Official Coca Cola Leagues Thread 07/08

[Matt]

I'm so happy Watford got dicked so i wish to embrace TAFKA in a hug to celebrate. ({)

The Dads Army put on a good performance yesterday beating a Gillingham side who look destined for the drop already, they were poor. Furlong finally showed glimpses of why we brought him in, whilst Drew Talbot is proving to be a good buy. With David Bell and David Edwards in midfield, along with Matt Spring and Darren Currie, i beleive we have one of, if not the best midfield in the league. A fantastic mix of youth and experience. I'm happy.

Alan Thompson, Johnny Douglas, Dave Prutton, Curtis Weston, Seb Carole, Ian Westlake, Shaun Derry and Andy Hughes all beg to differ, and a few youths (plus Gylfi Einarsson) too. That being said, it is a strong midfield you have under the OAP specialist, you're likely to make the play-off's minimum if that midfield stay fit and in form.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

im calling it now Leicester/Ipswich playoff final. And yes lets embrace.

[Adam]

Neil Warnock is emerging as the Doncaster Rovers fans choice to replace under-fire Sean O'Driscoll. The former Sheffield United manager is leading the poll running on this website.

O'Driscoll again criticised the fans on Saturday after his side again failed to win. Rovers have only managed 4 wins from the last 21 league matches.

Yes, please! (Y)

[Matt]

I'm 50/50, we don't have a good track record against Warnock, who's a good boss, but then again it might be worth seeing us drop a few points just to hear his interviews about referees. That being said, I'm expecting him to take the job of whoever gets sacked at premiership level or at least a top championship side.

You shouldn't have ever let Dave Penny quit.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

O'Driscoll is a shocking manager, he took Bournemouth from a solid League One club to a team threatened by relegation. Give me Kev Blackwell and his dads army. Leeds at the weekend, I'd love a point, I'd go crazy for three, heres hoping we put in the same performance as we did against Sunderland. If we do, we can win.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

I've got a feeling Leeds are gonna win, but you guys could nab a point. The one thing I know is that Luton will be 1-3rd in League 1 this season and Leeds just in the playoffs or just outside.

[Adam]

I'm 50/50, we don't have a good track record against Warnock, who's a good boss, but then again it might be worth seeing us drop a few points just to hear his interviews about referees. That being said, I'm expecting him to take the job of whoever gets sacked at premiership level or at least a top championship side.

You shouldn't have ever let Dave Penny quit.

Apparently there was a lot of backstage conflict between Penney and the chairman, the reason he gave for quitting was poor too, with Rovers now being such an ambitious club, 'Ive taken them as far as i can' didnt wash.

And i agree that O'Driscoll is a shocking manager too, last season a lot of popular names were thrown up as possible replacements for Penney (including Kevin Keegan), and then O'Driscoll was named, everybody was like 'who!?'. He's only got a job now because we scraped past the Gas for the JP Trophy.

[TAFKA Castroneves]

I retract my statement about Leicester/Ipswich being the playoff final. It seems Leicester City only belong in the gutter, we've been there the last three years with everyone shitting all over us and nothing is gonna change. I fucking hate football right now.

[Guest bluebirdjacquesy]

premiership

1. Man Utd

2. Chelsea

3. Liverpool

4. Man City

5. Arsenal

6. Tottenham

Championship

1. Charlton

2. Cardiff

3. wolves

4. west brom

5. watford

6. Southampton

[Matt]

I'm 50/50, we don't have a good track record against Warnock, who's a good boss, but then again it might be worth seeing us drop a few points just to hear his interviews about referees. That being said, I'm expecting him to take the job of whoever gets sacked at premiership level or at least a top championship side.

You shouldn't have ever let Dave Penny quit.

Apparently there was a lot of backstage conflict between Penney and the chairman, the reason he gave for quitting was poor too, with Rovers now being such an ambitious club, 'Ive taken them as far as i can' didnt wash.

And i agree that O'Driscoll is a shocking manager too, last season a lot of popular names were thrown up as possible replacements for Penney (including Kevin Keegan), and then O'Driscoll was named, everybody was like 'who!?'. He's only got a job now because we scraped past the Gas for the JP Trophy.

My mates dad used to play with Penny and is good friends with him - he was over one time when I went for my mate (didn't recognise him until my mate said when we were outside ), real reason was he was tired of the chairman being too controlling over the team coupled with him wanting a bigger challenge (he applied for our job shortly, i.e. days, before Wise got it).

Also, Man Utd won't win the league this year, that's not really for the CCL thread though, and Man City's form (sadly) won't hold up long enough for a top four finish either.

I hate how assistants and managers can be sidelined for having a go at referees, seriously it's not like Poyet said "Andy D'Urso is shit, he needs the sack" he said that he still holds grudges from Dennis' and his Chelsea days and he wants someone else to referee in the future. What's wrong with that? I'm not just saying it because it's my teams' assistant either, I feel the same everytime this happens. If a ref is mucking up you should be able to complain.

[new_era]

Bit of a random post but, Cardiff.

Their fans seem to be drooling over the Fowler/JFH partnership, yes a lot of quality, a lot better five years ago but, still could COULD be, at least has the potential to be the best strike partnership in the league.

BUT,

I also think it could send the club the other way. Let's be fair, those two will now be the bulk of the wage structure of the club, maybe even go as far to say those two would be on more money together then the rest of the squad put together, therefore they have the potential to cause some unrest and bring a lot of heat on to them and the management.

Fowler never stays fit, give him three four games and he'll be out, the same as Francis Jeffers! Who is out injured two games in to his Wednesday career. Plus, al be it through his injury record, Fowler hasn't prolific for maybe a decade, putting a lot of pressure on him and maybe even more so on Jimmy. I look forward to see how it goes for them, even though they shouldn't be in the ENGLISH league, but that's besides the point.

The Navas deal has fallen through has he is set to join Racing later today. The Ipswich board is really amusing now for the third team this Transfer Window they fail to land a First Team player, first Richard Wright and then Jeffers and now this. Again, all down to wages. I'm not upset at all that the Ipswich Powers That Be don't break the wage structure for anybody but we need to take some risks in getting back to the Premiership. I'm more disappointed about Navas then Wright and especially the Jeffers deals, now it's all Loan deals happening.

Jonathan Evans and Darron Gibson have been linked in the paper both from Manchester United. Davenport AGAIN and now Kyel Reid, both from West Ham are being linked. I doubt Evans is going anywhere because Sunderland were denied talking to him earlier in the Window. Matt Richards and George O'Callaghan are both going to Brighton apparently, 200,000 for the pair. GOC has rejected the first deal but remains in Brighton where Richards is set to travel to later today.

Edit: The Championship Manager Of The Month given to Dowie over Magilton, it's a kiss of death though so i'm not bothered but i find it interesting a point at Home to Hull is deemed a better result then a draw with Plymouth Away.

Edited August 30, 2007 by new_era

[Farmer Reil]

We're 8th and unbeaten in the league. Woo. Sucks that the top three are all supported by active EWBers though. Means any bragging will soon be overshadowed ¬_¬

Plymouth drew with Leicester, which under the circumstances could be considered dissapointing at home, but still, it's Leicester. Not bad.

Shitty beat Sheffield Wednesday in theeee most boring game of football ever played and go second in the Championship. /cry. It won't last. IT WON'T LAST.

[Matt]

We're 8th and unbeaten in the league. Woo. Sucks that the top three are all supported by active EWBers though. Means any bragging will soon be overshadowed ¬_¬

Plymouth drew with Leicester, which under the circumstances could be considered dissapointing at home, but still, it's Leicester. Not bad.

Shitty beat Sheffield Wednesday in theeee most boring game of football ever played and go second in the Championship. /cry. It won't last. IT WON'T LAST.

Top four if you're talking about the real league table Up next Hartlepool at home and then Bristol away, after that we've finally got some easier games.

3 more points to go-o, 'til we get to 0.

[Himple]

I think Today just pretty much summed up why we are not a team who will gun for the top 6 this season, perhaps a top half finish but i cannot see us finishing in the play offs. Its that extra little bit of quality we lack and the quality that we do and can produce is not replicated consistently enough, or else players like Pablo would be playing for Premiership clubs.

The difference between us and the big spending clubs in the league is that we have obvious strengths, but we also unfortunately have obvious areas where we are woefully under equipped and patched up, areas like left midfield, the final ball, delivery into the box from wide areas, player runs in the final third and that general extra little bit of quality all over the park.

There is only so much Jim can do, with the lets face it the measly resources he is given in modern footballing terms, I personally think he has done a cracking job so far, but there is the question remaining whether he can take the team any further in a football world that is dominated by money as has been shown in what im sure for jim must have been immensely frustrating transfer sagas of Jeffers and more recently Navas.

I’m not one for Blaming Sheepy but this 'struggle on admirably' attitude I believe the club has i.e., not activity looking for investment, further collecting debt on a yearly basis, not providing funds for that extra little bit of quality is really cost us in terms of what we can hope for this season and seasons to come.

I just think today pretty much summed up our current position, a great manager with a good team, but missing that extra bit of quality in the big spending culture of modern football.

I for one don’t think Sheepy is a bad bloke, he is obviously an out and out town fan, but he and the rather unspectacular board of directors we have who lets face it are minted yet show little interest or backing are short sighted and have forgot the clubs ambition and realism for achieving promotion.

To achieve promotion we need fresh investment, new innovative ideas from a new chairmen and really financial backing to Jim to take us on to that extra level.

[Sir Alan LCSugar]

Matt i'm assuming you went, did we play well? What happened with Blackwell and Wise?

[Matt]

You played alright, never really looked like you were going to do us any damage though, maybe in the last 5 minutes of normal time, but that's probably just due to me being used to goals going in for other teams around then, so everything looked dangerous. We probably should've put a couple more past you but your keeper was on form and Kandol had a tendency to put it into the side netting or just over.

Blackwell and Wise? Not sure, something went off after the match, but we were too busy singing "3 more points to go, until we get to zero" and "we're goin'a win the league" to notice, it looked like Poyet and Carver to me, could've been Wisey, but it was definitely Carver. Unless you're talking about something else. It'll be in the Yorkshire Post tomorrow morning.

Something happened between our south stand fans and your fans though, around the hour mark, things were being thrown and fists flying, every cop in the stadium rushed over, not sure what it was all about though, I was watching the pitch, and all of a sudden caught a glimpse of loads of police charging towards the away end.

Chant of the day was: "Blackwell, what's the score? Blackwell, Blackwell what's the score? Blackwell your mum's a whore. Blackwell, Blackwell your mum's a whore."

[britneyspearsisgod]

If Andy Hall referee's your game, you better watch out

Honestly, the guy is a fucking retard. Him and his assistant gave every decision the over fucking way unless it was blatant. And even THEN he still fucks up. Watching Bristol Rovers & Nottingham Forest, he fucked up both teams.

Agogo returned to the Mem as well. He did alright for Forest, showed himself lively and enthusiastic. It's one of those situations though - whenever you see a player who was at your club perform well for their new team, you can't just help wonder what your side couldn't offer them to get a performance like it. Oh well... he left because he felt we weren't much. A year on, you have to wonder what he could be thinking...

Forest's defence, by the way, is absolutely DIRE. The goalkeeper and defence managed to give away THREE clear shots to us after trying to clear the ball from a goal kick, a saved shot and a pass back. Wilson was shite and kept giving the ball away and Smith (GK) was a little calamitous. No wonder Forest fans aren't happy with Calderwood.

The ref also banished Trolls to the stands because he had the gall to disagree with the referee, who - again - was atrociously shite. I mean, he made D'Urso look good. Seriously.

We played well in the end. On the one hand, we aren't losing, so that's a bonus. But it's frustrating seeing us play well and then not actually do anything with it. We seem so worried about losing that we're afraid to take a chance, but we can't be afraid to fight. We give the other team too much time on the ball (ESPECIALLY in our own half), we give goals away too quickly and easily (ESPECIALLY after we score) and Trolls needs to do three things:

[1] Give Lewis Haldane a fucking brain, because as quick as he is? He can't do shit with the ball.

[2] Play Williams and Lambert, because Walker is too slow and unmotivated, while Williams is quick and hungry with Lambert being tall and able to hold off the challengers.

[3] Get a good holding midfielder on loan who can help shore up the link between defence and attack.

Oh, and as much as I love Stevie Phillips, he needs to organize his defence better on set plays.

Aside from that, it's better than it was in the last few years at this stage, that's for sure.

[MDK]

Now who was it that predicted that orient would be favourites for relegation?

[britneyspearsisgod]

I probably did, but in my defense it's 4 games into the season. There's still time

[Farmer Reil]

We played well in the end. On the one hand, we aren't losing, so that's a bonus. But it's frustrating seeing us play well and then not actually do anything with it. We seem so worried about losing that we're afraid to take a chance, but we can't be afraid to fight. We give the other team too much time on the ball (ESPECIALLY in our own half), we give goals away too quickly and easily (ESPECIALLY after we score) and Trolls needs to do three things:

[1] Give Lewis Haldane a fucking brain, because as quick as he is? He can't do shit with the ball.

[2] Play Williams and Lambert, because Walker is too slow and unmotivated, while Williams is quick and hungry with Lambert being tall and able to hold off the challengers.

[3] Get a good holding midfielder on loan who can help shore up the link between defence and attack.

Oh, and as much as I love Stevie Phillips, he needs to organize his defence better on set plays.

Aside from that, it's better than it was in the last few years at this stage, that's for sure.

Edited September 2, 2007 by Farmer Reil