World Football Thread XVIII: The Beckham has Landed

[TheStinger]

I'd like to see if Stile's bank acct has had any recent rouble deposits

[Agathon]

I told you that Jol would be first on the block, and now it seems to be happening.

A shambles it is.... a shambles...

[Cort Haus]

Sacking a manager after 3 games and £40 million is crazy. I'm a bit worried about this Ramos character from Sevilla. He sounds good.

[LordShiva]

Sending off and banning players for headbutting

[Cort Haus]

From a Spurs message board :

"What's the big deal? This is simply business as usual for Spurs. On and on and on and on and on it goes. Year after year after year. On and on and on. It is absof**kinglutely endemic. You might as well ask a cow not to moo or the sun not to shine as expect Spurs to be move forward in an orderly fashion.


I mean, Spurs must be almost unparalleled in world football in terms of perpetual shambles, infighting, political power struggles, lack of continuity, false dawns, inverse relationship between potential and delivery, self-destruction and general chaos.

Unbelievable. But at least, as an earlier poster mentioned, we have our Tottenham back. That's something, because if Spurs were ever to get their act together it would be like the light streams crossing in Ghostbusters - it would cause a massive rift in the time-space continuum and the universe would emplode and collapse in on itself, unable to hold itself together under the massive pressure of the natural order being so horribly *****ed up.

Welcome to the next 20 years of your life boys and girls. "

I'm not opening a can of schadenfreude yet, though - for the reasons I gave above.

[CerberusIV]

To sum up this season's Premiership then;

The big four will fill the top four positions at the end of the season (again).

Big Sam will fail to deliver for Newcastle - and the Toon army will be able to continue their endless fantasy about how good the team might be some day.

Middlesborough are doomed. Probably with Wigan and West Ham.

Sunderland will pull off a few shocks and finish comfortably mid-table.

Sven will prove to be a competent club manager - which again raises the question about how useless the tw@ts running the FA are and confirms that the England team will not win anything in the near future (next 30 years).

Anyone else care to make a few predictions?

[Thedrin]

which again raises the question about how useless the tw@ts running the FA are and confirms that the England team will not win anything in the near future (next 30 years).

I think the major problem there is the perception of what type of manager should manage the national side. A manager who has achieved success while wielding large budgets - a manager whose teams consistently play in Europe and have a large enough financial base to allow them to survive a few years without success - should not be assumed to be a good manager at international level. The likes of Allardyce and Redknapp - managers who have surpassed expectations on limited budgets through astute tactics and good judgement in the transfer market - should be the first choice for the national side.

Of course, the point about incompetence in the FA isn't groundless. By the above criteria, McClaren was probably the worst choice of the English managers of Premiership clubs when he was appointed.

[Cort Haus]

I agree that Fat Sam and 'arry would be potential candidates - though success on limited budgets in the transfer market usually means not buying many English players.

[Thedrin]

So? The purpose is that you can find adequate players. As a national manager you'll have little problem gettting the very best players of the appropriate nationality to join you - not something that can be said for Portsmouth and Bolton. What you need is a manager who is capable of creating winning sides by selecting the most appropriate players - who knows the qualities he wants from every position and is an apt judge of which players from his little changing and limited pool meet his requirements. He can't simply go out into the transfer market and spend 20 million to get a Brazilian or an Italian a new passport.

The likes of Allardyce and Redknapp tend to bring in foreign players because they're cheaper - you get better bargains if you search the world than if you search a single country. Their transfer history is a matter of economics which has little bearing on how a national manager works.

[Colon™]

There aren't always appropriate players available of a quality similar to players available to other positions. A national team may have excellent strikers and midfielders but weak defenders. When you have such imbalances at club level, you can simply purchase the necessary players. Remember a chain is only as strong its weakest link. Not all managers are capable of dealing with such imbalances.

[Asmodean]

I hate Ireland

[Maquiladora]

I think it's time for Robinson to go

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Asmodean
I hate Ireland

We were due a good performance - Denmark's bad luck it happened tonight.

Now they need to do it for real against the Czech Republic and Slovakia

[CerberusIV]

Originally posted by Maquiladora
I think it's time for Robinson to go

And??? You want David James back perhaps?

Then again....

[Maquiladora]

Originally posted by CerberusIV

And??? You want David James back perhaps?

Then again....

Him or Foster, I've seen bad mistakes from Foster too though. I've just come to the conclusion we don't have any world class keepers available right now.