Football 17/18

[thetime]

13 minutes ago, zahidf said:

Ha true, but city fans less arrogant than Utd ones, sorry☺

Didn't think they had any 

[Hugh Jass]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

I think if Utd, city or Chelsea don't win it there will be questions.

Then questions for two of them then... Winning the league shouldn't be mandatory, but mounting a serious challenge should. No excuses if Jose and Pep aren't at least in the race with 3-4 matches to go.

[thetime]

Chelsea, Utd and city have spent nearly 400m between them this summer. That is quite a figure, will no doubt easily go over the half a billion mark by 1st September. 

[thetime]

22 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Then questions for two of them then... Winning the league shouldn't be mandatory, but mounting a serious challenge should. No excuses if Jose and Pep aren't at least in the race with 3-4 matches to go.

One suspects that Jose will be under the most pressure to deliver , especially the media.

Edited July 23, 2017 by thetime

[Hugh Jass]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

One suspects that Jose will be under the most pressure to deliver , especially the media.

He got an easy ride from them last year despite only finishing 6th.

[thetime]

3 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

He got an easy ride from them last year despite only finishing 6th.

You sure? 

[Hugh Jass]

2 minutes ago, thetime said:

You sure? 

Pretty sure. There was precious little questioning of how he could break the world record for Pogba, sign Zlatan and drop £50m+ on two more players and still be no better than LVG's team.

That UEFA Cup win saved his bacon.

Edited July 23, 2017 by Hugh Jass

[thetime]

1 hour ago, Hugh Jass said:

Pretty sure. There was precious little questioning of how he could break the world record for Pogba, sign Zlatan and drop £50m+ on two more players and still be no better than LVG's team.

That UEFA Cup win saved his bacon.

Can not say I agree at all, jose got plenty of grief from the media. Although that was always going to happen as it was man utd and jose. Pep got a pretty much easy ride though, which is quite surprising. 

[jyoung]

Completely agree that Pep got an easy ride. It's like, for instance, if something goes tits up for Wenger, he's useless and outdated. When things go wrong for Pep nobody says, "Oh this arrogant gaffer thinks he can play one style of football against every English team and expect to win, how stupid are his clearly inefficient tactics, why doesn't he suck up some pride and adapt?". Yes, questions were asked but nobody dug him out with any real conviction. A bit too much respect shown I think. City's defence made many errors last year and if those were errors of an Arsenal team the manager would have had his grave well and truly dug.

Edited July 23, 2017 by jyoung

[ThomThomDrum]

Only challenging for the league/CL is not good enough for the likes of Utd, Citeh and Chelski. They have to be winning these trophies with the amount they spend. As such, failure will knock on the door of such clubs this season if/when they dont succeed. Nature of modern football. Spend big and win it. None of those clubs should be happy with anything less.

[thetime]

57 minutes ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Only challenging for the league/CL is not good enough for the likes of Utd, Citeh and Chelski. They have to be winning these trophies with the amount they spend. As such, failure will knock on the door of such clubs this season if/when they dont succeed. Nature of modern football. Spend big and win it. None of those clubs should be happy with anything less.

Totally agree, either Jose or peps reputation will take a battering this season. 

Although if Liverpool get there targets, they will be spending a similar amount.

Edited July 24, 2017 by thetime

[Comfy Bean]

59 minutes ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Only challenging for the league/CL is not good enough for the likes of Utd, Citeh and Chelski. They have to be winning these trophies with the amount they spend. As such, failure will knock on the door of such clubs this season if/when they dont succeed. Nature of modern football. Spend big and win it. None of those clubs should be happy with anything less.

This is how I see it.

The Manc clubs managers have had their settling in time.....and money.

Deliver or be replaced.

[Hugh Jass]

14 hours ago, thetime said:

Can not say I agree at all, jose got plenty of grief from the media. Although that was always going to happen as it was man utd and jose. Pep got a pretty much easy ride though, which is quite surprising. 

I cannot remember a single time when Jose was challenged by anyone in the media regarding the poor performances he was presiding over. Jose stated last July that winning the league was the only acceptable outcome for Manchester United, end of the season he's claiming success for sneaking into Europe via the UEFA Cup after finishing sixth. Nobody called him on his bullshit. I certainly feel that had Moyes/LVG/any other coach spent what he did and then turned in a similar season the knives would have well and truly been out.

Agree that Pep got an easy ride too though.

[ThomThomDrum]

Martials work off the wing to set up this goal is glorious to watch 

 

[eFestivals]

22 hours ago, zahidf said:

https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/we-need-to-talk-about-raheem-sterling-70406

Good article about racism in football reporting

Good? It says everything about why Sterling gets shit is due to racism.

I'm pretty sure he'd have got a whole less shit if he'd not been trying to engineer a move to another club, but I guess that's just my own racism.

[The Nal]

44 minutes ago, ThomThomDrum said:

Martials work off the wing to set up this goal is glorious to watch 

All well and good in a pre season friendly against Madrids C team. He hid too many times last year, hopefully he'll become more consistent. Still only 21 I suppose. 

Bailly is going to be world class. 

[Dan R]

3 hours ago, The Nal said:

All well and good in a pre season friendly against Madrids C team. He hid too many times last year, hopefully he'll become more consistent. Still only 21 I suppose. 

Bailly is going to be world class. 

Only 2 changes from the team they fielded in the CL final, so far from a weak line-up. He looks miserable whenever I saw him play last year, another young player that Mourinho seems to struggle to manage.

[Hugh Jass]

Insert your own joke here:

[thetime]

1 hour ago, Dan R said:

Only 2 changes from the team they fielded in the CL final, so far from a weak line-up. He looks miserable whenever I saw him play last year, another young player that Mourinho seems to struggle to manage.

To be fair it's martial's attitude and motivation thats the problem, rather than Jose.  Jose has done ok with young players hasn't he? Rashford is certainly coming on very well,  More a Chelsea issue rather than a Jose one by the looks of it.

Edited July 24, 2017 by thetime

[eFestivals]

28 minutes ago, thetime said:

Jose has done ok with young players hasn't he? Rashford is certainly coming on very well

but that's been much-more down to Rashford not getting back in his box, hasn't it?

I got the distinct impression that Jose didn't fancy him, and tried to not use him but ended up having to - and Rashford banged them in.

 

[Dan R]

34 minutes ago, thetime said:

To be fair it's martial's attitude and motivation thats the problem, rather than Jose.  Jose has done ok with young players hasn't he? Rashford is certainly coming on very well,  More a Chelsea issue rather than a Jose one by the looks of it.

The impression I got from mates who are Utd fans was that Rashford's progression was limited, just being shoehorned into an unnatural position. It  wasn't until Ibrahimovic got injured and he actually got the opportunity that he started excelling again.

Also I think his treatment of Shaw has been terrible in terms of developing a young talent coming back from a major injury. 

[didinowanttohearthat]

Anyone got any betting tips for the current season?

[thetime]

5 minutes ago, didinowanttohearthat said:

Anyone got any betting tips for the current season?

Utd to win the treble and city to get the double.

[kaosmark2]

1 minute ago, didinowanttohearthat said:

Anyone got any betting tips for the current season?

I've not checked any odds as I'm not betting atm, but Spurs on an each way would be a good shout as they'll be 4th favs but likely to finish higher.

Top/bottom "At christmas" can be a good market. Arsenal might start strongly but won't win it. Promoted teams generally get 2/3rds - 3/4s of their points in the first half of the season, while established teams take longer to get going but are more likely to recover, so sticking a bit on someone like Watford/Palace to be bottom at christmas could go well.

I think it's a bit harder this year as I can't work out any team who are certain to go down. Brighton are my favs, but there's no teams who currently look to me like they've been in the Prem too long. Leicester getting relegated might be an okay outside bet even though I don't think it'll happen.

[pink_triangle]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

Utd to win the treble and city to get the double.

Is that the real treble, or a charity shield, European super cup, league cup variety! I heard the sky news presenter talking about Klopps first trophy a couple of days ago using a friendly tournament, I'm not sure what counts these days!