Premier League 2011/12 general thread

[NW2013]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15668207.stm

The solution seems quite simple. The fans and supportative media outlets should continue to call the ground St. James' Park, regardless of the renaming.

Unless you have a strong dislike for NUFC, like I do, in which case you'll call it the Sports Direct Arena from now on (even when it is inevitably changed back).

[prinnysquad]

A disgrace. Doesn't the fat Southern knobber realise this is the NORTH EAST. We've had no major trophy success since 1973. Our only link to more successful times is through tradition. The only things we polish round these parts are the signs of our footballing cathedrals. Ashley is a vile cad with no love for the region.

Bring back the days of John Hall, Tom Cowie and George Reynolds, I say.

Well, maybe not the last two.

[Flabio]

Sepp Blatter's observations on racism are about as unsurprising as you might think.

Deary me.

[EJG1980]

Since the ****-storm those comments stirred up, there have been two separate articles on FIFA.com featuring nice big photos of Sepp Blatter being pally with prominent black figures

[prinnysquad]

3 home wins in 2011. It is truly, now, the 'Stadium Of ****e'.

Bruce Out!

[Plough Boy]

The 3 Legends were saying on the radio tonight that the Fulham game was one of the most boring matches ever played in the 'new' stadium.

[Flabio]

Motty and co on the Monday Night Club seem to think it might be worth putting a few bob on Chelsea not finishing in the top four...

Not sure I agree with that right now, but they don't have to lose many more for it to start looking like a possibility...

[sj33]

This is definately the most competitive top four for a long time, no-one seems safe bar Man City.

[prinnysquad]

Well, those three are twats. However, the point cannot be argued with.

Bruce has dismantled this team:
Gordon, Onouha, Mensah, Ferdinand, Bardsley, Henderson, Malbranque, Cattermole, Bent, Gyan, Welbeck.

And turned it into this team, within a year:
Westwood, Turner, Brown, O'Shea, Bardsley, Larsson, Cattermole, Gardner, Elmohamady, Sessegnon, Bendtner.

Proper slow, unbalanced, cloggy, unmotivated arse****. Only the defence has been improved - everything else has been cloggerised and made generally pisspoor. When Sessegnon pisses off in the Winter, we'll have zero creativity.

In related news, Bruce Blames has been updated with some smirk-worthy extracts: http://stevebruceblames.tumblr.com/

[prinnysquad]

Brooce

[sj33]

Martinez breathes a sigh of relief. I also lose my Lawro's prediction with my mate.

Oh and linesmen suck!

[glazza]

Martinez breathes a sigh of relief. I also lose my Lawro's prediction with my mate.

Oh and linesmen suck!

What a major boollock he dropped today OT kin tool!!

[Herbalizer]

Prinny will be delighted that Bruce is getting sacked in the morning (according to Twitter)

[prinnysquad]

*drums fingers*



Louise Taylor in the Grauniad telling it how it is:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/27/sunderland-wigan-steve-bruce?

I think this section is telling -

"I just want to try to get it right. Hopefully the criticism has bottomed out today; I don't think it's ever been as bad as that. It borders on abuse. That's just the way it is, though, and I have to accept it. I cannot help where I was born."
That last somewhat disingenuous comment will not play well with the majority of Sunderland fans, who simply do not care about Bruce's roots or his boyhood adoration of Newcastle United. Instead, most Stadium of Light season-ticket holders are far more concerned about the reasons why he has signed 30 players – several of whom have since moved on – since the summer of 2009, the apparent lack of an overall playing philosophy or tactical strategy, and Bruce's persistent failure to tweak his teams and formations incisively during games. Why, they wonder, has he rushed key players back following serious injuries only to see them relapse, why was Anton Ferdinand allowed to join Queens Park Rangers when he was in the best defensive form of his career, and why were three former key strikers, Darren Bent, Kenwyne Jones and Asamoah Gyan, so desperate to depart?

At least some of the media are cottoning onto the ****e that has been the last eleven months. Bruce has admitted that his spending policy over the summer was to buy players, and then think about where they would fit - rather than looking at the needs of the team and buying according. What a bell-crack.

[Flabio]

You should sack him and sign McClaren. Since we got rid he's started polluting radio commentaries and I'd quite like him off those and out of my line of sight altogether...