Renton

I don't think being a brilliant player precludes you from being a great manager, but it doesn't qualify you either. Zidane is one of my all time favourite players and he seems a decent enough coach. When you're in this position, you have the benefit of accrued experience under other great managers. But you still need the communication skills as you say. I think people who were mediocre players, like Howe, are selected more on ability by working their way up, and are naturally more driven. They have to earn respect. And as the pool of unremarkable players is clearly several magnitudes greater than the pool of brilliant players, its not hard to see why the game is ultimately dominated by these types of managers.

On that day I said. And yeah, they played much better than any ManU team we have played this season, they were better than Arsenal, and better than Man City when we played them at home imo (struggling to remember the away leg tbh, might have missed it). Better than either game we played and lost against Liverpool too. They gave us no space or time, they bullied us, and they were clinical. Yeah, we were poor but had Villa played like this all season they would have been near the top of the table. They aren't mainly because of Gérard but also because they won't always play that well, which is the difference between good teams (us and Villa) and champions (Man City). Fortunately for us we couldn't have a better side to play against next match than Spurs. I think we'll win that and get back on track. I think though people are being OTT on the criticism of our team which isn't helpful.

Boring cunt.

We had a semi-decent spell early in the second half. I think the difference though here and the other games you mention is that Villa were by far the best team we have played against under Howes tenure yesterday. Credit where its due. I think they would have beaten anyone on the day, and if I'm honest, and completely changing what I said last week, I am more worried about them beating us to top 4 than Spurs. I think the gap will be enough though.

The weekend can still be saved vicariously.

Urghh, I also spunked up £30 for a BT Sports pass to watch this shit, because it covers 3 away matches. The others are teams I hate nearly as much as Villa, Everton and Leeds. If we lose them like this I'm going fucking postal.

Slight positive I guess is we didn't give up. Straw clutching I know. I fucking hate Villa like. They're right up there for me, absolute wankers. And having Birmingham as England's second city is an absolute embarrassment. Not one redeeming feature in that boring shithole. The only decent thing to come out of the West Midlands in general is the M6.

@Gemmill is in fucking disgrace now like. Out first hammering, under his fucking watch.

No fucking chance. @Alex first.

Can't see Spurs or ManU dropping points this weekend, so this has been shit all over. Then again, if you'd offered me 6 points from these 3 away games I'd have taken it. Next week against against Spurs is fucking huge. @Christmas Tree , where's the best place to buy adult nappies?

Just for you, piss flaps.

Piss flaps.

Thank fuck. Offside rule is a fucking joke mind.

Offside.

Fuck.

They're out-pressing us and out-shithousing us here.

That was better though. Villa can't keep this up surely.

Urghh. It's like it must be to play against us. Thus is horrific. We've been out-Newcastled. Hope we hold on with just the one goal deficit until half time.

Wow, now SJP is like the death star. And it's got grey cladding, like, erm, most stadiums? Yeah, as I've said before, I wish instead of having one of the most impressive cantilevered glass roofs in the world it was made of corrugated iron like the mackems' cow shed. I actually love the uniqueness of SJP like. The scale of it is actually impressive. Like the OP here, I walk past it 3 days a week and it still impresses. I just hope they can pull off the Gallowgate extesnion and make it a proper horseshoe, and then it's finished for me.

The level of delusion is astonishing. The SoL has the best loaction in the country by a mile apparently. For anyone wondering, the Sheepfolds is currently an area of contiguous scrap yards last seen on Breaking Bad without the nice weather. They're planning a housing estate on this which will be an obvious improvement but maybe not befitting the best location in the UK marra. This new pedestrian footbridge they're building, to connect the Sheepfolds with Yates wine bar in the city centre or whatever, is going to be a concrete brutalist structure coming already equipped with anti-suicide fences.

Well that's another thing, most of them geninely believe if they beat us next time we meet it's 7 in a row,, despite the last match being a draw. They're fucking mental man.

It's so moronic it's surreal. They regard each passing day of this record as some kind of success, when in fact it is THE EXACT OPPOSITE. It's literally a measure of how shit they are. They're also always going on about how the "6 in a row" broke us. Seemingly blithely unaware that immediately prior to this we did them "5 in a row" and quite honestly didn't even notice. It's also a fact we've still won four more league derbies than them. Of course this would in all likelihood be considerably higher if they had the decency to stay in the top division with us instead of cowering in the lower divisions.

Mackem's are currently celebrating the 10th anniversary of an Italian Fascist leading their club to a Derby victory. And of course every day brings a new celebration to them as their unbeaten run continues.

They do love banging on about these concerts. As you say, I thought the cost benefit didn't really justify us bothering with this due to there being fuck all in it for a premier club and thepotential for pitch damage. For all they bang on about the SoL being a superior concert venue, have they even said why?