Football (Soccer) Thread

[The Larch]

I'm pretty sure that Luís Enrique will end up being hired by either Chelsea or Tottenham before the season ends and towards the next one.

[The Larch]

A funny Premier League stat regarding coaches. 

Roberto De Zerbi was appointed as Graham Potter's replacement at Brighton in September.

He's now the 11th longest-serving current manager in the Premier League

[Sheilbh]

Weirdly I thought that had settled down in recent years.

On Potter I still really rate him and think he has a very good record. But, as Ronay says, I don't think he is a right fit for Chelsea in particular but probably not any of the big traditional clubs. I also don't think he'd be a great fit for somewhere like Everton where there is a demand of a bit of an emotional connection.

But I think the comparison with Lampard (or Gerrard) is laughable. He is a far better coach than them. I doubt he'll stay unemployed for long (I feel like he'd be a really good fit for German football actually) and I suspect he'll be a success where he goes next. Apparently he's already turned down Leicester.

I think it flags that there is this chasm of super-clubs and the rest. You can be a really really good manager of the rest, but that doesn't necessarily translate into an ability to manage the super-clubs. And I think part of that is ego and credibility with the players which is why I think you get someone like Lampard (or Pirlo, say) getting massive jobs. I think there's relatively few ways in - I think Dortmund as an edge case is one, if you do very well in, say, the Netherlands or Portugal at a European level you'll get a look in. But I'm not sure doing really well for you budget in the big leagues is enough any more - it might work if you've got a club that hasn't actually won anything recently (Howe at Newcastle, Poch at Spurs). But I think when things start going wrong and you're Rodgers or Potter or Nuno the best you can say is that you've done well at Swansea, Brighton or Wolves and I'm not sure it works in those dressing rooms.

[Josquius]

How's life at Everton anyway? Everything is fine memeing going on or is there a solid relegation plan?

[Sheilbh]

How's life at Everton anyway? Everything is fine memeing going on or is there a solid relegation plan?

It's a very bad team and we don't have an established striker as DCL is perma-injured, but Simms scored an equaliser against Chelsea so maybe this is his moment (God willing). But Dyche is doing very well given what he's got.

But at the same time there's a Premier League financial fairplay investigation over our losses which could see, say a points deduction (I feel like watching Everton over the last few years is punishment enough ). So. Everything is fine

I suspect if we're relegated we will fully Sunderland.

[Tamas]

The hindsight-driven Guardian articles on Potter and Chelsea are nauseating. There was barely any criticism of Potter before the final couple of weeks and even then muted. Now all the pundits act like this was an obviously failed model from the start. I mean it was, but they didn't flag it because Potter was the next England darling to put hopes of global glory in.

Meanwhile Tuchel is showing his brilliance with Bayern Munchen. Just sickening.

[The Larch]

Meanwhile Tuchel is showing his brilliance with Bayern Munchen. Just sickening.

Which brilliance? Getting knocked out of the cup by Freiburg? 

I'm pretty sure that Luís Enrique will end up being hired by either Chelsea or Tottenham before the season ends and towards the next one.

And apparently he's travelling to London to interview for Chelsea. If somebody can light a fire in the butt of Chelsea's players for the game against Real Madrid it's him. 

[celedhring]

And apparently he's travelling to London to interview for Chelsea

Please for the love of god, don't force me to like fucking Chelsea.

[The Larch]

And apparently he's travelling to London to interview for Chelsea

Please for the love of god, don't force me to like fucking Chelsea.

They're too easy for you to dislike at the moment, what with them having a former Espanyol player as manager. 

[celedhring]

And apparently he's travelling to London to interview for Chelsea

Please for the love of god, don't force me to like fucking Chelsea.

They're too easy for you to dislike at the moment, what with them having a former Espanyol player as manager. 

I had to check to know that Bruno actually played for Espanyol 

[The Larch]

And apparently he's travelling to London to interview for Chelsea

Please for the love of god, don't force me to like fucking Chelsea.

They're too easy for you to dislike at the moment, what with them having a former Espanyol player as manager. 

I had to check to know that Bruno actually played for Espanyol 

Yeah, I guess he's a bit of a non-entity. I even read somewhere that Chelsea were considering bringing Lampard back to be the caretaker until the end of the season.

[Gups]

The hindsight-driven Guardian articles on Potter and Chelsea are nauseating. There was barely any criticism of Potter before the final couple of weeks and even then muted. Now all the pundits act like this was an obviously failed model from the start. I mean it was, but they didn't flag it because Potter was the next England darling to put hopes of global glory in.

Meanwhile Tuchel is showing his brilliance with Bayern Munchen. Just sickening.

Not true. Barney Ronay was saying it was a terrible fit right from the start. Everyone has - it's not hindsight, it was always obvious.

[Josquius]

Yeah, it's pretty clear the two are an odd fit.
The only question is whether it could be made to work nonetheless, maybe even if he could bring something Chelsea was missing.
Nope.

[Sheilbh]

I also don't seem him falling in the "they never give English managers a chance" camp because in my head that's always the Paul Merson/Chris Sutton style line and it's about former players who can instil "passion" or "what the club's about" like Lampard, or the merry-go-round coaches like Allardyce.

A lot of that is just stereotypes but I feel like for the reason Potter was beloved by the more hipster end of football was because he did interesting things tactically, he was interested in data, he liked working with a Director of Football etc. Plus he has a bit of a curse of xG which is probably also why they love him of when he came to Brighton and in Chelsea they consistently do far, far better on xG but are dreadful at scoring goals - then it all starts clicking a bit more.

I think Tamas just needs to start reading the tabloids for the wider view on Potter (Everton fans hated the idea - I loved it but it would probably be a disaster - when he was briefly linked to us ) for these sort of reasons. Eg - the Mail today

SIMON JORDAN: Every manager sacked this season deserves it. Let's face it, they've all been bloody USELESS... and some, like Potter, have just been made multi-millionaires for being mediocre
    Graham Potter and Brendan Rodgers were the most recent managers to be axed
    There have been 12 sackings this season - which is seen as a shocking statistic 
    They all deserved to be sacked and can't consider themselves hard done by

[FunkMonk]

Chelsea are close to appointing Frank Lampard as head coach on an interim basis until the end of this season. Proposed deal would see 44yo installed immediately, while exhaustive search for new permanent boss continues in weeks ahead @TheAthleticFC

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/status/1643671706752655360?t=EjLPNPItEPLHaPaz8h2WoA&s=19



In all seriousness though it is probably fine because this is a lost season anyway, as long as they hire a real manager in the summer.