February Football: In time for Wolves vs. United

[Luke Emia]

Is it not also due to the thing now where clubs are chucking contracts at players kids to sweeten deals so we are seeing a lot more come through? And you can be quite average in the modern game and retire comfortable enough to never work again if you are sensible with cash, where as even top players had to find jobs after football a generation ago.

It does seem that most kids of players almost automatically get enrolled in the academy of the clubs they are at. So if they are getting the potential benefits of coaching from a very early age as well as potentially having an aptitude for the sport from just being around their parents as well they may have a slight head-start. I'm not sure any of these who are at Liverpool will ending being top quality players but they may still end up having decent careers. Much like their father's to be fair.

[Gray Fox]

The game has definitely changed in regards to recruitment of young talent. No longer is it enough to just sign the player. You need their mum and dad looked after, the agent needs more sweetening and if there's a brother or sister you need them taken care of too, or else they take the kid elsewhere.

Look at what happened with Odegaard. Remember his dad dragging him around all of the major players in Europe before deciding on Madrid? They sweetened the pot enough for the family that he went there, despite it probably not being the best move for the lad himself. Had he not become a good player, it wouldn't matter as much as the family is well taken care of.

As has also been said, unless you were at a big club even into the 90's/early 00's, life after the game was back to normal. Now you could play for Luton for 10 years and you'd never need to work again.

[-james-]

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[Danny]

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They do have some good ones

[Gray Fox]

Word is we're in 'advanced talks' with Alonso and the backup option is Ruben Amorim from Sporting.

[Giggles]

John Delaney would be proud. And this shower are looking for a billion quid state investment at the same time.

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[Waffdon]

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[Sir Andy Mahowry]

[John Arne]

Slightly mad news out of China.... Li Tie has been sentence to LIFE imprisonment on corruption charges.

[Dquincy]

Absolute melts.

'Lionesses taking in Marbella sun amid burnout debate'

https://www.skysports.com/share/13078355

[phonics]

Absolute melts.

'Lionesses taking in Marbella sun amid burnout debate'

https://www.skysports.com/share/13078355

Youre an absolute mong. The international level has literally not had longer than a 3 week break since 2016 due to the competitions changing/

[Baz]

(mini) Cup Final weekend is nearly upon is. Feels extra good when a win is all but guaranteed. What an era.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I wouldn't be so sure. That point at Man City (and the performance) has hardened Chelsea massively.

[Waffdon]

(mini) Cup Final weekend is nearly upon is. Feels extra good when a win is all but guaranteed. What an era.

You have won 1 of each trophy in nearly 10 years. The underachievers era.

[Gray Fox]

I can taste all of that salt from here.

[niko_cee]

I saw in that pick a combined team thing on the BBC that James was available to pick. They seem to have filtered out most of the injured players so does that mean he is indeed fit again? Does he only ever play against Liverpool?

[Ben]

Didn't he have hamstring surgery just before Christmas? If that's the case then no chance.

[niko_cee]

Probably, was just surprised to see him listed. Doesn't seem to have played recently so I'm going to say you are correct.

In other football news, I know the world is littered with stats wanker analytics bullshit these days, but these chancers at Carteret are surely plumbing new depths with this absolute wank.

[Waffdon]

I can taste all of that salt from here.

It’s true though. Chelsea have won more in the same time Klopp has been around and there’s been some horrific squads and seasons thrown in there.

Nico Jackson winner or Sunday and I’m getting naked

[Gray Fox]

Salah, Nunez and Szobo to face late fitness tests. I would suggest all 3 are going to make the bench.

A few tasty Europa ties being drawn here. Roma v Brighton should be great.

[Waffdon]

The first two will start and it couldn’t be anymore obvious.

[niko_cee]

Yeah, and I don't think there's much chance for Szobozlai.

Trip to Rome to be stabbed in the arse, nice.

[Waffdon]

Big games for ten coefficient. West Ham losing to Freiburg could fuck things up tremendously

[niko_cee]

Aren't England insurmountably top of the UEFA coefficient rankings?

How can any other country overturn a 14 point plus margin, if that's what would have to happen?

Ah, is it this season only, not the 5 year average?

[Gray Fox]

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Since that tweet, Frankfurt got knocked out of the Conference League which is a good result for a Villa/Spurs/United fan. West 'am losing to Freiburg would be obviously bad for those, but the bigger issue is Leverkusen and more importantly Dortmund getting easy draws. Bayern and Leipzig could also still realistically go through. Arsenal should recover and dump out Porto but the worst possible situation for England would be Arsenal drawing City next and two German clubs being draw together. It will likely come down to an English club having to win the Europa along with City winning the Champions League.

Villa also got Ajax which they should win but you never know how seriously they will take it. They should really because it helps them two-fold.

[Ian]

Lads all this coefficient chat is a bit high-octane for me, is there anything even more admin-y we could be talking about to give me a chance to settle down?

[Waffdon]

Silva has a chance to make the final. I swear to god.

He’s shite. So fucking shite. Never mind being shite and 39 whilst being half fit. God help me.

[Max Power]

Lads all this coefficient chat is a bit high-octane for me, is there anything even more admin-y we could be talking about to give me a chance to settle down?

Need some more transfer amortisation chat and speculation about what clubs lanyards are moving to and from.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The latter (front office people moving around) is the absolute pits, but is clearly what the modern fan is hungry to hear about. They are nearly always total irrelevances or failures as well but fans are just searching for any kind of hope, I guess.

I wonder what Sven Mislintat is up to these days, having done an absolutely appalling job at about three clubs in a row after being heralded as a completely revolutionary signing for Arsenal.

[Luke Emia]

The latter (front office people moving around) is the absolute pits, but is clearly what the modern fan is hungry to hear about. They are nearly always total irrelevances or failures as well but fans are just searching for any kind of hope, I guess.

I wonder what Sven Mislintat is up to these days, having done an absolutely appalling job at about three clubs in a row after being heralded as a completely revolutionary signing for Arsenal.

Yep, you always get this with Liverpool and how they have been such a well run club over the past ten years or so. Michael Edwards is a genius etcetera. Let's not forget that before Klopp signed the much vaunted 'transfer committee' had signed Borini, Lambert, Balotelli, Manquillo, Moreno, Cissokho and Lazovic to name but a few.

Even in the years where the transfers 'came off' you would say Van Dijk, Alisson and Fabinho looked like certainties to be good and you still have Keita and Oxlade-Chamberlain who didn't work out. What they had was a couple of windows where Salah, Mane and Robertson came in for good money and Klopp was able to elevate them to a level they hadn't previously shown. The manager will always be the most important person at a club regardless of what any wanky journalists might tell you.

[Ben]

Football Manager has done this. It's enabled players to spend hours doing the non-football stuff on their games and now you've got the fans thirsty for this shit in real life. Revert the world to CM01/02 and see if Klopp (or the next big thing) can conquer Europe just by playing WWW2_Hard_Tackling, instead of pissing around with xG and wanting sporting directors with high innovation stats.

[wullie]

We've got Preston at home tonight. Despite being a season ticket holder due to dumb luck and circumstance I've not seen us lose a game since 2022 and I'm not there later so get all your money on an away win.

[Gray Fox]

West 'am have seemingly offered Moyes a new deal. I'm sure the fans will be thrilled.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We've got Preston at home tonight. Despite being a season ticket holder due to dumb luck and circumstance I've not seen us lose a game since 2022 and I'm not there later so get all your money on an away win.

I had a run like this at Stamford Bridge - I think it was 37 wins in a row I attended in the 2000s when I was a student member and could afford to go regularly on the cheap tickets. The run was finally ended, bizarrely, by a 2-2 draw with APOEL in the Champions League.

[wullie]

My proudest achievement as part of this run is while we were on the charge to the playoffs last season I managed to avoid the absolute battering we took from a woeful Stoke team.

[Ian]

You mean you caused it. Disgusting. Some fan you are.

[Gray Fox]

Under Roy I got tickets to two games in the first half of that season. Blackpool and then Wolves. Lost both games and looked the worst I've ever seen against Wolves.

The most comical thing about the latter game was that in the run up Paul Konchesky was getting stick and rightly so, because he is and was shite. However his mum had been on Facebook calling the fans scum for daring to be against her baby boy.
He was hooked in the second half after being booed and playing terrible, to many loud cheers when he came off. I don't think he ever played for us again.

[Lofty]

Wasn't there some mad forum poster on another forum somewhere back then claiming Konchesky was coming round and banging his wife on the regular and there was nothing he could to stop him?

[niko_cee]

I can taste all of that salt from here.

On the subject of saltiness, lol out loud at these comments from good old 'Pep'.

Responding to the comments, Guardiola said: "As [soon] as the teams admit it they will be closer to us."

The 53-year-old Catalan added: "If they want to deny it for things that are not the reality then it's their problem - it's not our problem.

"When I've been below teams I've always admired them and thought about what we need to do to be close, to challenge them.

"When we were below and United were winning, we were watching them, admiring them. That's why, for these type of comments, that I have the feeling that they will be back."

[Shindig]

West 'am have seemingly offered Moyes a new deal. I'm sure the fans will be thrilled.

I kinda feel like this is his last club, unless he fancies a go on the Everton trainwreck.

[Luke Emia]

Under Roy I got tickets to two games in the first half of that season. Blackpool and then Wolves. Lost both games and looked the worst I've ever seen against Wolves.

The most comical thing about the latter game was that in the run up Paul Konchesky was getting stick and rightly so, because he is and was shite. However his mum had been on Facebook calling the fans scum for daring to be against her baby boy.
He was hooked in the second half after being booed and playing terrible, to many loud cheers when he came off. I don't think he ever played for us again.

I went to that Wolves game. Took my best mate who’s a Wolves fan sat in the Kop he squeezed my leg and told me it was the best game he’d ever been to when they scored.

On the winning thing. I had a stage I think in the 06/07 season where I don’t even think I saw us score let alone win for about 5/6 games.

[phonics]

I've never seen Arsenal lose live

Who can argue with a 5 in 5 record (2 of them being in the Emirates Cup) over the course of 20 years.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We've got Preston at home tonight. Despite being a season ticket holder due to dumb luck and circumstance I've not seen us lose a game since 2022 and I'm not there later so get all your money on an away win.

22', 0-2.

[wullie]

Preston are 2-0 up within 20 minutes, can't help but feel a bit responsible.

[igor_balis]

The hodgson Liverpool era is really funny, cus as insane as Liverpool fans can be, they're ABSOLUTELY 100% right in that case, yet people still both-sides it and defend Woy, and it really winds them up. Quality.

[igor_balis]

Mate, we were 16th in the league and he was telling press that only losing 7-0 to Tranmere in the league cup was one of his proudest moments as a manager

Nah, you deluded scousers hounded out an experienced icon of English management cus you thought you were somehow above him

[Dquincy]

On the subject of saltiness, lol out loud at these comments from good old 'Pep'.

Absolutely nothing wrong with what Pep said. He's bang on. People/fans want other people/teams to fail because that's far easier than working hard to try to reach their level. Clearly for the scenario for fans of team, they have little impact on that, but they still want the other team to fail.

[wullie]

For fans of easy money, I'm not going to our cup game against Maidstone on Monday either

[Manc]

Georginio Rutter is some player.

[Ian]

Preston are 2-0 up within 20 minutes, can't help but feel a bit responsible.

Your fault again. You sure you're not a secret Leicester fan?