All posts by n8rngtd.top

Leicester City parted ways with manager Claude Puel this weekend as a heavy defeat to Crystal Palace proved to be the final nail in the coffin.

The former Southampton manager had been on the ropes for some time as Foxes boss, and this weekend proved a straw too far for the Leicester board and fans, who watched on as Palace ran riot in a 4-1 win at the King Power.

Puel was brought in as a steady hand, but he has seemingly lost his way a bit at the club, with results suffering along the way.

However, the club must move on quickly, and we here in the Tavern think a move for former Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic might be the way to go for Leicester, at least in the short term.

The former Watford and Chelsea man lost his own job earlier in the camapaign oweing to a run of poor form at Craven Cottage, but there were other factors in that sacking too, and Jokanovic might be worth a crack by another Premier League club.

Leicester have little to lose in setting him on a short term assignment, and he could well prove to be the man to take the club forward and get the most out of what is a group of exciting attacking players at the club.

Last season he had Fulham playing some of the best football in the Championship, and if he can replicate that with the Foxes, it could well bring exciting times back to the former Premier League winners.

[ad_pod ]Loads of Sunderland fans have been running the rule over Tuesday’s success in the semi-final of the Checkatrade Trophy, and they’re absolutely full of praise for Jimmy Dunne.Five years after that League Cup final at Wembley, in which Fabio Borini stunned Manchester City early on only for the champions to bounce back courtesy of stunners from Yaya Toure and Samir Nasri, Sunderland are heading back to the capital once again.The Black Cats beat Bristol Rovers 2-0 in Tuesday’s semi-final at the Memorial Stadium, courtesy of goals from Will Grigg and Lewis Morgan, setting up a final against Portsmouth at the end of the month. Pl>ymaker FC Exclusive: Jermaine Jenas reveals why Tyne-Wear is a more intense derby than anything London can offer – check out the video below….Grigg opened the scoring with a lovely swivel and turn shortly before half-time, and Morgan doubled the lead on the other side of the interval, showing good instincts to tap home a rebound after a good effort by George Honeyman.The goalscorers may take the headlines, but fans are full of praise for Dunne, who has taken tons of stick for his recent performances.The young defender has infuriated fans with several poor performances during Jack Ross’ side’s horrid run of 1-1 draws, but he was excellent on Tuesday night, heading away every cross that bombarded the Black Cats’ penalty box.You can find some of the best Twitter reactions down below, where fans have done a complete U-turn on the man they were crucifying just last month…

Chelsea have been avoiding using their academy for years. A number of young talents have been left to rot in the Blues’ developmental system, and not only has this impacted upon their own aspirations, but it’s also prevented Chelsea from being able to make use of their talents too. 

However, the Blues’ need to change that appears to be more immediate than ever. According to the Sun, German scouts are flocking to England in order to find the next Jaden Sancho.

They’re clearing smelling blood, owing to the lack of focus being placed on young talent in England. Sancho, of course, left Man City in favour of regular football with Borussia Dortmund – and he’s now flourishing.

If Chelsea weren’t already sweating on the futures of some of their key young players, they certainly should be now. This doesn’t just stop at Callum Hudson-Odoi, of course.

Chelsea’s academy is filled with brilliant young talent, with players like Dujon Sterling, Ethan Ampadu and Mason Mount all on the cusp of greatness. However, as Chelsea continue to spend millions upon millions, their futures are looking bleak.

That now, however, needs to change. In the past, they could afford to ship players out on loan and forget about them, only giving those that dazzle away from the club a chance in the first team.

Instead, though, with German scouts looking on, players are likely to recognise that they can find permanent homes elsewhere like Sancho did, and that can improve their development greatly.

For the first time, the youngsters hold at least some of the power, and for teams like Chelsea, that’s a real worry.

Thoughts?

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Leeds United are currently on course to achieve automatic promotion into the Premier League at the end of this season. The Whites are second in the Championship, behind only Norwich City. 

However, the Yorkshire club’s triumph is by no means certain. Sheffield United are hot on their heels and there’s still plenty of time for the Whites to capitulate.

Slipping into the play-offs at the end of the season would be a sickening outcome for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, who have been in and around top spot for the most of the campaign so far.

Are fans being priced out of the Championship as well as the Premier League? The angry Bolton fan in the video below certainly believes so…

Although the play-offs would still give them a chance of going up, Danny Mills believes that this is an opportunity that the club would fail to take.

What he said

Speaking to Jim White on talkSPORT (12/03, 12:45pm), as quoted by HITC, the former Leeds and England full-back said: “The fear is if they drop into the playoffs like they have done in the past, it goes wrong. And that’s a big, big fear. It’s always that team that have been so close in the top two pretty much all season, at the very last minute, you drop into the playoffs, there’s a huge disappointment and a big sigh.”

Prepared to bounce back

Certainly, the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion could knock Leeds off their stride and batter their confidence.

If, in this situation, morale were to be allowed to ebb away at Elland Road then there would be no chance of success in the play-offs. In that sense, Mills’ fears are perfectly legitimate.

However, fans can take heart from how well their side have reacted to disappointments at times already this season. Frustrating defeats to QPR and Norwich City were both followed up with more positive results. This ability to bounce back is something Leeds will have to call on if they end up in the play-offs.

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Chris Sutton has absolutely blasted Steven Gerrard’s performance in his maiden managerial campaign.

The Hoops are in a fantastic position to secure their eighth consecutive league title and the Parkhead legend is not impressed by Gerrard’s first year at Ibrox.

Rangers dropped even more points on Saturday, with the Gers now needing nothing short of a miracle to eclipse their arch-rivals in the race for the title.

Gerrard and his side started the season well, impressing in their Europa League qualifying campaign in particular, but have faded badly since their Old Firm win over Celtic in December.

Former Wigan & Fulham man, Jimmy Bullard recently showed that he’s still got it! Check out the video below…

What has he said?

Asked to rate Gerrard’s season out of ten before their match against Kilmarnock, Sutton told BT Sport: “Four.

“He’s at a big club. He doesn’t manage a mediocre Premier League English team. It’s about winning trophies and they’re not going to win any.”

What’s the verdict?

Sutton’s comments have proven to be quite controversial, with the rest of the BT Sport panel questioning his rating while others scored Gerrard’s first campaign in Glasgow as an eight out of ten.

Despite all the reaction around the comments though, it is actually quite difficult to disagree, as any season without silverware is considered a failure at Ibrox.

The gaffer has dropped countless points with drab draws, most recently at home to Kilmarnock in a match where the visitors had a ridiculous 61 per cent of the ball, per BBC’s stats.

The performance that ended their Scottish Cup hopes against Aberdeen was absolutely woeful, and if the boss can’t motivate them for a match that would have set up a semi-final against Celtic then when is he going to be able to motivate them?

Sutton’s comments are controversial, but they’re a lot closer to the truth than some may be willing to accept, and the Gers proved him right for all to see with their woeful display against Kilmarnock on Saturday.

Chris Brunt has made over 400 appearances for West Brom in the 11 and a half years he has been at the club, and has spoken of his sadness at the sacking of Darren Moore, admitting that the players need to take their share of the blame.

He refuted that they had let Moore down, insisting everybody “tried their best” in every game, but ultimately “inadequate results” were down to them, and that was the main contributing factor to his departure.

In a detailed interview with the Express and Star, Brunt said: “He’s [Darren Moore] just a good guy, he’s accommodating with everybody.

“He spends as much time with Premier League footballers as he does the cleaning staff.

“It is sad that he’s gone, but at the end of the day it’s a results-based business.”

Speaking about whether he thought the players had let their former manager down, he added: “Every performance, when you come off the pitch you think ‘Have I done the best I could?’.

“Obviously implementing new bits and pieces this year hasn’t been as easy as we wanted it to be.

“You can’t say people have let him (Moore) down, everybody tried their best for him every day.

“I think it’s a combination of a lot of things, since the turn of the year it hasn’t worked out.”

The 35-year-old Albion stalwart wants to keep playing for a few more years yet, and hopes that it will be at the Hawthorns, but with a new manager coming in, he is smart enough to realise that things change quickly in football.

With a coaching A Licence already in his back pocket, Brunt could well be a manager of the future, and with his years of experience at the club, a new boss could do worse than give him a coaching role in his new setup.

It would be the perfect way to begin the transition from player to coach, for a man whose career is winding down.

He would certainly be a popular appointment with the fans, in whatever role he was given, being the perfect liaison between players and management, with him already having the respect of his peers, and through his years at the club, knows exactly what it means to pull on the navy and white jersey.

What do you think Baggies fans? Would you like to see Brunt given a coaching role at your club when the new manager eventually arrives? Let us know your opinion…

[ad_pod ]Liverpool fans on Twitter have been busy discussing just how underrated Gini Wijnaldum is, and how unnoticed his work in the middle of the park goes at times.Wijnaldum arrived on Merseyside in a £25m deal from Newcastle as one of Jurgen Klopp’s first signings, and has gone from strength to strength under the German boss.Are the media letting Jurgen Klopp off lightly for his lack of silverware? The Pl>ymaker FC squad have their say in the video below…The Dutch international has been one of the Reds’ standout performers this season, quietly going about his work in midfield with some tidy passing, vital reading of the play and the odd goal or two.Whilst his performances were going somewhat unnoticed, the 28-year-old’s efforts have slowly become more recognised over the course of the campaign as Klopp’s side enter April still in the title race as well as the Champions League.

However, the overall feeling is that the former PSV Eindhoven star is extremely underrated, with his significance in making the side tick and perform to its best vital to Klopp…

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According to Mundo Deportivo, Tottenham are interested in a move for Barcelona star Malcom, a player who has found chances hard to come by in Catalonia during his time with the Spanish champions.

Barcelona signed the Brazilian for £36.5m back in the summer on a five-year contract, having swooped in to snatch the attacker from the clutches of Roma – the Italian side had even agreed personal terms with Malcom.

The North London Derby of 2008 may never be matched for drama. Lewis from Norwich City Central explains why it’s his all time favourite derby in the video below…

However, despite their efforts to lure him away from Roma and towards the Camp Nou, the former Bordeaux forward hasn’t been able to repay the club’s faith in him – he has scored just three goals for the club in 15 appearances.

In fairness, he has only made one start in La Liga this season, but he is quite clearly a player that comes with some doubts – as a result, Football FanCast take a look at some potential consequences of Tottenham spending big on Malcom…

Big risk, no reward

Apart from a stellar period with Bordeaux, in which he found the back of the net 23 times and recorded 16 assists in just under 100 appearances, Malcom has done very little in European football to merit such a huge fee – the aforementioned report from Mundo Deportivo states that they will not sell him for less than €50m (£43.05m).

To spend such a huge fee on a 22-year-old who hasn’t really proven himself at all yet would be a huge risk, and not one that Spurs need to be dealing with whilst a number of problematic areas already exist.

Money wasted on needless area

The north London side are very strong in attack and never seem to find it difficult to score goals.

Mauricio Pochettino has the likes of Heung-min Son, Lucas Moura, Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen at his disposal, almost all of whom are marquee attackers and would almost certainly keep Malcom out of the side.

Do Spurs really want to be spending a huge sum of money on someone who will be a rotation option at best? Even more so when the full-back areas are so weak and the departed Mousa Dembele has still evidently not been replaced.

Lucas Moura moved on

Both Lucas and Malcom are very similar players; both are diminutive, weak attackers, who lack  consistency. Oh, and they’re both Brazilian.

The former Paris Saint-Germain forward looked to be finding his feet in a Tottenham shirt, although he has tailed off significantly barring a goal against Liverpool on Sunday. Prior to that his last goal involvement came at the start of January, and even that was only an assist against Tranmere.

Given the fact that they are both similar players, if Malcom were to be bought in, it could potentially signal the end of Lucas’ time in north London.

The search for a new manager is now in progress for Queens Park Rangers following the sacking of Steve McClaren, though it probably should have started sooner.

QPR’s form since the beginning of the new year has been absolutely dreadful, leaving them floating a few places above the relegation zone.

Still, better late than never, and the west London club could now look to appoint Tim Sherwood as they hope to avoid a catastrophic end to the season.

The Breakdown

Sky Sports reports the former Aston Villa manager is on the list of candidates to succeed McClaren in the dugout, with the Loftus Road hierarchy confident their next appointment should have no trouble in steering the team to safety.

The Rs are eight points above 22nd-placed Rotherham with the current Championship campaign edging closer to its conclusion.

Bearing that in mind, albeit perhaps an underwhelming name to most QPR supporters, Sherwood would not be the worst appointment if brought in on a short-term basis.

Considering the direction Tottenham were heading in under Andre Villas-Boas before his sacking back in 2013, Sherwood managed to steady the ship at White Hart Lane when he replaced the Portuguese coach.

Meanwhile, at Aston Villa, the 50-year-old also did well to guide the Midlands club to Premier League safety in the 2014/15 season when he came in to succeed Paul Lambert.

Ultimately, if QPR cannot get their first-choice target now with Sky Sports also reporting that Portsmouth’s Kenny Jackett is high on their list, then Sherwood could be their best bet temporarily.

QPR fans, are you open to the idea of Sherwood coming in? Join the discussion by commenting below.

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Manchester City fans have come under fire of late after they failed to sell out for their FA Cup semi-final against Brighton & Hove Albion, a game which took place just a few days after empty seats were visible at the Etihad Stadium in their fixture against Cardiff City.

Predictably, the anti-City Twitter brigade turned out in their numbers to slate the fan base, actively turning a blind eye to City’s relentless fixture list which naturally forces supporters to pick and choose the financially-draining trips to watch their side in action.

Victory over the Seagulls secured a final date against Watford next month, and the FA have already announced details for the fixture, including prices, date and kick-off time.

In response to the news, the Citizens faithful were outraged by the ticket prices, the 5pm kick-off time and the fact 28,000 tickets will be given to each club, leaving 34,000 leftover for neutrals and corporate.

There’s good news for fans of City, Liverpool, Spurs and United in the video below…

Naturally, the prices are hardly a break from the status quo but in the midst of an incredibly expensive season it seems the fans are beginning to feel the squeeze, while the fact neutrals will outweigh either set of supporters is a damning indictment on the state of the modern game.

Here’s what the City fans have had to say about the FA Cup Final announcement…