... and in Other Football News

They warned him and he carried on doing it, idiot.


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

An interview with Evandro... on Marco Silva..


“He is a master” – Fulham’s Marco Silva praised by ex-player, could have saved Hull City
12th November 2024
Fulham manager Marco Silva “is a master” and would have kept Hull City in the Premier League If he’d had more time earlier in his career.

That’s according to his former striker Evandro who has been praising the Fulham manager to Premier League Brasil.

Evandro made 86 appearances under Silva during his playing career, first appearing under him at Estoril before later joining him at Hull City.

He made more appearances under the Portuguese coach than any other, with Vanderlei Luxemburgo the closest in second place on 51.

The two enjoyed a fruitful relationship, with Evandro managing 16 goals and 11 assists in 73 games under him at Estoril before a further five goals and four assists in 46 at Hull City.

The two spells certainly made an impression on the striker, who believes the Fulham boss is among the best.

“He printed out what he was going to do in training, and it was a similar formula to the one we had in Estoril. He is a master,” he said.

“I like to put Marco Silva on the same level as Sampaoli, because he has a management model that I also look up to. Marco Silva has an excellent way of managing the group and his greatest characteristic is being rational and not emotional.
“I believe that in this role as a coach, if you let emotions take over, things get lost easily, because in football you have to deal with fans and the press.”

Silva has had a varied career to date, starting with Estoril before managing Sporting Club de Portugal, Olympiacos and then Hull City, Watford, Everton and now Fulham.

Hull City was his first job in England, arriving to take over the Tigers in January 2017 with them sat at the bottom of the Premier League table.

They went on an impressive run between then and the end of the season, beating the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool with Silva winning his first four home games in charge.

It ultimately ended in disappointment, though, as they were relegated at the end of the season, six points from safety. Evandro, though, believes that wouldn’t have been the case if Silva had arrived before he did.

“If Marco Silva had been there since the beginning of the season, he would never have fallen, he would have been 10th,” he added.

“We beat Liverpool, we drew with Manchester United away, we had good results. The point is that he caught a good team with just under half of the season left, it was difficult.

“It was a very good team. Marco Silva is so successful in England; he only grew up in the Premier League after Hull City.”

 

Claudio Ranieri has come out of retirement at the age of 73 to take charge of Roma until the end of the season, the Serie A club have announced, days after sacking the Croatian Ivan Juric.

Ranieri is Roma’s third coach of the season and this is his third time coaching his home town club, having guided the Giallorossi from 2009-11 and in 2019. He began his playing career with Roma.

 

Interesting read. Anyone know when he was with us?


The sports psychologist making a difference with a dog and a bench at Brentford
Ben Fisher

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“Any chance?” asks Michael Caulfield, Brentford’s sports psychologist, and with that Paisley, a lurcher-whippet with a marble-cake coat, hops out of the boot of his car at the training ground. He stops for a chat with the groundstaff, on their hands and knees repairing black netting chewed by urban foxes in this part of west London.

“When a fox sees Paisley, they scarper off to Surbiton,” Caulfield says, walking past the place he calls Augusta, by which he means the immaculate pitches in front of the Robert Rowan Performance Centre named after their technical director who died six years ago. “It sounds pathetic but I walked past his portrait this morning and went: ‘1-1 last night [against Sheffield Wednesday], penalties, you wouldn’t believe it, but we got there. Hope we get a home draw.’”


Soon Caulfield is talking about his unique, open-air office. “There are four benches here now, two – for the academy – are having an official opening next week,” he says. The first spot, he adds, was a “crappy tin bench” outside the original training pavilion. He sought an upgrade, ordering a wooden one, adding a plaque that reads: ‘Michael’s Bench; Just sit and talk, or just sit.’

“The most moving thing was Robert’s widow, Suzanne, rang and said: ‘Can we come and sit on the bench?’ I could have filled the ground up with tears. We had 15 minutes in the sunshine. Some days no one comes near me but the next day you can’t get on there. That was the whole point of it, to create a space where you can just sit there and go: ‘It’s ****.’ Or: ‘Wasn’t that amazing?’”

Sir AP McCoy, who led Caulfield to retrain as a psychologist while he was chief executive of the Professional Jockeys Association, has visited. The All Blacks, too. “They nearly broke it,” he smiles. It is on those benches where he gets to work, chatting with players and staff, usually with a light touch. Sometimes they walk and talk, Paisley in tow; Keane Lewis-Potter and Aaron Hickey found it beneficial when injured. Mads Roerslev took Paisley for a walk the day after Brentford’s 4-3 win over Ipswich. A replica bench followed at the request of the B team.

“I told them they could decide what would be on the plaque. They came back with something brilliant: ‘Michael’s Other Bench.’ I could have gone to Saatchi and Saatchi, Google, Elon Musk, AI, all the gurus of the world and they would have come up with something as dull as flu.”

In a way, that speaks to the simplicity of Caulfield’s work. “Myself and Thomas [Frank] often sit down and have a bit of lunch. After he signed his new contract [as manager in 2022], he said: ‘I’m jealous of you, Michael. You don’t understand, you’ve got one thing I’ll never, ever have and, by the way, that goes for most people in this building.’ I said: ‘Go on then’ … ‘Time.’ And that’s my innovation.

“I’ve got time and I create time for others to have time. I’m always working towards that moment when the music stops, so for Monday, when it’s red and white stripes v Fulham’s white and black shorts, 11 v 11. I’m trying to keep that joy and soul in football.”

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Michael Caulfield on his bench: ‘Football is still based around conversation, connection, emotion, understanding.’ Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Observer
The palette of conversation is rich and varied; his previous dog, Shankly, a lurcher-greyhound, who acted as Caulfield’s sidekick during his spells at Middlesbrough, Hull and here. “The idea was you’ll never walk alone,” he says.

Growing besotted with football – “the greatest meritocracy in the world” – after his first game, West Ham 1-3 Manchester United at Upton Park in 1967; the Brentford Lifeline Society, which Caulfield pays into, £2 a week. “I mean, you try and get out of that,” he laughs. Morecambe and Wise; Maggie Smith.

Working at the darts in Bolton, the dressage at Badminton; David Raya’s journey from Barcelona to Blackburn and Arsenal, via Brentford and Southport, Bryan Mbeumo’s artistry. “I’ve asked him to do a print for me because he paints beautifully, wonderful watercolours,” Caulfield says. “And he enjoys a tinkle on the piano. He’s a delightful man, who happens to be very good at football.” Only Erling Haaland has scored more league goals than Mbeumo this season.

Caulfield says he cannot take credit for Brentford’s fast starts or joyous crescendos. Brentford scored inside the opening 40 seconds of three successive matches and then 75 seconds into the fourth game of that run, a 5-3 win against Wolves. Mbeumo scored a 96th-minute winner against Ipswich and they prevailed on penalties on Tuesday.

“If I’ve helped, then it is by 0.00001% recurring,” he says. “We did find out, because only we would know this, that when we got the third goal [inside a minute], that hadn’t happened in one million games. Football is still based around conversation, connection, emotion, understanding. You can now analyse the game in incredible detail and thought. If you can get those two married, you’re on to something.”

Caulfield, who radiates warmth, rewinds to his first day, midway through 2016-17, a few days before Frank joined Dean Smith’s staff. Brentford were 18th in the Championship. Then, his role comprised half a day a week, now it is three, two with the first team, one with the B team. “We had just been whopped 5-0 by Norwich,” he says. “Everyone thought they brought me in because of the result. So, in the meeting room after training, 25 chairs, me in the middle. I was doing the Tony Blair,” he says, drily, “that’s why I wear a jacket.

“I said: ‘I’m terrified. This is as bad as it gets for me, introducing myself to you after a 5-0 defeat. I’m standing here dressed like this in front of you … Don’t think for one minute I’m enjoying this, so I’d be really, really honoured if one of you could ask a question. Can one of you save my life?’ Then a hand goes up. Lasse Vibe. ‘Can we trust you?’ he said. I could feel 25 pairs of eyes going: ‘You better answer this well, otherwise you’re done.’ I said: ‘Well, you’ve already made your mind up anyway, but I hope you can.’ OK, good.”

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How does Caulfield think the players and staff view his role? He pauses for thought. “They accept it, they understand it, they appreciate it, I think, but they also question it as well. It is great because they challenge me.”

‘Anxiety, racism, divorce, miscarriages, it is an absolute A-Z – it’s a VAR-free zone’
Perhaps Henrik Dalsgaard, who won promotion with Brentford three years ago, put it best. “A bloke comes in with his dog, walks around the pitch and we give him the heavy stuff from our hearts. I’ve been doing it this morning … I walked with a B team player. He was telling me about his week; he’s finding his way in life.”

Players and staff later went for a wander. “It was beautiful. You’ve got 11-15 players in tracksuits and T-shirts, support staff in tracksuits and T-shirts, and a history teacher looking like he’s about to give a lecture on the Tudors. Bonkers.”

Caulfield, wearing a flat cap, blazer, shirt, striped socks and a pair of Dr. Martens, does a good line in self-deprecation. “I don’t really look like your football man, to quote [the X page] Bryan’s Gunn.” Caulfield sometimes refers to himself as a dustbin, where players and coaches can declutter their minds to focus on performance. But deep and complex issues, such as grief, arise on those benches. “I’ve got the list: anxiety, racism, divorce, miscarriages, it is an absolute A-Z.” Perceived miscarriages of justice? “It’s a VAR-free zone.”

Surely not everyone wants to chat? “A third are really interested, a third are quite interested, a third are going: ‘Michael, how are you?’” The conversations, of course, remain confidential. “Some of the things I know and have heard, shared and discussed, they’re going to the grave with me. They will never be discussed, written about, spoken about, put in fancy lights. There’s got to be room in life for that, I think.”

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The plaque on a bench used by Michael Caulfield, at Brentford’s training ground. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian
With Paisley, Caulfield makes his way towards the first-team bench, outside the gym and round the corner from the padel court installed last year. He shakes hands and chats with a B team player, before bumping into a cleaner heading the other way, engaging in conversation, and then Rhys Weston, the former Arsenal and Cardiff full-back who is now Brentford’s head of team operations. “Home draw?” Caulfield says of the Carabao Cup quarter-finals, hours before Brentford are rewarded with a December trip to Newcastle.

Grounds staff fix a couple more blemishes. The Ukrainian midfielder Yehor Yarmoliuk drives home. Caulfield walks past the meeting rooms and, later than billed, towards the far end of pitch one. Paisley, apparently in anticipation of the chicken and cheese roll treats that await, stretches into a downward dog before looking with great intrigue towards the camera lens. “Sorry,” Caulfield says, “I got talking.”

 

This season we are getting over 8% of the population of hull per home game
Which shows how good our fans are

8% of the whole city is crazy
Which makes me think the kc was made too small, the amount of money and work needed to extend it versus making it 30k from the start
Is ridiculous

 

Well the teams not
Hull city and the east riding boundary afc

 

Capacity does seem reasonably light, probably should have been 30k to start with but I suppose hard to foresee that as a League 2 club at the time.

 

Seems some are unaware why it was built with that capacity.

 

It isn’t Leeds and West Riding, Sunderland and the Wear, Ipswich and Suffolk. Your point is?

 

That our fans are more loyal
Never had top flight football for 104 years of history
fact

 

What a load of bollox. Presume you weren’t going when we were averaging 4,000. The people of the East Riding are more loyal to Hull City than the people of Hull.

 

Garbage.

 

As a generalisation.
Back to the old RL v Football 'town' debate! (please, no).

 

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Out of all the teams in the championship

Only norwich is closer to moscow than hull city

 

Bingo!

 

Eh?
Its a fact
You muppet