Saints Beat Hull

Southampton handled Hull, Jay-Jay Okocha's current club, this morning beating them 4-0. Stern John had a hat trick for the Saints. After Tuesday 0-0 draw at Wednesday at St. Mary's and last weekends 2-1- win at Leicster, Saints find themselves 3 points out a playoff spot. 2 shutout in a row and 1 goal allowed in 3 games may not seem like something to be excited over but Southampton is a squad literally devoid of defenders that can play right now. Christian Dailly returned to West Ham early from his loan at St. Mary's. Defenders Claus Lundekvam (ankle), Wayne Thomas (Achilles), Chris Makin (hip), Darren Powell (calf), Phil Ifil (ankle) and Alexander Ostlund (hamstring) are all out injured. That's right, Southampton are missing 6 defenders to injury.

Injuries aren't the main problem facing George Burley and Southampton in trying to get themselves back into the playoff race in the Championship. The main one is finances. They had to sell Gareth Bale and Chris Baird in the off-season to help make ends meet. Without a new investor, come Boxing Day Burley will have to be deciding which players to sell to help balance the books yet again. More on Southampton's poor finacial situation here.

Pablo on the Move?

According to Goff, the Rapids are shopping Pablo Mastroeni around the league.

Coaching Salaries

It's not as nice as the data the MLS players union puts out on play salaries but it'll have to do for now. 3rd Degree was kind enough to put out the best possible data for coaching salaries in the MLS. Note how many have a greater than or less than symbol.
Rudd Gullit (LA) = $4 Mil over 3 years = $1.33 Million a year.
Bruce Arena (NY) = $600,000 a year, $1.2 Mil buyout.
Dominic Kinear (Hou) = $250,000
Frank Yallop (SJ) = $210,000
Juan Carlos Osorio (Chi) > $200,000
Mo Johnston (TFC) > $200,000
Jason Kreis (RSL) > $200,000
Sigi Schmid (Clb) > $200,000
Curt Onalfo (KC) < $200,000
Preki (CUSA) < $200,000
Tom Soehn (DCU) < $200,000
Fernando Clavijo (Col) < $200,000
Steve Morrow (FCD) < $200,000
Steve Nicol (NE) = $175,000

My Poor Nephew

My poor nephew. I had to break the news to him that Enos Kroenke and Jeff Plush didn't have the stomach to fire friendly ol' Fernando Clavijo.

Hey Fernando, You Can Leave

Dear Fernando Clavijo,

Let's face it, you're not very good (to say the least). There are only a few other coaches in the history of Major League Soccer that have managed to perform worse than you have. You've traded away great players for bupkiss, tied up large amounts of salary cap in unproductive players, in 3 drafts failed to unearth any players that remotely resemble Twellman, Joseph and other New England players you claim to have unearthed and flat out failed to win the vast majority of the time. It's an unfortunate reality that you're just not good enough even for a mickey mouse league like the MLS.

Fernando, if you ever realize that you need to do the right thing and resign, here are some jobs that are better suited for you.

NCAA DIVISION I MEN
COLLEGE ... OLD COACH ... NEW COACH
DUKE John Rennie ... TBA
SIENA Charlie Curto ... TBA job posting
VILLANOVA Larry Sullivan ...TBA job posting
WOFFORD Matt Kern ... TBA

NCAA DIVISION I WOMEN
COLLEGE ... OLD COACH ... NEW COACH
ALABAMA Don Staley ... Todd Bramble (Clemson head coach)
BAYLOR George Van Linder ... TBA
BUFFALO Jean-A Tassy ... TBA job posting
CINCINNATI Meridy Glenn ... TBA job posting
CLEMSON Todd Bramble ... TBA
ELON Chris Webb ...TBA job posting
GREEN BAY Quinn Ross ... TBA job posting
IOWA STATE Rebecca Hornbacher ... TBA
LAMAR Matthew Dillon ... TBA job posting
MICHIGAN Debbie Rademacher ... TBA job posting
OKLAHOMA Randy Evans ... TBA job posting
SAN JOSE STATE Dave Siracusa 4-15-2 TBA
TROY STATE Diana Niland ... TBA
TULSA Rena Richardson ... TBA job posting
VERMONT Kerry Dziczkaniec ... TBA job posting
WYOMING Anne Moore ...TBA

Sincerely,
Fans Concerned For The Beautiful Game

Penis Humor

This one is from the Euro08 qualifiers a couple weeks ago when England crashed out after losing to Croatia at home. As you know, they sing the national anthems before the game. Props to Who At All The Pies for catching this one. http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/2007/11/croatian_nation.html Instead of singing 'Mila kuda si planina' ('You know my dear how we love your mountains'), he sang 'Mila kura si planina', which translates as 'My dear, my penis is a mountain'. Immediately after Henry sung the line, a few Croatian players started grinning, as well as the team's child mascots.