Can't say I do care when it comes to the clubs, just hope it's interesting.
A great escape story is what I want I like to see and with it you get the flipside, the team that goes down at the last second. It doesn't matter who they are to me. Seen Everton pull off a couple, Leicester and West Brom; they were all memorable. No idea who actually went down those years off the top of my head.
There was West Ham too I suppose in 06/07 but I wasn't invested in that relegation battle at all. Only notable to me because they won at Old Trafford on the last day when we were celebrating the title and I was there, very drunk. Also because Tevez scored and would later join us.
For managers, I actually do have a soft spot for Sean Dyche. Part of it might be some weird contrarian impulse of mine to rally against those who look down upon or scoff at certain styles of play. Aside from that, variety is good for variety's sake and we now have less of it than ever before, nearly everyone trying to play like everyone else. Those who bring something different offer value for me and he does that, uniformity is boring.
I liked Big Sam and and Pulis too, Hughes when he had Blackburn scrapping. The first two of those were huge mates with Sir Alex and if he can respect that there's room for let's say 'agricultural' football then who am I not to? The great thing was that he'd never complain about the challenege when we went away and played those sorts of teams. We'd be up for it too, seeking to match the phsyicality hoping to let a moment of quality be the difference and we would get good results compared to Arsenal under Wenger who would wilt, complain and lose much more often. It's epic going to a place like that and winning 1-0 or 2-1.
We even parked the bus v Barcelona in the semi last time we won the Champions League didn't we? 27% posession away, 38% at home, outshot 34-15 over 2 legs (9-3 on target). You do what you've got to do, or think you've got to do. Other managers would have "tried to play the right way" and lost heavily. So yeah, I like to stick up for managers like Dyche. Thought what Arsenal almost pulled off at City recently was great when they shithoused the second half with everyone behiind the ball. I enjoyed that.
