Phillips suffered from not having a) Peter Reid managing him and b) Niall quinn’s disco pants heading the ball down to him last season.
You can’t knock the guy who put in 30 goals in the premiership two years ago.
that said, he’s 31, and has two or three seasons left as a striker to pay back that investment. If he links up well with Beattie you can easily see a top 6 finish for Southampton.
Here’s a question: How many Irish players will McCarthy end up buying?
Kevin Phillips gas turned into a Heskey/Forlan ie a striker who doesn’t score goals. We made an approach, I am glad we failed.
22 Hours to go (after a lovely trip up the M1).
I think Glenns safe till Christmas. Another debacle like Soton in the cup and he’ll be out.
We are after all a crisis club. At present we are second bottom, with no points, no goals scored.
And to make matters worse the Arse are top of the league
Just back from my hols. so I thought I’d better get this in before the thread is swamped by the congratulations/ commiserations/ recriminations/ post mortems / the referee’s a bastard etc. from tomorrow’s Premiership games:
**Swansea 4 Bury 2 ** A great start - and over 9000 spectators. Come on you Jacks!
V
My lot:
Oldham 1 Brighton 3
Scunthorpe 2 Oldham 1 (and 2 players sent off)
Fucking hell, it’s going to be a fucking shit season!
Bwahahahahaha – Tottenham have the best strike force in the land alright! It’s just that mighty Brum defence, they’ll be fine when they come up against the Scousers.
Ho ho.
pan
Ho, and furthermore, hum.
A horrible trip up the M1 cos Branson wasn’t running any trains - the beardy wanker - just to see us mugged off by Robbie bloody Savage*, and the worst referee I have seen in years.
Still, Zamora missed an open goal and keane hit the post, so we have only ourselves to blame.
I challenge you all to step right up.
Well, they are as good as any strike force in the league…
(Can you tell I’m loving this?)
pan
kabbes – you smug bastard. Btw all, you read it here first (see above), Money Launderers FCski to finish 2nd.
Spurs were unlucky from what I hear – deserved a draw. Not worried about the forwards as it’ll take time. Zamora to be the tabloid ‘super-sub’ by October.
Good weekend, I thought.
On a serious note, I think the table will stretch out more than last season, primarily at the bottom where I don’t think a team will need over 40 points for survival.
My target for survival is 37 pints this season.
And we’ve still got 37 to go.
Wanker referee.
My tip for first manager to go: Joint fav’s Glenda and Herr Houllier
“My target for survival is 37 pints this season.”
Cutting down a bit, eh?
first manager to walk the plank: Chris Coleman.
And the season is still young. It doesn’t get interesting until there’s frost on the ground.
If we play like we did in the second half, we’ll do fine. (if we play like we did in the first - god help us)
Still we won the cricket.
vetch - Good start by your lot. Nice.
Crusoe - with the sendings off you can barely have a team left ?
What a stupid typo. That should, of course read: 5, 037 pints
Boom boom - still a few tickets left for the meat raffle. See Matron at the bar.
owl - Lot of injuries, already. Need the Saf Efriken to get that Work Permit asap ! Where the hell is our midfielf Rottweiller ?
He’s in brazil. We are buying some 20 yo Brazilian geezer.
Bloody Enfield Town lost to Basildon as well.
Zamora has picked up a “political” hamstring to get out of the u21 friendly.
I’d be more than happy to split the Arse/ManUre duo! I’m guessing 3rd or 4th myself.
Very very happy with the team’s performance against 'pool though. Only two wins there since 1935 (last was the year before the premiership started, with Dennis Wise and Vinny Jones scoring; wonder what Ranieri would have made of the latter!) We looked like the home team, keeping the lion’s share of possession and creating lots of useful looking attacks. In the second half, 'pool’s only chance was the penalty!
Incidentally: Owen was the only person to miss more than one penalty last season. Now he’s missed another (although he was given an extremely dodgy get-out-of-jail card). I barely saw him in the game other than on his arse. What price the wunderkid now?
I particularly enjoyed our keeping the ball for the last 5 mins as I have many unhappy memories of Liverpool doing precisely that to us in the later eighties…
pan
Funny thing is, I was trying to imagine myself in the position of Chelski supporters over the weekend. If I was being very honest, I think I’d quite enjoy all this stuff. I mean, it is fake, fantasy football but it won’t last forever so why not enjoy the ride (assuming the Rooskies don’t ruin the club) ? That doesn’t mean, as an opposing fan, I won’t deride what’s happening at every opportunity, but I can see the fun and excitement.
I think the thing about Chelsea that strikes me the most this season - and there’s a lot to be struck by - is the defence: Whether he plays 3 at the back (with wing backs) or 4 across the back, IMHO, it just is not going to concede goals, no matter what the variation on those shapes.
Fwiw, I think Owen is Owen but Herr Houllier doesn’t play to his strengths. Out of interest, anyone think of a forward that has flourished in any Houllier team ?
Owl – I was just reading about that kid. We’ll see, I suppose we can dream . . .
I sometimes forget, it’s Euro 2004 at the end of this season. That’s a result 
…and Oldham are now in administration, as of 10.00am this morning. I’m not sure if that counts as a good thing or not any more. Oh, and we had another sending off on Saturday.
By 'eck, it’s grim. P’t kettle on.
Admin’s been good for some. Who know’s. I do hope it works out for the best - what celebrity will front the rescue bid, is Jimmy Clitheroe still with us ?
Aye, now they get to negotiate with their creditors for percentages of their debts. Providing they can get a sound financial plan going and alot of support from their fans (and some results on the pitch) they can survive this. It worked out for Linekers mob ok.
Yeah L_C, you may as well enjoy these things while they last. Heaven knows when it goes wrong you get to “enjoy” the 30 years of misery that follow, so might as well make the most of it during the good times.
Football is supposed to be entertainment, after all, and the one thing being a Chelski supporter is at the moment is entertaining!
And I agree with you on the defence. That is one mothercrunching strong set of defenders. With the possession I expect the midfield to maintain, I can’t see us shipping many goals. And it has been a long time since I said that at the start of a season!
pan
Oldham’s administration was forced as the Inland Revenue applied for us to be wound up, with the hearing on 3 September. The administrators have said we need £1.5m to last until the end of the season, and have also stated that our current funds run dry at the end of September.
We’ve been looking for new investors since April. We’ve had fund-raising days, an ‘all stars’ game and numerous donation drives. I just can’t see us surviving this one at all. We have no assets (we flogged the best players in the summer, and we don’t own the stadium) and little to appeal to an investor in the way of promotion prospects or a large fan base.