Re: Championship rivals thread

[Saunders82]

Blues have sacked Gary Rowett!!!!!!

I bet he wishes now he hadnt distanced himself from the Villa job, loyalty means nothing in football now.

[achilles]

That is utterly crazy, he has done a fantastic job there under the restrictions he had to work under!
He might have been the Villa manager as well, if things had worked out differently (i.e. not shown any loyalty to the slum dwellers).

[De Kuip]

Definitely looks like Zola if the Birmingham Fail is to be believed....apparently he's in Brum for talks and their players are proper pissed off. Oh dear what a shame never mind.
Edit: Now confirmed by the club, Zola appointed

[danclare82]

Zola appointed. Dear oh dear

[deadbuzzardalive]

I predict that Zola will do okay, by which I mean, I expect that he'll have them finishing between mid-table and just outside the play-offs. Think people are going to be disappointed if they're expecting them to suddenly go back to how rubbish they were under Lee Clark.

Hope I'm wrong of course.

Also there's a chance that Steve Clarke might end up there as Zola's assistant.

[Trotters]

Rowett will be massively pissed off that he showed them loyalty when the Villa job was available, only to be fisted like this.

Obviously their owners didn't decide on this yesterday given that they sacked the entir back room staff to and the speed of Zola's appointment. Rowett will know that the whole time he was turning us down, they were busy making arrangements for his funeral.

Poor bastard.

What's Zola's record like as a manager?

[The Utterer]

Frankly i couldn't give a monkeys what happens at that club.

[deadbuzzardalive]

So Derby win again, meaning we're now seven points from the play off spots, and it could be ten by the time we play QPR. Almost feels like we're back to where we were when Bruce first came in.

Play-offs looking more unlikely, really need some of the other results to go our way this weekend. And if it wasn't already, QPR is now a must win game, as is Leeds. Basically we need to go on a run, probably one better than Bruce's first nine or so games.

[AstonThriller]

So Derby win again, meaning we're now seven points from the play off spots, and it could be ten by the time we play QPR. Almost feels like we're back to where we were when Bruce first came in.

Play-offs looking more unlikely, really need some of the other results to go our way this weekend. And if it wasn't already, QPR is now a must win game, as is Leeds. Basically we need to go on a run, probably one better than Bruce's first nine or so games.

The season doesn't end after the QPR game. There will be 24 games to go after the weekend. That is more than enough to find form and close the gap regardless of whether it's seven or ten points. The fact is we have more spending power than most of the sides in the league, we play all of our rivals at home in the second half of the season and we've got an easier away schedule to come too. So there is no need to panic right now.

[DelboyVilla]

Frankly i couldn't give a monkeys what happens at that club.

But as a source of amusement they couldn't be a better local rival??

[Trotters]

It's certainly a kick in the balls and feels like we've gone two steps forward only to take three large ones backward.

But realistically, it's more like 9 (bumbling, uncoordinated) steps forward, 2 steps back. And that's OK as long as Bruce learns from it. And as long as his coaching team can work on it.

I suspect that if we didn't have the two top teams running away with things, blips like this would seem a lot more palatable. It's just upsetting seeing fucking wank-stain teams like Newcastle and nobodies like Brighton & Hove Albion (the word "Hove" has no place in the premier league, FFS!) pissing this league when we've spent a spectacular amount of money, have the very best of facilities and are sitting below those tossers from down the road who can't even see that they had a decent manager.

I trust Tony 100% to get it right for us. Bruce has slipped from his lofty perch and now has a suspicious eye cast upon him but with the window coming up and his back room staff in place, his real work starts now so he gets a pass for a while at least.

I would like him to explain where Toner, Green, Tish and Lyden are hiding though. And why he thinks Hutton is better than Bacuna.

Other players are down to opinion - if he prefers Ayew over Adomah or prefers to have Kodjia on the wing then that's a debate that's worth having.  I don't think there's a debate to be had for Hutton, Gardner and Westwood any more. They're shit and should not be near the team.

[jeffvilla]

Zola's record in management is Pxxs poor. Ok as a player but sacked after managing a team in Dubai, good luck the blues you will need it with him in charge.

[Trotters]

I had to google his record as, aft Wet Spam, he kinda disappeared off the radar. Tends to go ok for a few months (new manager bounce?) and then the wheels fall off and roll away. Or, hopefully in Blues' case, fall off and keep right on to the end of the road.

[De Kuip]

I had to google his record as, aft Wet Spam, he kinda disappeared off the radar. Tends to go ok for a few months (new manager bounce?) and then the wheels fall off and roll away. Or, hopefully in Blues' case, fall off and keep right on fuck right off (just fixed it for you Trotters) to the end of the road.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Haven't really taken much notice of Zola's managerial career, don't think he's done particularly well, probably won't do as well as Rowett, but I think he'll keep them plodding along as an average championship side.

Unless he has big money to spend. And that's the question now, do they have money, because I'm sure Zola and Casiraghi won't have come cheap, and they probably wouldn't have gone to sha if they weren't guaranteed money.

Hopefully it all implodes, not just because they're sha, but because we could also do with a few of the teams above us losing a bit of form.

[AstonThriller]

Bruce has apparently said he wants twenty points from the next ten games.

Our next ten fixtures are...

QPR- away
Burton- home
Leeds- home
Cardiff- away
Wolves- away
Preston- home
Bristol- home
Brentford- away
Forest- away
Ipswich- home

So twenty points pretty much means six wins, two draws and only two defeats. Another point to make is we will be half way through the transfer window by the time we play Wolves. Imo if we win on Sunday that could set us up nicely to have a really good run. Our home fixtures look decent and we're not playing any of the top six away from home either. We need a big run of wins now.

[VillaBill]

I have said before Bruce needs an average of 2pts / game for us to make the play offs, he has slipped recently, I think he has 19 from 10 games, beat QPR on Sunday, 22 from 11, still on course.

[deadbuzzardalive]

Table could look really horrible for us tomorrow, putting even more pressure on the QPR game, we could be four points off the play-offs or ten, really hope results go our way for once.

[AstonThriller]

I think Huddersfield beating Norwich was a good result for us tonight. Yes they may have moved eleven points clear of us but them keeping Norwich down is a good thing I think because I just don't see Huddersfield staying up there and if they do it's only good for us if we sneak into the top six at the expense of much of better sides like Norwich, Wednesday or Derby.

[AstonThriller]

A post on another forum about our push for the playoffs...

I can't see us winning weekend which basically for me would rule us out as I can see us doing poorly in january

LOL some people are just miserable gits aren't they? We've won four in a row at home and have only lost two in the last ten games and all of a sudden "we won't win another game I tell thee" .

[Saunders82]

There is some crumbs of comfort in the present situation, how many times do you see a team who have been shite most of the season sneak into the play off places after showing some late form and go on to get promotion, quite often I think, COULD THAT BE US????

[achilles]

To be honest I don't see that you can write us off at all, this league is wide open except for perhaps the top two, especially Newcastle who are streets ahead of the rest of the league.
The playoffs are certainly attainable especially with our potential spending power and I fully expect to be in them, although when we do get in them we need to grow some balls and play with some passion and pride!

[NARLA24]

There is no way we will not make the play offs. January buys in the transfer market will make sure of that and the mass exodus of dead weight will prove to be a turning point for us. Expect a lot of OUTS and INS in January.

[Trotters]

Those signings are still 2, 3,4, 5 weeks off then there's time needed for the good old gel factor to kick in.

Key is getting rid of Agbonlahor. Cut that particularly malignant tumour out and we could start climbing that ladder.

[NARLA24]

Those signings are still 2, 3,4, 5 weeks off then there's time needed for the good old gel factor to kick in.

Key is getting rid of Agbonlahor. Cut that particularly malignant tumour out and we could start climbing that ladder.

How did you know that? Genius Trotters

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