Allardyce could easily pull Palace away from the relegation zone, if he does take over there. They've already got the players to play his style and the likes of Benteke should thrive in his system. Pretty solid group of defenders, plenty of options out wide and some big, physical strikers. Could work well.
The thing with Pardew is his career has predictable cycles to it: a couple of seasons where things go nicely, usually with a good cup run thrown in - and then he runs out of ideas and/or talent as the club's form nosedives dramatically. That's exactly what happened when he was in charge at West Ham, Charlton, Newcastle and Palace.
It's even weirder than that. He goes on long runs of doing well, then long runs of doing horribly. It just repeats itself over and over, for some reason. Most managers are fairly consistent and have mixed results. He either has great results or horrible ones, with very little in between. Wins for a while, then loses for a while, then switches back. Very odd.
Also, he has a distracting habit of shagging his players' wives and girlfriends. The terrible morale at his clubs often relate to him being as faithful as John Terry on a matrimonial break.
According to the Beeb, Palace under Pardew had the worst 2016 record of all 92 league clubs!.. So, in that context, you have to ask...what took Parish so long?...
I was in Westerham a couple years ago , standing next to me in a coffee shop was Pardew . I made small polite small talk with him as we were waiting , he did lack any emphanny, constant misarable wet blank face , and a wall of arrogance . Just seemed a very unpleasant geezer. .
I think I've said on here before, but he used to live about a minute's drive from my house, and one of my old school mates was his next door neighbour when he was manager of reading. My friend, a 15-16 year old reading fan, once asked him for a photo when they met simultaneously on the driveway. Pardew told him to go back inside his house. (Or words to that effect). Charming, eh?
Oscar's £60m move to Hu Givs A Fuk FC in China has been confirmed. He will earn a reported £400k per week. But of course, the 25 year old is reaching the peak of his career and has moved purely for 'footballing purposes'. The slight advantage of signing natural mercenaries is that when they ditch you for the next goldmine, you make a hefty profit from their sale. Spurs are gathering all these loyal, sincere 'one club for life' type players who actually care about football and leave at the end of their contract to finish their playing days in a lower league, and all we receive in return is a round of applause
£60m for Oscar..... Sweet Jesus! Makes you wish we still had Bentley under contract...... Nah! Nothing could make me wish that.
I get why Chinese clubs are offering such silly wages, but I don't understand why they're paying such large transfer fees. Seems unnecessary.
**** knows what he's got to be arrogant about!.. Getting fired from every ****ing managerial job he's had for being useless, and a complete ****, perhaps?...
Its a statement of intent. Until now, teams in places like China and the States had slim pickings of proper footballers. They picked up an ensemble of washed out former stars looking for a retirement nest egg, or professional journeymen who never quite made it at the top level. Oscar is probably the first player to break that mould. He is nearing the peak of his career, is proven at the highest level and has won multiple trophies. I doubt Chelsea would've let a useful squad player leave mid season were it not for the silly fee. The very fact that the Chinese club tabled an acceptable bid shows ambition, intent and a determination to make football there huge. It won't happen in our lifetimes though for the same reason it hasn't happened in the MLS despite over 2 decades of pushing for it since they hosted the world cup: The cultural ties to football across its European heartlands are simply too strong, and perhaps are growing stronger with fans able to travel to every game relatively simply, as well as increases in merchandise sales, TV representation and social media presence. There's no question that China have the money to make it work, but the vast majority of their vast population are vastly impoverished compared to the average sports consumer in the west. China first needs to address its alarming poor-rich divide and it will then have a potential market larger than any in the world sitting on its doorstep.
I agree with all of that, but I think I could've made my point more clearly. Oscar shouldn't cost £60m. Why offer that much? £40m would have done it and the signing is the statement, rather than the price. Chelsea would be far more willing to sell to a non-European team. Less chance of it coming back to bite them on the arse. £60m for us? Yep. For Shanghai, though?
That's the thing though. £40m for a proven player who on his day really is quality...would Chelsea get rid mid season? The last time they tried that they got rid of a useful player in Schurrle and ended up with a useless player in Cuadrado. £60m guarantees the player but it also guarantees that the rest of the world sits up and pay attention to the real message behind all this: money isn't an object. Agents in particular will be following this transfer with more than some interest. I can already imagine Raiona working out his cut for flogging Pogba to Sporting iPhone Hangua for £150m.
The obvious issue with questioning the fees that Chinese clubs are paying is that you would have to make the exact same argument about Man City: * £47.5m for John Stones * £44m for Raheem Sterling, even though he was in the last year of his contract * £32.5m for Los Ladrones outcast Robinho * £25m and a six figure salary for Emmanuel Adebayor * £17.5m and a six figure salary for Roque Santa Cruz Pretty much every single one of those signings was making a statement - yet the statement they actually made was they had more money than sense.
