The Official Coca-Cola Leagues Thread

[Matt]

Well whoop-de-fucking-doo. Nice ruling, would have been nicer if it affected the clubs who really needed to have this ruling applied to them.

This.

With the exception of Leeds, Palace and a couple of others that are escaping me now, everyone's academy is shit. The Premier League need to have this rule, not (particularly) the lower leagues. And the fact you can pick up someone <18 from abroad and have them classed as homegrown is ridiculous.

[Crybaby Bunting]

The only chance anyone has of securing anyone from abroad is if they happen to randomly move next to the stadium and need a job.

For example Workington used to have a player from St Kitts and Nevis... solely because he happened to move here and had a wife teaching cookery.

[Matt]

McAllister out.

Edit: Now it's 2-0. 2 corners, what the fuck? My local girls U11 side can defend a fucking corner kick!

Edited December 20, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Crybaby Bunting]

I don't mean to be evil but you're playing a strong, financially backed team (who stand a good chance of getting promoted this season), away and have had a little confidence issue for a few weeks. What did you honestly expect?

It could easily end 3-2.... which would be a good result considering the two sides and their placings atm. That would be a much greater incentive for the next match than steamrolling a dead-cert-for-relegation team.

[Matt]

I don't mean to be evil but you're playing a strong, financially backed team (who stand a good chance of getting promoted this season), away and have had a little confidence issue for a few weeks. What did you honestly expect?

It could easily end 3-2.... which would be a good result considering the two sides and their placings atm. That would be a much greater incentive for the next match than steamrolling a dead-cert-for-relegation team.

I didn't expect to win. I expect for a team of highly paid people to learn how to fucking defend a corner. We've conceded 29 goals this season, I'm willing to bet more than half of them have come from set plays. Macca said the other week they spent 40 minutes on defending set plays... 40 minutes? Try a day, or 2 days.

The performance is what's most disappointing MK Dons were all over us from the word go yet Macca still tries to play fancy football rather than mixing it up a bit. Teams have worked us out, they know all they have to do is keep tight on Becchio from set plays, close down Kilkenny and he'll shit himself and don't let Delph run the show. Once they've done that all they have to do is lob a couple of balls in the box and our defence will royally fuck up and let their strikers blast it in the back of the net.

As for playing a strong, financially backed team, away. 1) MK Dons have been stronger on the road. 2) We've spent more than anyone in this league over the last 18 months and 3) We have, on paper, the strongest squad in the league (with the possible exception of Leicester). Not to mention we had 1/3rd of the fans in the stadium, so it was hardly daunting for the team.

Also, we're playing a reserve keeper rather than our first choice keeper. Why?! It makes no fucking sense. Championship teams wanted Casper in the summer, he makes one or two mistakes and he's dropped. Lucas makes 50 mistakes and he sticks with him. Macca kicks Bradley Johnson and Tresor Kandol out of the club and now they're on fire for their loan clubs, but he refuses to recall them (we have the option) because he's fallen out with them (Bradley Johnson has been excluded from the team all season for making a prank call).

We should be winning most games in this league, and we should be giving a good account of ourselves in EVERY game but we're not. We're leaking goals left right and centre and we're solely reliant of Beckford to score for us and Delph to create the goals.

Apparently betting has been suspended on one website about Poyet taking the manager's job. Which is incredibly surprising since A) He wouldn't take it B) Most fans wouldn't really want him and C) Macca is still in the job.

Edited December 20, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Dan]

Gary Mac gets the sack.

[Crybaby Bunting]

So now there's only two reasons why Poyet won't come in >_>

[Matt]

Poyet's favourite, I still want Sheridan. I'd take Gus as his assistant, but I think if Gus comes he'll want the big job.

Hope Staunton follows Macca, he's as much to blame.

Edited December 21, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Jam]

Billy Davies will do for me, although would love to see Bates go ambitious and try at Strachen. Not that he'd come to us of course

[Adam]

I don't get this sacking, is it just because of the bad run? Everyone has dips in form during the season, I'm beginning to think the expectations are too high at League One Leeds...

EDIT: And I'm expecting a Blackburn-esque quick replacement over the next couple of days. Surely Leeds won't go into the Leicester game on Boxing Day with no manager?

Edited December 21, 2008 by 1PWCorino

[Matt]

If we go in with Stan as manager I'll cry. We'll end up losing 12-0 if he's in charge.

And Macca was sacked because he's clueless. He's isolated Kandol, Johnson and Westlake from the squad for various (mostly petty) reasons and refuses to recall them despite them being in awesome form and us being shite. Johnson, for instance, was (is?) almost a dead cert to be out of the door for pennies in January because he made a prank call about Delph to some other managers. Alright, he shouldn't have done it, but he's one of our best 5-6 players for fucks sake, drop him for a couple of weeks, fine him a months wages, but don't fucking isolate him and then force him out of the club.

Also, it's not a bad run, the results just aren't acceptable:

W 10 D 2 L 9 in the league this season (almost certain to have won as many as we've lost come Friday)

W 20 D 6 L 12 in the league since he started (only 2 more wins than draws/losses since he's taken over, doesn't include playoffs either)

W 26 D 7 L 17 in all competitions (and consider this is including matches against Chester, Rotherham, Histon, etc:)

Our defence cannot defend set plays, and he's doing nothing about it whatsoever. He refuses to change his playing style when things aren't working, for fucks sake the pitch at Histon was a state and we still tried to play nice attractive passing football. He almost always plays Howson no matter what, despite that he doesn't fit into our system and has contributed the sum total of fuck all since Carlisle. He can't help but tinker even if there's no reason to, we must have had 20 different combinations of a back 5 (defence and keeper) this season (and I'm not exaggerating, if anything it's an understatement) and he can't make his mind up what his best 11 is. The man is tactically clueless and whilst he was a great player for Leeds and his heart was in the right place, he's not the man for the job.

I wouldn't say we have high expectations. Most sensible Leeds fans aren't expecting us to run away with the league, but we expect to keep a clean sheet once in a while, and be at least challenging for the top 2 places since we did accumulate the 2nd most amount of points last season and we have only added to the squad (apart from getting rid of players that never played i.e. Da Costa and Sorsa) including adding last year's player of the season and the emergence of Fabian Delph who's wanted by Premier League clubs.

Edit: Oh and I've only scratched the surface there. I could probably list 50 reasons why McAllister needed sacking.

Edited December 21, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Crybaby Bunting]

According to the BBC, Staunton has followed McAlister out.

Figured it's something that might intrest you.

[Matt]

Glad to hear it. And given that Macca 2 left earlier in the week, I'm guessing Neil Thompson is going to take charge for the game on Friday unless we get a new man in. Which isn't too bad.

I'd take Poyet as assistant now but I reckon he'll want the top job if he comes back. I'd have said Lucas would fit the bill but he's recovering from a heart attack the other day and it's probably too soon after his wife's death. So long as we don't get "Job Done" Billy Davies as gaffa, I don't mind about the assistant. just yet.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Footjob Fever

[Adam]

Gustavo Poyet and Aidy Boothroyd are emerging as the front-runners to take the job it seems, both due to previous ties with the club.

Back to my own club though, is there no chance at all for clubs coming up into the Championship? We've had a stupid amount of decisions wrongly go against us this season that have cost us, and a Scunthorpe fan said it was the same for them last year. We have got to start helping ourselves or else we will be back playing the likes of Cheltenham, Northampton and Leeds ( ) in League One next season.

[Dan]

Blackpool have done alright, so have Bristol City.

Some teams just aren't good enough for the Championship on the back of one good season in league one (Scunny, Colchester etc.)

[IAceI]

Swansea aren't doing too badly either.

[Adam]

I really don't feel thats the case with us-if we could score goals we'd be a lot further up the table. Most managers of opposing teams praise us for how well we play, and I've seen us outplay the likes of Birmingham and Wolves for large periods this season. Our only problem is hitting the net-eighth best defence in the division we've got, but by far the worst attack.

[IAceI]

Thing is the Championship is generally a very competitive league, it's got like the 4th highest attendance average in the world (Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, Championship, I believe is the order.) Generally most teams can beat anyone on their day (Kind of like how the Premiership is this season), Charlton are second better but look at them at the bottom. Southampton are often fighting. Leicester have fell by the wayside.

It's a tough league to be in so I don't really think being at the bottom is necessarily the worst. Well, it is the worst - because it's last

Think I made a point there. Maybe.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I think the Championship is the only league where you're mad to make a single bet on absolutely anything. Wasn't it last year when Q.P.R, Sheffield United and Leicester were favourites to go up, or something to that degree. One of them went down, which caught absolutely everyone by surprise.

Plus HULL of all teams got through, a team that was a sure-fine bet on getting relegated.

The only flaw seems to be that if Leeds get promoted... they'll probably get promoted again thanks to them being contenders to go straight back down >_<

[Matt]

Blackpool have done alright, so have Bristol City.

Some teams just aren't good enough for the Championship on the back of one good season in league one (Scunny, Colchester etc.)

Colchester nearly made the playoffs in their first season... Just saying. And Scunthorpe's failure probably had something to do with losing their best 3 players. Donny's main problem is probably their strikeforce. This is just a guess as I haven't particularly been keeping up with the championship but I don't think Donny did much strengthening up front over the summer, and their strikeforce were hardly rattling them in in League One; you generally relied on your defence to keep clean sheets or maybe concede one and then you'd win by the odd goal. There's no problem with that, but the strikers are better in the Championship and now you're no longer keeping clean sheets, so those 1-0 wins are now becoming 2-1 defeats and such. Couple that with your strikers haven't improved against the better defence and you're therefore scoring fewer.

That's my feeling anyway.

Edit: Yay Beckford and Robinson could be fit for Leicester. Yay, we might lose 5-1 now instead of 5-0.

Edited December 22, 2008 by Footjob Fever