Wee man for West Ham?
Mon Sep 08 09:04AM
We may not see a week as downright barmy as the last one for a long time, but there is still plenty of scope for fun to be had. The simple equation of international week + two managerial vacancies = plenty of speculation and conjecture to get stuck into.
It might not quite be a power-crazed oil magnate bursting onto the scene and throwing his money around like Michael Jackson's shopping trip with Martin Bashir, but the prospect of Gianfranco Zola becoming the next West Ham manager is still guaranteed to rock the house.
The loveable horseface has emerged as the top candidate on the Hammers' shortlist, which also includes fellow Italian Roberto Donadoni and former Getafe boss Michael Laudrup.
Croatia boss Slaven Bilic has ruled himself out of the running, declaring himself too busy planning Wednesday's 2-1 defeat of England to go for an interview.
The tingle of excitement ED gets every time it imagines Zola returning to these shores is, however, tempered with trepidation. The pocket magician would be merely the latest in a long line of ex-players putting their god-like status in jeopardy by moving into management.
As much as the current Italy Under-21 boss was dazzling on the pitch, can he instil the discipline needed to manage a group of filthy-rich young players? Being on the end of a Zola rollocking would probably be more hand-dryer than hairdryer.
Or, much like Glenn Hoddle, the wee Sardinian would become frustrated all too easily with his players because he would still be more talented than most of them. Unless he has a penchant for faith healers or criticising the disabled, however, that's where the similarity ends.
The same could be said for Laudrup, a player so good he won La Liga with both Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Dane should consult his brother, Brian, before moving to London, as his brother had a less than successful spell in the capital with Chelsea.
As for the other man in the frame, having already managed another team that have won the World Cup but is now over-reliant on a top goalkeeper and a big striker, Roberto Donadoni could fit right in at Upton Park.
Meanwhile, the Newcastle hierarchy are unlikely to see the same glut of candidates ready to take up the St James' hot seat, with even former owner Freddie Shepherd highlighting the ridiculous pressure heaped on every Magpies boss. He should know, he's canned a few in his time.
Toon executive director Dennis "Cutty" Wise isn't really the sort of guy many top class coaches want to work under, especially following the news that, when Kevin Keegan asked him "Who or what is a Xisco?", Wise told him to go look up his new signing on Youtube to get better acquainted with him.
Wise has proven his ability to cast a long shadow for such a short man. Toon owner Mike Ashley should just dispense with the executive director role - pioneered in this country by the likes of Ron Atkinson - and give Wisey the job. After things didn't work out with the Messiah, they may as well try the anti-Christ.
- - -
The Premier League may have been turned on it's head over the past seven days, but little has changed on the England side of things, as Our Boys laboured to a 2-0 win over Andorra, Fabio Capello's first competitive match in charge.
To be fair, even the best teams would find it hard to break through 11 men behind the ball from the word go, had the knives already been Capello a la McClaren then that match could well have been the last straw.
As there were no highlights shown anywhere, we'll have to pool our collective memories of the match at the Olympic Stadium from the one look we had at it. Ed remembers (in no particular order):
* John Terry's foul throw (a great achievement, seeing as nobody ever seems to be called up for in the professional game, no matter how bad it is)
* Andorra defender Lima's ball-juggling and clearance from his own corner flag when being pressured by Theo Walcott, which instantly became the greatest moment in Andorran football history
* The crowd chanting "We hate S*****a" before the first boos began to ring out around the half-hour mark
And, er, that's it.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND - "I can tell Mr Capello, he can try coaching Andorra and I will try coaching England - and I am sure that we will beat Andorra by more than 2-0!" - Andorra boss David Rodrigo still manages to bullishly goad England despite their defeat in Barcelona.
TALKING POINT - ED's suspicions that asking people to donate money to charity for their comments being published has led directly to a drop in comment quality is summed up well by samuelbanks: "ED this idea of paying money to charity to have their comments read out is all well and good but spare a thought for the peole who are penniless and work in tescos. how about you also mention a comment from one other non charitable soul. Otherwise people are going to put even less effort into their contibutions to the posts." Come on guys, you can all do better.
Today - What did you make of the home nation's results at the weekend? And, with directors of football, over-controlling boards and crazy Arabs on spending sprees, is the role of the humble manager becoming redundant?
COMING UP - The Three Lions juggernaut rolled out of Andorra at roughly the same time as the riders of the Vuelta a Espana. Follow the riders on Stage Nine today from 11:30 BST here.
And, believe it or not, but Andy Murray is in the US Open final. He's already beaten the best player in the world, now can he beat the best of all time to claim his first Grand Slam? Find out here tonight from 22:00 BST.
Hi kantong, the silly t*ats are impersonating me. ED has let itself down as usual. I had to laugh when they said 'come on guys you can all do better'. I thought to myself, well if my comment was that bad then why the @#$% did you bother mentioning it.
Stayed up to watch the Murray match last night Sam. Glad the crumpy Scot is through. Federer will beat him though.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 01:41PMsidatmo: enjoy yourself then - I guess you must be a really popular guy ;)
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 01:41PMmcsweeney - we weren't that bad, away fixture, 3 points, confidence booster. We need to get Stephen Ireland to play again and we are missing another centre half!
From kevin1985kane on Mon Sep 08 01:44PMso whats the buzz as your on 24/7
From sidatmo on Mon Sep 08 01:45PMKANTONG HOW @#$% UR IRISH TODAY??? HATE TO BRAEK THE NEWS BUT WE R S**T 2 GIRL!
From mcsweeneystephen on Mon Sep 08 01:45PMHey Sam, sorry was having me lunch! He's called Tobias as I didn;t like referring to him as he or it so started calling him Tobias and then it grew on me! He's wiley, got out the tiniest little hole and I reckon he was trying to get into my little girl's tank for some inter-species erotica!
From claire881 on Mon Sep 08 01:46PMkevin: yeah im keen to see what the team looks like - i do wonder if Rafa aint holding off till the last minute to either bring back Steevy G or Nando - cause there is still some slight hope ;) who knows - could be a bit of tactic going on there too
TORRES AND GERRARD INJURY UPDATE
Paul Eaton 04 September 2008
Rafael Benitez today confirmed both Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard are back in light training at Melwood.
With both players facing a race against time to be fit for next weekend's Premier League clash with Manchester United, the manager has revealed they are each "ten to twelve days" away from a return to competitive action.Torres is battling to overcome a hamstring tear sustained against Aston Villa at the weekend while Gerrard is recovering from a minor groin operation.
"Both players are now back jogging and will be out for ten to twelve days," said Benitez.
"Gerrard might be back before Torres but you never know."
------------From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 01:46PMThey got beat 2-1 Kevin. No your right, they were pretty @#$%. Although they did have much of the posession. They got beat by iceland at the start of the last qualifying campaign an look what happened-they didn't qualify, yes i know but they nearly did. Republic are a better side, i'll give you that but the gulf isn't as wide as it used to be.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 01:49PMWE WERE POOR KEV, TRAPP HAS LEFT MORE QUESTIONS UNANSWERED CONCERNING HIS TEAM SELECTION AND SUBS? ANDY REID WUDA BEEN A BIG DIFF! ND UR RIGHT WE DO NEED STEVO BACK, BUT WILL HE EVER FIT IN ASWELL AS HE DID BEFORE THE DEATH OF HIS 4TH GRANDMOTHER????HAHAHA
From mcsweeneystephen on Mon Sep 08 01:49PMSam - Gerrard ruled himself out this morning though!
From kevin1985kane on Mon Sep 08 01:52PMHAHAHAHA comment of the day
interspecies erotica
love it Claire - you crack me upmcsweeney: I do believe you may have mistaken me for a POM? Im actually Australian - no one can be worse than us ;)
samuel: just like me on friday - i actually didnt want to be mentioned, I was paying up on my end of the bargain - if they mentioned Claire, said I would send 10£ to charity - but they got it all mixed up and posted some comment on cheese and wine - I'm guessing its a lame attempt at irony ;)
as for the imposters - consider it flattery, as they obviously find you more interesting than what they have to say themselves ;)From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 01:53PMNow who was that @#$% that impersonated me, was it you nikyates, shut your face.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 01:53PMi must have missed that one kev - but i never rule anyone out for the big man united games until the day of the game - there is always a lot of pre-match hype and I rather wait and see ;)
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 01:54PMI go on a reptile forum and there is a guy on it who's wife apparently thinks he is gay because he likes 30 Seconds to Mars
oh that makes me chuckle, to be honest I think I would be worried if my bf liked gash music like that too!From claire881 on Mon Sep 08 01:56PMTobias ain't too bad a name - i used to know a guy called Tobias, he was german and he sold Amsterdam brand beers... not that that is in any way relevant to the snake
guess its a bit like not ever being able to name your child after the bully at school - cause whenever you think of the name it reminds you of them - (for me it was Andrew) Tobias is ok though;)
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 01:58PMBUT Y BE IRISH FOR THE DAY??? WERE NOT THE GREATEST! YOU SHOULD TRY BEING ANDORRAN FOR THE DAY! NOW THEY ARE A GREAT SIDE!HAHAHAHA
From mcsweeneystephen on Mon Sep 08 02:00PMI think even i would start asking questions about my sexuality if my music taste was that bad....
I have a friend who likes Justin Timberlake, she was trying to convince me at lunch today that he is "hot".
I think I need to be more discerning when I choose my friends...
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:00PMI dont think Andorrans have leprechauns, pots of gold, four leaf clovers - and most of all the luck o' the Irish
but hey - when I feel like having a "duty free tax day" - consider me Andorran ;)
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:06PMKantong
I don't mind if they mention something that was fuuny and related to football. But when is something you have just scribbled down off the top of your head it pisses me off. Especially if its riddled with spelling mistakes. I am rapidly losing respect for those 3 muppets.i knew nikyates would pick up on our little conversation last night. You almost feel sorry for that kid. I liked that quote from claire aswell, 'interspecies erotica'. Sounds like something nikyates would wa*k to.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 02:06PMby the way mcsweeny - would you mind not shouting? ;) I have a slight headache
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:07PMSam: I got bullied by a guy called William, would never call my kid that anyway! Also don't like the name Nathan cos it minds me of this guy at high school who was totally stinking and used to blow his nose on his sleeve!!!
From claire881 on Mon Sep 08 02:08PMsamuel: yeah they do that when they want to be ironic samuel ;) but im suprised to hear you had respect for the muppets in the first place - one read of the pro-Manc drivel was enough for me to understand that every word should be taken with a ROCK of salt ;)
yeah I feel sorry for nickyates too - who cares if they pick up on our conversations? ;)
its kind of ridiculous innit... laughing because two people are talking nicely to each other. They really must have not much to do - that is about as exciting as their life is - making fun of "other peoples" conversations
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:10PMAndorra are the equivalent of a side from the Blue Sq Premier (The conference). Thats how much of a disgrace the England result was. Really a side like England should be scoring 8 or 9 against Andorra. Now, im no expert but i would say England are @#$%. Tell me if im wrong-are Andorra better than a non league side. Maybe they're not even as good as that.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 02:11PMewwwwwwwwww we all had one of those guys at school!!
we had one who used to @#$% his pants in the sand pit
the sand pit was a no go zone....
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:12PMClaire there is nathan wrong with the name Nathan. But if someone called Nathan bullied you then he has nathan to be proud about.
From samuelbanks on Mon Sep 08 02:15PMThere was a boy at Primary School who blew his nose on the curtains and my teacher went to pull them because we were gonna watch a video or summit and she grabbed the part with his snot on it!!!
From claire881 on Mon Sep 08 02:18PMoooooh gross Claire! would have been too funny
you know what we used to do? We used to "chew up" paper until it was really squishy, then use straws to "shoot it" at the roof when the teacher had their back to us writing on the blackboard ... we had a nice little "pile" growing on the roof, until one day the teacher was doing the name call and the whole "pile" (half squishy, half dried) fell right on her head
I think I nearly peed my pants laughing that day no joke
samuel: **groan*** that was terribly good ;) terrible... but good
From kantong_wokster on Mon Sep 08 02:22PMSam: That kind of thing just makes me sick, I have an aversion to bodily fluids etc!
From claire881 on Mon Sep 08 02:31PM@#$% boy imposter sucks as much as the real thing!
From jude_surf on Mon Sep 08 02:33PMRoma sucks!
From jude_surf on Mon Sep 08 02:39PM
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