This Weekend's Fixtures & Palace v Forest (02/03/04/05 May)

Friday, 2nd May 2025
Manchester City v Wolverhampton Wanderers, 20:00 https://i.imgur.com/htwHZ0c.jpg

Saturday, 3rd May 2025
Aston Villa v Fulham, 12:30 https://i.imgur.com/tM2pRxb.png
Everton v Ipswich Town, 15:00
Leicester City v Southampton, 15:00
Arsenal v Bournemouth, 17:30 https://i.imgur.com/htwHZ0c.jpg

Sunday, 4th May 2025
Brentford v Manchester United, 14:00
Brighton & Hove Albion v Newcastle United, 14:00 https://i.imgur.com/htwHZ0c.jpg
West Ham United v Tottenham Hotspur, 14:00
Chelsea v Liverpool, 16:30 https://i.imgur.com/htwHZ0c.jpg

Monday, 5th May 2025
Crystal Palace v Nottingham Forest, 20:00 https://i.imgur.com/htwHZ0c.jpg

Man City won 1-0

How the hell Wolves manager to mess up when it was 2 v 1 at the back is beyond me.

Was the Wolves manager playing? :blink:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mac76

Was the Wolves manager playing? :blink:

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I'm going to go out on a limb and say he meant "managed".

When did we last have a player-manager in the league ?

Wasn’t Mark Hughes still playing for Blackburn whilst managing Wales

Atillio Lombardo had a player-manager thing going on with Palace in the late 90s

Nothing recent stands out though

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Letters

I'm going to go out on a limb and say he meant "managed".

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well if you're going to be boring about it... :lol:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HCZ_Reborn

When did we last have a player-manager in the league ?

Wasn’t Mark Hughes still playing for Blackburn whilst managing Wales

Atillio Lombardo had a player-manager thing going on with Palace in the late 90s

Nothing recent stands out though

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Chat GPt says "The last player-manager in the English Premier League was Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea, during the 1998–1999 season. Vialli initially took over as player-manager in February 1998 after Ruud Gullit was sacked. He continued to appear occasionally as a player while managing the team, but his playing role diminished rapidly, and he retired from playing in 1999, focusing solely on management. Player-managers have become extremely rare in top-flight football due to the increasing demands and complexities of modern management."

It also tells me there's no player managers anywhere in the Football League but lower down, there is Scott Davies – Slough Town (National League South) and Ryan Shotton – Hanley Town (Northern Premier League Division One West)

Further to that I'd say on the other hand we're seeing a lot of younger managers, e.g. Howe, Martin and ofc Arteta so maybe that's the other side of it

Of course Vialli, can’t believe I didn’t remember that. Poor sod

Arteta was what 34 when he stopped playing which is kind of young, in his last few seasons with us as a player he was noticeably slow. And going back a very long time, Clough became a manager because his playing career ended very early due to injury.

So yeah it seems you either call it a day in your early thirties and maybe get into coaching, latest example of that being both Ramsey and Wilshere (although Wilshere called time on his career before he even got to 30 I think) or you carry on like Ronaldo into your late thirties/early forties

Wayne Rooney did the player manager thing with Derby I just remembered (albeit not in the premier league obvs)

Villa 1-0 Fulham, Tielemans.

Everton 1-0 Ipswich Beto

Leicester 1-0 Southampton Vardy