Premier League 2021/22

[hugobomb]

I can vouch for Lee Clark being shit. 1 home win in a year and took us to within two minutes of relegation. We were so bad at home I distinctly remember looking up our last few fixtures during the run in and seeing the last game of season and saying "oh thank christ we're away! We've got a chance"

[Adam]

42 minutes ago, hugobomb said:

I can vouch for Lee Clark being shit. 1 home win in a year and took us to within two minutes of relegation. We were so bad at home I distinctly remember looking up our last few fixtures during the run in and seeing the last game of season and saying "oh thank christ we're away! We've got a chance"

You only stayed up because Paul Dickov refused to play for a draw in our penultimate defeat at home to Reading. That and Riyad Mahrez (whatever happened to him?) diving to earn a penalty that won Leicester the final game 1-0 against us.

Lee Clark sprinting down that touchline after Caddis' goal...seldom has a manager less deserved to have a celebratory moment like that. At least we got him the sack from Bury a few years later by beating them...I guess.

Even my Blyth Spartans-supporting housemate says Clark was an awful manager for them, in the National North.

[hugobomb]

43 minutes ago, Adam said:

You only stayed up because Paul Dickov refused to play for a draw in our penultimate defeat at home to Reading. That and Riyad Mahrez (whatever happened to him?) diving to earn a penalty that won Leicester the final game 1-0 against us.

Lee Clark sprinting down that touchline after Caddis' goal...seldom has a manager less deserved to have a celebratory moment like that. At least we got him the sack from Bury a few years later by beating them...I guess.

Even my Blyth Spartans-supporting housemate says Clark was an awful manager for them, in the National North.

Didn't you go down with a points total that would have saved you in most other seasons? I remember reading articles saying that whoever went down would consider themselves very unlucky. 

 

It's still a toss up between Clark and Zola as regards to who was the worst Birmingham manager in my lifetime. It took Clark two years to take us from the playoffs to near relegation, Zola did it (well just outside the playoffs when he arrived) in four months before we turned to 'Arry.

 

Though now that I think about it, my uncle might argue Barry Fry might have been worse, Clark and Zola nearly got us relegated to the 3rd tier, Fry actually did it (then got us back up and kept us there so he has that in his favour).

[Adam]

31 minutes ago, hugobomb said:

Didn't you go down with a points total that would have saved you in most other seasons? I remember reading articles saying that whoever went down would consider themselves very unlucky. 

It was bad luck and naive management that took us down. We looked safe 5-6 games from the end but kept narrowly losing. 44 points in the end so not a massive points tally or anything. But ourselves and Birmingham had identical W/D/L records and we conceded less goals than you, just scored a dozen less. Dickov ironically could never figure out how to get strikers scoring goals.

We had some good players that year too. Federico Macheda, Gabriel Tamas, Lucas Neill, Billy Sharp were all there, and we still had Richie Wellens and James Coppinger too.

[hugobomb]

16 minutes ago, Adam said:

It was bad luck and naive management that took us down. We looked safe 5-6 games from the end but kept narrowly losing. 44 points in the end so not a massive points tally or anything. But ourselves and Birmingham had identical W/D/L records and we conceded less goals than you, just scored a dozen less. Dickov ironically could never figure out how to get strikers scoring goals.

We had some good players that year too. Federico Macheda, Gabriel Tamas, Lucas Neill, Billy Sharp were all there, and we still had Richie Wellens and James Coppinger too.

Ah, turns out I'm confusing you for Peterborough the season before who went down on 54 points. Which they season you went down would have been good enough for 16th!

 

[Lineker]

 

[Naitch]

On 04/01/2022 at 11:35, stokeriño said:

Now I'm trying to think who the best coach has been out of Chelsea players from the 90s (not counting the player-managers from the time).

Steve Clarke? Di Matteo?

I have a suspicion that the answer might secretly be Jody Morris.

I think you're forgetting World Cup winning Didier Deschamps...

Dan Petrescu seems to have a surprisingly good managerial honours record on Wikipedia, considering he's only lasted three years in a job once.

 

[Matt]

From the early 90s we've got Gary Mac and WGS, I guess Strachan had his moments but for the most part neither were great. Speedo looked like he was going to be decent. From the latter 90s Bowyer is doing well, Woodgate and Hasselbaink have been shit, Judas Scumcunt has been abysmal as far as I'm aware and I think that's about it unless Olivier Dacourt is out there managing in Ligue 2 or something.

[Adam]

Hasselbaink's a good manager, done a great job at Burton two separate times.

[Lineker]

Quote

The Premier League is dropping twice-weekly PCR testing for Covid-19 on all players and staff, the PA news agency understands.

From Thursday clubs will continue to conduct daily lateral flow tests (LFTs) on training days but PCR tests will only be taken to confirm a positive lateral flow result.

The move away from routine PCR testing is understood to have been made completely independently of the change in the Government's approach to testing and isolation.

The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) announced on Wednesday that from January 11 an asymptomatic individual who tested positive for Covid-19 on an LFT would no longer need to take a PCR test to confirm the result, and that their
period of isolation would begin on the date of the positive LFT.

The league will adopt the new rules on isolation for asymptomatic individuals when they come into force, rather than starting the isolation period when the result of the follow-up PCR is known.

On December 14, the Premier League introduced the requirement for daily lateral flow testing and twice-weekly PCR tests to combat the threat posed by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.

Prior to that, clubs had been conducting twice-weekly lateral flow tests and only using PCRs to confirm positive cases.

The league announced on Monday that 14,250 Covid-19 tests were administered on players and club staff between December 27 and January 2, out of which 94 (0.65 per cent) were positive. This was the first decrease in eight weeks, with 103 positives recorded the previous week.

 

[DavidMarrio]

I see City are announcing more sponsorships with questionable ties to its current owners....

[The Lusophone]

It's fine, I'm sure the Premier League has some "binding legal assurances" from Man City that everything is above board...

[DavidMarrio]

42 minutes ago, MadJack said:

It's fine, I'm sure the Premier League has some "binding legal assurances" from Man City that everything is above board...

It's merely a coincidence that there is a guy with the exact same name as me. 

[Lineker]

 

[Adam]

Arsenal have requested their game with Spurs be postponed now.

I really feel that clubs are starting to take the mess with this a bit. Unless a team has a certain amount of positive Covid cases I think they need to start making them play, the fixture schedule is going to be a right mess come the back end of the season.

[Benjamin]

Burnley now have 4 games to reschedule, Leicester, Everton & Arsenal have 3, a bunch of teams have 2. What a mess. 

[DavidMarrio]

Arsenal can't play without Mane or Salah clearly

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I bloody love Conor Gallagher, get the man back in blue next season.

[Chris2K]

I'm expecting the NL derby to go ahead, and Arsenal to win, because Spurs.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Palace would be 6th if they'd stop throwing away points, think they've drawn five times from winning positions.