The Barclays Premier League thread 2015/2016

[MDK]

Villa are cancelling their player of the season award. No shit.

[DavidMarrio]

7 hours ago, Chad Gazzable said:

I'm sure you've got your players mixed up there because there's no way you're talking about Newcastle's Seydou '89th minute sub' Doumbia.

Dembele....Hey I got two letters right. Close enough

[Colly]

3 surely?

[Gazz]

Racist and dyslexic...

[DavidMarrio]

Clearly I'm brain dead today. Is it Thursday yet

[Adam]

This thread today

[Lineker]

0-0 and a red card, was it?

SIX whole years since this. Mental.

[Baddar]

I'm glad that Rose has established himself now. After I series of loans, I wondered if he'd ever make it in the top flight. 

He's a beast for me on FIFA too, so that helps.

[Lineker]

Most fight Villa have shown all season tbh.

[Lineker]

Quote

The Premier League have replaced self-confessed Leicester City fan Kevin Friend with referee Neil Swarbrick for Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with Stoke City, following an outcry on social media.

Spurs are second in the table, seven points behind leaders Leicester City ahead of their visit to Stoke on Sunday.

Leicester will seal their maiden top-flight title if they win three of their next five games, while Spurs are chasing a first league title since 1961.

The Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL) do not pick Friend, who lives in Leicester, to oversee Foxes’ games, but do not usually consider factors such as a referee officiating a game that could have implications for the club he supports.

“Kevin Friend, initially selected for the game, is from Leicester and has attended matches at Leicester City in a personal capacity,” a statement to the Daily Mail said. “Given the context of this match, it was felt unnecessary to add extra scrutiny on the refereeing appointment.”

 

[Baddar]

Probably the fairest thing to do. In saying that, if it was my job to make a call against the team I supported, I'd absolutely do it. Wouldn't really want the pressure of officiating a game where a lot of fans are expecting you to make dodgy calls though! 

[Lineker]

Quote

Nigel Pearson is the frontrunner to take over as Aston Villa manager and has lined up Chris Powell to be his assistant when he makes a return to the dugout. Villa are still weighing up their options and considering the merits of other names on their shortlist but Pearson is the standout candidate and it is understood that he already has the support of several members of the club’s board.

Powell has a good relationship with Pearson, having played for him during the manager’s first spell in charge at Leicester and also coached at the club during that period. The former Huddersfield Town and Charlton Athletic manager is well respected in the game, knows the Championship and it is believed that he would be receptive to the idea of working with Pearson again.

With Steve Walsh and Craig Shakespeare now working under Claudio Ranieri at Leicester and expected to sign new contracts with the Premier League leaders before the end of the month, there is no prospect of Pearson being reunited with his former backroom staff at Villa or anywhere else next season. With that in mind, Pearson has been forced to explore other avenues and Powell has emerged as a potential No2.

Villa, for the moment, are preaching caution about their search for a successor to Rémi Garde. The decision rests in the hands of Villa’s new football board, comprising of David Bernstein, Sir Mervyn King, Brian Little and Adrian Bevington. Steve Hollis, the chairman, will submit their recommendation to Randy Lerner, the Villa owner, to rubber-stamp the appointment.

David Moyes, Sean Dyche and Steve Bruce are also in the frame but Pearson has the strongest credentials for the post. The 52-year-old, who has been out of work since leaving the King Power Stadium in controversial circumstances last June, proved at Leicester that he is capable of reviving a struggling club and winning promotion to the Premier League. There is also a school of thought that Pearson’s strong personality could be just what Villa need at this time.

Once Villa’s inevitable relegation to the Championship has been confirmed it is likely that an appointment will be made fairly swiftly, although being in the dugout on the day that Villa officially go down is unlikely to appeal to Pearson or anyone else. Villa’s fate could be sealed on Saturday before they play Manchester United, if 17th-placed Norwich pick up a point at home against Sunderland in the early kick-off.

[Cymbols]

Ugh.

[Steeb]

Meh, I'm OK with Pearson/Powell personally, out of the potential options out there. Moyes'd be interesting, but unlikely.

Basically anything but Steve fucking Bruce.

[Lineker]

Premier League ‘satisfied’ with number of drug tests carried out by UKAD

Quote

West Ham will pay £2.5m a year in rent for their new home at the Olympic Stadium, it has been confirmed, after the London Legacy Development Corporation was forced to reveal full details of the contract.

While the annual rental figure, which will halve to £1.25m a season if West Ham are relegated, was widely known, the publication of the full 207-page document reveals a host of other details about the controversial deal.

The 60,000 capacity stadium will eventually have cost £701m following an extensive £272m conversion to make it suitable for football. The contract also confirms that West Ham will pay £15m towards the conversion cost.

The LLDC had fought hard to keep the contract a secret in the face of a determined Freedom of Information campaign backed by a coalition of 14 Supporters Trusts and a petition signed by almost 30,000 people. But earlier this week a tribunal ruled that it must publish. The contract reveals that the LLDC will keep the first £4m of any naming rights deal for the stadium over a 20-year period and that anything over that will be split 50-50.

The LLDC will also keep the first £500,000 of any profit on catering, with anything over that amount being split 70/30.

It also confirms that the LLDC will meet all the running costs for the stadium, providing everything from stewards to corner flags, and that West Ham must pay an additional £100,000 for each match they play over an agreed total of 25 per season.

West Ham must also pay up to £100,000 per season extra if they finish in the top half of the Premier League and various bonuses if they win domestic cups or qualify for Europe, up to £1m in the unlikely event they win the Champions League.

“We are disappointed by the tribunal’s decision. Our motivation in bringing this case has been to protect millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The stadium needs to be a profitable and successful commercial operation otherwise it will rely on public subsidy,” said an LLDC spokesman of the decision to publish the contract in the wake of the tribunal ruling.

“We were concerned that the publication of this contract and the precedent it may set for future agreements could make it harder to do this. However, we have decided not to seek leave to appeal, and have today made the contract available on our website.”

A spokesman for the coalition of clubs said: “The hard work now begins to understand the deal, its costs to the taxpayer, and to football, and any further implications. This is a victory for the power of football supporters: organised, focused and willing to work together to achieve a collective goal.”

The agreement outlines the extent to which West Ham take primacy during the football season, underlining the need for it to retain the “look and feel” of its home ground.

The venue is also to host the 2017 IAAF and IPC Athletics World Championships and there is a 50-year agreement for British Athletics to use the venue each July. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger said last week that West Ham’s deal to move into the stadium was akin to “winning the lottery”..

 

Steal.

[DavidMarrio]

Great deal for West Ham

Dodgy deal for the tax payer. 

[MDK]

Ugh, fuck West Ham so hard.

[Gazz]

Agbonlahor has been sent to 'football fat camp' for two weeks.

[Cymbols]

Stupid fat fuck. How can you be so out of shape at this stage of the season?

3 hours ago, Steeb said:

Meh, I'm OK with Pearson/Powell personally, out of the potential options out there. Moyes'd be interesting, but unlikely.

Basically anything but Steve fucking Bruce.

Powell sure, but Pearson comes across as a egotistical prick. A less likeable Tim Sherwood, if you will.

[Adam]

He's a good manager though, I think he's proven that over the last few years and what Villa most certainly need right now is a good manager, someone who knows what it takes to get out of the Championship, and somebody who won't let the team coast along underperforming without doing something about it.