The 2011/12 Gary Speed Memorial Thread

[Berober]

I'm pretty sure that everything goes Steve Kean's way in the Venkyverse.

[Blaze09]

Okay, I just finished watching the 2nd half cause I had to work, and the sea of sky blue on the pitch right now is amazing.

I have been spoiled in my first year as a City fan.

EDIT: Oh god, Balotelli looks like a kid in a candy store when Kompany gets the trophy. That's why I love that man.

[Summers]

[Colly]

Almost forgot the best moment of the city win. Whilst everyone applauds the efforts of the team and the title win, Maradona is just stood there waving at the fans on the pitch like it's his inauguration ceremony.

Best moment for me is only seeing a few seconds of Liam Gallagher being a cunt, rather than an irritating series of interviews. He actually almost undoes my love for Kompany, what kind of forty something man gets his own name printed on the back of his shirt?

[Summers]

Today appears to be the day. McLeish could be sacked by the end of the day.

[Plubby]

I read contract extension, not sacking :/

[Summers]

Sure you did.

[hugobomb]

Alex McLeish, Birmingham City Double Agent

Seriously though you can keep him, we don't want him back here after Hughton goes to the Baggies. Can we come to an agreement that once he's sacked by Villa all of us make sure he never sets foot in Birmingham again?

[Summers]

Yeah, we should send him up north or something.

[Plubby]

Sure you did.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get one up on ol' Summeroo!

[hugobomb]

Yeah, we should send him up north or something.

I hear Blackburn might be looking for a new manager soon

[Summers]

Excellent.

[Colly]

Keans going nowhere.

[hugobomb]

Not even with the lure of McLeish as his replacement? Kean can be his assistant, DREAM TEAM!

[Summers]

peter lansley ‏ @LansleyTimes

McLeish saying his goodbyes to the #avfc players. In discussing compo. Announcement likely by lunchtime

[Steeb]

I would imagine saying goodbye to most of the players is a quick deal.

"so, this is it, I can't con-"

*flips bird. Walks off*

"...right. Yes."

[Summers]

http://www.skysports.com/video/inline/0,26691,12602_7754852,00.html

Hahaha.. Merse is awesome.

[hugobomb]

Now the real question becomes, who does Hughton leave us for? Villa or West Brom? He'd do a good job at both I think, granted McLeish has set the bar pretty damn low at VIlla. I think the Baggies would be the better choice, good secure set up, level headed chairman plus I think Baggies might have more to spend this summer (are Villa still "selling to buy", Summ?)

[Summers]

Our big issue was wage budget. O'Neill was giving everybody dumb wages, so we had to get that down. We'll have more to spend this season than we did before, I think. But perhaps less than the Baggies. Our overall set up as a club (facilities etc) is miles ahead of them, but they're in a great position with a good squad. Hughton will go there, I think.

What we lack is a footballing brain on the board. We're one of the few clubs who NEED a Director of Football or something like that, because we need some form of footballing knowledge close to/onto the board. Rumours are we want a DoF, Comolli was linked appaz. Eitherway, we need a shake up of some sort. A new manager is part of it, a massive part, but we really need a football guy on the board.

peter lansley ‏ @LansleyTimes

#avfc dismiss McLeish

--

Dan Pallett ‏ @Dan_Pallett

We've spoken to #villa and #mcleish has NOT been sacked. They did confirm a meeting taking place today with owner randy Lerner #avfc

Too much drama.

[lanky316]

Oh, no. I agree, overall they defended well. But the winning goal could have been stopped on 3 or 4 occasions.

And yeah, I found that weird. Kick off, boot it back to them. :\

It's surprisingly not an uncommon tactic in lower league football. Usually you do have a runner hoping to get a knock down (usually to nobody) on it but I've seen loads of teams needlessly hoof the ball towards the touchline from the kick off. I'm sure there's some logic to it.

Hartlepool always did it when I was younger, used to make me mad that it never worked, yet we'd do it every week for about 8 years.

I guess it is under the rugby concept of territory. Get the ball down their end, try and hassle them.

It's a tactic Stevenage used pretty effectively but they went the whole hog with the rugby tactic. They set up on one flank, take the kick off and charge down the wing, ball gets pumped in and most of the time possession falls their way and they set up something for the target men who pumped the ball wide to finish in the box. Not seen it since Westley went to my memory but when done properly was surprisingly effective.