Why do Spurs and Liverpool hate each other?

Why do Spurs and Liverpool hate each other?

Send all your thoughts into theeditor@football365.com. Go on. You know you want to.

 

Yes, let’s just give up on Nev
In response to Russ – Do we just give up on GNev?

This is the Gary Neville who was recently complaining that he is viewed as a “failure” as a coach seemingly not taking into account that is likely because he now has a proven track record of failure.

He was Roy Hodgson’s assistant for England for the failure at Euro 2012, the failure at World Cup 2014 and oh yeah the failure during Euro 2016, pausing only to somehow find time to run Valencia into the ground during a four-month spell in management which can not only be described as disappointing but also utterly useless.

You conclude your mail by saying to give it to G Nev as at least he’d motivate the players and shows some sign of progress and excitement. Well not so long ago when he was a corner stone of England’s massively underachieving “Golden Generation” these qualities were in equally short supply then as when he was coach.

It is reported that Gary is now “choosing” to concentrate on his business ventures, presumably based on the fact that no-one connected to a professional football team is “choosing” to employ him and there is good reason for that. He’s not a very good Football coach.

So yes let’s just give up.
Rocky Foreshore

Or not
I would say no, I would have liked him to be still in there learning. Of course when you’re new to a role you’ll make a few mistakes, if you believe Sam then perhaps Hodgson should have been less influenced by Neville. I would say that failing was down to Hodgson rather than Neville and should have gone with his gut and put Rashford on earlier against Iceland and then Gary would have learnt from it, he seems like an intelligent lad.

In any job people make mistakes and for most it makes them better, they learn by the mistake. As England manager one mistake could cost you your job which is why experience is key.

I’d try my best to keep him in the FA. The key job of the England manager is to pick a system and motivate your players. Most of the players in that system should then pick themselves during games against teams like Malta where you can make the odd mistake and should get away with it.

Chris Coleman made mistakes and he’s doing a great job for Wales, Luis Enrique was average at Roma and Celta. If I was someone at the FA I’d have a word with Neville and ask him what his legacy as a Manager wants to be?

However why should be care, he should put himself forward and he hasn’t as he’d rather build hotels with Giggs. Therefore give it to Southgate who’s served his time, he’ll surely win these 4 games and seems intelligent enough, it’s not rocket science, how hard is it really to be England manager? I’d say most is down to luck and the players who decide to turn up on the day. I’m not sure if Sven did much to get Beckham playing out of his skin against Greece in 2002 World Cup qualification, I’ll stop rambling now.
Graham (David Platt for England manager!)

Laziness driving England selection
Hoo-bloody-ray, at last an England squad with a player from Palace. We got close, with Alex McCarthy called up almost immediately after transferring to Southampton and without playing a minute for them. But Townsend’s call up has finally sated our somewhat questionable desire for our players to be recognised by the England national team. It still represents a good step on our growth as a top level side and I think is something to be cheered.
Townsend has performed at a decent level for us so far, not really much better or worse than Wilf on the other wing, but it is his experience of being called up before that has probably made the difference. It is this experience which probably results in Glen Johnson getting called up as well, despite being no better than Joel Ward this season. It is presumably the same reason that Jagielka has been called up in the past instead of Scott Dann. Shame he is currently injured because I think his chances are starting to improve. But why are we picking England teams this way? We then decide that there is not enough English players in the league at a sufficient level, in other words, playing for the biggest clubs. But how many English number 10’s are playing better than Jason Puncheon at the moment? Probably Dele Alli alone. Are we saying that Lingard and Oxlade-Chamberlain are performing at a higher level than Zaha?

I’m sure that people are reading this and thinking that the Palace players I have given as examples aren’t good enough, are technically less equipped than their counterparts. But I’m equally sure they will have their own English players performing at a high level, people like Steve Cook at Bournemouth. The point is, we pick our England squads based on someone else’s historical opinion of the player, it’s lazy. And it’s that same laziness that means the same old managers circle the drain of clubs in crisis. Until we’re prepared to appropriately reward hard work and application and not just reputation then we will always end up with the same results.

This probably fulfils the smaller club grumble about England squad quota for the day but I’d really just like to see someone come in and shake things up. It’s getting a bit boring and we’re only playing Malta.
Ant, CPFC

Top-drawer football
Seeing as we are entering the compulsory break in the Premiership excitement that is the international break I thought I would throw something different into the mailbox mix other than the usual tribal shenanigans.

The season started with a lot of (justified) excitement over the high calibre managers that were coming to the premiership and if they could adapt to life in the toughest league in the world. Maybe not the best but certainly the toughest.

Pep seems to be doing OK (top of the league and all that) and Conte (other than a couple of blips against very good sides) seems to be holding his own. If players need time to settle then managers should also be given time (makes me laugh just writing this) to entrench their style of play into the team and I think they are doing just fine. Conte also needs to sort out a seriously flawed defence. I hear he has a £100m to spend in January. What are the odds he uses that to buy himself a new defence (Made in Italy?).

Koeman and Mourinho have joined new clubs but have experience of the Premiership and although Koeman is probably slightly happier with the start to his new job I suspect being 2 and 3 points off the top 4 is not the worst thing in the world for clubs targeting a Europa League spot. I can see them switching positions throughout the season.

The top 8 managers are from Spain, Argentina, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Italy and England. Say what you like about the Premiership (and most people do) but we should be mighty proud that we cultivate an environment where the best succeed irrespective of their nationality.

Chunky is the English representative in the top 8. The dancing dad is currently the best English manager in the Premiership. Whilst this makes me sad credit where it is due. He has had a stinker of a 2016 yet a few shrewd buys has seen him turn the club around. There were many (not too far from here) saying he was a good time manager and couldn’t so it when the chips were down. At the time of writing Palace look reasonably safe under Chunky’s stewardship.

Swansea have gone American. Wow?! They have hired a soccerball manager to run a Premiership club? A man who until yesterday was managing a Ligue 2 club. A Ligue 2 club he failed to get into Ligue 1? Is that even possible? His CV includes famous footballing powerhouses as the Egyptian and South African national sides and some Norwegian club. Having just raved about having one of the most meritocratic leagues in the world we find a US chairman hiring a US manager. It is acts like this that give the PFMs a voice. Hope you go down.

Lastly I am very pleased at the desire for most of the managers in the Prem to play exciting football. The desire to score goals is far greater than the desire to keep it tight. I don’t know whether this is because there are very few good quality defenders around and clubs are forced to play to their strengths. Maybe attacking footballers are so much better these days that you simply can’t defend a lead unless you have 9 centrebacks (and Rondon) on the pitch? All I know is that the football this year has been top drawer. Long may it continue.
H (a whole email without mentioning Liverpool onc…. doh!)

Setting him straight
Dear Adam LFC

‘Poch teams have form when it comes to dropping off at the end of the season’. Table for 1 January 2016 to end of the 2016 season? Tottenham in 1st place on 52 points, 6 points clear of 2nd place. ..which includes our post title loss capitulation…yeah, massive drop off….

‘I realise Spurs have improved their squad but this is more than cancelled out by champs league commitments’ Yeah, cos being in the Europa League and playing on Thursday nights was a walk in the sunshine.

‘and not having another injury free fluke season’..like last season when Dembele was crocked for a large part of the season?..or this season where we have missed rose, dembele, kane, dier…

…but don’t let the facts get in the way of your longing for a cliché Adam…
Chiefy, Spurs, London

Have Spurs overtaken Liverpool?
In response to Girish AFC’s comments on the Spurs and Liverpool rivalry.

Beef
I read Girish’s mail this morning with interest, as I too find non-geographical football rivalries interesting. I know it’s not Premiership so maybe doesn’t count, but the one that instantly sprang to mind was the one that I am personally familiar with, Villa-Newcastle. Then I saw Paul NUFC’s mail, and thought I had to talk about it.

As mentioned in a recent ‘big weekend’ or whatever it’s called these days, Villa and Newcastle have serious beef with each other, which dates back to the day at Villa Park in 2009 that Newcastle were relegated. At the time I do think our banter, for want of a better word, was quite amusing (the infamous ‘Who’s your next messiah, Ant or Dec?’ after the less than successful appointment of Shearer, for instance), but clearly the Geordies didn’t see quite see it the same way.

Of course I appreciate that relegation is difficult to take, we found that out ourselves last season, and to do so on the last day was surely particularly tough (luckily for us it was a foregone conclusion from about November, so we were able to come to terms with it), but I don’t think that Newcastle fans appreciate the fact that any club in our situation would have done the same, and I’m sure Newcastle would have mocked us, should the roles have been reversed. This is what happens when you are a big club who shouldn’t be going down, there’s a compliment in there somewhere, honest. No one would mock Watford if they were getting relegated this season, for instance (unless it was for their Bernie Taupin lyrics scribed into one of their stands, ugh).

The result of all of this has been a lot of cock swinging about who is the bigger club (needless to say I think we are), and even former players crawl out of the woodwork every time we’re up against each other to give their take on the deficiencies of the other. Collymore, Micky Quinn, it’s all rather comical, but adds spice to games, which I am in favour of.

Anyway, I enjoyed Paul’s mail this morning, a lovely call back and schadenfreude reaction to our current plight, which if we give it out we must be able to take. Personally, I don’t have a huge problem with Newcastle, I empathise with their owner situation as no club should have their club decimated by such an incompetent, vile character as Ashley (or anyone, even if they seem really nice, obviously), and I do really like Benitez, so I kinda hope he does well there. But, much like a lot of sides, there is a small collection of fans who hold the opinion that Newcastle are bigger than they are and ruin it for the rest of you, and it’s this pocket of their support that people want to take a swipe at, the rest of you just get it by association. Villa are no different, obviously (I saw someone calling for us to go after Diego Simeone, for example).

In answer to who our next messiah is Paul, I really don’t know, but it looks increasingly like being Stephen Bruce from up your way. Decent, but no messiah I have to admit. I look forward to the reverse fixture later in the season anyway, perhaps we can prevent you from getting promoted? Come on, another two games next year would at least be a laugh, right?
Mike (AVFC), London

To Paul, NUFC. Firstly, very witty. In football, what goes around invariably comes back around. So when we unfurled that infamous banner, I always felt there was a good risk that that small bit of poking fun would returned to us sometime in the future. Although 6 years actually seems like a fairly long time to wait to use that line, given the general poor decision making how many managers we’ve gone through in that time, and given the now abundant gallows humour amongst Villa fans, I think a little light external mockery can be absorbed fairly comfortably these days.

To answer your question though, at this stage, it’s hard to say anymore. It feels like a bit of a poisoned chalice and vicious cycle of optimism, new found belief, before the team’s descent into the same familiar form leads to more disappointment, until it once again becomes the collective mentality. At this stage, we need someone with a very clear tactical set up, who can instil confidence in the club as a whole. As much as my personal preference would be for a higher intensity, attractive quick passing style of football, the need to be more efficient and practical to start getting results on the board, might be of greater necessity, at least in the short term. Ultimately, football is largely a confidence game, so whoever is able to come in and instigate that mentality shift would be welcome.

We’ve had too many failed fresh starts in recent years to be filled with huge amounts of optimism about whoever comes through the doors next. In truth, at this stage, just anybody who can make us an even half decent, moderately consistent winning team would be welcome.
James

Give it Brucey
So I’m not saying it would be particularly sexy, but why is Steve Bruce getting grief when his name is mentioned in relation to the Villa job?

As I said, he isn’t sexy, but is that what Villa need right now? He has managed to get multiple clubs out of the Championship and into the promised land, and has even done so previously having taken over midway through the season at a struggling Birmingham side (2001/02). I know he managed a rival and a looks a lot like Mrs Doubtfire, and while I can understand that some fans don’t want him, I can’t understand why fans are so quick to dismiss the idea of him?
Jack (Plus he is only 55 so counts as young by PFM standards) Manchester

More bizarre internet football rivalries
Girish made an interesting point about strange football rivalries on Twitter. One that always seems prominent is the Everton vs West Ham rivalry which is surprising at best.

West Ham have never enjoyed much success against Everton over the years and haven’t had a lot against them rivalry wise. I think it started when West Ham brought in some players who would have usually chosen Everton over the Hammers last season and then the hiring of Bilic when a few fans were thoroughly fed up of Martinez also spiked the Everton fans fury against the Hammers.

Then with McCarthys reckless tackle which injured Payet for a few months meant that West Ham fans had a reason to bite back. Ever since then I have seen nothing but hatred from both sides about who is the bigger club etc.

The 3-2 comeback victory at Goodison probably was the straw that broke the camels back and there will definitely be no love lost when the sides meet this season
Ross (I like Toffees, and other sweets) Jenkins

Mediawatch: After Hours
Mediawatch is right about the Monday Night Club. I did listen to it all and I needed a lie down afterwards. Here are some more “highlights”: