5000-1 - The 2016/17 Premier League thread

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

First topic message reminder :

Liverpool have given Lovren a new 100k a week long term deal

Lol

[GSC]

Should be the end of an era for Arsenal. Fresh thoughts required

[GSC]

Watford an embarrassment.

[Beer]

What's more embarrassing, Watford and Middlesborough's performances, or John Terry's send off?

[Fernando]

Terry > Watford > Boro

[GSC]

Watford.

Boro were ****e but they generally have been. Watford just bent over from the first whistle

[Fernando]

Walter played 3 at the back with no CB's

[Crimey]

Walter played 3 at the back with no CB's

Am I missing something? Andrea Ranocchia, Michael Dawson and Craig Davies are all centre backs.

[GSC]

If city could've been arsed/finished better they probably could've hit double figures easily. One of the worst performances I've ever seen a team give in the PL

[GSC]

Walter played 3 at the back with no CB's

Am I missing something? Andrea Ranocchia, Michael Dawson and Craig Davies are all centre backs.

Aside from that they all play for Hull, Watfords senior CB were all injured

[Beer]

Walter played 3 at the back with no CB's

Am I missing something? Andrea Ranocchia, Michael Dawson and Craig Davies are all centre backs.

Aside from that they all play for Hull, Watfords senior CB were all injured

[Crimey]

Walter played 3 at the back with no CB's

Am I missing something? Andrea Ranocchia, Michael Dawson and Craig Davies are all centre backs.

Aside from that they all play for Hull, Watfords senior CB were all injured

That was stupid. Forgot that Hull and Watford both had really embarrassing results and both play with 3 Centre backs.

[GSC]

I actually had to check on Ranocchia, seems like he'd rock up at Watford randomly one year

[Atila]

Moyes resigns as Sunderland manager without compensation.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11695/10889148/david-moyes-resigns-as-sunderland-manager-following-premier-league-relegation

[GSC]

Wrong section mate

[Atila]

Wrong section mate

I just checked the Sky Bet Championship thread, so I know what you're saying. However, even the Championship thread is the wrong place. It's for the 2016-17 season, which has passed.

[GSC]

Its still 2017 :P

[GSC]

Big Sam's walked from palace apparently

[Crimey]

Transfer budget problems? Probably wanted to cough up for Sakho.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Selling Zaha would annoy him.

Or the end of season party ended with him, Sammy Lee and a gravy boat fight after 12 pints of wine

[GSC]

Probably, Pulis also walked so imagine owners are a pain

[Guest]

Tbh, he clearly wanted away from the grind of day-to-day management, hence taking the England job.

[GSC]

Not sure that's as true as much as it being his dream job.

[Guest]

62 now, these managers have a shelf life. Doubt the transfer budget issues are true, considering how financially healthy the PL is. He's been backed once already in January with £30m + Sakho.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Why take it then? They could have gone down, why risk the reputation?

[GSC]

I mean he was going to continue with Sunderland and the shape they're in.

[Guest]

Sky Sports stating Allardyce went in & said he wanted to leave on a high. Transfer discussions did not take place.

[GSC]

Someone's put a large amount of money on him returning to Sunderland

[Dolphin Ziggler]

I'd be blooming surprised if transfer discussions hadn't taken place long before.

But he was probably thinking of retiring sooner rather than later. Maybe the drive is gone knowing the biggest goal he had can now not be achieved (again) and he'd blown it when he had it.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

There ya are, Sam says he has left with no intention of working in management again.

Guess that's quite the attractive job there now. Pacey players, expensive squad still and more money to spend.

Silva, Ranieri, Jokanovic, Wagner all likely to be linked. Monk and Hodgson too.

[GSC]

I give it until January

[Guest]

At 21:06 the BBC report the resignation of Sam Allardyce as a breaking news story on its website.  So v2 trumps the mighty BBC with its billions of pounds of taxpayers money by over four hours.

[GSC]

Thats the power of Twitter for you

[Dolphin Ziggler]

Mail still saying there were concerns from Allardyce over transfer direction, but it's the mail.

[GSC]

Be able to name his price in Jan for a desperate team.

Work 5 month stints get paid more. Genius

[Hammersmith harrier]

At 21:06 the BBC report the resignation of Sam Allardyce as a breaking news story on its website.  So v2 trumps the mighty BBC with its billions of pounds of taxpayers money by over four hours.

The BBC can only break a story once it's confirmed, they don't deal with speculation so it's always the same plus on a day like today I think they've got more pressing matters at hand.

[Guest]

Unimpressive line up of replacements for that Palace job, especially when Coleman is favourite. Ranieri will retire, Silva is going to Porto, Jokanovic won't get it, Giggs is a no-go, Karanka should go to Wolves & then you have Woy.

No wonder they've been pleading for Big Sam to change his mind.

[Guest]

At 21:06 the BBC report the resignation of Sam Allardyce as a breaking news story on its website.  So v2 trumps the mighty BBC with its billions of pounds of taxpayers money by over four hours.

The BBC can only break a story once it's confirmed, they don't deal with speculation so it's always the same plus on a day like today I think they've got more pressing matters at hand.

According to Wikipedia the BBC has 35,402 people working for them split up into numerous different sections and specialities.  With regard the bit about confirmation - looking at the BBC website - they are continually reporting on speculation from unspecified sources, or twitter sources etc.  But I suppose for a "breaking news story" they want to be doubly sure - so point taken- and I suppose they don't want to say "according to our media rivals .. (sky or whatever)" - they want to make out it is their own "breaking news" story.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

They aren't for making it out as their own, they just want it to be fact. They aren't as much in the business of snapping up the first point

[GSC]

Marco Silva to take the Porto job apparently.

Ranieri wants back in.

[Crimey]

Guessing Allardyce took the Palace job to save some of his reputation then. I agree with Dolph that now his dream job is not achievable forever the motivation for the day to day slog has gone. Agreed it was a risk taking the job though, if they went down his reputation would have been really shot. 

As much as I can't like him for his strange vendetta against Liverpool (presumably just to cosy up to Ferguson) I do think he's a bit an underrated manager. His work with Bolton in particular was impressive. 

It will be interesting who Crystal Palace go for, don't think Ranieri will be a good appointment, I can't see them tempting any other Premier League sides' managers, they surely won't touch David Moyes. Roberto Mancini seems to be the favourite, his stock has really fallen, not sure if he's the kind of manager they need. Roy Hodgson also being talked about, he would surely be a short-term option only. 

Other option could be one of Jaap Stam or David Wagner depending on who doesn't get to the top division.

[Crimey]

The most annoying thing with Allardyce leaving is it makes the chances of Palace seriously overpaying for Sakho less likely.

[Fernando]

Probably a good thing since he's still your best defender by a country mile...

[Good Golly I'm Olly]

Probably a good thing since he's still your best defender by a country mile...

I agree with this. Problem is they've just bizarrely decided to pay Dejan Lovren 100k a week, so obviously they have no idea what they're doing at CB - and haven't for many years now at Liverpool

[lfc91]

Probably a good thing since he's still your best defender by a country mile...

Not good at all. Klopp already shown that Sahko's Liverpool career is over regardless of being our best CB. So if we can't get him sold he will end up in the under 23's another year or worse, year long loans until he leaves on a free...

Much rather get 25 million and buy a new CB.

[GSC]

If Roy can still be arsed (unlike Moyes), hed be a solid hire for Palace. Can't argue too much with his Fulham and West Brom stints, clubs at a similar level to Palace.

[Crimey]

Except Sakho definitely wasn't our best centre back and hate this weird retcon of his time at Liverpool. 

1. He was extremely unreliable, he'd often be caught out without the pace to recover, he'd fall over a ridiculous amount for an athlete and was always capable of mistakes.
2. He was injured a lot, which for a centre back is really frustrating. Matip and Lovren have spent much of last season injured alternately, but over their careers neither have a history of injuries like Sakho does.
3. He has a history of being unprofessional. Let go by PSG because of it, left the stadium when he wasn't in the matchday squad for an Everton game, took drugs he shouldn't have and was suspended for the Europa League final because of it, let off an a technicality, then was unfit, late and rude on a pre-season trip.

I'd say he's about on part with Lovren for quality and Matip is better than him. 

Frustrating that all it takes is four good months at Crystal Palace, playing in a system that is great for centre backs, to make people think that Liverpool were incredibly stupid to let him go. He'd only have been sitting on the bench this year anyway as he wouldn't get ahead of Lovren and Matip. Let's not forget that Dejan Lovren received huge amounts of praise for his form when playing for Southampton before Liverpool bought him.

[Dolphin Ziggler]

He was always your best defender. The great part is people said it at the time, that he was ungangly but also the most natural defensively aware player.

[Hammersmith harrier]

Sakho is a better defender than Matip without question.

[GSC]

took drugs he shouldn't have

As opposed to those he should've?

[Crimey]

Is this is the Mandela effect or something? 

Everywhere I've seen at the time agreed that Lovren and Sakho were about equal around the 15/16 season. Hard to judge when looking at the 13/14 and 14/15 seasons since he played less than half the league games in both years. Surely if he was this great defender he'd have been able to be selected ahead of Skrtel and Lovren in those years? 

Sakho was not Liverpool's best defender at the time and he's certainly not better than Matip whose performances this year have been better than Sakho ever performed at Liverpool. He was frustratingly inconsistent, where some games he would be rock solid and stop everything, other games he would make loads of mistakes and be constantly out of position.

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