Frederick
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Posts posted by Frederick
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Live long enough and apparently you'll see everything including John flippin' Terry faithfully, creditably serve as an assistant to Dean Smith as Aston Villa pull of a improbable late season play-off steamroll with our recently 73rd choice keeper Jed Steer serving as a pivotal figure. I can't say I understand much of what's happened but I know I like it.
Big love to @Michael* - gift wrapped an absurd goal and then you get thunder gazumped in such a manner. Must be sick to the teeth of Wembley, not to mention Charlton at Wembley.
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Commiserations on the Checkatrade Trophy, Michael. Not the one we all dream of winning as kids (4th place, isn't it?) but a trophy is a trophy. Been to a group game in said competition where the atmosphere was sub-anaemic, so credit to all involved for getting 85,000 there. Didn't need to guess who missed the crucial penalty, bless 'im.
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1 hour ago, Michael* said:
One has to wonder now how much the World Cup would need to be expanded to allow Scotland a chance to qualify.
As for McLeish, he's useless of course but his record in club management was appalling for years, resulting in a situation where he couldn't get a sniff of a job anywhere until the SFA came calling. Fear not though Scottish fans, David Moyes comes highly recommended. By David Moyes.
I like that McLeish wears glasses now, he looks less like the thoughtful modern coach he wants to be and more like the frontman of a Devo cover band. I assume Fergie's office still issues a stock reference for the endless brigade of managerial mediocrities he gazumped for decades so hopefully he'll continue having misadventures for many years to come.
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On 3/11/2019 at 1:10 AM, Michael* said:
Poetic justice of course for the lad Grealish to bag the winning goal, and to be able to shrug off something like that, well he's a better man than I. Gardner can expect to receive a kicking for missing those two gilt-edged chances. Not a literal kicking though, Birmingham fans.
Seriously though, this kind of thing is next level, it's obviously not on and can't be explained away as tribalism.
Them begging us to allow them to play Gary Gardner against us should have been sufficient "and that's why they're Birmingham City" for a season but c'est la vie.
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4 hours ago, Michael* said:
It would have been interesting to hear O'Shea's thoughts, although for all the stick he took from the fans, he was always seemingly committed to not rocking the boat, in public at least. I must admit that I breathed what was an almighty sigh of relief when he left for Reading, there was a certain type of negativity attached to us for far too long, and the old guard of O'Shea, Larsson, Jones and Cattermole all played parts in it to varying degrees.
A minor quibble in the grand scheme of things of course, but there were moments where the editing seemed a touch skew-whiff too, like the squad board with the names of Ejaria (it had genuinely slipped my mind that the 'English Pogba' was here until the news broke of his loan at Rangers being terminated) and Fletcher on it, then showing the signings of both much later, or the a shot of the team boarding a plane, so you think they're away to Plymouth or somewhere. Nope, away to Carlisle.
Mostly though, I found myself wanting a bit more of the team talks, tactical organisation and scout preparation before the matches, to get a better sense of how Grayson, Stockdale and Coleman might have differed in their methods of setting up the team and their communication with the players, I imagine it would have been a fairly significant culture shock each time.
I agree, for all the considerable time we get with Grayson and Coleman, we rarely get any hint of the man or the plan (except that fascinating post-season chat with CC and his wife. I believe psychiatrists will be studying that footage for a long time). The total absence of the dressing room is completely inexplicable, for goodness sake, Peter Reid wrote his own legend the day he let the cameras in! If Amazon can get Pep gnashing his teeth during a 10-0 win, then who knows what jewels we were deprived of here. In general, I found the games were (as is the modern way) overly artfully shot and the incessant slow-mo of rage spewing fans veered into fetish porn at times.
I never thought I'd say this but I was hungry for more Lee Cattermole. He's a terrible player and probably best typifies the malaise and stench at the core of a declining club, but I still think he 'gets it' enough that he could, intentionally or otherwise, have revealed some key truths. It is amazing how every semi-articulate player they seemed to have eyed as some kind of anchor either goes berserk (Gibson) or is just too rubbish to keep pursuing (Jason Steele). Except the good natured, guppy fingered Dutch keeper, of course. Obviously the Lewis Grabban stuff is very interesting and the tantalising three seconds we see of Jack Rodwell after that meeting had me seething with rage. The whole thing is essential viewing and must be archived by the BFI.
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On 12/30/2018 at 6:38 PM, Michael* said:
What was your take, Fred? Did you see things differently watching as a non-Sunderland fan?
I ended up bounding through the whole thing in next to no time. Probably a nightmare to cobble into episodic form, to be fair, but you can feel the editor's hand at unwelcome moments, pulling you back to something that's been hammered home pretty well already, while leaving juicy tidbits underdeveloped. Some of the fan stuff became pretty redundant (quite liked the cabbie, though) and really, how much time did we need to spend with the reserve goalie who mangled his finger? There was a bit, for instance, when Aiden McGeady was having a wee moan about Chris Coleman after the initial euphoria at his arrival had been stubbed out. Wanted a bit more of that. Also, where was John O'Shea? All we see him do is hug the tea lady after relegation, I find it hard to believe he wouldn't have been interviewed at some time during the making.
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On 5/19/2016 at 11:32 PM, Frederick said:
Pearson is clearly potty and I'd legitimately forgotten 'RDM' existed but when you've been humiliated, disgraced, debauched and THEN managed by Eric Black, your standards loosen up a bit. Not enough for Steve Bruce, in this lifetime or the next, mind.
Call me Will Young because this post is Evergreen.
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18 hours ago, Michael* said:
Of the many managers we've had, Di Canio's analysis of the problem was perhaps closest to being the correct one, and he seemed to zero in on Cattermole as one of the worst culprits. Looking back, I suppose you'd have to say Paolo had the right idea about a lot of things, it's just that you'd have to be a decent manager and be of sound mind to pull off what he was trying to do.
PdC could never be anything other than a short, beautiful and utterly mad fling for anyone but considering Sunderland have had their universe scorched, mauled and cannoned to Uranus anyway, you have to wonder what he might have cooked up with a tad more time.
The Cattermole case has shades of our Gabby. Houllier dared to tell him to stop hitting the weights and get back into being a speed demon which actually caused a minor cufuffle back in the day but he was bang on the money. All the enabler managers who peddled soft lies to him subsequently never got us anywhere and of course now he's the size of a beached whale and let me tell ya, it ain't the weights bulking him up these days.
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12 hours ago, Michael* said:
To that end, I've been surprised that Lee Cattermole hasn't come in for more criticism. He was captain for relegations from the Premier League and the Championship, and throughout the "wrong'uns in the dressing room" period, which went on for so long that even the Secret Footballer wrote about it. Honestly, he'd be the first player that I'd like to see the back of, probably even more so than Rodwell.
I'll wager successive managers have looked at Cattermole as a rough diamond who, theoretically, embodies worthy virtues such as liking a tackle and being local. "The fans at least know this one's a trier, now I'll be the one to turn him into something really worth a damn" they all say, clutching their straws and handing out a new contract, ignoring all empirical evidence, all while the player stacks up a decade of tidy salary as Rome burns.
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On 4/20/2018 at 1:42 PM, Michael* said:
Surely now though, the stage is set for Sam Allardyce to at last manage a big club. Hopefully he can attract some good players to help Arsenal compete. Youri, Ivan, Jay Jay, we're getting the band back together!
Kevin Nolan would've been a fun addition to Arsenal back in the day in a Thomas Graveson to Real Madrid kind of way. Inherently wrong but might just work except it can't possibly. And yet...of course not (but let's do it anyway).
On 4/22/2018 at 9:33 AM, Michael* said:I'd been prepared for this day for quite a while, so much so that by the time it eventually got around to becoming a reality, it was fairly painless. Ineptitude and an absence of fighting spirit is a deadly combination.
Commiserations, Michael. Hard to offer any nuggets of solace but if there's a way to keep Honeyman and Gooch then that would be a start. I suggest every Premier League owner with a team 7th or below study this catastrophe long and hard. It shouldn't happen to anyone and it shouldn't happen again but I strongly suspect it will.
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Sincere congratulations to former Aston Villa player/manager/coach/Bruce Springsteen aficionado John Gregory for winning his first Indian Super League. Arguably his finest achievement since his stirring appearance as himself in Sky's action packed football soap Dream Team (we nearly signed Scott Lucas!)
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Congratulations to vibrant young go getter Marky "the Sparky" Hughes for b(l)agging the Southampton job. May he continue his longstanding assault on insomnia before being replaced by Big Sam/Pulis/Pardew/Marco Silva/Roy/Moyes/Lambert/McLeish/Tim/Gary Megson/Claus Lundekvam/Paul Jewell/Felix Magath/the cameraman-father of the child Jamie Carragher spat on...Tony Adams.
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On 12/03/2018 at 4:21 PM, Frederick said:
All aboarrrrrd the promotion train...IF Cardiff and Fulham stop being as good as us, that is. Whooping Wolves was incredibly satisfying and a genuine mark of progress, they've humiliated us thrice in the past year but we wore them out in the second half, by the end it was getting a bit silly. I begrudge Bruce too much of the credit because we're a pretty expensive outfit that staggered for far too long but get us to the holy land of 17th in the Premier League in August and we'll all be dancing a merry jig in his honour...for about a minute.
Funny how a six hour round trip to watch us get mauled by a team generally regarded as hopeless quickly beats the audacity of hope out of you!
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On 3/7/2018 at 12:34 AM, Michael* said:
Mathematically impossible to reach the play-offs now. Oh bother!
Sorry about pinching Grabban, me old son. Coleman better go into the attic and find that voodoo doll that toppled Belgium a few summers ago because he's looking a hubristic goon for knowingly throwing himself into this inferno.
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All aboarrrrrd the promotion train...IF Cardiff and Fulham stop being as good as us, that is. Whooping Wolves was incredibly satisfying and a genuine mark of progress, they've humiliated us thrice in the past year but we wore them out in the second half, by the end it was getting a bit silly. I begrudge Bruce too much of the credit because we're a pretty expensive outfit that staggered for far too long but get us to the holy land of 17th in the Premier League in August and we'll all be dancing a merry jig in his honour...for about a minute.
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The goals are finally coming for Scotty Hogan and I'm delighted. He's looked hapless at times, unlucky at others but he's stuck at it and the fans have stayed with him, long may it continue. The Championship has a tendency to suddenly pull the rug from under you but there's no doubt the response after Brentford has been strong (minus the FA Cup debacle).
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10 hours ago, Michael* said:
I didn't see a result like that coming if I'm honest, but we bounced back well from Boxing Day's rancid showing. Here’s hoping for a happier new year on the football front.
Seems like Coleman's change of shape has controlled the tide, for the most part. One wonders if he feels he can truly rely on McGeady in such a system every game given his rather fragmented wizardry but he's a cut above when he wants to be.
We were particularly diabolical at Brentford so the idea of showing up the maestro Pulis on his Boro debut seemed unfathomable. That it was a Snodgrass header that got the job done only makes it more barmy. Of course Bruce had to come out afterwards and have a tantrum.
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Tuned into the Europa League final for approximately ten minutes before I decided listening to Robbie Savage shouting in an otherwise morgue like atmosphere was probably not the best way of retaining one's sanity.