So Pardew is gone, Michael Appleton is the favourite, he'll do a good job if appointed
If they're going for Appleton, that suggests to me that the appointment is with an eye on getting out of the Championship next season, rather than believing they can stay up. Normally you'd get them signing a firefighter for the remainder of the season.
Not that getting back out of the Championship is anywhere near guaranteed either. Ask Sunderland.
As for MLS, the biggest thing holding it back is the stigma that football still has in certain sections of the US mainstream - uptake of the game among young people is on the rise, so this will take a little while to translate into following a homegrown side - especially given the blanket coverage of Premier League and La Liga.
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I think the biggest problem is that the MLS has the stigma of retirement league when the average age of players in the league is 24 years old and the past few "stars" to come over struggled alot in Pirlo, Gerrard, and Lampard. The league is growing. Im so excited about the state of the Red Bulls right now. They are killing it in the CCL and have a 2-2-0 record in the regular league using all B/C squads due to the academy producing homegrown talent. They lost this past weekend but three guys that came up through the system scored their first goals for the club. Its really exciting.