August football thread: Football is back (already)

[Gray Fox]

Is it the longest time in the top flight thing then? It's very strange, especially from Liverpool fans who's club is so many levels above them you couldn't even quantify it.

From a Scouse Liverpool fan, the rivalry between us always used to be big brother to little brother kind of thing. I'm told in the 80s times were great as it was the two of us at the top most seasons.

Things have soured since and Everton spend a lot of time circling the drain. As such they have become quite bitter(our nickname for them was The Bitters for a long time). All they have now is "well at least Liverpool didn't win X." There is another fanbase going the same way but they're not fully there yet.

As such, even we're just kind of sick of them now.

[Giggles]

From a Scouse Liverpool fan, the rivalry between us always used to be big brother to little brother kind of thing. I'm told in the 80s times were great as it was the two of us at the top most seasons.

Things have soured since and Everton spend a lot of time circling the drain. As such they have become quite bitter(our nickname for them was The Bitters for a long time). All they have now is "well at least Liverpool didn't win X." There is another fanbase going the same way but they're not fully there yet.

As such, even we're just kind of sick of them now.

About 99% of fanbases in England are "at least Liverpool didn't win". Says more about Liverpool than Everton.

[phonics]

They aren’t at all. United maybe. Not Liverpool.

Also I forgot to shout-out Ben White, who upon seeing McGinn maybe kick a ball at Saliba decided to absolutely boot the ball as hard as he could at McGinns face so quickly it wasn’t even a decision. Just instinctively knew that he had the opportunity to be a cunt.

[phonics]

Morgan Rogers. We bought him off Middlesborough for about £8m, about six months after they signed him from City. He's brilliant. He really came on leaps and bounds late last year, I saw him at VP and he was a real powerhouse. Had a terrific pre-season too and is looking like one of the first names on the teamsheet now. He was amazing today, so direct and powerful while on the run.

I think you can be happy knowing you have a player just by the way Arteta treated him today. We had our central defender man marking him so tight today that he regularly ended up in the front 3. I’ve never seen us do anything like that to any player. Clearly thought that if we can stop him we win but couldn’t trust anyone outside the 6’3 bruiser to actually win those duels. Definitely going to make a big impact.

[Spikey M]

That Zirkzee offside.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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Anyone able to confirm/deny if Wolves is indeed shit?

[Ben]

He’s not wrong. My old company’s head office was there. And to make my visits even greater, they’d put me up in Walsall.

[Waffdon]

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Anyone able to confirm/deny if Wolves is indeed shit?

Lol at him having a burner account.

The Wolves Twitter admin will have a field day come 4pm

[Waffdon]

Proper basketball match this Chelsea game. Wolves could score 3 or 4 again if they want to. This defence and set up is beyond tragic

[Waffdon]

Get your cocks out for this palmer goal. Absolutely stunning

[igor_balis]

I know other people's fantasy football is about as interesting as their dreams, but you lot might be somewhat amused that I forgot to captain haaland instead of isak

[Waffdon]

I went with Muniz to try be a hipster. Went well

[Waffdon]

Hat trick for Madueke after calling Wolverhampton a shite hole

Wonder goal and creating 3 goals for palmer. Best in the league

[niko_cee]

This is more like the mad shit I thought Chelsea might be up to this year.

[randomlegend]

Get your cocks out for this palmer goal. Absolutely stunning

Yeah that is obscene to be fair.

[Gray Fox]

Brentford continually pushing up beyond the point of insanity here.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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I'd laugh so hard if Liverpool make it 3-0 only for Brentford to get a 93rd minute consolation goal.

[Gray Fox]

Another case of average first half but then very promising second half.

[Waffdon]

A very kind start to the season for the bald man from the completely random fixture computer

[Gray Fox]

Yeah but he still lost against Brighton.

[Waffdon]

‘Trent’ toys out the pram for being subbed with 15 mins to go. What a diva.

[Gray Fox]

Proper "you're not my real dad" vibes on the bench

[Jimmy Floyd]

I like Gary O'Neil, but losing 6-2 at home to us should be an auto-sack.

[SincereTheRebel]

I like Gary O'Neil, but losing 6-2 at home to us should be an auto-sack.

It was shocking. Give wolves maguire on loan. Its that bad.

[Shindig]

Very lucky to get a point today. And Joelinton should've been off.

[randomlegend]

Very lucky to get a point today. And Joelinton should've been off.

Aye that's one of the most blatant reds I've ever seen. EPL refs going and getting paid squillions to ref in Saudi is I'm sure unrelated

[Shindig]

It's the kind of thing that should be upgraded retrospectively.

[Lewis]

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[Spikey M]

And that's why everyone wants them relegated, @Giggles

In other news.

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[Sir Andy Mahowry]

No pants and vest?

[Gray Fox]

"You'll have to wear the spare kit"

[Shindig]

"Lads, scope out the away end and see if any of the replicas fit."

[niko_cee]

Just seen the xG on the Chelsea game. Good grief.

[Danny]

Just have them wear the Coventry away kit. Chelsea style.

[Waffdon]

Just seen the xG on the Chelsea game. Good grief.

The way XG is worked out is completely dumb, IMO. Like, two of Madueke’s goals were not difficult whatsoever. Same with Jackson and Felix’s goals. That and it doesn’t take into account fairly simple chances on the break being let down by a terrible pass. There’s not a chance Chelsea last week against City created near enough the same as they did yesterday

[Jimmy Floyd]

That Everton video is pretty much a microcosm of modern top flight football. On the face of it, fans who earn probably not much at all, and are charged huge amounts for the privilege of attending games, probably feel they are entitled to vent their fury at the people who earn 300 times in a week what the fan earns in a year, only to fail repeatedly and relentlessly. By the same measure, though, the furious fan is absolutely free to stop supporting Everton, or not to accept those charges for tickets and travel and just to follow the team from afar, so they only have themselves to blame.

The issue is that the fan almost certainly feels more Everton than they do even scouse, or English, British or any other identity. The football team for such a person is the number one expression of self, and yet it's also a multi-million pound corporation that does not need the fan at all and would much rather replace them with someone wealthier.

I'm very surprised that there haven't been more breakaway FC United type things.

[Gray Fox]

I think most clubs do have their own version of FCUM these days. The problem is ironically, they tend to stall out after an initial surge precisely because they don't have the money. People then start jumping back off the bandwagon.

FCUM were as of last season in the same league as my locals(who went down) which I think is tier 7/8? They once got as high at winning the Tier 7 title, but they hit their wall and dropped back down. Attendances used to be a solid 5,000+ are now down to 2,000 or below. Good for their level but they're still stuck.

Same story for most if not all of these breakaway or phoenix clubs.

[Kikó]

A big stopper for fcum was bad financial management and then actually a number of clubs at that level are pumped with money from rich owners. The fans are progressively getting older as well and they're struggling to get the next generation in at the moment.

[phonics]

So I looked up that Morgan Rogers guy and found he was one of the West Brom grads that City pinched and mentioned it to my Dad. Apparently he's from the same town as the Bellinghams. We have to do a serious investigation into the water there and distribute it across the country.

[Shindig]

Gateshead 1-1 Oldham. Nobody around us won so we're still 2 points off the top. The top three remain unbeaten.

[Ben]

So I looked up that Morgan Rogers guy and found he was one of the West Brom grads that City pinched and mentioned it to my Dad. Apparently he's from the same town as the Bellinghams. We have to do a serious investigation into the water there and distribute it across the country.

We bought him for £1m and sold him for a massive profit six months later. He did alright for us but nothing spectacular. At the time I thought we got a great deal...

[Jimmy Floyd]

Just watched our highlights which is the first I've actually seen of us this season bar 20 minutes at the end of City that I wasn't really watching. Mudryk looks like he's spent the summer in Bakhmut, and I'm increasingly convinced that 'KDH' has been signed purely for modelling purposes.

Palmer is a bit of a joke. Wonder how we'll keep him away from Real Madrid / Barcelona or going back to City for £100 billion.

[Waffdon]

He’ll be sold for 120m next year when Estevao and Paez join up.

[Luke Emia]

I see Ryan Gauld has been called up by Scotland.

[Magic]

I see Ryan Gauld has been called up by Scotland.

Lol I was just about to post this. Genuinely thought he was going to be big when I saw him about 15 years ago.

EDIT: 13 years ago*

[Waffdon]

I see Ryan Gauld has been called up by Scotland.

He’s been donning it in Vancouver for a few years. Making an absolute bomb as well. Lisbon followed by Vancouver is not a bad career at all from Brechin

[John Arne]

Juan Izquierdo playing for Nacional collapsed whilst playing last week and has now died

[Baz]

He’ll be sold for 120m next year when Estevao and Paez join up.

Would love him in a red shirt. There’s not many players in the league that I’d happily want at Liverpool but him (and Haaland ofc) are definites.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'm watching Red Star Belgrade 1 (2), Bodo/Glimt 0 (2) in Champions League final qualifying. The latter are from the Arctic circle and feature a Russian goalkeeper and otherwise, as far as I can tell are entirely Norwegian. The former, who I am not supporting in this one it must be said, are completely dominant and I don't think they have a single Serb in their team, maybe one or two max.

Pumped.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Red Star fans are so weird. Everything is done in pre-choreographed yobbo chanting (I refuse to dignify them with 'ultras'), followed by giving themselves a round of applause when a chant is over, and other than a goal there is absolutely no reaction to anything happening on the pitch at all. They don't seem to support the team when they go forward, don't even whistle the referee really when a decision goes against them. Don't applaud their subs on, don't boo the oppo, nothing. All complete navel-gazing rubbish.