Sam Allardyce and Alan Padrew are actually good managers.

Allardyce being considered a good manager wouldn't have been controversial 7 or 8 years ago after his exploits with Bolton. His spells at Blackburn and Newcastle seem more to be the exception to his record than the rule.

LOL, Fat Sam being praised on an Arsenal fans site, now I've seen it all.

I've mentioned Allardyce before in the PL thread. He's always been an analyst sort, but now he's growing some cojones where didn't have before.

Might even be slightly less walrusish.

Allerdyce is what he has always been, a good midtable manager. He'll never be any more than that.

Ozil should be sold this summer (and the money deployed to buy for other positions).

The expression of the lady in the end is priceless 😆

What an arsehole. If it's that easy to get under his skin he's not going to be around in England for long. Every manager that wants the spotlight will call him out.

😆 This is the best thing that has happened since Benitez and his: "No mind games, this is facht."

He's even referring to himself in third person:

Then, of course, with the quality of Fellaini we played more forward balls and we scored from that, so I think it was a very good decision of the manager.

Another way to look at it is that you screwed up your match plan, yet insisted for 70 minutes and then started pinging balls at the tallest donkey just to claw back a point.

He always refers to himself in the third person, you ain't seen nothing yet.

I actually like van Gaal. He is mad as a bat, but he isn't boring. He also is less of an arrogant twat than Moron.

You obviously haven't read his book "Biography and Vision", where he explains the basics of football and life on the basis of what he calls the "Total Human Priciple" (he invented the term himself). You'd struggle to find a bigger megalomaniac on the planet than Louis van Gaal. He gives Putin a run for his money.

I've hated van Gaal ever since it was announced that he took the United job and every decent thing he did in the WC was hyped as a masterstroke.

Gurgen wrote:

You'd struggle to find a bigger megalomaniac on the planet than Louis van Gaal. He gives Putin a run for his money.

And thats saying something for a Dutchman. 😆

I remember reading that his daughters have to use the formal u (Dutch for the French vous) instead of jij (equivalent to tu) to this day when addressing him, because he "needs them to know that there's some distance between them and that he's from a different generation".

13 days later

I think Vieira is a tit for tapping up Arsenal players. Taints his legacy for me.

When he came close to joining Tottenham I suspected he doesn't hold the same connection with the club as the likes of Wright, Adams, Keown or Henry. I don't think sentiment comes into the equation for him. Still a legend but I don't think he's a fan.

Pretty much.

ludovic van zis wrote:

I kinda like Roy Keane.

Rex wrote:

I think Vieira is a tit for tapping up Arsenal players. Taints his legacy for me.

When did this happen?

qs! wrote:
ludovic van zis wrote:

I kinda like Roy Keane.

Think he means it in a yes homo kinda way.

The G14 needs to come back.

otfgoon wrote:

When he came close to joining Tottenham I suspected he doesn't hold the same connection with the club as the likes of Wright, Adams, Keown or Henry. I don't think sentiment comes into the equation for him. Still a legend but I don't think he's a fan.

When did he come close to joining Spurs?

Harry Redknapp said he was close to joining from Inter before he joined City.

Wasn't there a rumour he almost joined them in an off the field role too recently or did I just make that up?

Sounds like houseboat to me. He was between us and City and did the usual Vieira thing of taking the most money offered.

Meh, Paddy was a good pro he always gave his best and demanded his team did likewise, he was a professional at the end of the day and knew his own worth.
Then you have greasy little slugs like Fabregas who until he signed for Chelsea professed himself "still a Gunner" blah blah blah.........

In his new book, A Man Walks On To a Pitch, the QPR boss said: "He almost came to me at Tottenham from Inter Milan. I thought it was an incredible decision by him, after he’d been such a hero at Arsenal.

"I met him at his house in Hampstead and he had no fear about what people would think or what reception he would get. He had enough confidence in his ability to just brush it away.

"I remember talking to Daniel Levy, our chairman, about him. He said the crowd would be hostile. I knew that — but if he had enough bottle to want to put on our white shirt after all that had gone before, I thought it said something about the man."

Well if he did sign for them his name would've been shit but he didn't so this is all hot air.

I don't think that's remotely controversial, relatively speaking.

Biggus wrote:

Well if he did sign for them his name would've been shit but he didn't so this is all hot air.

Hot air is about all Harry has to give. Imagine ever taking him seriously. 😆

JazzG wrote:
Rex wrote:

I think Vieira is a tit for tapping up Arsenal players. Taints his legacy for me.

When did this happen?

Nasri

Oh, not sure if I'll hold that against him. Guy was engineering a move so not surprising Vieira would try to help convince him.

My friend knows an ex Man City player who does work for them, says Vieira still absolutely loves Arsenal. They offered him an incredibly lucrative deal which we would never match.

Indeed, and did he also tap up Clichy and Sagna?
Players aren't idiots they choose whats in their best interests.
Nasri didn't do anything wrong he didn't go on strike like Fabregas or go to Man Utd like Van Persie good luck to him.

I thought Nasri left in a way that was to his compliment, but he lost my respect when he started bad mouthing the fans and the club after the fact.

Nasri, after the transfer, spoke about how Vieira contacted and convinced him that City was the right choice for him early in the summer. Tapping up doesn't get clearer than that. I have no idea whether Vieira had anything to do with the transfers of Clichy and Sagna, but it wouldn't surprise me, at all, if he approached them in similar fashion. I guess I don't think too highly of Vieira.