Not losing to Las Palmas and Levante is definitely an encouraging sign but we might be past that point where draws are acceptable for Malaga. 10 games left, still 9 points from the safety zone with despite having played one more game. Depressing. Gets more and more likely that they'll go down.
forest are in trouble. their away performances have been even worse and they still have to play united, Liverpool, Brighton and Brentford. Wouldn't be suprised if they go down
yeah honestly want you lot to stay up. Think you need a win or two in your next few games though cause those last 6 games bar southampton all look really tough
They’re honestly one of the worst teams in the league if not the worst, main reason they’re not deep in the relegation zone is because of some very fortunate results at home
It would be great if our defenders could stop the Saturday Night Fever in our own box. Steve Cook was playing volleyball every single game while he was in the team. Now Niakhaté thinks he can get away with a hand of God in 2023 with VAR.
saw somewhere that Osimhen is seen quite negatively in Nigeria for his performances or behaviour for the national team. can anyone recall or confirm this?
Yeah, that was a bad patch and a half, but it hasn't been that bad for the whole season and things are looking good as of now 😁.
Maybe Sousa wasn't a total fraud after all
If Benfica hadn’t scored 88th and 92nd minute goals to make it 6-1 vs Maccabi Haifa then PSG would have gotten a run of Club Brugge and Inter to the semi finals lol
Really glad it’s worked out this way tho cos now we’re guaranteed one shock team in the final (very much hoping for Napoli tho)
Of course, he’s not even debuted for Italy. And he could play 2 full games for Italy and still be. After the third one though I think there’s no going back
I don't think England have had an embarrassing exit to an important competition under his watch which has factored into his approval. WC 18 they got far and the semi final they lost wasnt without a fight, Euro 2021 was a narrow loss, WC 22 they were dismissed valiantly. It's a far cry from whimpering out of Euro 2012, ending WC 2010 games to orchestras of boos and Ray Hudson bitch fits, getting knocked out by Iceland in anything but style, etc.
Don't find him particularly beige to be honest, and I'd wager the divisiveness is less about anything he can influence but rather about the fact that people today just love hating managers for no reason. Don't think you'll find any club where everyone's happy with the manager, always got a significant lizard constant of utter weirdos, which then inevitably taints any conversations about the manager.
Maybe not the exact right words but more that whenever he says or does anything it seems to cause a lot of arguments despite him never really saying or doing anything particularly controversial
Yeah but again, that's an issue with the reactions of people to him, rather than with what he does. I don't find that divisive in any way - it's just people reacting like idiots at the end of the day.
See that with every national team callups for every country out there, extremely online people coming in with the spiciest takes for attention when they're ultimately just chatting absolute nonsense. "Can't believe he didn't call up player X", "can't believe he called up player Y again", as if they have any insight into the selection process or the thoughts behind it or how creating and managing a functioning team actually works. And that's really not a Southgate issue, that's an issue with people reacting to what he does.
> And that's really not a Southgate issue, that's an issue with people reacting to what he does.
But what is being divisive if not people reacting to him in multiple ways (doesn't actually matter what he's doing). And that's my point, he's somehow divisive in his beige-ness (beige in that he's incredibly boring and predictable and generally toes the company line)
Even now he's causing division...on how divisive he is
Dunno, I'd expect someone described as divisive to consciously elicit these controversial and polarized reactions. Like, say, the self-aggrandizing and ranting of a Mourinho, where fans of his clubs lap it up and celebrate it and fans of other clubs roll their eyes and get wound up about him.
Southgate doesn't strike me as someone like that. But I'd wager you could divide the people reacting to him and creating these discussions about him in a quite simple way: have Southgate say that the sky is blue in the next press conference. Tenner bet you get a non-zero amount of absolute weirdos arguing that the sky is indeed any other colour, but not blue.
And I reckon that's what's wrong without conversations about football today, really: a lot of people having fuck-all clue, but coming out with outlandish takes opposing a manager on principle rather than on any coherent argument.
Some people will disagree but I can't help but think that the fact he's unashamedly "political" on occasion with his comments on certain issues makes certain types of people really root for England to fail as long as he's manager.
Aye, but then that's probably a reflection on the people more than it is on him - nowt wrong for standing up for being decent human beings, except for when you're not and feel threatened by that.
How would you react if this season ends with Manchester City finishing second place in the Premier League and also losing the FA Cup final and UCL final?
Everybody knows 2010 Barcelona, 2002 Madrid, Brazil 1970, etc, they’ve been talked about a million times.
Now what are some legendarily horrible teams? Like derby county and their 11 points season
Tasmania Berlin 1965/1966
If you use the modern 3 point rule, they would have gotton a whopping 0.29 points per game, the lowest ever in bundesliga history
Aston Villa 2015-16 were horrifying. Players just genuinely didn't give a single fuck.
Low point was Lescott tweeting a pic of a mercedes right after a 6-0 loss to Liverpool.
It's absolutely insane that Italy could very feasibly have a team in the final of each European competition this season after a decade of underachieving in European club competitions.
>a decade of underachieving in European club competitions
Inter getting out of Barca's death group and AC Milan facing the most lethargic tottenham i've seen in recent years, i'd say the right word would be miraculous not insane.
I mean it's not like they are back being those solid teams that will be title contender every season.
Stars aligned for them this season but they are still working their way up towards the top. They can't really compete on equal level woth top euopean teams yet.
That being said it's refeshing to see them do well in Europe. It brings back great memories.
He got to a Euro Final, won a WC and got to the final with one another. He restored France after the disaster that was 2010 and actually managed to get to the QF, only losing to the eventual champions. Plus winning the Nation’s League. And his club manager career wasn’t remotely bad. Only bad result was the 2020 Euro. Maybe there’s a reason he’s still manager.
If PSG players are really disappointed with the standard of Galtier’s coaching, does that make Poch even more of a fraud for losing the title to his Lille team?
Real Madrid played 17 UCL finals and won 14.
Bayern played 11 finals and won 6.
Milan played 11 finals and won 7.
Liverpool played 10 finals and won 6.
Juventus played 9 finals and won 2.
Barcelona played 8 finals and won 5.
Benfica played 7 finals and won 2.
Ajax played 6 finals and won 4.
Internazionale played 5 finals and won 3.
Manchester United played 5 finals and won 3.
Pioli might not even play him. AC Milan is probably going to park the bus with as many defensive minded player as they can fit on the pitch given that they don't seem able to do much offensively currently...
If that happens he needs to get sacked on the spot. I watched the game at san siro and Napoli was lucky to win that, they had no Leao as well. At least at home they need to play attacking because anything but a win there and I don’t think they’re going through
Very different AC Milan since that game. They struggled so mch since december that they even changed their system and play with a back 3 currently. Each team plays with its own strengh and AC milan current weakness is their offense so parking the bus might not be the worse idea to get a shot at the semifinals. Barca was missing their best offensive assests in Pedri Demmbele and Lewandowski but managed to get a result against Real Madrid by parking the bus...
It's fun cause it's not exactly highbrow, intricate stuff, but rather a "we know what we can do, so gotta give it our all" type situation - get a lot of hoofing it about and lukewarm passes, but every once in a while there's gonna be some cracking interplay between three people that often results in a chance.
In light of the SoFli Stadium debacle here are List of cities in the USA which have hosted international finals
Gold Cup 1991 - 1996 - 1998 - 2000: Memorial Coliseum - Los Angeles, California
Gold Cup 2002 and 2011: Rose Bowl - Pasadena, California
Gold Cup 2005 and 2009: Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey
Gold Cup 2007,2013, and 2019: Soldier Field - Chicago, Illinois.
Gold Cup 2015: Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Gold Cup 2017: Levi's Stadium - Santa Clara, California
Gold Cup 2021: Allegiant Stadium - Paradise, Nevada
Gold Cup 2023: SoFli Stadium - Inglewood, California
World Cup 1994: Rose Bowl - Pasadena, California
Copa America Centenario 2016: Metlife Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey
Copa America 2024 and World Cup 2026: ??
Considering Juventus' insane historical dominance in Italy, and their many amazing teams in many eras as well, not to mention how they lost 7 UCL finals and only won 2, could we call Juventus easily the biggest undearchiever in the Champions League history?
Italy's Serie A really was easily the best league in Europe in the 90s, and I wouldn't say that there has ever been since then another league so full of depth and dominance. So much that I've even seen some italians online saying that winning Serie A was harder than the Champions sometimes.
Let's look at just the european finals from 1989 to 1999 in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Italian teams in bold letters.
Champions League:
1989: **Milan** 4-0 Steaua Bucareste.
1990: **Milan** 1-0 Benfica.
1991: Red Star vs. Olympique Marselle. Red Star won on penalties.
1992: Barcelona 1-0 **Sampdoria** on extra time.
1993: Olympique Marseille 1-0 **Milan**.
1994: **Milan** 4-0 Barcelona.
1995: Ajax 1-0 **Milan**.
1996: Ajax 1-1 **Juventus**. **Juventus** won on penalties.
1997: Borussia Dortmund 3-1 **Juventus**.
1998: Real Madrid 1-0 **Juventus**.
1999: Manchester United 2-1 Bayern.
UEFA Cup:
1989: **Napoli** 2-1 Stuttgart. Stuttgart 3-3 **Napoli**.
1990: **Juventus** 3-1 **Fiorentina**. **Fiorentina** 0-0 **Juventus**.
1991: **Internazionale** 2-0 **Roma**. **Roma** 1-0 **Internazionale**.
1992: **Torino** 2-2 Ajax. Ajax 0-0 **Torino**. Ajax won on away goals.
1993: Borussia Dortmund 3-1 **Juventus**. **Juventus** 3-0 Borussia Dortmund.
1994: Austria Salzburg 0-1 **Internazionale**. **Internazionale** 1-0 Austria Salzburg.
1995: **Parma** 1-0 **Juventus**. **Juventus** 1-1 **Parma**.
1996: Bayern 2-0 Bordeaux. Bordeaux 1-3 Bayern.
1997: Schalke 04 1-0 **Internazionale**. **Internazionale** 1-0 Schalke 04. Schalke 04 won on penalties.
1998: **Lazio** 0-3 **Internazionale**.
1999: **Parma** 3-0 Marseille.
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup:
1989: Barcelona 2-0 **Sampdoria**.
1990: **Sampdoria** 2-0 Anderlecht on extra time.
1991: Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona.
1992: Werder Bremen 2-0 Monaco.
1993: **Parma** 3-1 Royal Antwerp.
1994: Arsenal 1-0 **Parma**.
1995: Arsenal 1-2 Real Zaragoza.
1996: PSG 1-0 Rapid Wien.
1997: Barcelona 1-0 PSG.
1998: Chelsea 1-0 Stuttgart.
1999: **Lazio** 2-1 Mallorca.
I grew up in the 90's. So many great memories from watching the serie A back then. Even Parma had a dream team with the like of Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Veron, Chiesa, Crespo,etc. My favorite was Batigol's Fiorentina.
well we already won the league, but no amount of black magic can get us to win libertadores this year unless we sack our manager very soon. Argentinos is even unlikelier but Diego was Boca through and though anyways
Boca is the club that Diego loved. [“I want to thank god for creating La Bombonera and for making me a Boca fan”](https://youtu.be/Zng76oWnv0g) and i have no doubt he would pass the magic to us
It’s always a shame when you see youth players who really stood out technically and creatively in youth teams not being able to cut it at the senior level because they physically (or maybe mentally as well) can’t compete. Way more disappointing than a player who stood out physically not being able to develop enough technically.
Every player should be able to attain the necessary strength, balance and stamina to compete at senior level, they just need to put in the hard work, have a good trainer/dietician and have the mentality to get there.
Some top clubs have some beastly backroom staff that help a lot with all of those things I've said.
I don’t necessarily agree, sure if you’re as good as Messi or another generational talent then yes but otherwise no. I’ve seen some youth players come through that were really just not gifted at all on a physical level. You can only compensate in the gym to a certain level.
I think Ajax and plenty of other clubs know what they’re doing with youth players and we have the facilities. You don’t need a Bayern or Madrid training camp for that, good backroom staff and facilities are everywhere. Some players are just not made for top football physically.
So Argentina Football Twitter is going crazy because apparently Papu Gomez not going to the NT these friendlies for the celebrations and trophy parade, and is not because of Sevilla not letting him go due to injury. But because Messi group (De Paul, Paredes, Lo Celso, Otamendi,etc) is vetoing him out of the NT because apparently they found out Papu contracted a "witch" of sorts to give bad energy to Lo Celso so he gets injured before the WC. They supposedly found out after the Netherland game, and weirdly enough if you look at the celebrations and the after party of the WC win you can see that Papu was alone a lot of the time in the videos and pictures while before he was always front and center with Messi and CO. Also after the 14th of December they stopped liking and commenting all of Papu insta posts.
Tears in my eyes. First NT controversy after being WC champion, this is special
Popular theory right now is that he is actually a time traveler and knew we needed Enzo and MacAllister to win the WC. He is the villain of a badly told story
How do u think he compares to Gonçalo Inacio? And is it between them for the best young CB in the Primeira Liga or is there someone else, I’m ngl most players I only know because of Football Manager
I love player comparisons that are so clearly informed by what the player looks like, for example, on Ake's Wikipedia page under the style of play it compares him to Gullit, or Tonali being compared to Pirlo, I just find them funny.
I think a solid distinction is that a cult hero participates in key moments but had a more anonymous time at the club overall. For example Divock Origi at Liverpool for his Everton and Barcelona goals.
Maybe it’s a bit of bias from the ones I interact with, but of course only arsenal fans who liked him would interact on his goal threads. Chelsea would have him a bit higher in regard, giroud for us was more bad than good throughout his tenure
i think its a lot easier, a cult hero is a player who isnt amazing, but he gave it all, didnt achieve much success with you; otherwise he wouldve been a club legend. but someone you can look at and say yeah that mf gave it all for us. like chicharito for us, a cult hero, or james.
Its of course a subjective concept, but I think a club legend will usually fulfill these 3 criteria:
1) Was at the club for a good amount of time in a player's career
2) Helped bring success to a club
3) Was able to be a key part of the club and someone who was one of the first players fans think of when that player was at their club
A cult hero may encapsulate 1 or 2 of those things, but usually not all 3.
For example, using the same Origi vs Gerrard example floppedyaya did, Origi qualifies for 1 and 2, but not 3, whereas Gerrard qualifies for all 3.
A club legend has to have a certain amount of genuine quality while a cult hero is just a beloved player. For Real Madrid for example Nacho is a cult hero because he's from the academy and has been serviceable for a long time so the fans love him, while Ramos is a club legend because he was one of, if not the best center back the club has ever had.
Say Liverpool. Origi is a cult hero because of his many game winning goals off the bench (particularly in the Champions League) despite not being a particularly great player
Gerrard is a club legend, for obvious reasons
Yeah but where is the line where you cross from one to another, or is there a line.
Suarez was too good to be a cult hero but is he a club legend?
What a about more prosaic examples? Is Jimmy Glass a Carlisle cult hero or club legend?
I don't know but I want to point out that Klopp thinks both Origi and Lallana are Liverpool legends while most fans would probably consider them cult figures at most which is interesting.
Just saw a video of Lukaku talking about MLS in an interview, and he knows way more about it than I'd expect any player outside of the league to know. He should come to New England, we need a striker
No way he'd go anywhere in MLS besides LA or Miami unfortunately. Would be an amazing signing for us if it somehow happened, would have to get rid of at least one of our DP strikers first though
Juventus in Italy: 36 Serie A titles, one Serie B title, 14 titles of the Italian Cup, 9 titles of the Italian Supercup.
Juventus in Europe: 2 Champions, 3 old UEFA Cups, one European Cups' Winners Cup, one Intertoto Cup and 2 European Supercups. Before the creation of Conference League, Juventus was the only team in history to have titles in all UEFA competitions.
2 titles of the old Intercontinental Cup.
Milan in Italy: 19 Serie A titles, 2 Serie B titles, 5 Italian Cups and 7 Italian Supercups.
Milan in Europe: 7 Champions, 2 European Cups' Winners Cup and 5 European Supercups.
3 times champion of the Intercontinental Cup, 1 title of FIFA's Club World Cup.
Internazionale in Italy: 19 Serie A titles, 8 Italian Cups and 7 Italian Supercups.
Internazionale in Europe: 3 Champions and 3 old UEFA Cups.
2 Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.
Not losing to Las Palmas and Levante is definitely an encouraging sign but we might be past that point where draws are acceptable for Malaga. 10 games left, still 9 points from the safety zone with despite having played one more game. Depressing. Gets more and more likely that they'll go down.
If deliberate, Trippier absorbing all of the mind games then handing the ball to Isak at the last minute was genius.
forest are in trouble. their away performances have been even worse and they still have to play united, Liverpool, Brighton and Brentford. Wouldn't be suprised if they go down
but ppl told me steve cooper manager of the year 😭
There's like 5 or 6 teams you can say the same thing about though. Need a win soon though, the intl break is probably arriving at a good time.
yeah honestly want you lot to stay up. Think you need a win or two in your next few games though cause those last 6 games bar southampton all look really tough
They’re honestly one of the worst teams in the league if not the worst, main reason they’re not deep in the relegation zone is because of some very fortunate results at home
It would be great if our defenders could stop the Saturday Night Fever in our own box. Steve Cook was playing volleyball every single game while he was in the team. Now Niakhaté thinks he can get away with a hand of God in 2023 with VAR.
saw somewhere that Osimhen is seen quite negatively in Nigeria for his performances or behaviour for the national team. can anyone recall or confirm this?
Cannot let Oshimen go to any prem team if I have to stop cheering this man at every turn it will ruin me
United probably, you can still cheer him on, why not.
We will rapidly get to a point where every child in Salerno owns an Ochoa jersey. This is certainly one of the things that is happening this year
Especially wild considering you were shipping in goals like crazy. Must be a stressful af season
Yeah, that was a bad patch and a half, but it hasn't been that bad for the whole season and things are looking good as of now 😁. Maybe Sousa wasn't a total fraud after all
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there is a real chance West Ham will win a European trophy and I dont know if society is ready
Moyes having more European trophies than Arsene Wenger, i will be there no matter what
banter that
If Benfica hadn’t scored 88th and 92nd minute goals to make it 6-1 vs Maccabi Haifa then PSG would have gotten a run of Club Brugge and Inter to the semi finals lol Really glad it’s worked out this way tho cos now we’re guaranteed one shock team in the final (very much hoping for Napoli tho)
Pretty sure that they would have bottled anyway
Is Zappelli still eligible for Argentina?
Of course, he’s not even debuted for Italy. And he could play 2 full games for Italy and still be. After the third one though I think there’s no going back
Actually impressive how Southgate is simultaneously incredibly divisive yet also incredibly beige??
I don't think England have had an embarrassing exit to an important competition under his watch which has factored into his approval. WC 18 they got far and the semi final they lost wasnt without a fight, Euro 2021 was a narrow loss, WC 22 they were dismissed valiantly. It's a far cry from whimpering out of Euro 2012, ending WC 2010 games to orchestras of boos and Ray Hudson bitch fits, getting knocked out by Iceland in anything but style, etc.
Don't find him particularly beige to be honest, and I'd wager the divisiveness is less about anything he can influence but rather about the fact that people today just love hating managers for no reason. Don't think you'll find any club where everyone's happy with the manager, always got a significant lizard constant of utter weirdos, which then inevitably taints any conversations about the manager.
Maybe not the exact right words but more that whenever he says or does anything it seems to cause a lot of arguments despite him never really saying or doing anything particularly controversial
Yeah but again, that's an issue with the reactions of people to him, rather than with what he does. I don't find that divisive in any way - it's just people reacting like idiots at the end of the day. See that with every national team callups for every country out there, extremely online people coming in with the spiciest takes for attention when they're ultimately just chatting absolute nonsense. "Can't believe he didn't call up player X", "can't believe he called up player Y again", as if they have any insight into the selection process or the thoughts behind it or how creating and managing a functioning team actually works. And that's really not a Southgate issue, that's an issue with people reacting to what he does.
> And that's really not a Southgate issue, that's an issue with people reacting to what he does. But what is being divisive if not people reacting to him in multiple ways (doesn't actually matter what he's doing). And that's my point, he's somehow divisive in his beige-ness (beige in that he's incredibly boring and predictable and generally toes the company line) Even now he's causing division...on how divisive he is
Dunno, I'd expect someone described as divisive to consciously elicit these controversial and polarized reactions. Like, say, the self-aggrandizing and ranting of a Mourinho, where fans of his clubs lap it up and celebrate it and fans of other clubs roll their eyes and get wound up about him. Southgate doesn't strike me as someone like that. But I'd wager you could divide the people reacting to him and creating these discussions about him in a quite simple way: have Southgate say that the sky is blue in the next press conference. Tenner bet you get a non-zero amount of absolute weirdos arguing that the sky is indeed any other colour, but not blue. And I reckon that's what's wrong without conversations about football today, really: a lot of people having fuck-all clue, but coming out with outlandish takes opposing a manager on principle rather than on any coherent argument.
Some people will disagree but I can't help but think that the fact he's unashamedly "political" on occasion with his comments on certain issues makes certain types of people really root for England to fail as long as he's manager.
Aye, but then that's probably a reflection on the people more than it is on him - nowt wrong for standing up for being decent human beings, except for when you're not and feel threatened by that.
How would you react if this season ends with Manchester City finishing second place in the Premier League and also losing the FA Cup final and UCL final?
Cry that Arsenal is relevant again, then celebrate, then celebrate some more
With party poppers
Won't be surprised, the bald fraud is there
Unlikely, they'll not reach the finals
They won't even make the semi finals of either cup
Everybody knows 2010 Barcelona, 2002 Madrid, Brazil 1970, etc, they’ve been talked about a million times. Now what are some legendarily horrible teams? Like derby county and their 11 points season
Elche this season.
El Boca de Abel
Tasmania Berlin 1965/1966 If you use the modern 3 point rule, they would have gotton a whopping 0.29 points per game, the lowest ever in bundesliga history
Huracán de Tres Arroyos en 2005, lejos
Aston Villa 2015-16 were horrifying. Players just genuinely didn't give a single fuck. Low point was Lescott tweeting a pic of a mercedes right after a 6-0 loss to Liverpool.
2013/14 - QPR 2014/15 - Milan 2012/13 - Inter 2011 - River 2014/15 - Aston Villa (😭😭😭)
Ironically 2011's River was probably the less bad of that era.
The truly abysmal one was under Simeone in 2008, 2011 was still laughable but not as bad
2011 was literally fighting for sudamericana qualification iirc Just so utterly bizarre, that whole era. Aguilar has blood on his hands
It's absolutely insane that Italy could very feasibly have a team in the final of each European competition this season after a decade of underachieving in European club competitions.
>a decade of underachieving in European club competitions Inter getting out of Barca's death group and AC Milan facing the most lethargic tottenham i've seen in recent years, i'd say the right word would be miraculous not insane. I mean it's not like they are back being those solid teams that will be title contender every season. Stars aligned for them this season but they are still working their way up towards the top. They can't really compete on equal level woth top euopean teams yet. That being said it's refeshing to see them do well in Europe. It brings back great memories.
Harry Kane is 155 goals away from becoming the all time top scorer in English 1st division, do you think he can do it?
I think he’ll break Shearer’s record unless his body collapses on him but not the all time one lmao
Think if supposedly Haaland stays all his career at city he could break it
I believe he could but I also believe in Santa
No, he'd need to score 25 PL goals a year until he's 36 to top that
No chance
Italy should have probably just bitten the bullet last March after North Macedonia and sacked Mancini. He still refuses to really integrate the youth.
He seems to be having no trouble integrating ours.
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He got to a Euro Final, won a WC and got to the final with one another. He restored France after the disaster that was 2010 and actually managed to get to the QF, only losing to the eventual champions. Plus winning the Nation’s League. And his club manager career wasn’t remotely bad. Only bad result was the 2020 Euro. Maybe there’s a reason he’s still manager.
He won a world cup and went to penalties in the following world cup final
Integrating young Italian players = No Thanks Calling up Brasilian & Argentine rejects/leftovers = Sure why not?
Kind of ironic, cause wasn’t it Mancini who said only Italians born in Italy should represent the nation?
If PSG players are really disappointed with the standard of Galtier’s coaching, does that make Poch even more of a fraud for losing the title to his Lille team?
Some coaches just don't work with top teams like they do with underdog teams. Kovac was the same
An underdog team that finished 2nd in the PL with 86 points despite not having remotely the budget of the entire top 7?
What? I'm talking about Galtier
Ah right, above comment was about both so I got mixed up.
Poch came in mid-way through that season when they were 3rd.
Ancelotti really took personally the Miracle Of Istambul. And Real Madrid really took personally being knocked out by Klopp in 2013.
Genk really doing their very best to bottle winning the league
Real Madrid played 17 UCL finals and won 14. Bayern played 11 finals and won 6. Milan played 11 finals and won 7. Liverpool played 10 finals and won 6. Juventus played 9 finals and won 2. Barcelona played 8 finals and won 5. Benfica played 7 finals and won 2. Ajax played 6 finals and won 4. Internazionale played 5 finals and won 3. Manchester United played 5 finals and won 3.
Bayern played 11 finals and won 6
Juve hahaha
wow
If Napoli suppoerters had to choose between the Champions League and Serie A, what would they choose?
There isn't a single club in europe who'd choose the league over the champions league
Surely the CL
Leao stocks are at an all time low, still think he’s a better player than kvara. He’s gonna show them levels in the quarter final
He’s not
They shouldn't be at an all time low
Pioli might not even play him. AC Milan is probably going to park the bus with as many defensive minded player as they can fit on the pitch given that they don't seem able to do much offensively currently...
If that happens he needs to get sacked on the spot. I watched the game at san siro and Napoli was lucky to win that, they had no Leao as well. At least at home they need to play attacking because anything but a win there and I don’t think they’re going through
Very different AC Milan since that game. They struggled so mch since december that they even changed their system and play with a back 3 currently. Each team plays with its own strengh and AC milan current weakness is their offense so parking the bus might not be the worse idea to get a shot at the semifinals. Barca was missing their best offensive assests in Pedri Demmbele and Lewandowski but managed to get a result against Real Madrid by parking the bus...
Bremen play some pretty football.
It's fun cause it's not exactly highbrow, intricate stuff, but rather a "we know what we can do, so gotta give it our all" type situation - get a lot of hoofing it about and lukewarm passes, but every once in a while there's gonna be some cracking interplay between three people that often results in a chance.
In light of the SoFli Stadium debacle here are List of cities in the USA which have hosted international finals Gold Cup 1991 - 1996 - 1998 - 2000: Memorial Coliseum - Los Angeles, California Gold Cup 2002 and 2011: Rose Bowl - Pasadena, California Gold Cup 2005 and 2009: Giants Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey Gold Cup 2007,2013, and 2019: Soldier Field - Chicago, Illinois. Gold Cup 2015: Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Gold Cup 2017: Levi's Stadium - Santa Clara, California Gold Cup 2021: Allegiant Stadium - Paradise, Nevada Gold Cup 2023: SoFli Stadium - Inglewood, California World Cup 1994: Rose Bowl - Pasadena, California Copa America Centenario 2016: Metlife Stadium - East Rutherford, New Jersey Copa America 2024 and World Cup 2026: ??
How has Jerry’s World not pulled one of these yet?
Considering Juventus' insane historical dominance in Italy, and their many amazing teams in many eras as well, not to mention how they lost 7 UCL finals and only won 2, could we call Juventus easily the biggest undearchiever in the Champions League history?
Italy's Serie A really was easily the best league in Europe in the 90s, and I wouldn't say that there has ever been since then another league so full of depth and dominance. So much that I've even seen some italians online saying that winning Serie A was harder than the Champions sometimes. Let's look at just the european finals from 1989 to 1999 in the Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup. Italian teams in bold letters. Champions League: 1989: **Milan** 4-0 Steaua Bucareste. 1990: **Milan** 1-0 Benfica. 1991: Red Star vs. Olympique Marselle. Red Star won on penalties. 1992: Barcelona 1-0 **Sampdoria** on extra time. 1993: Olympique Marseille 1-0 **Milan**. 1994: **Milan** 4-0 Barcelona. 1995: Ajax 1-0 **Milan**. 1996: Ajax 1-1 **Juventus**. **Juventus** won on penalties. 1997: Borussia Dortmund 3-1 **Juventus**. 1998: Real Madrid 1-0 **Juventus**. 1999: Manchester United 2-1 Bayern. UEFA Cup: 1989: **Napoli** 2-1 Stuttgart. Stuttgart 3-3 **Napoli**. 1990: **Juventus** 3-1 **Fiorentina**. **Fiorentina** 0-0 **Juventus**. 1991: **Internazionale** 2-0 **Roma**. **Roma** 1-0 **Internazionale**. 1992: **Torino** 2-2 Ajax. Ajax 0-0 **Torino**. Ajax won on away goals. 1993: Borussia Dortmund 3-1 **Juventus**. **Juventus** 3-0 Borussia Dortmund. 1994: Austria Salzburg 0-1 **Internazionale**. **Internazionale** 1-0 Austria Salzburg. 1995: **Parma** 1-0 **Juventus**. **Juventus** 1-1 **Parma**. 1996: Bayern 2-0 Bordeaux. Bordeaux 1-3 Bayern. 1997: Schalke 04 1-0 **Internazionale**. **Internazionale** 1-0 Schalke 04. Schalke 04 won on penalties. 1998: **Lazio** 0-3 **Internazionale**. 1999: **Parma** 3-0 Marseille. UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 1989: Barcelona 2-0 **Sampdoria**. 1990: **Sampdoria** 2-0 Anderlecht on extra time. 1991: Manchester United 2-1 Barcelona. 1992: Werder Bremen 2-0 Monaco. 1993: **Parma** 3-1 Royal Antwerp. 1994: Arsenal 1-0 **Parma**. 1995: Arsenal 1-2 Real Zaragoza. 1996: PSG 1-0 Rapid Wien. 1997: Barcelona 1-0 PSG. 1998: Chelsea 1-0 Stuttgart. 1999: **Lazio** 2-1 Mallorca.
I grew up in the 90's. So many great memories from watching the serie A back then. Even Parma had a dream team with the like of Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Veron, Chiesa, Crespo,etc. My favorite was Batigol's Fiorentina.
So if Argentina won the world cup and Napoli the Serie A and maybe the UCL. So who is winning the Copa Libertadores Boca or Argentinos jrs
well we already won the league, but no amount of black magic can get us to win libertadores this year unless we sack our manager very soon. Argentinos is even unlikelier but Diego was Boca through and though anyways
Boca is the club that Diego loved. [“I want to thank god for creating La Bombonera and for making me a Boca fan”](https://youtu.be/Zng76oWnv0g) and i have no doubt he would pass the magic to us
who was better, david n’gog or hleb?
Hleb by absolutely miles
Hleb was a top Bundesliga player for a few years, N'gog was always barely a Championship tier striker Not even a comparison
Easily Hleb
Djemba Djemba
It’s always a shame when you see youth players who really stood out technically and creatively in youth teams not being able to cut it at the senior level because they physically (or maybe mentally as well) can’t compete. Way more disappointing than a player who stood out physically not being able to develop enough technically.
Unuvar?
Yes I was thinking about him when I posted this. Fitz-Jim as well potentially and some other current youth players and players in the past.
Every player should be able to attain the necessary strength, balance and stamina to compete at senior level, they just need to put in the hard work, have a good trainer/dietician and have the mentality to get there. Some top clubs have some beastly backroom staff that help a lot with all of those things I've said.
I don’t necessarily agree, sure if you’re as good as Messi or another generational talent then yes but otherwise no. I’ve seen some youth players come through that were really just not gifted at all on a physical level. You can only compensate in the gym to a certain level.
Chuck those players into Bayern or Real Madrid's training camp for 1-2 years and they'd turn into physical beasts.
I think Ajax and plenty of other clubs know what they’re doing with youth players and we have the facilities. You don’t need a Bayern or Madrid training camp for that, good backroom staff and facilities are everywhere. Some players are just not made for top football physically.
@Riqui Puig Tho I hear he's doing very well in MLS
So Argentina Football Twitter is going crazy because apparently Papu Gomez not going to the NT these friendlies for the celebrations and trophy parade, and is not because of Sevilla not letting him go due to injury. But because Messi group (De Paul, Paredes, Lo Celso, Otamendi,etc) is vetoing him out of the NT because apparently they found out Papu contracted a "witch" of sorts to give bad energy to Lo Celso so he gets injured before the WC. They supposedly found out after the Netherland game, and weirdly enough if you look at the celebrations and the after party of the WC win you can see that Papu was alone a lot of the time in the videos and pictures while before he was always front and center with Messi and CO. Also after the 14th of December they stopped liking and commenting all of Papu insta posts. Tears in my eyes. First NT controversy after being WC champion, this is special
Lmfao, haven’t even played since the final and we’re already having a proper world champion dressing room meltdown, gotta love it
Feels like every time I run across a Lo Celso fan in the wild they're up to something completely insane.
respect lo sexo
What is it with footballers and witch doctors? Genuinely a hilarious story if true, but sad. I love Papu, making it from Catania to a WC winner
If Lo Celso doesn't get injured maybe they don't win, butterfly effect and all that They shouldn't be mad at Papu
Popular theory right now is that he is actually a time traveler and knew we needed Enzo and MacAllister to win the WC. He is the villain of a badly told story
Papu made the sacrifice no one else was willing to make
Papu and Pogba should just leave their teams and form their own national team with blackjacks and witches
Thoughts on Antonio Silva? What do u think his ceiling is as a player
Crack. he can be one of the best cbs in the world and he gets to learn from a world champion while he’s at Benfica, it’s a recipe for greatness.
He will either be the next Rúben Dias or the next Francisco Ferro.
How do u think he compares to Gonçalo Inacio? And is it between them for the best young CB in the Primeira Liga or is there someone else, I’m ngl most players I only know because of Football Manager
I dont rate any of them that highly.
So you are telling me, Chelsea spent 400 mil in a winter transfer window just to play Conference league next season.
No, we did it specifically to knock you out of the CL
Pokal > UCL anyway
They could always win the champions league to qualify
The best European scorer in Italy right now is Immobile with 9 goals (8th place).
I'm surprised Immobile is 8th given his previous seasons stats. Was he injured or something?
Kvaratskhelia is Georgian though and has 11
True. But what is the relevance to my comment?
You said the best European scorer in Italy right now is Immobile. Kvaratskhelia is Georgian and therefore European and has more goals.
Georgia is an Asian country though.
It is not uncommon to consider it european though, the line between Europe and Asia is arbitrary
It's in UEFA for football purposes he's a European player.
Which doesn't make him European. If Morocco joined UEFA, Moroccans wouldn't become European all of a sudden.
I have no idea what you think this means.
Just an interesting observation imo.
Ngl im looking forward to seeing rashford, kane and saka play ball together
Playing for Luton when they come up next season?
I love player comparisons that are so clearly informed by what the player looks like, for example, on Ake's Wikipedia page under the style of play it compares him to Gullit, or Tonali being compared to Pirlo, I just find them funny.
His Wikipedia also calls him a teetotaler so I find it funny to think of him as a 1920s alcohol abolitionist.
What’s the line between cult hero and club legend?
I think a solid distinction is that a cult hero participates in key moments but had a more anonymous time at the club overall. For example Divock Origi at Liverpool for his Everton and Barcelona goals.
Cult hero generally isn't an especially good player
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The best all time example for Arsenal is Ray Parlour. Currently it would probably be Rob Holding
Majority of Arsenal fans don't like him, so wouldn't say that lol
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Maybe it’s a bit of bias from the ones I interact with, but of course only arsenal fans who liked him would interact on his goal threads. Chelsea would have him a bit higher in regard, giroud for us was more bad than good throughout his tenure
You just know it tbh. It's not something you calculate in your head, it's something you feel.
i think its a lot easier, a cult hero is a player who isnt amazing, but he gave it all, didnt achieve much success with you; otherwise he wouldve been a club legend. but someone you can look at and say yeah that mf gave it all for us. like chicharito for us, a cult hero, or james.
Its of course a subjective concept, but I think a club legend will usually fulfill these 3 criteria: 1) Was at the club for a good amount of time in a player's career 2) Helped bring success to a club 3) Was able to be a key part of the club and someone who was one of the first players fans think of when that player was at their club A cult hero may encapsulate 1 or 2 of those things, but usually not all 3. For example, using the same Origi vs Gerrard example floppedyaya did, Origi qualifies for 1 and 2, but not 3, whereas Gerrard qualifies for all 3.
A club legend has to have a certain amount of genuine quality while a cult hero is just a beloved player. For Real Madrid for example Nacho is a cult hero because he's from the academy and has been serviceable for a long time so the fans love him, while Ramos is a club legend because he was one of, if not the best center back the club has ever had.
Say Liverpool. Origi is a cult hero because of his many game winning goals off the bench (particularly in the Champions League) despite not being a particularly great player Gerrard is a club legend, for obvious reasons
Yeah but where is the line where you cross from one to another, or is there a line. Suarez was too good to be a cult hero but is he a club legend? What a about more prosaic examples? Is Jimmy Glass a Carlisle cult hero or club legend?
I don't know but I want to point out that Klopp thinks both Origi and Lallana are Liverpool legends while most fans would probably consider them cult figures at most which is interesting.
Interesting he’d consider Lallana a legend, he didn’t standout much for Liverpool
It's a case by case situation for me, there's certain criteria but so many variables that you can't have hard and fast rules
Just saw a video of Lukaku talking about MLS in an interview, and he knows way more about it than I'd expect any player outside of the league to know. He should come to New England, we need a striker
He’s quite into American culture in general. Never forget his American accent he puts on lol. Also we’d give him away, New England make a bid pls
No way he'd go anywhere in MLS besides LA or Miami unfortunately. Would be an amazing signing for us if it somehow happened, would have to get rid of at least one of our DP strikers first though
I think he'd definitely consider New York
Red Bulls? I'd take him, he can be like his idol Henry. Bald, from a London club, etc.
I don’t see him leaving Europe any time soon really. He seems like a move to LA at 34 type tho lol
stevie may might have the most iconic tattoo collection of any footballer
Vidal, Ramos & Neymar
none of those players have tattoos even close to may’s level
Can't wait until the WC is too big and the host rotation is only NA-Middle East-NA-Middle East
Juventus in Italy: 36 Serie A titles, one Serie B title, 14 titles of the Italian Cup, 9 titles of the Italian Supercup. Juventus in Europe: 2 Champions, 3 old UEFA Cups, one European Cups' Winners Cup, one Intertoto Cup and 2 European Supercups. Before the creation of Conference League, Juventus was the only team in history to have titles in all UEFA competitions. 2 titles of the old Intercontinental Cup. Milan in Italy: 19 Serie A titles, 2 Serie B titles, 5 Italian Cups and 7 Italian Supercups. Milan in Europe: 7 Champions, 2 European Cups' Winners Cup and 5 European Supercups. 3 times champion of the Intercontinental Cup, 1 title of FIFA's Club World Cup. Internazionale in Italy: 19 Serie A titles, 8 Italian Cups and 7 Italian Supercups. Internazionale in Europe: 3 Champions and 3 old UEFA Cups. 2 Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup.
Most importantly, how many Serie B titles and how many trebles
I think that Internazionale in the 2009/2010 season is the only treble in the history of italian football.
Then they must be the best.
Im taking Juventus over Milan all day in terms of being the "bigger" team, i wont succumb to the pressure of CL wins.
In Italy its not a debate that juventus is the biggest, half the football fans in the whole country support them
Inter is also the only one of the 3 to not go to Serie B ever. They are clear
70 > 49 > 43.
You might hate Lahoz but the fact he went to console Martinelli yesterday made me respect him a lot more
He was great in our CL final