Football

[Slim]

Charltonesque.

[Slim]

A glance at Everton's fixture list suggests to me that they're probably going down. Will they keep faith with Frank Lampard to bring them back up? I don't think so.

[dom]

Think they've realised it was a mistake. Will they keep him if they survive?

[Slim]

I don't think so, having said that though - there's a tendency always to blame the manager at that club, but there's more to it than that. Funny how Ancelotti wasn't good enough for Everton, but he went on to manage Real Madrid

[Slim]

Whatever the problem was at United, sacking Ole wasn't the solution.

[Rufus_the_dawg]

Ole was a poor manager, the problems at MU run much deeper than Ole.

I think Moyes has one of the better points averages since Ferguson.

[Matt2112]

It seems at Premier League level there's a culture of unfair scapegoating of managers.

For example, the reason Bielsa was forced out at Leeds Utd was because most of their players simply aren't good enough; at Man Utd, Ole had to go because they have superstars who simply aren't committed enough.

In both cases I thought the managers got a very raw deal.

[dom]

It seems at Premier League level there's a culture of unfair scapegoating of managers.

For example, the reason Bielsa was forced out at Leeds Utd was because most of their players simply aren't good enough; at Man Utd, Ole had to go because they have superstars who simply aren't committed enough.

In both cases I thought the managers got a very raw deal.

To play devil's advocate, Bielsa was the manager there and had been for a fair while. If the players aren't good enough, whose fault is that? He did suffer with lots of injuries to key players this season so maybe the problem was that the squad wasn't good enough.

With United, something odd going on there that successive managers are unable to correct. You've hit on something with certain players not being committed enough but why? On paper looking at their players, United should be challenging for the title. Seems there's something odd going on there. Is it still the Fergie hangover?

[Rufus_the_dawg]

It seems at Premier League level there's a culture of unfair scapegoating of managers.

For example, the reason Bielsa was forced out at Leeds Utd was because most of their players simply aren't good enough; at Man Utd, Ole had to go because they have superstars who simply aren't committed enough.

In both cases I thought the managers got a very raw deal.

To play devil's advocate, Bielsa was the manager there and had been for a fair while. If the players aren't good enough, whose fault is that? He did suffer with lots of injuries to key players this season so maybe the problem was that the squad wasn't good enough.

With United, something odd going on there that successive managers are unable to correct. You've hit on something with certain players not being committed enough but why? On paper looking at their players, United should be challenging for the title. Seems there's something odd going on there. Is it still the Fergie hangover?

No way should Bielsa have been sacked.

Man U, I remember them before Ferguson, they were rubbish sacking managers, buying expensive players that did not perform, rubbish club. Fergie was a good manager for England then he and his team were made look stupid when they played Barcelona in the Champions league final- men and boys.

[Rufus_the_dawg]

AM V MC highlights

5min mark is fun

[Rufus_the_dawg]

And it carries on..

[David L]

Nice bit of play acting from Foden. It was no more than a tap. Professional footballers are a bunch of girls

[Slim]

Sean Dyche has lost his job at Burnley - didn't see that coming.

Amusingly, Tony Livesey has phoned in his own radio show on 5 Live to rant about it. Johnny I'Anson is sitting in for him today.

[Slim]

Listened to the first half hour of Liverpool vs United earlier, on 5 Live. Sounded like men against boys. But lovely to hear the whole ground united in support for Cristiano Ronaldo following the death of his son. They even sang You'll Never Walk Alone. Classy.

[Slim]

While out on my bike this afternoon I was thinking about the likely result for the Man City game against Real Madrid, and I came up with 2-0 to City.

And as it stands, I was right! However I think there's at least one more goal in this game.

I reckon Real will win the second game by one goal, so City will go through.