Kevin Keegan resigned from Newcastle today.
Curbishley left West Ham on Tuesday.
Man City have been bought by a multi Billionaire.
Another quiet week in the EPL
Kevin Keegan resigned from Newcastle today.
Curbishley left West Ham on Tuesday.
Man City have been bought by a multi Billionaire.
Another quiet week in the EPL
Though Robinho gets all the press, adding Vincent Kompany to the Dunney Monster on the back line might be Man City's top pickup. Shaun Wright-Phillips also looked real good in his first game with his new club.
Villa kept Gareth Barry and also added Carlos Cuellar and James Milner. Though it's still an underdog to crack the Big Four, Villa is better than last season when they finished 6th.
Everton landed Louis Saha and Segundo Castillo prior to the deadline. Both will help. It also spent some coin on giant Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini. As bad as the Toffees looked in their first few games, I expect the recent additions will put the club in line for another quality season.
Liverpool added a number of players with undefined upside. Albert Riera is supposed to provide the most immediate help, but he didn't impress much with Man City two years ago and Espanyol supposedly was glad to be rid of him.
Portsmouth lost Sulley Muntari to Inter, which is going to seriously undercut that team's ability to distribute out of the midfield.
Sunderland snagged Anton Ferdinand (who won't help as much as Roy Keane thinks) and Djibril Cisse. It's name power if nothing else.
Tottenham finally sold Berbatov, but got Roman Pavlyuchenko to replace him up front (where he will be getting mad service from the midfield) and Vedran Corluka for the back line. It also got British starlet Frazier Campbell (a key to getting Hull promoted last season) on loan from Man U. It also got rid of Lee Young-Pyo, my pick for worst regular player in the Prem in recent years.
West Brom landed Dutch defender Gianni Zuiverloon and Spanish midfielder Borja Valero. Both are well-versed in a fast, short passing game.
Stoke and Hull collected some more bodies, but I'm not sure any will have much impact. I kind of like Paul McShane, on loan from Sunderland to Hull, but he's got to add consistency to his game.
Good to see Curbishley and Keegan walk away from disastrous situations. The big question at West Ham and Newcastle, though, is did the clubs tie the managers' hands because they weren't the right managers or will the clubs keep any manager they hire well out of the personnel loop? If it's the latter, then it really doesn't matter who gets hired.
Last edited by M2; 09-04-2008 at 04:35 PM.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
You covered pretty much everything there M2. Nothing really to add.
George McCartney's 4.5m move back to Sunderland from West Ham was the straw that broke the back for Curbs. He asked for money to replace him, they said he would have to sell more players if he wanted to spend.
What a joke, with Ferdinand & McCartney gone + WHU's lengthy injury list they had to let Curbishley make at least one signing to strengthen the defence.
We're moving in on the midway point of the season and Hull is still in 6th place.
Holy crow.
The cool thing is it's no-names like Michael Turner and Dean Marney who are carrying the load, along with Geovanni, who apparently took 8 years to adjust to European football. The will provided by players like Ian Ashbee, Andy Dawson and Boaz Myhill (who've been with this club as it clawed its way up multiple levels to the top flight) is also proving inspirational.
On a completely separate note, what profiles as the most exciting game in Europe will be played this Friday at 2:30 EST between Bayern Munich and TSG Hoffenheim on GolTV. Not only is it for 1st place in the Bundesliga, it's a matchup of the two highest octane offenses on the continent. Hoffenheim has gained promotions each of the past two seasons just to be in the league and now it's in first place. Like Hull, it's succeeding with a bunch of no-name players, but unlike Hull these no-names are kids who are going to be superstars. Vedad Ibisevic (who played in a U.S. developmental league in 2003), Demba Ba, Chinedu Obasi, Carlos Eduardo, Sejad Salihovic and Tobias Weis spring attacks like no one's business. Bayern's loaded and it's starting to look like a Champion's League favorite, playing some beautiful positive football under Jurgen Klinsmann. Half a dozen goals of the highest quality could be in the offing.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Man, I wish Fox Soccer Channel and GolTV were in HD on Directv. Not sure if they are anywhere else.
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Supposedly Roy Keane has just resigned from Sunderland.
http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/85/en...irm-keane-exit
Apparently the weight of having to deal with Pascal Chimbonda was too much for him.
I suspect this will lead to immediate talk of Keane taking over at Man City.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
The Arsenal - Chelsea game was something else this past weekend, Chelsea controlled the game all the first half and lost it in a span of minutes, with Drogba watching in the stands.
That may yet happen. I doubt we've seen the last of Keano. Got to believe Keane would have been handed the QPR gig before Sousa got the gig. Who knows, maybe Derby will give Paul Jewell the sack and let Keane have a go at the January transfer window.
I still think Man City is where Roy will wind up and then he can go to battle with Wolves next season in the Prem.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
The last fifteen minutes of the Hull/Middlesborough match were quite entertaining.
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Everton and Villa played an absolute classic today.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
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Juande Ramos has had himself an interesting season so far. He began it as the guru designed to lift Tottenham into the EPL's top tier only to see the club crumble and get a quick boot. Now he's been recruited to head up Real Madrid. So he's gone from expectations to failure to promotion into the least secure job in the world of professional soccer.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
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