Koeman

[doddisalegend]

So losing with Everton against Chelsea, United and Spurs means you are under threat as a manager? Harsh world for managers these days it seems.

 

 

One of the joys of modern football generally a manger seems to be judged on his last few games fans, owners and the media tend to be very unforgiving these days especially if the club has spent big in the transfer window.

[DuncanRG]

So losing with Everton against Chelsea, United and Spurs means you are under threat as a manager? Harsh world for managers these days it seems.

 

I'm not saying Koeman should be fearful for his job, but it's the manner and scoreline of the defeats, in those games and in Europe. They've been terrible and have deficiencies which should have been addressed in the transfer window.

[suewhistle]

Whatever you claim to be a professor of, it certainly isn't irony.

 

LOL. I would have just typed 'whoosh'..

[St_Tel49]

So Big Ron tells José to pipe down about coming top 4 and that it is not realistic. If so, I have to wonder why he left Saints, apart from the massive increase in pay. Why would he move to Everton if he was just going to be looking to finish at the same level he did with us, especially having spent £140m or so?

 

You answered your own question

[Millbrook Saint]

It is of course very easy to go into revisionism.......

 

His arrival was important for us. Poch off, half the team off and many wondering what the future held. He was a big name in the footballing world and even those playing now would (or should) have heard of him. His CV was OK as well. Won the Dutch league 3 times and the Copa del Rey. However his league record outside of Holland was pretty average. Frank de Boer by comparison has won the Eredivise four times, and he has an equally poor record outside of Holland. Anyway, his reputation, regardless of how good a manager he is, got us some stability when it so easily could have gone the other way and managed to attract players of a certain calibre. So he was good for us and we were good for him.

 

Everton was perfect for him in his first season. They really should be best of the rest, that is if you consider them being with "the rest". I agree with José and Evertonians. You don't spend £140m or so to stand still. He really should be pressing to be top 4. I know that a lot of that £140m was off set by the income from Lukaku and we all know the glaring **** up with their recruitment - that must be a Liverpool thing. You know where you have to strengthen and you don't, instead buying lots of midfielders.

 

I agree with all that, we definitely needed a big name to steady the ship after Pochettino and the subsequent departures. He definitely attracted some players too and whilst we had him here there's no way I wanted him to leave. But looking back and seeing his time at Everton I don't actually think he was as good as we thought. Last year he had Lukaku, with us he had Mane. I know the loss of those players would cause problems for any team, we're still coming to terms with losing Mane now but a top manager would have done this and maybe not have been so reliant on a single player in the first place, especially with the money everton spent. As you say, easy to look back and revise history, I just think that looking back and seeing Everton he seems reliant on exceptional players and when he no longer has them he's caught wanting like any other average manager. Would have been interesting to see how he panned out with us last season.

[the saint in winchester]

Currently top of the betting for next Prem manager to be given his P45. Maybe these rumours are a factor.

He should just look to improve year on year. Agree they aren't yet a top 4 side, and may not be for a while. The problem is the owners may be looking to be top 4 or even top 1 in a shorter timeframe than he can deliver. But I expect he had the conversation at interview stage.

[aintforever]

I think Bilic will beat him in the sack race but only just.

[shurlock]

Will people learn about getting jealous of other team's summer signings now? No, didn't think so.

 

Everton lost one of the best strikers around. If you put a 25+ goal striker in any team, they're going to get far better results. If you sign a shedload of players, anything can happen.

 

Everton spent their way into a major problem of having no idea what their best team is or how they should play. The only time I've seen signing that many players work is when he came to Saints. The HUGE difference being, we'd sold half a team - we signed players knowing exactly where they'd come in and play. Pelle, Tadic, Bertrand, VVD, Forster, Mane all straight in the team in their preferred positions.

 

They don't know how to use Rooney, they've wasted Barkley, no idea if Klassen is actually any good and people are getting in Siggurdsson's way. The best thing about Everton last year besides Lukaku was the Schneiderlin/Gueye/Davies midfield because of its energy. He's disrupted the entire balance of their team now, and why he's playing Martina I've no fcking clue.

 

They should have just signed Pickford, Keane and Siggurdsson, sold Barkley and spend big on a forward with some pace.

 

Who’s getting jealous?

[SKD]

The time to judge them will be after the next 5 games:

 

Sunderland (h) - League Cup

B'mouth (h)

Limassol (h) - EL

Burnely (h)

Brighton (a)

 

I suspect they'll be in the next round of the cup, have a win in the EL and above us in the table come the end of those 5 games.

 

If, in the unlikely event, he fails to win 3/4 of the above 5, I think he'll get the sack.

 

They've had some horrible fixtures and besides the drubbing out in Italy have probably done as well as they could have expected.

[Saint Albert]

Everton have had a difficult start against some good teams. Still, they have not adequately replaced Lukaku, and they lack pace. The performance that should be sounding the alarm bells for Koeman, is their loss to Atalanta on Thursday. They were embarrassingly poor.

 

I'd love for it to continue but unfortunately with an easy string of games coming up as listed by SKD above, I expect his team to go on a winning streak.

[DuncanRG]

I agree with all that, we definitely needed a big name to steady the ship after Pochettino and the subsequent departures. He definitely attracted some players too and whilst we had him here there's no way I wanted him to leave. But looking back and seeing his time at Everton I don't actually think he was as good as we thought. Last year he had Lukaku, with us he had Mane. I know the loss of those players would cause problems for any team, we're still coming to terms with losing Mane now but a top manager would have done this and maybe not have been so reliant on a single player in the first place, especially with the money everton spent. As you say, easy to look back and revise history, I just think that looking back and seeing Everton he seems reliant on exceptional players and when he no longer has them he's caught wanting like any other average manager. Would have been interesting to see how he panned out with us last season.

 

We weren't reliant on Mane in the slightest. He was a great player but Pelle was just as important to us, if not more so, and we had strength throughout the team.

 

You're not giving Koeman enough credit - what he achieved with us was absolutely stunning. That won't change no matter how he does at Everton.

[SaveloyMush]

We weren't reliant on Mane in the slightest. He was a great player but Pelle was just as important to us, if not more so, and we had strength throughout the team.

 

You're not giving Koeman enough credit - what he achieved with us was absolutely stunning. That won't change no matter how he does at Everton.

 

I disagree about Mané. I think time may judge him to have been the best player to pass through Southampton in living memory. He is by far Liverpool's best player at present and will almost certainly ascend the top rung of the game and end up at one of the giants of football. Mané possesses the rare X-factor that is unpredictability. It was only his poor attitude at times that held him back at Southampton, he clearly felt the pond was too small for so big a fish. I have seen no evidence of an attitude problem during his time at Liverpool, though if he gets the hots for Spain or Italy, it may return.

 

Pellè was a great servant for Southampton, but he was entirely predictable in what he could do. That is not to take anything away from the importance of his goals.

 

I do agree that Koeman's achievements at Southampton were exceptional and nothing that happens subsequently can change that.

[DuncanRG]

I disagree about Mané. I think time may judge him to have been the best player to pass through Southampton in living memory. He is by far Liverpool's best player at present and will almost certainly ascend the top rung of the game and end up at one of the giants of football. Mané possesses the rare X-factor that is unpredictability. It was only his poor attitude at times that held him back at Southampton, he clearly felt the pond was too small for so big a fish. I have seen no evidence of an attitude problem during his time at Liverpool, though if he gets the hots for Spain or Italy, it may return.

 

Pellè was a great servant for Southampton, but he was entirely predictable in what he could do. That is not to take anything away from the importance of his goals.

 

I do agree that Koeman's achievements at Southampton were exceptional and nothing that happens subsequently can change that.

 

Don't get me wrong, Mane is miles better but Pelle's contribution to our team was just as big. Klopp and Liverpool have got Mane playing as well every week as he did in his handful of standout games for us.

 

In my opinion it's the failure to replace Pelle that's cost us more than replacing Mane, which would always be incredibly difficult given he had that X-factor. Since the days of Lambert our shape and play has needed a strong, intelligent forward whose movement makes space for others. Gabbiadini showed that in a different way during his purple patch but no one's up to it at the moment, which makes things harder for Tadic, Redmond and the rest. If we're going to change to 3-5-2 or whatever, this might be the moment we move on from that model.

Edited 18 September, 2017 by DuncanRG

[Saint-Fred]

I think he is a good manager but I wouldn't want him back.

 

His teams often have this Jekyll and Hyde quality were they play great one half and poor the next or vice versa. Not that, that's the reason I wouldn't want him back, I just think it rarely works if a manager does go back..so no thanks.

[Roo1976]

The time to judge them will be after the next 5 games:

 

Sunderland (h) - League Cup

B'mouth (h)

Limassol (h) - EL

Burnely (h)

Brighton (a)

 

I suspect they'll be in the next round of the cup, have a win in the EL and above us in the table come the end of those 5 games.

 

If, in the unlikely event, he fails to win 3/4 of the above 5, I think he'll get the sack.

 

They've had some horrible fixtures and besides the drubbing out in Italy have probably done as well as they could have expected.

 

Hey news flash we have a bloody hard run in so theres no time for sentimantal ****** just cause hes an ex-manager, christ weve kept a few ex players living in clover for a while now so get over it and look after us first. We need to be safe before our last 6-7 games go on look its as bad.

[Forester]

Don't get me wrong, Mane is miles better but Pelle's contribution to our team was just as big. Klopp and Liverpool have got Mane playing as well every week as he did in his handful of standout games for us.

 

In my opinion it's the failure to replace Pelle that's cost us more than replacing Mane, which would always be incredibly difficult given he had that X-factor. Since the days of Lambert our shape and play has needed a strong, intelligent forward whose movement makes space for others. Gabbiadini showed that in a different way during his purple patch but no one's up to it at the moment, which makes things harder for Tadic, Redmond and the rest. If we're going to change to 3-5-2 or whatever, this might be the moment we move on from that model.

I know it's picking at old scabs, but this is why I just cannot understand why many folk think Puel was a failure. Cup final reached by consecutive clean sheets against PL opponents, 8th and all WITHOUT Pelle and Mane. Then throw in losing VVD and Austine each for half a season and before Lamina and Hoedt joined....

[Forester]

Don't get me wrong, Mane is miles better but Pelle's contribution to our team was just as big. Klopp and Liverpool have got Mane playing as well every week as he did in his handful of standout games for us.

 

In my opinion it's the failure to replace Pelle that's cost us more than replacing Mane, which would always be incredibly difficult given he had that X-factor. Since the days of Lambert our shape and play has needed a strong, intelligent forward whose movement makes space for others. Gabbiadini showed that in a different way during his purple patch but no one's up to it at the moment, which makes things harder for Tadic, Redmond and the rest. If we're going to change to 3-5-2 or whatever, this might be the moment we move on from that model.

I know it's picking at old scabs, but this is why I just cannot understand why many folk think Puel was a failure. Cup final reached by consecutive clean sheets against PL opponents, 8th and all WITHOUT Pelle and Mane. Then throw in losing VVD and Austine each for half a season and before Lamina and Hoedt joined....

[Millbrook Saint]

Don't get me wrong, Mane is miles better but Pelle's contribution to our team was just as big. Klopp and Liverpool have got Mane playing as well every week as he did in his handful of standout games for us.

 

In my opinion it's the failure to replace Pelle that's cost us more than replacing Mane, which would always be incredibly difficult given he had that X-factor. Since the days of Lambert our shape and play has needed a strong, intelligent forward whose movement makes space for others. Gabbiadini showed that in a different way during his purple patch but no one's up to it at the moment, which makes things harder for Tadic, Redmond and the rest. If we're going to change to 3-5-2 or whatever, this might be the moment we move on from that model.

 

I completely agree, Pelle was important for us, no doubt about it, Koeman put together a cracking team and mane was the icing on the cake. The difference with mane was he had that bit extra that could break a team down on his own. I remember games where the other team parked the bus and we struggled to break them down, mane gave us that bit of magic to do that,

[Bad Wolf]

Is Koeman the new Hoddle?

[aintforever]

I know it's picking at old scabs, but this is why I just cannot understand why many folk think Puel was a failure. Cup final reached by consecutive clean sheets against PL opponents, 8th and all WITHOUT Pelle and Mane. Then throw in losing VVD and Austine each for half a season and before Lamina and Hoedt joined....

 

He also achieved that having to play more games than every other club except Man Utd and with the second youngest squad.

 

Having said that the 8th place thing sounds like a better achievement than what it was, we were closer points wise to being relegated than 7th, and only 2 points above 13th.

 

You can't take anything away from Puel's achievement in the cup though, he did better than Koeman and Pochetino in that respect.

[Lighthouse]

I know it's picking at old scabs, but this is why I just cannot understand why many folk think Puel was a failure. Cup final reached by consecutive clean sheets against PL opponents, 8th and all WITHOUT Pelle and Mane. Then throw in losing VVD and Austine each for half a season and before Lamina and Hoedt joined....

 

Failure, no but there was a marked drop in points, goals and the overall standard of football. It was just awful, negative, playing possession football in 2nd gear stuff. Playing for a 0-0 at home to Be'er Sheva, playing for absolutely nothing in Prague. The complete lack of any kind of tempo in almost all of our home games. We only scored more than 1 goal at home in 3 games and they were against really poor opposition.

[jasonb]

LOL. I would have just typed 'whoosh'..

 

I mean, it wasn't even that we'll disguised. It was the most obvious tongue in cheek posts I've seen for a while.

[View From The Top]

Ron was great for us, in patches. At other times under his tenure we were awful. Really awful.

 

The Everton issue is, it would appear, somewhat clouded by their fixtures. Living up on the edge of the NW I can tell you that the toffees I know aren't necessarily dismayed at the defeats but in the manner of the defeats.

 

They say they can see no plan, no cohesion and certainly no pace.

 

Every man jack of them have said the same about losing a striker and not replacing the goals. I appreciate that's not an easy task but it's the crux of the problem and it's not going to change anytime soon.

 

The reds and blues at work have been rather mote these last few weeks. Long may it continue.

[SaveloyMush]

Failure, no but there was a marked drop in points, goals and the overall standard of football. It was just awful, negative, playing possession football in 2nd gear stuff. Playing for a 0-0 at home to Be'er Sheva, playing for absolutely nothing in Prague. The complete lack of any kind of tempo in almost all of our home games. We only scored more than 1 goal at home in 3 games and they were against really poor opposition.

 

We were told that Puel lost his job as he wouldn't change his style of play. I consider him to be the ultimate pragmatist and I wonder whether it was a case of wouldn't, or couldn't, change the style. If he looked at the squad and surmised (correctly, as it turns out) that there were few goals in the side, then he was forced to adopt a safety-first strategy. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for a club looking to expand its fan-base and, ultimately, its commercial revenue.

 

Sexy football sells shirts. Why did PSG pay 222m Euros for Neymar? Because they believe that they can sell millions of replica Neymar shirts and associated tat on the back of his goals. PSG is owned by the state of Qatar. Along with the other Gulf states, most of the real work there is carried out by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and numerous other countries. These have large populations and their economies are seeing a rise in the middle classes, who have cash to spend. Football clubs are not the mere playthings of bored sheikhs; there are potential massive money-spinners.

 

Any fule know that the TV money, not only in England, will fall away as technology renders traditional broadcasting obsolete. Ticket sales are a flea on an elephant's backside in the grand scheme of things. Commercial revenue is where the money is made and the only way to generate that is to expand the fan-base and have them buy club tat. The only way to expand the fan-base is to offer sexy football. You won't see many Indian kids with Phil Jones on the back of their shirts, defenders don't sell sexy football (especially one as ugly as poor Mr. Jones). The purists can appreciate a hard-won clean sheet (cf Southampton 0 - 0 Liverpool last season), but the money comes from sexy football (cf Southampton 3 -2 Liverpool the season before, aka the Sadio Mané show). Manchester City are also bankrolled by a Gulf state and look at their squad: they have a very good goalkeeper (more on them in a moment), but their defence is pretty rubbish. Guardiola spent big on his bombing full-backs for their attacking flair more than their defensive capabilities. At Manchester United, Moyes and Van Gaal had to go as their football was not sexy. Jose Mourinho is known as a pragmatist who likes nothing more than parking the bus, but look at his squad: again, an exceptional goalkeeper but a rubbish defence, what he has bought is goals. His board will have told him to leave the bus at home and ensure plenty sexy football. Liverpool are trying to play in the same swashbuckling way, although they have rubbish goalkeepers and a comedy defence, van Dijk alone would not have fixed that.

 

Back to goalkeepers: a Hollywood save or some nifty footwork from a sweeper-keeper gets the mass audience on its feet, a well-timed challenge from a giant Dutch centre-back (cf van Dijk on Mané in the 0-0 last season) does not. A purist will purr but the shirt-buying masses will move on to the next sexy goal.

 

And what of our club? To some extent, Southampton today are a reverse-sexy squad - a back 6, 7, or 8 (depending on formation and your view of the goalkeeper) as good as any in the league, but no floozies up front to flirt with those fickle fans and their wallets. Our new majority shareholder is a man who, irrespective of the way in which the takeover was financed, clearly has a lot of money; he likes money and he wants more of it. So he needs to get lots of Chinese kids buying lots of club tat, the only way he is going to get the numbers up is by offering sexy football. Puel would not, or could not, do this; it remains to be seen whether his successor can.

 

In terms of sexy, Southampton are Susan Boyle - very talented in one particular skill, but would you really want to go there?

[goneawol]

So losing with Everton against Chelsea, United and Spurs means you are under threat as a manager? Harsh world for managers these days it seems.

 

I don't think his job is at risk. It should be noted however that Burnley have played away at Chelsea, spurs & Liverpool this season, and come away unbeaten with 5 points.

[Fan The Flames]

We were told that Puel lost his job as he wouldn't change his style of play. I consider him to be the ultimate pragmatist and I wonder whether it was a case of wouldn't, or couldn't, change the style. If he looked at the squad and surmised (correctly, as it turns out) that there were few goals in the side, then he was forced to adopt a safety-first strategy. Unfortunately, this does not bode well for a club looking to expand its fan-base and, ultimately, its commercial revenue.

 

Sexy football sells shirts. Why did PSG pay 222m Euros for Neymar? Because they believe that they can sell millions of replica Neymar shirts and associated tat on the back of his goals. PSG is owned by the state of Qatar. Along with the other Gulf states, most of the real work there is carried out by immigrants from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and numerous other countries. These have large populations and their economies are seeing a rise in the middle classes, who have cash to spend. Football clubs are not the mere playthings of bored sheikhs; there are potential massive money-spinners.

 

Any fule know that the TV money, not only in England, will fall away as technology renders traditional broadcasting obsolete. Ticket sales are a flea on an elephant's backside in the grand scheme of things. Commercial revenue is where the money is made and the only way to generate that is to expand the fan-base and have them buy club tat. The only way to expand the fan-base is to offer sexy football. You won't see many Indian kids with Phil Jones on the back of their shirts, defenders don't sell sexy football (especially one as ugly as poor Mr. Jones). The purists can appreciate a hard-won clean sheet (cf Southampton 0 - 0 Liverpool last season), but the money comes from sexy football (cf Southampton 3 -2 Liverpool the season before, aka the Sadio Mané show). Manchester City are also bankrolled by a Gulf state and look at their squad: they have a very good goalkeeper (more on them in a moment), but their defence is pretty rubbish. Guardiola spent big on his bombing full-backs for their attacking flair more than their defensive capabilities. At Manchester United, Moyes and Van Gaal had to go as their football was not sexy. Jose Mourinho is known as a pragmatist who likes nothing more than parking the bus, but look at his squad: again, an exceptional goalkeeper but a rubbish defence, what he has bought is goals. His board will have told him to leave the bus at home and ensure plenty sexy football. Liverpool are trying to play in the same swashbuckling way, although they have rubbish goalkeepers and a comedy defence, van Dijk alone would not have fixed that.

 

Back to goalkeepers: a Hollywood save or some nifty footwork from a sweeper-keeper gets the mass audience on its feet, a well-timed challenge from a giant Dutch centre-back (cf van Dijk on Mané in the 0-0 last season) does not. A purist will purr but the shirt-buying masses will move on to the next sexy goal.

 

And what of our club? To some extent, Southampton today are a reverse-sexy squad - a back 6, 7, or 8 (depending on formation and your view of the goalkeeper) as good as any in the league, but no floozies up front to flirt with those fickle fans and their wallets. Our new majority shareholder is a man who, irrespective of the way in which the takeover was financed, clearly has a lot of money; he likes money and he wants more of it. So he needs to get lots of Chinese kids buying lots of club tat, the only way he is going to get the numbers up is by offering sexy football. Puel would not, or could not, do this; it remains to be seen whether his successor can.

 

In terms of sexy, Southampton are Susan Boyle - very talented in one particular skill, but would you really want to go there?

 

What a load of old ********, PSG won't make any money from kids in Indian wearing fake tops

[Pamplemousse]

Utter utter rubbish, PSG signed Neymar because they are owned by Qatar. This is about Qatar flexing its financial muscle, and a middle finger to its rivals in the Middle East. They won't make back the £200M + they forked out, but it's loose change to the Qataris so why should they care?

 

Man Utd sacked their managers because they under performed, and failed to qualify for the Champions League.

 

Your post is long but full of waffle and it is mostly ********.

[Upside down Saint]

Completely disagree. Sold all his best players. Poch sold no one sold. Best team we've had since I started supporting saints in 86. We finished 7th and 6th. Get a brain transplant.

 

This 100%

[hypochondriac]

6 of them, yet to record a win and have conceded 12 goals in their last 3 games.

 

Still much too early to comment on beloved Ronald when there's slaughtering of our own manager to be done

You sound deranged.

[skintsaint]

So losing with Everton against Chelsea, United and Spurs means you are under threat as a manager? Harsh world for managers these days it seems.

 

Some other Dutch manager only lasted 4 games so who knows.

 

I don't anyone expected Everton to get much early in the season, but they have performed pretty crap so far which is more eye opening. Wouldn't want him back. Think we have a decent manager and team, dare i say it, better than Evertons. Their back line is shocking.

[Secret Site Agent]

Whatever you claim to be a professor of, it certainly isn't irony.

 

Oooh, Irony. Yes I remember that.

 

Nooooo, Irony left years ago, having found itself marginalised and left wanting in a corner, having been overtaken by an influx of cynocism, confusion, anger, bile and hatred, not to forget the overwhelming mind reading, innuenmdo, rumour and assumption that is displayed as fact.

If I remember correctly, irony also stopped a number of posters from posting.

 

No, sorry, Irony has no home here.

 

Loathing however, that's another story:lol:

 

Back on topic though, I confess I did like him when he was here, but the sour taste in the mouth when he left, and how he left, still grates with me now, so NO, no home for him here any more. I think he'll [probably be off before the end of the season anyway, as this season thay might find him wanting in the manager department.

[Secret Site Agent]

I think Bilic will beat him in the sack race but only just.

 

Not in the egg and spoon race I though:lol::Lol:

 

I can't be serious this morning.

[Faz]

This s all a little bit sad.

 

She's going out with someone else now. Move on guys.

[Heisenberg]

This s all a little bit sad.

 

She's going out with someone else now. Move on guys.

 

These boys get stuck on stage 4 every time somebody dumps us.

 

We had the same posters posting the same posts last November when Everton had a poor run.

 

121 pages, 6,000+ posts and 1 million views on a "defectors watch" thread tells you all you need to know about these boys abilities and powers to "move on"

[baggytrousers]

You sound deranged.

 

Just trying to fit in.

[doddisalegend]

These boys get stuck on stage 4 every time somebody dumps us.

 

We had the same posters posting the same posts last November when Everton had a poor run.

 

121 pages, 6,000+ posts and 1 million views on a "defectors watch" thread tells you all you need to know about these boys abilities and powers to "move on"

 

 

Whoops your flavour of the season team taking a beating again....

[doddisalegend]

Weak Everton FC showed lack of backbone in sale of Romelu Lukaku

 

http://www.bing.com/cr?IG=9F3E8132051A4C039AA32FB29E7E8A10&CID=33322154D44D64AE147C2A55D58C65FF&rd=1&h=jfHLz7k7vrwhXc6dhdMb3SVhNRC4W5k2K2P2ENBZ-no&v=1&r=http%3a%2f%2fwww.dailypost.co.uk%2fsport%2ffootball%2ffootball-news%2fweak-everton-fc-showed-lack-13637588&p=DevEx,5039.1

[angelman]

These boys get stuck on stage 4 every time somebody dumps us.

 

We had the same posters posting the same posts last November when Everton had a poor run.

 

121 pages, 6,000+ posts and 1 million views on a "defectors watch" thread tells you all you need to know about these boys abilities and powers to "move on"

 

I do love it when you get all supercilious on the forum, but most people see through your charade.

[salisbury saints1]

Don't get me wrong, Mane is miles better but Pelle's contribution to our team was just as big. Klopp and Liverpool have got Mane playing as well every week as he did in his handful of standout games for us.

 

In my opinion it's the failure to replace Pelle that's cost us more than replacing Mane, which would always be incredibly difficult given he had that X-factor. Since the days of Lambert our shape and play has needed a strong, intelligent forward whose movement makes space for others. Gabbiadini showed that in a different way during his purple patch but no one's up to it at the moment, which makes things harder for Tadic, Redmond and the rest. If we're going to change to 3-5-2 or whatever, this might be the moment we move on from that model.

 

Mane was brilliant that season for but don't forget he was dropped for turning up late followed by an abysmal team performance at Norwich. Also Shane Long had a rare consistent spell and towards the end of the season was 1st choice ahead of Pelle. But the player who made it all tick was the under-rated Steve Davis - we've not seen that form (other than for Northern Ireland) since. Maybe RK was lucky but he made his own luck with the way he put the team together.

[DuncanRG]

Mane was brilliant that season for but don't forget he was dropped for turning up late followed by an abysmal team performance at Norwich. Also Shane Long had a rare consistent spell and towards the end of the season was 1st choice ahead of Pelle. But the player who made it all tick was the under-rated Steve Davis - we've not seen that form (other than for Northern Ireland) since. Maybe RK was lucky but he made his own luck with the way he put the team together.

 

Yep, for sure.

[spyinthesky]

What a load of old ********, PSG won't make any money from kids in Indian wearing fake tops

 

I am sure I read somewhere that PSG have already sold 170,000 Neymar shirts

 

At say £50 a pop that's £8.5m gross revenue (probably pays Neymar's wages for a week!!)

[CB Fry]

These boys get stuck on stage 4 every time somebody dumps us.

 

We had the same posters posting the same posts last November when Everton had a poor run.

 

121 pages, 6,000+ posts and 1 million views on a "defectors watch" thread tells you all you need to know about these boys abilities and powers to "move on"

7/10.

 

Solid, if workmanlike, contribution.

 

Won't win any awards but bluntly effective.

[whelk]

I do love it when you get all supercilious on the forum, but most people see through your charade.

 

Most people have him on ignore surely? Seriously there is no one more tiresome on here, and this place has fair share of d1ckheads

[OttawaSaint]

7/10.

 

Solid, if workmanlike, contribution.

 

Won't win any awards but bluntly effective.

 

Generous, he's having a 'mare at the moment, needs to sit out a few weeks and win his place back.

[shurlock]

These boys get stuck on stage 4 every time somebody dumps us.

 

We had the same posters posting the same posts last November when Everton had a poor run.

 

121 pages, 6,000+ posts and 1 million views on a "defectors watch" thread tells you all you need to know about these boys abilities and powers to "move on"

 

Pochettino gone by Xmas.

[angelman]

Most people have him on ignore surely? Seriously there is no one more tiresome on here, and this place has fair share of d1ckheads

 

I actually just removed him from ignore as (like I did) people quote him in replies, thus rendering the ignore function a little redundant.

[trousers]

most people see through your charade.

If he's not careful the mods will cotton on too, and no-one wants to see that

[JxgrSaint]

I am sure I read somewhere that PSG have already sold 170,000 Neymar shirts

 

At say £50 a pop that's £8.5m gross revenue (probably pays Neymar's wages for a week!!)

 

About 98% of that goes to the shirt manufacturers, it's only going to be useful when it comes to renegotiating the deal with them. Clubs ony get a small fraction of shirt sale money, and usually that;s after they've sold a certain number of shirts

[niceandfriendly]

With the rumours coming out of the PSG shirt manufacturers today, seems not all is rosy whatsoever at PSG. Something about a dispute over the spelling of "Neymar" and the type of adhesive used to put his name on the shirts. Fans not happy, player livid, and the manufacturer threatening to pull out of the deal all together. Expect to see Neymar pick up a mysterious "knock" and be unavailable for a few weeks.

[SaveloyMush]

What a load of old ********, PSG won't make any money from kids in Indian wearing fake tops

 

You might want to look up "Veblen Goods" and their significance in rapidly-developing societies...