Featured: That was the week that was (Jan 19-25 2019)

[tlw content]

 

Saturday Jan 19: 

 

L 4 Palace 3 I hope this is a one off as if this is how it’s going to be between now and May I can’t deal with it. The scrappy 1-0 is stressful enough, but this? I thought we’d left these games behind when we signed Big Virgil. In fairness, everything does point to this being an aberration as we’ve been solid all season and Palace scored from basically every attack they had. 

 

It had the definite whiff of ‘fluke’ about it, but with the stakes being so high we’re probably going to have get used to some mad shit going down. So in a way, it’s kind of encouraging that we haven’t forgotten how to win 4-3.

 

It didn’t look right defensively at all. We didn’t exactly give up a load of chances but that’s mainly because Palace wouldn’t come out of their own half for most of the game. When they did, it was panic stations. Matip didn’t take care of his business (kept losing flick ons to Ayew and then when Wickham came on it was a total mismatch physically) while Milner was given a chasing by Zaha. 

 

I posted on Twitter afterwards that Zaha is the best player outside the top six and if he was at United or Arsenal he’d be their best player. I may have gone a little overboard on the latter, as Rashford, Aubameyeng and Lacazette are all probably better, but I stand by the overall point. He’s brilliant.

 

Throw all the stats at me you like about his goals and assists, but I don’t give a fuck. I’ll go on what my eyes tell me, and my eyes tell me that he’s a special talent. You’ll struggle to find anyone that will put up big numbers for goals and assists playing in that Palace team, for that manager, and with no recognised centre forward to play off. 

 

Is he brilliant every week? No. But very few players are. When you’ve got other top players around you it doesn’t matter so much. When you’re the big fish in the little pond it stands out more when you aren’t delivering every game. 

 

My personal feeling is if he goes to a top club he’ll be fantastic as it will be much easier for him than it is now, when opposing managers know they only need to stop him to stop Palace. I might be wrong, and those of you who think he’s over-rated and not consistent enough might be right, but we won’t know until if and when he gets a big move, because it’s impossible to judge properly when he’s playing for Roy Hodgson.

I’d be happy to see Zaha at Anfield but I highly doubt it will happen as he’ll cost a fortune. Maybe Chelsea will use the cash they get for Hazard to finance a move for Zaha, or maybe Spurs will finally loosen the purse strings and make a move. 

 

I’d take that Wan-Basaka too. Impressed with him again today, he’d be a useful player to have around, competing with Trent and freeing up Gomez to play full time in the centre. If Clyne does well at Bournemouth, maybe Palace would be up for a part ex deal?

Sunday Jan 20:

 

The Timo Werner links are back. He’s running down his contract at Leipzig by the looks of it, so they might cash in this summer. Bayern want him, as do Juve (has anyone told them he's not on a freebie for another year?) and so does Klopp apparently. I don’t want him. Partly because he was shite at the World Cup and it put me off him (I know that shouldn’t be a factor, but what can I say, I’m fickle like that), but also because by all accounts he’s shite out wide and needs to play centrally. We’ve got Mo there now and Bobby as well. We need someone to replace Sturridge as the back up, and Werner isn’t going to do that, so for that reason I’m out. Buy my boy Wilf instead!     

 

Lot of talk today about Milner being sent off by his former school teacher yesterday. Big deal. That’s nothing to what I had to deal with from my junior school PE teacher, who is the only (yes, that's right, ONLY) reason I never had a career in football. He was one fucking bastard him. Mr Gerrard was his name and I’ll never forgive him for the pain and mental anguish he caused me as a promising 9 year old with the world at his feet. 

 

I’d earned my place in the school team by having a stormer in the trials but a few days before the first game I got caught out not doing my reading homework. Not only did he drop me from the team, but the sadistic cunt handed me a pen and made me go into the corridor and cross my own name of the team sheet. 

 

I never played for the school team after that and when I got to senior school we didn’t even have a team, so that was basically the end of my career. He also made me do laps of the playing field once because I gave him the eyes and sent him the wrong way with a penalty and made him look like a twat in front of the other kids.

 

Action man headed, roley smoking, motor bike riding shitbag. Fuck you Mr Gerrard. Fuck you. 

 

 

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[DaveTucker]

Great read. Totally agree about Lingard. I've been sent some of the most cringeworthy clips imaginable of him lately. He's nowhere near good enough to be behaving like he does. Not that it would be acceptable for anyone. Even Ronaldo would wince. I think he just wants to be like Pogba (God knows why!). He's like the little loser in school who just bums the cool kid to try and live off scraps of popularity but then starts to think he belongs and becomes an odious bellend. 

[Trumo]

All these people going on the Emiliano Sala search are falling into the same trap as some people did with the search for the Thai cave boys, by basically suggesting that the authorities/rescuers are not doing enough. It's not about having the money or sufficient equipment with which to search, it's the fact that the conditions in the area limit the scope of any search and pose great risk to those doing the searching. Those same treacherous conditions were most probably responsible for whatever has happened to Sala's plane too.

[johnsusername]

I can't stand Lingard, I thought it was just me. He's called Jessie for a start. The big jessie.

 

He's crap as well. He'll be playing for Everton in a few years time. 

 

[Anubis]

Surprised anyone ever thought Raggety was anything other than a little gobshite. He’s been behaving like a bellend for years.

[King Kenny 86]

That’s nothing to what I had to deal with from my junior school PE teacher, who is the only (yes, that's right, ONLY) reason I never had a career in football. He was one fucking bastard him. Mr Gerrard was his name and I’ll never forgive him for the pain and mental anguish he caused me as a promising 9 year old with the world at his feet. 

 

Amen to that. Mr Smallridge, played me in nets 3 times in a shit team where I kept the score down, we fell out, I swore in training, and he never picked me again, only as a sub he never put on. Cunt. Medals for football at the end of year for everyone who played 4 games, that meant only yours truly did not get a medal.

No not over it 45 years later. Bastard

[dave u]

6 minutes ago, Paul Wright said:

That’s nothing to what I had to deal with from my junior school PE teacher, who is the only (yes, that's right, ONLY) reason I never had a career in football. He was one fucking bastard him. Mr Gerrard was his name and I’ll never forgive him for the pain and mental anguish he caused me as a promising 9 year old with the world at his feet. 

 

Amen to that. Mr Smallridge, played me in nets 3 times in a shit team where I kept the score down, we fell out, I swore in training, and he never picked me again, only as a sub he never put on. Cunt. Medals for football at the end of year for everyone who played 4 games, that meant only yours truly did not get a medal.

No not over it 45 years later. Bastard

Mr Smalldick.