Football 2023/24

[charlierc]

4 hours ago, zahidf said:

Cowards. 

 

 

It's genuinely hard to think about how Manchester United could've handled this worse.

[Neil]

59 minutes ago, charlierc said:

It's genuinely hard to think about how Manchester United could've handled this worse.

they could have out giggs in charge of dealing with it. 😛 

[zahidf]

Just now, Neil said:

they could have out giggs in charge of dealing with it. 😛 

They already had Fergie go to court to say he never saw Giggs slap a woman, so he can't be guilty.

[zahidf]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

It's genuinely hard to think about how Manchester United could've handled this worse.

Yup!

 

 

 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

With talk that Romeo Lavia is also wanting to join Chelsea over Liverpool and possibility of an extra goalkeeper, where the hell have they got these resources or FFP defying contracts from?

Don’t they get round FFP by putting them all on ridiculous long contracts?

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

It's genuinely hard to think about how Manchester United could've handled this worse.

I always thought the worst outcome for Man Utd was to announce they were bringing him back and then having to u turn. Haven’t not yet reached that point I suppose they could have handled it worse.

However it’s bad and it seems to be stuck with them wanting to bring him back, but not being able to think of a way to push it through. To me the audio and the photo is always going to be the sticking point. Others accused of similar can always take the “my word against yours “ approach, that doesn’t exist in this case.

 

[Crazyfool01]

how on earth was that not a wolves penalty ? 

[Neil]

10 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

how on earth was that not a wolves penalty ? 

because they're playing utd and utd have bought the ref!

[The Nal]

Neymar gone to Saudi. Still in his prime. Brazils all time joint leading scorer (with Pele). Apparently being paid to post positive things on Instagram about the country. Footie is broken.

[charlierc]

18 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

how on earth was that not a wolves penalty ? 

In real-time I thought it was just a collision, but yeah. VAR was made for correcting assumptions like that and judging by the fact the Premier League has dropped everyone involved, it failed. Lucky boy is Onana.

[charlierc]

21 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

Don’t they get round FFP by putting them all on ridiculous long contracts?

Yeah. There's a workaround called player amortisation which has been industry standard practice for years (say, a £10million player on a 5 year contract has their value written off at £2m-a-year until it expires) but this is pushing it to an extreme degree. And given Chelsea have also reportedly agreed a deal to sign Michael Olise from Crystal Palace, they're clearly not stopping.

Even then, I'm genuinely puzzled as to where on Earth their owners have got £900million from to begin with to blow in a year and a half on 3 new squads and 4 managers.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, The Nal said:

Neymar gone to Saudi. Still in his prime. Brazils all time joint leading scorer (with Pele). Apparently being paid to post positive things on Instagram about the country. Footie is broken.

Neymar's really a poster child for this weird age for the sport. Moving to PSG as a power play that's destabilised the transfer market, to say nothing of Barcelona themselves who are still paying a price for their dreadful post-sale transfers, never really got PSG close to the Champions League they covet barring one final, had a long list of ankle injuries, had PSG's fans essentially say go away only for nobody to want him except the Saudis, and off he goes.

[lost]

7 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Even then, I'm genuinely puzzled as to where on Earth their owners have got £900million from to begin with to blow in a year and a half on 3 new squads and 4 managers.

Saudi's PIF are a major investor in Clearlake Capital. This sort of money is peanuts to a country like that.

Noticed on twitter just a fan gave Fabinho a Rolex for having a good game in the Saudi league.

Edited August 15, 2023 by lost

[Crazyfool01]

44 minutes ago, charlierc said:

In real-time I thought it was just a collision, but yeah. VAR was made for correcting assumptions like that and judging by the fact the Premier League has dropped everyone involved, it failed. Lucky boy is Onana.

I agree and im not one for conspiracy stuff , but id suggest that the on field ref would feel extra pressure at places like old Trafford to make in the moment decisions , but that is surely the point of VAR .... Only watched the last half hour and it seems Onana had a good game apart from his decapitation effort 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Yeah. There's a workaround called player amortisation which has been industry standard practice for years (say, a £10million player on a 5 year contract has their value written off at £2m-a-year until it expires) but this is pushing it to an extreme degree. And given Chelsea have also reportedly agreed a deal to sign Michael Olise from Crystal Palace, they're clearly not stopping.

Even then, I'm genuinely puzzled as to where on Earth their owners have got £900million from to begin with to blow in a year and a half on 3 new squads and 4 managers.

They changed the rules because of how Chelsea pushed this. Although I don't know when it kicks in from.

[charlierc]

1 hour ago, lost said:

Saudi's PIF are a major investor in Clearlake Capital. This sort of money is peanuts to a country like that.

Noticed on twitter just a fan gave Fabinho a Rolex for having a good game in the Saudi league.

Well PIF owns 80% of Newcastle United and I haven't heard of the Toon being linked with any £100million+ talents. Indeed we're still talking about treading a fine line with FFP into why we're only looking for loans after signing Tonali, Barnes and the surprisingly expensive Livramento.

I'm aware they're very confident they've got the sums right on FFP and that with this stuff, it entitles them to spend a huge amount of dosh. Guess we'll see what happens if the Premier League and/or UEFA decide that they have got the math wrong.

[charlierc]

42 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

They changed the rules because of how Chelsea pushed this. Although I don't know when it kicks in from.

UEFA have changed their accounting rules but the Premier League have as of yet not. Though a rumour is that the Premier League is mulling over bringing it in line with UEFA's rules from next season.

[Skip997]

3 hours ago, The Nal said:

Neymar gone to Saudi. Still in his prime. Brazils all time joint leading scorer (with Pele). Apparently being paid to post positive things on Instagram about the country. Footie is broken.

It's way past broken. Along with nonsense like this there is the blatant cheating, and I don't mean by the players.

[Skip997]

1 hour ago, Crazyfool01 said:

I agree and im not one for conspiracy stuff , but id suggest that the on field ref would feel extra pressure at places like old Trafford to make in the moment decisions , but that is surely the point of VAR .... Only watched the last half hour and it seems Onana had a good game apart from his decapitation effort 

I am.

The PL is corrupt, the refs are biased, simple as that.

[squirrelarmy]

2 hours ago, Skip997 said:

I am.

The PL is corrupt, the refs are biased, simple as that.

Look at the age of the average English referee. Which club was the most dominant during their younger years. 

It may not be deliberate but there’s obvious subconscious preference towards certain club(s). 

There’s also far too much money involved with ridiculously high stakes. It’s no longer an enjoyable sport to watch. 
 

In other news, if you want to see a textbook example on how to destroy a football club just look at what the 49ers are doing to Leeds. 3rd game of the season coming up and we probably won’t have enough players to fill the bench. 

Signings aren’t really happening and players leaving the club in droves for peanuts. 

Anyone else agree it’s time to get rid of all foreign owners?

[Skip997]

42 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Anyone else agree it’s time to get rid of all foreign owners?

There's a lot of things I'd like to see change in football, but not sure this is one of them. Would UK owners necessarily be better.

The thing that signalled the start of the end of football was the beginning of the PL and the involement of Sky. Too much money in the game now, which will always bring about some level of corruption. The powers that be should never have allowed Abramovich and nation states to own football clubs, the so called "fit and proper" test is nonsense. FFP is a farce and not implemented, at least not consistantly. VAR in theory should work, but it still involves opinion (even offsides) and is very open to misuse.

Not sure what the answer is, but ideally the whole circus needs to crumble and start over.

[Neil]

4 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

VAR

should have been VFR - VIDEO f**kING REFFEREE

[Neil]

51 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

Anyone else agree it’s time to get rid of all foreign owners?

get rid of the foreign players and managers too.  😛 

[pink_triangle]

1 hour ago, squirrelarmy said:

 

Anyone else agree it’s time to get rid of all foreign owners?

Nope happy with Ryan and Rob at Wrexham so far.

[Ryan1984]

You can’t get rid of all foreign owners - it’s a very slippery slope - but maybe more regulation is needed?