The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

David Silva just stretched off, left ankle. Did not look good

 

It's done.

 

So, does Giggs put himself in to try to get a goal and keep the streak of scoring in every EPL season?

 

Doesn't seem like his style these days.

As a Giggs fanboi looser, I'm split on this interim tag. I always thought he'd go off somewhere, learn the manager's game, work his way up and then take over 10-15 years after his last match. Part me thinks this seals his fate. Either he earns the job full-time or he never returns to United.

 

No way they go with him. His best case is to be a number 2 with another club and try to take over a smaller club in a couple of years.

For me, the former player most likely to take over the club (although not immediately) would be Gary Neville. He's got the SAF personality.

 

Neville has been pretty outspoken about the firing of Moyes. He might not have burned a bridge, but he at least poured some gas on it.

 

I think David Moyes drank from a poisoned chalice. It was pretty evident that the championship team from a year ago was in its last hurrah. Ferguson got out while the getting was good and left an aging team that had been ingrained in his ways.

Ferguson was also never going to suggest someone as a successor who had equal or greater stature than himself. No Mourinho, Guardiola, etc.

Hire Moyes and he succeeds? Ferguson looks good. Hire Moyes and he fails? Makes Ferguson's era look good.

Of course, the summer transfer window fuck-up played a big role too, but that's partly down to Man U's dumb front office set-up.

That club has big problems. Aging roster, questionable owners, mountains of debt. Whoever comes in there better have their eyes wide open.

 

Mourinho is proposing to sit most Chelsea regulars against Liverpool to rest them for Champions League second leg, essentially handing title to Liverpool.

 

They won the league by 11 points and didn't lose anyone who mattered. I think that, RvP aside, they have crapped the bed on transfers the past few years (and should never have let Pogba go) and especially let their defense get old. The best part of that team was always Vidic-Rio and they let both get old and not replace them with top-4 quality.

 

Tito Vilanova passes away at age 45.

 

Excellent line by Roger Bennett -- David Moyes knows what Ryan Giggs's brother feels like.

 

Chelsea win 2-0 at Anfield. Liverpool no longer in control of their own destiny as Man City will almost certainly win the title (on GD) if they win their last 4.