The Football.....

[StuAff]

I don’t disagree with your analogy that the six placed team finishing the normal season many points behind the automatic places is generally a bad thing. My team Aston Villa finished 5th in 2018/19 and won the playoffs.

in my opinion the real reason behind the playoffs is make a lot more money and in that regard they are a success.

There is a gulf of difference between the Prem and Championship. Maybe the latter could be playing the Scottish premier teams.

Between the top teams and the Championship, yes…not so much the rest. Luton look in severe danger of consecutive relegations and being in League One next season, and Southampton might well do the same without a major & effective rebuild in the close season. Ipswich managed to do the reverse from League One up to the Prem, likely as they are to drop back this season though. Parachute payments certainly 'help' in making sure some boomerang between the top two divisions season after season, but the likes of Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth (and some teams elsewhere in the alphabet) prove there's more to it than that.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Liverpool currently benefiting from a visit to the St Etihad Hospital, 2-0 up at half-time.

Pep is no fool as a manager, but I have always felt he was by no means the genius he was made out to be. The two clubs he turned into dominant forces had virtually unlimited funds and could not only attract the world's best players, but hoover up many of those at the next level to prevent other clubs having them.

Had he had to cut his teeth in League One where players cannot pass or control the ball anything like those he worked with, his Ticka Tacka playing out from the back would have got him nowhere.

A great manager of great sides, but that's about it. He hasn't come up with any answers for an average City side.

 

[StuAff]

Pep is no fool as a manager, but I have always felt he was by no means the genius he was made out to be. The two clubs he turned into dominant forces had virtually unlimited funds and could not only attract the world's best players, but hoover up many of those at the next level to prevent other clubs having them.

Had he had to cut his teeth in League One where players cannot pass or control the ball anything like those he worked with, his Ticka Tacka playing out from the back would have got him nowhere.

A great manager of great sides, but that's about it. He hasn't come up with any answers for an average City side.

Chequebook manager is a very simplistic insult that he's never deserved, he's certainly built better sides than some of those who've had the same or even more to spend, but the way that the wheels have come off in such conclusive fashion this season doesn't make him look good, any more than the way he's frozen out certain players over the years. One of the greatest? On results, yes, of course…but he hasn't done a rebuilding job, nor taken a side up from lower divisions and kept them there.

 

[Smokin Joe]

His understanding of the game cannot be questioned, he built teams that could play their opposition off the park. But he could only do that with outstanding players, give him Luton Town to manage and his style of football would have been a disaster.

 

[StuAff]

Unsurprisingly, Rangers have sacked Phillippe Clement.

 

[Dave7]

Unsurprisingly, Rangers have sacked Phillippe Clement.

Oh, it's happened then.
Any favourites to take over ?

 

[StuAff]

Oh, it's happened then.
Any favourites to take over ?

Nothing yet, AFAIK…the Scotsman has a list of possibles, including Rooney (?!), Daily Record floats the possibility of a Gerrard return…

 

[AndyRM]

Gerrard returning to Rangers would be hilarious.

 

[Dave7]

Gerrard returning to Rangers would be hilarious.

In what way ??

 

[Dave7]

Nothing yet, AFAIK…the Scotsman has a list of possibles, including Rooney (?!), Daily Record floats the possibility of a Gerrard return…

Just reading that Gerrard cannot join before April because of tax problems in Saudi.
It didn't give details and didn't say that Rangers have approached Gerrard.

 

[AndyRM]

In what way ??

Because they'd spend (another) heap of money when they sack him anyway.

Not that it really matters anyway, Rangers have free reign to do and say what they want in Scotland.

 

[AndyRM]

Ferguson appointed interim manager until the end of the season at Rangers. A no lose situation for him really as there will be zero expectations on him, other than coming second which is all but guaranteed.

 

[craigwend]

 

[Mike_P]

I'm struggling to understand how they can get rid of, is now 350, staff and still have a functioning club

 

[Accy cyclist]

I'm struggling to understand how they can get rid of, is now 350, staff and still have a functioning club

They must've had a whole army of hangers on, on the take and giving little in return! Ferguson was the general of that army! When Accrington's current chairman/owner took over the club about 7 or 8 years ago he saw many hangers on getting freebies. It soon came to and end and I admit to being one 'on the take'! For a few years I was let in for free as 'the guest' of the bloke on the tannoy who also did a few other jobs around the club on match days. To be fair to me I was a non payed steward for 5 years, preferring the choice of a couple of hours on match days wearing an ASFC high viz jacket, just making up the numbers required by health & safety law on match days while watching the match, rather that being payed the minimum wage for 5 boring hours of being ordered around etc. When illness forced me to hang up my ASFC jacket the club found me an unpaid/free entry to games role as a ball boy, probably the oldest one they'd ever had, but that came to an end when I had a set too with an opposing team's player, so my tannoy friend took me into games as his guest, all coming to an end when the new scrupulous owner took over!