2018/19 Soccer Thread

dejanzie wrote:

I'll admit I got a bit emotional when hearing the news, as this is some fantastic news in a horrible season for Anderlecht. But the player-manager thing... I'm anxious to find out more on the specifics. Apparently another trainer will take Vince's place when he plays or something.

The Anderlecht chairman is also very much a stuntman. Before Anderlecht he owned KV Oostende, and brought national team player Nicolas Lombaerts back from Zenith St Petersburg. It quickly turned out that Lombaerts was on the decline and he never played much even for the mid-table Belgian club. But his wages are still dragging them down 1,5 years after their former president left.

I didn't realize how much of a mess Anderlecht is right now, but sheeeeeesh.

Again, I hope he does well, but I am made to think of Thierry Henry walking into a disaster at Monaco.

Oh, and no Mkhitaryan in the Europa League Final is confirmed.

FIFA scraps plans for 48-team World Cup in 2022

Well that's good. Although I fully expect them to now try and fit 64 teams in 2026.

Even though we didn't make it last year, along with great teams like Italy, Holland, and Chile, I still think 32 teams is the right amount.

Prederick wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

I'll admit I got a bit emotional when hearing the news, as this is some fantastic news in a horrible season for Anderlecht. But the player-manager thing... I'm anxious to find out more on the specifics. Apparently another trainer will take Vince's place when he plays or something.

The Anderlecht chairman is also very much a stuntman. Before Anderlecht he owned KV Oostende, and brought national team player Nicolas Lombaerts back from Zenith St Petersburg. It quickly turned out that Lombaerts was on the decline and he never played much even for the mid-table Belgian club. But his wages are still dragging them down 1,5 years after their former president left.

I didn't realize how much of a mess Anderlecht is right now, but sheeeeeesh.

Again, I hope he does well, but I am made to think of Thierry Henry walking into a disaster at Monaco.

Oh, and no Mkhitaryan in the Europa League Final is confirmed.

Wow, that was actually a really well-informed news thing. From a UK paper. On a Belgian topic. In the sports section.

Seriously though, as much as I loathe Marc Coucke - I believe he's a manipulative egotistical charlatan with maybe some business acumen - the atrophy really started under the old management. They got rid of the scouting apparatus in favor of working with sketchy agents. This got them way too dependent on these agents in a never-ending carousel of signing high profile but ill-fitting and unmotivated players, who then are sold at a profit to another club in the agent's network, replaced by another signing from yet another club in the network, etc. etc.

If it weren't for the occasional star youth player like Dendoncker (now Wolverhampton) or Thielemans (now Leicester) we would have been in even deeper sh*t. But even with the best of managers it would take several years to rebuild and git good again.

Final next week in Baku being overshadowed by it being an absolute farce.

Chelsea fans are apparently angry with costs + travel arrangements being provided by Thomas Cook which is the official travel partner.

Chelsea sold 1500/6000 of their allocation and Arsenal 4000/6000.

Really doesn't help that it being the '2nd' cup that it is also a being setup to fail.

dejanzie wrote:

Wow, that was actually a really well-informed news thing. From a UK paper. On a Belgian topic. In the sports section.

The Guardian's football reporting is excellent - I highly recommend it no matter where you live although it is for obvious reasons UK centric. The Time's is pretty good too.

jowner wrote:

Final next week in Baku being overshadowed by it being an absolute farce.

Chelsea fans are apparently angry with costs + travel arrangements being provided by Thomas Cook which is the official travel partner.

Chelsea sold 1500/6000 of their allocation and Arsenal 4000/6000.

Really doesn't help that it being the '2nd' cup that it is also a being setup to fail.

It's been a complete sh*tshow from start to finish. However I think the whole situation around Mkhitaryan is much worse though.

Sorbicol wrote:
dejanzie wrote:

Wow, that was actually a really well-informed news thing. From a UK paper. On a Belgian topic. In the sports section.

The Guardian's football reporting is excellent - I highly recommend it no matter where you live although it is for obvious reasons UK centric. The Time's is pretty good too.

Yeah, I was being too acerbic. I'm an occasional reader and contributor (financially :-D) to the Guardian. My apologies.

dejanzie wrote:

Yeah, I was being too acerbic. I'm an occasional reader and contributor (financially :-D) to the Guardian. My apologies.

If you’d been talking about The S*n, Mail, express or pretty much most of the rest of the UK press you’d have been entirely spot on! Mind you I would only loosely classify most of them as ‘newspapers’.

LOL, no need to apologise for that! Not like you called them the Graunidad or something.

Also, has anyone else been paying attention to PSG's end of season? It is a hilarious disaster. They lost AGAIN to end the season.

Valencia is currently beating Barca 2-0 in the Copa Del Rey final, steaming on ESPN if you're interested.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Valencia is currently beating Barca 2-0 in the Copa Del Rey final, steaming on ESPN if you're interested.

Wow, Barca lost. Talk about tossing gasoline on those Valverde sacking rumors.

Goodness gracious, the League Two and League One playoff finals were won by last-second goals. Here's hoping the Championship keeps up the drama.

Also, poor Sunderland.

Enjoy Burton away, again, Sunderland.

Sounds like Newcastle might be taken over by a cousin of Sheikh Mansour. First report came from the Sun (which, yeah, obviously seems like bollocks) but the club declined to comment and now some Daily Mail (I know, still a tabloid) reporters saying sources close to Sheikh Khaled say the deal's done.

Definitely won't be sad to see the back of Ashley if it happens, but I kind of hope Khaled doesn't go full sugardaddy. All I want is an owner to reinvest much of the club's revenues back into the club so it can attempt to grow organically. I'd be content with trying to operate like Leicester or Spurs these past few years, even though we almost certainly wouldn't see a league title like Leicester did.

Very entertaining game so far. As I may have mentioned, my boss cheers for Villa, so I guess he's happy but nervous right now.

I would say the Keeper threw that away, but he never got his hands to it.

Now we have a game.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Now we have a game.

Indeed! Could get wild(er)!

Well, no reversal, but a very entertaining game throughout!

Look forward to seeing Lampard again next season. Boys at Match of the Day must be gutted

Btw I was curious about Prince William's Aston Villa Fandom, and shockingly, he grew up with no particular allegiance to a team. As a schoolboy he started getting into soccer and ultimately just picked a team to follow. Apparently he specifically didn't want to be a bandwagon United fan or whatnot, and a few of his friends were Villa supporters.

Basically sounds a lot like an American soccer fan!

Edit: Wrong Prince, initially.

The Leeds United social media team is at it again

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Btw I was curious about Prince William's Aston Villa Fandom, and shockingly, he grew up with no particular allegiance to a team. As a schoolboy he started getting into soccer and ultimately just picked a team to follow. Apparently he specifically didn't want to be a bandwagon United fan or whatnot, and a few of his friends were Villa supporters.

Basically sounds a lot like an American soccer fan!

Edit: Wrong Prince, initially.

"Anybody but Manchester United" is the best first step to selecting a team.

I think I'll start a Women's World Cup thread on Sunday. We had a pretty active one last time around so hopefully it will be fun again.

Sergio Ramos wants Real Madrid to let him go on a free, despite the fact that he's signed through 2021, as he wants to go play in the Chinese Super League and the team cannot afford a transfer fee (although, I'm sure they can afford the gargantuan contract he's going to be on).

Roke wrote:

"Anybody but Manchester United" is the best first step to selecting a team.

My thoughts exactly!

Speaking of superteams, has anyone mentioned this rumor that some sheikh has bought Newcastle?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

My thoughts exactly!

Speaking of superteams, has anyone mentioned this rumor that some sheikh has bought Newcastle?

I mentioned it yesterday but it all seems to be unraveling, which I guess isn't surprising for a ownership change that ended up in the press well before the deal was complete. Last I saw the deal wasn't going to be completed before Rafa's contract is up on June 30.

Come on, Chelsea!

Oh, Arsenal.

Excellent match! Tons of scoring, wonderful result.

Coincidentally (well, obviously relatedly) Tottenham will have their third consecutive UCL season next year and Arsenal their third consecutive Europa League campaign. Long may this continue!