Premier League and other football chat - 2016-17

[Teessider]

Another way of looking at the table is goal difference. Every tean that scored more than they conceded qualified for Europe.

[Roger]

Good point Teess. And your Man Moyes has gone.
The Guardian comment :-

''It is understood that Moyes, who questioned the attitude and application of several senior players and was horrified when 12 reported injured before Sunday’s 5-1 defeat at Chelsea, learned that Short would not be offering him next season’s £47m parachute payment to invest. Although he would have been allowed to reinvest money from the sales of players, including Jordan Pickford and Lamine Koné, he feared it would be insufficient to facilitate an immediate promotion challenge.''
12 Players reported injured ! Looks like a rebellion to me.

And :-
''Jokanovic, Garry Monk, Aitor Karanka and Nigel Pearson could be among those coaches considered by Short, while Nigel Clough, whose late father Brian was a Sunderland hero, has done an excellent job on a budget at Burton Albion.''
I like young Clough and was at TUFC the day Burton got into the now L2. but Jokanvic looks the best to me. Good luck next season.

[Teessider]

Glad he has gone. He made the team worse. Wholesale reconstruction now required. Larsson, O'Shea, Gibson, Pienaar, Defoe, Kirchhoff will all leave for nothing. Januzaj, Manquillo, and Denayer will return to their patent clubs. Pickford and Kone and perhaps Khazri will be sold. My choice as manager would be Mario Silva or Gary Monk but bookies favourite is Kevin Phillips.

[Roger]

Well done Arsenal (and Arsene) for a surprise FA Cup win.
Per Mertesacker plays his first game of the Season alongside young Rob Holding - they both play a decisve part . . Wenger left Cech on the bench together with his 2nd and 3rd top scorers - Theo Walcott with 19 this season and Giroud with 16 in 12 starts.
But in the EPL, Arsenal were 18 points behind Chelsea and just MO but Wenger should still retire despite this triumph.

Congrats to Man Utd for the Europa triumph - but claiming 3 trophies in JM's first season is a bit of a stretch - Charity Shield ?? The 'League Cup' emulating sides like QPR, Swindon Town etc. ?? But well done for the Europa League.
Man Utd's dominance of the EPL is over IMO - for the foreseeable future there'll be 6 teams with the potential to win it - plus Leicester of course !

I see Joe Hart's Chairman at Torino expresses some disappointment with the number of mistakes he makes and I hope Gareth Southgate has the strength to drop him from the England side.

John Terry couldn't care less about objections to his 26th minute self-publicity - I hope the FA fine CFC heftily for the indulgence. JT considers his future. Another EPL icon, Wayne Rooney, is waiting to tell us his next move. Both Terry and Rooney may rue changes in China that may levy a 100% transfer tax on top of the transfer fee. Ouch.

Managers - Harry Kewell is managing Crawley Town in League 2. Garry Monk resigns his job at Leeds Utd - he seems somewhat overconfident to me as his record as a Manager is pretty uninspiring although he did pick Leeds up a bit. The dreadful Joey Barton is released by Burnley and has ambitions to be a Manager apparently - (perhaps Joey should consider being a Bookmaker instead).

Blackpool of Stanley Matthews fame edge past Exeter in the League 1 play-off final yesterday. Amazing to think Blackpool were a Premier side in just 2011. It's a long way back though.

Nice day all . .

[Roger]

The Champions League Final was a cracker. Juventus controlled the early part of the game but were swept aside by Real Madrid as the game went on. I thought the Referee was very lenient as Juventus cut up rough. But Sergio Ramos of RM should have been sent off for his feigned reaction to a tap on the back. What a dive - more of a backflip. Great game though.

Man City are shaping up well for 2017/8. With Bernard Silva already on board, Virgil van Dijk apparently secured and Benjamin Mendy and Kyle Walker in their sights.
A contrast as always with Arsenal who can't afford to be caught out in the close season again. They should hang on to Olivier Giroud who scored a fine hat trick for France this week.

Meantime, TUFC have re-signed Captain Luke Young, young Ruari Keating nephew of Ronan and our once £1 million man ex-Man U, Sean McGinty. With Lathrope and Chaney unfotunately already on contract, that gives TUFC a team for a 5-a side league. Wow !
Other important Players from from last season, fed up with living from a suitcase and sharing cars to games, drift away to nearer climes and better conditions.
Worrying times as usual. Slightly in contrast with can Dijk's rumoured £200K a week !

[Roger]

Well Teess, you've got Simon Grayson as your new Manager on a 3 year deal - what do you think ? He seems a down to earth Chap in the Eddie Howe mould.

And talking of Bournemouth - Jermaine Defoe returns at the age of 34 on a 3 year contract which I'd guess is big money again. He's made a lot of money despite opting out to the USA a few years ago. Good luck to him.

I saw Defoe play for Bournemouth as a youngster on his goal a game run. Decades before that, I saw Trevor Francis (now 63) for Brum at Swindon when he was on a similar scoring run at the age of 16.

Roll on the EPL season !

[Teessider]

Grayson has a big job on his hands at Sunderland. Currently they have no strikers having lost Defoe, Borini and Anichebe. They have no pace in midfield and are threadbare at the back. They need about 5 new players. Defoe has done well to get s 3 year contract as there were signs towards the end of last season of him losing his sharpness

[Spursruss]

The bookies don't fancy Sunderland to go straight back up.  There are currently 8 teams with better odds.  All that can change, however, if the do some decent business before the window closes.

[Alfie]

Lukaku to go to Man U for 75 million!!

And possibly Rooney to go to Everton. Is Rooney still good enough? (not good enough for Man U but good enough for Everton?)

[Roger]

Alfie I'm surprised at Lukaku going to JM at Man Utd after his disappointments at Chelsea. A good signing for any team - he's a long proven EPL striker unlike Arsenal's new man, Lacazette.

Everton would be potty to sign Rooney on those wages ? Otherwise Everton have made good signings in Jordan Pickford, Michael Keen, Sandro Ramirez and Davy Klaasen from Ajax. In swapping Lukaku for Rooney, IMO it's likely that Man Utd will stay ahead of them next season.

Teess you must be worried at the lack of incomers so far at Sunderland. I agree with you that Defoe was lucky to get a 3 year deal at 34 - on crazy money again.

[Alfie]

I forgot to mention Chelsea's John Terry going to Championship side Aston Villa. On a free transfer, apparently. Good for Villa, methinks. 

[Roger]

I was chatting over a pint at Heathrow last week to a young Guy - he was telling me about Spurs new ground.

The Spurs football pitch will be rolled out lengthwise in 3 pieces from under an end stand, over an astroturf type pitch underneath - (this Guy's Company had sold over 2000 rollers to the rolling of).

The idea is that being able to hold just two (apparently) NFL games per season will enable the financing of the new stadium. Rolling the Spurs' pitch out takes a half hour or so.

I'm surprised the FA are happy with this idea - after all there are going to be two 100 metre grass joints the length of the pitch. I wonder what happens when there's a bad bounce around the penalty area ? How solid is the base ?  Will the more weighty Premier players make a dent when they land from a high jump ?
(Adebayo Akinfenwa is pre-banned from using it apparently).

If the NFL interests are actually going to put in enough dosh to enable the project - so be it. Appalling though it is to see this awful but awful (IMHO) game brought to our shores in greater strength.

What I don't get, design wise, is why the Spurs pitch is not grounded underneath with the astroturf being rolled out occasionally above - it's bizarre. It's not as if the pitch quality matters for the NFL is it ?

I predict a disaster for Spurs' project. ATB

P.S. I read up on this in a recent DT article - but I can't find the exact one now.

[Roger]

Alfie yes Aston Villa and JT are heading to the play off zone now after some good results. You gotta wish the old rascal JT well haven't you ? 

I see Pep Guardiola praised the humility of Man. City's Kevin de Bruyne while Chelsea's Conte bemoans the loss of this same player to CFC in Mourinho's day. City and Man Utd look in charge of the EPL atm even though Spurs look in good form with Harry Kane rampant again. As for the rest atm - they already look like 'also rans'.

After 7 games poor old Palace (P. 7. L. 7 GF. 0 GA. 17) face Chelsea next - their plight almost matched by hapless Torquay who held the NL leaders to 0-0 until a 90th minute penalty - the fifth game they've lost in the 90th and injury time this season. Apparently Torquay deserved to win.

In the Championship - surely one or two of Bolton, Sunderland and Birmingham will fight free of the drop zone before too long. Burton Albion look to be in freefall !

Great to see Football back - I recently saw Swindon Town (first visit for 40 years) and was greatly chuffed to see a slightly older Don Rogers, Frank Burrows and John Trollope sitting in the stand nearby - heroes of the Wembly win against Arsenal. I also saw TUFC but least said the better about that !

Nice day all.

[Roger]

From October 2017 . . .

''I'm surprised the FA are happy with this idea - after all there are going to be two 100 metre grass joints the length of the pitch. I wonder what happens when there's a bad bounce around the penalty area ?''

Well here it is - already in service for Spurs. 200 metres of turf joints battered by rain, frost and tough use - just my guess that there will be some odd bounces of the ball as time goes on. Very impressive engineering though.

https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,engineering-firm-pitches-in-at-spurs-new-stadium_23767.htm