‘Rooney will always be a legend – but it’s time to say goodbye’

Oli Fisher
Wayne Rooney: Needs dropping

Wayne Rooney: Needs dropping

The uproar surrounding ‘pie-gate’ continues, while Liverpool fans discuss their momentum and City purr over a wonderful attacking display.

Have something to get off your chest? Say it here.

 

The fix is on

I believe, based on media coverage of the incident and an in-depth analysis of the various photos that this was indeed a pasty rather than a pie. Surely he would have plausible deniability now over the “betting fix” allegation? If the bookies (who let’s be honest staged the whole thing for relatively free publicity) paid out incorrectly then that’s their loss.

I still play a fair amount of football and personally I would not pollute my body with such muck whilst in the recovery phase. Typically go straight to the boozer for a couple of low fat beers to rehydrate before the inevitable phone call from the Mrs, enquiring when Fergie time will be over.

HK Blue

Shaw’s first excuse for eating the pie was that he was light headed. If that we’re the case and if it were me, I’d be sat at the back of the dug out eating and would’ve been eating something with sugar in it to get my sugar levels up (like a Mars bar or a cup of tea with sugar in it). The problem I have is that it was so blatant that it’s obvious that he planned it and made sure he was caught on camera. So personally I’d go down the lines that he’s more than likely had a huge bet on it with his mates and so broke the rules.

Like someone has already said, if it were meant as a light hearted gesture wait until the end of game.

He’s taken the limelight away from this players. Players who played well and gave a good account of themselves, like Deacon or Collins. It’s shocking behaviour from a coach and if I were the manager or chairman of Sutton I’d be peed off. Completely unprofessional in the club’s biggest game ever.

Chelsea-Lee

I’ve heard that there was a limit of £5 on the bet. If true he has been forced to resign over his mates making £40 from The Sun.

I can see what people are saying about it overshadowing Sutton’s cup run but he wasn’t the one who put himself all over social media because of his weight and position in the team. The Sun just jumped on the bandwagon to gain publicity.

Shouldn’t we not be questioning the morals of The Sun (again) for poking fun at a guy’s weight?

Manthistle

 

Thriller at the Etihad

What a game. Had to watch on TV. Exhausted!

How good was the attack? How bad the defence?

Otemendi’s rating? 2/10 for me.

Aguero will get so much confidence from that, whew…

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– Ottomendi absolutely rubbish, a walking liability and an expensive more hairy Richard Dunne (one step forward, one step back)
– Fernandinho – whilst I love him as a player, is no left-back, Monaco knew this an exploited him to the hilt… please learn Pep
– Aguero – like a man possessed. Unplayable at times!
– Sane – is turning into a real top player (ditto for Sterling)
– Ref, not watched the game back on TV yet but their were several contentious calls which friends (who I respect) at home were having differing opinions. The quicker we have video 4th officials the better (that said the feeling of injustice, led to a better atmosphere, which raised the team!)
– Stones – was lambasted on the radio home, I thought he made one mistake (Falcaos second goal) and as above Ottomendi was a far worse culprit
– Finally, I have rarely clapped an opposition goal at City (Zoltan Gera a few years a go being the last one) however I applauded Falcao’s 2nd strike tonight – what a great finish

Bluefen

 

Thanks for the memories

Wayne Rooney: Not leaving this season

If we can get Rooney off the wage bill and make a decent amount of money in the process – we should bite anyone’s hand off. He is not playing and, quite frankly, should not play again given his abysmal performances in recent years, plus his wages can be given to not one but TWO high-calibre players!

If we get an offer of 20m+ we should take it without a shadow of a doubt.

Sympathy for the Devils

Greatest goal scorer in our history mate…and a big part in some of the finest moments in my memory. We’ve a lot to thank him for and even though he let himself down with the transfer request, he only said what many of us were thinking at the time about the Glazers.

Should have either given up the beer, wine and fags when Fergie left or joined Chelsea, as the dark lord had been planning.

Anyway, we’re a sentimental club and I would rather remember the Rooney of Old than the old slugger trying to land one lucky last punch these days. He’s a legend for me.

Wonderfuel Gas

 

The winds of change

We often hear the old “careful what you wish for” line about getting rid of Wenger and we all know that’s b*****ks, because we know exactly what we’re wishing for. However, when it comes to the board, I would be a bit more cautious.

My one and only gripe with Kroenke and Co is their failure to get rid of the manager. What I like and always have liked about Kroenke is that he let’s the manager get on with it. Our problem is who that manager is but with the right man, that’s exactly how I’d want Stan to act.

The main job of the board, of any club, is to run the business side and we can’t argue that our board are doing badly on that front. That, in turn, provides cash the manager needs to compete, which, in our case, is where it all falls down, because we have a manager who is reluctant to spend and when he does, it’s far too often on players we either don’t need or he just doesn’t know how to fit into his system.

The reason I would urge caution, as far as the board goes, is that there are very few fans, from any club (at least in the top two tiers) who will sing the praises of their boards. City maybe – an ambitious owner, with unlimited funds, who does seem to strike the right balance between letting the manager get on with it, but only for as long as he’s doing a good job and while the way Pellegrini was treated was a bit shameful, it was in order to get Pep and you can’t knock that ambition.

Chelski fans will obviously always love Roman, because he’s turned them from a sh*t club with no history into an above average club (with no history), but my Chav mates have had their issues with him in the past, despite all that.

I know, to many Gooners, that Usmanov seems like the perfect owner – our very own Abramovic – but I’ve always been a bit wary about the guy. There’s something very untrustworthy about him and I can’t help feeling that we’d ultimately regret it if he took over.

But there are a lot of examples of new management taking over even some of the biggest clubs, with loads of fanfare, before it all goes pear-shaped very quickly.

Don’t get me wrong, our current board need to stop sitting in their comfort zone with Wenger, but all I want to see from them is to get rid of him and show some ambition with the replacement. After that, I’d be happy to see them crawl back to the shadows because that’s how the people running football clubs should be – a side story and not the main show.

Al the Gooner

 

What next for Liverpool?

Time will tell, it usually always does. I just don’t think it’s as simple as a defensive strategy can stop us winning. Watford and Sunderland are two notables at home, particularly Sunderland. They didn’t come to play, they came for a point. Sean- have a look back at that Sunderland game and tell me they played anything but defence!

Personally, I’m not taking the Tottenham result as the reason for us pushing on or the reason for the positivity. We just haven’t had a rested squad and we’ve had too many key players out during the period when the results went against us. The results appear to back that up. I’m also not looking at it in hindsight, I had real concerns before those games that we weren’t equipped to deliver.

I had faith in Origi and still do (longer term) but after a bright start he went backwards. I had no faith in Sturridge to fill the gap though and Klopp started to move players around i.e. Firmino to the left and pushed Lallana further forward. One player out (Coutinho) started the dip in performances and when a couple more joined in, we fell apart. When you take 2/3 player out of a squad that really only has 11 top players in their correct positions (or close to them), it’s too big an ask. I genuinely thought we could win the title if we kept them fit and still believe if we had, we could have!

We’re now back to where we were, a break between games and the squad fit again. Time to deliver my predicted 2nd spot (admittedly just a couple of weeks ago before we lost to Sunderland). We can now concentrate on the league and win our games, just as we should have earlier in the season.

Bofa