[moose]

the golden age of pre-season football training:

http://bentleysroof.magnify.net/video/Jock-Wallaces-Hill-2;search:WALLACE%C2%A3

[Dr T]

Interesting insight into Wenger's take on man management and the multicultural workplace HERE

[tomtom]

the golden age of pre-season football training:

http://bentleysroof.magnify.net/video/Jock-Wallaces-Hill-2;search:WALLACE%C2%A3

Did you see the guardian article about Ken Bates and his £500k PA private jet budget! (also for RichD)

[Grubes]

they had some interviews on radio leeds this morning.

It will be a legal battle but I think bates will win. It was in his contract that he did not get a salery just his expenses paid. if there was no limits to his expenses he could claim (as long as it was receipted) I can only see Mr bates winning and getting dameages out of Leeds ...

[rich d]

Leeds will definitely loose. To put it mildly Bates and his management of the club  hasn't been a positive for Leeds (I can hear your empathy from here Grubes ) most leeds fans just want him away from the club. 

[Falling Down]

I'm super excited about this season.  So many new (and old) faces in management with Gollum, The Special One, Wenger, AVB, Pellegrini and Rogers all vying for the top four and headlines.  I just wish the BBC had a fucking clear out and got rid of the clueless wankers on MOTD.  Loads of new players to watch and if all the transfers play out according to clubs plans it's going to be a real battle.      

[rich d]

MOTD truly is shite. Was thinking about the difference in the analysis and comment between cricket and football. I believe in Italy there is a culture of in depth tactical analysis and discussion, whereas in the UK we seem to get the same banal sound bites from the same morons.

[Richie Crouch]

I appreciate you lumping in Rogers name FD, but I'll be amazed if Liverpool are vying for 4th!

Itshould be good to see how things pan out in the rest of the transfer window. It would be a shame if Bale goes as he is great to watch and would pretty much cement the top 4 of last season again.

[Grubes]

on the brightside we now can see some entertaining post match interviews with jose on MOTD rather than just a constant wave misrable jocks and italians moaning about things ...

[tomtom]

(and Steve Bruce)....

[moose]

MOTD truly is shite. Was thinking about the difference in the analysis and comment between cricket and football. I believe in Italy there is a culture of in depth tactical analysis and discussion, whereas in the UK we seem to get the same banal sound bites from the same morons.

There is some decent analysis - Gary Neville on Monday Night Football on Sky.  MOTD2 occasionally has a pundit who offers more than "boy done good", "they don't like up up' em".  But MOTD definitely seems to target a mass market who the BBC feels would be scared off by anything more complex than golf-clubby banter and cliches.  Shearer and his ignorance of anything beyond the Premier League - he seems quite proud of his lack of knowledge about world football (like when you get self-professed arty types who think an ignorance of science somehow makes them seem even more arty).

Best place for informed comment these days I find is podcasts.  The BBC's World Football Phone In is good - Tim Vickery, Andy Brassel, and Shawn Wheelock all know their stuff.  The Guardian Football Weekly is usually entertaining.  The Football Ramble veers between great and tiresomely "bantz".  There's no shortage of informed and entertaining opinions out there, the BBC just chooses to ignore them.  The fallacy that a thick-as-pig-shit ex-player's opinion is sacrosanct and there's no place for informed journalists with a life-long love of the game.

[tomtom]

I think the program could benifit from a statto type... now theres all the Prozone etc.. figures from the players, It'd be really intresting to see a breakdown of the work done by the players, key zones where it all happened etc..

Alan, Alan and Gary is a bit too matey at the moment. Much as I hate ITV, bring in Roy Keane. Have him snarling in a cage in the corner and if he's being too placid dangle bits of Gareth Southgate near him to get him wound up again...

Kinda related but not.. Its really interesting to compare Sky and BBC F1 coverage... BBC has many more women involved (which I think is a great thing) and I find the Sky coverage (with no women from what I can see) to be really 'matey' and over laddish... its not sexist (from what I can see) in its content just the tone is notably different...

[moose]

On the subject of statto punditry, today's Racing Post has their 70+ page Premier League preview - more stats and analysis than you can shake a stick at!  Usually well worth a read, although some of the advice will no doubt be rendered defunct by future transfer dealings (and any more injuries that occur during ill-advised friendlies played in south-east Asian bogs).

[Grubes]

Just spotted this thanks to twitter
coventry are in some serious shit ...
http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/coventry-city-sell-less-300-5327627
The artical is dates 26 july 8 days before the season started

Dan Walker, ticketing manager for Coventry City Football Club, said: “We are approaching the 300 mark when it comes to season ticket holders for 
the coming season.
“We knew it was going to be tough – there is no getting away from that.
“Supporters have been asking us about travel arrangements and also other methods of payment, such as a finance option, and we hope to have more details on those soon.”

I am suorry but travel arrangement. I.e. the club setting up coaches for home supports (even at a fee) and more options for paying should have been sorted as soon as the ricoh was not looking like an option.
this and a transfer embargo .. Wonder what odds they are for relegation

[Jaspersharpe]

From the little I've read about this, it's more complicated than that. The supporters are in dispute with the owners (SISU) so are intentionally boycotting ticket sales etc in order to force them out.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/sport/football/football-news/coventry-city-fans-plan-march-5309988

etc

Good luck to them, it's fucking shit having your club ruined by bastards.

[Falling Down]

Good knowledge Moose.  Ill pick one up.

[moose]

Yey! Mark Lawrenson's role to be reduced on MOTD.... less screen-time for the man whose tone it sound as though being a football pundit, being flown around the world to watch games, was the most soul-destroying, self-abnegating activity possible. 

.....wait... what's that....... put away that bunting.... the fine-print says Ian Wright is to be the new presenter of 606...... NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  Weekend after weekend of moronic, nationalistic bombast (and "Shawn Wright-Phillips for Ingerland").

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/01/mark-lawrenson-match-of-the-day

[rich d]

That's the problem with football coverage Moose. Ian Wright Wright Wrong as a pundit, was good value for a 3 second cutaway shot celebrating england scoring by jumping around once. But that's not a recipe for successful analysis or even being an anchor man for the experts. If I want to see people jumping about who know fuck all about football all I need to do is start going to Leeds matches again. 

[north_country_boy]

Yey! Mark Lawrenson's role to be reduced on MOTD.... less screen-time for the man whose tone it sound as though being a football pundit, being flown around the world to watch games, was the most soul-destroying, self-abnegating activity possible. 

.....wait... what's that....... put away that bunting.... the fine-print says Ian Wright is to be the new presenter of 606...... NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!  Weekend after weekend of moronic, nationalistic bombast (and "Shawn Wright-Phillips for Ingerland").

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/aug/01/mark-lawrenson-match-of-the-day

It may just be me, but every once in a while (once every 2-3 months) Lawrenson appears to be on somewhat of a high, where his punditry is less negative, more jovial and upbeat.....always makes me think it must be that time of the year when his wife must treat him...

It makes a change from his usual dour, pessimistic and generally depressed manor...

[Grubes]

mark lawrenson was bad but hes no Alan Hansen.  he must be the shitest, most depressed and pointless pundit ever. A marker that all others are judged against?

[tomtom]

I quite like it when he's co-commentating on the radio... (Lawro) He's sometimes quite funny and outspoken.

Give him enough rope time and he'll do an Inverdale and hang himself get himself sacked...

[tregiffian]

Huddersfield Town fans be afraid, be very afraid.

[Grubes]

Huddersfield Town fans be afraid, be very afraid. 

Don't you have some chickens to fiddle with? 

[tregiffian]

We generously handed handed on the giant-killing torch to Morecambe.

[tomtom]

So at the behest of our elderly Egyptian chairman, we've just been re-branded "Hull City Tigers"

Looks like the N.American name bastardisation has started. What was wrong with "Hull City AFC" (most folk just dropped the AFC)  or "the Tigers" that it was before...

How about your club? Brighton Town Seagulls? West Ham Iron? Spurs Lillywhites ( ) ?