Weekend EPL Results - Comments
Had friends over on Friday night, so I never got around to making my predictions this weekend. You know what though, it's a good thing... I definitely would have gotten AT LEAST 3 of them wrong... I would have picked Wigan over Liverpool, Newcastle over Villa, and most certainly Arsenal over Bolton, so I probably would have lost...

An Alan Shearer Penalty got Newcastle a point versus Villa on Saturday. Many had predicted that if Aston Villa had of beaten Newcastle that Souness would have been sacked.

I'm glad that didn't happen. I was not a big fan of Souness before he arrived at Newcastle, in fact, I pretty much hated him. A big part of that was due to a book I had read, Peter Beardsley's Auto-biography. In it, he describes how it was more or less kicked out of Liverpool by Souness at the time, and how Souness handled it, he really seemed as an ass, and subsequently he's fallen out with quite a few players, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, David Dunn...

Anyhow, since he's been at Newcastle, I've heard a number of interviews, and it seems like he's a very sensible guy. I can see that he's certainly a proud man, and I don't think he's the type of manager to take sh*t from a player. I think he's mellowed quite a bit with age, and gained some wisdom in his experience managing so many big clubs... While I'm not convinced about his ability to motivate the team, based both on results from last year and this year, and I also sometimes question his tactics, I think he has improved on the squad, he's built "HIS" team, and I think you need to give a manager time to allow them to play together... Honestly, I don't think he's been able to field his strongest 11 ONCE this season... And if he has, he most certainly hasn't fielded them in back-to-back games. We've had a TON of injuries, it's been rediculous actually, and while the situation is getting somewhat better, it's still certainly not totally resolved.

I'd like to see Souness finish the calendar year AT LEAST... If we're still at the bottom of the table by Christmas, -AND- if there is a better manager banging at the door for a shot at the job, then fine, sack him, give the new manager the January transfer window to make a few changes, and that's that...

  ¶ 9:07 PM