If that’s going to happen, can I stick £100 on Saints before they start their unbelievable run? Think of the odds!
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The 2021-2022 Football Thread
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Yes a good win for you. In other news not happy with Lingard being linked with Newcastle. Seems Utd don’t want him going to a top four competitor!
A hundred quid on Saints to win the Premier League this season, placed right now would probably net you a cool million.
Almost worth it!
Newcastle are linked with almost everyone right now. I’d hate to be a Newcastle player this season. They know that every single one of them will be dumped over the next couple years for superior players making much more money.
The brutal reality of professional sport...especially when a lot of money comes in.
To be fair, quite a few of them are not up to the task. Plus I’m sure their wages helps them get through it!
I also suspect a lot of it is just paper talk. Not saying they won’t make signings, but many will wait to see the outcome of the relegation battle first.
Sure, but don't forget most of them will only make those kinds of wages for maybe 10 years or less. So if they are being financially responsible they realize that it's not as much money as it looks, especially the ones on relatively modest (for the Prem) wages.
Much of it is pure speculation, agreed - but we KNOW their ambition. If they are truly committed to winning 'big' silverware it probably means rebuilding the entire team at least once, probably more.
If we look at Man City after they were bought by Shinawatra in 2008 (and subsequently the Abu Dhabi gang), they jettisoned existing players and immediately made some big buys - Robinho being the most famous - but many of those initial flashy singings were long gone and replaced by a new wave of flashy signings by the time they finally won a league title 4 years and 100 million+ GBP later....and then they went on to spend 10x that pursuing further league titles and a Champions League title that continues to elude them (snigger)
...and of course, Man City is a club that is, to give them their due, 'well-run' in the sense that their signings generally conform to a broader strategic vision, preferred tactical philosophy, and are employed by a manager who also fits in with those plans and philosophies (and indeed influences them). They tend not to make hasty, emotionally-driven decisions. Other rich clubs like Chelsea and PSG are much more short-termist, results-oriented, or run by people with more showmanship than football experience - a more risky approach that occasionally backfires spectacularly.
Might only be 10 years, but it takes me 10 years to earn what they do in a week!
Yup - agreed.
Having family that are ex-pros from a different era when they earned less, there's still more money in their pockets than the average punter, so it is hard to feel sorry for them in any capacity, unless their careers are cut short and they have only ever known football.
Algeria are out of the AFCON after a loss to Ivory Coast. I'm very surprised at just how bad they have been - last in their group with I think only one goal scored. Shocking really.
Egypt have also been poor but have done enough to get out of the group. However, they finished second and will face Ivory Coast in the first knockout stage. I don't think the Pharaohs will win that one. Salah is not exactly banging them in, which worries me a bit for when he returns to Lvierpool.
On the other hand, Jota is on fire right now for 'Pool, so even if both Mané and Salah come back a bit jaded Klopp will still have some attacking talent up front. His chip against Arsenal in the League Cup second leg was superb.
I get that sentiment, but modern football is full of sharks, fraudsters, crooks, autocrats, creeps, and hustlers - and many of them are the very people who are running the game. The players are mostly teenagers to young men with modest eduction and no life experience who are exposed to the toxicity of the modern public media microscope and there are more people out there trying to scam them than help them along. And once they are no longer of use competitively, once there is no wealth to siphon off, they essentially are abandoned by the the whole machine.
So the wages of active players may be eye-popping but that's just one part of the story, and the least of the game's worries. Maybe the wealth is an adequate recompense, maybe not. Some people revel in the ruthlessness of the modern game. I don't. Largely because it's surrounded by a miasma of greed, incompetence, and dishonesty.
Egypt have also been poor but have done enough to get out of the group. However, they finished second and will face Ivory Coast in the first knockout stage. I don't think the Pharaohs will win that one. Salah is not exactly banging them in, which worries me a bit for when he returns to Lvierpool.
On the other hand, Jota is on fire right now for 'Pool, so even if both Mané and Salah come back a bit jaded Klopp will still have some attacking talent up front. His chip against Arsenal in the League Cup second leg was superb.
I wouldn't say I feel sorry for them. But conventional wisdom paints them as spoiled kids who make huge wages and should just shut up about x and 'get on with it.'
I get that sentiment, but modern football is full of sharks, fraudsters, crooks, autocrats, creeps, and hustlers - and many of them are the very people who are running the game. The players are mostly teenagers to young men with modest eduction and no life experience who are exposed to the toxicity of the modern public media microscope and there are more people out there trying to scam them than help them along. And once they are no longer of use competitively, once there is no wealth to siphon off, they essentially are abandoned by the the whole machine.
So the wages of active players may be eye-popping but that's just one part of the story, and the least of the game's worries. Maybe the wealth is an adequate recompense, maybe not. Some people revel in the ruthlessness of the modern game. I don't. Largely because it's surrounded by a miasma of greed, incompetence, and dishonesty.
Six pointer for us this weekend against Utd. I don’t hold out much hope for the win. Maybe see if we can get a draw.
I hope for a good match, and certain Man U players to show up for the match!
What an ending, like a classic match from the Fergie days. Despite the tightness/ambiguity of the onside call on Cavani, United played well enough to deserve the 3 points. Rashford's now scored in two straight matches, a confidence boost he's so sorely needed.
The valuation on Declan Rice is already stratospheric, but he would fit so perfectly at United and address by far their most glaring need.
The valuation on Declan Rice is already stratospheric, but he would fit so perfectly at United and address by far their most glaring need.
I've been conditioned by the Fergie years...I had been watching Dortmund, but after that ended I watched the last five minutes of Man Utd-WH, and I immediately knew West Ham would lose at the death.
I also watched most of Forest - Derby. That got very chippy at the end, Ravel Morrison got sent off and the Forest keeper was being a very busy so-and-so.
Sorry to see West Ham lose at the death; even in Alex Ferguson's time, I deeply disliked those matches that Manchester United won (by a goal to nil) between the ninety-second and ninety-seventh minute of the match.
And, of course, Arsenal - having been (deservedly) defeated by Liverpool in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup (I'm old enough to have to mentally remind myself that this trophy no longer goes by the name of the 'League Cup') by two goals to nil - cannot now hope for any silverware in the team trophy cabinet this season.
Well Man City dropped points. Good to see the PL can still throw in a surprise result.
A flicker of hope. False hope, mind you, but hope nonetheless.
If I have told you people once, I’ve told you a thousand times. Saints CAN win the premiership. ?
It was a good result for you for sure. But win the Prem……..??
