Recent Posts

51

General Football and Sport / Re: 7he Manches7er Uni7ed 7hread - NO GREENWOOD/ANTONY*

« Last post by rob1966 on Today at 03:28:02 pm »

I hope united rally round ten hag and show the media that this club backs its manager. Best way to ram it up the media is by giving him a new contract. That would send a great message. A proper statement of intent by sir Jim.

Big challenge for him to be the best Dutch Manager working in the PL, should really motivate him to try to finish above Arne (if we get him that is)

52

Media and Arts / Re: Music Association Game

« Last post by Boston Bosox on Today at 03:27:55 pm »

Levi Stubbs Tears - Billy Bragg

 Tears Dry On Their Own - Amy Winehouse

53

Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by danm77 on Today at 03:26:54 pm »

Good grief.

As someone whose Mum literally had to talk him off the ledge (well, the top of the stairs) after the Michael Thomas goal in 1989, and who's punched an embarrassing number of coffee tables since then, I'm certainly not going to slaughter anyone for reacting to this stuff emotionally. But at the risk of patronising anyone, I think some of us maybe just need to take a minute and question whether there are really grounds to get so worked up.

I've not seen one comment that takes issue with Arne's putative appointment on the basis of his style or ability. 99% of the criticism has been based on experience to date: is the Dutch league better than the Portuguese league? Is ending a six-year wait for the title really an achievement? Are PSV really that good? How shit are Ajax?

Maybe it's understandable that folk are pawing at his record, because superficially it seems like a thing - and God knows we're all desperate to have something to get our teeth into to feel like we know where we are again after the bombshell of Jurgen leaving. But that kind of thinking is absolutely riddled with cognitive bias and subjectivity masquerading as objectivity. How a manager has performed at one club is influenced by far too many other things (ownership, resources, supporters, medical staff, facilities, expectations, scouting, players inherited, opposition, experience up to that point, etc....) to provide a reliable indication of whether they will succeed in the very specific role that our club has in mind (which, it's worth saying, we also know very little of - it's likely to be a different role to that which Jurgen is leaving, and I'm pretty sure most of us wouldn't have the faintest idea how Jurgen spent most of his time anyway).

Had he been demonstrably shite, then maybe. But he's obviously done 'well' everywhere he's been. Beyond that, none of us can really say anything based on CV alone. And those of you who say, even more specifically, that you want experience of winning x, y or z. Why? Evidently if the only people that won things were people who'd already won them then no-one else would win them. Not to get drawn in, because like I say it's a badly flawed metric, but (oh go on then...) Klopp hadn't won in Europe when he came here, and hadn't won in Germany when he took over Dortmund (ditto Guardiola when he took over Barca). All three were incredibly successful appointments in difficult leagues. On the other hand, Mourinho won plenty before being dreadful at Man U and Spurs.

'Ahh...' some will say, 'but those are all different'. YES! They are different! That's the whole point: each case is different and trying to simply 'apply proven winner' is an idiotic way to try and win things. Trying to be smart isn't just about trying to save money - it's about trying to spot the next thing to get in front of everyone else, and plainly the club have identified something in Arne they think will work. To my uninformed brain there's enough in that article The Final Third posted early this morning to make me think it could well be a great appointment.

Obviously it might not work out, but getting in a fume on the basis of CV alone just shows a staggering amount of overconfidence in your own ability to know how any of this works. The closest anyone's come to assessing him on him has been saying he sounds overly keen and concocting this entirely fictional image of him as some sort of sweaty-palmed dweeb our players will reject for telling us he fancies us rather than playing it cool (based on about ten seconds of interview).

Now, I've got absolutely no idea what goes through the mind of a professional footballer - I reckon they're all different - but neither do most of the people saying this. And I would, at least, expect they're used to actually judging managers by, y'know, their management. It sounds for all the world like he'll have an absolute field day with Trent; the idea that he'd suddenly want to jump ship just because the fella now in charge isn't a big enough name is laughable - he's the manager of Liverpool Football Club. How many managers are bigger than that any day of the week?

And frankly, if any of the current players do want someone with more GQ covers to their name then they can jog on and make room for those who actually want to play for this club, this set of fans and a guy who by all accounts inspires genuine respect and affection from his players.

Now, I'm not for one second saying we shouldn't discuss the merits - but, please, if we're going to do that then can we discuss the merits and not just rant about things that don't matter?

 

54

Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by Egyptian36 on Today at 03:25:52 pm »

Good grief.

Good post. Very well said.

55

Liverpool FC Forum / Re: LFC's next manager - chat and informed speculation

« Last post by Andy82lfc on Today at 03:25:40 pm »

Says the agent provocateur. The amount of fluffing you've done in here since that dark day in January, with your dodgy Twitter quotes and Joyce/Ornstein idolatry, you ought to be dragged out, tarred and feathered, put into the RAWK stocks and given a proper rotten tomato-ing.

And balded.

56

General Football and Sport / Re: Premier League Fixtures 27th - 28th February

« Last post by rob1966 on Today at 03:25:33 pm »

I debated whether to even start a thread this week. I've reported myself to the mods for being sloppy 

Did you go back to February to make yourself feel better too?

57

Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Darwin Núñez (Darwin Gabriel Núñez Ribeiro)

« Last post by Dench57 on Today at 03:24:12 pm »

I understand people calling hitting the woodwork "bad luck" as an easy turn of phrase, especially if it's a spectacular effort, but it's not really is it? You're hitting a stationary obstruction that never moves instead of putting the ball in the net. Is it just because it's very close to the target that it suddenly becomes luck rather than accuracy? If I go up against the best darts player or archer in the world and they hit the bullseye more than me, is that just them getting luckier than me?

58

General Football and Sport / Re: Man City - Cheating Bastards on & off the pitch - 115 Charges

« Last post by rob1966 on Today at 03:23:56 pm »

I don't think so, the likely thing would be they will see how the case ends. If found guilty that could well be another story.

Hopefully their is an investigator who is a Scouser and has decided to start digging in anyway. I remember one fella yonks ago talking about how he caught some fella in Liverpool and it was because he drove past a big house with a very expensive car outside and thought "how's he affording that?" and dug into his finances. Anyone switched on just looks as ADFC/115 charges and thinks "how are they affording this". With Mancini getting a UK and Adu Dhabi salary, there is the potential for some kind of tax fraud to be happening.

59

Liverpool FC Forum / Re: New Kit thread

« Last post by Jon2lfc on Today at 03:22:35 pm »

Looks even worse on the players

looks shit

there - i said it

can't remember a worse Home kit in living memory

the front looks like it's made of kevlar and doubles up as a bullet proof vest

60

General Football and Sport / Re: Man City - Cheating Bastards on & off the pitch - 115 Charges

« Last post by lobsterboy on Today at 03:22:09 pm »

Are the HMRC investigating them too sure i read that somewhere a bit back

HMRC?
The government department which shows little to no interest in the tax avoidance of the super rich, a department recently relocated into offices owned by the tax avoiding billionaire Reuben Brothers?
They won't do anything to Abu Dhabi.
UK Government and their donors won't allow it.