Granted they don’t give good odds on him. But he’s a banker every time. Like Constitution Hill when it runs; guaranteed payout even if heavily odds on.
The fact that Andy Cole once scored 34 goals in a season underlines just how ****e the Premier League was in the 90s
How do you know that? As I mentioned a few days ago you can explain every position in any recent season in the PL by assuming that the only things that matter are money and random events. So there is literally no evidence that Guardiola or Klopp or indeed anyone else is a good manager, nor that anyone is a bad manager although Frank Lampard's recent performance is probably close to being statistically significant.
With all due respect, I’m not even going to debate that Pep and Klopp are better than Sam Allardyce as it’s not even worth talking about and anyone who thinks he’s better than them probably needs to visit a doctor. If managers didn’t matter then why do clubs change them so much when things go wrong as surely by your logic, it wouldn’t make sense to sack someone and then appoint someone else as the outcome will be the same?
His Bolton team was quite something and perhaps an example of what he was capable of with money to spend. Of course they totally over-spent on that side with an unsustainable wage bill and suffered long-term financial consequences as a result. Jaaskelainan, Cesar, Hierro, Ivan Campo, Djorkaeff, Okocha...legendary team.
Is that his best side? Where was their best finish and how many trophies did they win? Did they play good football or the long ball dross I seem to associate with his sides? He also managed Everton and Newcastle didn’t he? I don’t seem to remember him making either of those sides anything special. His England reign doesn’t need talking about, sacked for taking bungs. Average manager with a dodgy character
I always look at questions from two directions so, could Klopp and Pep get a tune out of the teams Sam has managed? Nobody knows because they haven't been there. Could Sam get a tune out of the teams Klopp and Pep have managed? With his one crack at it with a much lesser team he made Bolton a very good watch and feared by many.Think Sam had it in him but never had the big club support/money.
Bolton was his big success story and he did a good job there but he’s not anywhere the level of elite managers like Pep or Klopp. Like I said, he had a chance with Newcastle and Everton and flopped massively on both occasions.
Circumstance and fortune play a larger role than we realise. Not disputing the fact that Pep is a top manager, but it was fortuitous indeed that he was elevated from Barca's B team at a time when the culture at the club was extremely strong emphasis on prioritising home grown talent (one of the main reasons he was appointed), which happened to coincide with La Masia's most productive era in the club's history, with young players Pique, Messi, Busquets and Pedro joining a group already stacked with talent just reaching its peak at precisely that time. It's similar to the point I made to DH about our links to Enrique as a potential manager. True he achieved great things at Barca but honestly any idiot with competent knowledge of football would struggle to make a pig's ear out of a side containing Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Iniesta, Pique, Busquets, Mascherano, Rakitic and Dani Alves. It was almost harder for him to fail than it was to succeed. So with Pep, once his 'legend' was established via the fortuitous management of a ridiculously talented Barca side, it became a self-fulfilling prophecy. This prophecy was actually severely challenged at Bayern, where he was perceived to have failed, and is still under scrutiny at City where for all their domestic success, the CL continues to elude him. I rate him as a top manager not based on his trophy haul but based on his style of play, which is brilliant and reinvented football tactics as we know it, and also for his record in the transfer market. Yes, he spends a lot of money, but not much of it goes to waste. He chooses carefully and spends wisely, quite unlike equivalent spenders such as United and Chelsea. Kalvin Phillips is probably his only big money signing we'd categorise as a waste. Benjamin Mendy too although that is more down to him being a sex addict that his ability as a footballer. I respect him for these two reasons more than anything else.
He wasn't sacked for taking bungs and that is probably libellous. He was sacked for knowing how bungs were worked and stating it, something the vast majority of experienced managers know about but don't mention.
I was only making the point that when the purse strings were loosened, his entire style was radically different. That Bolton side played unreal football, peaked at 6th place and reached the League Cup final.
Nowhere like elite levels like Klopp and Pep. Sam had a best pick of a struggling Everton, a Basket case Newcastle with no money and Bolton who backed him. Pep had Barca, Bayern and City. Klopp had Mainze and did OK, Dortmund and did OK (most of their managers do because of the scouting and coaching set up) and Liverpool. Do you think this is a realistic comparison?
It pains me to say it as he is a pillock, but what Klopp did at both Mainz and Dortmund was bloody impressive.
It’s not a realistic comparison, just like comparing him to those two icons isn’t a realistic comparison either.
And why have they been chosen by those clubs? I can’t believe you genuinely think he’s comparable to Pep and Klopp.
