Told you Bilic is a no-nonsense type of manager...inb4 the owners tilt the **** out of him and he ragequits

Amalfitano appears to be able to start a fight in an empty house. He could be our new Craig Bellamy, but not as good at football.

'Myths' in the EPL

http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/33757354

(Stoke's style, importance of possession, Chelsea's defense, lazy Özil, etc)

Ex-plop keeper scores backheeled volley.

Think that's been rather well established, at least if you put in more of an indicator, but one interesting adjustment would be to look at possession pre-first goal and that goal's indication for success (which I think we know depending on when) then adjust some more. I'm guessing this league will have a clear tendency of the leading team to follow that up with gradually lesser possession and I realize that also bring in some variables and things quickly get complicated!

Sakho has been nicked for giving his girlfriend a few slaps. Pissflaps.

Can anyone link me a study that explains why most footballers are ****ing idiots?

I don't remember the exact figures but I remember reading that prize money for winning the Europa League was less than the difference between 17th and 14th in the premier league.

I think it worked out like each place in the premier league is worth an extra £1.5million.

Prize money for winning the Europa League was something like £3.5million.

Chances if them winning it even if they completely focused on that competition are really low. And it's not even like the extra TV games would allow them to draw in significantly better sponsors and get more money that way as viewing figures for Europa League are a fraction of premier league games.

You are ignoring some revenue streams here:
1) You might get £3.5 million for winning it, but modern football is such that many will view the big prize as being a Big Cup place, which is worth a fortune.
2) You get additional gate receipts, which are probably going to be around £1million per game for a West Ham, at a guess, along with all the **** burgers, awful beer and over-priced gear from China with a club badge stuck on it.

Shocker - I don't see how we are definitively not going down. There are three relegation places to share among 14 teams, we will start each season in the running. I think we started the season as around a 10/1 shot for relegation, maybe slightly shorter.

nope, but you can add the following to any research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF5kMS0Mom0

well, europa league can give the plop nth choice strikers a run out at least

Can't open the link from mobile. Is that diafra or mamadou?

What an absurdly brilliant goal to equalise in the last minute. Hero

Diafra.

Here is the study that Raymond Verheijen's company did a few years ago. I haven't read the full article but it talks about results after 2 days rest which is what usually happens in England after Europa games. http://worldfootballacademy.com/wp-c...overy-days.pdf

Hasn't there always been complaints from Prem managers/players that the FA/Prem don't help out the English clubs when it comes to European play. This would be a lear example of them not moving a game so that Spurs could field their strongest and fully rested teams in each game.

Hasn't the prize money for Europa league gone up in recent years?

Sorry to be a nit (who am I trying to kid, I'm not sorry at all...), but the FA and Premier League don't have anything to do with the Football League Cup.

Shame he couldn't have stuck around at Liverpool until Rodgers arrived. Brent would surely have realised quite quickly that GK wasn't the right position for this guy. He's a master at that.

who sets the game dates for the league cup?

The clue is in the name.

I see this kinda thing quite often. Why has Brendan gotten this reputation for playing players oop? Markovic is pretty much the only one and he was reasonably effective as a wing back.

There was Sterling playing wingback at some point iirc? Brentan is no LvGuru though, that's for sure.

Can CB.
Sterling WB.
Henderson WB.

A few I can think of. Mostly I was just making a cheap joke.

Sterling played most of the year (when stugg was injured) as a forward.
Not played much at the wing.

I don't think that really counts as playing him oop when the alternatives are Balotelli and Lambert, it was simply the best option.