The English Football Thread

[Room Studio]

I support Watford. U ORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRNSS

[jackhammer]

Houllier you are a twat and have dragged the team down to the depths. No one likes you so just feck off.

[Mojo]

Apparantly he has the backing of the board? For now, anyway.

[Bulldog]

Hope not, as he could end up dragging Villa down. I still think any team from 8th downwards is in as much danger as anyone else of the drop at this stage.

I really can't remember the bottom of a Premier League table ever being as tight as it is now.

[Mojo]

I saw a headline on Sky Sports News before but didn't see the report itself. It seemed to suggest that Grant and Hodgsons jobs looked in danger but that Villa have backed Houllier.

[Bulldog]

Yeah, there's this about Hodgson on BBC Sport;

BBC Sport - Football - Liverpool owners consider Roy Hodgson's future

^ He's screwed, basically.

They've confirmed that Houllier's job is safe over there too, which is just bizarre. Sure, he hasn't been at the helm long, but it's painfully obvious that he's taking the Villains in the wrong direction.

[Mojo]

I'd like to see Hodgson get some time with Liverpool but I think he needs to be able to drag them into the top half of the table at least for the board to consider patience. Playing like they are playing now, he'll be out the door.

It feels strange to say but I'm glad to be a Sunderland fan right now, with clubs like Liverpool, Villa and even Chelsea looking to have such serious problems currently.

[Bulldog]

Not half eh. If Chelsea continue to fall short like this, I think this could be the season that the traditional top 4 changes for a good few seasons to come. The lines between the top 4 and upper-mid-table are getting really blurry, and it'd make for great viewing if I wasn't too busy panicking about Wigan getting relegated...

[Mojo]

I completely agree. I think it's a really exciting season. I can only currently see Man United winning the league but Arsenal and City are keeping enough pressure on to potentially capitalise if United start to slip up. Plus United are still not playing fantastically well.

Spurs are doing really well and have been incredibly entertaining in the process and look like they could sneak into the top four again if they keep going.

Bolton are having a great season and will have one eye on Europe, as we do. Realistically I would be happy with a top half finish for Sunderland but when you're sixth in the league and everything is as unpredictable as it is this season then why not push for Europe?

And at the bottom? Usually by this stage of the season you can point to one club who are as good as relegated but it's insane how tight it is in the bottom half of the table. I would be worried too if i were you Bulldog but how tight it is down there may be a good thing. String two or three good results together and things will look a lot better. Think you'll manage to keep a hold of N'Zogbia?

[Bulldog]

I highly doubt N'Zogbia's gonna stay. With any luck Bobby Martinez can convince him to stay at least 'til the summer. Great as he's been, he is replaceable, but if it comes to that I'd much rather it be in the summer transfer window than in the middle of a relegation scrap. I doubt we'll manage to string a few wins together, but the way I see it, we need 6 or 7 more to dodge the drop. The way things are, I really don't know where they're going to come from. On the other hand, if we beat Fulham this weekend (which we really, really have to), there's a chance of us climbing 5 places in the table. As you say, it's far too tight to tell.

As for your mob, it's great to see them doing so well, and I just hope you don't end up falling away to the lower mid-table in the second half of the season, as I've seen a lot of Steve Bruce's teams do (whether it's at Sunderland, Wigan or Birmingham). I've got a funny feeling things'll be different this year though, and you'll really be pushing for that last UEFA Cup spot at least.