Other football

[Trumo]

City fans need to watch themselves leaving the game. I dare say some of them will end up with knife wounds in their arses if they're not careful.

 

At least they'll have a reason to explain why they walk around like Liam Gallagher.

[dickie mint]

City winning 1-0 ....I'm old enough to remember when we used to be the last man standing as far as British sides in Europe were concerned now we're the first out....depressing stuff

Those where the days mate and Chelsea where in the 2nd division when we were conquering Europe.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

City fans need to watch themselves leaving the game. I dare say some of them will end up with knife wounds in their arses if they're not careful.

I'm sure they'll both be fine.

[Gnasher]

Why the fuck we didnt go in for Milner in the summer when he gave us the eyes I'll never know.

[Reckoner]

That shortcut down Canal Street sure is risky.

[Grinch]

Gerrard, Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana, Skrtel, Moreno, Allen, Henderson would all be automatic starters if they signed for Southampton.

 

If we played with the same intensity and pressing as them we'd be in far better shape.

 

So our whole midfield would start for them, except they'd somehow learn to press with the same intensity that Southampton's midfield do.  Hows that work exactly?

[moof]

So our whole midfield would start for them, except they'd somehow learn to press with the same intensity that Southampton's midfield do. Hows that work exactly?

Yeah, any one of those players would start games for Southampton.

[Jairzinho]

Origi misses a penalty. Sell the cunt.

[skend04]

Why the fuck am I being greeted by the 'Life of Ryan' banners here today?? Is this what happens when you sell your soul for a bit of green? Fucking DVD adverts for that rapey cunt?! Our season is going to shit everywhere, even here now.

[TheDrowningMan]

Sad to see Hyypia doing so badly; it can only be a matter of time before he's sacked. Perhaps he's more cut out for a coaching role than a top job at this stage.

[Denny Crane]

Good read this, get off football manager and spy on football managers...

 

Juan Carlos Osorio: ‘I spied on Gérard Houllier’s training sessions for two years’

 

Juan Carlos Osorio stares at his feet, his fingers twitching in his pockets. “I’m very sad,” he declares, “both me and the players are hurting a lot today.” He kicks a piece of turf and lifts his chin from his chest to look blankly into the distance. As manager of the 14-times Colombian champions Atlético Nacional, he has lifted the last three league titles and won two domestic cup competitions. He is the most successful manager in the history of Colombia’s most successful team and was inspired into football management after a spell living across from Liverpool’s training ground where he watched Gérard Houllier’s team night and day. And yet, there’s still something missing.

 

For Osorio, that something has become an obsession; a continental trophy that will catapult his name to global attention and allow him a stab at his dream job: to manage in England.

Last Wednesday, his opportunity finally arrived. After a tense penalty shootout victory in the Copa Sudamericana semi-final against São Paulo the week before, the stage was set as Atlético Nacional hosted the Argentinian giants River Plate in the home leg of the final.

With almost 60,000 fans piled in to the Atanasio Girardot – capacity 44,000 – Nacional put in a memorable first-half performance. “They couldn’t handle us,” Osorio says “we played with such intensity.” But at half-time and for all their dominance, Nacional only had Orlando Berrio’s strike to show for it. After the break, the tables were turned.

 

A former Arsenal trialist, Sebastián Pérez, hit the bar for the home side early in the second half, but a few minutes later River equalised and in the end the Argentinians could have gone on to win it. “It was a historic chance to beat a historic rival and we blew it,” Osorio moans. “I’m distraught.”

 

Several minutes later at a petrol station on the outskirts of Colombia’s second city Medellín, Osorio is locked in debate with the guy filling up his car. “Profe, forget about it, there’s no use crying over spilt milk, onwards to the second leg.” Osorio spins off his driver’s seat and looks the pimply teen in the eye. “You can mess up in the small games that don’t matter, but not ones like this. This does matter.”

 

During lunch, over coffee in a local bakery, and then on the football ground at his kids’ school, the 52-year-old engages with anyone who approaches him on where it all went wrong. While his 10-year-old son trains, for more than half an hour on the sidelines Osorio berates the child’s PE teacher for daring to use player tiredness as an excuse for the collapse. “That would be the easiest excuse, but it just isn’t true, we got scared and we bottled it.”

 

Back in his car, the phone calls pour in as Osorio liaises with players, agents and the club chairman. “This is my life, I talk football and I spend time with my kids.”

Talking football is an understatement; he lives and breathes the game. Born in 1962, Osorio was an average player at his local side Deportivo Pereira before packing it all in to go and study in New York. For 13 years he attended Southern Connecticut State University while saving money for a trip to England. In 1997 he crossed the Atlantic heading for Liverpool to study a Science and Football degree at John Moores University.

“I learnt so much from England,” Osorio says. “When I arrived there I tried several times to watch Liverpool training sessions, but they wouldn’t let me in.”

 

Undeterred, Osorio began banging on the doors of the local houses that overlooked the ground. “11 Crown Road,” he beams. “I saw there was a crack in the brick wall so I walked up to the house opposite and demanded to live there. I explained what I wanted to do and the owners organised a meeting in which they allowed me to stop there. I spent almost two years in that house, and was very happy.”

 

It was during Houllier’s time in charge at Anfield and the then 35-year-old Colombian would wake up early every morning and peep out of his bedroom window, scribbling away in endless reams of notebooks on what he saw.

 

“If it was raining I had to watch from the window, but if it was a nice day I would drag a table out and watch from outside and over the brick wall. At night I would do the same or go and watch the academy.”

 

In 1997 Osorio returned to the United States as assistant at the Metrostars – now known as New York Red Bulls – before a call from Kevin Keegan, the then manager of Manchester City, who convinced him to return to England as a conditioning coach.

Indelible marks from his time in England still remain, in particular Osorio’s manic squad rotation policy that was surely inspired by watching Houllier’s Liverpool. In over 200 games in charge at Nacional, Osorio has never once fielded the same back-to-back team, with even the goalkeeper chopped and changed from one game to the next.

 

“That’s something I learnt from England where everybody rotated. In Colombia that was something very new and at first everybody was against it,” Osorio says.

Keeping players fresh has been essential this year as Nacional have racked up a staggering tally of 85 games – and counting – that is surely a world record for 2014. But there’s no doubt that Wednesday’s second leg against River is the most important. So much so that Osorio has said he will do something special to mark the occasion. “There are few clubs as big as River Plate, so I have said that if we win I will get an Atlético Nacional tattoo.”

 

Lifting the Copa Sudamericana trophy would also edge Osorio a little closer to one day fulfilling his dream. “I deeply admire the English game,” he says. “I would die for the opportunity to one day manage there.”

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/dec/10/juan-carlos-osorio-gerard-houllier-liverpool-colombia

[Denny Crane]

He lost the 2nd leg 2-0 against River so not to be this time.

 

Not sure about his dates though , Houllier did not become manager until the start of 1998. Guessing just typos.

[Trumo]

He lost the 2nd leg 2-0 against River so not to be this time.

 

Not sure about his dates though , Houllier did not become manager until the start of 1998. Guessing just typos.

 

It says he came to Liverpool in 1997 to start his degree, but maybe he didn't start to try and watch Liverpool's training sessions until 1998 when Ged came in. The thing in that article which I reckon is a typo is that it says he RETURNED the the US in 1997 and joined the Metrostars in MLS.

[Jairzinho]

Yeah, it was 2007.

[Trumo]

Yeah, it was 2007.

 

That can't be right either as Keegan left City in 2005, and it says he was their manager at the time he told Osorio to come back to England.

[Jairzinho]

That can't be right either as Keegan left City in 2005, and it says he was their manager at the time he told Osorio to come back to England.

 

He studied in England. Then coached in America. The coached in England. Then managed in America.

 

I think.

[Trumo]

He doesn't specifically mention Houllier so I think the writer of the article has tried to fill in the blanks there and made up the quote in the headline, skewing the timeline in the process. 

[LFC 6 Times]

What a shrewd signing lampard was by city, what a finisher he is.

[Hades]

What a shrewd signing lampard was by city, what a finisher he is.

36 year old on 150k a week.

 

Shrewd is not the word I would use.

[Stickman]

Bournemouth winning 4-3.....I know they've let 3 in but I'm a lot more worried that their attack will put the shits up or defence.

 

Make that 5

[alles ist gut]

Bournemouth winning 4-3.....I know they've let 3 in but I'm a lot more worried that there attack will put the shits up or defence.

 

Make that 5

Don't panic yet, we might play the kids and save Lovren for Arsenal...

[Ginny]

Anyone else get defence envy watching other teams?

[J-V]

That's the win for Arsenal then.

[Bjornebye]

36 year old on 150k a week.

 

Shrewd is not the word I would use.

 

erm.... he is paying it back every week considering no singing on fee. 

 

i'd be more than happy for him to get that here right now. 

 

great signing and unfortunately a great player. 

[magicrat]

That's the win for Arsenal then.

Not so sure . Awaits sucker punch from the barcodes

 

Tell you what fucking gutted we didn't get Sanchez. There must have been a chance if we had thrown more dosh at him. Would have recouped that and more besides as because we would be in the CL knockout stages now