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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Leicester 0 Liverpool 1
The bloke on the telly announced that the Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, would be the first Dutch manager to win the Premier title. The camera then panned onto Dutch manager, Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose Leicester have just been relegated. On the other hand Ruud won the title as a player, Slot not.
| So who would you rather be? |
Tricky one, that.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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An Exercise in Transfigurative Geometry
1. Chelsea have a free kick, on the left, just outside the box.
2. Fulham put up a two-man wall.
3. Chelsea forward strikes free kick towards goal.
4. It ends up in the midriff of the Fulham goalie standing unmoved in the centre of the goal.
It would seem therefore that the Chelsea man could have reached any part of the goal. So what was the purpose of the wall? It was not entirely irrelevant, it must have obscured the goalie's view to some extent. I shall have to ask the lads to help me stage some reconstructions at one of this week's training sessions to shed more light.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Chelsea are an infuriating side, lashings of talent in all areas (especially on the bench and out on loan) but always scratching about for wins because of a lack of goals. Despite having lashings of talented strikers. They lack, it would seem, a Martin Odegaard. And sold us Havertz.
It may therefore be time to dust off my old plan to merge Chelsea FC with Arsenal, the new club to be known as Arsenal FC.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Match of the Day's weird statistic has now been running for several seasons. I accept they won't ever explain what it actually means (Wiley did once, I seem to remember, though I don't remember what he said) but at least MotD have had ample time to work out how closely 'expected' has come to 'actual'.
Since they haven't said, AE predicts 'not very'.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Man Utd 0 Wolves 1
Who knew: (a) Glazer/Ineos United would saddle themselves with a new manager and a new striker who look and act as if they're on their first school trip abroad and (b) you can buy old gold turbans?
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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I rather like putting up Medium stories on the AEL for various reasons so I thought I'd extend the habit. There is a problem about topicality though so see if this one survives the test of time. (You can object on other grounds too if you think you're hard enough.)
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Football: you are the judge February 3, 2024
Rex vs Bellingham ex parte Greenwood
Our future captain, prime minister and (some say) prince-regent, Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, may have it all taken away. After some rough exchanges with Mason Greenwood, late of Manchester United and the Manchester crown court but now plying his trade with Getafe in La Liga, Jude said something disobliging to Mason.
Nothing racist, the usual bone of contention (they are both black(ish)
According to a legion of lipreaders it was either ‘Rapist’ in which case our man might as well take out Spanish citizenship right now, or it was ‘Rubbish’ in which case, ‘Arise, Duke of Bellingham, in the county of Catford.’
I have canvassed young people widely and been assured that nobody of that approximate age group has ever said ‘Rubbish’ to someone who has just dumped them on their backs. Nor have they ever said ‘Rapist’.
Except in the unlikely event that their assailant is only on the pitch because they got off a charge of attempted rape by… um… er… well, between him, her and the bedpost, it’s no business of ours, or Mr Bellingham’s.
This one may have to go all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the county of Switzerland.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Tottingham Forest
Further to the Wiley shooting stats
1. A Forest forward shoots from the central edge of the area with a perfect curl into the far corner. The goalie sees it all the way and pushes it round the post without trouble. Confirms 1 in 33.
2. The consequent corner ends up duplicating the scenario, forward with ball central edge of the area, but this time the ball cannons around a crowded area and into the net. Does this count towards the previous 1 in 33?
Further to my not standing on the shoulder advice
1. Ball lofted forward into the Tottenham area
2. The mighty Woods gets beyond his marker and nods it into the net
3. Woods offside by the width of his upper arm.
But since he was three yards beyond his marker when the ball arrived, by virtue of him looking and moving forward, he should not have been 'on the shoulder' but a yard behind and finishing up two yards beyond his marker. Nods it in just the same, but onside.
Further to advice to self
I haven't given the score because I don't know it. Sky repeats everything a dozen times except the half-hour Monday Night highlights so if the programmes are running late, as they often do, you've only recorded the first half if you're a complete drip and have omitted to record the following programme as a matter of routine.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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The New World Order (London Division)
Arsenal
Chelsea
(colossi)
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Fulham
Brentford
(there or thereabouts)
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Tottenham
West Ham
(relegated except for the promoted three)
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Where's the sense in that? That's life in the Big City, Esther. We don't need a reason, we just are.
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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Man United decided to appoint Reubin Amorin. Fair enough. Ten Hag had been given a decent time at the helm, and there was no real evidence that as a club they were going forward consistently and getting into position to challenge for the premiership. It was more a slow decline that has been going on for a long while at Man United. Still there was also very little to show that Ten Hag had lost the dressing room, other than one particularly sulky member of the squad.
Amorin said fine, that he would take the job at the end of this season giving him the summer break and transfer period to start buiding. Fair enough.
Man United insist that Amorin arrives straight away.
Reubin starts straight away, there was no bounce as the dressing room was not lost, just more of the the slow continual decline, that had been happening under Ten Hag.
Its now going to be twice as difficult for Amorin, to rebuild over the summer, as the players have lost under him this season.
This isnt Reubins fault. Its a case of Man united dont want to steadily build sucess, they want to buy sucess, now..
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Man United decided to appoint Reubin Amorin. Fair enough. |
I agree. It's always a punt but he was the next new young thing off the Euro-qualified assembly line. More sensible, for instance, than Arsenal appointing the totally unproven Arteta. That was a punt on a punt.
| Ten Hag had been given a decent time at the helm, and there was no real evidence that as a club they were going forward consistently and getting into position to challenge for the premiership. |
Maybe a tad too long but fair enough all things considered.
| It was more a slow decline that has been going on for a long while at Man United. |
I disagree. It's the manager's job to halt it.
| Amorin said fine, that he would take the job at the end of this season giving him the summer break and transfer period to start buiding. Fair enough. |
Fair enough.
| Man United insist that Amorin arrives straight away. Reubin starts straight away |
You can see why if it was a deal-breaker but I don't think it was and he should have stuck to his guns. An ominous sign that he lacked that je ne sais quoi essential at the Euro-Big Club level.
| Its now going to be twice as difficult for Amorin, to rebuild over the summer, as the players have lost under him this season. This isnt Reubins fault. |
It is Reubin's fault.
| Its a case of Man united dont want to steadily build sucess, they want to buy sucess, now.. |
It's a perfectly viable strategy if you've got the right manager (and, yes, I suppose the right rest-of-house).
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Wile E. Coyote
In: Arizona
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It's a perfectly viable strategy if you've got the right manager (and, yes, I suppose the right rest-of-house). |
I have recently deveoped a cunning plan and formed a group MMUGA (Make Man United Great Again).
1. We are the biggest club in the world
2. The premiership has been stolen from us.
3. I dont know who negotiated these transfer deals, but we have been robbed. These other teams need to pay us back now.
4. We need to forget about winning away fixtures, and concentrate on just winning big at home.
5. All away fans should be stopped from entering Old Trafford. If they do they should be deported to their club of origin.
6. All supporters should wear Wiley customised MMUGA caps, which retail at a very reasonable £19.99.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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You'll be the biggest club in Manchester!
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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| Guardian headline wrote: | | Aston Villa have all the tools to establish themselves among the elite |
I get a daily mail from the Guardian and yesterday's was going over the top for Birmingham Royale, the only side for whom, apparently, the season can't end soon enough. What they mean is Villa are having a decent run at the moment. Coupla months ago it was 'Emery out! Emery out!' But the Guardian are talking long term so I shall too
| Villa lost £85.9m ($114m) in the last financial year, the biggest deficit of any English club, taking losses over the past three years to £206m, well beyond the £105m threshold for SPR compliance. There are, though, £90m of acceptable deductions, and a tweak to their accounting period probably brings them just inside the limits. Same article in the Guardian |
In the long term the chickens will be coming home to roost because of front end loading. That's my prognostication. Thank God I don't have to come up with new football ideas every day.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Man City 2 Villa 1
| Mick, Guardian wrote: | | [Villa are] the only side for whom, apparently, the season can't end soon enough. |
I think theirs probably ended here. With most of the country rooting for a draw, Pep stole it at the death and started most un-Pep-like cartwheels on the touchline while Unai was a picture of ashen-faced head buried in hands.
Whither both men? Guardiola has surely shot his bolt with City--and perhaps for anyone. I'm betting on Emory getting the Real gig.
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Mick Harper
Site Admin
In: London
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Talking of doomed managers, will Reubin Amorin go? United are ultra-sensitive to the charge of undue chopping'n'changing so maybe one side of the pantomime horse running Old Trafford will insist he gets a fair whack of the stick i.e. a whole summer transfer window and twelve games in the autumn.
This would be his of right if only he would learn that body language, facial expression and a snarly voice is half the job at this level. You've got teams of minions to do all the other stuff.
Obviously, and as usual, this would be the worst of all possible worlds for United.
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