Wymsey Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 I'd be surprised if Man Utd finish in the top two, as I'm not entirely sure Van Gaal is the right man for them.
Nalis Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 his comments are spot on though Maybe so but I doubt the wellbeing of Pedro was his top priority when making those comments.
Kitchandro Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 So a doctor has been punished for trying to aid a player they thought was injured. Maybe if players didn't start rolling around at the drop of a hat there wouldn't be any confusion? Mourinho's own fault for encouraging that kind of behaviour.
kingcarr21 Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 So a doctor has been punished for trying to aid a player they thought was injured. Maybe if players didn't start rolling around at the drop of a hat there wouldn't be any confusion? Mourinho's own fault for encouraging that kind of behaviour. What i dont get is the ref called for them to come onto the pitch to treat Hazard. So is Mourinho suggesting they stay on the bench even when the ref is requesting assistance? I can sort of understand what Mourinho is saying but ultimately if a player is down and stays down then they should be looked at. Its just Mourinho taking the spotlight away from his players which is a clever tactic but surely not at the expense of your medical staff? Especially one as fit as Eva
Les-TA-Jon Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Even if Mourinho genuinely wants to blame the doc, then why do it all so publicly? This should have been an internal affair. He's just thrown her under the bus. But maybe we shouldn't be surprised by him acting like a complete **** when they lose/fail to win?
EnderbyFox Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-leagues-richest-owners-how-6233348 9th out of 20, not bad Vichai!
ARM1968 Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Get the Thai royal famy on board and we'd be the richest.
The Blur Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Nothing in it apart from the wonder strike, in fact I thought we shaded it. Had a few key personal missing, bojan, arni and shawcross so can't complain. I agreed, I thought you was the better team in the first half, I did not watched much of the second but I thought Liverpool looked more threatening when Can came on. Afellay has a fine first half, if he can stay fit then I think he will be a pivotal figure for your team. Brilliant Was that you who posted a similar strip about how none of teams competing for Europa League wanted to finish 5th?
EnderbyFox Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 I agreed, I thought you was the better team in the first half, I did not watched much of the second but I thought Liverpool looked more threatening when Can came on. Afellay has a fine first half, if he can stay fit then I think he will be a pivotal figure for your team. Brilliant Was that you who posted a similar strip about how none of teams competing for Europa League wanted to finish 5th? Yep, it's the work of David Squires. Check out his stuff here http://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-squires
RedSoxUK Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 It's a bit of a 50/50 the Eva/Mou incident really, and hard to defend without Mou sounding extremely arrogant which he clearly is either way. But he has in his head a set of ideas and tactics and he likes to see them play out, when he saw his medical team running onto the pitch to aid a fully aware faked time wasting tactic, you can imagine the rage inside his head having his tactic backfire which leaves his team fully exposed and under-pressure - something which at that point he couldn't control. He wanted Hazard to roll around, eventually get up, and carry on and he's fully aware of the time wasting tactic, Eva and co were doing their job, but part of their job as medical professionals is to assess the situation before acting. "Understanding the game" as Mou puts it simply refers to the medical staff not being aware of what Hazard and Mou know is a simple time wasting tactic. Why Mou has singled Eva out, i'm not sure - perhaps it's because she's in the senior position, perhaps because she insinuated them both to go on and help Hazard, to call feminism is a little extreme in this situation because if it had been two men i'm sure Mou would have reacted in exactly the same way because of the consequences.
The Blur Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Yep, it's the work of David Squires. Check out his stuff here http://www.theguardian.com/profile/david-squires Yeah, I thought drawings looked familiar. Ha, some of his work is really good! Shame that I can't subscribe to his work or something.
Guest seanfox778 Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Two Premier League clubs interested in Barton according to Sky Sports. I'm praying we're not one of them.
davieG Posted 12 August 2015 Author Posted 12 August 2015 A New Era? The Rise Of The Premier League 'Rest'Jose Mourinho predicted a closer Premier League, and evidence concurs with that view. Second-rate clubs can now afford top drawer players. It all feels a bit mad... Last Updated: 12/08/15 at 13:32 Post Comment "Maybe I'm wrong but I think fewer points will win the title. You have a minimum of five title contenders and the other teams get stronger and stronger. I think nobody can complain because everyone is investing - you go to Watford, you go to Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Stoke, every club. Every club has very good players so I think it's difficult for the top teams in England because of the competitive nature" - Jose Mourinho August 7. Mourinho's comments regarding Premier League competition were slightly lost in the noise of his feud with Arsene Wenger. Forgive me for my tedium, but I found the Chelsea manager's prediction about increased danger from below far more interesting than any completed handshake or otherwise. Please tell me I'm not alone. It's important to take Mourinho at his word, of course, rather than extrapolate his comments to an unrealistic degree. He is not predicting a title challenge (or even serious top four bid) from Southampton, Swansea or Stoke, but instead remarking upon a recent marked increase in the average quality of a Premier League squad. We're getting dangerously close to 'there are no easy games at this level' territory. A dearth of quality within the bottom half has become a relative bounty. Mourinho's first point, regarding the number of points taken to win the league, quickly proves pertinent. Over the last six years, no title winner has reached the 90-point mark, an achievement realised four times in six seasons between 2004 and 2009. Fewer points are now required; the gap is closing, however slowly. Last season also saw a dramatic reduction in the number of heavy defeats handed out by the Premier League's strongest clubs. In 2012/13, the top five (Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham) won 11 league matches by four or more goals. In 2013/14 the top five (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham) won by a margin of four or more on 16 occasions. Last season, this number dropped to just five. The number of wins registered by top four teams also decreased to its lowest number in five years last season. United, City, Chelsea and Arsenal won 92 times between them. The totals for 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 were 97, 94 and 102 respectively. The final evidence comes from the reduction in gap between the 'best' and the 'rest', calculated by examining the gap between fourth and eighth. Again, the pattern is clear. Last season Manchester United finished 14 points clear of Swansea, a smaller points gap between the two positions than in each of the previous seven seasons (2007/08 - 19, 2008/09 - 21, 2009/10 - 19, 2010/11 - 19, 2011/12 - 17, 2012/13 - 24, 2013/14 - 23). The temptation is to suggest that this is a reflection of a drop in quality amongst the elite rather than the vice versa. The poor performance of English clubs in the Champions League last season offers some evidence for that view, combined with the difficulty in keeping players away from the clutches of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. In football's food chain, there is a danger of England's biggest clubs falling to the status of quaternary consumers, preyed upon by the top predators. However, there is a modern tendency to search for the deficiency in the loser (or less handsome winner) rather than applaud those who have improved. I'd take a very different view; rather than rue a drop in performance of the Premier League's top four, the 'rest' are simply improving at a quicker rate. Full pockets make for happy shoppers. The new Premier League television deal provides clubs with greater transfer budgets, but also makes the Premier League a far more attractive proposition to foreign players. Whereas once only the clubs with realistic prospects of European football would be able to tempt international players, that is now a defunct notion. This summer has seen that principle taken to preciously unchartered lengths. Crystal Palace have bought from Paris St Germain. West Ham have bought from Juventus. Stoke City have five Champions League winners in Bojan, Ibrahim Afellay, Marc Muniesa, Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic. Newcastle (Georginio Wijnaldum) and Southampton (Jordy Clasie) signed two of Netherlands' most impressive talents. Sunderland tempted Jeremain Lens to leave the Champions League for a prospective relegation fight. Watford bought from Roma. West Brom spent £12m on Salomon Rondon. Almost every team in the Premier League's bottom half has tempted a player away from European football. I've spent the summer giggling. "I wanted a change of scenery," said new Aston Villa signing Idrissa Gueye. "The most important thing was to come to England and aim for a big club later." Across the division, players are joining lesser Premier League team with the intention of impressing enough to earn a big money move, with such intentions no secret to any party. They will be extravagantly rewarded in the process, and represent a significant upgrade to the willing employers. Everybody wins (except fans, but that's a different tale). It is also this increased domestic competition that is the driving factor in English clubs struggling in Europe. Remember again that the Premier League's top five clubs won just five league games between them by four or more goals last season. The total for the four Champions League semi-finalists (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Bayern Munich) was 32. That's a long time in which to coast during matches. Our Champions League participants simply don't get chance to breathe. It's an inadvertent result of the bumper new TV deal. The Premier League can currently boast players of 64 nationalities, more than Germany, Italy, Spain and France. The current 20 club captains are made up of 11 different nationalities, highlighting the league's inclusive nature. Broadcasting rights are sold in 156 countries, and clubs visited 15 different countries during the pre-season just ended. All of these are markers of the Premier League's success, but this summer's signings are the new poster boys. They emphatically represent the dominance of English domestic football, the accelerator pedal pushed down by clubs' financial weight. The value of the live broadcasting UK rights jumped from £594m per year in 2012/13 to £1006m the following season; it's set to increase to £1712m a year from next season, a 288% rise in four years. The financial gap between the Premier League and Football League continues to grow, but in the top flight there is plenty of space to swim in a vast ocean of cash. The rich will continue to get richer, but those outside the elite few are enjoying the delicious scraps. Competition may be the real winner; after seasons of talking about the bottom-half dirge, things are about to get really interesting. Daniel Storey
cc_star Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 And yet.... the Premier League is nowhere near as good as it was 2005-2009, when the CL final 4 was ours
Finnegan Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Chelsea physios summoned on by ref. They have to go. Mourinho is a twat. Shocker. PS. I love you Eva.
EnderbyFox Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 How on earth could anyone be horrible to this face
Dan Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 i dont mean to come across all anti stoke but what the hell do people see in shaqiri? has he ever actually played well for two games in a row? or even two halves in a row? or even just ever? Glad I'm not the only one. Seems extremely hit and miss for me. Admittedly when he's on form he's sensational.
AKCJ Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Glad I'm not the only one. Seems extremely hit and miss for me. Admittedly when he's on form he's sensational. I'd say hit and miss in the same way that Mahrez is. In that he's either anonymous of a world beater.
benpicko Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 So a doctor has been punished for trying to aid a player they thought was injured. Maybe if players didn't start rolling around at the drop of a hat there wouldn't be any confusion? Mourinho's own fault for encouraging that kind of behaviour. To be fair for somebody fouled as much as Hazard he doesn't really do that
Guest MattP Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Jose has been losing the plot a little bit ever since he failed in the Real job, his excuses are getting worse and worse and for the first time the press appear to be turning on him rather than lapping up anything he says, probably because this time he's attacked a pretty woman and not a fat white bloke in a suit or a referee all of football loves to hate. His excuses at Real were often barmy and the Spanish got sick of him very quickly, they ranged from the youth team coach to the fans to even accusing other teams of letting Barcelona win so he couldn't win the league. Within 18 months back here it's been FA refereeing conspiracies, "buses" and now the physio and medical team, you start to wonder how ridiculous these are going to get before he's on his way again. He almost makes that red nosed whisky stinking bastard from the Govan sound magnanimous.
Dan Posted 12 August 2015 Posted 12 August 2015 Mourinho's just doing what he's always done, taking the attention away from his team's awful performance.
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.