EPL Season 2016/7

[OwlsFan]

2435

Saw this interesting (to me) league table of points obtained in the top division in England. No surprise that Liverpool are tops but Man U only in 4th place, although I know they had some poor seasons in the 1970s. Exact same number of games played by Liverpool and Arsenal. Everton in 2nd place but the number of points doesn't translate to league titles. A very stable club nonetheless.

[DeLorean]

14th place is fairly secure for another few years anyway!

[BonnieShels]

A points per game table would be more interesting. :)

[OwlsFan]

Sam Allardyce: not everyday an ex-manager of Limerick become the England manager.

[BonnieShels]

Man Utd 1.41
Liverpool 1.35
Arsenal 1.34
Chelsea 1.24
Tottenham 1.23
Leeds 1.19
Everton 1.19
Aston Villa 1.16
Man City 1.14
Newcastle 1.13
Notts Fores 1.10
West Ham 1.09
Blackburn 1.08
Sheff Wed 1.08
Sunderland 1.05
Wolves 1.02
Derby 1.02
West Brom 1.01
Bolton 1.01
Middlesbro 1.00

[DeLorean]

Interesting. Although I think the first table is a fairer refection of the best/most consistent teams throughout history. Bonnie's table presumably doesn't penalise teams for years spent outside the top flight.

[DeLorean]

Sam Allardyce: not everyday an ex-manager of Limerick become the England manager.

A bit more on that here. (http://buzz.ie/sam-allardyce-on-his-time-with-limerick-fc/)

[OwlsFan]

Have to say I am tired of Mourinho already. In a press conference after the Charity Shield, he must have used the word "I" (is I a word?) about 20 times in the space of 5 minutes. It was novel once. Now it's like listening to a golfer talking about his game (I,I,I etc).

[CraftyToePoke]

Id agree, a graceless cretin & it would be brilliant entertainment if his tenure there were to tailspin, and if it does I don't see him puling it out of that dive, his box of tricks are for other scenarios. The Mata substitution also, in the Shield game Sunday, citing the guy as being too small, I am pretty sure Mata was the same size as when Mourinho picked him an hour earlier to start. Just another means of making it about him, attention on Jose, player needlessly publicly humiliated. Why not just drop him & move him on if he isn't in the plans ? Vile wretch of a human to a point where I tend to not even watch the sides he is involved with. I hope Conte outperforms him comfortably.

[DeLorean]

Mata didn't start. The whole controversy was over the fact that he brought him off after bringing him on. Still didn't make much sense though other than for the reasons you've pointed out, humiliating him, making a statement, etc. The treatment of Schweinsteiger is really poor also, you'd have to imagine he could contribute something of value with his experience alone. No need to freeze him out completely anyway. These kind of things could backfire for sure. I was kind of expecting him to act the nice guy for a month or two anyway, if only to try to trick the likes of Bobby Charlton into thinking he is capable of it! Interesting times ahead though.

[CraftyToePoke]

Mata didn't start. The whole controversy was over the fact that he brought him off after bringing him on

I see, well I didn't watch it as I tend to steer clear of broadcasts containing JM despite having held a ST at Leicester for 5 years previously, I skipped the Shield. I only skimmed through the Mata subbed piece. Thus ending up undermining and reinforcing my point in one go :)

Yes, you are right, I thought he would keep the spots covered a while longer as he might need some allies down the road but he seems to feed off the energy of these conflicts he creates. No need to treat players like that, other than his own need to bully. All well & good if you are the untouchable boy genius winning everything but few friendly faces to turn to when you aren't.

[DeLorean]

Everton get £47.5m for Stones and look likely to replace him with Ashley Williams for £12m. Without undermining Stones' ability or potential, that seems like some good short-terms business. You'd struggle to get that kind of transfer fee for a ready-made, world class central defender in their prime. In fact, nobody ever has, unless David Luiz is considered world class in some quarters. The constant speculation had become an unwelcome distraction anyway. You'd expect Williams to hit the ground running without much fuss.

[OwlsFan]

Always add on an extra 15 million if they're English for some bizarre reason. Stones had a poor enough season last year and made a lot of silly errors. Seems like good business for Everton but they need to spend that extra 30 million on a few more decent players if they're not to struggle again.

Big boys back to the massive spending again. Has the Pogba signing gone through yet or is it to continue as the No. 1 item on the Sky Sports news? I assume that the Stones transfer will at last have removed that from the No. 1 slot. Now, what's the news from Wednesday? Oh yes, Will Buckley on loan from Sunderland will make his debut against Cambridge. Hey up, that's what I call news!!

[OwlsFan]

Moyes didn't do much with Man U's first team. Now he's signing their second string with a "double swoop" for defenders Paddy McNair and Donald Love. If I was a Sunderland supporter, I'd be really excited (not). John O'Shea will struggle to get a game?

[passinginterest]

Fantasy league has been renewed for another year if anyone new wants to join. Code is 822061-222108 league name is Foot.ie

[BonnieShels]

Fantasy league has been renewed for another year if anyone new wants to join. Code is 822061-222108 league name is Foot.ie

Right, I used the autopick and I'm just gonna let that run for the season now with next to no interference. We'll see how that goes. :)

[OwlsFan]

According to BBC pundits it looks like a two horse race in the league between the Manchester clubs http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37040156

[TheBoss]

Anyone interested in a league for the Super 6?

https://super6.skysports.com

[BonnieShels]

Anyone interested in a league for the Super 6?

https://super6.skysports.com

Go on. Would be more into that.

[TheBoss]

Anyone interested in a league for the Super 6?

https://super6.skysports.com (https://super6.skysports.com/)


Go on. Would be more into that.

To join this, just click on Leagues -> Join a League and enter this code: 32HZ7V.


The Super 6 itself is free for anyone to enter, you have nothing to lose!

[BonnieShels]

To join this, just click on Leagues -> Join a League and enter this code: 32HZ7V.


The Super 6 itself is free for anyone to enter, you have nothing to lose!

Big fat zero yday

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Anyone hear Zabaleta and his English accent during his post match interview today?

[OwlsFan]

Will it be farewell Big Sam or just a slap across the wrist? Either way, what a plonker! (as Dell Boy would say)

[DeLorean]

I can't help feeling some sympathy for the eejit but it's way beyond a slap on the wrist I'm afraid.

[OwlsFan]

Swansea manager sacked and replaced by Bob Bradley. Interesting choice as ever at Swansea.

[OwlsFan]

Well Sky-hype were at it again. "Red Monday", "massive", count down clocks in the background and "it's live!!" only for two teams, neither of which is playing in the Champions League, to come up with a 0-0 borefest. Now on to "The Return" as Mourinho goes back to Chelsea on Sunday. A friend of mine had said to me before the game "Games don't get any bigger in the Premier League!" and he believed it. He was a bit deflated when I told him I'd sooner watch Stoke v Everton to see how the Irish got on. Oh Sky, I haven't decided yet whether your hype is good for the English game or whether in the end it will kill it. The advertising on radio that it shows "the games that matter" intimates that only the "big clubs" matter to Sky. We sort of knew that but to actually state it?

p.s. I only saw snippets of the game as there was Coronation Street and Red Rock to watch. The reports say it was a bore.

[BonnieShels]

It was absolutely dire.

But for two moments of magic from De Gea I couldn't tell you what happened. The skill levels on show were abysmal and the sheer one-footedness of some of the players out there is beyond acceptable. It started to make me angry as the game wore on

[Kingdom]

It was absolutely dire.

But for two moments of magic from De Gea I couldn't tell you what happened. The skill levels on show were abysmal and the sheer one-footedness of some of the players out there is beyond acceptable. It started to make me angry as the game wore on

As someone said at tea in work today "I'd to beg the Mrs to let little Johnny stay up late to watch it, and we were presented with that ****e".

[DeLorean]

Poor standard but interesting that Mourinho was able to set United up in such a water tight fashion so early in his tenure. I've heard many people say that the easiest thing in fotoball is to just throw players behind the ball and defend but that's nonsense really. It's easy to do it, but difficult to do it so effectively. The tactical planning and mental discipline it requires must be pretty intense. It would have probably been a winning performance if they had a better link between defence and attack. They'll need to spend really big to find a player that should be able to provide that... oh wait...

[BonnieShels]

From a defensive point of view it was great in that sense. But as I've no skin in the game I wanted to try enjoy it. But as I said above, as turgid an affair as it turned out (and the lord knows I love a good example of defensive play) the absolute awful skill levels on show were the real shock. No ability to keep the ball at feet or to slow play down. It was embarrassing.

At least I had the option of Spurs-Leverkusen last night or sorry Spurs v Hernandez + 10.

[CraftyToePoke]

Poor standard but interesting that Mourinho was able to set United up in such a water tight fashion so early in his tenure.

A week is a long time in this funny old game eh ?

[DeLorean]

Yeah although I don't think he really set them up to park the bus on Sunday, and even if he did it was gone out the window after a few seconds.

[CraftyToePoke]

Well you are probably right there, but they could have done with parking it up at some stage but the handbrake eluded them collectively and individually :)

[OwlsFan]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2016/1122/833561-manchester-united/ Any number of puns spring to mind but I'll just say that I suppose they are used to watching sh*te this season.

[tetsujin1979]

Had to build a lot of graphs in work lately, so used what I've learned to build this graph of final Premier League standings, using points on the Y-axis instead of final position: https://tetsujin1979.github.io/finalstandingsGraph/

[OwlsFan]

Had to build a lot of graphs in work lately, so used what I've learned to build this graph of final Premier League standings, using points on the Y-axis instead of final position: https://tetsujin1979.github.io/finalstandingsGraph/

Had to reach for my migraine tablets :)

[tetsujin1979]

works best on widescreen displays.
few suggestions for improvements include sorting the team names alphabetically (straightforward), and dimming the team colours until you mouse over the line (might be possible)

[OwlsFan]

Pity you didn't start in the season 1991/2 :)

[BonnieShels]

Before football began?

[DeLorean]

I enjoyed this-

Pep Guardiola: A Continental Success and English Soccer’s Measuring Stick (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/sports/soccer/pep-guardiola-manchester-city-english-premier-league.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0)


Great line-

"it is, after all, curious that a league so bombastic in its self-promotion should appear to be so desperate for validation"

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Anyone ever hear the story of Messi defiantly drinking a can of Coke in front of Guardiola?

[TheOneWhoKnocks]

Conte bemoans Oscar's China move.


The Stamford Bridge chief revealed Oscar will leave with his blessing, but also accepted football’s ever-increasing battle between ambition and money. “I think the most important thing for us must be the passion. Okay? The passion for football,” said Conte. “If you haven’t got that, it’s no good. No good. I repeat: this concept is very important. Before the money must be the passion, the passion for the sport, for football.

“We started to play when we were children without money, and only for the passion. Then, also, came money but the passion is more important than money, for me.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/soccer/damien-delaney-given-job-to-shackle-chelsea-star-diego-costa-435696.html

Funny Conte says this considering how the club he manages essentially bought their Premier League titles and the Champions League. The only reason he's managing that club right now is because they became money rich over night.

At least the Chinese clubs are owned by Chinese people and have a cap on foreign players.

Chelsea are supposed to be an English club, yet it's not unusual for them to put out a team of eleven foreign players.

This is a monster English football has created with the emergence of foreign benefactors and the importance placed on increasing the stock of the English game in places - ironically - like China.

It's all about money. And it has been ever since the Sky era.

[OwlsFan]

Pardew gone from Palace. Strange manager. Seems to work the oracle when he starts and then the wheels fall off in a big way after a season. A Geordie friend of mine says he is totally overrated but it won't be long before he gets another job. Then of course "Big Sam" (the man who has never been relegated) probably arrives on the scene. It says a lot about Allardyce that the big clubs won't touch him with a barge pole but is regarded as a relegation expert. Is that something you want to tell your grandchildren? "I never won a major honour but I was never relegated".

[OwlsFan]

Swansea are normally quite good at their managerial appointments but Bob Bradley ? And now Ryan Giggs is the favorite to replace him ? That is a risk for someone who is just used to fighting for trophies and not scrapping away at the bottom.

[DeLorean]

Obviously it didn't work out but why was Bob Bradley considered such a suspect appointment? Hadn't he done well with the US national team and plenty other experience besides... it's only Swansea we're talking about here, not Real Madrid.

Ryan Giggs would be interesting after all the talk about him but he doesn't have much in the way of credentials from a management perspective, even his stint as assistant manager at United can hardly be deemed a particularly successful one. He's a terrible pundit though, so maybe he could be the reverse of Gary Neville (not that Valencia have improved any bit without him).

[KK77]

Great win for Everton yesterday. Another nightmare from Bobby Moore.

[DeLorean]

Think Spurs might have been doing pretty well to miss out on the Olympic Stadium...

Tottenham Hotspur: New stadium images revealed (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-38682911)

[jbyrne]

Think Spurs might have been doing pretty well to miss out on the Olympic Stadium...

Tottenham Hotspur: New stadium images revealed (http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-38682911)

a step too far I think...
◾A glass-walled players' tunnel allowing people a view of what is happening behind the scenes before a game

[OwlsFan]

The myopia of football managers never ceases to irritate me. In the Palace game a Palace player tweaks a hamstring and is off the pitch and then decides to roll back on to try and stop the game. Ref ignores him. Allardyce berates the ref. for not stopping the game. FFS. Wenger was at it was well again. So tiresome.

[OwlsFan]

Two non-league teams in the last 16 of the Cup. Rather than adding to the glamour of the Cup, it just shows how far down the priorities of managers winning a trophy has become. At least in the old days, a "shock" was a shock when the first team of the lower team beat the first team of the bigger club. Now the lower team is just playing the reserve side of the bigger club.

As for Jeff Stelling and his "giant killing", don't get me started when one pygmy from Div 2 beats another slightly taller pygmy from Div 1 it's described as "giant killing".

End of venting.