Freedman out!

[Worthy4England]

And, let's face it, much of the Premier League seems designed more to appeal to the X-Factor generation than to football fans.

Astutely put good sire. Astutely put indeed.

Don't you watch the X-Factor and gubbins like that TD?

[TANGODANCER]

And, let's face it, much of the Premier League seems designed more to appeal to the X-Factor generation than to football fans.

Astutely put good sire. Astutely put indeed.

Don't you watch the X-Factor and gubbins like that TD?

Hand on heart, no, but I have a wife and daughter who do, and I read newspapers. Hard to avoid it.

[Prufrock]

No, you watch Strictly Come Dancing which is of course completely different!

[SmokinFrazier]

Ok, Dougie haters, let me ask you: What do you want?

Because here's a scenario. And I'm going to make it the most optimistic scenario possible.

Dougie gets sacked. "Hooray", you all cheer. We appoint the newly anointed saviour John Beck (or whoever. Pick your own hero. Barry Fry. It makes no odds). He organises the team, sorts out the tactics, out-thinks the opposition. Beckford and Mason get 30 goals apiece. We keep a clean sheet every match. We play brilliant, attacking football and are promoted as champions with 100 points and 100 goals. What then?

We're in the Premier League. We have to go to Arsenal and pay £60 for the privilege of sitting amongst the middle-class media whores and glory-hunters they call fans. They gloat about how they play beautiful football despite their obvious tactic of passing sideways and backwards for a while before punting a long ball for the fast striker to run onto. They whine about every tackle, complaining that football should be a non-contact sport before cheering Gallas or Diaby as they break someone's leg. And we lose.

So we go to ManUtd and pay however much they charge to get into the theatre of shite these days, to sit amongst people who are amongst the vilest tw*ts on the planet. And we lose.

But somehow - somehow - we scrabble, scrape and fluke enough points to finish fourth bottom. And we call it a success and try to repeat it the next season.

Is that living? Is that what you want for the future? Really? REALLY?

Because if so, I am out...

No football fan is ever truly satisfied with what they've got. United are the biggest club in the world and had massive amounts of success under Ferguson, yet 15 games into a bad season and people were calling for Moyes to go because it's never enough. When we got knocked out of Europe, did our fans say "ah, well, I'm just happy we were there" or were they frustrated to go out, even if we were punching above our weight? They were disappointed. There's never an end to the frustration in football, that's what makes it such such an emotional sport to follow but surviving in the Premier League is better than doing well in the Championship but not getting promoted.

The Premier League has many flaws, especially the cost to watch the games, but it's the best league in the world, has many of the best players in the world and when you're there, you're actually relevant in football. The money is greater, the players we can attract are better, we could bring in better managers. There's no downside to being in the Premier League so, yes, I want us to be there, even if we are only going to be a bottom 5 club every year.

[Worthy4England]

No, you watch Strictly Come Dancing which is of course completely different!

I'll provide the crosses, you nod 'em in.

[Puskas]

Can anybody spot an inconsistency here?

The Premier League has many flaws, especially the cost to watch the games,

There's no downside to being in the Premier League

Hmm. Let's think about that.

Then the other downsides - the glory hunting opposition fans. The getting stuffed every week (even if it is by "Superstars"...) The money it costs the club to even attempt to stay in the division...

And the best league in the world? In what way? Pah.

I think, young man, you need to pay attention to the words of Mr Chuck D...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQaVIoEjOM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Puskas]

And, whilst I'm at it, what does this mean?

when you're there, you're actually relevant in football.

Do you need to be on Sky to be relevant? It's what I meant by the X-Factorisation of the game. You haven't been voted for by the mass market, therefore you don't count.

Tooting and Mitcham are relevant to their supporters. Wanderers are relevant to theirs.

Gah.

[TANGODANCER]

No, you watch Strictly Come Dancing which is of course completely different!

Oh, very much so to both. But hey, you carry on with whatever it is you watch. I'm sure it'll be
riveting.

[Tombwfc]

Can anybody spot an inconsistency here?

The Premier League has many flaws, especially the cost to watch the games,

There's no downside to being in the Premier League

Hmm. Let's think about that.

Then the other downsides - the glory hunting opposition fans. The getting stuffed every week (even if it is by "Superstars"...) The money it costs the club to even attempt to stay in the division...

And the best league in the world? In what way? Pah.

I think, young man, you need to pay attention to the words of Mr Chuck D...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vQaVIoEjOM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If the alternative is to turn up to an empty Macron Stadium to watch Middlesborough play football while we stand around and watch them control the game without possession, I'll take the Premier League thanks. At least in your scenario we'll have had the season where we stormed the league and went up.

[thebish]

Can anybody spot an inconsistency here?

The Premier League has many flaws, especially the cost to watch the games,

There's no downside to being in the Premier League

Hmm. Let's think about that.

with these confusing, crazy, overly contrived, football science, meeja-influenced contradictory quotes, I'm beginning to believe SF is Dougie Freedman... at the very least that level of contradiction = "totally lost the plot"...

[Tombwfc]

Something tells me Malky Mackay might suddenly be willing to take our call...

[bobo the clown]

Something tells me Malky Mackay might suddenly be willing to take our call...

The man we beat to sign Sordell. Apparently he was mad as hell we got to him first.

[ChrisC]

Something tells me Malky Mackay might suddenly be willing to take our call...

The man we beat to sign Sordell. Apparently he was mad as hell we got to him first.

He won't be getting a Job for a while I don't think after the leaked text messages tonight




Oops!!

[LeverEnd]

He's going to have to do some serious public grovelling and accept a really shit job from a desperate club to get back after this.
We might have a chance of getting him.

[bobo the clown]

He's going to have to do some serious public grovelling and accept a really shit job from a desperate club to get back after this.
We might have a chance of getting him.

Haha.

Blimey. That's a fair old list.

I often feel a bit sorry for public figures who let out a verbal faux pas and them the weight of the World comes down on them but he seems to go a bit beyond that. Cardiff have produced a dossier about him & Moody and presented it to the football authorities despite all parties settling their disputes a few months ago. Eluned says Tan and his chums are bitter men .... & she should know ... apparently.

[thebish]

He's going to have to do some serious public grovelling and accept a really shit job from a desperate club to get back after this.
We might have a chance of getting him.

if those texts are genuine - then I'd rather have Freedman.

[BWFC_Insane]

I think there is more than enough out there about MacKay to suggest that no club in their right mind would take him. Plenty of rumours abound for a while but those rumours slowly seem to be moving towards the truth end of the scale.

[Prufrock]

Certainly throwaway, but I can't see even the DM putting stuff like that in quote marks in the mouth of a public figure with the cash to take them on. The libel pay out would be astronomical. Like, tens of millions I reckon.

They must be confident it's true.

What a prick. And he'd nailed the PR of 'spend a shit load of cash to get promoted, spend a shitload more cash to bib around 17th, find a non-footballing reason to leave. Wait for the offers to roll in'.

[Prufrock]

Don't think so. There was a spat between them but no court case I think. In any case, false details of someone's private life is one thing, but stuff like this would leave them open to be sued for any lost wages etc he can show he could lose on account of it. As an ex-Premier League manager whose stock was v high they could have been astronomical.

I think often the DM is willing to risk having to pay a modest settlement out of court in order to push their lying shitbag agenda, this isn't in the same league.

[boltonboris]

The fact that he dropped a £7.5m lawsuit and issued an apology!! to Vincent Tan for pursuing the claim in the first place, suggests it has legs..

Cardiff have apparently had these messages for a good while now and are probably using it as part of their claim against Palace (ie; Moody had an agenda)