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The 2024-2025 Football Thread

laptech said:
Man United cannot even win against a team of all stars in the first game of their pre-season Asian tour. The players on the all star team are all individuals who have not played together and yet they are pressed together to form a team to take on United. It just get's worse and worse for the club. The only shining light is that the club are getting paid £8 million to do this Asian tour. Much needed money.
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daneoni said:
Tbf if i've just lost a European final on the back of a terrible season. The last thing i'd want to do is to play even more pointless football. And i certainly wouldn't take the matches seriously if i'm gonna be sold in a few weeks.

Everyone needs a rest. There's been too much football frankly. And there are still two finals to go.
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Agree completely with @daneoni; this tour is completely pointless, and is utterly unnecessary at this time of the season, - at the end of a very long and very tiring season - when the players are exhausted, mentally and physically.

Whatever about Liverpool's disengagement during the last few games of the actual season (after they had won the Premier League), I can completely understand why United's players might evince a lack of interest, and motivation.

There is absolutely nothing riding on the outcome of these meaningless matches.

Worse, if an exhausted (key) player picks up an injury during this worthless nonsense, this will cost the team (over the coming season) much more than the measly £8 million they may earn from it.

While I am no fan of Manchester United, and their risible season has occasioned an occasional smile, I will say that now is the time for their players to allow themselves time to rest, recover, recuperate, before pre-season training resumes in a little over a month's time.
 
Chelsea take the Mickey Mouse Cup in front of their awful fans. That leaves Arsenal as the only London "big" club without a trophy this season. Yet again, Arteta fails to do anything worthwhile. He's got to go.
 
Corefile said:
Chelsea take the Mickey Mouse Cup in front of their awful fans.
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Indeed.
Corefile said:
That leaves Arsenal as the only London "big" club without a trophy this season.
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Well, yes.

Well.......We did reach the semi finals in the Champions League, and were (a fairly comfortable) second in the Premier League for the third consecutive season; five years ago, I would have killed (metaphorically, of course) for such an outcome.


Corefile said:
Yet again, Arteta fails to do anything worthwhile.
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Hm.

I'm not sure that one could describe the season as "having failed to do anything worthwhile".

In any case, we did reach the semi finals in the Champions League, and were (a fairly comfortable) second in the Premier League for the third consecutive season.

Comparatively, this is not bad at all.

Granted, this cannot be considered a collection of trophies, but - given where we were - physically, mentally, psychologically, metaphorically - when Mikel Arteta was appointed, and given that it generally takes at least four or more transfer windows to achieve what one may need in terms of team development - one cannot describe his tenure - especially the last three seasons - as anything other than a gradual development and evolution.

Five years ago, I would have killed (metaphorically, of course) for such an outcome.

Corefile said:
He's got to go.
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No.

However, he does need to accept that there are areas - as with what is all too often written on school reports - where he "could do better".

More to the point, not only could he do better, (although he has done well to date), he could also - and this is my own key concern - learn from his mistakes.
 
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Man United can claim to have a trophy winner in their club, Jadon Sancho because he has just won the UEFA Conference league with Chelsea. Even though his is on loan to Chelsea he is still technically a United player. I therefore wonder if the club would dare to make press releases saying that given the clubs dismal season there is some good that has come out of it, one of their players is a European winner 🤣🤣🤣
 
laptech said:
Man United can claim to have a trophy winner in their club, Jadon Sancho because he has just won the UEFA Conference league with Chelsea. Even though his is on loan to Chelsea he is still technically a United player.
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When he plays a game wearing the Chelsea colours and kit, he is considered a Chelsea player; it doesn't matter whether he is a player who is on loan, or whether he has been bought by the club whose colours he wears, when he takes to the field attired in Chelsea colours, he will still be considered a Chelsea player.
laptech said:
I therefore wonder if the club would dare to make press releases saying that given the clubs dismal season there is some good that has come out of it, one of their players is a European winner 🤣🤣🤣
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No.
 
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Man Utd just cannot escape the negative press, even over in Asia. They'll also be under severe pressure to spend big given even Arsenal are spending big money. Man Utd are desperate for cash with no Europe and going flying around Asia before even pre-season. Speaking of pre-season, when is it for Man Utd?
 
Corefile said:
Man Utd just cannot escape the negative press, even over in Asia. They'll also be under severe pressure to spend big given even Arsenal are spending big money. Man Utd are desperate for cash with no Europe and going flying around Asia before even pre-season. Speaking of pre-season, when is it for Man Utd?
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They might cancel pre-season due to not having enough money to probably afford the plane tickets. Might just end up being a few local games getting there by bus 😄
 
Some press have been making a big noise about how Chelsea are the only club to have completed the set of European trophies.

However the bit they seem to have failed to grasp is the greedy six really don’t want to be in the third tier of European football!

And yes I know I was over the moon when we (West Ham) won it, but we are hardly in the same situation.
 
About time the billion pound project paid some dividends

Also strange to read headlines about Chelsea renegotiating their 8yr contracts

Also weird that Mudryk is now a ghost in the dressing room but was still able to show up and collect a medal
 
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I was under the impression that these 5+ year contracts were banned because it was something Chelsea did years ago to get around FFP (Financial Fair Play) rules and the premier league and the FA put a stop to it. So to hear Chelsea is doing 5+ year contracts again bewilders me.
 
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Ah apologies. I meant the players are already on 8yr deals so i found it somewhat comical that they're already renegotiating those deals is all
 
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Corefile said:
Everybody is away on holidays now so not a lot happening.
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Let them enjoy their well deserved break.
Corefile said:
Let's wait until the manager merry-go-round get started.
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From what I can gather, a tiny little transfer window is scheduled to open on the first day of June, and will remain ajar until 10th June, when it shuts for a week, in order to facilitate (player) movement in advance of the perfectly fatuous, utterly idiotic (and wholly unnecessary) nonsense of the competition that is the "Club World Cup".
 
Scepticalscribe said:
For the life of me, I do not know why I am reading (purely speculative) articles about (possible) transfers with such ....avid.....interest.
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Could it be because subconsciously you want to see how worse it get's for United because they are trying to do transfer deals and are screwing them up because they do not have European football and thus you find yourself reading transfer articles with interest. Or could it be your interested to see if Arsenal get one of the hottest striker prospects in Europe, Viktor Gyokeres.
 
laptech said:
Could it be because subconsciously you want to see how worse it get's for United because they are trying to do transfer deals and are screwing them up because they do not have European football and thus you find yourself reading transfer articles with interest.
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No, not really.
laptech said:
Or could it be your interested to see if Arsenal get one of the hottest striker prospects in Europe, Viktor Gyokeres.
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I think the latter.

Although I am berating myself for such self-indulgence, a mere week after the close of the season.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
No, not really.

I think the latter.

Although I am berating myself for such self-indulgence, a mere week after the close of the season.
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If your an avid fan of Arsenal why would berating yourself for such self-indulgence bother you? Avid fans of the club would want to be kept up to date with everything that is going on with the club wouldn't they?
 
laptech said:
If your an avid fan of Arsenal why would berating yourself for such self-indulgence bother you? Avid fans of the club would want to be kept up to date with everything that is going on with the club wouldn't they?
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Yes, but even this avid fan thinks that there should be a time of the year when the football news cycle falls silent.

Elsewhere, in the Champions League Final, which was played in Munich, PSG thrashed Inter by five goals to nil, lifting the trophy for the first time.
 
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PSG deservedly Kings of Europe in the end.

Inter surprisingly woeful and disappointing. Don't recall them doing anything throughout the 90mins.

Penny for Mbappe's thoughts. The minute he leaves his former club win the biggest tournament whilst he ends the season trophyless.
 
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daneoni said:
PSG deservedly Kings of Europe in the end.

Inter surprisingly woeful and disappointing. Don't recall them doing anything throughout the 90mins.

Penny for Mbappe's thoughts. The minute he leaves his former club win the biggest tournament whilst he ends the season trophyless.
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I don't think Mbappe will be too worried about it because he knows Real Madrid will contest more CL finals than PSG will and thus have a much better chance of winning multiple CL's.
 
A fun fact

Portugal always has trouble beating Germany. The last time I remember (and effectively the last time) was in the Euro 2000 when Sérgio Conceição (las year AC Milan manager) scored an hat trick.

Yesterday things weren't going well as usual but this fellow showed up to rally the troops.

https://imgur.com/jmVAOQq

His name? Francisco Conceição.

And to see the quality of our manager this other fellow started in the bench

https://imgur.com/j7lHJxi

His name is Vítor Ferreira but he is better known as Vitinha using a blue and red jersey.

vitinha-paris-saint-germain-celebrates-999550360.jpg


But in the end everything was fine, a nice win in Munich.
 
timber said:
A fun fact

Portugal always has trouble beating Germany. The last time I remember (and effectively the last time) was in the Euro 2000 when Sérgio Conceição (las year AC Milan manager) scored an hat trick.

Yesterday things weren't going well as usual but this fellow showed up to rally the troops.

https://imgur.com/jmVAOQq

His name? Francisco Conceição.

And to see the quality of our manager this other fellow started in the bench

https://imgur.com/j7lHJxi

His name is Vítor Ferreira but he is better known as Vitinha using a blue and red jersey.

vitinha-paris-saint-germain-celebrates-999550360.jpg


But in the end everything was fine, a nice win in Munich.
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It was a very good goal BUT the way the goal was scored, at that level the goalkeeper should have saved it. The player went for placement rather than power and was way out of the penalty area. Placement goals do not have the same power as power shots hence why I am saving that goal was savable (a fingertip save). Even with that said it was still a good goal :) and the old man himself Ronaldo got a goal. There is no stopping that man :)
 
It was expected that everyone would talk about Ronaldo but the real hero in that goal was Nuno Mendes (also from PSG).
 
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