Got a hattrick against young boys I guess
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Well he reportedly said recently that he would like to move to a big club. I presume Jamie meant that his hat trick yesterday might get him a move to a big club.
Was clearing out old recordings on my satellite box, the Brazil v Germany world cup match was on it. Watched the first 30mins.
Forgot how ridiculous that match was, Brazil absolutely crumbled. I can't remember a match with so many crying fans either.
That's really interesting @Markeh but it's made me want to know more. What other shows did you find in your satellite box? Did you delete them all? Was there any other match you can help me remember?
So many questions!!
Anyone know how good these two guys are and would they improve our midfield?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/31559332
In an age of 5bn TV contracts, fining clubs 30 grand as a means of breaching the rules seems bizarre.
In an age of 5bn TV contracts, fining clubs 30 grand as a means of breaching the rules seems bizarre.
Not for the first time incidentally. If we played them tomorrow things might well be different, but we actually have a very good record against them.
There are several Ice Rinks in the north.
Is this another thing I'll have to bring up in the Tayto Wars thread??????
There are several Ice Rinks in the north.
Is this another thing I'll have to bring up in the Tayto Wars thread??????
Well seeing how desperate you have become you probably will.
It's not me mate - the truth is so desperate to come out that I have merely become it's conduit.
Fabio Cannavaro sentenced to jail for 10 months.
Seems harsh for going for a swim.
Sammy Lee and Bolton chairman in court on perjury and fraud charges.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/11817209.display/
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/11817209.display/
Looking forward to him hitting 18 games for the direct comparison.
According to a lot of people his record doesn't matter, he's clearly a success because they're top 4. Thinking that way Moyes was clearly a success too, other teams just happened to be playing better.
Poor Brendan just doesn't know how to dress. The weird shirt/tie combos are bad enough, but here he is with a dinner jacket and no bow tie. Hopeless!
And he looks like he's about to faint!
To be fair, they both look like they're going to faint.
And the pocket square of the guy to the right seems to have similar problems like him. No wonder if you're standing next to a 'rack' like the one on his left. No wonder he's eyeing the Queen's!
Why wait till 18? You can start comparing now too.
Van Gaal: 13 away games; 3W, 7D, 3L - 16F, 16A, 16/39 pts
Moyes : 13 away games, 6W, 3D, 4L - 23F, 19A, 21/39 pts
Have said before, Van Gaal's being saved by his home record so far (second best in the league). We're now just waiting for their form at Old Trafford to crumble. 3 of their last 6 home games are against top 7 clubs (Spurs, City and Arsenal).
An end of season collapse for United would be ideal... Their fans have been relatively subdued this season in my experience - they know theyre still playing shite and not competing how they want to but arent giving out much stick as they know they're on the cusp of falling away. Given all the stick we got for "only doing well cos we weren't in Europe" I can't wait until they take a few defeats and are left under serious pressure.
http://www.theguardian.com/football...m-david-sullivan-sam-allardyce-power-struggle
West Ham’s marriage of convenience threatened by struggle for power
David Sullivan believes club’s improvement is down to his decision to take responsibility for transfers but his manager, Sam Allardyce, is not convinced
David Hytner
Friday 27 February 2015 12.00 GMT
David Sullivan was relaxed, brimming with characteristic conviction and in the mood to give himself a pat on the back. It was Christmas time, West Ham United were fifth in the Premier League before the derby visit of Arsenal and the club’s co-chairman was larging it on the sofa of Sky TV’s Soccer AM show.
“The longer you are in the game and the longer you’ve had the manager, you get involved more and more,” Sullivan said. “Because when you see your money wasted year after year, you think: ‘I could do as good as that.’
“And you really can, you know. I know that sounds daft but if you’ve had 20 years of buying players, seeing money spent … they’re not geniuses, managers.”
It is not difficult to imagine how that went down with Sam Allardyce, Sullivan’s current manager and another man who is not known for being a shy and retiring type. Two weeks ago Allardyce said there was no more sophisticated coach in the league than him. In short he was furious. It is never a good look to have your employer suggest you are little more than an interchangeable patsy.
On 18 January, after Allardyce’s team had beaten Hull City 3-0 at Upton Park, he was asked a general question about the club’s improvement this season. “There’s one thing to realise – recruitment is everything in the world of football,” Allardyce said. “You recruit well, you become a great manager. Our recruitment this year has been fantastic. It’s the best I’ve had in my entire career.”
Allardyce meant it. From back to front, Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Cresswell, Alex Song, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia have made important contributions. But at the same time it was hard not to wonder whether Allardyce was seeking to make some sort of coded point to Sullivan.
Here is the conflict at the heart of West Ham: the power struggle between the two men who control the football side of the club. Sullivan believes the improvement is down to him, specifically his decision to take responsibility for player transfers. Allardyce clearly is not having any of that but the upshot is he remains unclear over his continued employment.
Allardyce is out of contract at the end of the season and Sullivan will decide then, and not before, whether to keep him. Perhaps he is showing Allardyce who is boss but it is a remarkable situation given how the season has gone so far. West Ham have already hit all of their pre-season targets – they are eighth and safe, the stadium is sold out and they are playing better football. But the Sullivan-Allardyce dynamic is the fly in the ointment.
Sullivan, who talks and reacts like a fan, has not forgotten Allardyce’s infamous ear-cupping gesture at the Upton Park crowd after the win over Hull last March or how he felt at the end of last season when the team had limped home in 13th place, with 40 points and 40 goals. Sullivan gave vent to his emotions at a commercial dinner in which he stunned attendees, including the players, by laying into them and Allardyce in a speech. The feeling persists that Allardyce is far from being Sullivan’s ideal manager, that theirs is a marriage of mere convenience.
West Ham cannot countenance a relegation as they prepare to enter the Olympic Stadium in 2016-17 – and reap the incredible riches which that will bring – and Allardyce is surely the man to preserve their status even if it might not always be an aesthetic feast.
The uneasy situation has led to rumours and manoeuvring, with the Besiktas manager, Slaven Bilic, being linked as a potential successor to Allardyce. The charismatic Croatian, who is a former West Ham playing favourite, ticks a lot of boxes.
It was also interesting to hear well-connected figures within the game seeking to push Allardyce’s credentials for the Aston Villa job after Paul Lambert’s sacking this month and before Tim Sherwood’s appointment. For the record Villa were not keen.
Song and Sakho have been the biggest successes of the Upton Park recruitment drive of last summer and, during his Soccer AM appearance, Sullivan made it clear that he was central to the deals, particularly the one for Sakho.
“If the manager wants a player that you particularly like … for example, Alex Song, then you go the extra mile because you love the player and you break your wage limits and your budgets,” Sullivan said. “I chose Sakho, for my sins. I was recommended to him by Karren Brady’s brother [in December 2013] and we followed him.
“Sam hadn’t got a target that he wanted so I said: ‘As much as you don’t want Sakho, I want him, so let’s take him.’ And he said: ‘All right then.’ I think had he got someone else he wouldn’t have taken him and Sakho wouldn’t be a West Ham player.”
Sullivan has admitted Sakho, who played at Metz in the French second division last season and had been the club’s fall-back option behind Connor Wickham – who could not be prised away from Sunderland – was a “complete gamble.”
Some you win, some you lose. West Ham, for example, lost with Modibo Maïga who they signed from Sochaux in 2012 for £4.7m. There are similarities between the strikers but whereas Maïga flopped at West Ham, Sakho has thrived. He has scored 11 goals so far and the £3.5m fee has come to look like a bargain.
The margins are fine at the highest level and they certainly were for Allardyce at the end of last season when Sullivan chaired a board meeting to discuss whether to sack him. In the end, West Ham retained him for three key reasons.
There was the lack of a compelling alternative – Steve McClaren was the best name they came up with – the fact that Allardyce had not lost the dressing room and the financial implications of dismissing him.
It would have cost the club £2.5m to pay up the final year on his contract and a further £1.5m for his backroom staff, plus the money for a new manager and coaching team.
It is extremely difficult to second-guess Sullivan, to read the ongoing battle between his head and his heart. The former knows results are the most important thing while the latter wonders whether the grass could be greener with a different manager. Dare he roll the dice with the Olympic Stadium move looming?
Sullivan has noted how eight of West Ham’s final nine matches are against teams that are placed 10th and below in the table. He believes they are winnable, that a strong finish is there for the taking.
Allardyce faces another day of reckoning.
West Ham’s marriage of convenience threatened by struggle for power
David Sullivan believes club’s improvement is down to his decision to take responsibility for transfers but his manager, Sam Allardyce, is not convinced
David Hytner
Friday 27 February 2015 12.00 GMT
David Sullivan was relaxed, brimming with characteristic conviction and in the mood to give himself a pat on the back. It was Christmas time, West Ham United were fifth in the Premier League before the derby visit of Arsenal and the club’s co-chairman was larging it on the sofa of Sky TV’s Soccer AM show.
“The longer you are in the game and the longer you’ve had the manager, you get involved more and more,” Sullivan said. “Because when you see your money wasted year after year, you think: ‘I could do as good as that.’
“And you really can, you know. I know that sounds daft but if you’ve had 20 years of buying players, seeing money spent … they’re not geniuses, managers.”
It is not difficult to imagine how that went down with Sam Allardyce, Sullivan’s current manager and another man who is not known for being a shy and retiring type. Two weeks ago Allardyce said there was no more sophisticated coach in the league than him. In short he was furious. It is never a good look to have your employer suggest you are little more than an interchangeable patsy.
On 18 January, after Allardyce’s team had beaten Hull City 3-0 at Upton Park, he was asked a general question about the club’s improvement this season. “There’s one thing to realise – recruitment is everything in the world of football,” Allardyce said. “You recruit well, you become a great manager. Our recruitment this year has been fantastic. It’s the best I’ve had in my entire career.”
Allardyce meant it. From back to front, Carl Jenkinson, Aaron Cresswell, Alex Song, Cheikhou Kouyaté, Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia have made important contributions. But at the same time it was hard not to wonder whether Allardyce was seeking to make some sort of coded point to Sullivan.
Here is the conflict at the heart of West Ham: the power struggle between the two men who control the football side of the club. Sullivan believes the improvement is down to him, specifically his decision to take responsibility for player transfers. Allardyce clearly is not having any of that but the upshot is he remains unclear over his continued employment.
Allardyce is out of contract at the end of the season and Sullivan will decide then, and not before, whether to keep him. Perhaps he is showing Allardyce who is boss but it is a remarkable situation given how the season has gone so far. West Ham have already hit all of their pre-season targets – they are eighth and safe, the stadium is sold out and they are playing better football. But the Sullivan-Allardyce dynamic is the fly in the ointment.
Sullivan, who talks and reacts like a fan, has not forgotten Allardyce’s infamous ear-cupping gesture at the Upton Park crowd after the win over Hull last March or how he felt at the end of last season when the team had limped home in 13th place, with 40 points and 40 goals. Sullivan gave vent to his emotions at a commercial dinner in which he stunned attendees, including the players, by laying into them and Allardyce in a speech. The feeling persists that Allardyce is far from being Sullivan’s ideal manager, that theirs is a marriage of mere convenience.
West Ham cannot countenance a relegation as they prepare to enter the Olympic Stadium in 2016-17 – and reap the incredible riches which that will bring – and Allardyce is surely the man to preserve their status even if it might not always be an aesthetic feast.
The uneasy situation has led to rumours and manoeuvring, with the Besiktas manager, Slaven Bilic, being linked as a potential successor to Allardyce. The charismatic Croatian, who is a former West Ham playing favourite, ticks a lot of boxes.
It was also interesting to hear well-connected figures within the game seeking to push Allardyce’s credentials for the Aston Villa job after Paul Lambert’s sacking this month and before Tim Sherwood’s appointment. For the record Villa were not keen.
Song and Sakho have been the biggest successes of the Upton Park recruitment drive of last summer and, during his Soccer AM appearance, Sullivan made it clear that he was central to the deals, particularly the one for Sakho.
“If the manager wants a player that you particularly like … for example, Alex Song, then you go the extra mile because you love the player and you break your wage limits and your budgets,” Sullivan said. “I chose Sakho, for my sins. I was recommended to him by Karren Brady’s brother [in December 2013] and we followed him.
“Sam hadn’t got a target that he wanted so I said: ‘As much as you don’t want Sakho, I want him, so let’s take him.’ And he said: ‘All right then.’ I think had he got someone else he wouldn’t have taken him and Sakho wouldn’t be a West Ham player.”
Sullivan has admitted Sakho, who played at Metz in the French second division last season and had been the club’s fall-back option behind Connor Wickham – who could not be prised away from Sunderland – was a “complete gamble.”
Some you win, some you lose. West Ham, for example, lost with Modibo Maïga who they signed from Sochaux in 2012 for £4.7m. There are similarities between the strikers but whereas Maïga flopped at West Ham, Sakho has thrived. He has scored 11 goals so far and the £3.5m fee has come to look like a bargain.
The margins are fine at the highest level and they certainly were for Allardyce at the end of last season when Sullivan chaired a board meeting to discuss whether to sack him. In the end, West Ham retained him for three key reasons.
There was the lack of a compelling alternative – Steve McClaren was the best name they came up with – the fact that Allardyce had not lost the dressing room and the financial implications of dismissing him.
It would have cost the club £2.5m to pay up the final year on his contract and a further £1.5m for his backroom staff, plus the money for a new manager and coaching team.
It is extremely difficult to second-guess Sullivan, to read the ongoing battle between his head and his heart. The former knows results are the most important thing while the latter wonders whether the grass could be greener with a different manager. Dare he roll the dice with the Olympic Stadium move looming?
Sullivan has noted how eight of West Ham’s final nine matches are against teams that are placed 10th and below in the table. He believes they are winnable, that a strong finish is there for the taking.
Allardyce faces another day of reckoning.
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