Premier League 2017/18

[MDK]

Peter Beardsley has been a prick. Allegedly.

[Colly]

All the more poignant. 

 

[Lineker]

They're bringing in the Rooney Rule: 

The Football Association’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, suggested female footballers may be less tolerant of “banter” than their male counterparts on the day the governing body announced plans to adopt the “Rooney rule” in an attempt to improve inclusivity in the sport.

Glenn confirmed at least one BAME (black, Asian, minority ethnic) candidate will be interviewed to be the next England manager after Gareth Southgate. However, when outlining an action plan on “enhancing the culture around the women’s senior team” following a bruising six months for the governing body and its senior executives, Glenn risked drawing further criticism by asserting there is a gender divide around acceptable interaction between players and management staff.

The FA is trying to rebuild its reputation after the Eniola Aluko crisis. Glenn insisted he was not referring to alleged racist remarks made to Aluko by the former England manager Mark Sampson, which he judges to be much more serious.

But he said: “I think culturally what women will be prepared to put up with has been a bit different from guys.”

Asked to explain what he meant, Glenn added: “I guess banter would be a case in point. Now our grievance and whistle-blowing procedures are common across men’s and women’s teams. Our coaching guidelines are common across men’s and women’s teams. But I think it’s fair to say from what we’ve seen is there are probably some differences in what they would expect to hear or say.”

Under the Rooney rule initiative, a BAME candidate will be interviewed for all England coaching jobs in the future to follow the Football League’s announcement that it would be adopting a similar pilot scheme.

There are only five BAME coaches across the 92 clubs in the pyramid, with Brighton’s Chris Hughton the only BAME manager in the Premier League. In November Sports People’s Think Tank said only 22 of 482 coaching roles in the top four divisions were held by BAME coaches.

The Premier League has no plan in place to implement the Rooney rule but Glenn said he hoped it would have a trickle down effect. The rule is named after the late Dan Rooney, the former owner of the American football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was adopted across the NFL before spreading to sports around the world.

“We are there to set an example,” said Glenn. “We are also quite a big employer as well if you think about the number of 28 England teams now, if you include men’s, women’s and disability.

“I think in talking to people at the Premier League and the FA, I don’t see any resistance to it and, to be fair, the EFL has a Rooney rule in place.

“We’re doing this for two reasons. In soft terms because it is the right thing to do but there is also a business case for it,” added Glenn. “If your management team reflects more the people that you are serving, then you’re going to make correct decisions. What we’re seeing now is more BAME players and what we want to do is make sure that post their playing career there’s an opportunity for them to carry on contributing and that they feel the FA is also for them.”

Across all of the England teams which the FA controls, including age group, women’s and disability teams the only BAME coach is Kevin Betsy who coaches the men’s under-15s. There has never been a black or ethnic minority manager of the senior men’s team. Herman Ouseley, chairman of Kick It Out, described the FA last year as tending to be “stale, pale, white old men”.

Glenn pointed out the FA has more BAME employees than the national average. “Organically we have been diversifying just because of natural selection and people coming through and there are BAME representatives both in the England set-up and across the development teams,” he said. “We are 13% BAME across the wider workforce and that’s higher than the national average – but then again, it’s probably not as high as the playing population.”

[MDK]

I'm sure Gazz will go into it more but making it easier (cheaper) to become a coach would be more beneficial in the long run

[Lineker]

Side note - Martin Glenn is an idiot for going down that "banter" tangent.

[MDK]

5 minutes ago, Lineker said:

Side note - Martin Glenn is an idiot for going down that "banter" tangent.

I dunno, case in point. If I fart and you say "Oh, Myke, new cologne?" I'll just laugh it off but you try that with your missus...   

[Chris2K]

Romelu Lukaku is looking into legal action against Everton owner Farhad Moshiri after Moshiri claimed that Lukaku didn't re-sign with Everton after he "received a voodoo message" on a "pilgrimage to Africa" telling him to leave Everton and join Chelsea, which he of course didn't.

There's always something you type every day that you have to re-read to make sure you're not talking crap, but that is in fact a true statement.

[Adam]

Farhad talks some right shite.

[MDK]

Bloody Scousers 

[Lineker]

The FA will not be taking any action against Jake Livermore for confronting a fan in the crowd.

[Baddar]

Your thoughts, @DarylMarrio?

 

[MDK]

Jesus.

[stokeriño]

I like how it involves a reminder of what they've lost every 15 seconds or so.

Singing that is guaranteed to sound really confident and defiant and not at all melancholy or disappointed.

[Adam]

They should give out those jars to every fan on the Kop before the game.

I find the idea of Liverpool singing a song that is basically all about how they sold their best player...quite realistic actually.

[stokeriño]

The convenient part is that with just some minor lyrical tweaks, they'll be able to recycle the song every couple of years.

[Gazz]

Xhaka! Iwobi-wobi! Bobby Holding because we sold Sanchez 'n' Ozil

It really is flexible.

[DavidMarrio]

4 hours ago, Los IngobernAdam de Japon said:

They should give out those jars to every fan on the Kop before the game.

I find the idea of Liverpool singing a song that is basically all about how they sold their best player...quite realistic actually.

Just like it's realistic all Everton songs being about Liverpool

Also wtf is that jar? Is it the modern day version of the rattle? 

5 hours ago, Baddar said:

Your thoughts, @DarylMarrio?

 

I've been getting my ass kicked by this cold/flu thing I've got and having weird dreams. I don't know if I'm currently in one or if that is actually real 

Reminds me of that kid who done all the Arsenal ones a few years ago. HES 6'2 AND HE'LL DO YOU OLLIE OLLIE OLLIE OLLIE GIROUD!!

4 hours ago, stokerino said:

The convenient part is that with just some minor lyrical tweaks, they'll be able to recycle the song every couple of years.

The day Salah goes is the day I'll lose my smile. 

[Baddar]

[DavidMarrio]

 

[Lineker]

Quique Sanchez Flores has turned down the chance to take over as manager of Stoke City, and has decided instead to stay at Espanyol.