Paolo In Blunderland

Well this is a dilemma?
I love Paolo Di Canio and hope he goes on to become a great manager (even at West Ham one day).
But due to the banter I've been having all season with my Mackem mate I really want to see Blunderland drop like a stone into the championship.
Appointing Paolo could be a master stroke or the biggest blunder they have ever made? either way I can't win.
If he fails the press would treat him like a joke, or if he does pull Sunderland from the mess they're in I'll have to endure another season of shite :)

Of course it is April 1st so this could be the best joke of the day :)

Silly Season

Silly season continues with Martin O'Neill shown the door with only 7 games to go?
Don't really have much sympathy for him as his buys have turned a reasonable side into a really average side, proving he's not half as good as he thinks he is.
At the bottom Wigan's win has really shook things up, and if Villa can do what they did at Anfield again Sunderland will be in deep shit.

Premier Predictions (Week 31)

Internationals over back to the real stuff, 8 games Saturday and one each on Sunday and Monday.

Sunderland v Man Utd
Arsenal v Reading
Man City v Newcastle
Southampton v Chelsea
Swansea v Tottenham
West Ham v West Brom
Wigan v Norwich
Everton v Stoke
Aston Villa v Liverpool
Fulham v QPR

A Wigan win probably drags everyone up to Fulham in 10th into a relegation battle, can't really see Reading and QPR doing enough in their remaining 8 games to escape but some nervous games coming up for the rest of us :(

Confusing

Yet another odd managerial sacking?
Paul Sturrock was today sacked as Southend manager and has already been replaced by Phil Brown.
The really odd thing is that Sturrock has been told he will be back as manager for Southend's first ever Wembley trip against Crewe in 2 weeks time but Brown will be in charge for Friday's game against Bradford?

Sturrock has said he planned to leave in the summer when his contract expired which might have a small bearing on the decision but once again you have to feel a bit sorry for him.





When he came in for Steve Tilson in 2010 it was a bit of a shock, but he performed miracles getting a team together before the season kicked off, with 24 hours to go Southend only had one contracted player and had a transfer embargo meaning no-one could sign until it was lifted.
He managed to persuade about 17 players to sign pre-contracts including a collection of cast-offs and non league players and luckily permission was given the night before game 1.
They finished mid table in his first season, and lost in the play-offs last year, this season we are just 2 places from the play-offs with 7 games to go.
All this with a back drop of constant winding up orders and no money to spend, so I reckon he's done pretty well considering.
I do like Phil Brown but I'm not sure how long he will stay around even if he is given a chance, although he's been out of work for 18 months despite over half the league teams changing managers recently so maybe Southend was his only option.

Here's Hoping

Premier Predictions (Week 30)

Back to a full fixture list this weekend (weather permitting), 6 games Saturday and 4 Sunday.
Hopefully the "Rafa out" boys will have something else to complain about after Sunday's game.

Everton v Man City
Aston Villa v QPR
Southampton v Liverpool
Stoke v West Brom
Swansea v Arsenal
Man Utd v Reading

Sunderland v Norwich
Tottenham v Fulham
Chelsea v West Ham
Wigan v Newcastle

Bye Bye Brian

I suppose it was on the cards but I'm still sad to see Brian McDemott get the push from Reading.
The guy has always come across as a really nice bloke.
Reading have probably over achieved in the last few years, and were excellent last season when getting promoted.

Apart from the misfiring Russian their team is a collection of lower league pros and players on their way to retirement, so I'm not sure what the chairman really expected without spending some serious cash. The other teams at the bottom QPR, Sunderland, Villa, Southampton and Newcastle have spent fortunes to try and stay clear of the drop and only Wigan have been forced to bargain hunt.
I don't think it's all over for Reading yet but with McDermott gone I won't miss them as much if they do drop.

Premier Predictions (Week 29)

Just the 6 Premier league games this week due to the cup, so a short and sweet leap to the top of the table for whoever wins (unless me and Gobby draw).
4 games on Saturday and 2 on Sunday.

Norwich v Southampton
QPR v Sunderland
Reading v Aston Villa
West Brom v Swansea

Newcastle v Stoke
Liverpool v Tottenham

------------------------------
These games have bitten the dust this week but will feature later on in the season.
West Ham v Man Utd - TBA
Arsenal v Everton - Re-arranged 16th April
Man City v Wigan - TBA
Fulham v Chelsea - TBA

Premier Predictions (Week 28)

All getting pretty tight at the top, Gobby was a minute away from joining the party :(
So if I can't win this week I know who I'm cheering on :)

8 Games on Saturday and 1 each on Sunday/Monday.
Luckily for Benitez Chelsea's in-form striker won't be playing as Lukaku can't play against his real employers, West Ham need to start getting results away from home before they really do get dragged into the relegation fight and Tottenham v Arsenal is usually entertaining with the Gooners usually coming out on top.

Chelsea v West Brom
Everton v Reading
Man Utd v Norwich
Southampton v QPR
Stoke v West Ham
Sunderland v Fulham
Swansea v Newcastle
Wigan v Liverpool
Tottenham v Arsenal
Aston Villa v Man City

Gutted

I really thought we could hang on for some undeserved points last night but you can't deny that Bale is probably the best player in the country at the moment.
With Noble missing through injury it was always going to be an uphill task, and early on we didn't understand that giving Bale the chance to shoot with his left foot wasn't a good idea.
Somehow we got back in the game and for a period looked the better team, but Nolan's injury cost us an attacking option.

Carroll was trying his best even though the guy lacks any real skill apart from jumping for headers, taking 3-4 touches to tee the ball up for a shot really doesn't work against Premier defences.
Joe Cole showed some class when he had the chance, Jarvis looked good in the first half and even O'Neil had a reasonable game.
But the spuds kept piling forward and luckily Jussi had his best game for us saving 4-5 almost certain goals.
Joe Cole scored on the break and for a while we managed to keep them at bay, but then for some reason fat Sam took off Demel and brought on Pogotetz? who was pretty useless years ago and even worse now, sort of an Austrian Gary Breen, O'Brien had kept Lennon quite for most of the game but he was switched to Right back leaving Lennon the freedom of the park.
The equaliser was scrappy but Bale's winner was quality just such a shame that we managed to last out till the last minute before he hit the unstoppable one :(

If I was in Wenger's shoes on Sunday I'd remind them that a Bale-less Tottenham are probably mid-table mediocrity and let them work it out.

Legend

Bobby Moore OBE
12th April 1941 - 24th February 1993

Wem-ber-lee

Southend are on their way to Wembley .... woohoo :)

For the first time ever in their history Southend have made a Wembley final.
As expected they did it the hard way, with a last minute Ben Reeves goal to pip Orient 3-2 on aggregate.

They will meet Crewe who scraped through against Coventry on the 7th April.

Cup Draw

F.A Cup 6th Round

Everton or Oldham v Wigan
Man City v Barnsley
Man Utd or Reading v Middlesbrough or Chelsea
Millwall v Blackburn

Good draw for the big teams except Chelsea who if they can beat the smoggies probably have to go to Old Trafford, unless of course Reading pull off a king size shock.
Thought Chelsea looked good in the second half although it must be worrying that Demba Ba is taking tips on finishing from Torres :)

F.A Cup Sinners

space unoccupied for long periods of time can legally be confiscated by the local authorities.
A representative from islington council has been seen making his way to the arsenal trophy room

Findus lasagne found to contain Wenger DNA, tests confirmed that it's actually a dead horse that has been flogged for years

Arsenal's trophy room is to be renamed, from tomorrow it will simply be known as "the room"

 11 Arsenal players test positive for donkey meat

Premier Predictions (Week 27)

The Liverpool v Swansea game has been pulled forward a week so this weeks comp goes on for 8 days!!
So only need that one before Sunday unless you want to do all of them now.

Sunday 17th
Liverpool v Swansea

Sat 23rd
Fulham v Stoke
Arsenal v Aston Villa
Norwich v Everton
QPR v Man Utd
Reading v Wigan
West Brom v Sunderland
Sun 24th
Man City v Chelsea
Newcastle v Southampton
Mon 25th
West Ham v Tottenham

Top Weekly Scores This Season
13 - Lee, Gobshyte
12 - Paulo
11 - Biopunk (2), Longy (2), Gobshyte
10 - Gobshyte (3), Biopunk (2), Longy (2), Paulo (2), Lee

Premier Predictions (Week 26)

After the Internationals and before the next set of cup games here's some more Premier league.
7 games on Saturday, 2 on Sunday and a Monday game.

Tottenham v Newcastle

Chelsea v Wigan

Norwich v Fulham

Stoke v Reading

Sunderland v Arsenal

Swansea v QPR

Southampton v Man City

Aston Villa v West Ham

Man Utd v Everton

Liverpool v West Brom

Premier Predictions (Week 25)

Straight back in with another set, here are Saturday and Sundays games.
14 weeks to go, so everyone has a chance to catch Longy :)

QPR v Norwich
Arsenal v Stoke
Everton v Aston Villa
Newcastle v Chelsea
Reading v Sunderland
West Ham v Swansea
Wigan v Southampton
Fulham v Man Utd

West Brom v Tottenham
Man City v Liverpool

The Cup

What a great days footie :)
Just 7 Premier league teams left, 7 Championship, 3 Division 1 and Luton from the conference.

F.A Cup 5th Round Draw
Arsenal v Blackburn
Huddersfield or Leicester v Wigan
Luton v Millwall
Man City v Leeds
Man Utd v Reading
Middlesbrough v Brentford or Chelsea
MK Dons v Barnsley
Oldham v Everton

Oldham have the chance to do a scouse double.
Luton's reward is the chance to have their seats ripped out again by Millwall :)
If Chelsea can scrape past Brentford they get a trip to Smoggyland.
The two Manc teams and Arsenal should go through, Wigan and Everton have tough ties.

Cup Dilemmas

This weekends Cup games are giving me problems, I've just sat through the Leeds v Tottenham game wondering why I was cheering on the Leeds goals?
I need Bale and Defoe to keep scoring me points in Fantasy football so in the back of my mind I was hoping for a draw at least, but then the thought of taking the piss out of the Spuds fans at work seemed more important :) but it's really hard to cheer Leeds when they have 3 of the most obnoxious people in football, Wanker Warnock, Michael Brown and Spit the Dog involved.

Same problem in the game I'm watching now I'd love Oldham to do Liverpool although very unlikely but I need super cheat Suarez to keep scoring me FF points.


Chelsea managed to grab a draw with Brentford with Torres actually scoring (surely Rafa should have started with Ba) and should have had a penalty near the end, but on the other hand Chelsea keeper Turnbull should have been off after 2 bookings (no idea why he didn't get one for picking up Terry's crap backpass?).

Laughs all round yesterday as Harry's QPR went 4 down at home to the MK Dons :)
I like Norwich but couldn't believe Chris Hughton picked an under strength team and didn't take Luton seriously, so not much sympathy for them.
Arsenal, Man City, Reading, Wigan, Everton and Man Utd all did enough and had their top players available on the bench if it went wrong, Fulham were crap and lucky that RVP didn't come off the bench as it could have been double figures.
Congrats to Luton, Leeds, Millwall!! and MK Dons for showing that the Premier league isn't half as good as people like to make out.

Premier Predictions (Week 24)

No Premier league games this weekend but a full fixture list next week.

Tuesday
Aston Villa v Newcastle
QPR v Man City
Stoke v Wigan
Sunderland v Swansea

Wednesday
Arsenal v Liverpool
Everton v West Brom
Norwich v Tottenham
Fulham v West Ham
Man Utd v Southampton
Reading v Chelsea