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Why? What happened in the '50s?

It's not down to Elvis is it?


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Not a lot.
 
I was in a bar in Manchester last night and ordered a Bacardi and Coke for my wife. When she took a sip of it she said there was no Bacardi in it. Took the glass back to the bar and said to the barman, I asked for a Bacardi and Coke. He said sorry sir I misheard you and thought you asked for a Coke. He poured a Bacardi and said that was my mistake sir, have the Bacardi on the house.

There you go Spurf. Manchester, nice city with nice well mannered people.
 
I was in a bar in Manchester last night and ordered a Bacardi and Coke for my wife. When she took a sip of it she said there was no Bacardi in it. Took the glass back to the bar and said to the barman, I asked for a Bacardi and Coke. He said sorry sir I misheard you and thought you asked for a Coke. He poured a Bacardi and said that was my mistake sir, have the Bacardi on the house.

There you go Spurf. Manchester, nice city with nice well mannered people.

Suit tie and freshly shaved OS?
 
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Not a lot.
If only there were photos of Liverpool being relegated to the second tier in 1954, or for that matter the eight seasons they remained there...
 
Last time I went to Liverpool I took the car. Somehow got stuck in a bloody tunnel.Thought I was on my way to County Cork instead of cheshunt! Begorrah!
 
Interesting piece on the Grauniad site today that confirms my earlier thoughts about the root cause of the corruption in the game, and who is ultimately responsible for it.

Football insiders claim world game is ‘endemically corrupt’ in player transfers

The most interesting part is the FA's role in all of this. In April 2015 Fifa devolved power over regulation of agents to individual associations, and the article claims that this is what then happened;

“The FA was given a chance to regulate by Fifa. They had it all in their own hands: whatever systems, whatever regulations they wanted, to regulate the transfer system, the conduct of agents. And they chose to do the bare minimum and, significantly, to adopt a far less regulated system than the one previously in place."

"The FA opted to implement standard pro-forma documents and chose to absolve themselves of any real responsibility in the policing of the transfer system. They removed the entrance exam, which was a real barrier to entry with only 10% of candidates passing, and they opened it up to a £500 fee, basically saying: ‘Give us £500 and you can be a professional.’ You can’t imagine a similar system of licensing in the legal, accounting, financial services sector or any profession that values the role of the adviser."

A proper investigative journalist, as opposed to a Telegraph hack who thinks that stitching up greedy idiots like Allardyce is the real story, would now be demanding that the FA answer a few questions here, like (1) Who exactly in the FA decided to do this? and (2) Why did they think that was a good idea?

Given that it's the FA then the answers are probably along the lines of "because we're buffoons" rather than anything more sinister, but the people who made those decisions still need to be held accountable. They're the ones that really need sacking.
 
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I take the other view. Everything in his past speaks of him being extremely loyal and committed to things and people - his love for Bielsa, Espanyol, Cortese all suggest that he commits wholeheartedly. Also, he is said to be a control freak, wanting to run every aspect of 'his' club. Most really big clubs aren't going to give him that possibility. They have people that have to be dealt with. Spurs are close to unique, in that Levy really wants someone to trust and work with. After going to bed with a number of frogs, finally, he has found a prince. He really likes and trusts Mauricio Pochettino. MP is an intelligent man outside of football. He talks finance with Levy and understands Spurs commitments to the stadium and what they mean for expenditure on transfers and wages. His response is to see that he must work harder and smarter to be a winner.

I think that we are 'his club' now. I am not sure that a desperate Madrid or United waving a few extra millions at him for 3 years and then a pay-off following his inevitable sacking would be that attractive. I see him fulfilling his current contract and then another if we have made the breakthrough to challenging for the title every season. I heard Darren Eales (formerly Spurs) talking about running the new MLS francise in Atlanta. He said the challenge of running something new was too good to pass up. In many ways we are that challenge - new stadium, new training ground, new financial model, new hope. In the next few years he can mould the club to his vision. The man's character suggests that he won't walk away from that for a few extra quid. However, we must not fail to work with him and for him - really, now, Levy must work for MP. MP is the talent and what's on the pitch drives the majority of everything else, particularly, the financial stuff. If we are successful the sponsorships will come flooding in and will be huge compared with previously. We need to have him on fabulous bonuses. A great season this season means the stadium sponsorship will be massive but the sponsors will want to see MP tied in as the banks wanted Wenger tied in when they built their new stadium. We need him. He understands that and I just don't see the offer of a few quid taking him away if we let him show us the way ahead and give him financial rewards according to the success he achieves.That's very Mauricio Pochettino and very Daniel Levy.

Well said Bri....I hope you are spot on.
 
This from The Manchester Evening News:

Even more distressing is that City have allegedly lost their proud 82-year-old record for the highest home attendance in English football, though where Spurs conjured up an extra 50,000 fans from at Wembley is anybody’s guess.

Well, we didn't buy them with oil money, Gentlemen. It's remarkable how quickly journalists have been prepared to view Citeh as football royalty. FFS!, along with The Spammers, they have to advertise their tickets on TalkSport to fill their state-sponsored home stadium with 40,000 less capacity than Wembley
 
What the MEN conveniently forgets to mention is that, at one point, Old Trafford had a capacity of 95,000 - yet their record attendance is 76,926

Or to put it another way, Man Utd's record attendance was 18,074 short of capacity - which is about the average for Villa Park these days...