Football

Spend genuine coin on all the in-form, unspoiled diamonds of the Championship, put them in Villa shirts and of course they instantly turn into jelly legged, cross eyed Neanderthals. Signing Brentford's talisman and then getting roundly tonked by them on the same night was perhaps poetic justice but the Forest game was maybe even more unbearable, a wholesale conspiracy from within to throw away a game. 

#bringbacktim

#fantasticfour

#fourhorsemenoftheapocalypse 

Arjen Robben is like a footballing Benjamin Button, but with a considerably balder head.

I already had Gianfranco Zola down as a card carrying member of the Great Player, Awful Manager club long ago but I think in light of his recent chucklesome escapades I'd say it's time he was upgraded to platinum status. At least he does it, whatever 'it' is with that big affable smile. Soldi per la vecchia corda! 

Zola and Birmingham looks as much of a mismatch as Gus Poyet and Sunderland were back in the day. A flair manager who wants to play attractive football, doesn't have the squad to make it work, tries to spend his way out of trouble and somehow still manages to look five players short of having a decent side. Chances are, his managerial reputation won't survive another significant setback.

The more money Man City spend on central defenders, the worse they seem to get. At this point, the only thing 'Big Johnny' Stones (© Steve McManaman) needs to completely morph into Santiago Vergini is to perfect the art of leathering a volley from the edge of his own box into his own goal while looking at the corner flag. Which I fully expect to happen in the second leg against Monaco.

The lad Mbappe looks as if he could become a real star, though. If he's not sold for a packet within the next year or so, I'll be shocked.

Goodnight Claudio, good morning Nigel and his tin foil hat of rage?!? 

14 hours ago, Frederick said:

Goodnight Claudio, good morning Nigel and his tin foil hat of rage?!? 

It's amazing how no-one 'in the know' has pointed out that Pearson survived 2014/15 in its entirety with a Leicester side sitting dead last in the Premier League for virtually a whole season, while Ranieri was only given until February despite not being in the relegation zone at any point.

Nutty Nige aside, I suspect Ranieri will be back at Leicester again at some point in the future. Just too much pull for him and the supporters and even the tin eared owners wouldn't be immune from the good PR it would produce. Whether it'd actually be a good idea is of course entirely separate. 

Credit to Arsenal for adding a few fresh coats of disgust and humiliation to their annual 'here comes the Bayern bogeyman' round of 16 loss.

The reality for Arsenal is that they aren't up there with the genuine heavy hitters, although their fans bizarrely expect to see them not only hang with but beat the likes of Real Madrid, Barca and Bayern. Once Wenger isn't there any more (and perhaps we are nearing the right time for that to happen), they'll almost certainly find out where they are and what they are, which is basically an also-ran trying to compete with clubs higher up in the pecking order.

Run out emphatic winners against Benfica, wibble wobble our way to defeat in Berlin. Felt instinctively right. Villa scored from a short corner! 

No idea if McClaren or Joyce deserved the sack or not, but there can't be a league in the world with a higher turnover of managers than the Championship at the moment. It's like every club is owned by Maurizio Zamparini.

18 hours ago, Michael* said:

No idea if McClaren or Joyce deserved the sack or not, but there can't be a league in the world with a higher turnover of managers than the Championship at the moment. It's like every club is owned by Maurizio Zamparini.

Derby getting rid of Clement when they did was a head scratcher, to the say the least. Then you bring in Nutty Nige and what's that, oh yeah, he's mad as a box of frogs, bring back McClaren. At least Rowett has operated under basket case conditions before, seemingly with dignity intact. As for Wigan, their chairman is still in Huggies. 

21 minutes ago, Frederick said:

Derby getting rid of Clement when they did was a head scratcher, to the say the least. Then you bring in Nutty Nige and what's that, oh yeah, he's mad as a box of frogs, bring back McClaren. At least Rowett has operated under basket case conditions before, seemingly with dignity intact. As for Wigan, their chairman is still in Huggies. 

If nothing else, Derby seem to have done the right thing in moving so quickly to secure Rowett. The way things have been going since he was 'upgraded' by Birmingham, if he'd still been unemployed when the inevitable chop came for Zola, I wouldn't have been surprised if they'd asked him back.

Taxi for Karanka. Very similar to Lambert's final season with us; a tolerable beginning quickly mitigated by the damning realisation that it's all for nothing because there simply aren't enough goals in the team. The boy Adama, who we were imploring to be given game time, hasn't put anything together that suggests he's a contender for high office. 

Obviously found City's exit hilarious, not to mention deserved.

On the one hand, it's no real surprise to see Karanka given his marching orders. The apparent bust-ups with players, the club hovering around the bottom three and unable to score goals. On the other hand, it feels like strange timing from Gibson to decide that all those things are a problem now if they weren't before. The club showed remarkable patience with Karanka after he initially failed to deliver promotion, and he has a history of falling out with players in spectacular fashion, including last season when he allegedly stormed off the training ground and Steve Agnew had to take over for a week.

The problem for Guardiola at the moment is that City's defensive options simply don't measure up to the ones he had at both Barca and Bayern. Eventually, he'll have to make tactical changes because his current squad is unable to make a decent fist of his favoured approach, and there probably aren't any realistic summer transfer targets that could solve things.

On 16/03/2017 at 1:05 PM, Michael* said:

On the one hand, it's no real surprise to see Karanka given his marching orders. The apparent bust-ups with players, the club hovering around the bottom three and unable to score goals. On the other hand, it feels like strange timing from Gibson to decide that all those things are a problem now if they weren't before. The club showed remarkable patience with Karanka after he initially failed to deliver promotion, and he has a history of falling out with players in spectacular fashion, including last season when he allegedly stormed off the training ground and Steve Agnew had to take over for a week.

International break coming up, theoretically gives a madhouse an opportunity to re-organise. Caretaker will get a free pass on the Man U game then a (potential) new man gets a clean run at the next three not unreasonable fixtures: Hull, Swansea and Burnley. I still think they're toast.

We're in for a treat! The #UCLdraw... pic.twitter.com/l96zXG0vDE

— Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) March 17, 2017

Happy to avoid the Leicester 'show' and happier to let the big beasts murder each other. Monaco are there for a reason and they score goals for fun so it could be a razor tight affair. Seeing 'Cardiff' and 'Champions League' in the same graphic makes me think I'm living in a Vincent Tan fever dream.