Official Premier League 2010/11 thread

[Baddar]

Probably just rumours, but I can see why they've started - Wilkins has been gone two games, and they've lost them both. Despite Ancelotti claiming that he 'agreed' with the decision, all it takes is for someone to say that he wanted them to keep Wilkins, and there we go, we have our rumour.

I would say I'd be very surprised if Ancelotti left, but then I couldn't quite believe it on the evening Mourinho stepped down, either.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Apparently a load of rubbish. No surprise to hear it though, Chelsea have a little bad spell and suddenly Ancelotti is on his way out. It'd be one of the most idiotic decisions possible if it was to ever happen at this stage of the season, usual rumours for you though.

[britneyspearsisgod]

I highly doubt Ancelotti is going to walk away from this when he had to suffer a similar regime under AC Milan. He should be use to this level of meddling by now.

[Baddar]

From sportinglife;

Sky Bet have cut Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti's odds to be the next manager to leave their Premier League post from 10/1 to 6/4 after the online bookmaker saw a steady influx of bets on the Italian.

Ancelotti, who steered the west London club to a league and cup double in his first season, has struggled to recapture that form so far this term. Chelsea only lost six matches on their way to the title last season but have already lost four matches this campaign, including three of the last four.

Despite a 1-0 defeat to Birmingham this weekend, the champions are still top, albeit with a superior goal difference than second-placed Manchester United. Rumours of Ancelotti's departure and a series of bets have seen his odds drastically reduced.

Sky Bet football compiler Ryan Coombs said: "We've seen a lot of interest in Carlo Ancelotti to be the next manager to leave the Premier League this season.

"In the space of three hours we have seen his price tumble from 10/1 into its current 6/4 chance."

West Ham manager Avram Grant still retains favouritism at 5/6, while Roberto Mancini is 4/1 and under-pressure Wolves boss Mick McCarthy is fourth favourite at 7/1.

Now it has my attention, because I'm sure the last time this happened was a few days before MO'N left Villa.

[ONO]

It was a few hours before it was announced that he had left. ;p

[9 to 5]

Happy days eh?

[Pesci]

The bookies are always slashing odds on managers leaving. They stopped taking bets on Rafa to leave twice... well before he actually did.

[Colly]

Am I the only one spotting a potential conflict of interests with Skybet? Sky invent a non-story, stick it on Sky Sports News infobar all day, wait for the bets to roll in, cut the odds and report that as even more evidence to the stories truth, loop it around a bit then announce that Wayne Rooneys signed a new contract...

Dodgy dodgy dodgy.

Edit: Oh, and also they'd stopped taking bets on Chris Hughton going the other week, O'Neil was just the last one they actually got right...

Edited November 22, 2010 by Colly

[Szumi]

So uh, can Messrs. Sullivan and Gold please sack Avram Grant now? If we're going to have any chance of staying up this season, then Grant has to go. The only reason he hasn't been sacked yet is because he is "their" man, and they don't want to admit, that yet again, they fucked up.

[Guest Emoctoberingy]

Not Premiership but close enough, Rafa Benitez has apparently 90 minutes to save his job. Whether that means tomorrow's game or the league, I will be mildly amused if he gets sacked and Hodgson gets sacked and you know the rest

But really, this shows the massive difference between Mourinho and Benitez. Two games into life in Serie A and Mourinho understood that playing defensive would get him nowhere, because this isn't England where even the abominable teams that play eye-rape *airquotes* football like Wolves and Blackburn will attack whereas in Italy they all just sit there and wait. Nearly 10 games into his career, Benitez is still sticking to playing defensive. His system worked in Spain because nobody defended then, so playing defensive meant sneaking one in and defending for the rest of the game. It kinda worked in England because the teams attack, but more cautiously. But in Italy? Only team that attacks are the big teams. And Lecce. Those bastards are insane! Also Benitez has essentially Robbie Keane'd his strikers. They have to stay in their zone or they're benched. Poor, poor bastards. This will not end well.

Benitez: Killing strikers since 2004

Edited November 24, 2010 by Emoctoberingy

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'm still angry with Benitez for destroying Keane. He'd been brilliant each of the three seasons before.

[Guest Emoctoberingy]

You really do have to wonder what he did to Keane, don't you? He's outstanding for three seasons, goes to Liverpool for 3 months where he's turned into a cog () having to slot into a zone and never getting out of it and just airkicking everything and then when he comes back he's just not good anymore. It can't be confidence, because you don't have a loss of confidence that lasts three years. It's not pace, because that doesn't seem to have changed. He's just had a horrible loss of abilities and/or concentration, all in the span of three months! That doesn't happen! What did Benitez do? Lobotomize him?

Personally, I think Robbie Keane died and they hired someone else to replace him, he's like the Ultimate Warrior and Paul McCartney!

[Hobo]

It was all in Dimitar Berbatov. He made Keane good! Alone he is shit.

[stokeriño]

Rumours are beginning to circulate that Newcastle v Chelsea could be called off due to the snow. :/

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Not Premiership but close enough, Rafa Benitez has apparently 90 minutes to save his job. Whether that means tomorrow's game or the league, I will be mildly amused if he gets sacked and Hodgson gets sacked and you know the rest

But really, this shows the massive difference between Mourinho and Benitez. Two games into life in Serie A and Mourinho understood that playing defensive would get him nowhere, because this isn't England where even the abominable teams that play eye-rape *airquotes* football like Wolves and Blackburn will attack whereas in Italy they all just sit there and wait. Nearly 10 games into his career, Benitez is still sticking to playing defensive. His system worked in Spain because nobody defended then, so playing defensive meant sneaking one in and defending for the rest of the game. It kinda worked in England because the teams attack, but more cautiously. But in Italy? Only team that attacks are the big teams. And Lecce. Those bastards are insane! Also Benitez has essentially Robbie Keane'd his strikers. They have to stay in their zone or they're benched. Poor, poor bastards. This will not end well.

Benitez: Killing strikers since 2004

Have you watched Serie A at all? We aren't in the 90's anymore. Italian football doesn't consist of just defending now, there's an absolute massive difference in the game today and it's just as attack minded as most top leagues, which is why it's much more open now. Teams like Juve are far from defense minded nowadays and the smaller teams attack much more, teams like Sampdoria are a joy to watch. Benitez is on the verge of going because firstly he's following the impossible of Jose and winning the CL and secondly he's been verging on shocking to be quite frank. Clearly he's not a bad manager, he's just got it wrong so far though and unless he pulls something massive out of the bag, he'll likely be gone at some point between now and the end of the season. While it's early days, based on what's been seen so far, Inter likely wont win the league and if that does happen, he's got pretty much no chance of staying.

Edited November 26, 2010 by JohnnyPerfect

[Colly]

Rumours are beginning to circulate that Newcastle v Chelsea could be called off due to the snow. :/

Rumours? Can weather forecasts be classed as rumours? Anyway, the days haven't been so bad so far, so if they keep the main roads clear it'll be fine. See Reading two seasons back, but not Charlton four or five...

Regardless I've got 3 pairs of socks and two scarves on standby.

[Shelty92]

It's amazing how great Arsenal can look at times, but then fuck up like they did against Spurs, Newcastle, Braga, etc. It's 2-0 now but it should be four, really.

[stokeriño]

2-3

Come ooooon Villa!

[stokeriño]

Well, feh.

An Arsenal win and points lost for Koscielny conceding goals in my Fantasy Football team. It's the worst of both worlds!

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Andrew Johnson out injured today for Fulham. Remember when he was scoring loads of goals.....at Crystal Palace.