Football 16-17

[The Nal]

4 minutes ago, comfortablynumb1910 said:

Didn't see the game last night but they were streets ahead of rangers at the weekend. 

Looked like a training match against Rangers and Barca looked like they were playing a training match against Celtic. Some lovely goals mind you. 

 

[kaosmark2]

37 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Looked like a training match against Rangers and Barca looked like they were playing a training match against Celtic. Some lovely goals mind you. 

Yep, gorgeous.

Another match last night could be described in that way as well btw

[pink_triangle]

3 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Hard to judge easily, but probably 12-15. Since the days of runs in the Uefa Cup, Henrik Larsson etc. I don't think their squads have been strong enough to compete for Europa League spots in English football. They've regressed heavily while the smaller Prem clubs have improved a lot (mainly due to money).

Travel would be a factor as well, I imagine the difference between their home and away form would be even more extreme than that of most bottom-half clubs.

 I meant purely on current playing staff. Of course in the premiership they would have different staff. Of the current squad most players look relegation battle premiership/top end championship level to me.

[Comfy Bean]

38 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Looked like a training match against Rangers and Barca looked like they were playing a training match against Celtic. Some lovely goals mind you. 

 

Oooft. Nice. Was in a boozer in London last night so watched the arsenal game. I live in the west of Scotland and it's weird,  maybe refreshing,  to be in a pub where nobody gives much of a toss about the old firm. Our media are obsessed with it.

 

[The Nal]

6 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Yep, gorgeous.

Another match last night could be described in that way as well btw

Yep. How good was Shelveys goal?

Absolutely beautiful. 

 

[Comfy Bean]

4 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

 I meant purely on current playing staff. Of course in the premiership they would have different staff. Of the current squad most players look relegation battle premiership/top end championship level to me.

Aye, think that's about right.

They are big fish in a small pond up here. If they ever get their move south I think they would eventually settle alongside clubs like Newcastle and Sunderland. I think they would struggle to attract the big players. The only time that wasn't the case was when rangers threw money at butcher, woods, Wilkins etc and at that time they could offer English players European football. 

Out of interest, would any of you guys like to see them in English football? 

When you look at the bottom half of the EPL you can see how sky would see them as adding a bit of "glamour ".

[TheGayTent]

They'd finish bottom of the league, and I hope neither of them end up playing down south. 

[Comfy Bean]

3 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

They'd finish bottom of the league, and I hope neither of them end up playing down south. 

I think the perfect storm for them is to play in England and leave colt teams up here.

A nightmare for everyone else in my opinion. 

As I mentioned,  I think sky will have a say on this when the next deal is due. 

[kaosmark2]

44 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Yep. How good was Shelveys goal?

Absolutely beautiful. 

Awesome stuff. The understanding between Mitrovic and Perez in the build up is really promising as well.

34 minutes ago, comfortablynumb1910 said:

Out of interest, would any of you guys like to see them in English football? 

Fuck no.

[DareToDibble]

I would quite like Celtic and Rangers to play in England for 1 reason. A lot of the fans are convinced they would be up there competing for the league and don't acknowledge that realistically they would be a top Championship/bottom Premiership team.

Would be quite entertaining.

On a serious note... I really can't see it happening. Surely the EPL teams would veto any such plans?

[TheGayTent]

45 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

No. Why should 2 extra clubs get relegated to accommodate them? If they join, it should be as a new club and at best start in league 2 and work their way up. 

Definitely not. Bang out of order on the Conference teams. 

If they were ever to join the football league it should be at the very bottom of the pyramid. Which of course neither would entertain - which of course is why it'll never ever happen. 

Any other proposal would get thrown out - turkeys don't vote for Christmas 

[pink_triangle]

I would only support Rangers and Celtic joining the English system if it worked in Wrexhams favour. For example increasing the football league from 3 X 24 to 4 X 22 (with the bottom league taking them on) which has been proposed.

[The Nal]

22 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

Fully agree to be honest. Does anyone know how the Welsh teams in the EFL started? Did they come in right at the bottom or join halfway up? 

They've always played in the English leagues. There was no Welsh league when those clubs were formed. 

Edited September 14, 2016 by The Nal

[ThomThomDrum]

13 minutes ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

Much easier that way! Take note, Scots!

 

Celtic and Rangers did form before the English League however.......

[TheGayTent]

6 hours ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Celtic and Rangers did form before the English League however.......

True. Though the Football League was formed before the Scottish Football League...the clue is in the title. 

[SwedgeAntilles]

We won't be coming to play in England, ever. The far more likely option is the once mooted 'Atlantic League' when the top teams of Scotland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Norway etc play in a league. Even that's not as likely as maintaining the status quo.

We were well beaten and even though it's not nice to lose so convincingly I was fairly ambivalent about it. These kinds of hammerings are becoming common place in the CL group stages. In just the previous two seasons you've had;

Porto 6-0 BATE
BATE 0-7 Shakhtar
Schalke 0-5 Chelsea
Chelsea 6-0 Maribor
Roma 1-7 Bayern Munich
Barca 6-1 Roma
Real 8-0 Malmo
Malmo 0-5 PSG

The gap between the halves and have not is increasing year on year. Financially we need to qualify but once you're there, if you get as tough a draw as we did this year, you're fucked before a ball is kicked. You just have to take the beatings from Barca and City and hope you can beat BM to 3rd place. 

I'd be all for some kind of Atlantic League - anything beats the current closed shop set up. 

[WS_Jack_III]

15 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Wonder how often Shelvey will perform like that. Beast. Loved Perez's flicks and touches as well, far too talented for us. Nice cameo from Atsu as well.

Shelvey and Hayden have been having great games over the last few weeks.

 

Nice to see Perez be good again, he'd been useless up until last night.

[LJS]

17 hours ago, TheGayTent said:

They'd finish bottom of the league, and I hope neither of them end up playing down south. 

Oh go on, please take them. They could supply the one thing the English game is missing-blind bigoted sectarianism.

You know you want it.

[eFestivals]

41 minutes ago, LJS said:

Oh go on, please take them. They could supply the one thing the English game is missing-blind bigoted sectarianism.

You know you want it.

Both of them? I'm surprised.

 

[SwedgeAntilles]

55 minutes ago, LJS said:

Oh go on, please take them. They could supply the one thing the English game is missing-blind bigoted sectarianism.

You know you want it.

To be fair, there's plenty of scumbag fans/sectarianism in Scotland outside of Celtic and Rangers. You'll hear the Hearts fans come out with the same bigoted songs/chants against Celtic as you'll hear from the Rangers fans and Aberdeen fans sing songs mocking the Ibrox disaster.

We have more pricks because we have more supporters but I think, in general, there's just a lot of pricks out there.

[LJS]

8 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Both of them? I'm surprised.

 

Yup both. Why the surprise?

[eFestivals]

7 minutes ago, SwedgeAntilles said:

To be fair, there's plenty of scumbag fans/sectarianism in Scotland outside of Celtic and Rangers. You'll hear the Hearts fans come out with the same bigoted songs/chants against Celtic as you'll hear from the Rangers fans and Aberdeen fans sing songs mocking the Ibrox disaster.

We have more pricks because we have more supporters but I think, in general, there's just a lot of pricks out there.

Doesn't Hibs also come along with Hearts, just the like Rangers/Celtic thing?

My view from down here - I could be wrong - is that their two sides of the same coin, tho perhaps differing in the extent.

8 minutes ago, LJS said:

Yup both. Why the surprise?

I was under the impression that in 'the new Scotland' - or alternatively, the people's republic of Glasgow - the crimes of one are more forgiveable than the crimes of the other.

[kaosmark2]

8 hours ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Shelvey and Hayden have been having great games over the last few weeks.

 

Nice to see Perez be good again, he'd been useless up until last night.

Hayden's been fantastic since he joined.

You been to any games yet this season?

[SwedgeAntilles]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

Doesn't Hibs also come along with Hearts, just the like Rangers/Celtic thing?

My view from down here - I could be wrong - is that their two sides of the same coin, tho perhaps differing in the extent. 

To an extent, I suppose the difference is that Hibs no longer retain the Irish connection, so it's a bit more diluted between the two. 

[WS_Jack_III]

3 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

Hayden's been fantastic since he joined.

You been to any games yet this season?

Only the Huddesfield one and we were crap.