Official Premiership 2008/09 thread

[Matt]

Do Sunderland even have 69k fans that would actually attend matches? (I'm being serious here)

[METALMAN]

So where's Michael Owen going then? Is there really a manager out there mad enough to sign him?

Perhaps the MLS?

Owen is basically the next Rohan Ricketts.

[Ben E.]

There's a lot of players at Newcastle that I can't wait for them to get rid of. Owen is kind of one of them. I still maintain though, with support from a good midfield Owen would be a good deal if his wage demands weren't too high.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Ben E.

[Emperor DC]

So where's Michael Owen going then? Is there really a manager out there mad enough to sign him?

Perhaps the MLS?

He's having problems but I still feel he could make an impact somewhere. A move to Everton would do him wonders, Moyes is getting the best out of Saha, even if Saha is fragile. Owen/Saha would be awesome, or Owen supported by someone like Cahill.

[Clawson]

So where's Michael Owen going then? Is there really a manager out there mad enough to sign him?

Perhaps the MLS?

Owen is basically the next Rohan Ricketts.

Hmmm....if Owen decides to get concussion problems he could be our next Danny Dichio. And he and Rohan can have conversations on our bench.

[hugobomb]

FFS. People on the BBC forum are jumping all over Steve Bruce for being linked to the Sunderland job saying 'if you want a manager to come in for the short term and then fuck you over for another club, Bruce is your man' and such. Fuck. Off.

As a Birmingham fan, was I annoyed when Steve left us for Wigan? Yes, I thought it was weird to leave one relegation battling club for another, but when he got the players he wanted (ones he wanted to have at Birmingham but the board said no, Palacios being the main one) he turned Wign into a top half club which I think is a great achievement, even putting up with Zaki being a little bitch about returning from international duty.

He lost two of his best players in January when he clearly wanted to keep them. I think he's done all he can at Wigan and deserves a bigger club to take on and push for higher things (sunderland COULD be a top eight team with the right signings). He's one of the best managers in the prem at the moment and should be praised for that, not moaned about by bitter Brum fans. I think he will do well at Sunderland and wish him all the luck he deserves.

[stokeriño]

Lesson: never read anything on 606. Ever.

[Matt]

The 606 boards are a great source of comedy, it's filled with the people too crazy to let on the 606 phone in, which is saying something. I remember someone on there saying we were paying Jermaine Beckford 20k a week

[IAceI]

Apparently we've ruled out Strachan as well. Which is good, his CV primarily based on success in a 2 team league, in which this year they finished 2nd in, hardly fills me with confidence.

Strachan won 3 titles in 4 years with Celtic. O'Neill won 3 in 5. And Strachan had far more CL success than O'Neill, who did to be fair lead them to an UEFA cup final. All in all, not much differance between them both up there and I bet you would take O'Neill in a heartbeat.

Now I would yes. But someone came to us at the time and all they had was that experience, I'd probably still say no to O'Neill as well. But the difference is I guess, O'Neill was using Celtic as a stepping stone to somewhere better and was already shown to be a very good manager, whereas I see Strachan as more of a person with less ability and not much more chance of doing better in the Premiership than he already has. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't see him being more than a manager who is attempting to keep teams in the Premiership - rather than improving them.

Point stands, I don't want Strachan. Lacks amibition to me if we were to go for him.

Do Sunderland even have 69k fans that would actually attend matches? (I'm being serious here)

One day.

[therockbox]

Fits in here given that he'll probably end up at Chelsea, Ancelotti has left Milan (Sky Sports).

[Crybaby Bunting]

Has Chelsea started printing the Ancelotti shirts yet? We may see some sort of surprise then

[IAceI]

So, I figure Rijkaard has been waiting to see if Ancelotti goes or not. Now that it seems like hes about to go to Chelsea, wonder where that puts Frank in the scheme of things.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Well that's easy isn't it?

Chelsea Manager 2010

[EddieG]

So Ancelotti has officially left AC Milan, huh?

Rijkaard will probably end up at Milan

Edited May 31, 2009 by Eddie 'AW' G

[IAceI]

Apparently Whelan set us a deadline of today for Bruce. And doesn't look like we're going to take that up, Mancini has been made favourite for the job and offered a contract by the sounds of it.

What I find funny about the Bruce deal was, Wigan said we could speak to him, Wigan said they wanted £5m then down to £3m for him, they said they wanted to know by today if we were going to have him. Not once have I heard Sunderland confirm there's been any dealings, and at one point they did say "We haven't spoke to him yet, we're considering all the options."

It seemed more like Wigan, well, Whelan's doing than anything. Senile old man that he is.

[Adam]

Rijkaard isn't going to Milan, Leonardo is taking over tomorrow.

Apparently Ancelotti said in his autobiography (released last week) that he had a meeting with Roman Abramovich in which he said Chelsea need two players to become a superb team-Franck Ribery and Xabi Alonso.

[EddieG]

Yeah, I just saw the headlines on BBC's RSS about Ancelotti leaving, only afterwards read the full piece.

[stokeriño]

Has Chelsea started printing the Ancelotti shirts yet? We may see some sort of surprise then

No one would buy them.

Every Chelsea fan I've talked to has basically had a reaction of :/ to Ancelotti. And that was even before Hiddink came in and kicked ass. I wish we'd get a surprise, but...eh.

Knowing how we (and by we, I mean Abramovich) treat managers who do well - let along managers who do poorly, like I suspect he will, I'll predict he'll be gone within 18 months. If that.

[Crybaby Bunting]

I find it hilarious that in the past two years, Chelsea have gone through their entire list of 'possible Chelsea managers'

Who are they gonna get after Ancelotti? Cappello?

[stokeriño]

I don't know, but it's fucking tedious.

It's also not great that we'd be getting Ancelotti in at about the same time that we need to be thinking about replacing some of the older members of the squad. Because, you know, he'll keep playing them all until they're 38.