Football 2024/25

[TheTentReturns]

Southgate is the best England manager in at least 25 years. 
 

The only way his successor does better in tournament football than him is if the FA appoint a non-English manager. 
 

The current pool just aren’t up to scratch. 
 

If I were the FA I’d move heaven and earth to find a role for Southgate within the international team structure. Overseeing the development of the players from U17 level all the way through to the full squad. 
 

He should have a permanent office at St George’s Park. 

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

To me it’s the obvious choice based on alternative “English “ options not being particularly strong. If he does well you can give him the job, if not you say he was only interim anyway and roll the dice with a “not great “ option.

Well it seems like they want more time to find the best option for them.

 

There is speculation they want Guardiola, whose contract at Manchester City expires at the end of this upcoming season. I know Pep wants to manage a national team and that his Catalan nationalism makes it practically a non-starter that he'll ever manage Spain. Whether he decides this is what he wants is another question.

[Kaboom Boxer]

Does anyone in here run an FPL league? I’d be interested in joining if so. 

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, Kaboom Boxer said:

Does anyone in here run an FPL league? I’d be interested in joining if so. 

There's an efestivals one which I renew every year whenever someone asks. I've kinda stopped playing and usually lose focus mid season but:

2rlwrp

[pink_triangle]

On 8/10/2024 at 8:32 PM, charlierc said:

Well it seems like they want more time to find the best option for them.

 

There is speculation they want Guardiola, whose contract at Manchester City expires at the end of this upcoming season. I know Pep wants to manage a national team and that his Catalan nationalism makes it practically a non-starter that he'll ever manage Spain. Whether he decides this is what he wants is another question.

The England manager pays incredibly well related to other national teams. You would think Pep has all the money he needs, but the England one could be a decent earner without the daily grind.

[Neil]

On 7/17/2024 at 8:53 AM, Nobody Interesting said:

 

I remember 'great platforms' well after the 1990 World Cup.

 

4 years later under the dire Taylor (wanted by people cos he took a small club and made them good) England failed to even qualify for the 1994 World Cup in the USA despite having a great platform and supposedly great players.

did you not like that 😛 - was all the ref's fault.

[charlierc]

12 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

The England manager pays incredibly well related to other national teams. You would think Pep has all the money he needs, but the England one could be a decent earner without the daily grind.

I guess the realism depends on whether Pep wants to stay at Man City first. His contract expires at the end of the season but could well decide to stick around judging by comments made a few weeks back.

 

Even if there's certainly a question of fancying a rebuild given there's a lot of first team mainstays who'll need replacing soon there.

[The Nal]

Theyve actually managed to make more of a shambles of VAR

[Neil]

on the bench for ipswitch today is C Chaplin! 😛 
C. Chaplin
C. Chaplin

,

C. Chaplin

[charlierc]

4 hours ago, Neil said:

on the bench for ipswitch today is C Chaplin! 😛 
C. Chaplin
C. Chaplin

,

C. Chaplin

Bench? I thought he started.

[charlierc]

Oh good. Half an hour into the new season and we have a player sent off after being provoked by an opponent. Maybe I should go back to complaining about transfers instead.

[Neil]

5 hours ago, charlierc said:

Bench? I thought he started.

might be due to the time i looked, he was defo listed as a sub where i saw his name.

[charlierc]

13 hours ago, Neil said:

might be due to the time i looked, he was defo listed as a sub where i saw his name.

Played the first 65 minutes, but time says you posted just after the starting line-ups were posted so would've been a starter.

[charlierc]

18 hours ago, charlierc said:

Oh good. Half an hour into the new season and we have a player sent off after being provoked by an opponent. Maybe I should go back to complaining about transfers instead.

Huh. 10 men, we only needed 10 men.

 

Still don't understand what the f**k Brereton-Diaz was doing shoving Schar in the first place. I'm not defending Schar's response because it was dumb.

[Neil]

19 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Played the first 65 minutes, but time says you posted just after the starting line-ups were posted so would've been a starter.

bbc page had him listed as a sub.

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

Huh. 10 men, we only needed 10 men.

 

Still don't understand what the f**k Brereton-Diaz was doing shoving Schar in the first place. I'm not defending Schar's response because it was dumb.

My feeling is a few years ago that would've been 2 yellows, and by the laws now it should probably be 2 reds.

[charlierc]

19 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

My feeling is a few years ago that would've been 2 yellows, and by the laws now it should probably be 2 reds.

Back in 2012, Pepe Reina got sent off for a similarly venomous "butt" on James Perch during a Newcastle v Liverpool game.

 

But I do think BBD was lucky to avoid a red card for his part too. It was also something that Dan Burn felt the need to wait for him in what is a cramped player's tunnel at SJP for a little argument, something Diaz's team-mate Jan Bednarek felt the need to get involved with.

[pink_triangle]

I dont really get the Felix to Chelsea deal. I don’t really understand the Chelsea strategy full stop. I assume Boehly has business acumen and some level of success in US sport, but that definitely hasn’t applied to Chelsea.

[charlierc]

10 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I dont really get the Felix to Chelsea deal. I don’t really understand the Chelsea strategy full stop. I assume Boehly has business acumen and some level of success in US sport, but that definitely hasn’t applied to Chelsea.

At this point I don't think anyone gets what the hell Chelsea are doing at all. 

 

Raheem Sterling may have been unusual in having a public representative complaining but freezing out him, Chilwell, Lukaku, Chukwuemeka, Gallagher, Chalobah, Kepa and Broja while also somehow making Enzo Fernandez captain less than a month after he had to apologise for singing a racist song about the French team, some of whom are his team-mates, hints to a raft of wild decisions.

 

It's why I don't think they'll finish in the top 7 this season. Just too much chaos potential and signs it could all implode, to say nothing of whacking out £1bn+ in 3 years only to have no real convincing goalkeeper or centre forward.

[kaosmark2]

4 hours ago, charlierc said:

At this point I don't think anyone gets what the hell Chelsea are doing at all. 

 

Raheem Sterling may have been unusual in having a public representative complaining but freezing out him, Chilwell, Lukaku, Chukwuemeka, Gallagher, Chalobah, Kepa and Broja while also somehow making Enzo Fernandez captain less than a month after he had to apologise for singing a racist song about the French team, some of whom are his team-mates, hints to a raft of wild decisions.

 

It's why I don't think they'll finish in the top 7 this season. Just too much chaos potential and signs it could all implode, to say nothing of whacking out £1bn+ in 3 years only to have no real convincing goalkeeper or centre forward.

I think it's literally that Boehly hears about a new signing and goes "lets make it happen" then tries to do weird complicated sh*t to stay within financial rules.

 

I know some of it is that the new manager doesn't think he suits the playstyle he wants, but getting rid of Gallagher seems batshit to me. I also really hate the "academy players count as pure profit for sustainability" rule, as it actually incentivizes selling them off instead of nurturing talent to play. Amidst a host of terrible rules that happen in modern football, I think it's right up there as one of the worst around.

[charlierc]

20 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think it's literally that Boehly hears about a new signing and goes "lets make it happen" then tries to do weird complicated sh*t to stay within financial rules.

 

I know some of it is that the new manager doesn't think he suits the playstyle he wants, but getting rid of Gallagher seems batshit to me. I also really hate the "academy players count as pure profit for sustainability" rule, as it actually incentivizes selling them off instead of nurturing talent to play. Amidst a host of terrible rules that happen in modern football, I think it's right up there as one of the worst around.

The fact that Villa, Everton and Chelsea spent the week leading up to 30th June overpaying for each other's academy talent to help one another meet FFP/PSR was ridiculous, and indeed Newcastle joining in with Elliot Anderson isn't helping. But that seems to be the way that PSR/FFP has gone from a well-meaning concept to a total f**king mess.

 

Chelsea is it's own animal with all the strange archaic routes they're taking to be FFP compliant. Apparently the Premier League are investigating them for selling their women's team to themselves, which is a new one.

[charlierc]

Few intriguing bits yesterday. Brilliant save by Raya to deny Watkins as Arsenal won, Man Utd's defending for Brighton's winner was a real "Yikes" moment, Pickford seems to have been dragged down to Everton's level judging by his goof for Spurs' second goal, Ipswich leading at the Etihad was a genuinely impressive two minutes before goalbot Haaland got warmed up and the summer break really came at a bad time for Crystal Palace.

[charlierc]

Hmmm... maybe Chelsea scoring six yesterday hints they are less sh*t than I thought. Or it hints that Wolves could be in trouble given they seem to have weakened their defence from last season.

 

Newcastle's game mystified me. Baffled why it took us 60 minutes to get going or why we didn't think to start Willock and Barnes and play Gordon as an actual winger than in a 4-4-2, but then further confused as to why Joelinton didn't get sent off for rugby tackling the Bournemouth keeper. And that's to say nothing of what would've been a stoppage time Bournemouth winner being disallowed for a very draconian interpretation of handball that nobody on our side appealed for.

[kaosmark2]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Hmmm... maybe Chelsea scoring six yesterday hints they are less sh*t than I thought. Or it hints that Wolves could be in trouble given they seem to have weakened their defence from last season.

 

Newcastle's game mystified me. Baffled why it took us 60 minutes to get going or why we didn't think to start Willock and Barnes and play Gordon as an actual winger than in a 4-4-2, but then further confused as to why Joelinton didn't get sent off for rugby tackling the Bournemouth keeper. And that's to say nothing of what would've been a stoppage time Bournemouth winner being disallowed for a very draconian interpretation of handball that nobody on our side appealed for.

I think the thing with Chelsea is that they've got the capacity to smash teams, but a fractured dressing room, inexperienced players, and the club being a mess means they've got a lot of slip ups in them. Yes they put a lot past a tired and unimpressive Wolves defense, but they've still conceded 4 goals in 2 games. 

 

Wrt our game, I wonder a little if Howe is playing politics. Starting Murphy further back as a pointed "look, we need another winger" move. He works hard and deserves minutes, but I also think he's the example of an unglamourous player with a fairly low ceiling that most would accept you wouldn't want starting until it gets to rotation season. Maybe I'm overly cynical.

[charlierc]

2 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think the thing with Chelsea is that they've got the capacity to smash teams, but a fractured dressing room, inexperienced players, and the club being a mess means they've got a lot of slip ups in them. Yes they put a lot past a tired and unimpressive Wolves defense, but they've still conceded 4 goals in 2 games. 

 

Wrt our game, I wonder a little if Howe is playing politics. Starting Murphy further back as a pointed "look, we need another winger" move. He works hard and deserves minutes, but I also think he's the example of an unglamourous player with a fairly low ceiling that most would accept you wouldn't want starting until it gets to rotation season. Maybe I'm overly cynical.

I guess with Chelsea we'll need more study. Somewhere between Man City and Wolves isn't exactly representative given Man City were good out the box at Stamford Bridge while Wolves really fell off after a good first half.

 

Newcastle have had a curious one really. I saw us play a 4-4-2 with Gordon as a striker in the first half alongside Isak and it really didn't work, and indeed I felt the shape is why we conceded the goal because Joelinton had to come inside but got crowded out with no out-ball on the left hand side. Murphy, I don't mind, but a club with aspirations we have feels like they'd have him as a Plan B or C at best. It's not for nothing that RW was listed alongside CB as our main targets, which becomes trickier if we do wind up splashing on Guehi this week.