INCOMING. Blimey another player joining us from EXETER.....Caleb Watts 23yr old midfielder who refused a new contract at Exeter Another surprising deal.......he has represented Australia because of his Aussie father. Has had injury problems in the past.
No Premier League for Michael Cooper then. Sheffield United started much the stronger and looked comfortable at 1-0 after an early goal. They then had a second (rightly) disallowed for offside. Sunderland lost a player with a dislocated shoulder. Whether United sat back or Sunderland just stepped it up, the latter got back into it in the second half and won it with a goal so late that extra time looked inevitable. We’ve then gone through the crazy process where the third best team climb up the Wembley steps to get their medals. Are they bronze? Do the second team get silver ones? Sheffield United are an unpleasant team with an unpleasant manager but I feel sorry for Michael Cooper. I think.
Will Sheff U keep their manager.....his attitude has helped to cost the club a lot in fines in recent times....just wondering. Maybe Cooper could be enticed away by a premier club who need a future replacement soon ?
I know it has cost us £1m on the Cooper front but I have to say I was rooting for Sunderland. I think Sheff U are not a very pleasant bunch as a team and their Manager is twice as bad. I don't have time for clubs like that and they don't deserve anything.
I took a look at the BBC Sports fan comments on the play-off game. There are several common themes: It's considered ridiculous that the 4th placed team have gone up at the expense of the 3rd place team that finished 14 points ahead of them. The play-offs are considered to be a money making scam. Several people say that as there’s no VAR outside the EPL, there shouldn’t be VAR in the play-offs. I suspect that most of those were United fans wishing their disallowed goal had been allowed to stand…. It's widely expected that Sunderland will come straight back down, and quite possibly both of the other two promoted teams as well. All three of last year's promoted teams have fallen at the first hurdle, with bottom team Southampton taking only 12 points all season and even 18th placed Leicester finishing 13 points behind 17th placed Spurs. Chris Wilder is very widely disliked indeed. Sunderland on the other hand are welcomed by quite a few neutral fans. Sunderland fans are regarded as friendly, passionate and loyal to their club. It's noted they sold out their end at Wembley whereas Sheffield United didn't. I suppose it won’t be long before this forum is relegated too…….
I remember being down Charlton in the 1970's with my young son and his mate....Sunderland where the visiters.....this was still a time when you could walk all the way around the ground with no restrictions (that is how it was down the Valley....not quite so a few miles away at Millwall) Just before kick-off there was a commotion down the away end.....and up to 500 skinheads..bother booted ....wearing three quarter length jeans with braces.....plus various facial piercings and tattoo's started to walk around the terraces....giving everyone a bit of a scare...singing obscene Sunderland supporting songs and looking very threatening....luckily they did one circuit only......not so friendly looking in those days. Yesterdays game is known as the richest game in the world....worth £millions to the winners.
Strong talk that we will be signing Jack MacKenzie 6ft 3in left back from Aberdeen.....he will be out of contract...so a free. He was on the bench yesterday for the Scottish Cup Final....think he got on near the end.
The same was of course true at Home Park. As I’ve mentioned before, there were areas of the ground my mates and I wouldn’t go into when we went up as teenagers. And we were supporting the same team…..
OUTGOING. Miron Muslic has left Argyle.....joining German second tier club SHALKE 04.....talk of £1 million compensation. That leaves a bit of a mess.....having recently brought in some of his own staff and three new players coming in as well. We need a new man fast...before we start leaking unsettled players. PAFC have said that they had been bringing in staff and players requested by Muslic for the new season in Div One.....they comment at their disappointment at this turn of events and will make no further comment at this stage.
Terrific. He definitely had a bit of melt down at the very end of the season, mentioning particularly the need to get home to Austria see his family. Shame he didn't think about that before signing a long contract in the UK. You just can't trust people these days can you? I suppose there will be quite a bit of compensation as he has three years to run on his contract. The thing is, with recruitment needed, how will we play? Prior to his arrival, we were playing, or under Foster and Rooney, trying to play, possession football in the modern style. Under Muslic, we went all '70's Revival, lumping it up to a big No 9. Not pretty, but to be fair the results improved a lot. Where go we go from here?
Feckin hell not again. This is becoming too normal for Argyle. Obviously not the man we thought he was or the media for that matter.
PS. You have to say this looks like another recruitment cock-up. When it became clear from what he said about his need to take time out in Austria after the final game, it dawned on me that he had no intention of bringing his family over. He has school age children I think and that’s never going to be sustainable, not over 3 and a half years. Was it discussed before he was taken on? There’s no good answer because if it wasn’t, it should have been. If it was and he said they’d stay in Austria, it was never going to last and if he said they would come over and they haven’t, then he’s a liar.
In hindsight the going of Miron Muslic might be for the better that it has happened now in the off-season. With his family entrenched in Austria the possibility of him lasting another three years on top of the previous years that he has been away from them would eventually lead to a parting of the ways....better now than later. This gives the possibility of a new manager/coach having a full pre-season to coach his way of playing the game to the players. He has left a mess behind him here....bring in two staff that might follow him to Schalke.....and two plus a third player that must now be wondering how they fit into a team that will have a different manager than the one they thought that they were coming to play for. Other senior players might be wondering if this might be the right time to jump ship if the opportunity came their way.....things need to be sorted out and quickly.
We’ve got a good recent record of recruiting up-and-coming-managers: Ryan Lowe - unemployed Stephen Schumacher- unemployed Ian Foster - unemployable Wayne Rooney - unintelligible
