2020/21 Soccer Thread: Messxit?

I think 35 points will be more than enough to stay up this season. As impressive as West Brom's late charge is, I don't think it'll be enough to preserve Allardyce's "never been relegated" status.

Prederick wrote:
Roke wrote:

In some, like football with long, natural breaks and more ads than Times Square it can be tolerable but in basketball, baseball, and hockey they spend interminable time splitting hairs on stuff like whether a guys is.offside or who the ball grazed off to go out of bounds (when they aren't ignoring a blatant foot in the crease).

This actually just came up two days ago with the Mets.

And again!

Really good piece on Bielsa, the last of the geocentric (or do I mean heliocentric? Or neither?) football managers.

https://sport.optus.com.au/articles/...

Three years ago, Leeds finished 27 points behind Fulham in the Championship; this season they sit 19 points ahead of the same club in the Premier League having spent less on transfer fees in the interim.

Just had to throw that in, didn't they.

USWNT dos a ceroed France today!

So the holders are out! It's not like PSG wasn't really, really, really good already, but Poch might give them juuuuuust that little extra bit they need to get over the line.

<3 Poch

If Anfield had been full tonight I think Liverpool would have won that 3 or 4-0 tonight. As it was, not to be.

I wouldn't go that far, but I think they'd have put one in the net, at least.

Meanwhile, Dortmund made it interesting, but man, if they don't make the CL, big teams are gonna be looking at their young talent like a lion looks at a slow Wildebeest.

Prederick wrote:

I wouldn't go that far, but I think they'd have put one in the net, at least.

Meanwhile, Dortmund made it interesting, but man, if they don't make the CL, big teams are gonna be looking at their young talent like a lion looks at a slow Wildebeest.

I think that boat has possibly sailed

Apparently, we all need to be watching more Glentoran games.

I'm not even mad. That was amazing!

Still my favorite OG:

Czech government official hits out at Uefa over Ondrej Kudela’s racism ban

A senior Czech government official claims Uefa handed a 10-game ban to Ondrej Kudela for abusing Rangers’ Glen Kamara in order to satisfy the “perverted expectations of a small group of activists”.

Vratislav Mynar’s intervention came on the day police said they had reported Kudela and Kamara to Scotland’s prosecution service after investigating allegations of racist abuse and assault during the Europa League game between Rangers and Slavia Prague at Ibrox last month.

A case of “racially aggravated conduct” against Kudela has been submitted to the Procurator Fiscal after the 34-year-old was accused of shouting a discriminatory slur into Kamara’s ear. Kamara has been reported to prosecutors over an allegation that he punched Kudela in the tunnel after the match.

Mynar has accused Uefa of acting in the “pinnacle of hypocrisy” in banning Kudela and he bizarrely suggested the ruling would see players who are not black become the victim of discrimination. Mynar heads the Office of the President of the Republic, a department set up to ensure presidential powers and are carried out.

He does just about hit bingo in his letter.

Saudi crown prince asked Boris Johnson to intervene in Newcastle United bid

The Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, warned Boris Johnson in a text message that UK-Saudi Arabian relations would be damaged if the British government failed to intervene to “correct” the Premier League’s “wrong” decision not to allow a £300m takeover of Newcastle United last year.

Johnson asked Edward Lister, his special envoy for the Gulf, to take up the issue, and Lord Lister reportedly told the prime minister: “I’m on the case. I will investigate.”

The message stemmed from an attempt by a consortium led by the sovereign wealth fund, the Saudi Public Investment Fund, to buy Newcastle from its current owner, Mike Ashley.

A deal was agreed in April last year, which was then scrutinised by the Premier League under its owners’ and directors’ test, because the league had doubts about the independence of the bid team from the Saudi government. In July the consortium, which described itself as an “autonomous and purely commercial investor”, withdrew from the deal, blaming an “unforeseeably prolonged process”.

The Daily Mail, which first reported on the lobbying attempt by Prince Mohammed, said the message to Johnson was sent on 27 June and read: “We expect the English Premier League to reconsider and correct its wrong conclusion.”

Lister told the Mail: “The Saudis were getting upset. We were not lobbying for them to buy it or not to buy it. We wanted [the Premier League] to be straightforward and say ‘yes’ or ‘no’, don’t leave [the Saudis] dangling.”

Johnson and his ministers have shown sympathy for the bid but do not have the direct power to overrule the Premier League.

Also, was it very nice to see this Arsenal team punt THAT Slavia Prague team the f*ck outta the Europa League in style? With all four goals scored by black players?

It was, and I hope Arsenal enjoyed it.

IMAGE(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bb3c626b0fc564dea018c0b9722c5bd50f9079df/0_133_3798_2280/master/3798.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=4d22a802f142a41599dd74236334fa4a)

Pictured: Harry Kane

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EzH1aYCWEAEc363?format=jpg&name=900x900)

Damn you for making me smile at that, Pred.

Disaster. Well done West Ham.

I am left hoping for Brighton or Burnley to collapse.

Prederick wrote:

at Arsenal
at Chelsea
Burnley
at Southampton
at ManU
Newcastle

We have to find nine points from this, which, on current form... I mean we'll get to renew acquaintances with QPR.

Allan Saint-Maximin is definitely very good though, yes?

Also, Norwich will be back.

Copy Del Rey Final, Barca v. Athletic Bilbao and Messi....

He's just absurd.

And that's a goodbye to Sheffield United.

Prederick wrote:

And that's a goodbye to Sheffield United.

Sad but inevitable. I think both Fulham (sorry) and West Brom have got too much to do now with 6 games left. Steve Bruce is the messiah after all.

Sorbicol wrote:
Prederick wrote:

And that's a goodbye to Sheffield United.

Sad but inevitable. I think both Fulham (sorry) and West Brom have got too much to do now with 6 games left. Steve Bruce is the messiah after all.

Of course you posted this before Fulham v Arsenal.

77m and they might snatch it.

Var is the most tedious thing ever. Worst season ever. Even without covid.

Ah Prederick. It’s the hope that kills you.

Alexa, please summarise Fulham’s season in a game.

Ah, the inevitable.

The big six of English football have signed letters of intent to join a new European Super League, which will be announced at 9.30pm on Sunday night.

Manchester City were the last to agree, on Saturday, joining Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in the breakaway, which will spell the end of competition in domestic and European football as we know it.

UEFA were strong in response, revealing in a statement that they will take legal action if the 'cynical project' for a Super League goes ahead.

The new league represents the American takeover of elite European football, which will become a closed shop run by its founder members. It is bankrolled by US banking giant JP Morgan and is the brainchild of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and the American owners of three leading English clubs.

Prederick wrote:

Ah, the inevitable.

The big six of English football have signed letters of intent to join a new European Super League, which will be announced at 9.30pm on Sunday night.

Manchester City were the last to agree, on Saturday, joining Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham in the breakaway, which will spell the end of competition in domestic and European football as we know it.

UEFA were strong in response, revealing in a statement that they will take legal action if the 'cynical project' for a Super League goes ahead.

The new league represents the American takeover of elite European football, which will become a closed shop run by its founder members. It is bankrolled by US banking giant JP Morgan and is the brainchild of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and the American owners of three leading English clubs.

I'm sure Arsenal fans, who ran Wenger out when he was winning FA Cups and finishing top-5, and fans of similar clubs will be completely satisfied with consistently finishing in the bottom-third of a SuperLeague.

This is so crap.

Good. There's no way football was going to go backwards, so the only even remote hope of it returning to something with any sort of balance away from the big clubs is for the sport to eat itself.

Seeing UEFA decry this as a "cynical project" is delicious.

I'll maybe watch it if they don't have VAR but ya football is trending badly.

This has been rightly, loudly damned in most spaces so far, but I'm guessing these clubs are wagering that there are enough fans, especially internationally, who won't give a crap about any of the "local club" stuff and will watch a super league.