I actually read an article on Sunday in which the writer claimed to feel sorry for sacked AVB. Yes, seriously! We're talking about 34 year old with the rest of his managerial career in front of him who is about to get a massive pay off (some say £27M?!) for being crap. Let's face it, with that squad of players I think most of us here could have guided the Blues to 6th this season! Whatever next? bankers being paid a bonus for losing money? Chelsea only have themselves to blame for believing that a guy who dominated a league that only 2 teams will ever win could do the same here. You'd have to be very special to do that! And so who takes his place? The recent trend of promoting a number two continues, with RDM (surely his new nickname?) joining Steve Kean and Terry Connor in the promotion stakes. The omens are not good. Kean can't walk the streets of Blackburn without a balaclava and after Wolves' complete and utter surrender to Fulham, you have to wonder what Terry Connor knows that Mick McCarthy doesn't? I often wonder what these number twos actually do anyway? I'll wager no-one can make a better brew than Pat Rice, whilst Brian Kidd is apparently brilliant at putting out cones.
A better week for most predictors, especially Leon Pidgeon, the sponsor of the Simple SoccerStats minileague, who got 4 spot on scores on his way to a whopping 290 (the 4th highest winning score this season). Up front, Chris does a Brian Adams and is now top of the charts for a 14th successive week, though Mark Fox has cut that lead to 91 - the smallest it has been for a few weeks. Richard Ward and Scott Livingstone makes the biggest gains after scoring 200+ - two out of of 25 players who managed that. Atb, Ciro
Ps- re The Bonus goal. Only 69 seconds separated the first 4 goals this weekend! If you had Sunderland (23.50), Villa (23.40),or especially Man City, which most of you did, (22.53) you were very close, but it was Liverpool who got it in 22.31!
THIS WEEK’S £50 WINNER: Well done to:
| LEON PIDGEON | | | | | | | |
| 328 | | | | | | | |
| Bonus | Home Team | | | | Away Team | Bonus | Points |
| | Blackburn | 1 | v | 1 | Aston Villa | | 50 |
| | Fulham | 2 | v | 0 | Wolves | | 11 |
| | Liverpool | 1 | v | 2 | Arsenal | | 50 |
| | Man City | 3 | v | 0 | Bolton | | 17 |
| | Newcastle | 2 | v | 2 | Sunderland | 1 | 24 |
| | QPR | 1 | v | 1 | Everton | | 50 |
| | Stoke | 2 | v | 0 | Norwich | | 17 |
| | Tottenham | 1 | v | 2 | Man Utd | | 27 |
| | West Brom | 0 | v | 1 | Chelsea | | -6 |
| | Wigan | 0 | v | 2 | Swansea | | 50 |
TOP 20 SCORERS
| 1 | LEON PIDGEON | 290 |
| 1 | BEN GRUNBAUM | 277 |
| 3 | SCOTT LIVINGSTONE | 251 |
| 4 | MELANIE RONALD | 250 |
| 5 | BRUCE THWAITE | 244 |
| 6 | LEWIS PERRIN | 227 |
| 7 | JAMES STAMP | 221 |
| 8 | MATTHEW JENNS | 218 |
| 9 | JULIE WRIGHT | 217 |
| 10 | ADRIAN SPROSTON | 213 |
| 11 | JACKIE DOOLAN | 211 |
| 12 | ROBIN McMURRAY | 208 |
| 13 | JAMES DUNNE | 207 |
| 14 | STEVE RUSSELL | 207 |
| 15 | PAUL LETHBRIDGE | 205 |
| 16 | RICHARD WARD | 204 |
| 17 | DANIEL SCHOFIELD | 204 |
| 18 | KEVIN HANRAHAN | 204 |
| 19 | DAVID SHAW | 204 |
| 20 | ROGER HAWKES | 203 |
THE OVERALL TOP 10 AT A GLANCE
| PREV | POS | NAME | WEEK 27 | BONUS | TOTAL |
| 1 | 1 | CHRIS FRANKLIN | 125 | 0 | 3027 |
| 2 | 2 | MARK FOX | 178 | 0 | 2936 |
| 5 | 3 | KEVIN ELLIS | 152 | 0 | 2831 |
| 3 | 4 | PAUL BRYANT | 122 | 0 | 2823 |
| 7 | 5 | RICHARD WARD | 204 | 0 | 2814 |
| 11 | 6 | SCOTT LIVINGSTONE | 251 | 0 | 2800 |
| 4 | 7 | NICK SCRAGGS | 72 | 0 | 2761 |
| 6 | 8 | SIMON TAYLOR | 98 | 0 | 2730 |
| 9 | 9 | SIMON LINDSAY | 151 | 0 | 2716 |
| 12 | 10 | ROB LAWLOR | 148 | 0 | 2695 |
BONUS TEAM:
Liverpool, 22 mins v Arsenal
# Pts won: 24
# Players correct: 30
Most popular choice: Man City, 171
BEST PERFORMING MINILEAGUE (Full table in minileague link):
This Week: BMW - 122 pts (average)
Overall: Smiths & Seymour - 2207 pts (average)
