All things Football (soccer) related

[warspite1]

Well Spurs are out of the Champions League - and thoroughly deserved it was too - they absolutely stunk the place out in 4 matches and were little better in the 5th.

Appalling. Pochettino has a real job on his hands now to prove he is the coach people are saying he is. Sissoko, Eriksen, Son, Dier..... just not good enough.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Well Spurs are out of the Champions League - and thoroughly deserved it was too - they absolutely stunk the place out in 4 matches and were little better in the 5th.

Appalling. Pochettino has a real job on his hands now to prove he is the coach people are saying he is. Sissoko, Eriksen, Son, Dier..... just not good enough.

It looks like London will continue to have representation in Champions League during the winter. But I am not sure if you think this is a positive thing, or not.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Early days of course, and in fairness Guardiola is still lumbered with a lot of dross from the previous regime, but the last couple of weeks have been er...... a little challenging. And he needs to produce after his relative failure at Bayern Munich....

Barcelona 4 - 0 Manchester City

warspite1

4 wins in 15.

Funny isn't it? If this was David Moyes or someone similar on this sort of run, the knives would have long been out, sharpened and begun making their first incisions...

But because its 'Pep' its all okay, no problem.....

[warspite1]

Looks like losing the FA Cup Final one year is bad for your managerial health the following one......

Crystal Palace sack Pardew [X(] Thought they would give him Christmas....

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: Orm


Want to make a bet out of it?

The winner get to buy a cup of tea to the loser?

warspite1

I think we will finish 8th or worse. Cup of tea to the winner.

No, no. Cup of tea to the loser. The winner get the honour of buying. [:)]

COYS!!! [:)]

Almost half time and so far I have a chance of winning this bet. [:)]

[Crimguy]

I'm fairly certain his dancing skills accelerated his exit somewhat.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Looks like losing the FA Cup Final one year is bad for your managerial health the following one......

Crystal Palace sack Pardew [X(] Thought they would give him Christmas....

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Crimguy

I'm fairly certain his dancing skills accelerated his exit somewhat.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Looks like losing the FA Cup Final one year is bad for your managerial health the following one......

Crystal Palace sack Pardew [X(] Thought they would give him Christmas....

warspite1

Had Palace won the cup he would have got away with that - probably. But they didn't and he will, quite rightly, never be allowed to forget it....

[Orm]

A tough away game won. And 4 goals scored. I fear I may be getting to confident that I will win the bet.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

A tough away game won. And 4 goals scored. I fear I may be getting to confident that I will win the bet.

warspite1

Getting confident/Spurs, confident/spurs.... [employs best Captain Mainwaring impression] Stupid Boy! [;)]

[gazdadude]

hoping my team Cardiff start picking up points just above the championship relegation zone

[TulliusDetritus]

Well, it's obviously too early but some summaries.

I have to say I did not watch a single football match since the Euros [:D] I try to follow events via newspapers articles though.

Premier League aka England. Indeed the most competitive league (which does not mean the best). My money is on Chelsea at the moment. And the big surprise: Mourinho is sort of deploying attractive football (but parked the bus at Anfield). I am of course sure this is accidental and the old Mourinho will strike back, possibly pretty soon: Man U is on the rise ergo he saved his skin, therefore he can resume the mourinhesque ways. Guardiola is certainly struggling too.

Bundesliga aka Germany. Bayern rules, as always. One-horse race?

La Liga aka Spain: as always a two-horse race ie Barça or Real Madrid.

Serie A aka Italy: Juve on top

Ligue 1 aka France: Nice on top, but Monaco (2nd) scored 56 goals vs Nice's 34 = + 22 difference. Lots of goals.

Primeira Liga aka Portugal: Benfica on top.

[TulliusDetritus]

And a curiosity or aberration. The Scottish Premiership is indeed a dictatorship, a mega one-horse race.

[Orm]

COYS!!!

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

COYS!!!

warspite1

[:)]

[Orm]

Nice effort by Kane today. [:)]

[warspite1]

Indeed. A shame Arsenal and Chelsea then went and won though [:(]

[warspite1]

And Guardiola continues to have a mare! [X(]

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

And a curiosity or aberration. The Scottish Premiership is indeed a dictatorship, a mega one-horse race.

its a product of population and economics. At its simplest 1.5m people live in/around Glasgow out of the 5m in Scotland. So Rangers and Celtic can easily get home gates of 50-60,000. Even if you ignore TV money etc that is a dominating position just off match day revenues. There are other premier league teams in/around Glasgow but there support is limited to relatively small towns such as Kilmarnock or to people who just can't stand the idiocy that surrounds Celtic/Rangers. The wonderful Partick Thistle is the main recipient of this small group and tries to subsist on gates of around 10k.

By contrast around 200,000 people live in Aberdeen, Edinburgh (if you include the surrounds) has about 400,000 split between Hearts and Hibs (sadly languishing in the championship).

Up to about 2010, Rangers and Celtic had a pretty much guarenteed entry to the Champs League (ok neither set it alight but merely being there means a lot of money). When Rangers went bust and UEFA squeezed out the smaller leagues only Celtic have taken part since then. So that is again a huge cash flow just to one team. Finally Rangers are still massively in debt, to the extent that they often flirt with being shut again. So these days even they can't compete as a lot of their income goes out of the club (add on some spectacular mismanagement and appalling owners). At the same time, Celtic can convert as much of their income as they want into players etc

Is all this good for Scottish football ... nope.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: TulliusDetritus

And a curiosity or aberration. The Scottish Premiership is indeed a dictatorship, a mega one-horse race.

its a product of population and economics. At its simplest 1.5m people live in/around Glasgow out of the 5m in Scotland. So Rangers and Celtic can easily get home gates of 50-60,000. Even if you ignore TV money etc that is a dominating position just off match day revenues. There are other premier league teams in/around Glasgow but there support is limited to relatively small towns such as Kilmarnock or to people who just can't stand the idiocy that surrounds Celtic/Rangers. The wonderful Partick Thistle is the main recipient of this small group and tries to subsist on gates of around 10k.

By contrast around 200,000 people live in Aberdeen, Edinburgh (if you include the surrounds) has about 400,000 split between Hearts and Hibs (sadly languishing in the championship).

Up to about 2010, Rangers and Celtic had a pretty much guarenteed entry to the Champs League (ok neither set it alight but merely being there means a lot of money). When Rangers went bust and UEFA squeezed out the smaller leagues only Celtic have taken part since then. So that is again a huge cash flow just to one team. Finally Rangers are still massively in debt, to the extent that they often flirt with being shut again. So these days even they can't compete as a lot of their income goes out of the club (add on some spectacular mismanagement and appalling owners). At the same time, Celtic can convert as much of their income as they want into players etc

Is all this good for Scottish football ... nope.

That does sound both bad and boring. [>:]

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

And Guardiola continues to have a mare! [X(]

And Zlatan seem to have a ball.