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Post 17 Jun 2011, 1:12 am

I think Newcastle needed the Carroll money. They sacked a decent manager (Hughton) who got them up and gave them a reasonable start to the season, and now have hired Pardew (ugh). A total lack of ambition.

The club who really are confusing me are Villa. Houllier had to step down after his heart problems flared up. So, they need a new manager. Hughes resigns from Fulham the next day, but apparently Randy Lerner doesn't want him (any more?) after the way he did it. They go for Martin Jol, but he takes the Fulham job because they were after him a year ago and it was only Ajax who put the blocks on him. They snub McClaren, who ends up at Forest. They approach Martinez, who likes Wigan and has a good Chairman. They approach Moyes, who isn't going to leave Everton for Villa until Hell becomes a skating rink.

And then McLeish dumps Brum City in an outrageous manner, and Villa have taken him on. The fans are livid (even if he wasn't coming from their city rivals, he's just led a club to relegation and his teams play some of the least attractive football they can).

I think that the owners of Newcastle and Villa have signalled their lack of ambition over the summer. Clearly they don't want European football in 12-13. I'm not sure they even want to guarantee Premiership status. Lucky for them that there are a lot of worse teams around. Maybe.

I think the Premiership will be between Utd and Chelsea again. City will be there or thereabouts, but I don't see a settled side yet. Arsenal will flatter to deceive as usual. Liverpool will start brightly and fall away. Spurs look like a decent bet, to be honest.

That should be the top 6, but I think Everton and Bolton have the capacity to bustle in there. Sunderland, Fulham, Stoke, West Brom and Villa will straddle the middle. Newcastle, Wigan and Blackburn should be above the relegation spots, but at least one of them will be in trouble come April. Wolves I think are toast. Of the new boys, Norwich may just stay up, while QPR have the money so just need to keep it together. Swansea I can't see making it.
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Post 17 Jun 2011, 1:27 pm

They approach Martinez, who likes Wigan and has a good Chairman

And hooray for that!!! If Martinez can hang on to most of the players, and it appears he will, I look forward to a comfortable mid table finish!!! Isn't it refreshing to see loyalty rewarded with loyalty? and a commitment to seeing out a project? Maritrinez said give me three years and he's had a year and a half.

Villa deserve what they are getiing. now they'll lose and play boring soccer besides...
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Post 20 Jun 2011, 10:23 am

I have a lot of time for Martinez. I remember when he was playing for Wigan in the mid-late 90s. They had him, and we had Robbie Herrera, and in that glorious season of 1996-7 Fulham and Wigan were battling it out to get promotion from the fourth tier of English football. We both made it, and I was at both games (1-1 draws). Martinez was a damn good player for that level - shown by the fact he stayed with Wigan as they moved up towards the Premiership.

He's done well with Wigan so far, although they came close to the drop this year after they failed to keep pace with West Brom and Villa who rescued themselves. This will probably be the season that is his greatest test so far as manager.

A lot of the people I work with a Coventry fans. It's an understatement to say that they are amused at Villa's predicament.

The Europa League and Champions League qualifier draw took place today. We got a Faroese team in the first round (not that far away, but there aren't many flights out there really) and Crusaders from Belfast in the second.

The other thing I'm looking forward to is my home town team, Crawley Town, facing their first season in the League proper. Nice to see AFC Wimbledon come up alongside them, too - a team founded by fans after the original Wimbledon was 'franchised' away to Milton Keynes.
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Post 22 Jun 2011, 10:39 am

I think Pardew has done a decent job at Newcastle. He steered the club to a comfortable mid table finish despite all the confident predictions that he'd be a disaster and also despite the handicap of having to go half a season with Leon Best and Peter Lovenkrands as the main strike partnership. The Nolan situation is an interesting one but I suspect it's mostly down to the business model Ashley is trying to work with. It's common knowledge that he wants to keep the wage bill under control and Nolan was signed back when Newcastle were paying silly money to all and sundry, so we was probably on a hefty contract. Ashley likely didn't want to offer a new contract to a man in his 30s who was on so much money, which seems perfectly reasonable to me. I don't know a lot about these French guys who have been signed, but Cabaye was a regular starter for the French champions last season and Marveaux was also heavily linked with Liverpool, so it's not like they're complete nobodies. Demba Ba looks like a shrewd signing, he's big, quick and powerful and he scored 7 goals in 13 games for West Ham last season, so he's likely to be a good addition. I read today that Newcastle have been linked with a move for Daniel Sturridge as well, which would also be an excellent bit of business for them if true.

Bit too early to write off McLeish as well I'd suggest. It's easy to look at the two relegations he had with Brum, but he also steered them to their first trophy in I don't know how long (in fact it may be their first ever major trophy) and he had a very good record both in and with Scotland. His Birmingham teams played fairly dour football but his Rangers teams were much more attack-minded (and not just against the likes of Motherwell) and when he managed the national team he steered them to 7 wins in 10 matches, inluding victory against the French.
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Post 22 Jun 2011, 11:54 am

I know several Villa fans and they're all solidly behind Lerner right now, even if they're a bit depressed about the current situation. He pumped a lot of money into the club but ultimately he can't afford to keep on throwing his cash into the black hole when there's no guarantee it'll produce a return, and I think Villa fans realise that. It would take a catastrophic season for them to turn against him.

Ashley is a more interesting case. Certainly he made a lot of mistakes in his first few years and he become a laughing stock as a result, but actually I think he may be improving. Since they got relegated he's obviously taken the decision that from now on he's going to try and move away from the completely unsustainable financial model that most PL clubs run on. Obviously I don't have access to the books so I can't speak with authority, but I understand that the current business model for Newcastle is that they try to structure contracts for staff so they they have a much lower basic salary with significant win bonuses to reward performance. This is certainly the way that Pardew's contract is structured. He was given 5 years but his basic is way lower than the likes of Allardyce were on and he has to actually produce the goods in order to get the rewards. This strikes me as the sort of blindingly obvious good idea that all clubs should have had a long time ago. Newcastle also seem now to be focussing on younger players who will command lower wages and have some kind of resale value, which again seems to make sense. It's not the way to go out and win the title, but it is a way to try and rein in costs effectively and stay afloat, which is in itself quite an achievement in the current insane business climate of English football. My Dad, who's a cynical old bugger without too many good words for anybody but who does know his onions where football is concerned, has a lot of time for Mike Ashley. He's not a Newcastle fan of course, but he's rarely wrong about these things.
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Post 22 Jun 2011, 6:53 pm

He asked for three years Ricky’s mentions, but I think for a club like this to climb out of the relegation crew though it’s going to take a good run of 4-5 years of clawing their way through survival in the Premier League. That’s a realistic goal, and I hope that he gets it, and succeeds, although not at the expense of Newcastle of course.


Wigan is going into year 6 in the premiere. Martinez has brought along a lot of young talent and if he can hang onto al habsi in goal, the young talent having played through this year together should be okay. Have to probably sell Nzogbia which will fund the purchase of Al Habsi and 1 or 2 others.... But the core is there. He'll also get an up and coming talented loan player from Man U because of their closeness to Man and because he plays the kind of football Ferguson likes. (Cleverly last year).

Westham is obviously counting on the parachute money to fund a bounce back. A middling premiere league striker, Nolan dominates in the championship. Ba, by the way I've seen play and he's very impressive.