The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[Benji]

Most Liverpool managers tend to get a lot of undeserved shit.

[FLiam]

Fans crying on youtube will never not be funny.

Granted, if their club is being liquidated and they've lost a part of their childhood I can semi understand it, but making out like a 3-2 loss is worse than your parents dying is something else.

Agreed. Modern day football supporters are embarrassing. Every loss these days signals the end of the world. 

Just last week, people were crying out for Wenger to be sacked now. I was saying at the time, it's early days and there is still 8 months of football to be played. Then yesterday happened and everything is great again. People don't seem to have any patience anymore, and the press certainly don't help with whole situation.

Take Chelsea for example, they are having an absolute torrid time of it at the moment, is it really a "crisis" or is it just a very bad patch of form? They are ten points behind first place, it seems a lot but I have seen teams that far behind in February go on to win the league.

I just feel supporters are far too self-entitled and impatient these days. Only one team can win the league, nobody has a God-given right to win it all the time.

[DavidMarrio]

 

Fans of big teams crying on Youtube about not winning every week are embarrassing. 

But mostly this.

Youtube fan football channels make me cringe. I don't know when they became a thing but they are all just awful.

[Benji]

Just last week, people were crying out for Wenger to be sacked now. I was saying at the time, it's early days and there is still 8 months of football to be played. Then yesterday happened and everything is great again. People don't seem to have any patience anymore, and the press certainly don't help with whole situation.

For real, I love how the Guardian podcast addresses this, they always joke about clubs being "in crisis", and Arsenal get it every other week. It's hilarious.

[Lineker]

Chelsea have released a statement giving their backing to manager Jose Mourinho...

"The club wants to make it clear that Jose continues to have our full support," it says.

"As Jose has said himself, results have not been good enough and the team's performances must improve. However, we believe that we have the right manager to turn this season around and that he has the squad with which to do it."

Elsewhere, FSG intend to have a manager in place by the time they face us and Klopp has supposedly already been approached.

[MDK]

Ah, the dreaded vote of confidence 

[peteypirahna]

At this rate, if Klopp waits a fortnight or so he'll have the Chelsea job.

[FLiam]

Just last week, people were crying out for Wenger to be sacked now. I was saying at the time, it's early days and there is still 8 months of football to be played. Then yesterday happened and everything is great again. People don't seem to have any patience anymore, and the press certainly don't help with whole situation.

For real, I love how the Guardian podcast addresses this, they always joke about clubs being "in crisis", and Arsenal get it every other week. It's hilarious.

I'm fairly sure everytime we lose a game of football we are in full crisis mode. It seems to come with the territory of being one of the bigger clubs nowadays. I'm realistic, you will never win every game of football, it doesn't happen. For people to be throwing the crisis label around in October is just plain stupid.

Today, it's Team A loses a game of football to Team B = CRISIS MANAGEMENT REQUIRED FROM TEAM A.

[therockbox]

Chelsea have released a statement giving their backing to manager Jose Mourinho...

"The club wants to make it clear that Jose continues to have our full support," it says.

"As Jose has said himself, results have not been good enough and the team's performances must improve. However, we believe that we have the right manager to turn this season around and that he has the squad with which to do it."

Elsewhere, FSG intend to have a manager in place by the time they face us and Klopp has supposedly already been approached.

No signings for Chelsea in January, then.

[Noah]

Fans crying on youtube will never not be funny.

Granted, if their club is being liquidated and they've lost a part of their childhood I can semi understand it, but making out like a 3-2 loss is worse than your parents dying is something else.

Agreed. Modern day football supporters are embarrassing. Every loss these days signals the end of the world. 

Just last week, people were crying out for Wenger to be sacked now. I was saying at the time, it's early days and there is still 8 months of football to be played. Then yesterday happened and everything is great again. People don't seem to have any patience anymore, and the press certainly don't help with whole situation.

Take Chelsea for example, they are having an absolute torrid time of it at the moment, is it really a "crisis" or is it just a very bad patch of form? They are ten points behind first place, it seems a lot but I have seen teams that far behind in February go on to win the league.

I just feel supporters are far too self-entitled and impatient these days. Only one team can win the league, nobody has a God-given right to win it all the time.

Except for Brighton in 2016/17.

 

 

[FLiam]

Fans crying on youtube will never not be funny.

Granted, if their club is being liquidated and they've lost a part of their childhood I can semi understand it, but making out like a 3-2 loss is worse than your parents dying is something else.

Agreed. Modern day football supporters are embarrassing. Every loss these days signals the end of the world. 

Just last week, people were crying out for Wenger to be sacked now. I was saying at the time, it's early days and there is still 8 months of football to be played. Then yesterday happened and everything is great again. People don't seem to have any patience anymore, and the press certainly don't help with whole situation.

Take Chelsea for example, they are having an absolute torrid time of it at the moment, is it really a "crisis" or is it just a very bad patch of form? They are ten points behind first place, it seems a lot but I have seen teams that far behind in February go on to win the league.

I just feel supporters are far too self-entitled and impatient these days. Only one team can win the league, nobody has a God-given right to win it all the time.

Except for Brighton in 2016/17.

 

 

The day a team within 25 miles of me wins the league will be the day I eat my proverbial hat.

[stokeriño]

Chelsea have released a statement giving their backing to manager Jose Mourinho...

"The club wants to make it clear that Jose continues to have our full support," it says.

"As Jose has said himself, results have not been good enough and the team's performances must improve. However, we believe that we have the right manager to turn this season around and that he has the squad with which to do it."

This statement legitimately scares me more than any of the more-obviously negative stuff that has been surrounding the club lately.

[DavidMarrio]

It's weird the club felt the need to release that sort of statement. Thats not a good sign really. 

[Rafael]

Who was in charge of the transfers? Rodgers or someone linked to FSG?

He was part of a comittee that included scouts and a couple of directors.

The whole thing was the result of Rodgers not wanting to work with a Director of Football. During Rodgers tenure there were times when it seemed the comittee was buying players Rodgers didn't want (or the comittee were a scapegoat for players not working out).

Add to that there were a few Windows were Liverpool were clearly targeting players and making a big hoopla over wanting to sign them - and not getting them. Last summer that seemed to get sorted but there's still strange inconsistencies that crop up.

Rodgers patently said Liverpool weren't going to sign Balotelli. He also said last season's massive transfer spend was a one off. Liverpool bought Balotelli and six or so new first team players in the window that just closed. That seems to smack of problems with the comittee.

To be fair,  that seemed to change in pre season. Every player signed in the last window, it was made clear by Ian Ayre, was of Rodgers' choosing. But it was not with out some public calls by Rodgers for FSG to let him get who he wanted.

Honestly, aside from Liverpool still having a second choice keeper who cannot challenge Mingolet, it was a good summer of signings. Although it has come too late. I get the feeling Rodgers lost his way and probably some self belief over the course of last season.

 

Well the players you signed are quite good yes, but Liverpool could have definitely gone for cheaper and maybe better options. Iago Falque was available at about £5.5m, Draxler was worth £18m, Dybala was about £25m. In total that would be £48.5m spent on three quality players instead of £57.5m on Firmino and Benteke. The market isn't as cheap as it used to be, but smarter windows can and should be made.

[Noah]

How often do assurances like that actually do what they are supposed to and calm the situation down?

I sometimes feel that (this is not directed at any club) saying something like "Yeah our team's a bit shit and the manager is kind of a tosser but we may as well keep him for now." would instill the same amount of confidence.

[DavidMarrio]

Who was in charge of the transfers? Rodgers or someone linked to FSG?

He was part of a comittee that included scouts and a couple of directors.

The whole thing was the result of Rodgers not wanting to work with a Director of Football. During Rodgers tenure there were times when it seemed the comittee was buying players Rodgers didn't want (or the comittee were a scapegoat for players not working out).

Add to that there were a few Windows were Liverpool were clearly targeting players and making a big hoopla over wanting to sign them - and not getting them. Last summer that seemed to get sorted but there's still strange inconsistencies that crop up.

Rodgers patently said Liverpool weren't going to sign Balotelli. He also said last season's massive transfer spend was a one off. Liverpool bought Balotelli and six or so new first team players in the window that just closed. That seems to smack of problems with the comittee.

To be fair,  that seemed to change in pre season. Every player signed in the last window, it was made clear by Ian Ayre, was of Rodgers' choosing. But it was not with out some public calls by Rodgers for FSG to let him get who he wanted.

Honestly, aside from Liverpool still having a second choice keeper who cannot challenge Mingolet, it was a good summer of signings. Although it has come too late. I get the feeling Rodgers lost his way and probably some self belief over the course of last season.

 

Well the players you signed are quite good yes, but Liverpool could have definitely gone for cheaper and maybe better options. Iago Falque was available at about £5.5m, Draxler was worth £18m, Dybala was about £25m. In total that would be £48.5m spent on three quality players instead of £57.5m on Firmino and Benteke. The market isn't as cheap as it used to be, but smarter windows can and should be made.

I find looking at prices for what other players went for is a bad way of looking at things. Who's to say that Draxler would want to come to us for example? It's easy saying oh but such and such went to this team for that amount. 

They were probably the best players we could get. Draxler for example is a guy who's been playing champions league football and will continue to do so you'd imagine. Dybala has went to a team who should win Serie A and will be in the Champions League. 

[Hobo]

You guys saying that Rodgers almost won you the league do remember that a certain Uruguayan pretty much did that by himself, right? That one "achievement" aside, Rodgers has accomplished the sum total of absolutely bollock all.

That totally discounts the efforts of Jordan Henderson, Coutinho, Sterling, Gerrard and most certainly Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge's impact on Liverpool since his arrival is often overlooked. Especially on Suarez.

It was probably Liverpool's greatest Premier League season (second to 08/09 which has it's dark underbelly in the shape of Hicks and Gillette) and you're horrendously wrong if you think Brendan Rodgers doesn't deserve credit for any of it.

Edited October 5, 2015 by TLHobo

[Lineker]

Dick Advocaat has admitted his Sunderland squad were simply not good enough to avoid another scrap for Premier League survival.

The 68-year-old head coach parted company with the club on Sunday just eight games into the new league season having failed to lead them to victory in any of them.

He left following Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with West Ham without asking for a penny in settlement and retaining a fondness for the Black Cats but has since revealed his reasons for doing so.

Advocaat told the Dutch programme, Studio Voetbal: “I already made my decision last week but the club asked me to do the match against West Ham and I really wanted to finish this in style. The struggle against relegation is not my cup of tea. I think it was time for someone else to take over at Sunderland. I became negative and that didn’t feel like myself.

“I don’t regret signing my new contract because it was a great experience. Our squad was simply not good enough. The club knew we had to strengthen ourselves but the chairman [Ellis Short] never told me how much we could spend.”

Speaking to De Telegraaf, he repeated his insistence that he had no regrets, adding: “Sunderland is in my view a very beautiful club. What I have seen no one can take away from me and I would not have missed this for anything. Even on Saturday, there were three or four loud chants for me. The fans supported me until the last day, although they did not know I was leaving.”

Advocaat’s departure has created a vacancy Sunderland need to fill as quickly as possible, with first team coach Paul Bracewell and senior professional development coach Robbie Stockdale currently looking after those players not away on international duty.

The search for a replacement – which is perhaps further complicated by the fact that sporting director Lee Congerton is understood to be working his period of notice – is under way, although a definitive list of potential targets is yet to be drawn up.

There have been mixed messages as to leading candidate Sam Allardyce’s readiness to return to the game over the last 24 hours, while Harry Redknapp has distanced himself from the vacancy and Patrick Vieira is not understood to be in the reckoning.

The availability of Allardyce following his West Ham exit at the end of last season and former Leicester counterpart Nigel Pearson makes them attractive to Sunderland but Sean Dyche is also a man who is held in high regard on Wearside.

However, no appointment is imminent as the club tries to avoid the mistakes of the recent past and find a man who can galvanise a squad Advocaat believes are inadequate, and one which cannot be strengthened further, even if the money is available, until January.

[Benji]

Please let Nige go there. I could do with laughing at the pillock whilst he's not associated with my club.

[Hobo]

Who was in charge of the transfers? Rodgers or someone linked to FSG?

He was part of a comittee that included scouts and a couple of directors.

The vast, vast majority of clubs operate this way. The only difference is nobody else has been stupid enough to give it such a grand title. The Committee was a convenient get out for Rodgers - player doesn't work out? They wanted him, he was forced on me, not my fault honest.

It's not like it's uncommon for players to be bought by people regardless of whether the manager wants them or not with either, tbh.