BBC - Liverpool make bid for Lallana

My nan could have identified Rickie as a good target. Best player in that league by a million miles.

 

I have to admit I didn't know Rickie at all before we signed him...I was that little kid who started jumping up and down with excitement only after spotting that the big kids were doing it. Then of course I became a Rickie expert....ain't Google great

 

It was amazing to get a manager of Pardew's calibre in League 1...we will never know what he could have achieved if he stayed...after all we were a very strong side. Always be grateful for the JPT. However, Nicola was right to change to a manager with more experience of promotion from the lower leagues. Pardew was always likely to be head hunted...better to have someone who was honoured and thrilled to be our manager (who can forget Nigel's excitement when he arrived). Pardew is one of those managers that I can bear to see interviewed on TV...never wanted to smack him (a very high accolade indeed).

 

It seems most football fans have marvellous Nans who can score easy goals, see an offside from miles away, see a penalty when the ref can't, knows instinctively when a player has dived etc etc. All my old Nan could do was make jam, bake bread, knit my school jumpers, play donkey with the playing cards and tell brilliant stories. She was great fun though, a real Victorian lady but dead strict. If she had gone to a football match she would have had the whole Northam End sitting nicely in their seats singing patriotic songs and not a single swear word would have been heard in the whole stadium and that would have applied to the thick git Rooney had we been playing Manchester United at the time and if any player had dared to cheat then it would have been early to bed and no supper for him.

They don't make women like that anymore.

 

Possibly the longest unpunctuated sentence ever seen on not696 there Godders. Keep up the good work!

 

Can't you remember him scoring against us for Bristol Rovers in the cup Fran? That was the first time I had seen him really, little did we know a season or two later he would be doing the very same thing for us

 

I still blame Jermaine Wright.

 

Pardew is still a ****.

 

Oh Jesus! The sight of him in the fat stripes still gives me night terrors to this very day. Here's to another episode tonight, thanks Dan!

 

just about to post that

 

Have to agree with Joe. Manager from higher league experience. Given highest budget in the league. Tempts higher league players on large contracts to club. Buys highest scorer from past seasons in the division. Has best academy in the league..........

.....Fails to get promotion and starts following season very badly. I have no time for Pardew. More bothered about himself than anyone else or any club he is at. His teams win, he praises himself, his teams lose it is someone else's fault. Similar to Redknapp in my eyes. Spends loads, loves the glory, blames others when it isn't going well.

 

I think that's a harsh assessment of his first season. The squad was an absolute shambles when he came in and he only had about 3 weeks between taking the job and the first league fixture. As a result we started very slowly (after 10 games we were still on -1 point). From that point on we took 74 points from 36 games and were right up there with Norwich as the two best teams in the division.

 

Still should have done better and then he went on a jolly through the summer and the players came back unfit. Good riddance I say.

 

Forgot that...Cortese was incandescent. Preseasons were better under both Adkins and Poch. Wonder where they are going this year...Spain again, I would guess.

 

Depends what budget the new board are going for. Might just be a weekend at Camber Sands.

 

Quite a few are going to Brazil, the rest might as well join them out there.

 

There's no question the second season was poor (on and off the field by the sounds of it) but Pardew's work in that first season turned the club around. Adkins was a revelation when he came in but let's not forget Pardew actually won a trophy. Adkins never actually won anything.

I think his first season was good and when you say we should have done better I think you're either forgetting the mess we were in at the start of the season or underestimating the complete transformation of the team Pardew oversaw that season in terms of mindset and personnel. We signed something like 16 players (out of necessity), only 5 of the players who started the last game of 08/09 started the first game of 09/10 and only 3 of the players that started the first game of 09/10 also started the last game of 09/10. More importantly we won a trophy and the team was transformed from strugglers to winners.

In that first season we won a trophy and finished on 73 points with a +38 goal difference, a total which would have made the League One playoffs in 4 of the last 12 seasons and had the team within 3 points of the playoffs in 10 of the last 12 seasons. Considering the mess we were in at the start of the season I think that's a good effort, and that's without taking into account the points deduction. If you allow for the points deduction then 83 points and +38 GD would have made the playoffs in all of the last 12 seasons, earned automatic promotion 4 times and actually won the division once (in 05/06).

 

I heard once Pochettino signs his new contract, pre-season will take place on his private island.

As a resident of that island, how do you feel about that Fran?

 

Done Deal:

Lallana goes for Liver by thePool, before the world cup.

 

What would you have liked Adkins to win? Pardew was, and still is, an arse. Management capabilities or not, we're a lot better rid.