Yes it was a long time ago BUT it proves that give him time and he can work wonders with a club. Everton was never expected to ever get into the champions league but Moyes proved them wrong. No offense to the fan in here but West Ham were not considered European contenders but Moyes got them a European trophy. Moyes has got what it takes if he is given time. He proved that with Everton and he is proving that with West Ham.
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The 2023-2024 Football Thread
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I doubt that calling for, encouraging, and seeking greater diversity is incompatible with choosing the best possible team.
Meh Arsenal Women will point to players like Alex Scott, Anita Asante.
Everton will claim Chantelle Hlorkah, Taylor Hinds.
The current crop may lack diversity but they have had it in the past.
Think the women's game is just more on the map now and more compeititve.
So recruitment is much more about stats than personality/race.
Meanwhile its looking like a good weekend for Spurs.
West Ham just didn't turn up today and on-form Villa capitalised
Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal grind out results. And City win with Rodri back. Albeit lose Akanji. And still no space for Nunes
Typical, Pep pays you a compliment and you lose against him...like clockwork.
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I totally agree, they have had such players in their squads. Personally I think it is wrong for anyone to claim diversity issues with the women's game because whilst it is improving they do not have a large pool of players to chose from like the men's game has and thus the number of diverse players in the women's game is much much smaller and thus makes it even harder for women of diverse backgrounds to advance in the game.
I have a relative who works with community football teams and has done so for many years. He has managed both boys and girls teams from the ages of 8 through to 16 and in conversations he has mentioned that he constantly see's a drop in the number of girls continuing with the game once puberty starts to hit. He has seen very good female players, aged 12, 13 who he thought these girls could go far but when they hit 14/15, they've stopped, they don't want to do it any more.
A big problem he see's with the women's game is the parents. Time and time again he see's families come to watch the games, they come to watch their son/brother and he hears the girls tell their parents that they want to play and the parents say 'this is not a game for girls'. The women's game has got a long long way to go.
It would seem the UK media wolves are circling around United because I've seen in a couple of the online papers talk of former Chelsea manager Potter in the running for the United job should ETH leave. That got me thinking. So the UK football press are of the belief ETH is going to leave United very soon and be replaced with Potter because Sir Jim Ratcliffe happens to like the manager because he tried to get Potter to join Nice.
Ok so let's look at some actual stats:
In 11 years at Everton, Moyes had an average final league position of 7.63r. His highest finish was 4th, his lowest, 17th. He also won zero trophies. At West Ham, his average final league position is 11.2; highest 6th, lowest 16th. At Real Sociedad he finished 12th and 16th. At Sunderland he was relegated in last place.
Mid table manager. The stats prove that.
I think socioeconomics play a big part; in the boys/mens game, lads can easily find a game locally, there are scouts for professional teams scouring local parks of a weekend, loads of FA registered sunday league clubs playing, far, far more opportunities. With girls/women's football, it's harder to find local teams for a lot of girls, less clubs, so more travelling, perhaps higher entry costs etc. Far fewer scouts out there looking for female talent (women's football is far less lucrative right now). So the higher entry cost perhaps has a bearing on the diversity within the game; maybe the white girls are coming from more privileged families who can afford to support them more. Very highly complex, but a very interesting subject.
The distance is 100% why families is not coming to matches when younger and even later on for women.
For example when Sweden met Italy earlier this year on a very small 'arena' - no way the Italian leaders had placed a men's game out in the woods where people didn’t come.
Our captain Asllani voiced it and the male Italian leaders was not so happy with it.
This is 2023, I have experienced this since I was a young girl. It’s still not equal, in some countries better, in others, not so at all.
Sweden striker blasts Italy FA over match - "I've seen more animals than people"
Sweden defeated Italy 1-0 in the Women's Nations League on Tuesday evening but the venue selection from the Italian FA has come under fire
Potter is a good manager. But I don’t think he’ll turn things around at United. Too many egos in that dressing room.
If it's true that ETH's main issue is managing the big egos and personalities at United, then hiring Potter won't solve that problem. He certainly fell flat on his face at Chelsea in that regard.
Brighton just kept on going after Potter left. That speaks to the stability and functionality of their football structure above the manager. United and Chelsea don't have that, so they keep going through managers with little discernible progress.
Agreed, socio-economics do matter.
For working class boys, or lads, being good at any sport is a potential pathway out of poverty, or limited futures, or professional options, to the potential of being able to make a decent living; a similar path (ability at sport as a means of opportunity for life chances)is a lot less well mapped for working class girls, although things are changing.
And also the availability of and access to - the provision of - appropriate facilities - decent pitches, decent changing rooms and so on matter for girls/women's games (and this is an issue that matters even more after puberty).
Good for Arsenal (Women) to get their dutch player Vivianne Miedema back from her cruciate ligament-injury, she's an incredible scorer.
I am sure her Swedish teammates in Arsenal ( Hurtig, Blackstenius and Ilestedt) are happy to have her back too.
I am sure her Swedish teammates in Arsenal ( Hurtig, Blackstenius and Ilestedt) are happy to have her back too.
You might be surprised to hear Ajax lost 4-3 away to bottom club FC Utrecht this weekend, and are now in the relegation zone. 17th place out of 18, 7 games played, 5 points. Drama.
Well, they have started the season strongly (with Arsenal, they are one of two teams that still remain unbeaten) and they are certainly doing far better than they have done for several years.
As for actually claiming the title?
Although almost a quarter of the season has passed, as Arsenal have (painful) cause to remember, being ahead at this stage of the season does not necessarily guarantee the title.
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van der Sar, ten Hag, and Overmars are all gone. Pretty rough drop-off for them.
Spare a thought for Lyon: they were in the UCL semifinals 3 years ago, now they're dead last in Ligue 1.
That, and over the last couple of years they’ve sold most of the first eleven. So it’s a new coach, new management, who bought new players but bought badly, and so there is no leadership off the pitch or on the pitch.
Just read that Ajax have sacked their manager and Louis Van Gaal who is at Ajax in some sporting advisory role has suggest they go for United's assistant manager who used to Ajax's youth team coach.
They're not, but they're doing ok right now. Grinding out results. Got lucky v Liverpool, did well against Arsenal away, but other than those games and against Man U, they've only played crap teams so far. Actually Man U are one of those crap teams tbh. 🤣 So when it starts to get a bit spicier, against City, Newcastle, Brighton and Villa etc, plus the tough away games coming, then I think we'll see reality set in a bit more. Spurs are playing pretty much as well as they can right now, but that's about their limit really. No European games will help them a bit but not much. Contrast that with Liverpool and City not playing as well as they can yet, give it a few more months and we'll get a better picture.
Would it not be prudent for Ten Haag to just sack the Utd job in, it's really not going to get any better for him and he'll get sacked anyway in all likelihood, and just return to Ajax? That's what I'd do in his position.
I quite enjoyed that last year; Arsenal fans banging on for months, but I knew they'd come unstuck. It's not over until it's over, fat lady singing etc. When Liverpool's equaliser went in at Anfield, that was the moment the wheels came off for Arsenal.
He probably will if they lose tonight's champions league game because it would mean they are out of the competition with a whimper.
Well, not quite out, but definitely not in a good position. This is a must-win game for them without a doubt. But I often wonder why managers stick it out until the bitter end; why not just walk when you still have some dignity? Getting sacked invariably hurts managers when it comes to getting decent new jobs. Look at Mourinho; managed Chelsea in their prime, Real Madrid, Inter Milan. Now languishing mid-table with Roma, with the inevitable signs of his impending tantrum where he blames everyone else for his failure. Where next? Turkey? USA? Saudi?? If I was TH, I'd be pushing right now for a 'termination with mutual consent', rather than prolong the inevitable. And return to a place where he'd be respected and loved.
Ego's at United never mattered when they all knew their jobs were all under threat at the appointment of interim manager Solskjaer. Not even Solskjaer was considered for the job, he was there just to steady the ship until a full time manager could be found which meant everyone was fighting for their job and look what happened, United had at times a record breaking run of form, I think it was 19 games, 16 wins, 2 draws and one loss. Amazing what happens when you know your job is under threat.
The club have not produced that kind of performance since.
The club have not produced that kind of performance since.
No.
The moment the wheels came off was when we lost Saliba to injury.
We had an excellent first eleven - for long stretches the best in the Premier League - but the squad lacked depth and was badly exposed once we lost key players to injury, as we had nobody of the calibre of - remotely approaching the calibre of - Saliba (Holding and co are honest, hard-working journeymen, but not at the level required) to replace him.