Your Says of the Day: Sullivan backlash; Liverpool’s tough choices
David Sullivan: Comments cause backlash
David Sullivan’s comments during the Boleyn Ground’s farewell cause a stir, while Liverpool have a selection dilemma and Pocchetino’s future remains unclear.
If you have anything to add on these, or any other subject, join the debate right here.
Sullivan tarnishes Boleyn farewell?
I think Mr. Sullivan is well on course to superseding Massimo Cellino as the least respected Chairman in football. His “check the bus there won’t be any damage” claim has already been rightly ridiculed on social media and the party line now is that he was unaware of all the facts before making his comments.
Sorry, but as the figurehead for a football club you need to either be more careful/respectful with your comments if news is still developing, or say nothing at all. How many other chairman come across this petty and unprofessional?
To further demand that Man United arrived at 4pm for an evening game is bizarre.
The best Chairmen in the league are those that go about their business without needing to make themselves the centre of attention. Sullivan and his two cronies have consistently pushed themselves to the forefront of every situation and it is embarrassing for the club and its fans when they do so.
It’s a shame because beyond the foolish behaviour of some fans and the Chairman, there was actually a very good game of football which deserved more of the focus than it will now receive.
“The best Chairmen in the league are those that go about their business without needing to make themselves the centre of attention.”
This perfectly sums it up. Why was Sullivan even being a pundit on a game anyway? It’s bizarre. Would you ever seen Woodward doing the pre-match analysis for a United game? Levy in the Match of the Day studio when Spurs have played? Would you see Abramovich talking Chelsea tactics on Monday Night Football with Henry and Carragher? You wouldn’t. Why was he involved in such a position?
To be fair, as the news was breaking last night, there was a BBC reporter on the scene who also said that the violence was being exaggerated. He said he’d seen a couple of bottles thrown and that was it. It seems it was only later that it became apparent just how bad it was – maybe it was down to which side of the bus people were.
Posters dine on Pocchetino lunch rumours
I am not so sure Pochettino is ready for the Manchester United job – it’s become a poison chalice of sorts.
In any case Sir Alex Ferguson has always treated the rules with disdain so I would not be surprised if this was blatant tapping up. What makes it more suspicious is the fact that Pochettino’s assistant was also there.
Either way, Levy will want answers.
Pochettino would be mad to leave Spurs right now. That solid core of players he has is incomparable to the disjointed mess that United are currently in. He should give Spurs another three years, and then see what position he and the club are in. At that point, Spurs could still be one of the top two clubs in the league and regular Champions League competitors.
As for the lunching itself, is it “tapping up”? Does the rules extend to managers? Sir Alex is on the board, and is on the part of the board that does not get to vote on business decisions, along with Gill and Sir Bobby. Sir Alex can’t offer Poch a contract.
They probably talked about race horses and Argentinian wine.
I think Pochettino is clearly a good manager what with the respective impacts he’s had at Southampton & Spurs, but let’s just be careful of hyping him up as “the best young coach in Europe.” Leicester could well win the league by 10 points and Spurs could still finish behind Arsenal, a club who many berate as having massively underachieved this season.
As for Man United I think it’s clear that Louis van Gaal’s future hinges on getting fourth. I really think that could have saved him for another year as they probably see him as a stop gap manager and at worst they may only lose Champions League qualification for one season (if they struggled in the PL again next year) as opposed to two years if they don’t make it now.
Klopp faces selection dilemma
Can see Jurgen maybe bringing one or two ‘Europa’ faces back for this one.
He’ll want to keep his intended starting XI match sharp for the final. One area he may not touch is the centre backs as Lovren/Skrtel does not work at all. Expect Clyne back in for Flannagan (who I thought was very mediocre today which maybe down to rustiness). Milner may be back in for Stewart, Can getting some minutes and Sturridge starting ahead of Benteke?
Not arsed who plays, just don’t want injuries! Your thoughts gentlemen?
The final is too important. I’d play the likes of Ibe, Ojo, Benteke, Caulker (where is he by the way?)
The second string should play against Chelsea and West Brom. We can’t get top four through league position, but obviously, we will be in the Champions League if we win the cup, so resting our ‘first team’ for the final has to be the correct course of action.
If we played the likes of Sturridge in these last 2 league games,and he picked up a knock and missed Sevilla,it would seriously harm our chances of winning. We can’t take the risk; second string side on Wednesday please Jurgen.
Hand on heart I can only see a Liverpool victory. Klopp rested the majority of his starting eleven at the weekend with the Chelsea game in mind and I expect pretty much the Europa League Final team to play on Wednesday night and be be predominantly rested on Sunday.
Liverpool are currently on a high and Chelsea are on a low and missing numerous key players I hope Chelsea can put in a better performance than Villarreal did but I’m not sure they will.
But “it’s a funny old game Saint”.