Category Archives: Guest Blog
Guest Blog: Aston Villa’s Next Manager
As the hunt for a new manager seems to be in full swing, with a new favourite every day, @kerrylynn21 shares her thoughts on how the Midlands’ biggest club (!) should approach the appointment.
At the moment, despite what the latest odds are saying, there’s been no official statements of intent from the Board or the club and no informing the fans of how the manager search is being conducted. This however is no surprise for many Villa fans: the club and the fans are two separate entities at present – the connection between the two has been worn down so far it’s practically non-existent.
#mnfdiscussions – BRFC v MUFC
This evening’s #mnfdiscussions came from a quote from Sunday Supplement. One of the journalists said that manager’s need to get at least 50% of their signings correct. Someone once said “Manager’s live and die by their signings”. Slightly extreme, but you get the drift. Therefore we posed the question of “Who is the worst ever Manchester United signing”. Twitter answered the question for us in the following fashion:
NickOD84: David bellion!
Calder104: Bebe?
mcarlton9: Ralph Milne. So bad he became a cult figure
JAScammell: Can you afford to overlook Bebe?!” terrible!
Aston Villa: square pegs round holes
Yesterday I met an old football manager who will remain nameless. The reason is because it’s what he said not who said it that’s important (kinda).
We were discussing how he left one of his previous managerial posts and how he’d implemented his style on the team, actually on the club but not had enough time to see it through. It was quite a change from top to bottom, from training, the coaching staff, who he picked, how they played and so on. But this was/is how he operated at every club he has/will manage.
The birth of #mnfdiscussions
his evening I had what I like to call a “good idea” and alongside my flatmate (@webby1984) started #mnfdiscussions. I won’t explain it. It was good fun. Everyone likes chattering away during the football, especially on Twitter it seems and MNF is dear in every football purist’s heart. Therefore we combined these three simple elements and now each time I’ll summarise the evening’s antics on here. So below are the highlights (OK it’s all of it, but if I say highlights it sounds like there was alot more, which of course next time out there will be)…
Guest Blog: Familiarity breeds contempt, Wolves need a miracle to stay up this season.
Familiarity breeds contempt. Wolves have roughly the same bunch of players that they have had for the last two seasons, yet they are performing worse. They are too comfortable. The football club needs a manager to come in and shake things up.
Guest Blog: Liverpool in the Carling Cup Final – but what does it mean?
The Football Water Cooler has returned from its winter break, which, as Arsene Wenger would no doubt be happy to testify, has left us feeling refreshed and reinvigorated for the remainder of the season ahead. Normal service resumes with a blog from Liverpool fan Tom Stockton on his team’s upcoming Wembley appearance that was secured by Wednesday’s victory over Manchester City. We asked him what Wembley means for the team from the red side of the Mersey. Read the rest of this entry
Guest Blog: What’s your favourite chant? [part5 – FINALE]
Today’s entry brings to the end our series of chant blogs – we hope you’ve enjoyed reminiscing about funny songs past and present. We always want input from readers, so please do leave a comment with any thoughts or any genius chants we haven’t thought of.
There were some brilliant chants from Arsenal’s heyday in my early teens, some of the best including: “He’s blond, he’s quick, his name’s a porno flick, Emmanuel, Emmanuel” about the midfield supremo Manu Petit, and “We love you Freddie, because you’ve got red hair, we love you Freddie because you’re everywhere, we love you Freddie, you’re Arsenal through and through” (and later when he shaved his head updated to “We love you Freddie, because you’ve got no hair”). Other favourites include “We are staying up, we are staying up” early this season as a sarcastic riposte to all the early-season haters, and “Chelsea, Chelsea, money can’t buy you history”, sung repeatedly on the most squashed tube journey I’ve ever experienced on the way back from Fulham Broadway last month.
One more (an offer from Gerts as it happens, who says this is one of our best songs – I also think he enjoyed me singing it today as we ate lasagne in the work canteen): “Lasagne, woooooah, lasagne, woooooooah, we laughed ourselves to bits, when Tottenham got the sh*ts.” Genius.
In terms of the best by other fans, I took a trip to Loftus Road when QPR played Hull in May, at the end of the Championship season and enjoyed “Taarabt’s too good for you”. I also enjoyed “We were here when we were sh*t”, but as a tourist for the day, I couldn’t sing that with much credibility!
I also recall enjoying the tune to “Darren Bent is as fast as lightning, Darren Bent is a red and white, he gets the ball and he scores a goal, he’s f*ckin dynamite” at an away trip to Sunderland in November 2009. However given Bent then scored to send us on our way to a 1-0 defeat, I think I like it less now!
Guest blog: What’s your favourite chant? [Part 4]
Such is the response to our chants blogs, this was a contribution by enthusiastic reader @GavChandler. A great read, enjoy!
There’s nothing I like more than a decent football chant and have been known to while away the early hours of many a morning singing about random players or trying to adapt them to suit players in our own side; much to the mirth of partners/housemates/bystanders on the tube. In fact I’d go as far as to say that I judge the success of a night out on the tune buzzing around my aching head when I wake up; for example if your last memory is strolling down Stockwell high street at 3am, shirt off, singing songs about Nicola Berti being aged around Thirty then it’s fair to say it’s been a good evening. Read the rest of this entry
Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 3]
My best ever chant has to be Spurs at Real Madrid, “Tottenham in the Bernabeu, Arsenal watching Emmerdale”.
This echoed through Plaza Mayor during the afternoon of Tottenham’s Champions League Quarter Final visit to Real Madrid as the travelling supporters took joy in surviving longer than the old enemy in tournament . Unfortunately, it wasn’t sung in the Bernabeu for too long as we trailed 1-0 in the 5 minutes (eventually losing 4-0). Although, on current form another rendition might not be too long away.
Other great moments supporting Spurs over land and sea in recent years include numerous spine tingling “Oh when the Spurs go marching in” throughout last season’s European campaign and spending the whole of the first half away at Bayer Leverkusen in November 2006 singing “Martin Jol’s blue and white army” without a pause. Read the rest of this entry
Guest Blog: What’s your favourite football chant? [Part 2]
This week the Cooler Editors have been bringing you their favourite football chants, and here is part 2, from Director of Blue Sky Thinking, Jack. Today I’ve gone with my favourite chants from this season rather than my all time favourite!
Nottingham Forest: “winning at home, winning at home, how s**t must you be, we’re winning at home”. Read the rest of this entry
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