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The Importance of Sport (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Mick Harper
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given that we are not going to win

Could I remind patrons that there is a one in eight chance that we will win (William Hill) and that nothing you may say or think (or advise Gareth to do) will alter that in any way.
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Mick Harper
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I had been swallowing my words about Arteta as we zoomed up the table. I was genuinely changing my mind. A rare thing for any human being. Now we have lost twice in succession in pretty dire circumstances, I am backtracking but not yet backtracked.

My reason: either he's footballingly dumb or he's too sentimental. And it's all because of Lacazette. It's obvious to a Spurs supporter he's completely useless. He can't score goals, he can't hold the ball up, he can't be a creative deep nine. He's just a complete lummox. Yet he gets picked week after week.

The rationale (and the situation is not of Arteta's making) is that Lacazette's the only striker we've got (Nketia is worse). So now the question becomes: is it better to play a useless striker or no striker. In the old days there was maybe a justification for a useless one but in today's game we all know even a mediumly good striker is often worth dispensing with. So why doesn't Arteta know this? It's either because he is footballingly dumb or he is sentimentally remembering the fortnight back in September when Lacazette saved Arteta's job for him.
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Grant



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He’s keeping the seat warm for Patrick
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Wile E. Coyote


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Well I didn't see the game, presumably Laca has nothing invested in a top 4 finish as he is out of contract and won't be at "the Gunners" next season so his main priority, given that he is 30, is going to be getting 50K plus a week at Lyon, which he won't if he gets injured playing for Arsenal now. I can't see why Arteta expects him to risk a 50/50 challenge. Puzzling.
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Mick Harper
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He’s keeping the seat warm for Patrick

If you recall, I criticised their selection of Patrick on the same grounds as Arteta i.e. it is foolish appointing a manager to a top club who does not have a track record of successful management at a lower club. On the other hand Viera did at least have some management record albeit not a great one (cf Solksjaer) and Palace are not so big they can't take a chance. But please note: it is too early to decide whether he is a successful Palace manager since he is still tweaking Hodgson's Palace, albeit successfully.

Well I didn't see the game, presumably Laca has nothing invested in a top 4 finish as he is out of contract and won't be at "the Gunners" next season so his main priority, given that he is 30, is going to be getting 50K plus a week at Lyon, which he won't if he gets injured playing for Arsenal now. I can't see why Arteta expects him to risk a 50/50 challenge. Puzzling.

No, ironic. It was the fact that Lacazette was prepared to 'put himself about' back in September that turned round his and Arteta's fortunes in September. But, yes, puzzling because he isn't even going through the motions now.

It is galling that Spurs seem to have revived just in time to take our fourth place. But I do not entirely believe in them either. Chelsea continue to tantalise. They are not boring like Man City but nor are they relentless like Man City. Only Liverpool currently seem to be able to do both. Man Utd continue down their manager-induced slide. All the others are obeying the Premiership's law of gravity and ending up where they deserve to end up. (Except maybe Man Utd.)
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Wile E. Coyote


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Is it just me that thinks Gary Neville would be an excellent Labour MP?

Used to losing but with impressive cv for winning, talks the language of hard physical work, can foul when needed, highly partisan. Already used to being hated. Has tried to make things better for homeless. Experienced TV performer. Blunt to the point. He hasn't been to Oxford and has experience outside the westminster bubble.

Labour could do a lot worse, in fact they normally do.
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Mick Harper
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He'll have to lose that accent of his. Too proletarian by half. Also he's male. Not ideal.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Manchester United are totally slaughtered by their former players for not reaching 80 points a year. Two thirds of the Premiership are delighted to reach 40 with a few games to go.

The time has come to let the big clubs go, it is really two separate fighting divisions like Heavyweight and Middle, with everyone pretending it's a fair fight.

It's time to accept it for what it is. At the top should be a World League with no financial fair play rules, no rules on who owns the clubs, no taxes, no health and safety rules. Just let it rip, Bit like free ports but with, err, football teams.

We could then have a properly regulated British Premier League, with finacial fair play that works, rules to include minimun numbers of British players, and so on.

The key will be to not let the World Series teams have any links with the lower divisions, no loan arrangements of players, none of this feeder club nonsense.
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Mick Harper
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We could then have a properly regulated British Premier League

and one nobody would want to watch.
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Wile E. Coyote


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I reckon that you would get similar or higher numbers than for the Championship.
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Mick Harper
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Yes, that would be my judgement also.
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Mick Harper
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Manchester United are totally slaughtered by their former players for not reaching 80 points a year. Two thirds of the Premiership are delighted to reach 40 with a few games to go.

They do things differently in America. They too have big market and small market teams, with consequent elevated and diselevated expectations of success. They compensate for this in three ways

1. Spending caps. It does not eliminate the gap but it does a lot more than UEFA Fairplay rules to level things out.
2. Unsuccessful teams get the top draft picks from college sport. N/A in Europe where we use colleges for purposes other than training marching boy bands and teaching girls to maintain rictus grins for several hours while whirling batons.
3. Unsuccessful teams get an easier schedule the following season. N/A in all-play-all European leagues. Though we do have promotion and relegation (in football, only sporadically in other pro sports),

They have succeeded triumphantly in providing constant competition, different winners all the time, while still maintaining Big City Beasts and Small Town Hicks. In fact the hickiest of them all, the Green Bay Packers, have probably been the most successful of all NFL teams. They're the New York Yankees of the gridiron.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Yes and it's more interesting because any team can win (slight exageration, Jets have no hope). We will base our new British League on this. That is a prime reason for doing this, and why I believe spectators will want to watch. The point is surely that the big clubs in the Premiership and Europe will never allow this, so we have to let them go, let them do what they want, their fans, owners, teams, managers etc just want bigger stadiums, want better players, want more merchandise sold, more football against bigger teams, bigger squads, they really want to invest in growth. It's a totally unsustainable model for most football teams but it is great for the big clubs because you have countries and mega wealthy oligarchs who are prepared to buy up these clubs, and let's be honest, the fans like it, they only complain about the owners ("human rights abuses," "only in it for the money") when their team isn't getting into Europe.

Wiley just wants to recognise where this is heading, let the big teams go, and try and save the rest.
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Mick Harper
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We will base our new British League on this. That is a prime reason for doing this, and why I believe spectators will want to watch.

Nobody watches Burnley vs Southampton. I though we'd agreed you'd get strictly Championship-sized audiences for that.

Yes and it's more interesting, because any team can win,

Nobody's interested in 'any team can win'. What they're interested in is their team winning. I don't want to watch Arsenal getting thraped by Chelsea but I understand it has to happen for wider reasons. I wanna watch Arsenal thraping Brighton and I'm prepared to pay my Sky shilling to keep Brighton in the same league to bring this about on a bi-annual basis. On an après-Arteta basis.

PS And less of your 'British'. No Scotsman would be prepared to watch their teams being thraped all the time by English teams. Or are you going to revive the Isthmian League to cater for Rangers and Celtic?
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Wile E. Coyote


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The Manchester United situation is arguably cyclical. A manager comes in at a time of crisis (60-70 points), the following year everyone accepts that a top 4 place would be acceptable. The manager gets this (70 + points) and even better the following season, improves again (about 80), at that point everybody starts dreaming of winning the Premiership. After some bad early results in the next year, the manager, team and all the ex player pundits suddenly realise that winning the premiership is not going to happen, and the form crashes. The manager gets sacked. Mourhino and Solskjaer were actually pretty close, to success, up to second place season before crashing.

Conclusion: if Manchester United had not set everything on winning, but aimed for top 4, and backed their fine young players by continually trying to improve, they might have got there.
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