Well I'll be glad to see the back of him scoring goals against Everton. The twat. :D

I know exactly what you mean. Been a bad season all round. Only the relegation battle has been remotely interesting, but even with that, I don't really like any of the teams involved so I'm not that bothered who survives.

My only hope from West Ham's pov is that Allardyce goes in the summer and takes Nolan with him so we can start looking forward. For the first time in my life I'm actually happier when we lose now, cos it makes the prospect of him staying less and less likely.

oh yes, i'm looking forward to that!

but that's not the sadness-- it's things like the end of the miracle that was dortmund, with klopp going who knows where, and gotze slowly sinking into obscurity at bayern, and little things like that--the way the bundesliga ends next week, not the end itself.

They'll probably be safe with Tuchel but I can see a long spell of average performances as they try to rebuild and adapt to whatever style he has in mind for them. The bigger problem is they're not in the CL, aren't particularly rich and play in a league that (unless you're Bayern) will always struggle to attract top foreign players. And now, without Klopp's charisma, they'll probably find it even harder to get the talent they need. Shame really, for a few seasons they really seemed to capture the imagination of fans who (like me) had never really thought about them before. And that probably had more to do with Klopp than any of their individual players ... as good as some of them obviously were/are.

So supposedly some massive bets were put on for Benitez to become the next manager of West Ham, to the point where the bookies have now slashed the odds of him going. Man, that'll be a pretty big coup if they get him.

i get the effect of klopp's charisma but charisma does not score goals-- having gotze, lewandowski and reus prowling the opponent's goal does that. of course that was ripped apart but there was an expectation to rebuild.

now forget the champions-- the problem is at this point they might not even make the europa league-- they're 7th but hanging by their teeth so it's a tossup. i think (i read) there's 30 million euros revenue in that-- that's 10% of their 300 million target. they're far from poor and of course they have a big fanbase. so i'm not too worried about the financial side.

also they're about to play the dfb pokal final vs wolfsburg-- who just beat them 2-1. they got there by beating a bayern which is doing worse than them right now. but anyway, SATURDAY MAY 30.

so it's just how they came crashing after soaring to such heights. and after waiting for the 2nd coming of the klopp messiah he just couldn't cut it and now he goes. so that dream is done for. call it nostalgia.

I'll believe it when I see it but, yeah, massive coup.


I never said they were poor, just that they can't compete with the really elite clubs for the class of players they'll need if they're to return to and be really competitive in Europe for any kind of sustained period. Of course their success/failure depends on far more than just the coach's charisma but, in a small way, a high profile coach can make a difference when it comes to player recruitment. Unless they're content simply with modest domestic league success, in which case none of what I've said applies.

klopp's success was not in recruiting megastars though. it was in turning a young cheap squad into a deadly menace. i suppose the charisma works to inspire them. in that, yes.

i don't know how klopp would deal with divas though, because he's never managed them. his previous gig was with mainz. i bet he's a good puncher though ha ha ha.

I don't think megastar and diva is necessarily synonymous. Alonso? Xavi? Iniesta? Lampard? These aren't primadonas but they are world class.

I've heard rumours he might be off to Fenebahce. Seems an odd choice but I know Turkey has strong social ties with Germany, and they are at least guaranteed CL football, so maybe not. Still seems a bit underwhelming though.

if that move is true (i see the news as having talks with/ denying/ etc) it would fall right in line with his resume-- take an unknown team and light a fire under them.

not to say dortmund was unknown before he took over (it's an old club with a long history), but they were just coming out of bankruptcy and had sold every expensive player at that point, so they might as well have been.

maybe he'll turn the superlig into something everyone wants to watch.

Well he almost made the Bundesliga watchable, so you never know.

ha ha ha ha!

asshole...

but yea, that was funny

can't catch any bundesliga streams this morning.

bayern already champion but limping to the finish line
gladbach angling to overtake wolfsburg to 2nd place
dortmund directly battling werder bremen for 7th, and maybe catch augsburg 6th place
5 solid candidates for relegation still undecided

NEXT YEAR ON FOX. the fox website is pretty great. fingers crossed for everything to work out correctly. can't wait to stop depending on these bullshit pirate streams.

The relegation battle in the Bundesliga looks nuts. The Prem's is now settled but for 1 more place. Definitely not been a vintage season for the Prem.

Bill O'Reilly commentating?

ended up finding an acceptable stream of bayern/mainz which was not the contest i wanted to watch (it was dortmund/bremen which ended a lively 3-2). aside from a beautiful shot from boateng that was stopped by loris karius (very promising young keeper), and a couple of bayern goals, not a lot of action.

paderborn + freiburg are going down, and hamburg plays to stay. in spite of winning, dortmund stayed at 7 because schalke and augsburg won too (augsburg winning kept gladbach 3rd and wolfsburg 2nd).

ha ha-- i fucking hate murdoch, but fox have done right by me letting me watch CL games smoothly and with no interruption, and keeping a well-organized archive, all for just $10/month. yes, it eats my bandwidth like crazy if i watch HD, but i can throttle speeds/resolution and the thing works without too many glitches. let them bring me the bundesliga, i'll gladly pay double.

Looks like Pep's there for another season so it'll be interesting seeing what he does in the transfer window. Haven't heard much about his targets but he's bound to want to strengthen certain areas.

he desperately needs another boateng-- a fast central defender who can also attack. maybe he can give beckenbauer a magic potion! even today all the best mainz attacks came down the middle on counters. that hole needs to be plugged. javi martinez should help, but still... we need more options.

pizarro should be retiring now. he was okay to sub when people were healthy but he's now i think 36 and the bench needs a full-timer given the injury rate. no idea who will replace him.

been hearing rumors schweinsteiger might go to man u-- pep said he's free to decide whatever he wants at this point. would be a terrible shame to let go a man who is a bayern legend through and through-- imagine, say, paul scholes carreer having ended up at real madrid or something.

Over here there's talk of Pep being interested in Raheem Sterling, although since he came out as wanting to leave Liverpool he's been linked in the press with just about every top club going.

Man U are apparently spending big this summer and i wouldn't be surprised if they're looking at Schweinsteiger, although his injury problems would surely be a factor in any deal struck.

Y'know what pisses me off? And I mean REALLY grinds my gears. Everyone (and I mean everyone has been banging on about how sad it is that Gerrard is leaving and there's a big hole to be filled by Liverpool. Fuck off. The guy has clearly been past it for the last two seasons.

Y'know who NOBODY has been mentioning and celebrating in their last game? Lampard. Lampard as in the guy who is still scoring to his last game and has proved himself to be as reliable as ever in every game he has played. Fucking bullshit.

So right

Oh now he scores! Well good on him *pouts with arms folded*

Everton lose their last game of the season. As expected to be honest.

Next up is Preston and Swindon to decide to who goes up into the Championship. Preston better no bugger this up AGAIN. They've lost 9 play off finals so far. 10th time's a charm?

More importantly, west ham have officially announced that fat sam isn't having his contract renewed. Thank fuck for that!!!!

Haha was waiting for that. So who will replace him? Pep? Klopp? Benitez? Mourinho?

lololol pep no wai

but if klopp goes there i might become a fan

Haha. Fuck knows and I don't really care. Important thing is the fat man has left the building. I understand why fans of other clubs would think wh fans have been irrational in their hatred of Allardyce but if they knew the crap that was going on with him behind the scenes they'd see why he simply had to go. Wherever he goes next I feel sorry for their fans.

After liverpool's result today I wouldn't be surprised if rodgers goes and maybe klopp goes to anfield.

Perfect start by Beckford. Love the guy. Although we'll ignore his time at Everton.

YES!

:D PNE 3-0 up at half time and the glory days are here.

Sobering up after the news about allardyce it is a bit of a worry thinking about who we'll get in to replace him. Allardyce's comments about the club in interviews destroyed any potential bond with the fans, and results since Christmas only undermined him even more, but god knows who were getting now. Bilic seems to be favourite but I'm not sure he'd ever be a consideration were he not an ex player. And the habit of teams hiring ex players rarely works out. Still delighted Sam's gone but slightly nervous about the future. And the press hasn't helped linking us with top level managers who were never realistically gonna come here.

Ian Holloway. And you'll be grateful for it.

Well PNE SMASHED Swindon 4-0. Bring on the Championship.

It could be holloway. It could be steve mclaren. It could be bilic. Right now I'm just gkad it isn't allardyce.

Getting worried now. West ham rudderless for a whole day. Chelsea would've gone thru a couple of managers in that time.

klopp can imagine coaching bayern some day:

http://www.espnfc.us/german-bundesli...munich-one-day