FA confirm they have opened talks for Roy Hodgson to take over as full time England manager and the way its worded it will be for more than Euro 2012, HOW UTTERLY PATHETIC. Roy is a nice man and decent manager but his style of play is like Capello's = Lethargic, boring with no imagination so I expect a massive uphill task for 2014 to just qualify. I really think Roy won't hold the respect of the players and the only reason he has been picked is because hes a cheaper option than Harry.
Bingo. Redknapp is the media's mate and the clamour for him has been ridiculous. Without his famed wheeling and dealing how would he fare? Not very well IMO. Hodgson is by no means a great manager but for the England job he isn't any worse than Redknapp.
Redknapp can motivate, but tactically he seems very naive, and really Hodgson has far more experience. And even his period at Liverpool doesn't seem so bad in hindsight. Hodgson is good at making little teams punch above their weight, and lets face it that's what England are these days!
Until the last remnants of the 'golden generation' finally retire from international football, England will stay exactly the same. Hodgson's not going to be the man to get rid of them. Anyone want a bet on when we can expect the first 'can Hodgson make Lamps and Stevie G play together in the same team?' headlines and copy. Sadly I live in London these days so cannot avoid it as well as I could in south Wales! Speaking of south Wales v London.... not to get all Keegan, but.... I will love it if we consign West Ham to another year of Championship football in these play-offs. It's nice to be the team who snuck in and have no media spotlight or pressure. Is this the first season where all three relegated teams find themselves in the play-offs?
Ok Hodgson Honours Halmstad Allsvenskan (2): 1976, 1979 Malmö FF Swedish football champions (2): 1986, 1988 Allsvenskan (5): 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 Svenska Cupen (2): 1985–86, 1988–89 Inter Milan UEFA Cup Runner Up (1): 1997 Copenhagen Danish Superliga (1): 2000–01 Danish Super Cup (1): 2001 Fulham UEFA Europa League Runner Up (1): 2010 Individual LMA Manager of the Year (1): 2010 Redknapp Honours Bournemouth Football League Division Three: 1986–87 Football League Trophy: 1983–84 West Ham United UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999 Portsmouth Football League Division One: 2002–03 FA Cup: 2007-08 Tottenham Hotspur Football League Cup runners up: 2009 Individual Premier League Manager of the Year: 2009-10 Premier League Manager of the Month: April 2004, October 2004, March 2005, April 2006, August 2009, September 2011, November 2011 I'm not sure how accurate wiki is because I'm sure Hodgson must have got at least the odd manager of the month award. I wouldn't dispute what Redknapp's done in his career, but Hodgson has far more experience on the international stage, both at club and country level. He's taken a team to a major tournamant before as well, and he's also good at working with what he has--success at Pompy and Spurs has come down to Harry being allowed to spend a huge amount of money (and be interesting to see who Pompy fans think should be England manager). Yeah he can motivate, but so could Keegan... For Hodgson Liverpool poses issues, but given the miniscule budget he had to work with, and Kenny's 'not so great considering the money he spent' season I think in hindsight Roy didn't do too bad. Be interesting to see how the player's react (especially Gerrard) and I wonder if Joe Cole will make a return (apparently playing very well for Marseille.) As for Lamps and Stevie G, I think most people now accept that Lampart will likely only be a bit part player at the Euros.
Savage hit the nail on the head on FF earlier - take the Liverpool thing out of Hodgson's CV and he's by far and away the outstanding candidate for the job. Bags of experience, not only of the English game, but also European football and international football. Harry was the media favourite, but comes with too much baggage. Harry's good when he can wheel and deal. Hodgson's good at working with what he's got. I know who I'd rather have with the England setup being as it is. The main thing working against Hodgson now is the media, and the fans who buy into it. We've seen the negative reaction because they called it wrong, you can imagine the self-congratulating and backslapping if the results don't come straight away.
Just read that Juventus won Serie A last night and are unbeaten with one game to go. They also won their domestic cup, almost unbeaten in that competition. That is phenomenal and I hope they seal it next week (no idea who they're playing...) It'll be good to have them back in the Champions League next season
Got to feel a little sorry for Carroll beause you COULDN'T be any closer to scoring without actually scoring and I hate Yaya Toure
I remember 10/15 years ago when THE biggest game in Europe was Juventus vs Man Utd. They had some right ding-dongs over the span of 5/6 years. Seem to remember that Juve had the hex over them for a while and then Utd finally beat them 3-2 at OT and the pendulum swung the other way for a while. I remember a memorable 3-0 win in Turin when SAF sent over a mixture of reserves and youth team players. Great to see Juve back - Italian football in Europe needs Juve there. Carroll - gutted for him, really wanted that to be a goal but I think it's just too close to call one way or the other.
^ Computer Images from different sources all say same thing, about 80-90% of the ball did cross the line but not 100%. Got to say one of the best saves of all time by Cech then, top class.
Yes, stunning save. Looked for all the world like a goal but somehow he managed to claw it out. Top keeper. Also has to be said, Carroll should have given him no chance, but that's probably being a bit too harsh.
Liverpool really spanked Chelsea last night and while I only saw the first half, Terry looked so slow and bad last night. The guy clearly seems to be carrying more than one injury (his ribs are still not healed its been said) + Ankle knock, hope Roy doesn't take him to 2012 if thats the case.
....and Cardiff City make all the papers for the wrong reasons once more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/football-league-blog/2012/may/09/cardiff-city-change-of-shirts Fucking tragic if this goes ahead. For any team, frankly.
Ugh! Although apparently red is supposed to give teams a psychological advantage...funnily enough as I was reading it I though about Leeds changing to white in the 60s, and from mine and Angel's perspective Brian Clough did change Derby's colours from black/white to blue/white in the 70s. Still I can only imagine how well this will go down. Unfortunately money talks, the same reason so many stadia now have stupid names. Sometimes I wish the bottom would drop out of football, which is crazy really cos so many teams would go to the wall, but it's not as much fun as it used to be.
Teams might go to the wall in the short term, but they'd be back soon enough, in another guise. Although Sky TV has invested £££ into English football, and you now get football 24/7 on the telly somewhere, the game's sold its soul. Gone are the days of a small provincial side winning the championship. The likes of us, or Forest winning the league ever again under the current setup, are nil. ^^ Nice AV btw mate
The Kop 1964: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RbF6etw5098#[/yt] If I got a time machine this would literally be one of the first places I'd go to see.
Thanks, I just rewatched it for the first time in a couple of years so it seemed appropriate! You're right, we've seen the likes of AFC Wimbledon and the Man utd team, heck even Ilkeston Town came back from the dead. You could argue Chelsea used to be a small club, but I guess they are London based rather than provincial. There's Blackburn but even Jack Walker wouldn't be able to buy a title these days. Unfortunately fans always (initially at least) welcome in these foreign owners with open arms when they think there's gonna be money/success...next thing you know Steve Kean is your manager or you're playing in the King Power Stadium. Is it true the Venkys didn't actually realise Blackburn could get relegated from the Prem? I'm not always the greatest fan of GSE but hell we could be doing a lot worse... HappyDayRiot, I really hope this doesn't come to pass!