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January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby Daz » Jan 15, '17, 11:05 am

There's no explanation for Norwich. We were top of the league in October, now we're not even likely for a playoff place.

The club is just toxic at the minute. Ultimately, I think the blame has to be put on the board. They failed to make funds available to properly strengthen the squad in consecutive transfer windows, and this is going back to when Hughton was in charge. We've got one good centre back and one striker who can score goals ... then there's Bassong, Martin and Cameron fucking Jerome. It led to McNally walking out, and now because he's not been able to equip himself with the right tools, Alex Neil is on his last legs as manager, and the fans have completely turned on him.

Also there's been a run of bad luck and poor decision making on the pitch. It's a shambles all around.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Jan 21, '17, 3:34 pm

Ross McCormack is fat as fuck and has been missing training. He phoned in earlier this week and said he wouldn't be able to make it as his gate was stuck, and he couldn't climb over a wall which was 4"6 inches high.

Steve Bruce, not taking any shit, drove to his house, climbed the wall and knocked on his door.

What a man.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Jan 22, '17, 6:55 am

Some bloke on MOTD2 Extra just said he can imagine Sean Dyche replacing Wenger at the end of his tenure.

Can you imagine the absolute scenes if this happened. The meltdown of Arsenal fans would be glorious.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby Viazon » Jan 22, '17, 10:10 am

Being an Arsenal fan is going to give me a heart attack one day.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby AkydefGoldberg » Jan 22, '17, 11:17 am

PorkChop wrote:Some bloke on MOTD2 Extra just said he can imagine Sean Dyche replacing Wenger at the end of his tenure.

Can you imagine the absolute scenes if this happened. The meltdown of Arsenal fans would be glorious.


And after that hard effort in climbing the wall, he proceeded to treat himself to a kebab judging by a picture on Twitter! (OK, not after it but great picture nevertheless)

Dyche at Arsenal? Yes, please! He'll sign Joey Barton and play "4-4-fucking-2"!
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby SlightlyJames » Jan 27, '17, 1:28 pm

A lot of the Rangers support have gone sour on Mark Warburton as the club have struggled to be as competitive as perhaps some thought in the top flight this season. Personally I don't think we could have expected to be in much of a better position than the one we're in now, and we seem to be in a strong position to secure second place which, if we're honest, was always the goal, and if we can hold on to that I'll be happy. That aside, there are definitely valid concerns to be had about the team.

When MW come in last season, he made it very clear that the team was going to play in a 4-3-3, focus on controlling the football and play with a very attack minded approach. It's been apparent from the beginning that the team he's put together is not particularly well equipped to deal with counter attacks and our back line has never felt particularly secure, so our only real defence lies in controlling as much of the possession as possible.

Last season, this approach got the job done. The thing that allowed this system to succeed was the fact that the Rangers squad was generally better conditioned than those of the typical second tier club and by the end of games the opposition would be tired and start to make mistakes. Moving into the current campaign there's been an overall improvement in the quality of opposition and as you would expect, teams are far more difficult to break down.

Since returning to the top flight, Rangers have continued to enjoy the lion's share of possession in most games, but goals have been a very hard thing to find. Game after game this team dominate the play but struggle to make good on any chances that fall before them. Only once since October has the team won a game by more than a single goal. Clearly the team is lacking in the final third, and along with consistent defensive hiccups this has made it very hard to take home 3 points.

When I look, then, at the manager's activity in the January transfer market, I struggle to understand where he's coming from. The most apparent needs of the team as I see it are an out and out striker and a defensive rock, if you were going to pursue any mid-season additions to bolster the squad my expectation would be players in one of those areas. Instead, MW has made loan moves for Emerson Hyndman of Bournemouth and Jon Toral of Arsenal, both of whom play in attacking roles in central midfield.

Now I don't have any reason to doubt the quality of these lads, they've barely had a chance to pull the shirt on and I'd like to believe they'll do well for us, but this team is in need of permanent reinforcement, not temporary patchwork in the form of short term loan deals. When asked questions regarding this the manager has claimed that he has spent this transfer window building for the future, despite the fact he hasn't made a single permanent addition to the team.

I don't think that Mark Warburton is a bad manager. I'm very grateful for the work he's done for the club already, we were in a very bad place after the tenure of Ally McCoist and the failure to secure promotion from the Championship at first asking. I appreciate the fact that he's shown genuine interest in improving the Scottish game as a whole and believe him when he says he wants to be here for the long haul.

On the other hand, I'll admit to being frustrated with aspects of his managerial approach. He shows very little interest in exploring new tactical setups for the team, I think at one point he's said that "Plan B is to do Plan A better". He has a tendency to chalk any and all setbacks up to "not getting our rewards" which to me feels very dismissive of what appear to be real shortcomings in the squad. His transfer activity this season has been questionable and I feel that his over reliance on the loan market is doing little to improve the squad in the long term.

This wound up being way longer than I thought it was going to be, it was originally just a setup for pointing out how silly that "prepare for the future with loan signings" comment was, but I suppose I've been feeling somewhat conflicted about the current state of Rangers and it helped to be able to talk about it a bit. :lol
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby Daz » Jan 31, '17, 12:52 pm

Its almost like Villa didn't learn their lesson from the summer transfer window. Just stock piling players for fun it seems.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Jan 31, '17, 2:21 pm

Daz wrote:Its almost like Villa didn't learn their lesson from the summer transfer window. Just stock piling players for fun it seems.

I've seen things like this mentioned, but it's not really accurate. The squad was still incredibly thin after the summer transfer window and reinforcements were still needed - especially in midfield. The Ashley Westwood and Gary Gardner combination is amongst the worst midfields in the division.

All people talk about was how much money was spent in the summer and how many players were brought in, but nobody ever mentions the amount of players who left. If they weren't replaced with half decent players, we'd probably have been relegated again this season.

Steve Bruce has made some pretty shrewd signings this window. For the price of Gestede (6 million) we've managed to get Hourihane and Lansbury. That's fantastic business.

We're still 1-0 down to Brentford at the moment though, so nothing has changed.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Jan 31, '17, 5:24 pm

Hahaha kill me
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Feb 03, '17, 1:09 pm

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Steve Bruce in a kebab shop, wearing his Villa training gear :lol

When he got the job he was the healthiest he'd looked in years. Three months down the Villa and he's pictured in a local kebab shop, in Villa trackies and all. What a legend.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby AkydefGoldberg » Feb 04, '17, 11:26 am

^Haha, saw that when it came out, marginally better than the Big Sam 'chippy' picture because it the former actually happened..

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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby SlightlyJames » Feb 10, '17, 5:03 pm

Been a confusing couple of hours. Seemingly out of the blue Rangers released a statement saying they've accepted the resignation of Mark Warburton, Davie Weir and Frank McParland. That was a bit of a shock to begin with. but then the BBC contacted Warburton for comment and he claims that he's got no idea what they're on about and that he's not resigned.

From what I've been reading the prevailing belief right now is that the three of them were expecting to take over at Notts Forest and asked to be released from their contracts earlier in the week. Then Forest had a change of heart and although the deal fell through, the Club is holding to their resignation.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Feb 10, '17, 5:16 pm

SlightlyJames wrote:Been a confusing couple of hours. Seemingly out of the blue Rangers released a statement saying they've accepted the resignation of Mark Warburton, Davie Weir and Frank McParland. That was a bit of a shock to begin with. but then the BBC contacted Warburton for comment and he claims that he's got no idea what they're on about and that he's not resigned.

From what I've been reading the prevailing belief right now is that the three of them were expecting to take over at Notts Forest and asked to be released from their contracts earlier in the week. Then Forest had a change of heart and although the deal fell through, the Club is holding to their resignation.

Oooh shit. What a mess. It'll be interesting to set how it all unfolds.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Feb 11, '17, 11:02 am

Another loss for Villa. It sounds crazy, but Steve Bruce could be getting a P45 at the end of the season if things don't change.

I'd want Bruce to stay, but there's no excusing some of these performances.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby AkydefGoldberg » Feb 11, '17, 12:47 pm

SlightlyJames wrote:Been a confusing couple of hours. Seemingly out of the blue Rangers released a statement saying they've accepted the resignation of Mark Warburton, Davie Weir and Frank McParland. That was a bit of a shock to begin with. but then the BBC contacted Warburton for comment and he claims that he's got no idea what they're on about and that he's not resigned.

From what I've been reading the prevailing belief right now is that the three of them were expecting to take over at Notts Forest and asked to be released from their contracts earlier in the week. Then Forest had a change of heart and although the deal fell through, the Club is holding to their resignation.


Or it could be a forced resignation if the people involved aren't aware that they've resigned!

I doubt it's to do with Forest though - their takeover with the Americans collapsed due to issues with the club's owner Fawaz al-Hasawi and it doesn't seem like it will be resurrected sadly (which is a shame as that club needs new people in charge as it's teetering to the edge atm).

They're in third place back in the top flight so IDK whether the owners feel they should be doing better/Warburton wants to return to the Championship but there doesn't seem to be much harmony at the club in order to really drive a successful, consistent push to start to challenge Celtic's hegemony.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby Daz » Feb 11, '17, 12:51 pm

Some absolute belters at Carrow Road today.
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Re: January '17 Football Thread: 'Scorpion Kick' Edition

Postby PorkChop » Feb 11, '17, 1:16 pm

Daz wrote:Some absolute belters at Carrow Road today.

What's it like to support a club who can win games of football?
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