The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

comment by heisenberg... (U4832)
posted 2 minutes ago
We're a good bunch of down-to-earth realists.

If you want a proper 'bite' then you need to get back on the Spurs board. Most of them seem to chomp at anything.
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I don't want to argue with you or anyone else on your board! I haven't even risen to Baggiemans efforts to start something, I just ignored him!

As for down to earth, without wanting to start an argument, I'd say that's not exactly true for those who told me I couldn't discuss football until Leicester had been in the PL for five consecutive seasons 😉

Arro,

I think you are insulting people's intelligence if you try and deny the real purpose of this article.

But hey, your articles get exponentially more comments than anybody else's on here - so if it's attention you want then you're doing a great job!

As for my run in wirh Spurs, I'll tell you how that started.

I suggested Leicester would be challenging for the same positions this season and boooom it all kicked off! They didn't see how the mighty Spurs, with all their quality, could possibly be challenging with us for Europe.

I also said I think West Ham have a better side and I fancy them to finish above them and now they have Payet fit again, it's looking good again.

Me suggesting we'd be challenging them didn't warrant them getting their knickers in a twist and starting a JA606 war but that is the reality. They wrote our team off and I said I didn't rate them that highly and I was justified 😊

comment by Jobyfox (U4183)
posted 1 minute ago
Arro,

I think you are insulting people's intelligence if you try and deny the real purpose of this article.

But hey, your articles get exponentially more comments than anybody else's on here - so if it's attention you want then you're doing a great job!
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Mate maybe this is the old "boy cried wolf" kind of scenario then because maybe in the past it would have been a wind up but not now! My contribution to this thread hasn't been of one looking to argue with or wind anyone up!

I haven't responded to Baggiemans efforts to start an argument, ive ignored it! Actions speak louder than words my friend 😉

I also know they dislike Berahino as much as I do now so no this definitely wasnt intended to wind anyone up!

comment by LeicesterCity1884 (U20833)
Similar to Harry Redknapp in some ways - he will reach a point where his style just doesn't fit the modern game any more.
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Accuse me of bias, but I beg to disagree.
'Arry talks a good talk, but his wheeling and dealing has destroyed Portsmouth's finances, and spending Levy's riches at Spurs did precisely nothing. His time at QPR was an ultimate failure too.
Tony Pulis is completely different.
When Pulis was at Stoke, we all hated the way Stoke played - long throws into the box, cynical tackles, time wasting. That squad has long since been brought into the modern era by Mark Hughes.
When Pulis went to Crystal Palace, he turned a side heading for the bottom three into a footballing side, utilising their players' strengths out wide and playing attacking football. They finished in a very healthy position, and, even if rather surprisingly, Pulis won the PL Manager of the Year award. I don't think many people saw that coming, and it was certainly under my radar.
Come August 2014 and Pulis suddenly resigned from Palace. At Albion, things hadn't gone too well, with us appointing the completely, utterly and totally underwhelming Alan Irvine. Who?????? we all chorused. Alan Irvine, the applicant who had lost out to Roberto di Matteo five years previously, and who had in the meantime done nothing at Preston and taken Sheffield Wednesday down from the Championship and into League One. In the same summer of 2014 that Albion appointed Irvine, we also had the useless Technical Director Terry Burton, who oversaw some terrible player acquisitions which did nothing for Irvine's chances of survival. A cameo 4-0 home win over Burnley and an away win at Spurs glossed over a period of gloom at Albion. We were soon heading down the table and towards the Championship, one point and one place above the bottom three.
The very day Pulis left Palace, in August 2014, I posted on the Albion board that we should get him in and sack Irvine, before a PL ball had even been kicked. Chairman Jeremy Peace didn't listen to me then <smile> and it took till January 2015 before he saw the light.
Pulis came in and soon turned things round. In his various interviews at the time of his appointment, and in every interview since, I studied Pulis and I really warmed to the guy from the off. You can criticise his horses-for-courses football and his team selections (and no, he will not sell a CB!) but the guy is X-Ray honest and has integrity in spades, and would never cause fans to attack or have a go at him verbally. Not to his face, anyway. He really is such a nice guy to listen to at length.
In one of his first interviews, he said how impressed he was that everything was in place behind scenes at Albion, little things like how the training ground and amenities and facilities at the stadium were the finished article, things which he said wouldn't take up his time, and would allow him to spend his time on the players and the training pitch, as opposed to what he wanted Palace to have in place but which they were dragging their heels over. Some people might call that unnecessarily picky. I call it detailed. I thought those remarks were very revealing and, for me, explained his impatience to get things done, and thence his resignation from Palace. If that's upsetting apple carts and destroying a club's infrastructure, then I am all for having a strong head coach like that.
In January 2015, Pulis was paraded to the Press by his immediate boss at Albion, the aforementioned Terry Burton, but it soon became abundantly clear that Pulis would be reporting directly to Jeremy Peace, and that he would be having far more say in which players Albion bought, and sure enough, Terry Burton was sacked last summer - another example of Jeremy Peace finally listening to me. -<wink>
In the meantime, Alan Pardew has taken Crystal Palace on like Mark Hughes has Stoke, and it remains to be seen what the future holds for Albion and whether it will take another head coach to enable us to kick on or whether Pulis can mellow and make the change himself.
I realise some of my points, including how Mark Hughes and Alan Pardew have progressed Stoke and Crystal Palace, vindicate your views of Tony Pulis, but there is always that other side to everybody.
Think I've covered most points there, sorry for the ramble! Just wanted to put across the views of a Baggies fan of 50 years' standing.

Must admit ive watched a couple of pre-match press conferences and yeah he's enjoyable to listen to. Very humble and yeah a nice bloke by all accounts.

comment by The_Dungeon_Master (U4830)
posted 22 hours ago
I don't think WBA are insignificant, but I am finding that they're completely off my radar this season. We're not battling them for position, they're not in a relegation fight that is growing ever-more interesting...
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You're off our radar too for pretty much the same reasons, only inverted. I think I can safely speak for all fans of football when I say I am hugely impressed by what Leicester are doing this season, carrying on from where they left off at the end of last season, and I am especially delighted for LCFC fans who go to all the games, because seeing your team win is always great, and seeing them win playing attacking football is even better.

The so called 'boring' football we play has yielded 1 less goal than the attractive football palace play. And a huge 2 less than Stokalona

I really don't get it

Also, we've beaten Stoke home and away this season.

Not too many teams will do that.