I’m sure you are. Looking good for you even if you don’t win the title, a CL spot looks assured.
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The 2022-2023 Football Thread
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I suspect that the thought of a possibly assured CL spot would have been something that any Arsenal fan - and, for that matter - Mikel Arteta - would have snatched with gratitude at the outset of the season.
For my part, I like the attitude of this team, their sense of common purpose, along with the fact that - fingers, toes, and other digits crossed - thus far, we are not feeling the abscence through injury of Gabriel Jesus as much as I had feared.
And yes, I am sorry to see Newcastle defeat Fulham, and Palace lose to Chelsea.
I see in the UK media there is much talk about the Bruno goal and Rashfords involvement in it. It will no doubt get overseers of the laws of the game to re-look at the offside rule and how 'interference' plays a part in it. Many contend that the ball was intended for Rashford but if you are able to block out Rashford from your sight then you will see that the ball was actually perfectly weighted for Bruno and if you now bring Rashford back into it you will see that Rashford has to cut in from his run to get anywhere close to the ball and nearly collides with Bruno whereas with Bruno he just runs on to it. Now the question is did Rashford intefere with play when he was in an offside position. This inteference is being called into question because you can see Rashford pulls a City defender with him, a defender that would have probably focused their run towards Bruno instead of Rashford.
but surely if the ref thought there was intereference he would have blown his whistle to stop play or would have allowed play to continue and then asked to look at the big screen to see if there was an interference in the lead up to the goal.
but surely if the ref thought there was intereference he would have blown his whistle to stop play or would have allowed play to continue and then asked to look at the big screen to see if there was an interference in the lead up to the goal.
Yes, but that is on the defender; he chose the wrong option - to follow Rashford, and not the ball - in his role as a defender.
As long as this rule exists, (and that is not to say that changing it, or amending it, shouldn't be up for discussion), one can argue that Rashford's interpretation of the rule (and he touched neither the ball nor the defender) can only be considered to have been both creative and intelligent.
Qatar is going to buy a top 6 Premier League club, and is reportedly in talks with Man Utd, Liverpool and Spurs' ownership.
It is possible they may even buy more than one - one owned by the sovereign wealth fund, (which, as we all know, has absolutely nothing to do with the state itself
), and one(or more?) by super-wealthy Qatari nationals who will essentially be a front and conduit for state ownership and state money.
Coupled with Newcastle's state ownership, this purchase will likely establish a new power hierarchy in English football for years to come, as the CL spots may become the exclusive province of state clubs. Clubs on the outside of state ownership will not be able to compete - right now that raises a dilemma for Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. Not poor by any stretch, but none of these clubs can compete directly with state clubs financially - and it is questionable whether Man Utd under the Glazers can either in the long run.
It is possible they may even buy more than one - one owned by the sovereign wealth fund, (which, as we all know, has absolutely nothing to do with the state itself
), and one(or more?) by super-wealthy Qatari nationals who will essentially be a front and conduit for state ownership and state money.Coupled with Newcastle's state ownership, this purchase will likely establish a new power hierarchy in English football for years to come, as the CL spots may become the exclusive province of state clubs. Clubs on the outside of state ownership will not be able to compete - right now that raises a dilemma for Spurs, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Chelsea. Not poor by any stretch, but none of these clubs can compete directly with state clubs financially - and it is questionable whether Man Utd under the Glazers can either in the long run.
Can they purchase Everton from their neighbors?
what a mess that has become on the pitch!
In 2005 they were the elite, hopefully they can keep up this great team play!
how is the EPL going to compensate for the lost weeks due to the World Cup?
Are they going to condense the schedule more game per week or extend into late June?
thanks in advance!
Everton are a funny case - spent a ton of money and are going backwards. Farhad Moshiri and Lampard are both moving them in the wrong direction.
Everton might soon be up for sale:
www.theguardian.com
Questions mount over Alisher Usmanov’s links with Everton FC
Sources claim five football managers held talks over top job in presence of now-sanctioned oligarch
Liverpool is the most attractive option but also the most expensive, Spurs probably the better bet. New stadium, less expectation etc.
The Qataris are really moving strategically. And the game will go further into disrepute because it's now money money money.
On another note, David Moyes has appeared on a podcast to discuss West Ham, Utd etc
The Qataris are really moving strategically. And the game will go further into disrepute because it's now money money money.
On another note, David Moyes has appeared on a podcast to discuss West Ham, Utd etc
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Last games are slated for 28th May - later than normal, but not by a lot.
That suggests some congestion in the fixture list to come.
With a rumored asking price of $5 billion. I keep asking 'have we reached the peak of financial inflation in the game?' and the answer keeps coming back resounding 'no.'
It boils down to the actions of regular punters. Right now, in spite of all the protests by a vocal minority and journalistic hand-wringing about rising costs and profiteering, most fans are still telling the football money machine 'yes, we are willing to pay rising TV subscription rates, higher merch prices, and we will still buy tickets even at your jacked-up prices.' With the result that the greed-mongers think 'well, if they are willing to pay, we may not have reached our profit ceiling yet...perhaps they'd be willing to pay even more!'...and up go the prices again.
Club owners know fans will pay whatever the price. Why? because look at how many times fans of various clubs have protested about their owners and called for fans to either boycott games or to walk out a game at half time. It never happens. A classic example is Manchester United and the Glazer's. Ever since the club was purchased on debt fans have been calling for game boycotts and game walk outs and you know what? it has never happened.
It won't be long before players start getting £1million a week in wages. Look at Ronaldo, was getting £500,000 a week and players will still pay the asking price to go to games and pay the asking price for club merchandise.
The USMNT remains in a sort of limbo as US Soccer continues to bumble its way through the Berhalter / Reyna imbroglio. A few players have spoken out in support of Berhalter, but nothing is going to happen until the federation's investigation finishes up, which will take who-knows-how-long. In the meantime the team will attend training camp and play a few scheduled friendlies under a caretaker manager.
If Berhalter gets fired as a result of this we are back to square one, and the federation are notoriously slow (and often not very good at) managerial appointments. It will impact our next couple tournaments and could stunt preparations for the next (home) World Cup). If he is not fired there is now a cloud over his relationship with Gio Reyna that won't go away and a staunch and vocal anti-Greg cadre in the USMNT fanbase that will persist until he does finally go.
Lose-lose.
Thus far, yes, that is true.
However, 'fans' are not a monolithic group, and the increasing prices have consequences. For example, a larger and larger percentage of 'fans' at the marquee matches (think World Cup, Champions League, cup finals, Euros, major domestic derbies, and so on) are either people who copped tickets from a corporate bloc or are well-off middle class + and can afford the prices. Match attendance at bigger clubs is really only for 'some people' now and the barrier is financial.
Also, who are the 'fans?' The biggest growth region for the Premier League is Asia (India and China in particular) and now almost all the ownership money at the top is coming from the Middle East or American investment groups - with the former now clearly taking top spot over the latter. So the clubs' existence, or at least future growth potential, is seen as having virtually nothing to do with the places they are actually located. Ergo, the talk about being focused on the 'community' by clubs is at best a very qualified statement and at worst is just utter bollocks. 'Local' fans with amusing regional accents might still be the ones you see dragged in front of the camera, but they are no longer the group bankrolling the club through merch and ticket sales. So they don't really matter much. Even when they 'march' from the pub they were going to anyway to the match they paid to go to anyway to protest something, the owners can more or less ignore it.
Newcastle is perhaps the best example. They hated their owner so much they consider the Saudi government an improvement on him, yet the entire time Ashley owned Newcastle they kept cooperating with him on the only thing he really cared about - punters buying his merch and coming to matches. Which is essentially the same as saying 'we LOVE Mike Ashley' as far as he was concerned. I suppose Man Utd is a similar case. 'The fans' are supposedly totally fed up with the Glazers, yet Old Trafford is full and business is booming. Those Asian noodle partners continue to line up.
Some will respond to this all by saying 'so what? People clearly like the product. This focus on the community crap is touchy-feely whining and nobody cares.' When it comes to who is driving things that is probably true - but it also means that a heaping portion of what clubs/leagues/FA/FIFA keep saying about identity and culture are just flat out lies anymore, and they know it. Clubs are just plastic products with very little actual identity apart from logos. So fan loyalty, in any sense other than consumerism, has zero value in the game.
This also leads to the death of genuine competition, as evidenced by financial doping, the Super League and fiddling with tournament formats. Clubs and governing bodies are essentially now openly saying "C'mon, you don't really want actual competition, do you? You want more El Classico, more 'big' CL knockout ties, more World Cup Finals!...let's just fix it so that's what you see most of the time, eh?
If Berhalter gets fired as a result of this we are back to square one, and the federation are notoriously slow (and often not very good at) managerial appointments. It will impact our next couple tournaments and could stunt preparations for the next (home) World Cup). If he is not fired there is now a cloud over his relationship with Gio Reyna that won't go away and a staunch and vocal anti-Greg cadre in the USMNT fanbase that will persist until he does finally go.
Lose-lose.
Thus far, yes, that is true.
However, 'fans' are not a monolithic group, and the increasing prices have consequences. For example, a larger and larger percentage of 'fans' at the marquee matches (think World Cup, Champions League, cup finals, Euros, major domestic derbies, and so on) are either people who copped tickets from a corporate bloc or are well-off middle class + and can afford the prices. Match attendance at bigger clubs is really only for 'some people' now and the barrier is financial.
Also, who are the 'fans?' The biggest growth region for the Premier League is Asia (India and China in particular) and now almost all the ownership money at the top is coming from the Middle East or American investment groups - with the former now clearly taking top spot over the latter. So the clubs' existence, or at least future growth potential, is seen as having virtually nothing to do with the places they are actually located. Ergo, the talk about being focused on the 'community' by clubs is at best a very qualified statement and at worst is just utter bollocks. 'Local' fans with amusing regional accents might still be the ones you see dragged in front of the camera, but they are no longer the group bankrolling the club through merch and ticket sales. So they don't really matter much. Even when they 'march' from the pub they were going to anyway to the match they paid to go to anyway to protest something, the owners can more or less ignore it.
Newcastle is perhaps the best example. They hated their owner so much they consider the Saudi government an improvement on him, yet the entire time Ashley owned Newcastle they kept cooperating with him on the only thing he really cared about - punters buying his merch and coming to matches. Which is essentially the same as saying 'we LOVE Mike Ashley' as far as he was concerned. I suppose Man Utd is a similar case. 'The fans' are supposedly totally fed up with the Glazers, yet Old Trafford is full and business is booming. Those Asian noodle partners continue to line up.
Some will respond to this all by saying 'so what? People clearly like the product. This focus on the community crap is touchy-feely whining and nobody cares.' When it comes to who is driving things that is probably true - but it also means that a heaping portion of what clubs/leagues/FA/FIFA keep saying about identity and culture are just flat out lies anymore, and they know it. Clubs are just plastic products with very little actual identity apart from logos. So fan loyalty, in any sense other than consumerism, has zero value in the game.
This also leads to the death of genuine competition, as evidenced by financial doping, the Super League and fiddling with tournament formats. Clubs and governing bodies are essentially now openly saying "C'mon, you don't really want actual competition, do you? You want more El Classico, more 'big' CL knockout ties, more World Cup Finals!...let's just fix it so that's what you see most of the time, eh?
For the past number of years fans have never been seen as being worthwhile to a club. I cannot remember which competition it was but I know it involved Liverpool and a low allocation of tickets because the issue was big enough to catch the attention of the football media. It might have been a champions league final but the thing I remember about it is that Liverpool and the other team were given a low allocation of tickets for their fans and Liverpool complained saying that more tickets should be given to the fans but the responding FA (possibly UEFA) basically said that a large number of tickets had to be given to countries FA's as well as the games corporate sponsors and other sponsors. Liverpool called out this BS and said the fan's deserve better.
Football has gone way beyond the fans now as it's all about corporate sponsorship and getting as much money into the club as possible so the owners can get themselves millions $$$/£££. Clubs are offering naming rights on their grounds, players now wear pre-match shirts as well as training tops to games and each top has a different sponsor on them. Anything and everything a club can get a sponsors name on, they will do. The only reason why club owners want fans at games in my opinion is because it creates an atmosphere that players can strive on.
thanks for the reply,, seems to me they are going to squeeze many matches in a tiny box!
Usually the EPL season ends on Mother's Day in early May.
Columbus have brought in a new striker, Christian Ramirez, from Aberdeen. Formerly with Minnesota United...
Not exactly earth-shattering news, but Columbus continue to search for a solution at the traditional No. 9 position. He has an OK strike rate and at 31 should still have a couple good seasons left in him if he stays healthy.
Still annoyed that Apple have jacked up the prices for watching MLS this coming season - and essentially fired all the local TV announcing teams in favor of a national team they have assembled. Some of the people in that team are totally fine, but they are just aping the English model, trying to create an 'entertaining' group of 'pundits' and ex-players. I won't be signing up unless they lower the subscription rate. $15/month is bad value for MLS IMO, even if the bean counters are right.
Not exactly earth-shattering news, but Columbus continue to search for a solution at the traditional No. 9 position. He has an OK strike rate and at 31 should still have a couple good seasons left in him if he stays healthy.
Still annoyed that Apple have jacked up the prices for watching MLS this coming season - and essentially fired all the local TV announcing teams in favor of a national team they have assembled. Some of the people in that team are totally fine, but they are just aping the English model, trying to create an 'entertaining' group of 'pundits' and ex-players. I won't be signing up unless they lower the subscription rate. $15/month is bad value for MLS IMO, even if the bean counters are right.
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What has made me and others laugh is that a player from rock bottom of the English football league and very close to being relegated to non-league football Gillingham FC has been signed by Scottish Premier league Motherwell. Yep, player Mikael Mandron has left rock bottom Gillingham FC to join Motherwell. The bit we cannot understand is why on earth would a Scottish Premier league team sign a player from the worst team in the English football league.
Maybe he's better than the team he's in and it's actually a good move for everyone?
There's interest in players from Non-League Wrexham, thanks to the exposure they've had from Netflix.
Well, for one thing, I don't think there is a massive talent gap between the better nonleague teams and League One teams (or even including bottom-feeding Championship teams).
Apart from the Old Firm, the SPL's talent level is in a similar ballpark, so an 'elite' nonleague player is probably plenty competitive in the SPL. Gillingham may be poor overall but that doesn't mean they don't have any good players worth buying.
WHAT AN equalizer by Olise, ummmm looks like rrrrolandohino, Chrystal Place!
De Gea Vs Guaita brought back 2011 memories for me!
De Gea Vs Guaita brought back 2011 memories for me!
that threw me off for a while, I guess the VARs messed up me brains!
Regardless of all the issues involving Ronaldo, it is ironic that some tabloid press football critics pointed out that letting Ronaldo go would cause United to be void of attacking options on the bench because United do not have squad depth when it comes to established goal scorers, something United desperately needed towards the latter end of the second half. Shame they did not have Ronaldo they could have called upon to help lol.