The English Premier League 2016/17™

You are though.

Your xenophobia has you mired in contradictions.

True…but lets not get bogged down either.

Another abject performance by Everton today, losing to relegation-threatened Swansea.

Professional pride at Goodison has collapsed over the last four years, and it can be pinpointed to the departure of David Moyes and the appointment of Roberto Martinez, followed by Ronald Koeman.

Contrast Everton’s performance today to that of Moyes-managed Sunderland, who, despite being already relegated, showed tremendous professional pride to beat Hull 2-0 away from home, with stand out performances from the consummate pro’s pros, John O’Shea and Jermain Defoe.

There really is a lot to be said for good, old fashioned British virtues of honesty and taking pride in one’s work, as I’m sure @GeoffreyBoycott would agree.

If Sean Dyche doesn’t get manager of the year the whole thing is a joke.

2 Likes

He’s worked miracles at Burnley.

1 Like

Story of the year by a distance … almost up there with Leicester winning the league last year.

1 Like

McLean was involved in everything for WBA…

How Arter didn’t see red is laughable - could have snapped wee Joe’s leg in two.

Boycott never addressed his contradictions here.

Vol James was exceptionally good yesterday.

there’s no love lost between the two Irishmen

I clamped you on this a few weeks ago. Do I really have to clamp you again? Have a bit of dignity.

Here’s what Burnley chairman, Mike Garlick had to say at the start of the season. Survival was the only goal identified or spoken about. Sean Dyche has now secured Burnely’s top flight survival for the first time since 1974/75 and has delivered on what he was asked to do at the start of the season and indeed was on target to achieve all through the season.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11708/10530652/burnley-hoping-to-make-three-or-four-new-signings-says-chairman-mike-garlick

Burnley hope to make a minimum of “three or four” new signings before the summer transfer window closes, according to club chairman Mike Garlick.

The Clarets have signed just two senior players since gaining promotion back to the Premier League - Charlton duo Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Nick Pope, while Jon Flanagan has arrived at Turf Moor on a season-long loan from Liverpool.

Sean Dyche is keen to secure a new midfielder before the season starts, following the departure of Joey Barton to Rangers earlier this summer, and Garlick expects the club to sign a number of targets before deadline day on August 31.

Burnley hope to make a minimum of “three or four” new signings before the summer transfer window closes, according to club chairman Mike Garlick.

The Clarets have signed just two senior players since gaining promotion back to the Premier League - Charlton duo Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Nick Pope, while Jon Flanagan has arrived at Turf Moor on a season-long loan from Liverpool.

Sean Dyche is keen to secure a new midfielder before the season starts, following the departure of Joey Barton to Rangers earlier this summer, and Garlick expects the club to sign a number of targets before deadline day on August 31.

Some Clarets supporters have voiced their frustrations at the lack of new arrivals at Turf Moor this summer.

And, although Garlick admits the transfer window has so far proved to be frustrating, he attributes the delay in signings to Euro 2016, rather than a lack of impetus at the Lancashire club.

“July 1st, any manager, any chairman would like their team in place then they can work with them over the summer and develop their squad into the shape they want,” he added.

“The Euros slowed that up but it’s like that most years in reality. We just have to get on with it, we get out of bed every day, get on the phone, try and do things and if it doesn’t happen that day we try and do it the day after.”

Burnley manager Sean Dyche is aiming to build a squad capable of surviving relegation from English football’s top flight for the third time of asking.

And Garlick is confident the Clarets can avoid the drop, despite their relative lack of spending this summer.

"I’ve been with the club 10 years as a director, co-chairman and now chairman and I think we’ve got to make it third time lucky, we’ve got to aim to stay there this time," he said.


Meanwhile over at Swansea (where they finished 12th in 2015/16, 8th in 2014/15, 12th in 2013/14, 9th in 2012/13 and 11th in 2011/12 and won the League Cup in 2013) new owners more coy about the targets for the season but no talk of just dodging relegation and surviving but rather of driving the club on. Mired in relegation just seven games into the season after a run of 1 point from 6 games, the Swansea owners clearly didn’t have the faith in Guidolin that the Burnley owners did in Dyche and fired him. That’s football and that’s the owners prerogative.

Speaking for the first time about his consortium’s takeover of Swansea City, Jason Levien gave a telling answer when he was asked about the Americans’ investment plans.

Midway through a polished, assured address to the media, Levien gestured towards Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins and said: “The biggest signing we’ve made so far is making sure the guy to my right [stays].”

Swansea are embarking on a new era after a group of American investors, led by Levien and his business partner Steve Kaplan, bought a controlling stake of 68% in the club.

Although this is a step into the unknown for the Swans, they will at least have the familiar guiding force of Jenkins, who will remain in the role of chairman he has held since 2002.

This is also uncharted territory for the Americans. While Levien, managing general partner of Major League Soccer side DC United, and Kaplan, vice-chairman of NBA franchise Memphis Grizzlies, are experienced in American sport, this is their first foray into British football.

Levien first visited Swansea in September 2015 and, since news of his consortium’s takeover emerged in April, the nature of the investment has been the subject of much scrutiny.

Swansea’s fans and Supporters Trust wanted to know how - and, crucially, how much - the Americans would spend, many wondered why they wanted to invest, while others asked how they could bring more success to the Liberty Stadium. This was Levien’s first step towards answering all those questions.

The Trust issued a statement after Levien’s briefing indicating they are expecting fresh talks with the investors this week.

Writing an open letter to fans to announce the completion of their takeover, Levien and Kaplan stressed that their priority would be Swansea’s performances on the pitch.

To replicate or improve on last season’s 12th-place finish in the Premier League, the Swans will need to invest in their squad.

While strikers Alberto Paloschi and Eder have left - and a third, Bafetimbi Gomis, seems set to follow them through the door - the only signings so far have been midfielder Leroy Fer, defender Mike van der Hoorn and goalkeeper Mark Birighitti, none of whom are expected to be first-team fixtures.

Swansea are weighing up a move for their former midfielder Joe Allen as well as a couple of forwards, and Jenkins has said the American investment will accelerate the club’s transfer activity.

Levien and Kaplan are understood to be eager to expand Swansea’s scouting network, though they will leave player recruitment as the domain of the experienced Jenkins.

And when he was asked just how much head coach Francesco Guidolin will have to spend, Levien was sensibly coy.

“I think it would be a mistake to put a specific number on that because part of our competitiveness is not alerting our competitors and other folks in the industry about what exactly our plans are,” he said.

“We’re going to be careful about that but we certainly want to make strategic investments in the club and see how it grows from that.”

Having seen mixed results under American ownership for the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United and Aston Villa, it was perhaps understandable there was a degree of scepticism from Swansea’s fans about their new investors.

The vast majority will reserve judgement, though there has been an undercurrent of discontent with the Supporters’ Trust expressing its “disappointment” about an alleged lack of communication from the Americans during negotiations.

Levien responded to those claims by emphasising the Trust’s “huge” importance and how impressed he had been during “more than half a dozen,” meetings with its members.

Swansea are the only Premier League club with a fans’ representative on the board, and the Americans recognise how significant that unique quality is to the club’s soul and its standing in the local community.

Levien recalled his first visit to Swansea last year: "Huw picked me up from the train station and we went to the training ground, he gave me a tour of the Liberty, which I think is an impressive stadium.

"When he dropped me off at the station, I walked the city, walked to the university and towards the Gower. I just thought it was a special place.

“The last 15 years, what this club has accomplished, and the passion this community has for its football club - there’s a lot of passion all around the UK for their football clubs but I think Swansea is top of that list.”

Measuring success for Swansea can be a tricky task. Jenkins often mentions how staying in the Premier League is the initial aim at the start of any season and, for a club of the Swans’ stature in a division so wealthy and competitive, it is a sensible approach.

However, as Swansea prepare for a sixth successive campaign in the top flight, dare they dream of more?

After all, they won the League Cup in 2013 and impressed in the Europa League the following season, while Leicester’s remarkable title win last term confounded all expectations and shattered long-held perceptions of the Premier League’s upper echelons as an impenetrably exclusive members’ club.

With Leicester’s unlikely triumph - and how it may irrevocably alter how other Premier League clubs quantify success - in mind, Levien was perhaps wise not to set a target for Swansea.

"On the pitch, we’d like to see the club continue to flourish and challenge every season for success. How we measure that success, we’re going to figure out over time," he said.

"I think we want to take a measured and thoughtful approach, and think about sustainability and competitiveness. I think the club has done that over the last decade with great success.

"We’re looking to add value but we’re not looking for a massive change in what they’ve done. In fact, we’ve really bought into their philosophy and Huw’s vision for the club.

“We’d like to see the club in a better place in five years in terms of improving things on the commercial side, where we think we can add some value.”

It was another subject which Levien dealt with in accomplished fashion, answering articulately and thoroughly but without revealing sensitive detail.

Yet this elegant veneer should not disguise Levien’s fierce, clear-eyed determination - and his ambition for Swansea.

“We’re in it to win and we certainly hate to lose,” he added.

“But we want to be careful to let strategy and mindfulness trump our emotion in making decisions.”

1 Like

Dyche has to… has to… win manager of the year.

1 Like

No you didn’t you were looking for Guidolin to be sacked after taking 1 point from six games, in a run which had 3 teams from the top 6.

You were not looking for Clement to be sacked after taking 1 point from 6 games which 2 of those sides in the relegation places and 5 of the teams in the bottom half of the table.

This is an issue you have refused to address.

Here is Ranieri stating survival was their main aim for 2016/17,

You are a hypocrite and the whole forum can see it.

A lovely gesture from Swansea, and especially club captain and former UK Home Secretary and European Commissioner Leon Britton.

You really feel that Paul Clement has instilled a very British sense of old-style class solidarity and wartime spirit among his players down at the Vetch Field.

1 Like

On what basis?

They laboured to survival after breaking their transfer record three times this season.

Maybe the owners of Leicester City who spent in excess of £80 million on new players at the start of the season after winning the title last season had loftier ambitions than that of Ranieri’s in dropping 16 places from 1 to 17.

Bizarre that you were saying only a few months ago that Ranieri should still have continued tenure if Leicester were relegated.

Yesterday after Craig Shakespeare secured survival with a haul of 22 points in the 10 games since his appointment, you didn’t offer as much as a word of praise to the remarkable turnaround Craig Shakespeare inspired, but claimed that Leicester would still have remained up under Ranieri after a poor run of from (stretching to 25 games) notwithstanding the fact that Leicester picked up 1 point less 21 on Ranieri’s watch in those 25 games. And you have the cheek to call me xenophobic and racist when you continue belittle the achievements of English managers like Sean Dyche, Paul Clement and Craig Shakespeare.

Why are you changing your narrative now?

First it was about results, then it was about board expectations, now it’s about spending. If it’s about spending then Burnley have a higher net spend this campaign than 3 of the top 4. They have broke their transfer record 3 times this campaign. They went on a similar disastrous run of form to Leicester where they picked up only 13 points from 15 games, they got knocked out of the cup by a non league side, they were teetering over the relegation places but you didn’t think he should have been sacked.

Nice of you to ignore my clamping of you on Paul Clement btw. You justified Guidolin’s sacking on a bad run of results, Clement went on a worse run of results but you didn’t want him sacked.

The elephant in the room here is your xenophobia.

Why do you continue to lie and misrepresent facts? I was never looking for Guidolin to be sacked. The first comment I made about Guidolin was on 17 December some 10 weeks after he was already sacked. Why would I be looking for him to be sacked from Swansea on 17 December when he had already been sacked on 3 October?

You justified his sacking but defended Clement from the same treatment.

You are a xenophobic hypocrite, now that I’ve rebutted all your flimsy excuses on Dyche’s part you have nothing to say on him as well.

It was strange to read some relevant and reasonable discussion on this thread which bizarrely was driven by @carryharry :clap: before the class clown took it back down a notch again.

1 Like