Rafa Benitez being linked with the PSG job this morning
Is there a vacancy there or is that part of the speculation?
Serse Cosmi is back in the game with Lecce.
Their current manager Antony Kombouare is under pressure and is expected to get the boot in the coming days, with Rafa being lined up to take over. Although last time I checked they were doing alright and close to the top of the league
The new owners have high expectations after large outlays in the summer.
Pastore
Gameiro
Menez
Matudi
They cost around €70m
saw some article during the week along the lines that steve bruce never moved with the times. his tactics were primitive and there was no strategy behind his signings was the jist of it. Bit strange why they have turned to former Northern Ireland international Martin O’Neill OBE to replace him then.
obviously the way MON left Villa will always leave a sour taste in the mouth of Villa supporters, so my comments are biased to a certain extent. He will improve things at Sunderland. The side will be organised, hard to beat and he will make a team out of them. Motivating average players is what he is good at and each player will in no doubt what is expected of him. Set pieces are his strength both defensive and attacking. Seb Larsson will be a very valuable FPL player for the second half of the season I reckon.
But unless he has learned from his mistakes at Villa he wont be taking them to any remarkable finishes. His scatter gun approach to transfers is the last things Sunderland need after 2 chequebook managers and reports that Walford and Robertson are to join him at Sunderland indicate that he is paranoid as ever of losing control and primitive football will be the order of the day. While he does have many fine attributes as a manager, his limitations will hold him and Sunderland back. If Ellis Short’s pockets are deep enough then I cant see any reason why he wont take them to 8th or 9th.
I genuinely am astonished as to the awe he is held by Glasgow Celtic followers. His record was nothing special at Parkhead.
That’s a cracking post. The bar has now been set at 8th or 9th for Sunderland apparently. Do you not think that Sunderland would be delighted with that and part of the reason they may have appointed O’Neill would be because they’d love that type of league position?
O’Neill really cramped Villa’s style. They were brilliant before him and are playing some breathtaking stuff now.
To finish 8th or that at the moment in the EPL is nothing spectacular. Villa finished there last season and were on the verge of relegation for months. Just think MON will perpetuate the cycle of Bruce and Keane spending way over the odds for British based players and get them nowhere higher than that.
The legacy of MON at Villa is a financial mess. Lerner bankrolled him without a seconds thought. For every Young and Milner there were
Guzan,
Beye, Davies, Cuellar, Warnock
Maloney, Sidwell, Reo Coker, Shorey
Harewood Heskey
I appreciate every manager makes mistakes but Villa badly suffered from not having a Levy like figure to tame in his excesses in the market.
So Sunderland should have hired a manager who will guarantee them a Champions League spot instead?
They need a top 7 manager
They say the gulf between 8th and 7th is the hardest one to bridge.
Did Sunderland not finish in the top half last season?
Calling Bruce a chequebook manager? I think he spent £66,000,000 and recouped € 82,000,000.
Steve Staunton said on Football Focus that Bruce had stabilised the club financially.
This time last year he had a strike force of Bent, Gyan, Welbeck and Campbell.
I’d say Darren Bent is delighted he moved to play as a lone striker in a woefully ineffective team.
The inability to find a decent replacement for Bent, Gyan and Welbeck has ultimately cost Bruce his job.
Carlo Ancellotti looks set to become the new Paris Saint German manager. Looks as though they are also signing David Beckham while both Kaka and Pato are being linked with them now as well
PSG confirm Ancelotti’s presence
Wednesday, 28 December 2011 19:19
Paris Saint-Germain have confirmed that Carlo Ancelotti was at Parc des Princes today, amid reports the 52-year-old Italian is poised to replace Antoine Kombouare as coach of the ambitious French club.
Pierre Octave Arrighi, head of operations at PSG, confirmed Ancelotti’s presence after a day of fervent speculation in the French media, but said no announcements would be made today.
Arrighi would not tell reporters outside the stadium why the former Chelsea and AC Milan coach was there, but Ancelotti’s installation as first-team coach now appears to be only a matter of time.
French dailies L’Equipe and Le Parisien had reported earlier on Wednesday that Ancelotti was due to be appointed as the new coach of the Ligue 1 leaders.
Ancelotti spent eight years in charge of AC Milan from 2001, twice delivering the Champions League, but has been out of the game since Chelsea sacked him at the end of last season after two years at the Stamford Bridge helm.
He is understood to have agreed a two-and-a-half-year contract with PSG and if reports of a salary of up to €7million a season are even close to reality, he would become the best-paid coach ever to work in France.
Ancelotti’s imminent arrival has also sparked speculation linking PSG with players to have played under the Italian in the past, including Chelsea’s French winger Florent Malouda and Milan’s Brazilian forward Alexandre Pato.
Is Becks retired from England or will he be hoping to go to Euro2012?
Thats seriously after shutting the child up. Brilliant.
Michael O’Neill has been appointed manager of The Occupied Six. Orange cunt.
:lol: :lol: :lol: 
:lol: :lol: :lol:
Dipso cunt.
I’m delighted with the appointment though
Fair play to him. The stint at Shamrock Rovers
has obviously benefitted his CV hugely. I wouldn’t be a fan of Northern Ireland or much to do with it generally but Michael O’Neill seems an alright sort. The likes of Davis and Lafferty are decent sorts too.
What is the view of the nordies here - Larry et al of their national side generally? With the GFA etc I appreciate if players and or supporters wish
to follow the republic. But Norn Iron was good enough for the likes of O’Neill OBE, Lennon, McCourt and probably a load more so called ‘castle catholics’. Minds seem to be changing in
Norn Iron from the green side of the state towards embracing being Northern Irish. McIllroy is an obvious example, the Clarke footballers too but even when I watched McGuinness a few
times during the presendential debate he was well and truly beating the drum for the six county statelet.
Is this behaviour more common north of the border now? Maybe with Michael O’Neill on board more of those lads with a green hue will stay with Norn Iron rather than defecting. I suspect that is part of the reason he has got the gig anyway.
I’d prefer at this stage to have one international side but with power hungry cunts like Delaney involved it is a long way off. The behaviour of the supporters imitating the morons in Glasgow would also be a concern.
Think hes aiming to captain the British (english) side at the Olympics.