With Derby already down, I'd rather see Birmingham stay up so that the Scotland squad aren't all playing in the championship next year. Yes, this means the Northern Ireland squad (i.e. Fulham) will but that just goes to show how stupid Lawrie Sanchez was buying exclusively from that squad.

 

I'd expect Hodgson and Megson to resign and be replaced by John Collins and Sam Allardyce respectively. Paul Jewell will keep his job.

I think Paul Jewell will do a good job for Derby in the championship. He'll bring them back up.

I think Paul Jewell will do a good job for Derby in the championship. He'll bring them back up.

 

If they play the way they did we PNE played them in the FA Cup (at a time when we were struggling in the Championship), they'll be like Wednesday were when they were relegated.

Derby won't sack Jewell, no way they'd do that. The moment he signed for them he'll have know bar a minor miracle they'd have been relegated. I think they could be a very strong side next season and Jewell is a very good manager, and he's been very unlucky with Derby at times this season with results (e.g. Liverpool and Man Utd) but that's football.

I can see them doing rubbish next season aswell, people say Jewell's a good manager and he hasn't had chance to get his own players in, but his points total is worse than what Davies achieved :mellow: Davies got 6 points in 14 games, and Jewell has added just 5 points in 20 games. I really hope they don't come back up next year, because i can just see them going straight back down again tbh.

They need a whole new squad to cope. As a Forest fan I do naturally find it highly amusing but at the same time I feel sorry for the fans. Promotion has come far, far too early for them and I think it will be a case of a three steps forwards, four steps back. Billy Davies did an excellent job, so excellent that it was actually too excellent. The players they've signed aren't good enough and you look at them and the way they play, they're going to need to start from scratch and rebuild with a brand new team for the Championship. Otherwise, two relegations in a row wouldn't surprise me, Sheffield United and Charlton were both MUCH better than Derby, yet haven't really been anywhere near to looking like bouncing back. They've played Championship opposition 4 times this season, 3 at home and 1 away. They drew 3 and lost 1, all of those teams are in the bottom half, only one not in the relegation battle.

 

Whilst it may be good that the likes of Hull and Bristol City are competing for the Championship title, I cannot see them coming close to Premiership surivival. Only West Brom I think would, with Palace, Watford and Stoke giving it a decent finish. You may argue that with the money they'll get they'll be able to spend and bring in a load of new players but Derby spent £15m on 16 new players, and look where that's got them. To survive you need to have a squad capable of challenging in the first place, and then have to add around £20m of proven talent, it just won't happen, I'm afraid. The gulf between the two leagues is too vast.

Robbie Savage was a bit of a ludicrous signing. He's clearly past it.

They need a whole new squad to cope. As a Forest fan I do naturally find it highly amusing but at the same time I feel sorry for the fans. Promotion has come far, far too early for them and I think it will be a case of a three steps forwards, four steps back. Billy Davies did an excellent job, so excellent that it was actually too excellent. The players they've signed aren't good enough and you look at them and the way they play, they're going to need to start from scratch and rebuild with a brand new team for the Championship. Otherwise, two relegations in a row wouldn't surprise me, Sheffield United and Charlton were both MUCH better than Derby, yet haven't really been anywhere near to looking like bouncing back. They've played Championship opposition 4 times this season, 3 at home and 1 away. They drew 3 and lost 1, all of those teams are in the bottom half, only one not in the relegation battle.

 

Whilst it may be good that the likes of Hull and Bristol City are competing for the Championship title, I cannot see them coming close to Premiership surivival. Only West Brom I think would, with Palace, Watford and Stoke giving it a decent finish. You may argue that with the money they'll get they'll be able to spend and bring in a load of new players but Derby spent £15m on 16 new players, and look where that's got them. To survive you need to have a squad capable of challenging in the first place, and then have to add around £20m of proven talent, it just won't happen, I'm afraid. The gulf between the two leagues is too vast.

 

Completely agree with this. Derby simply weren't/aren't good enough for the premiership, they have decent championship players but no class except from maybes Barnes who is too young and inexperienced for life in the prem. I feel heartily sorry for the fans, as I know exactly what they're going through. But as a Sunderland fan, I can't help but enjoy watching a team fail even more miserably than we did 2 seasons ago.

 

And West Brom would give the premiership a good go, but they'd need to invest a lot of money into buying prem class defenders. The problem with West Brom is that while they score loads of goals and are easily the most attack-minded team in the Championship, they concede far too many silly goals through sloppy defending. And let's face it, if you're conceding silly goals at Championship level you're not gonna have a hope in hell of keeping them out a step up

loved Mark Clattenburg pushing Nafti in the Villa - Birmingham derby today :rofl:

The teams that are currently in the relegation spots will be relegated

We need a general discussion thread for football and stuff, so I thought instead of making a new thread i'd just re-name my old relegation thread from May :lol:

 

But anyway, biggest story of the day is Sky Sports News reporting Keano has walked. But properly walked, this time, not just walked his dog. And i'm gutted tbh, but not in the least bit surprised :(

 

Nothing confirmed as of yet but apparently it's almost 100% certain that he's left. We'll know the craic by 1pm ish when there's a press conference or something

He's coming back to the place he made his name!!

Hopefully he can get a shave now.

He's coming back to the place he made his name!!

 

....And Swindon Town would be more than happy to have their legendary long serving former captain back as manager.

He has the worst beard ever in football, it reminds me so much of Saddam Hussein :o

 

http://blogs.abcnews.com/photos/uncategorized/saddam_hussein_trial_ap.jpg

Edited December 4, 200816 yr by B.A Baracus

Keane's left Sunderland after more than 2 years in service where he's achieved more in his first venture into management than some managers achieve throughout their entire careers and we're talking about his facial hair? Excellent.

 

Well, while we're at it, what on Earth is Arsene Wenger's hair doing please? And also, how much weight does Steve Bruce really want to put on while he's Wigan manager (Must be all the pies). And as for Martin O'Neill's glasses... SO last month

 

It's like reading through OK Magazine Does Match of the fucking Day in here

Keane's left Sunderland after more than 2 years in service where he's achieved more in his first venture into management than some managers achieve throughout their entire careers and we're talking about his facial hair? Excellent.

 

Well, while we're at it, what on Earth is Arsene Wenger's hair doing please? And also, how much weight does Steve Bruce really want to put on while he's Wigan manager (Must be all the pies). And as for Martin O'Neill's glasses... SO last month

 

It's like reading through OK Magazine Does Match of the fucking Day in here

 

 

You are overating him, he had a blank cheque to get Sunderland promoted when he took over, yes he got them promoted but so he should have done given the money he spent, he has spent tons in the premiership too including buying half the Spurs squad so he has had tons of money at his disposal so given the money he has spent 90% of managers could have got Sunderland promoted and kept them in the Premiership

 

 

I think Keane did a really good job getting Sunderland promoted, but in the Premier League he's been very hit and miss. He's had a lot of money to spend, and whilst realistically he shouldn't be challenging for European spots, they shouldn't be fighting relegation. He's still young, and he's got a lot to learn yet about management yet imo. I think he might be one of those managers that works better on a smaller budget.

 

Gerard Houllier to be the next Sunderland manager too.

You are overating him, he had a blank cheque to get Sunderland promoted when he took over, yes he got them promoted but so he should have done given the money he spent, he has spent tons in the premiership too including buying half the Spurs squad so he has had tons of money at his disposal so given the money he has spent 90% of managers could have got Sunderland promoted and kept them in the Premiership

 

I'm not over-rating anyone. I just think there are more important discussions to have about the subject than what's growing on his face, it's stupid

 

And I don't think he overspent while we were in the Championship. He spent enough to get us up the table, but he instilled a confidence within the team which got us promoted as Champions after we made a miserable start to the season and didn't look like we were getting anywhere

 

He paid over the odds when we returned to the Premier League, but hey, if it kept us up no fans were complaining. And keep us up it did. Either way you look at it mate, we had a Championship team in our first season back in the prem and it's because of Roy and the fighting spirit of the team that we scored a dozen or so late goals which helped earn us valuable points and ultimately kept us up

 

And it's not just the effect he's had on the pitch, he's brought about changes in many different areas in the club, including getting us a massive Irish following thanks purely to the fact that it was Roy Keane managing us

 

So people can say what the fuck they like about "Roy's spent this much and that much" because the majority of the players he's brought in have done what they were brought in to do. Aye, he's bought flops but there isn't a manager alive who hasn't bought dud players before. Redknapp's done it, Keegan "the Messiah" has done it. Even the almighty Sir Alex Ferguson has bought really shit players. At the end of the day Roy is only human and people are VERY quick to forget he's still only learning the trade as a manager. It's not like he retired, spent weeks, months, years learning the tricks of the trade then came to us. He literally joined us a few months later with no management experience and I for one think he did a very good job and i'm gutted he's left

I think Keane did a really good job getting Sunderland promoted, but in the Premier League he's been very hit and miss. He's had a lot of money to spend, and whilst realistically he shouldn't be challenging for European spots, they shouldn't be fighting relegation. He's still young, and he's got a lot to learn yet about management yet imo. I think he might be one of those managers that works better on a smaller budget.

 

Gerard Houllier to be the next Sunderland manager too.

 

Great players don't make great managers, can you think of any top player in the last 20 years that has consistently been a good manager ? Dalglish/Keegan/Souness/Hoddle are the nearest I guess but none of them have consistently achieved whereas the likes of Fergie, Wenger, Mourinho etc etc did nothing as players, Keane is all hype because of his successful playing career, I suspect Keane will have a Keegan type career where his name opens doors with big teams but achieves very little