only sold them to club members but tried to get as close as possible

[TheGayTent]

2 minutes ago, pryce said:

will do, ive done Dusseldorfs and Leverkusens before. no standing only sold them to club members but tried to get as close as possible

Nice one - I wasn’t a fan of Leverkusen’s ground or their support to be honest but loved Fortuna - went back again i enjoyed it so much. Hopeful they’ll get promotion this season. 

[jyoung]

1 hour ago, pink_triangle said:

While it's sad news for a footballer to retire in their mid 20s, I think talk of football needing to rally around him is a bit strong. There are loads of professional footballers that have to retire due to injury, many with mortgages to pay and without a big bank balance.

And you'd like to think their clubs rallied around them as well. God forbid people support the mental wellbeing of a young adult who has just had their career ended by a severe skull fracture... Rich or not...

[pink_triangle]

6 minutes ago, jyoung said:

And you'd like to think their clubs rallied around them as well. God forbid people support the mental wellbeing of a young adult who has just had their career ended by a severe skull fracture... Rich or not...

You said football should rally around him, not his individual club. Although even looking at an individual club they discard of many teenagers every year who mainly just drop out of the professional game. I imagine this also has a huge impact on their mental health. Do the clubs have the same responsibilitity for them and if so how many?

Of course if a club feels he has particular attributes that make him particularly qualified to succeeed in a job then of course he deserves a chance. I don’t think however he automatically deserves to jump to the front of the queue for any vacancy, if received it should be through merit.

[jyoung]

31 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

You said football should rally around him, not his individual club. Although even looking at an individual club they discard of many teenagers every year who mainly just drop out of the professional game. I imagine this also has a huge impact on their mental health. Do the clubs have the same responsibilitity for them and if so how many?

Of course if a club feels he has particular attributes that make him particularly qualified to succeeed in a job then of course he deserves a chance. I don’t think however he automatically deserves to jump to the front of the queue for any vacancy, if received it should be through merit.

Any club willing to help him out. Be it Spurs, be it Hull, be it the one down the road where he lives... Whatever. Mate he's not some lad who was released because they weren't good enough to make it as a top pro. He suffered a life threatening injury. And yeah, more should be done in sport with regards to an athletes mental health. We treat physical injuries... Also, not saying he should now go and boss some team but there's no reason why he couldn't get involved and be trained up in another aspect of the game. Think the lad deserves another chance in the game personally 

[pink_triangle]

18 minutes ago, jyoung said:

Any club willing to help him out. Be it Spurs, be it Hull, be it the one down the road where he lives... 

Any opportunity he is given is a potential one taken away for someone else. Is he more deserving of a role than someone released for not being good enough, or someone who has never played but worked their way up and been successful further down the pyramid?

 

21 minutes ago, jyoung said:

he's not some lad who was released because they weren't good enough to make it as a top pro. He suffered a life threatening injury

He has had his career ended by injury, but of the many people this happens to every season (most never mentioned in national media) he probably has some financial breathing space which means he doesn’t need to find a job the next week to pay the bills. I have no doubt that rich people can have mental health problems, but I still would rather be in his position then someone lower down the pyramid. 

I don’t necessarily follow the argument that someone who has their career ended by injury is more of need of suppprt by one ended due to talent.

27 minutes ago, jyoung said:

 there's no reason why he couldn't get involved and be trained up in another aspect of the game. Think the lad deserves another chance in the game personally 

No reason at all, but I think these opportunities should be given on merit, not pushing in front of more qualified people because he has a name. I think the clubs/pad should signpost and support, but he shouldn’t be handed opportunities on a plate that aren’t open to all.

[Hugh Jass]

Juve - Spurs was a cracker last night. Although tinged with disappointment as I had a substantial bet on a Spurs victory and BTTS.