Makis

Hell! I wrote more on the previous message but that quote-thingy fucked up the message and ate the rest.

Eh, what?? Yes, first I talked about Koeman. Then I asked what Walsh does (message #1975 if you don't believe me). Very specifically and there's no way to misread it like you seem to have done (how do you read "So what does Walsh do then?" in any other way than what I intended?). Your answer, in message #1979 reads:

You conveniently forgot the context. I asked what Walsh does and you said he scouts. The whole context was about transfers so you have a very weird way of communicating if, while talking about how transfers work, you jump to scouting completely bypassing what he does in the transfer front unless you mean he's not involved in that. Here's the conversation so far: Me: Walsh deals with the transfers. You: No. Me: So what does he do? You: He scouts. Me: Really? Do you really think he only scouts? You: Where did I say that? Me: In this message: xxx You: Did I really need to spend an hour writing down everything he does? But I give up, you are wrong, boohoo. Clap - fking - clap.

How about this message? http://www.toffeetalk.com/index.php?/topic/27919-ronald-koeman-and-build-up/?p=549800 "Er, he scouts..."

Wow, you are a manager? Premier League level? You're not Howe by any chance? I suggest you read up what Sporting Directors / Directors of Football / whateveryoucallthem do in the continent, as well as what the ones already in the Premier League do. Of course it would be silly to sign players without manager's input, but unless DoF plans the long-term plans how the squad is developed he's as much as useless. The whole idea behind having a DoF is that managers tend to only last two, three seasons at the most. The traditional British model where the manager also does the job of the DoF means there's a huge rebuilding job every time a manager leaves. So what ever faults Koeman has, Napoli increasing Koulibaly's price to ridiculous is not one of his. Incidentally, a very similar system is in place in major US sports as well. DoFs are just called General Managers (at least in the NHL). The British model manager is called a head coach because his job is to work on tactics and such. GMs tend to outlast several head coaches so they oversee the long-term team building. In the US the British model would be impossible because of the draft system.

You seriously should check what a director of football does. It's a bit more than scouting. And you have definitely played too many computer games if you think managing a team is just signing players. In case you didn't know, in many countries such as Germany managers do not sign players. That's true to many PL teams as well. Koeman didn't sign players at Soton either. Guardiola doesn't. Ranieri didn't. Managers of Barca and RM don't. And so on. Yet they are called managers, not the dudes who do the signings.

So what does Walsh do then? If you read various interviews he finds the players and offers them to Koeman. Koeman doesn't find or sign them so blaming him because Koulibaly wasn't signed is ridiculous.

It seems some people can't understand that players age. Baines and Jagielka were very good PL players when Martinez took over. Now especially Jags is a liability. Also McCarthy was great first season but shite for two.

Yes, I know what Koeman said in an interview. He basically said that when people start talking transfers he leaves the room. Or words to that effect. Of course he must have a final say on transfers but how exactly can someone blame Koeman for club's failure of signing Koulibaly for instance? Or Gabbiadini for that matter? In both cases their clubs refused to sell so what exactly did Koeman do wrong there? As far as Chelsea go they have a much better squad and they spend 110 million in the summer. Our net spend was, again, fuck all.

Unsworth as manager at this point is a top candidate for worst suggestion of the season.

Koeman doesn't buy players, he's said it many times. So blaming him on transfers is... I don't know, stupid? And double so when you think *why* we didn't sign those players. Would you have been happy to pay 60 million for Koulibaly? van Dijk, was he even available? And Kone in the end decided not to move. How do you force him, hold a gun to his head? Draxler is a pipe-dream, Brahimi and Gabbiadini haven't been pulling trees. And those are forwards, Bolassie is a winger.

CSKA just lost their star midfielder Roman Eremenko for two years (possibly ending his career) for cocaine use so I would be a bit surpised if they sold another midfielder.

I actually drive a red car because I'm not stuck at being 15.

Last season we lost 3-0 at Sunderland. This season we won 3-0. Go figure. Comparing single results is silly. People saying defence is no better should check the facts, tho. Even including the Chelsea drubbing we have conceded 15 goals in 13 games. This would result in about 44 goals over the season. Last season we conceded 55 in 38.

More like to Mars.

Will the stadium be called Snickers Stadium?

Especially as looking at a few vids he didn't remind me of Zlatan one bit.

Short memory?

That assist was absolutely fantastic. Had one of the fancier players done it you'd never hear the end of it.

I prefer that other one, Grosso.

Bielsa is trouble everywhere he goes. He doesn't stick around long. And let's not forget Pochettino has had time to mould Spurs.

Agent of Alfredo Morales told in a newspaper article that Everton is one of the clubs interested in his client. Morales is a 20-year old Colombian striker on loan from Independient Medellin playing in the Finnish Elite League for HJK and has scored 15 goals in 28 matches so far.

Our forwards really don't do a good job at pressing. Didn't see the game on Saturday but for instance Boro did a much better job at it. They even got a good chance when Barry was dispossed near the penalty area. Our players react too slowly and give too much space to defenders for a truly effective press. If the defender has time to receive the ball and look up and still has time to pass the ball he has too much time.

Roma's stadium looks good, but Miller would stylistically suit the docks. LA stadium isn't half bad either.

So comments like "I'm sure you'll pick up eventually it's based on statistics and sabremetrics. " is not being an ass?