坂崎ハルナ wrote:

Classico time! Which side are you on?

Neither. Fuck El Classico.

Leicester City are top of the EPL!

Vardy's been doing work for Leicester. Too bad their next stretch of games will probably push them back down to where they belong.

Just wait until Vardy faces the best goalkeeper in the world; Big Save Dave.

Having Leicester in the Champions League zone is an enough accomplishment for them, I guess.

Fuck, just being mid-table is an accomplishment for that team.

Saw the word Bolton in another post. Just to be aware, unofficially, we are relegated to League 1 already. Officially, relegated to League 1 will be confirmed by the end of April by my logic and our shit football standards

坂崎ハルナ wrote:

Having Leicester in the Champions League zone is an enough accomplishment for them, I guess.

enough of an accomplishment? They were rock-bottom of the table this time last season, them avoiding relegation this season would have made them happy.

Superior Quality 85 wrote:

Saw the word Bolton in another post. Just to be aware, unofficially, we are relegated to League 1 already. Officially, relegated to League 1 will be confirmed by the end of April by my logic and our shit football standards

SQ, you're on this site??? I had no idea! Long time no see!

Oh yeah, uh, football. I'd be surprised if Leicester qualifies for Europe, even as they sit at the top of the table right now. In saying that, I'm banking on some club making an awful offer for Jamie Vardy that the Foxes would be foolish to refuse.

Lioncross wrote:

Superior Quality 85 wrote:

Saw the word Bolton in another post. Just to be aware, unofficially, we are relegated to League 1 already. Officially, relegated to League 1 will be confirmed by the end of April by my logic and our shit football standards

SQ, you're on this site??? I had no idea! Long time no see!

Oh yeah, uh, football. I'd be surprised if Leicester qualifies for Europe, even as they sit at the top of the table right now. In saying that, I'm banking on some club making an awful offer for Jamie Vardy that the Foxes would be foolish to refuse.

LC, when in the fuck did you join this site? Good to see you again.

I doubt Vardy would leave this season. Next summer, I could see him go. Where? I haven't got a blue clue in hell. Maybe it could be the team he'll score his record breaking goal against this coming weekend, we will never know

We're comin'

Tottenham has only lost once this year (In the EPL)... their very first EPL game of the season against United. They do need some clutch gene to finish off games if they want to get into that top-4 (Notably the one against Arsenal), but yeah... We're comin'  .

Harry Kane starting to catch fire. Beware, beware.

How the fuck does this forum get so much momentum, but a good sport like the NFL doesn't get shit? Fucking CFL deserves more love that futballlllllu. They got Ochocinco and that gay Sam dude. Who does association soccer have? Some guy who headbutts people, and a black French guy who fucked over the Irish. Also that homo that Nick seems to love. And that drug addict that Dub seems to love.

And we're out of the Champions League.

I've seen people on Reddit say we played ''excellently'' but I've no idea what game they were watching; yes it was actually entertaining for once but that doesn't mean we played well, far from it. We created chances but we couldn't put those chances away and while we could have scored more, we equally could have conceded more if De Gea hadn't bailed us out and even he almost cost us a goal. Attacking football is one thing but that doesn't mean we proceed to give up defending and become clowns at it, why does it need to be one thing or another? Why do we have to give up attacking football in order to defend well and why do we need to give up defending in order to attack? Surely there must be a balance between the two. The decisions Van Gaal made were baffling; granted Varela/CBJ didn't cost us but in a game that we absolutely had to win, he plays Dermain at Left-Back and Varela at RB and benches Ashley Young and when Dermian goes off injured; he doesn't play Young for BCJ, an 18 year old. You don't throw players like that into those games, you throw them into games we'll likely win or are already winning, we needed as many experienced players as we could on that pitch and Young's been pretty good for us for the last 18 months and all of a sudden, he's randomly dropped for no reason, it's a shames of a decision.

It's like taking Juan Mata off - our most creative player- who was playing well, set-up the Martial goal and he comes off for Nick Powell. The same Nick Powell who aside from playing on the weekend hadn't played in a year and was almost on the verge of retiring a few months ago, why would you make that decision when we're 2-1 down and chasing a goal? It's just another in a long line of horrible and confusing decisions Van Gaal has made. None of the young players he's playing on a regular basis really look like future starters for us, at best McNair and Lingard could be squad players but I don't look at any of them currently as 'yeah, that guy's going to be the next Man United first-team player for the next decade' and the two who realistically could, either don't play enough as the others (Perriera) or are out on loan because they don't play well stop (Wilson), the entire thing is so baffling.

We've spent close to a 300 Million under Van Gaal and we're nowhere close to making any kind of progress. I said it alot last season but we didn't play any better than we did under Moyes, we got 4th place because Liverpool lost Suarez and spent the money poorly and De Gea was playing in God-mode, and even then we got what - six more points than Moyes did with a supposed better team? Even this season, we're near the top of the table but that says far more about the state of the Premiership than it does about us because we've been nothing but poor; the very fact that Leicster are top of the Premiership says it all. We're close to the top because City and Arsenal are inconsistent, because Chelsea have an overrated manager who's getting exposed in his third season again and because Liverpool had Rodgers and once again spent poorly. We may win the league this season if City and Arsenal can't get their shit together but that's just papering over the cracks.

Van Gaal isn't building a foundation here, he may have a reputation for what he did at Barcelona and Bayern but I feel like people underplay the work Pep did at Barcelona in making Xavi/Iniesta/Messi/Busquests (who wasn't even in the first team before Pep) world class players and the backbone of the team and underplay the work Jupp made at Bayern. What foundation is Van Gaal building? The only prospect we have who could be world-class one day is Martial and we're wasting him out-wide for Wayne Rooney. Van Gaal is living off a past reputation, He's supposed to be the guy who isn't afriad of dropping big name players but yet we persist in playing Rooney any time he's fit and available despite him playing horrible, despite having the first touch of a five year old and being a hindrance to the team. Why isn't Martial playing up front? And more importantly, why is a team like Manchester United relying on a just turned 20 year old to score goals for us? I'm not doubting Martial, he made the people (not on here) who said he's a waste of money without ever seeing him play a game to look like fools but it's madness we're relying on him, we didn't rely on a raw Ronaldo for goals when he joined, he had RvN to score goals while he developed. No team with the ambition United has, or should have, of winning the Premiership and Champions League to be relying on a player of such a young age, despite whatever amount of potential they have.

And it goes back to the 'building a foundation' argument people use to defend Van Gaal - we have no depth anywhere on the pitch but in goal and even then we don't want Valdes anyway and we're actively trying to get rid of him despite his refusal to leave. We're relying on average players to fill in when we get injuries - we've literally no defense now with Smalling, Rojo, Dermian and Shaw out and an injury to Smalling alone is the biggest blow our defense can have. We're going into the busiest time of the league with Jones, Blind and Carrick as our centre-back's, that's simply not good enough for a team like United. We've only got Rooney up front because we don't play Martial up top and as much as I love Schweinsteiger, he isn't a guy who's going to be around forever, it's why Bayern let him go.

I hate to be the negative guy all the time, I really hate being the guy who rarely has anything positive to say about the team I support but as I said when the season, I just don't see any positives heading into the future, especially with Van Gaal. We botched Ferguson retiring completely, Moyes was never the guy to take over from Ferguson, he was a mid-table manager who never won anything in his career and didn't have the character to manage a team like United (which really throws a huge counter-argument to the people who dismiss Pep at Barcelona for the players he had) and his replacement? The guy who was about to head to Spurs. I don't mean to be disrespectful to Tottenham but is that really the level we're going for to pick managers? We're one of the biggest teams in the world, despite whatever happens on the pitch, and we pick the Everton manager and a potential Tottenham manager as our manager? Van Gaal isn't good enough for us, he wasn't last season and he isn't this season. He's made way too many mistakes as a manager - Not using Di Maria correctly, selling Danny Welbeck to make room for Wilson then loaning in Falcao who just came off a serious injury and not playing Wilson, selling Rafael, his refusal to drop Rooney, his refusal to find an actual balance between Attacking and defending, not buying an established striker in the summer, not buying another defender in the summer, among more- and what are going to do when Van Gaal finally leaves? Hire Carlo or Pep? Nah, we'll likely hire Ryan Giggs as a manager. Van Gaal already said it himself when he said Martial was a signing for 'Giggs in the future', we're going to hire somebody with four games of managerial experience because he's a United legend while City likely hire Pep and leave us in the dust. Just like Arsenal will eventually do, just like Chelsea will do and just like Liverpool might do now that they've got Klopp.

Dr. Eddie Hawke wrote:

How the fuck does this forum get so much momentum, but a good sport like the NFL doesn't get shit? Fucking CFL deserves more love that futballlllllu. They got Ochocinco and that gay Sam dude. Who does association soccer have? Some guy who headbutts people, and a black French guy who fucked over the Irish. Also that homo that Nick seems to love. And that drug addict that Dub seems to love.

Shut your hating ass up, GI

Swansea City have sacked Garry Monk.

It was a fun 22 months with an amazing run of results starting from the 3-0 win over Cardiff, but things obviously got worse, and it seemed irreparable as long as he was manager.

Typing from my phone; I'll have more in a few hours when I get back home.

Amazing scenes coming from United, claiming they'd have qualified for the Knockout stage if the Premier League let them play matches on a Friday instead, ignoring that City, Arsenal, Chelsea and basically every other club plays on Saturday/Sunday like United.

Lost for words.

David Moyes and Brendan Rodgers appear to be out of the manager hunt. I've heard rumors about several other people, one of them being Gus Poyet.

People I'd rather have managing Swansea than Gus Poyet:

- Ryan Giggs
- Michael Laudrup
- Lee Trundle
- Jill Ellis
- Me

(Note that Dick Advocaat and Tim Sherwood aren't on this list)

I did write a eulogy on Garry Monk, but it's on my site. I'm not going to link it here as I haven't asked for permission yet, but it's linked on my Twitter at @Lioncross62.

Apparently Man United are thinking of placing a 50 million bid for John Stones. Is he really worth that much money, though?

Who will Bournemouth slay next?

Brett Kennedy wrote:

Apparently Man United are thinking of placing a 50 million bid for John Stones. Is he really worth that much money, though?

He is a young, exciting prospect, but 50 mil is just too much at the bigger scale. Sure, he has had a lot of golden moments these past seasons, but I just don't think he's worth all that much. United invested greatly in Luke Shaw, and he still is a promising player - only problem is that he is injury prone. In my honest opinion, United needs an experienced left back that can help aid a thing or two to the United defense: Leighton Baines. He is only 31, but he is sure as hell a superb LB.

ℜhaegar wrote:

Brett Kennedy wrote:

Apparently Man United are thinking of placing a 50 million bid for John Stones. Is he really worth that much money, though?

He is a young, exciting prospect, but 50 mil is just too much at the bigger scale. Sure, he has had a lot of golden moments these past seasons, but I just don't think he's worth all that much. United invested greatly in Luke Shaw, and he still is a promising player - only problem is that he is injury prone. In my honest opinion, United needs an experienced left back that can help aid a thing or two to the United defense: Leighton Baines. He is only 31, but he is sure as hell a superb LB.

Simple answer was no.

Chelsea have parted company with Jose Mourinho. Mutual consent, sacked, or whatever.

Mourinho falling out of favor with the higher-ups in Year 3 isn't a new occurrence, but the timing is interesting in the sense that Chelsea could win the Champions League - it'd take a very lucky draw and some unexpected results (Arsenal beating Barcelona, for example), but crazier things have happened.

Swansea are apparently close to hiring Marcelo Bielsa, who was last with Marseille. He has a pretty extensive resume, including time with Chile and Argentina, and I'd love to see Swansea try out his famous 3-3-3-1, but he's an interesting choice in the sense that he doesn't speak much English. Angel Rangel for First Team Translator!

'Best Manager in the World' Jose Mourinho losing a dressing room and doing poor at another club, what's the common theme here?

And no to Baines, we've spent two seasons clearing the team of old players, let's NOT add another old player into the team for short-term reasons. I'd willingly pay 50M for Stones, it's the same reason we spent 30M+ on Shaw, 36M on Martial and why City spent 50M on Sterling, it's the long-term potential of the player that'll pay off and Stones is going to be one fantastic player in a few years, won't get him till the summer though, Everton have no need to sell right now.

As for Bielsa, he's short-term manager really but fuck, that'd be an amazing get for Swansea if they pull that off.