In the fantasy world of the sandbox, Liverpool will win the Premiership, 2006-07

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Actually, Man Utd will probably win the Premiership. Prompted by reports they're about to sign Henrik Larsson on loan - weird but could be an absolute masterstroke.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 1 December 2006 11:29 (nineteen years ago)

That's very clever. Probably the best striker in Europe not cup-tied for the Champions League too.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Friday, 1 December 2006 11:41 (nineteen years ago)

It's official

He gets to beat Mad Martin Villa on 13th January.

― nu_onimo (nu_onimo), Friday, 1 December 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

Congratulations to Liverpool on their amazing away form.

Also systems thinking doesn't make you fuckin fast enough to catch Gabriel Agbonlahor, does it? Does it?

(I accept that Pompey will win).

― Michael Annoyman (Michael Annoyman), Saturday, 2 December 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

laaaaame

― sede vacante (blueski), Thursday, 7 December 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

Pardew out

hello Curbishley?

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 11 December 2006 15:35 (nineteen years ago)

oh god

― I am the best lyrocost since Dylan (Scourage), Monday, 11 December 2006 15:45 (nineteen years ago)

George Graham on standby.

Current favourites: Curbishly, Dowie and some people who didn't manage Charlton - Eriksson, Vialli, Ranieri, Jewell

66/1 if you fancy a flutter on Paolo Di Canio :)

― Blaze the Violet Flame (nu_onimo), Monday, 11 December 2006 15:52 (nineteen years ago)

Big money for Curbs: 7/4 opening now into 4/7. Sven at 8s, Ranieri and Jewell at 12.

Woah Teddy Teddy at 66/1 could be a nice speculative flutter, or maybe you'd prefer Kenny Dalgleish to get off the golf course at 100/1. Neil Ruddock 150/1 is possibly best left alone.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 11 December 2006 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

Russell Brand's Guardian column is really gonna suck on Saturday.

― Michael Annoyman (Michael Annoyman), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

It doesn't normally?

― Blaze the Violet Flame (nu_onimo), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Someone reads it?

― pfunkboy (Kerr), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Curbs and Teddy could be a good pairing but I really want Ranieri back in the Premiership and West Ham are a better bet than most.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

good call

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:09 (nineteen years ago)

We're talking new levels of suck, here.

Admittedly there is some grim anticipation of the exact way he chooses to tenuously use this shocking news as an excuse to reaffirm that he isn't a middle class football tourist but wou'unt it be noice if West Ham fans were all a bit more maaaad and dandyish like him, though.

― Michael Annoyman (Michael Annoyman), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:10 (nineteen years ago)

I caught a bit of his Radio 2(?) show recently and they (him + studio cronies + phone-in peeps) were trying to write a new West Ham Terrace Anthem. It was awful.

― Blaze the Violet Flame (nu_onimo), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

When she wakes up in the morning
She writes down all her dreams
Reads like the book of revelations
Or the Beano or the "Get Stuck In: The Authorized Biography of Julian Dicks"

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

iirc it was based on Billy Joel's "Uptown Girls", cunningly replacing Uptown with Upton of course.

― Blaze the Violet Flame (nu_onimo), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

i hear Pardew prefers to play away from home

― sede vacante (blueski), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:25 (nineteen years ago)

fucking hell

So far the Billy Joel Uptown Girl Russell Brand version goes: "Upton Park, we're the Hammers we're from Upton Park". Having received endorsements in print we are going with the line, "We're just a bunch of East End boys, now were going to make some effing noise, some effing noise." Imagine that to the tune of Uptown Girl, I think you'll see it works. Within one short year we will be singing that song at Camp Nou. I'll be at the front with pompoms and a bra, wiggling my sweet little tush as the travelling pride of West Ham fans do harmonies in the "Whoa ooooooooo" bit.

― Blaze the Violet Flame (nu_onimo), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:26 (nineteen years ago)

TS: Russell Brand vs the government's official "Football Chant Laureate"

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Monday, 11 December 2006 16:29 (nineteen years ago)

"England did nothing in the World Cup, so why were they bringing books out? 'We got beat in the quarter-finals. I played like s**t. Here's my book.' Who wants to read that? I don't. I watched the World Cup and there wasn't a team. It seemed to be individuals playing for themselves" - Joey Barton introduces himself to his soon-to-be international teammates.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 13 December 2006 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

two months pass...

bumpety-bump

Liverpool didn't win the Premiership 1996/97, but they nearly did. Was Roy Evans underrated? (and how do you spell that word: underrated / under rated / underated / under-rated?)

― Teh HoBBx (HoBB), Thursday, 15 February 2007 18:08 (nineteen years ago)

Houllier came as close didn't he?

― resumo impetus (blueski), Thursday, 15 February 2007 18:14 (nineteen years ago)

I think I've made this point before about Evans' near-misses (and Calamity James' goalkeeping that Easter Monday in '97 possibly costing them the title). I liked Evans because he had a lousy record in derbies (the five years Liverpool went without a win over Everton in the '90s seems all the more remarkable now when you consider the apparent difference in class between the clubs in that period [Spice Boys vs Dogs of War] and how it laid the foundations for the financial gulf now ["small club" jibes]).

The hallmark of the Houllier era was to start like an express train and then slump out of contention with some terrible winter form (2002-03 being the prime example). There was a moment in the 01-02 run-in when it seemed like they'd hold Arsenal at bay but it quickly passed.

That article's mention of Evans being unable to control his talented but wayward squad certainly rings true; oh, the stories you'd hear about those naughty boys...

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 15 February 2007 23:56 (nineteen years ago)

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2016246,00.html

Chelsea will today announce losses of £80m for the last financial year, a £60m reduction on the £140m deficit recorded in 2004-05. The £80m loss, the lowest recorded in the three full years since Roman Abramovich took control of the club, takes the aggregate losses during the Russian's ownership to £308m and his total spending on the club over £500m....
The loss...is largely attributable to the Russian's bank-rolling of player transfers...to ensure the club remained a going concern...
The percentage of turnover swallowed by the club's wage bill is thought to have increased to more than 75%...
...Kenyon will see the figures as evidence that his mission to make the club break even by 2009-10 remains on track.

Assuming for a moment that Kenyon can get Chelsea to break even by 2010, how much will they have lost by then? £400 million? Even if they start to make a profit after that, how long would it take realistically for Abramovich to get a return on his investment?

― Teh HoBBx (HoBB), Monday, 19 February 2007 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

http://home.skysports.com/list.aspx?hlid=448988&CPID=8&clid=21&lid=3&title=Magnusson+hits+out+at+Pardew

"Alan Pardew was a cancer", Eggert in diplomatic mode there

― Michael Annoyman (Michael Annoyman), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 12:02 (nineteen years ago)

Despite his extraordinary scoring record for Liverpool (17 hat tricks!), Gordon Hodgson only ever one 3 england caps (though i guess Liverpool were a middling side at that point)

― 526 (526), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

one=won

― 526 (526), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 12:06 (nineteen years ago)

Is Abramovich actually seriously bothered about getting a return on his investment or is it just the rhetoric that Peter Kenyon is told to trot out from time to time when he pretends that Chelsea will become a self-sustaining business, not just buy success etc.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

Is it actually possible at all to make money from a large scale investment in a top flight football club, or is it only profitable if you combine it with some kinda media venture a la Berlusconi?

― White Collar Boxer (DomPassantino), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

I've often thought that about the Evans era. I had a long and heated argument with a friend before when I argued that under Houllier even if they finished 2nd or on higher points than under Evans, the fact that they were seldom in the driving seat meant they were just picking off the second place team when they had lost the title, rather than being the actual runners up themselves...he was adamant that Houllier was far better than Evans though.

As for Benitez...increasingly it seems he'll mess around for another 2 or 3 seasons and then be gone too.

― Ronan (Ronan), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 16:22 (nineteen years ago)

lol @ Bellamy whacking Riise with a golf club - "FUCKING SING!"

― Captain Purple Items (nu_onimo), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

Nothing to do with the Premiership, but assuming this sandbox adventure is going to be short-lived it doesn't seem worth starting a European football one. United manage to win 1-0 in a dull game that had 0-0 written all over it thanks to one of those Thierry-Henry-taking-it-quickly free-kicks from Giggs. Lille go apeshit and half the team walk off the pitch and it looks like the game won't restart. Final ten minutes or so played out to a chorus of boos and missiles raining down. Meanwhile in the first half the United end was dangerously overcrowded and some people tried to climb over the fences. The French police (evidently trained by their colleagues from South Yorkshire) cunningly respond by firing tear gas into the stand and then smashing fuck out of anyone they can with their batons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/6380837.stm

― Teh HoBBx (HoBB), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 22:17 (nineteen years ago)

I couldn't work out whether Fergie was more livid with the Lille staff for trying to drag the players off, or with Gary Neville for getting stuck in when he really didn't need to.

That Giggs free kick was marvellous, as was Larsson's dummy-then-chip that very nearly came off. Not sure about the Vidic push at all, but it's always amusing to watch Andy Townsend get in a tizzy.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 22:27 (nineteen years ago)

That match was ugly. French police not really covering themselves with glory. Lille to be fined, ohh, 300 quid?

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

Lolz at comedy dive by Gilardino against Celtic tonight.

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Tuesday, 20 February 2007 23:20 (nineteen years ago)

Steve Nash wants to buy Tottenham! Steve Nash! Apparently his did is from there, and hes always been a spurs fan (ironic, as a former maverick!)

― 526 (526), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 11:55 (nineteen years ago)

Where did you read this?!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 12:07 (nineteen years ago)

Haha I've just looked, this is clearly bullshit.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 12:10 (nineteen years ago)

I hear Nemi has come in with a white knight offer to save Bristol City.

― Dom Passantino (DomPassantino), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 12:15 (nineteen years ago)

Rofl@victor valdes....wasn't even a great header

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 21 February 2007 20:33 (nineteen years ago)

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