Opening Silly Manager Salvos In The Prem

I have to admit that now that Manchester City has turned themselves away from trying to poach Fulham's players, the sharks of the EPL (sure Chelsea does it more and with bigger players, but City does it more interestingly) are actually quite entertaining - and not just because they're my second favorite team.

They actually got the manager of Bolton, Sam Allardyce, near the verge of tears with their talking to Wanderers midfielder (and one likeable member of the Greek national team) Stelios hours before yesterday's premier league opener against Aston Villa. This is the classic quote of the whole story:

"Why did they do that on the opening day of the new season? Clearly it was done that way just to upset my player."

Here's the thing though. Stelios didn't start, he didn't even play (I know this especially because he's on my Yahoo fantasy team - or was) against the Villans in their 2-2 draw. If it was done to upset Stelios (who might have been crying on the bench, I didn't actually see the match), it didn't really effect Bolton. He could have been wearing an Manchester City kit already and it wouldn't have mattered.

That match itself was an interesting affair where all four goals were scored in the first 10 minutes. I swore it was ESPN testing out their system until I verified it on BBC.

But, back to the subject at hand. If Allardyce is looking for sympathy from the press or other teams in the Premiership over a one million pound player, he's never going to find it. After all, there were 13 other teams, Manchester City included, who would gladly trade him this pain he's feeling for Bolton's UEFA Cup spot.

He need to just chill like Jose Mourinho.

Yeah, I know, chill and the Chelsea manager aren't usually mentioned in the same sentence but in this case it's applicable. Mourinho took in a movie with his children last week because he felt he had prepared for the Wigan match (going on right now on Pay Per View) enough.

"When I leave the training ground I don't think football for one more second. I have my decisions made, the training session is organised and I know what team I am going to play. I studied Wigan enough and I rest until the game. I go home and I don't think about football."

Goodness that man is either really smooth. Either that or he's secretly hiding the fact that he's a lazy hippie behind his millions of dollars of players. :)

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Thank you to Joseph Yobo of Everton for proving that even world class players can make horrible mistakes.

The center back made a "clearance" straight across the goal box. Wayne Rooney of Manchester United, since he wasn't busy mugging the other player, intercepted the pass and gently tapped in what the Sky Sports commentator called, "the easiest goal of the season." Later on it was expanded on that it could have been "the easist goal ever" by other pundits.

So, I'm sure the Nigerian international is feeling bad enough, right? Well, Everton's manager David Moyes obviously didn't think he's not going to cry every time he sees it on the "silly bloopers of footcer" type shows and decided to call him out in front of the media.

"I've not been ranting and raving because the performance was good. The first thing a centre-half learns is you don't play square across the box - You do that in Sunday league teams."

It could be a long season in the blue half of Liverpool is Moyes keeps that kind of berating in public places up. Not that the 0-2 loss to the Red Devils tells the season but they also lost striker James Beattie to injury for the second half of the match. No reports yet on how long he'll be out.

Wonder who David Moyes will blame for that in public? :)

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Sorry I didn't write yesterday. QPR being in second place in the Colaship depressed me. :p