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The 2022-2023 Football Thread
- Thread starter Scepticalscribe
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Quick out of the blocks.
This is shaping up to be a cracker of a game for a neutral.
Currently watching Sunderland against Fulham. Not a bad first half. Suspect Sunderland will run out of legs towards the end.
WWWWWOOOOW!
that United VS United match was great
what fun!
I love this sport and this season has been incredible!
Go (insert your club here) !!!!
that United VS United match was great
what fun!
I love this sport and this season has been incredible!
Go (insert your club here) !!!!
The Leeds v Man U game just goes to show how much work Ten Hag has got to do to get Man U back to the conquering team they once was because here they were up against a team who's performances have been so bad that they sacked their manger, go into a game without a manager and put in a very strong performance that really puts Man U to shame. A good game for the neutrals, a very good game for Leeds fans but a disgrace for Man U fans.
....and the Super League is back. 'A22 Sports Management' suit Bernd Reichart released a manifesto on the rebooted SL idea that is equal parts lie and delusion.
It's all a massive con, and should be treated as such. Assuming it clears the pending legal hurdles, it still remains to be seen whether the Premier League clubs will be lured in, because the Premier League is, arguably, already a 'super league' of sorts anyway. It's the continental clubs who are most desperate for a new format that will lead to a more secure, permanent income stream.
It must be killed. If not by the European lawyers, then by fans. I have friends who argue the opposite - that the SL is inevitable, and the only way for national leagues to survive is to let the 'super' clubs go and then rebuild national leagues without them along more sustainable lines. There is some validity to that argument, but that would mean acknowledging that that battle has already been lost, at least at the elite level, and that the more idealistic vision of how the sport should look is only possible at lower levels. A grim thought.
It's all a massive con, and should be treated as such. Assuming it clears the pending legal hurdles, it still remains to be seen whether the Premier League clubs will be lured in, because the Premier League is, arguably, already a 'super league' of sorts anyway. It's the continental clubs who are most desperate for a new format that will lead to a more secure, permanent income stream.
It must be killed. If not by the European lawyers, then by fans. I have friends who argue the opposite - that the SL is inevitable, and the only way for national leagues to survive is to let the 'super' clubs go and then rebuild national leagues without them along more sustainable lines. There is some validity to that argument, but that would mean acknowledging that that battle has already been lost, at least at the elite level, and that the more idealistic vision of how the sport should look is only possible at lower levels. A grim thought.
Psst, we already have the equivalent of the Super League in Europe now: the UEFA Champions League. After the last Super League fiasco, nobody is interested anymore.
Casemiro was a near fatal miss yesterday. Hell, even McTominay would have been a steadier defensive presence than Fred was. In attack, Anthony Martial continues to be a huge miss. And while it was good to have Diogo Dalot back, United missed Aaron Wan-Bissaka's one-on-one defending out there. That was one of ETH's changes that didn't pay off — that and playing Rashford on the right, bad idea. Please don't do that ever again.
United still don't have the depth to compete for the title, so maybe the media will finally shut up about it.
I also don't think Leeds are that bad talent-wise, but Jesse Marsch was not able to get much out of them. That, and Weston McKennie will bring something positive to their squad. The young American midfielders played well for them.
The 'new' proposal simply apes the structure of the CL in most essentials - it's merely an attempt to create an independent, self-regulating clone where ALL the money goes to the participating clubs.
Sod off, Super League.
The EU court is soon to decide if UEFA blocking the Super League is tantamount to 'anti-competitive' behavior and if it rules in favor of the management company trying to set up the Super League then in my opinion the Super League will be going ahead. Many people say it was the backlash from fans that caused the Super League to crumble but in my opinion it was the threats from individual countries FA's who threatened to ban clubs and players from all national competitions and UEFA banning players and clubs from every European competition.
I don’t think it will. The fans are so against it that it’s dead in the water (at least in the UK). Obviously we already have a Super league here. That’s what the others want a bit of.
The Glazers at Man United is why in my opinion clubs will not care about what the fans think. Ever since the Glazers bought United and loaded it with debt, United fans have constantly and persistently spoken out about boycotting the club, not going to the games and not purchasing club merchandise. At nearly every game since the takeover fans have been protesting about the Glazers and wanting them out and about boycotting games but yet year in year out United have made profits due to fans buying game tickets and buying merchandise. What has been proven is that fans are all shout and no bite because when it comes down to it, clubs know fans will not boycott games on a regular basis. This can be proven by the stats of fan attendance at games with United nearly at full capacity for every home game. So much for fan protests of the Glazers, yeah it really worked out didn't it..NOT.
The Super League will go ahead if the EU court rules in it's favor and it will not be stopped by fans because as I said, fans are all shout and no bite. If United fans were not prepared to boycott games over an owner they despise, they are not going to boycott the club if it was to join the Super League. That's just my opinion.
I'm pretty sure there was a Sheffield Wednesday fan on here. If so how do you think the game tomorrow will go?
We (Ipswich) REALLY need to win to get our season somewhat back on track. And with some 'favourable' games on the horizon, a win really could set us off to end the season well.
However, We seem to bottle these big games. I think it's got 1-1 written all over it....
We (Ipswich) REALLY need to win to get our season somewhat back on track. And with some 'favourable' games on the horizon, a win really could set us off to end the season well.
However, We seem to bottle these big games. I think it's got 1-1 written all over it....
Personally I hope you are wrong. Now I’d have no problem with them changing the champions league a bit. They can start with the name. It’s not been the champions league for years. They let 2nd, 3rd and fourth clubs into it.
I’d also not mind the third tier of European competition (the one we are in this year) go away. It’s pointless. Just extra games for clubs who don’t have big enough squads or a safety net for clubs that are usually in Europe who had a bad year.
Even if they win this, they still need to raise money to launch the league, and make it viable. Not a foregone conclusion - and the whole thing is a dead letter if none of the English clubs join.
Boycotts would be a devastatingly effective tool if any fan group actually implemented one properly. But without a critical mass of fans behind them, they actually embolden owners because they send the message that for every truly activist fan there are ten glory-hunters or simply apathetic punters willing to pay.
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In many countries football has moved away from being a sport that people enjoyed to play and were very happy to play it to it now being a full on business where making money and profits is the number one goal of a football club. Just look at the owners of clubs these days, they are not football loving heart and soul fans, they are 100% grind out the money business people (most of them are but not all of them) and thus making money is more important to them than keeping fans happy. For many of the top clubs less than 80,000 can fit into the stadiums but hundreds of millions of people can watch them on the television. Clubs do not actually needs fans to help fund the club, what clubs needs is eyes on the televisions and if something like the Super League can draw football fans to watch some of the top teams in Europe play against one another then it will happen. Clubs would be able to make billions every year from television rights from every country in the world that would want to show the Super League games. The potential for such high viewing figures would have advertisers drooling in their wallets.
Football fans needs to understand that the game has changed. It's purely money driven now and club owners will do what ever it takes to make sure they are the ones getting the money. As football fans we might not like the direction football is going, we can only accept it because at the end of the day we do not matter to club owners, only advertisers and sponsors do.
Football fans needs to understand that the game has changed. It's purely money driven now and club owners will do what ever it takes to make sure they are the ones getting the money. As football fans we might not like the direction football is going, we can only accept it because at the end of the day we do not matter to club owners, only advertisers and sponsors do.
'Accepting' that reality means paying more money, every year, forever. The money people in football are already comfortable 'moving upmarket' - just like auto manufacturers. Sell a more expensive product to a smaller customer base who can/will pay. Which means football is no longer for most people. Oh, they can peek in on it, but only from the corners and without any real influence over what is going on.
I won't accept that. I'd rather stop watching football entirely, or switch my focus to lower levels where the impacts remain less severe. Of course, if everyone followed either of those two responses to the way the game is going...it would be forced to change for the better.
Pep coming out swinging with his presser. Not really sure why he or City are surprised at the allegations.
1 or 2 breaches...questionable. Over 100 breaches strongly suggests you're dodgy.
Re- ESL, this was never going to die just from protests and 'moral condemnation'. Greed doesn't work like that. I expect it to eventually happen. And EPL being miffed at being excluded is comical. You're either in or out. You can't play the moral card then conversely be angry you've been excluded from said 'immoral' thing.
Football no longer belongs to fans...not at the upper tiers anyway. It's now a franchise available to the highest bidder. If people want to change that, vote with your wallet.
1 or 2 breaches...questionable. Over 100 breaches strongly suggests you're dodgy.
Re- ESL, this was never going to die just from protests and 'moral condemnation'. Greed doesn't work like that. I expect it to eventually happen. And EPL being miffed at being excluded is comical. You're either in or out. You can't play the moral card then conversely be angry you've been excluded from said 'immoral' thing.
Football no longer belongs to fans...not at the upper tiers anyway. It's now a franchise available to the highest bidder. If people want to change that, vote with your wallet.
We are going to kick the living sh*t out of you...or get the living **** kicked out of us... we are nuts.
Fingers crossed we clobber you lot.
If City win tomorrow, they could leapfrog Arsenal on Thursday.
Agree Southampton are in trouble. But it’s still pretty tight down there.
At this point it might benefit Arsenal for City to overtake them...giving them something to chase and easing the pressure.
Since they seem to be crawling right now.
Maybe its just the usual Feb bottle job kicking in
Brenford arguably deserved to win today.
As for Chelsea, i don't think Potter will survive summer
Newcastle is another team that seems to have flatlined after a blistering start.
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