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The 2021-2022 Football Thread

Everton are now in a genuine relegation battle. Lampard is not the man I would want in the hot seat under such circumstances either.

The best news for Evertonians is that there are probably still at least three teams in the league who are worse than Everton. But with Newcastle buying their way out of trouble and Leeds potentially righting the ship under Marsch, they have very little margin for error. If any of the bottom three can put together a run of results, Everton could find themselves heading for the Championship unless they up their game as well.

It seems incredible for them to find themselves in this position after the money spent in recent seasons.
 
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Tough game at Anfield - Liverpool are beaten 1-0 by Inter but that's enough to advance over Inter 2-1 on aggregate. Liverpool were not at their best yet had the lion's share of possession, hit the post three times and Diaz had a certain goal cleared off the line. Sanchez sent off for for Inter for two yellow cards that should both have been reds.

Disappointing not to win the game but at this stage of the Champions League all that matters is getting through to the next round. I expected Inter to be very tough and they delivered on that.
 
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Silencio said:
PSG does what PSG does best: capitulate in the Champions League in the most humiliating possible way.

You just hate to see it.
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I think that this is an excellent example of the drawbacks of not being able to boast that you have a seriously competitive domestic league: Cantering - almost effortlessly - to successive domestic championships is no substitute for serious competition.

The problem is that PSG face, or have, no serious competition for most of the year, and thus, to be quite candid, are not just physically, but are also psychologically, utterly unprepared for a team which can challenge, compete against, and defeat them. They are not used to this.
 
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UP THE MILLERS!

As of right now they are 1st in League One and set for automatic promotion back into the League Championship and possibly about the to win the League Cup.
 
Silencio said:
PSG does what PSG does best: capitulate in the Champions League in the most humiliating possible way.

You just hate to see it.
Click to expand...
Real are a winning machine. They have been as long as anyone alive can remember. Utterly soulless, but brutally efficient.

Part of me relishes the chance for Liverpool to meet Real in the CL - they are on Liverpool's side of the bracket, and we are good enough to beat them, which would be greatly satisfying. On the other hand, I can easily see a scenario where they knock us out. But if you want to win the CL at some point you're going to have to knock out at least one really dangerous team. Inter probably already fall into that category, but bigger challenges lie ahead for 'Pool in Europe.

PSG are hilarious. Long may their ruinously expensive incompetence continue.
 
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What the heck did I just watch. ?

Sorry, it’s hard not to laugh. ?

Even school kids wouldn’t make the errors PSG made today. ?‍♂️

 
Lord Blackadder said:
To top it off, PSG's spoiled brat owner had to be restrained from confronting the referees afterwards. Shocking that a man who is used to getting everything he wants reacts badly to NOT getting everything he wants. :rolleyes: It's very 2020s.
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One of them typical rich people, rules don’t apply to them.

Don’t think his realized, throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at a problem, isn’t going to get him a champions league title any time soon.

Money can’t buy you team chemistry.
 
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Roman Abramovich's UK assets - including Chelsea Football Club - have been frozen by the UK government. From what I read this means (effectively) an indefinite transfer ban, no contract renewals, nor merchandise sales and no fans in at Stamford Bridge except for season ticket holders and tickets already sold. Amongst other things. The club may still be sold, possibly even soon, but for the moment this is also on hold.

This is one very good reason why oligarchs and foreign states should not be allowed to buy football clubs. Hard to feel sorry with anyone who was comfortable with Abramovich, his connections and origins. In purely sporting terms this could have consequences. Could Chelsea drop out of the top four? On paper that should not happen but Tuchel is visibly weary of the situation already, so I think it could effect performance on the pitch.

Elsewhere Everton are actually suffering from oligarch-itis in two separate ways. First, their owner Farhad Moshiri has had too big a role in footballing decisions, with catastrophic effects. Second, Russian oligarch Alsiher Usmanov has been part-bankrolling the club with sponsorships - which have now evaporated.

One would hope that this situation makes the Premier league and professional football in general think more carefully about owners and sponsors. I can dream - for just a fleeting moment - of a day when crooked businessmen, oligarchs and state shills are banned from owning clubs, and we see something other than national airlines and betting websites as shirt sponsor.s Well, for a fleeting moment anyway.
 
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Lord Blackadder said:
Roman Abramovich's UK assets - including Chelsea Football Club - have been frozen by the UK government. From what I read this means (effectively) an indefinite transfer ban, no contract renewals, nor merchandise sales and no fans in at Stamford Bridge except for season ticket holders and tickets already sold. Amongst other things. The club may still be sold, possibly even soon, but for the moment this is also on hold.

This is one very good reason why oligarchs and foreign states should not be allowed to buy football clubs. Hard to feel sorry with anyone who was comfortable with Abramovich, his connections and origins. In purely sporting terms this could have consequences. Could Chelsea drop out of the top four? On paper that should not happen but Tuchel is visibly weary of the situation already, so I think it could effect performance on the pitch.

Elsewhere Everton are actually suffering from oligarch-itis in two separate ways. First, their owner Farhad Moshiri has had too big a role in footballing decisions, with catastrophic effects. Second, Russian oligarch Alsiher Usmanov has been part-bankrolling the club with sponsorships - which have now evaporated.

One would hope that this situation makes the Premier league and professional football in general think more carefully about owners and sponsors. I can dream - for just a fleeting moment - of a day when crooked businessmen, oligarchs and state shills are banned from owning clubs, and we see something other than national airlines and betting websites as shirt sponsor.s Well, for a fleeting moment anyway.
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Hope but not expect. Everton are in real danger. There is a chance they might be docked points due to financial irregularities. Even if they don’t they aren’t safe.
As for Chelsea they are one of the greedy six, so I’d be more than happy to see their season collapse. But expect they will be okay.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Roman Abramovich's UK assets - including Chelsea Football Club - have been frozen by the UK government. From what I read this means (effectively) an indefinite transfer ban, no contract renewals, nor merchandise sales and no fans in at Stamford Bridge except for season ticket holders and tickets already sold. Amongst other things. The club may still be sold, possibly even soon, but for the moment this is also on hold.

This is one very good reason why oligarchs and foreign states should not be allowed to buy football clubs. Hard to feel sorry with anyone who was comfortable with Abramovich, his connections and origins. In purely sporting terms this could have consequences. Could Chelsea drop out of the top four? On paper that should not happen but Tuchel is visibly weary of the situation already, so I think it could effect performance on the pitch.

Elsewhere Everton are actually suffering from oligarch-itis in two separate ways. First, their owner Farhad Moshiri has had too big a role in footballing decisions, with catastrophic effects. Second, Russian oligarch Alsiher Usmanov has been part-bankrolling the club with sponsorships - which have now evaporated.

One would hope that this situation makes the Premier league and professional football in general think more carefully about owners and sponsors. I can dream - for just a fleeting moment - of a day when crooked businessmen, oligarchs and state shills are banned from owning clubs, and we see something other than national airlines and betting websites as shirt sponsor.s Well, for a fleeting moment anyway.
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Yes, I have been following this story closely.

I would be very surprised if this - uncertainty, around their fate and future - didn't have some effect on their season.
 
Apple fanboy said:
As for Chelsea they are one of the greedy six, so I’d be more than happy to see their season collapse. But expect they will be okay.
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I don't want to sound like I'm defending Liverpool's owners FSG too much here, but this is a good time to point out that there is a major difference between being owned by a sports investment company on the one hand, or a foreign oligarch or autocrat on the other. Companies like FSG specialize in generating profit through competitive success + financial brand-building. Some are better at it than others. And there is still a lot wrong with such corporations swooping in and owning clubs that are historical institutions and treating them like investment vehicles.

But with that being said, the sports investment model is still far more transparent and bound to good practice than a single, massively wealthy individual who treats like club like a personal plaything - or a foreign state using a club to sportswash their national image. People have criticized FSG's unwillingness to buy new talent without selling players, for example - but isn't that the sort of sustainable business practice we should be holding up as desirable? They've still won trophies with that model. Why is financial doping the new standard fans want to see?

I say all this not to attempt to big up FSG and similar owners (as I said from a big picture perspective they are plenty problematic in other ways), but rather to point out just how bad the oligarch ownership model is. It should be scrutinized much more closely by football governance AND national governments. It should not be tolerated to the extent that it currently is.
 
1-0 defeat to Servile. Not the worst result in the world away from home. Hopefully we can turn it around at our place. Especially if Bowen is back.
Sadly it sounds like there may have been some football fans fighting.
Like there isn’t enough violence in Europe right now.
 
Apple fanboy said:
1-0 defeat to Servile. Not the worst result in the world away from home. Hopefully we can turn it around at our place. Especially if Bowen is back.
Sadly it sounds like there may have been some football fans fighting.
Like there isn’t enough violence in Europe right now.
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You'll have to attack them in the return leg, it could make for an exciting match for the neutral. It will interesting to see if Seville just try to defend their lead with a low block or come out and play. They go through with a draw and even a one goal loss takes it to PKs, so I would expect them to be somewhat conservative...

West Ham will want to score early and level the tie. Then it opens up even more.
 
Lord Blackadder said:
You'll have to attack them in the return leg, it could make for an exciting match for the neutral. It will interesting to see if Seville just try to defend their lead with a low block or come out and play. They go through with a draw and even a one goal loss takes it to PKs, so I would expect them to be somewhat conservative...

West Ham will want to score early and level the tie. Then it opens up even more.
Click to expand...
I’ll have everything crossed.
 
With a 2-0 win over Brighton today ‘Pool have won their games in hand and now sit 3 behind Man City. It’s a genuine title race but Man City have the advantage - I still don’t see them collecting 4+ fewer points than Liverpool in the run-in. And if they bring in Haaland next season they’ll be even harder to compete with. Liverpool probably need to be perfect and win out the season to keep the title race going.

Luis Diaz with another goal today and he is bedding in really well, showing a very high work rate and a developing rapport with his strike partners.

Salah came off with some sort of problem late on, hopefully just as a precaution.
 
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Spurs are the most inconsistent team of the season. Ronaldo is Ronaldo...individually brilliant but, I would argue, still not what Man Utd need right now. You can't rely on Cristiano to score a hat trick every match, but you should be able to rely on Maguire and Co to not be giving up more than one goal per game on average.

This result is good news for Arsenal in more ways than one, but it still keeps the race for fourth pretty darn tight between four teams, and Wolves are not quite out of it either.
 
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Spurs still flatter to deceive. They tend to play well to a point, but can never get over the hump. Like PSG choking in the Champions League, it's something you can rely on, year after year.

And then there are things you can't rely on, like Harry Maguire. He simply can't start for United if they're serious about competing for trophies.

Ronaldo, though. Doing what he does at age 37, still incredibly impressive.
 
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