He was the manager during the most ridiculous and awful summer I can recall. Berbatov and Keano left and there was this bloke grinning as we bought in Bentley, Dos Santos, Frazier 'Bloody" Campbell and it was bloody obvious we were in trouble. He looked like we were going to win the league. Big smile!
That looks like the Stamford Bridge pitch when the anti-Santa was their owner. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/charlton_athletic/2746477.stm I was actually saying that as a joke, but it really does, doesn't it?
Considering how it flamed out so badly, there's still a few good memories I have about the AVB era The 3-2 win at Old Trafford The late turnaround to win 3-1 against City Stunning the Goons with a quick first half double to win the NLD Turning over Stoke, complete with Charlie Adam getting his (long-overdue) marching orders Beating West Scam with the last kick of the game (and what a kick it was!) The dominant first leg against Inter (although the less said about the second leg, the better...)
The first thing he did was whine about Modric leaving...after HE had unaettled the year before as Chelsea manager It was obviously going to go badly wrong and boy did it!
Villas-Boas might be a good manager one day, but he's still got a fair bit to learn, for me. His results were generally pretty good, but the football was boring and there were some real horror shows in there, too. Far from one of our worst managers, though. Just quite unsuited for Spurs.
I was in a 'spit and sawdust' South London pub and got asked to "Mind your language!" when Adebayor missed that chance. I was surprised to be asked but I did use every swear word I knew at the top of my voice and there were ladies present.
The obvious issue LAdPCeV-B has is that, while it's clear he has an idea for what he wants from his players, there's an obvious disconnect between what he wants and what actually happens on the pitch. While I do give him credit for instilling a certain bloody mindedness into the team in the first season, a trait our current side also has, the obvious issue is that it was nine players with a bloody minded will to win and one Gareth Bale who could actually make that win happen and removing Bale from that system turned wins into draws - and this is why his second season was such a disaster, because rather than figure out how to tweak his system to improve results he panicked and didn't have any idea how to get the most out of his players or his system and kept looking for quick fixes when he should have looked for a long-term solution, which led to some embarrassing defeats and him being sacked.
I write their match threads and ; 1st time in 21 yrs we finish above them 1st time in 51 yrs we are unbeaten at home 1st time in 55 yrs we finish runners up Seriously...you think that is all a coincidence...really?
We can't talk..... Watford v Chelsea FAC Semi 1970...... Eddie McCready practicing his best Kung Fu 'Stork' is priceless, mind
For a while, I slept with an ex-girlfriend's mother and things between us improved immeasurably during that time. Maybe I should have told the girlfriend and kept going with mum on that basis? "But things have been better...."
1970 to 2003, though. You'd have thought that things had moved on a bit during that period! They had players like Zola, Desailly and Petit in their side and they couldn't afford grass? Typical Ken Bates.
There seemed to be a really strong team spirit that first year, exemplified by Bales reaction when scoring against the Spammers. Removing that special talent without adequate replacement and the late arrival of most of those incoming meant that he started the season on the back foot and never recovered. Fair point
