Papa Lazaru

I think the Chelsea and Abramovic level is a one off, i hope it is. But there may be lesser scale takeoevers in future. The reason Chelsea are now looking invincible is because of the comination they have going. Not just unlimited money but one of the best managers to exploit that situation. With the money and alesser manager (as was shown) theres no guarentee of trophies, with the manager and less money he could still do it, but with both, they're going to make this prem pretty easy to predict. IMO they already have the title, Arse don't look as good, manu are getting injuries and don't look amazing, whilst Jose has his team just robotically moving through game after game looking unbeatable and yet to reach their top gear.

I knew Tatu were making a comeback, but blimey, they've changed a bit... 35627[/snapback] Look at you, deliberately quoting the pic 'cause secretly you love women getting it on

Good point. I put it to you, Optimistic Nut, that this isn't a true story AT ALL. 35552[/snapback] Hmmm, Now you come to think about it, it does sound a bit dodgy. Are you Dan Brown & Sherlock Holmes' love child? 35573[/snapback] More like Gordon Brown and Eamon homes physically 35575[/snapback] Fuck me, I'm getting dissed by Willow. 35585[/snapback] BTW I don't look anything like Willow???

Its my mates favourite thing involving Rocky Gervais ever i think! The bloke is just unintentionally hilarious when in the hands of Ricky Gervais!

Good point. I put it to you, Optimistic Nut, that this isn't a true story AT ALL. 35552[/snapback] Hmmm, Now you come to think about it, it does sound a bit dodgy. Are you Dan Brown & Sherlock Holmes' love child? 35573[/snapback] More like Gordon Brown and Eamon homes physically

Its not the media thats giving me an indication, its from football fans themselves who seem to have noticed this takeover by negative tactics and killing the game. And also comments by Wenger and now Owen about the state of things. The media has merely stated fact as well (unusually!) that entertainment is down, that goals are down and that attendances are down, so i'm not going to knowck them for once. As for the cricket, it makes a change for the tabloids to ackowledge that it exists other tha to rip into the England team, though of course they are mostly hypocrites and glory hunters to those of us who've followed it for years!

We don't know if they can/can't as the bes ones never come here, its a catch 22 really. To be fair i think they don't come because they are happy where they are, with the league itself, the climate and the money there is good enough for the top players. It may well be that on the whole they don't suit the prem but we haven't had enough examples to ever know.

Everton can suck the life and entertainment from anyone and anything though. 35565[/snapback] Its true. I hate the arse and their manager for many reasons but they are still one of the few teams left who play attacking football. However they are not at their best currently and so a negative team like Everton will have a chance of killing the game.

It'll either be mind numbingly boring and quite a tight scorline, or a comfortable win for the arse...but still pretty boring! Owen wasn't wrong to notice after hardly any time back that the prem is turning to shit in terms of entertainment as a load of sheeplike managers copy the same blueprint and reduce games to complete boredom.

Could also be affected by how many of the best ones we have actually had. Of the Spaniards who have agreed to leave La Liga i wonder how many were among the best from that country, i think the very top ones tend to stay in Spain on the whole.

Ah, but he won it with Celtic. Winning the Scottish title with either Rangers or Celtic is no great achievement, but if someone could do it with Hearts.... 35538[/snapback] Even if he just split the old firm by coming second it would be a hell of an achievment up there. Fergie made his name by doing the business with Aberdeen against the Old firm and maybe Burley will to, but i imagine its even harder now than it was back then.

There's a shock! 35533[/snapback] I was going to put Souness in bold and wait and see who was first to reply, but either way i thought somebody would so it didn't matter

Perhaps, but it stopped Blackburn employing their usual thug tactics as the ref had stamped on it early thanks to taylor! Also it was an awful chalenge and he had every right to go down for it, Neill is a brainless twat who devotes most of his time to injuring players, well lets be honest most of that team are. 35476[/snapback] I'm not against him diving, he just needs a bit of practice at it IMO 35488[/snapback] That'll coem with the experience, smooth out the edges of his theatrics to get it down to a fine art! Seriously though i wouldn't want him diving and he doesn't, he just has the sense when he has genuinely been fouled to make sure he gets the freekick and if its a bad tackle he makes sure the ref thinks about a card.

Perhaps, but it stopped Blackburn employing their usual thug tactics as the ref had stamped on it early thanks to taylor! Also it was an awful chalenge and he had every right to go down for it, Neill is a brainless twat who devotes most of his time to injuring players, well lets be honest most of that team are.

Agree, i've been really surprised how quick people have truned on him for a cuple of errors and a few yellow cards. The lad has turned in alot of classy performances belying his years over last and this season and it wasn't long ago people werew all raving about him marking the likes of Henry and Pires out of the game to the point at which they began diving to cheat their way past him at St.james. You can also see he has that streak of porfessionalism and cynicism present in teams like manu and the arse that is often lacking in our players. This isn't about his rash tackles he can cut down on, its about the clever/sneaky ones before the balla rrives, the subtle obstructions and the fact that he always without fail ensures if he's been fouled that he gets his freekick and furthermore tends to wait to see if acard is issued before getting up!

1 post if you include Hog's slightly more 'oblique' reference. 35364[/snapback] True, and really its none as when Rob said: "We should expect that the return of Nobby will improve things as well" He was secretly referring to his recent succesful course of viagra improving things in the RobW marital bed

Happy birthday Steve...and unlike some people i won't go and mention the Ashes...oops!

Can i have one of the flowery ones!

I don't have to find them, they're glaringly obvious, but i will tire of mentioning them as it does get repetitive and hopefully there will be other stuff to talk about if he improves his performance and the team does likewise. If he doesn't then its going to be commented on, if you can't handle that its not my problem. I'm not blickered to any litte fact and i think you'll find he got banned, something that requires a certain level of behaviour. I have seen him make some good posts, but if you want to deny he has been responsible for contiunal juvenile insults and bollocks like telling people they love Blackburn and should fuck off and support them then you deny away. And what agenda would this be, the get out a crap boss so the club i love can hopefully be set upon a better cause, improve and ge back to winnign games and who knows even trophies like i thought we all wanted, is it that agenda? 35339[/snapback] I'll reply to this when I get home 35348[/snapback] I wouldn't bother! Unlike Neil i don't think you're a complete cock and don't think theres any need for us to start arguing all the time. So you stop following me around and i'll cut down on calling Souness a wanker!

Possibly.... But then KK had no interest in Newcastle's reserves playing at SJP and promptly abandoned the reserve team meaning that all the decent kids who were on the fringe, pissed off to other clubs.... But then KK was god, wasn't he?? 35285[/snapback] Deliver KK standard football, entertainment and results, get us into europe and finish 2nd in the premiership and Souness can happilly ignore the academy as long as he likes. Get results and produce the football we all love and you can get away with other things, its always been that way and always will. 35328[/snapback] Only KK dissolved the youth structure at the club and then walked away.... Granted, he did produce attractive football, but I would have given that up for actual success and longetivity rather than the short term 'Entertainers' we had... Keegan planned for the short-term with a very expensive gamble. Had we won the league, the money would have rolled in, as would the world-class players to continue the trend. The money would also have paid for Alan Shearer rather than us having to sell quite a proportion of our assets to satisfy the bank. Hence why in the summer of 1997, Dalglish was left with a thinning squad, little money in the bank and sadly, some cruical injuries. Hence why we ended up signing the likes of Pearce, Barnes & Rush.... Whether you accept it was the gamble was the right thing to do at the time, what we all have to accept is that the particular gamble KK took sent us back years in terms of youth development. 35338[/snapback] I'm not saying whether it was right or wrong, just pointing out as long as you deliver on the pitch where fans can see then you will be able to get away with other stuff. Keegan did better than anyone else we've had in recent times, but i wasn't happy with his decision on the reserves and his attention to youth players as they are important in the background of what happens on the pitch on mathcday.

I said what he inherited AND what he's spent (£50m) The argument over what he inherited has been done to death. Bobby needed to go as he was starting to become too stubbrn and was makign mistakes, Fred of course did it at the wrong time. If the dressing room had been lost as you say then the new manager needed only to regain it and he'd have plenty of talent available to use. Personally i don't believe he had "lost" the dressing room, he was just making too many mistakes, playing favourites and victims with players and being way too stubborn. But that squad was a top 6 squad especially when you think how bad the prem has been in recent years with teams like Everton finishing 4th and Bolton easilly getting into europe. So with that, having got rid of wo he didn't want and havign spent £50m do you really think anything under 6th is acceptable?

I don't have to find them, they're glaringly obvious, but i will tire of mentioning them as it does get repetitive and hopefully there will be other stuff to talk about if he improves his performance and the team does likewise. If he doesn't then its going to be commented on, if you can't handle that its not my problem. I'm not blickered to any litte fact and i think you'll find he got banned, something that requires a certain level of behaviour. I have seen him make some good posts, but if you want to deny he has been responsible for contiunal juvenile insults and bollocks like telling people they love Blackburn and should fuck off and support them then you deny away. And what agenda would this be, the get out a crap boss so the club i love can hopefully be set upon a better cause, improve and ge back to winnign games and who knows even trophies like i thought we all wanted, is it that agenda?

Classic kids tv from when i was young! "Its those mad meakers again!"