melmacian_saint

Own quote from a few months ago, because I can now agree with myself.

True. I can only hope we can have a quiet season and improve the squad, assuming our budget worries are gone at last.

Past it. Plus the end of his time at Swansea with the squad fracture due to his bias towards Spanish players (many of which he previously coached) shows that he is too much of a coach and not a great manager. Before then he just inherited Brendan's work.

Aside from that Villa game, when was Ramirez ever outstanding again? Three managers, never the 1st on the team sheet. And considering the recent departures, his poor contribution in the last two seasons speaks volumes.

It's only in this forum and within SMS that people see him for more than what he actually is.

After watching tonight I think it's safe to say that Cedric and Clasie are not bad, but are not a potential improvement or a match to the previous tenants of their positions in any way. And that, from a planning perspective, is not only a problem of cash, but also of choice (i.e.recruitment).

Bit different, you could argue that then Strachan was already a stretch of a project whose cycle was running out, burdened by an expensive new stadium and an increasingly financially unhealthy owner. This time, the owner appears stable, and after a few impressive transfer market revenues the club seems to be in good standing, even in case of relegation. You could however, argue that Koeman is already a stretch of the strategy set out in 2009. But the situation is quite different.

So I guess the question now is, for the sake of awareness: Just how bad was it when Katerina came in?

As long as we remain stable in the league, both during and at the end of each season, I don't think he'll leave. He has found his best level with us and he seems to have recognized this. Could be one for the long-term, but of course things change fast.

I find the early rush to the bar/toilets of some at half-time much more annoying.

Even considering Russia's poor record, it would be shocking if a plane on the verge of disintegration was given the go ahead to fly. Then again, it has happened before. How likely is it that a bomb was planted on the plane? It can't be impossible for an ISIS affiliate to infiltrate a package through someone at security.

I think being in the group stage would've done us no harm, and would perfectly understand if we used those games to try some youth players or rotate. Being knocked out in the play-offs was just ridiculous.

I really wish we hadn't played them in League One, especially when they were beginning to get rich. Not playing us then would've avoided attracting yobs to their fan base who want to make this a rivalry instead of a game between good neighbours. Had we only played them competitively now, I'm sure even these little fights and chants wouldn't have happened.

I honestly do not miss any of those clubs in the PL, and would much rather have a debut season for another club than their return. Recently I read an article by Gary Neville where he basically reminisced about the presence in the top-flight of many northern city clubs, and the competitive decline of others, except the only thing he could remember were rough crowds, slanging contests and foul pitches matching dreadful weather. So nothing about football really, which I think is the problem with many of these clubs. They like to emphasize on their atmosphere, and history, yet they are the first ones to wish for the basic football that has done so much damage to our talent and national team. In that same article, Neville also conveniently forgot, while accusing southern clubs of rising through rich owners/investors, that their rise and glory was perfectly correlated with the economic prominence their regions had for most of the last century. Would Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield have had such good clubs if it weren't for the glory days of British industry? I don't think so. In the meantime, aside from the odd adventures of others, we were the only club teams would consistently visit south of London and the only way we did it was through the rise of the occasional academy star and a stadium that was cutting more corners every year. I'm glad that is changing (and even more so that it doesn't include Pompey), and even though it may not be fantastic because of many other factors, I think it is much more healthy for football in this country to see other regions (including Wales) get teams in the PL than the same old gang within 20 miles of each other.

Maybe using crisis there is an overstatement, but I can't remember many teams having to play their 3 keepers in the league in the same season!

We have been really unlucky on the goalkeeping front. I can't remember any other team having such a goalkeeping crisis which crosses over from season to season. That said, we have the resources to attract a good back-up keeper. We should have learned from our 1st season but it seems like the mistake repeats itself again and again.

Except the UK will 100% not be left out of it even if we leave the EU.

Would be quite attractive if they played top level football IMO.

Portugal was one of the founding members of the UK-led EFTA and a traditional ally in the then OECE, so I think your comments are slightly mislead, as when it joined the EEC, the UK had a closer economic relationship with Portugal than most of the Inner Six, and I won't even mention diplomatic (the world's longest-standing as we speak). Foreign investment in Portugal, both mainland and colonies, was dominated by British firms. For example Clarks, the shoe company, had one of its main factories in the north. If anyone was really damaged by EU enlargement in 2004 it was Portugal, as it doomed our declining industries (many of which had their finest hour in the EFTA) and killed the expansion of our service sector, which was over-reliant on unskilled labour and hence collided head first with ex-Soviet sphere price competition. The problem is not different levels of development, it is the fact that the route to European convergence seems to have taken the bulk way, especially since 2000 and the Euro. While the singularities of each country were addressed, things progressed steadily: though far from complete, Iberian development and convergence from the 60s to the 90s, with democratic transitions included, was a success. Now that is reserved to those with the lowest price across the board, or the most important strategic value, and as we saw with Greece's accession (and behavior thereafter), that rarely ends up well.

In any case, the only way we can deal with this effectively is not by voting out, but by reforming within. How to do this: we as a country have to effectively create a new, rival, european ideology, a project that can be built from the current EU, that rejects the path to disguised federalism (it really is just central republicanism), and finds a different route towards European convergence without unification. For this, as someone who has Portuguese roots, I suggest someone gets the papers out from a very successful experience we once led: the EFTA. As things have evolved, I think something very interesting can be done there. But as some have mentioned, we cannot be part of the EFTA as it is today. Less rules but no voice over them is suicide. It has to be something new that reforms the EEA, which for all the talk is the only solid, consensual piece of European integration in existence.

But we have benefitted massively from lower input costs thanks to EU membership, which includes the common market and its freedoms. And while we are at it, what do we think of Chinese companies importing cheaper-than-EU, unskilled labour to investment projects in the UK?

In any case, the Blind family's rise in football is a case of cronyism that is extremely unheard of in a country like the Netherlands. I wouldn't be surprised if they get rid of him regardless of what they say.

True, but he is no Hooiveld either, so we should be fine. The problem is more on the FB section- I wonder what Koeman thinks of Cedric to start Yoshida over him. And Martina, well...Bertrand should be coming soon.

People have said this before and I agree...we will learn much more about Koeman and the ill-named Black Box this year than last. Last year most of our signings were like for like and even with a number of the core still around we ran out of steam. This year we had to come up with something slightly new and we again signed like for likes without changing the way we play to accommodate them, only we now have figured out we can't play like we did and are starting from scratch with the season started. I guess we'll be fine as long as we beat the Norwiches, Swanseas and Bournemouths at home and beat the 0-0 away draw record.

In that case, lets keep it central. Baker Street