[Arcane Astral Aeons]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35276986

This One Tickled Me
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35282080

As For The Second One
Who Is He Kidding

[aries22]

I saw both articles today. Poor old Pepe Mel, he's struggling in today's age where instant success is required even after winning promotion.

I think LVG was asked the tedious question by the tiresome Press, 'Why do you think fans were leaving the game early?'
He really ought to have said, 'Because they were bored shitless' instead of trying to be clever.

[drewks]

Yup, really feel for Pepe Mel - nice, nice guy, probably TOO nice for football management

[WBA-Josh]

Pepe Mel's sacking can be justified with the fact that Betis were the 7th highest spenders in the summer and the squad that has been assembled is good enough to finish in the top ten at least.

However with that being said, they have spent most of this season between 8th and 13th in the league which for a newly promoted side, regardless of how strong or expensive the squad is, is a good season to date. Even though Pepe has been sacked because of a winless run yet Betis are still 5 points clear of relegation.

The last time Betis sacked Pepe, they regretted it for the next 12 months before finally bringing him back. I hope for their sake that they don't regret it again.

[Bierzo Baggie]

And meanwhile Mendilíbar isn't doing badly at all at Eibar...

To be honest Betis were dead and buried about a year ago. I saw them play in Division 2 against my local team Ponferradina just before Pepe Mel took over for the second time. Betis are a big team. Ponferradina are Walsall (20 years ago they were Lye Town!) Betis lost 4-1 and looked like a team on the road to nowhere. Pepe took over a couple of games later and they won the league ...again.

This season Betis have been defensively naive (sounds familiar?) but I think a few things have gone on behind the scenes...

Don't know how much Betis have spent this season Josh, but 7th highest spenders in Spain is probably equivalent to some mid-table championship sides in the UK.

[WBA-Josh]

A good article about Pepe's sacking - http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog...are_btn_tw
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[Worldclassalbion]

I don't understand people knocking Pepe Mel. I really liked the bloke. He was very passionate and lets face it, he did what was asked of him he kept us in the premier league and although we conceded we attacked all the time. Wasn't his fault the players couldn't cope with a high pressing game. If anything they should have had a bloody good hard look at themselves.

[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

We didn't really survive because of attacking football that season, though. The two results which kept us up - wins against Norwich and West Ham - were both achieved by scoring an early goal on the counter and then having eleven men in our own half for the rest of the game. If Mel takes the credit for that, he equally has to take the blame for us blowing a 2-0 lead at Villa because our Lugano-led back four was pushed up to the halfway line and getting shredded by the long ball over and over again.

Nice bloke, in a bad situation, probably badly-treated as a result, but there was a whiff of the emperor's new clothes about his tactics.

[Worldclassalbion]

We didn't really survive because of attacking football that season, though.  The two results which kept us up - wins against Norwich and West Ham - were both achieved by scoring an early goal on the counter and then having eleven men in our own half for the rest of the game.  If Mel takes the credit for that, he equally has to take the blame for us blowing a 2-0 lead at Villa because our Lugano-led back four was pushed up to the halfway line and getting shredded by the long ball over and over again.

Nice bloke, in a bad situation, probably badly-treated as a result, but there was a whiff of the emperor's new clothes about his tactics.

Of course he has to take blame for blowing leads Ska'd, that's a given BUT he did what was asked of him.

I have played football at a good level and if things were going wrong you adapt yourself along with the other players, you don't have to wait for a manager to tell you and you do it if he doesn't then argue in the changing room later SO as I said the players couldn't do what he wanted of them. Amazingly though because TP is a hard nut this group ofplayers are working their dangly bits off, therefore Mels players were lazy or thick or both and let him down massively.