Liverpool FC Forum

by **Sabre** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:22 pm

The cold numbers and standing tables might put my comment on Coleman as "Happy Clappy" as, you could expect to see a team that has been in primera 40 years in a row in the top of the segunda division from the very start.

Bet and Win, accordingly gave us as favourites to be first, so the standing table seemingly says that Coleman isn't doing well.

But he is. Because he's using a very weakened side full of youngsters. In the first matches, which were horrible, I saw all the mistakes that led us to segunda multiplied, it was very embarrassing.

But he's managed to transmit confidence to a spirit-less squad, and the team and the football is getting better. Last results were 2 wins, and a draw away. The press, very reticent to bring a manager "who didn't know the country, the language and the competition", has started to admit the improvement in the pitch.

by **LFC2007** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:29 pm

I tried to get the actual table from the site but I gave up, it said something like 'domain not valid', so I copied it.

Anyway, I don't know what the competition is like in the Segunda division, in England's second division however, you could take your pick out of about 14 teams to get promoted with an equal chance. It's very unpredictable.

Does Coleman have a translator, or do most of the players speak English anyway?

by **Sabre** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 9:42 pm

Vaughan the welsh speaks well. Skoubo the Danish aswell. But other than that the english level of the squad is probably much worse than mine. Coleman uses a translator and is learning Spanish. He admitted to be fustrated for using a translator as he fears the message might be dissolved in the process.

The competition has good football. The teams are well trained and well worked out, you can see that in set pieces. But you don't have this 2 or 3 players per team that can change the game upside down, those Aimar that you're doing the match of your life and in a couple of quality actions they fúck you, if you see what I mean.

And yes, it's quite unpredictable, the teams that are on top now, can perfectly end up in 14th place.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 4:13 am

This will be a good career move for Coleman.

Get some valuable foreign experience.

Good for him and Sociedad.

by **JBG** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:23 pm

Coleman certainly isn't a bad manager, he did a decent job in difficult circumstances at Fulham.

It must sadden him to see all the money Lawrie Sanchez got seeing that he had to scrimp and save. Kind of like when Ranieri took over from Benitez at Valencia: one of the reasons Benitez said he left was because Valencia were being tight with the transfer budget and the brass bought players Rafa didn't want, yet, when Rafa left and Ranieri took over Ranieri was allowed to splash the cash in spectacular fashion, most of it on junk, and I recall Valencia had a poor season that year.

by **LFC2007** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:48 pm

Edited

by **The Manhattan Project** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:12 pm

Coleman would be crazy to leave this:

by **Sabre** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 9:05 pm

Controversy about Coleman!!

He didn't appear in todays training session, and, this is a small town, we all know he had some drinks yesterday at 3 am in a known disco... so the press conference has been juicy:

Journo: What's the real reason for your delayy today, have you been negotiating to be the Wigan manager or something?

Coleman: Have you ever been in Wigan? If you had you'd rather stay in San Sebastian

Journo: Your voice being lost today doesn't exactly help....

Coleman: I've been dragging a cold 4 days

Journo: Everything will be fine as long as we win

Coleman: yes, if we win it will we ok, if we lose I'll have to stay at home with cold water (not sure what he means by this).

Personally, I don't know the real reasons of the delay and I don't care whether he drinks some whiskies, as long as he does his job. I think he's the correct manager and will help to the team. Despite we have the biggest budget of Segunda, we have too many youngster and this team needs patience. I think he's doing a decent job and I reckon we'll be close of promoting at the end. But this event of the disco won't help, there's a certain clique of idiots here who are always pro-basque managers and are wishing to nitpick on everything. A delay is important enough, but no one will talk about it should RS beats Celta.

by **The Manhattan Project** » Sat Nov 10, 2007 11:34 pm

Hmmm.

Wigan or the Basque Country?

What a tough choice. :laugh:

by **Sabre** » Tue Nov 13, 2007 10:01 pm

Coleman explains the incident

Coleman's postcard from San Sebastian No 12
By CHRIS COLEMAN - More by this author » Last updated at 08:45am on 13th November 2007

Comments Comments
Chris Coleman

I've been here for five months and I haven't had much of a social life, but last week, I ventured out into town. Some friends were over from England to watch us play Celta Vigo. I hadn't seen them in ages and I decided to show them around. We stayed out late — later than we should have.

The players had the next day off, so there was no training but I was a bit late for a press conference.

Little stories have a habit of growing arms and legs over here and turning into big ones so the stories soon came out that I was out on the town.

I wouldn't mind if I'd stumbled out of a bar at five in the morning with a bottle of champagne in hand but I didn't.

You can't move an inch in the wrong direction. It was my own fault, of course.

I really shouldn't have supplied the ammunition. It gave people the chance to take advantage and last week was not a good time after two draws and before a big game.

I'd been trying for days to get a plumber out because the family who live in the flat beneath mine had water coming through their ceiling.

I had to turn my water off. I was without hot water or heating for four days and the weather has been freezing.

The guy finally came out on the morning of the press conference, making me late. People have tried to say that wasn't true but you can ask my interpreter or the maintenance guy or my neighbours who had water coming into their house.

I met president Maria de la Pena yesterday. The meeting was scheduled to talk about other things but I apologised for going out late and told her I shouldn't have done it.

That was that really. She said there was no problem. It's been hard for the president since relegation last season. There's a cloak of negativity around the club and rumours about a takeover by a mysterious Chinese consortium.

If the president and directors go then that's me gone, too. They brought me in and I'd feel a sense of duty. I wouldn't be able to stay. I don't work like that.

The players are taking a real bashing from the media. We drew 1-1 with Celta Vigo. Their goalkeeper was sent off after five minutes and we got a penalty but missed it.

Then we hit the bar and missed an open goal from five yards. We scored and they equalised.

We got the whistles from the fans as we tried to break down their 10 men. We should have won.

I can't ask for any more effort and enthusiasm from my players. It will never be enough unless we win 3-0 playing Brazilian football.

Next week it's away to Gimnastic. Despite the frustrations, we're only seven points from the top three. You have to stay positive.

I'll admit it's been a bloody tough experience. But win two games and your life changes in football.

I like the man, I really do. And I want him in Real Sociedad for a long time. But he's not telling the truth there.

The problem is not he was in a disco. The problem is that he didn't answer any of the 29 calls to the phone. If he really had an accident with the washing machine, he would have called the club to warn of the delay!

Coleman has just admitted he wasn't telling the truth today. He has said that he didn't want to put even more pressure to the club, but has apologised. But it seems he won't admit it in the Daily Mail. At least, you mates, know the truth.

by **account deleted by request** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:23 am

Coleman will stay at Sociedad until the new year

'The board has asked me to stay on because it is important to give some stability to the club'

Tom Lutz
Friday November 16, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Chris Coleman today confirmed that he has been asked to stay on as Real Sociedad coach until January 3, the date when the club elects a new board. "The board has asked me to stay on because it is important to give some stability to the club," he told a news conference.
Coleman has had a bumpy start to his career in Spain. Sociedad currently sit 13th in the Spanish second division and have not won a league game since the beginning of October.

There was further trouble for Coleman last week when he arrived 90 minutes late for a press conference. At first he said it was due to his washing machine breaking down before admitting that he had been out with friends until the early hours of the morning. "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said.
Coleman took charge of Sociedad in June this year after the Basque club had been relegated from Spain's top flight.

by **Sabre** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 12:00 pm

Yes. That's correct more or less. The last chairman has resigned because of the criticism that there's surrounding the club. A majority of fans do not support the chairman and the board, and want the new Chinese investors in the club. That will imply changing the name of stadium to Beijing 2008 and Shangai 2010 among other things.

Coleman said that his loyalty is with the people that brought him. If they go, he feels that he should go aswell, as he came here with a project and the new owners may have different plans and bring a lot of players.

Coleman made a mistake the other day. Not because he went to a disco at night, but because he overslept. Anyhow, I for one, forgive that kind of mistakes as long as it's not repeated.

For me Coleman is not too comfortable here, not due to the life. He seems enjoying it, but the language. For him is very important to tell things to the players, the communication with them, and so far he can't do that without a translator. That frustrates him, as he has admitted, and I can understand.

As much as we're 13th, the promotion places are 5 points away, all the teams are packed together, so in 6 games we may have an scenario of Coleman in promotion places or in mid table. I'd personally like him to stay.

by **Sabre** » Fri Nov 16, 2007 7:02 pm

Those Irish are cheeky

Chris Coleman Specials Chris Coleman Specials
To be in charge of Real Sociedad at the end of the season 4 - 6

To be arrested because of driving drunk 25 - 1

J B Toshack to be Real Sociedad's manager before the end of this season 33 - 1

To sign C Bellamy in January 50 - 1

To sign J de Pedro in January 66 - 1

To be pictured in a night club with Swedish players this weekend 100 - 1

To miss the 1st half of Real Sociedad's next match due to sleeping late 200 - 1

The site paddypower.com has made this especial bets about Chris Coleman!! Bit unfair but funny :laugh:

by **Sabre** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 4:21 pm

For S@int and some other mates, some months ago I struggled to try to explain the difference between a second striker and what we call an attacking midfielder, a media punta (half forward)

Coleman in his Daily mail postcards have discovered this differences, and I thought you might want to read

Another 0-0 draw for me with Real Sociedad and another classic example of the sort of tactics we're facing in Spain. It didn't take us long to see that no teams play with two strikers in the British sense. That was clear in pre-season.

Most have a back four and one central striker but the midfield is flexible. Some teams use a holding midfielder and four across the front of him. Others have what they call a medio punta, a player who links between midfield and attack. Quite a few teams are playing this way in the Barclays Premier League now.

Take Arsenal, it doesn't matter who is on the teamsheet, you can't say they play with two strikers. The only time they line up 4-4-2 is for the kick-off. They play everywhere.

Manchester United are the same. Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez might be 'up front' but someone is always dropping into midfield, the wingers come inside, the strikers drift wide.

They play in 'pockets' around the pitch. English football has learned this from Spain, Italy and Portugal, where they don't play in straight lines.

Cadiz came to us on Sunday, playing on the counter-attack with one striker and a medio punta. The medio punta doesn't defend. He gets to cheat a little bit. It must be a great position to play. He waits until your full back pushes forward, then goes to stand in the space left behind. As soon as the attack breaks down, he's the ball they want to hit.

We played a similar system at Fulham for two years. We had pace on both flanks with Luis Boa Morte and Steed Malbranque, a dynamic striker in Louis Saha and Lee Clark in behind, who is a quick thinker and a good passer. We finished ninth playing that way. Its beauty is the flexibility. But people see one striker and don't like it.

Cadiz didn't cause our defence a problem. We just couldn't break them down. We can't buy a goal at the moment. We've played 16, scored 14 and conceded 13. We haven't lost in seven but we've drawn six! The good news is we're still in touch with the top teams. We're simmering underneath and know there's nothing to fear in this division. Our next two games are away to Granada and home to Tenerife. Six points should take us into the Christmas break in the top six.

Gerrard wouldn't be a medio punta in the sense he doesn't defend. Even in that position, under Rafa, he would defend. His tackling is very good. But I'm sure, that Rafa wanted him in that role because first of all he has the quality to do so, playing near the box, while he doesn't carry most of the weight in defence.

Note that Gerrard is perfectly able to play as a tradicional centre mid eh? just saying that for me it's not madness to put the weight of defending in other players and play him as a medio punta.

by **walleum** » Fri Jan 04, 2008 4:25 pm

We got some hot news from San Sebastian

Inaki Badiola has become yesterday Real Sociedad's fourth president in the past 3 years (aprox) after standing unopposed in the club's election. He is the owner of Hong Kong-based company Lighthouse Consulting and received the backing of members owning 57000 shares, while members' abstentions represented 22000 shares.

Chris Coleman has threatened to leave the club if Badiola won control (but will talk monday about his future). Badiola said he would replace Coleman with Javier Irureta, who was previously in charge of the club from 1995-97 and is one of Spain's most experienced coaches.

Badiola has also pledged to sign Valencia striker Nikola Zigic and take Arsenal's Fran Merida and FC Barcelona's Marc Crosas on loan.

Let's see what happens and good luck to him.

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