britneyspearsisgod

Well, if you are going to loan someone from Manchester City, you have to expect a large outlay. I don't think he'll offer much difference for West Ham to be honest. Typical "well, he's English and played for the national team so he should be good". Especially considering his wages, there are better targets out there.

Be fair to West Ham - after that first half performance, Birmingham had no choice BUT to perform better. Plus losing Obina to a stupid red card had put them on the back foot for a while. And as I say that, West Ham score. Bad by Foster, but the defending by Birmingham has been dire tonight.

So, I took on U.D. Vecindario of Gran Canaria, Spain. 9th place in Spain's Segunda B-1, I am just going to piss about and have fun with this. With that in mind, they've magically been bought out by a very rich Spanish man and I will strive to create a team of pure dominance I also have a Bristol Rovers game where I took over them lying in 24th. Bottom of the table, but I know how to get them going so it's no big deal.

As a one-off tournament, I see no problem here. It's a bit of nostalgia and gives fans something to gear up for. Whoever the new England manager is at that point, it'd be a great boost for the country if they get one over their rivals. I think it's a nice idea. As a re-occurring event, it depends on how regular it was. Every four years would be alright. Every two years would be a push, but not every year. All of the nations need to play a variety of teams to keep their standards up.

Liverpool lost again, so I got bored and went back to my stellar Bristol Rovers game. Except I overwrote the wrong game and now that Liverpool game has taken over Liverpool are ruining me

I look forward to seeing him at the Mem Now I just need to see Bristol City get relegated

In the interpretations of the law? Probably reason to give a penalty. In terms of simulation and honesty? No fucking way. Berbatov dived. Minimal contact at best. Is it right? Nope.

Bristol Rovers appoint Dave Penney as manager. By all accounts, not overly disappointed by this. He's got the experience for our predicament at the moment to help galvanize the team and move them forward. If he's on a short-term deal, then it may work out well for us. If he does well, do what we can to keep him. If not, we get someone else in to rebuild. I'm pleased and hope he can have a positive affect on the team. Adam from Doncaster (AdamDRFC), you have experienced his management of your team. Tell me - what can we expect from him? Also, in sadder news, Macclesfield Town's Richard Butcher has died at the age of 29. Found on Sunday morning whilst the wife was away. Such a shame for his family and the club, seeing as they lost Keith Alexander 10 months ago too. My condolences to his family and friends. CREDIT: BBC SPORT

Managing a piss-poor Liverpool who can't compete against Man Utd and Chelsea but also fail to motivate themselves to beat Bolton and Wolves. Thus, Liverpool lie 10th. Although this is an improvement on where I took control of them, which was 12th. The annoying thing is my attack is getting good, but the entire team can't defend a lead for shit and just don't care. I have never managed a game where I want to punch things with such regular occurrence

Enough to lose your balance Berbatov? A gust of wind is enough you flimsy git. I am still amazed about the penalty. It took about a full second for Berbatov to fall down. Still. Liverpool played with more heart than before, so thinks look up. With the extra man, you feel like it would have been a different game.

NOW we have a game on our hands! Good work from Pepe Reina on those saves. Liverpool need to make a push if they want to take this back to Anfield. I can't help but feel if they had the extra player on the pitch then they would be back on terms. And apparently Owen may be coming on. Talk about kicking them when they're down, Fergie >_<

As said before, Dalglish is a stop gap to help boost morale until NSV decide what to do and try to get someone to come in with a clear plan and vision for the future. Roy did what he did and never managed to sort the job out. I see no harm in Kenny taking over for the time being and giving them a boost. Besides, if it works, great. If not, they get someone else to do the job. Morale can't certainly get any worse as it stands.

I have no sympathy for Hodgson in his inability to show any adaptation and his surprisingly poor man management skills, but Houllier by no means deserves the shit he is getting. This may sound contradictory, but a manager always needs time to implement his style on a club. And where as Roy has managed to alienate the entire club by his own will, Houllier has got on with his job without question. Houllier is by no means a bad manager. Neither is Roy. But Houllier put a lot into redeveloping Liverpool (including the famed "Melwood" Academy, if not in function then at least in actual basis), has been involved in successful French national teams and has helped lead Lyon to Ligue 1 championships. That's not winning a bunch of Scandinavian leagues - that's proper success. Houllier is bring a style he knows works (and has proven to work - maybe not to the greatest level of success, but for Villa's level it will work) and only fails because players have shown no desire to adapt. Both teams are full of players who have given up, but at least Aston Villa's players have the ability to turn it around if they wouldn't be so spoilt and learn to adapt to a new style. Liverpool have much bigger malaise in their squad and whereas Benitez managed to turn water into wine, Roy has managed to turn water into mud and expects the village to still admire him. Again, it seems contradictory. In fact, it is. There's nothing to say that both managers shouldn't just adapt to their players and forget trying to change a set-up set in it's ways. But Roy isn't doing that - he's isn't actually evolving Liverpool in any sense of the word and doesn't grasp the actual meaning of the club. Houllier, however, is attempting to evolve Villa. And he deserves his time to do that. A couple of extra players in the January window, a couple of wins on the board and Villa will turn it around and move up. All Liverpool need to do is dispense of Roy Hodgson's services and let Kenny Dalglish take over until the end of the season. By no means does it solve any problems, but it certainly will appease a lot of people for now. That "new manager" feeling and initial string of wins are exactly what Liverpool could do with right now.

So WorldSoccer says Ben Arfa has signed permanently with Newcastle. Good deal for them, I say.

This isn't MLS, but it has a relations. What is going on with the NASL and USL situation? There's a strange situation going on underneath the top league over there.

Inter have confirmed Rafa Benitez has been sacked. Well. That was short-lived, wasn't it

Bristol Rovers fans call the rival Bristol City fans "The Shit". As in Bristol Shitty, not City. I still wonder if a Mr. Wok came up with that one

Bristol Rovers need a manager first, but when that gets sorted I'd like for them to find three things: - GOALKEEPER: Now, we have Mikkel Andersen on loan from Reading (yet again). Mikkel is a fantastic keeper with a great future ahead of him. However, whether Reading would like him to stay out on loan to us (or, indeed, if Mikkel even WANTS to stay with us until the end of the season) is another matter. We have no suitable back-up either, aside from Mike Green who has constantly been kept as back-up to anybody they could find to put in-between the sticks. Green has a disadvantage of being relatively short for a goalkeeper (under 6ft makes it difficult) and not being particularly trusted to go with it. Now, he either needs to just be thrown in there and trusted with the role or we need to do whatever we can to at least keep Andersen there until the end of the season. - MIDFIELDER: We struggle to retain the ball and control the game from the centre of midfield. Chris Lines, aside from being a coke-head drunk, makes good attacking runs forward at times but can drift out of games a lot (he's a good player when determined, but often lets the lifestyle go before him, as do a lot of the players sadly). Wayne Brown is in need of blending in still and adapting to anything but Fulham reserves (and blending into the team more). Stuart Campbell is our Captain Fantastic, but he is getting on and his legs are starting to go. We can't keep relying on him for much longer. Jeff Hughes can play in the centre, but he's a winger primarily and keeps making many poor passes and little mistakes that leave us vulnerable. And then we have Dominic Blizzard who, for some reason, has shown himself to be completely lightweight and not up to task. Whether that was down to the manager not getting the best out of him however, I don't know. Now, we had the very capable Harry Pell, Charlie Clough and Charlie Reece, who are all young enough to start training in the fashion we can expect. However, he ARE young and we can't guarantee they will be the type of players to solve this problem. Lots of youngsters, given the chance, could probably step up. We certainly aren't going to buy players any time soon, so this may be the best time to get them playing. Given that we have just gone into the relegation zone however, we might just need someone with a bit more balls. This, again, is the problem. If we don't buy someone, then there aren't many other options beside loaning in a younger player. This may be the best option: a young, top prospect from a Premiership club (note that: PREMIERSHIP. Not Championship, Premiership) in need of games. Bristol is a bit like a "Smaller London", so I don't see why Arsenal couldn't give us one of their kiddies. The problem with this is dependant on who the new manager is. If it's someone without the contacts, then we are buggered. Ideally though, I would like to see a youngster from one of the top 5 clubs who can even teach our players a few new tricks. - FORWARD: We could do with that big, tall fucker at the top of the pitch. However, I don't think this would really solve too much (aside from always being an option, which is never a bad thing). We have a very capable player in Will Hosksins and utilized correctly Jo Kuffor can prove effective. John Akinde has raw talent but needs developing, something we could only do with the right coaching set-up (not a guarantee), so it may be better for him to go back to Bristol City. If we can find a left-sided forward, it may be a good thing for us, meaning we can throw the three strikers (New Guy, Hoskins, Kuffor) up front and have a 4-3-3/4-5-1 set up. However, the forwards need the service more than anything. In total, we need to sort the goalkeeper and midfielder situations out first. An extra forward would be a bonus and a defender would be fantastic. But as long as we can sort out the goalkeeper and midfield, then I'll be happy.

So, the big news out of Bristol Rovers is that we sacked Paul Trollope after falling into the relegation zone. It's a risky situation. By no means has Trolls been perfect, but this kind of decision can go both ways. We are at a crossroads at the club - a stadium that won't materialize and debts continue to pile up. We need to solidify ourselves in this division. I feel like it's going to be a return to the problems of before (struggle and strife at the bottom of the league) unless we get this right. Sadly, I don't trust our board to do that. But, they did it with Trollope before so maybe they'll do it again? Whatever happens, thank you Paul Trollope for the work you have done. You worked hard and I hope you can take everything you learned at the Mem and move forward in your career. Good luck and thank you

They'll push for Hughton. You'll see. Quite frankly, I find it absolutely ridiculous to get rid of Allardyce in the first place. He's not the "flamboyant" manager people seem to want these days, but he gets the job done. Now you can't even do that to keep a job in football these days. What does a guy have to do? I wouldn't be surprised to see Big Sam actually go overseas for his next job. Bundesliga could be a great place for him to flex his managerial muscles.

It took me 5 minutes of searching the Real Madrid website to realize you were making a joke

The hatred thrown at him because he sacked Keegan? I am not too surprised he wouldn't be a fan of Newcastle. I happen to believe he just knows fuck all about football, myself.

Seeing as it was my team they whooped before Pardew was sacked - which I also made a mistake on: they beat Bristol Rovers 4-0 - I pay particularly close attention to League One. As said, the first season they would have hit the play-off's, if not for the points deduction. They had every chance of success the following season. The next season, they had only played 3 league games when Pardew was sacked. They lost to Plymouth the first day, they drew with Leyton Orient and then proceeded to down Bristol Rovers. Say what you will, but 3 games is hardly enough time to cast judgement on a manger in the next season. From what I can recall, Southampton's owner Markus Liebher was a big supporter of Pardew, but the rest of the boardroom were not. Thus, when Markus died in August, it gave them an opening to sack him. They subsequently went on a win-less streak of four games before they claimed a win. Now, Nigel Adkins has done a good job of stabilizing them and they lie 8th. I'm sure they will be in contention for a play-off place this season. The point made here is that while Pardew is hardly the man to take Newcastle United forward, his record at Southampton was by no means bad. I think they had every chance of succeeding under him in returning to the Championship. I will say his performances as West Ham United manager and Charlton Athletic manager will prove however that he might not be suitable for a top-half Premiership team, which is what I imagine Mike Ashley envisions Newcastle to be.

In fairness to Pardew, he was sacked by Southampton after beating Bristol Rovers 4-1 and was on course to do a decent job with them. Also, don't forget that, yes, West Ham were relegated with him, but they also gained promotion with him. Saying that, this is a ridiculous move by Ashley and only goes to show he's a small time player more interested in flaunting his status as Newcastle United Chairman than actually doing something to benefit the club. Chris Hughton was doing a great job and had no need to be released. If Ashley really felt they were going to get relegated under him, then it seems he doesn't know much about football. Pardew is no more a better choice than Hughton and I fail to see how this benefits the club. With a locker room full of aggressive personalities, Hughton's calm and measured approach seemed to gain the best out of the players around him. Pardew is by no means calm and measured - will his approach work? I wouldn't write him off, but I can't honestly see it working any better.

Yes. I know. But saying 'oh well it's happened before, might as well let in continue' is bollocks, and I think you probably know it. I'm not saying "it happened before, let it continue". I agree that it is bollocks. What I am saying is that if it can help bring a new era to these nations and help them grow for the better, then good. A strange choice is Qatar, sure. The weather is a factor. But the fuckers live over there and survive, so why can't we send 23 players to play a game of football and survive? I'm sure there will be ways to come around it. I am sad we don't have the World Cup coming in 2018. We could have made it a great tournament. But, now there will be children in the Middle East who can forget about the shit they have to deal with and see a World Cup in their own lifetime. Kids in Russia who get to see a World Cup in their lifetime. Forgetting the politics, I can consider that a good thing. And, as I said, if it can foster change for the good, then congrats.