andoru

I work in educational publishing and am putting together a presentation on my department's working practices for some R+D people next week. I've been going through our product range to find examples of textbook content at different stages of development, and came across an activity about change management. I can't seem to copy in a screenshot, but here's the text: Portsmouth Skates are struggling. They have lost every game they've played so far this year. The club CEO wants to fire the coach, Alan Redknapp, and replace him with Harry Ball, an experienced coach. However, Harry Ball is not popular with the fans because he used to manage the Skates' local rivals, who are much more successful. Alan Redknapp is also well-liked by the players. The CEO is also talking about releasing players who are underperforming. There's some kind of role play based around this scenario, which the designer mocked up with an ice hockey motif (the skates, obviously). I'm still amazed it got past the boss, but then she wasn't from Hampshire.

Loved it. Not too many clubs would make a video so blatantly insulting their rivals ("What's this pompey player doing on my board?!") or with beeped-out swearing (P.I.S.S. Haha!). I liked the go-faster stripes.

All his fault of course. Nothing to do with the ten losers in front of him. If true then yes, the salary is an issue. But I doubt he'll still be getting that in the Championship as presumably QPR have some kind of relegation clause in player's contracts.

I think we all agree that we need a better back up for Forster, but who could we realistically get to warm our bench? I was wondering about Rob Green now that QPR have gone down. He’s decent enough that I’d feel fairly confident with him stepping in, but probably not strong enough to be playing week in, week out for many Premier League sides. The only real issue would be his age. At 35 he's the same as Boruc, so only really got a couple more seasons in him. Better than either Davis or Gazzaniga though. (Sorry if there is already a thread on this.)

3: But also younger at 27. Boruc is 35, and only has a season or two left at the top level. We bought Forster's future service. 4: I assume you mean "didn't"? If the Boruc situation had been better handled we would have had a decent back up, but alas it wasn't. 7: Well, we either sold, loaned or released Lee, Guly, Jos, Forte and Sharp. There was quite a clear out in the summer, it just went unnoticed because of the first-team departures. Gaston, Osvaldo and Mayuka remain, but at least the first two are being paid by other teams for the time being.

What a shame then that he never had the chance to work with Adam Lallana, "the England midfielder who has reinvented the Cruyff turn" according to this Daily Mail article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2647100/Adam-Lallana-worth-30m-Liverpool-pay-Southampton-midfielder.html

Not an entirely unreasonable prediction. Leicester are flying and we play them away, Aston Villa are also on form and full of confidence, and Man City are Man City. It's quite possible we won't get another point. The saving grace might be that Swansea also have tough fixtures against Arsenal, Man City and Crystal Palace. They probably won't pick up five points from those games, but you never know.

Calm down mate. It's you that doesn't "get it". He was just answering the point about whether the ref gave a second yellow card or a straight red card.

It's a little different when players leave a club in a weaker league for another league entirely. Clubs like Celtic, for example, don't really need the likes of Wanyama to compete for the SPL title. They can still win it with a less talented squad, because the overall league quality is lower, and the competing teams are more evenly matched. There's no point Celtic or PSV paying for the best when above average is good enough in Scotland and Holland. Selling their better players also brings in money, which they have less off because the league is not as wealthy. Nobody is really left disappointed. The player gets his move, the club gets money, and the team's competitiveness is not actually affected that much.

I saw this story come up on my Weibo feed today (the Chinese Twitter). It translated his comments as "Wenger told me ..."

Inclined to also take it easy on KD. If you watch, it was clear that everyone thought the ball was going out. The centre backs had stopped, and even Nzonzi was surprised the ball came back to him. I was fuming at Clattenburg. Our cards were probably deserved, but how both sides have 17 fouls each and only one ends up with four bookings is beyond me.

I'm not sure I can go through another 1990s, with the constant last-day anxiety about relegation.

Is it on the site, or is it a pushed advert, e.g. through Adsense? If the latter, the website doesn't control what gets displayed, to a certain extent. In fact, ads are often personalized to the user, so maybe your internet search history points towards you being sympathetic to voting Tory or a possible swing voter.

No Spurs? Surely Pochettino will want to move to a bigger club like Dortmund now there is a vacancy?

Oh, yes. I'm going to be in Germany and Austria for most of July with my wife (a belated honeymoon). I have already suggested Salzburg, but it's now moved to the top of the agenda.

I've always understood that teams get a grace period after promotion. Yeovil got one when they went up to the Championship. The thinking is that newly promoted teams are the most vulnerable to relegation, so it's stupid for them to spend millions increasing the capacity. If they go straight back down again, they are left with a stadium bigger than they likely need and a lower income with which to pay off the debt. I assume the PL would give Bournemouth 2-3 seasons to upgrade.

Too many individual errors so far. Overhit passes, underhit passes, wayward passes, poor ball control, ball watching, waiting for the ball to come instead of going to it ... nobody really looks comfortable. Hull are playing a lot higher up the pitch than I expected them to, stopping our midfield from settling.

I had a bit of time on my hands this morning and decided to run some numbers on three of our strikers, looking purely at playing time and goals scored. It doesn't take into account assists or transfer fees. Dani Osvaldo: Played 855 mins in the PL for Saints, scored 3 league goals. A rate of 1 goal every 285 minutes. Graziano Pelle: Played 2,659 mins in the PL for Saints (so far), scored 8 league goals. A rate of 1 goal every 332 minutes. Shane Long: Played 1,184 mins in the PL for Saints (so far), scored 3 league goals. A rate of 1 goal every 394 minutes. I didn't include Jay Rod because he's not available and anyway his contribution is not being questioned like these three. Statistically then, the much derided nutcase is our best striker.

That's been done before that one.

How's that? Because I choose to comment on the man and not the money, it means I'm fiscally irresponsible? You've got me all wrong, mate. I would have preferred that we paid half what we did, but we didn't, and that's not Shane Long's fault. I prefer now to focus on what he brings to our side, and not how much he cost us six months ago. I believe he is contributing, and working hard to prove himself worthy of the fee. Dani Osvaldo on the other hand ...

Too much focus on the price, and the assumption he was being signed as an out-and-out striker. Koeman is playing him differently. I think he's being quite effective, making space, pulling defenders out of position, harassing from the front to win the ball back. I like his energy and commitment when he plays. More goals would be lovely, but I can see that he brings something to the team.

Me too. I can't even watch England because the game's not shown out here. It's just a weekend without football. I'm forced to spend time with the wife or being productive. Nobody wants that.

I think the club should charge top price for all games that are a guaranteed three points and thus a happy weekend.

Seriously? As soon as I saw the goal I thought it shouldn't count as his, but then I immediately thought, "He's English and it's his first hat-trick, so they'll allow it." They are so inconsistent. There was a goal earlier in the season - Peter Crouch I think - which I was surprised to see not go down as an own goal. Crouch headed the ball parallel to the goal line and it was carried over the line by a defender sliding in to try and clear. I'm really rather confused what they look for.

I doubt Kelvin Davis gets too many invites to hang out from the likes of JWP or Targett. Who wants their dad's mate around, cramping their style?