Greenlizard0 Premier League Football Thread ** spoilers ** [29th Dec - 1st Jan 2025]

fez said:
I have no issue with banter. Its one of the reasons I like football and talking about it but it has to be good natured and supposed to be a joke. Too many people are just trying to be nasty and start an argument. This is however a general football fan issue I understand. Whenever I have the bright idea to read the BBC comments on any football article it reminds me how stupid and small minded the average fan is from every club. Completely off topic point scoring and bickering.

Personally I am more than happy to see different teams doing well. Its nice to see City struggling at the moment and some other clubs having a good spell. Shame Liverpool are running away with the league but hey ho. The fight for Europe this season could be really interesting because I don't think United or Tottenham will be there so there are quite a few places up for grabs.
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I actually find our current situation fascinating - in a bad way, but still. When you look at how other clubs are run, and their recruitment in particular, it's quite baffling how we've managed to get it so wrong!

Bringing in Ashworth and the other guys signalled a bold, more sensible new direction, some stability, but that's gone up in smoke after just a few months.

I fear Ratcliffe is going to fall out with Berrada (the new CEO who was keen to appoint Amorim), and then who knows what'll happen...
 
Robbo said:
I actually find our current situation fascinating - in a bad way, but still. When you look at how other clubs are run, and their recruitment in particular, it's quite baffling how we've managed to get it so wrong!

Bringing in Ashworth and the other guys signalled a bold, more sensible new direction, some stability, but that's gone up in smoke after just a few months.

I fear Ratcliffe is going to fall out with Berrada (the new CEO who was keen to appoint Amorim), and then who knows what'll happen...
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I think that in the age of constant bombardment from a dozen different media sources all vying to write the most inflammatory and shocking crap its easy to feel like everything is far more of a mess than it is. Its undeniable that the club has been a clown show for a long time now but we really haven't had our new structure in place for very long. The Ashworth thing was a bit of a mess but who knows how that shook out and if they fundamentally didn't agree then there was no point keeping him.

Good clubs have everyone pulling in the same direction.

I don't know how much Ratcliffe is getting involved in the footballing side of things or whether for the most part he will leave that to Barrada. Hes the guy that makes the final decision on things like Ashworth, EtH etc but I don't know if thats him calling the shots or just the guy with the final pull of the guillotine.

I don't undestand the Zirkzee signing this summer but the rest of them I have no issue with at the moment. I don't think you can judge very much at the moment. Perhaps in a year or two years we will be in the same place with a squad that needs rebuilding again but 90% of this mess was pre-Ratcliffe and pre-Barrada. Ten Hag probably should have been moved on before the summer but hey ho.

People need to get a bit of perspective and stop looking at the micro and have a little appreciation for the macro. As fans, getting on the new managers back or the players back after so little time helps precisely no one.
 
Agree - INEOS haven't really been in place long and the manager has had 4 proper training sessions, which given the tactical changes he's trying to make, is nothing. The Ashworth thing is certainly a concern, but if he was desperate for Southgate then I think he deserved the boot!
 
fez said:
People need to get a bit of perspective and stop looking at the micro and have a little appreciation for the macro. As fans, getting on the new managers back or the players back after so little time helps precisely no one.
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Looking at the macro, the club is on the decline and has been for over a decade. And it's getting worse, with the poorest squad the club has seen and new management who are hell bent on stripping the club bare.
 
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Robbo said:
If he was desperate for Southgate then I think he deserved the boot!
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Exactly.

sigma said:
Looking at the macro, the club is on the decline and has been for over a decade. And it's getting worse, with the poorest squad the club has seen and new management who are hell bent on stripping the club bare.
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Looking at the macro over the past 6 months is completely pointless because its such a short period of time and there is no point judging the current set up against the past decade as the current setup is literally supposed to change that. We can talk about the new management setup being a mess in a few years.
 
fez said:
Looking at the macro over the past 6 months is completely pointless because its such a short period of time and there is no point judging the current set up against the past decade as the current setup is literally supposed to change that. We can talk about the new management setup being a mess in a few years.
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Well we can't exactly ignore the issues with the club, can we?
 
Robbo said:
if he was desperate for Southgate then I think he deserved the boot!
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Have some respect it's Sir Gareth Southgate

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sigma said:
Well we can't exactly ignore the issues with the club, can we?
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I mean, you can ignore historic issues when many of the people responsible for them have gone and there is a new structure in place. You can't be sure things will change for the better but when you change things precisely to change those issues, harking back to them constantly seems...odd.
 
fez said:
I mean, you can ignore historic issues when many of the people responsible for them have gone and there is a new structure in place. You can't be sure things will change for the better but when you change things precisely to change those issues, harking back to them constantly seems...odd.
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Have they all gone? I think you can still attribute blame to the appropriate people.

The Glaziers are largely responsible for the last decade. And there are umpteen issues, the squad, the stadium, the management, the finances. We're now seeing the result of all the incompetence, so it's no surprise people refer to the cause of the current state of the club.

INEOS can be held responsible for the ETH sacking and Amorim hiring issues. And also for the penny pinching (rightly or wrongly this is going to annoy people). It's easy to brush off the Ashworth firing as "one of those things" but you'd expect a billionaire who's run multiple companies to be able set up a decent hiring process. Perhaps a sign of things to come.

You can't really blame the players, bar Rashford maybe, the rest are doing about the best they can do, it's not their fault if they're ****.

Amorim you can maybe blame for putting the wrong team out against Wolves but I'd say that's unfair as he's still learning about the squad and the league.

Side note - I'm surprised you've not been banned for that post a few posts back, I've been singled out for similar comments I've made. Ho hum.
 
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sigma said:
Have they all gone? I think you can still attribute blame to the appropriate people.

The Glaziers are largely responsible for the last decade. And there are umpteen issues, the squad, the stadium, the management, the finances. We're now seeing the result of all the incompetence, so it's no surprise people refer to the cause of the current state of the club.
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Plenty of them are still around but the Glazers have been pushed to the fringes for now by all accounts so dwelling on the past makes no sense. Yes the effects of that will be felt for a long time but we're talking about the new people and they haven't been here long enough to judge with any level of certainty.

sigma said:
INEOS can be held responsible for the ETH sacking and Amorim hiring issues. And also for the penny pinching (rightly or wrongly this is going to annoy people). It's easy to brush off the Ashworth firing as "one of those things" but you'd expect a billionaire who's run multiple companies to be able set up a decent hiring process. Perhaps a sign of things to come.
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Football isn't an exact science. You don't generally hire a new CEO at a company who gets rid of all the staff and runs a 3-4-3 office setup instead of a 4-4-2. :p

Running a football club is like running a business in many ways but very different in many others. There is a reason there is a massive churn in the football world when it comes to which club is on top at any given moment.

sigma said:
You can't really blame the players, bar Rashford maybe, the rest are doing about the best they can do, it's not their fault if they're ****.

Amorim you can maybe blame for putting the wrong team out against Wolves but I'd say that's unfair as he's still learning about the squad and the league.
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Some of the players aren't putting in a shift and others simply aren't good enough. Judging Amorim at this stage though is madness.

sigma said:
Side note - I'm surprised you've not been banned for that post a few posts back, I've been singled out for similar comments I've made. Ho hum.
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Baz puts me back in my box every now and then. Perhaps hes just having the week off.
 
I really hope that Arteta doesn't persist with Havertz in the middle. He's awful there, contributes nothing and stunts the whole team. He should have learned this from last season's showings. Rice and Partey are clearly the best partnership there, then Merino and Jorginho before him too.
 
CliffyG said:
I really hope that Arteta doesn't persist with Havertz in the middle. He's awful there, contributes nothing and stunts the whole team. He should have learned this from last season's showings. Rice and Partey are clearly the best partnership there, then Merino and Jorginho before him too.
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Going with Partey Merino today.
 
CliffyG said:
I really hope that Arteta doesn't persist with Havertz in the middle. He's awful there, contributes nothing and stunts the whole team. He should have learned this from last season's showings. Rice and Partey are clearly the best partnership there, then Merino and Jorginho before him too.
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He's got the thrupenny bits
 
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