The needle has already moved. In the 00's/10's we had billionaire businessmen/oligarchs.
Now it is countries/the wealth of entire nations, where limits do not apply.
The needle has already moved. In the 00's/10's we had billionaire businessmen/oligarchs.
Now it is countries/the wealth of entire nations, where limits do not apply.
Football is pretty shit these days. Ten years ago, I'd be travelling over as much as possible to witness Newcastle become the next big thing, but it feels a bit damp. I don't even think we can be accused of buying anything currently either as we've just made some great decisions and ultimately had plenty of luck with it. Everything just feels stale and anything they try to do to fix that just damages the sport further.
The period when United had the biggest revenues overlapped them being run properly, so they couldn't/wouldn't actually piss loads of money up the wall like Spanish and Italian teams did. They didn't even out-spend domestic rivals most years.Originally Posted by niko_cee
The amount of hurt on Twitter is glorious.
This is true to be fair to United. If Liverpool had been run anything like properly in the nineties United would have had a much tougher time of it.
I was listening to a podcast the other day and it summed it up perfectly. If Liverpool/United/Arsenal sign a 60/70 million player it has to work out see Sancho, possibly Nunez, Keita, Pepe, Pogba and Maguire for good examples of what can happen. They are lumbered with them and can’t get rid.
If City make a mistake it’s a never mind and they just go out and do it again. That’s how it distorts football, in the 90’s yes United could spend more on players than other clubs but if they got it wrong they will still stuck with them.
Glad I bothered going to the pub for that.
Since losing interest in West Brom, which was sorta the emotional anchor in me caring about football more generally, I've very slowly realised that I don't really like football in a purely sporting and aesthetic sense that much.
it's prob just sunk cost fallacy by this point that keeps me watching. I watched the Notts Derbyshire t20 blast game the other day and realised I enjoyed it more than almost every premier league game I watched this season. Honestly think posting on this fucking place is probably not an insignificant factor in keeping me vaguely interested in football.
I really don't think it would take much for me to just stop paying attention entirely, and City winning everything will certainly help.
That's a question for everyone else actually - how much does everyone actually like football? As in, the game itself, trying to separate all the other cultural and contextual stuff like following a team and all that?
Previously I'd have been like obviously it's just objectively the best sport, but now I don't give a shit about it, I find it far less interesting than a lot of other sports which I never cared about.
I go on my phone a lot during most matches.
But when watching rugby, I don't look at my phone at all.
I'm a twit
The only time I regularly watch games in their entirety are the major international tournaments. I'll listen to Newcastle matches but that gives me a chance to do something else.
I would normally tell you homos to find yourselves a separate thread but no, crack on, take July's thread too.
Football on tv is largely shite, and no one can be expected to sit through it giving it their undivided attention.
It's got a lot worse since analytics and will get a lot worse yet.
I love the game of football and mostly it's because I play and still want to play until my legs don't allow me to. In the past year I've managed to get to 9 different games and I've enjoyed it - to misquote Sean, it's not about football though but being with friends who you haven't seen in a while.
This is hardly a hot take, and whilst true to an extent, it is also the case that City's major rivals [in financial terms] have been chronically mismanaged over their period of dominance [United and Chelsea]. They have both spent loads of money year on year [perhaps not City levels, but large sums] and got not much for it - so it isn't ALL about money.
Yes, City can sign players like Stones, Ake, Phillips year on year and have them do absolutely nothing for ages, but they do tend to come good in the end, which is probably a testment to both Guardiola's coaching and the good old tenet of TIME. In reality have they had that many bad ones? They seem to dodge so many bullets, whether by good fortune or design. I'm sure they were heavily linked with players like Fred, Jorginho, Maguire, Cucurella, before 'losing out' on them and not being lumbered with costly wastemen. Holding a team together at such a high level for so many years is also not just down to money. It has to be acknowledged, albeit begrudgingly, that they've done a phenomenal job there, even if the manager is a prick, the style of football is meh and the ownership is unpalatable. Perhaps the only redeeming thing about City is that the only City fans I know are all old men and so have clearly done the hard yards of being a football fan, so it's easier to accept a little bit of happiness for them.
I suppose it rankles a little bit more as a Liverpool fan as City have basically squashed what should probably have been a [more] golden period under Klopp [I mean, they have won everything under his management] on what is a comparative shoestring [95% of football fans saying spare me the sob story at this], but that's just the model of football we've been saddled with since it's inception in 1992.
Hopefully, having won the treble, they now fall apart.
If Sir Alex Ferguson had a weakness - and it was probably more to do with the ownership structures than him - it was that he never kept building once his teams were on top. In 1999 they should have bought two top, top defenders and somebody with a bit of midfield/attack versatility (even accounting for it barely being a squad game then); but they bought Mikael Silvestre and Quinton Fortune. Then again, he was allowed to spend a bit in 2008 and wasted it on Berbatoss, so maybe it was his choice.
Julian Alvarez has won 13 trophies all coming in 13 different completions in under 200 appearances. That’s gotta be some sort of record?
Marcos Alonso has 8, can’t think of anyone else who’d be closer.
Kingsley Coman? Nevermind, he's been picking up mostly Bundestrophies.
He’s not far off on different conpetitions but won Bundesliga about 5 times in a row.
he probably doesn't even realise.
I see Tom Cannon has picked you lot. Would he even get more than a couple of caps there?
Pedro or one of the Barca/Spain win everything crew?
That pic above looks a lot like a Klan rally at first glance.
Given I've never heard of him, probably not.
Born: December 28, 2002 (age 20 years), Aintree, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Better off with us, he'll never get in the republic's team ahead of Ferguson.
He'd be 50 caps for us and 2 for you. Though his decision and with my thoughts on international soccer then I'd have no disappointments if he picks his own country.
What like Rice?
That latex dress is bold
I appreciate I'm not doing my feminist credentials any good with these two posts after each other, but the female professionals on Soccer Aid are worse than most of the celebrities
At the time of Rices switch he was already being linked with moves to big clubs and fully expected to walk straight into the England first 11. Slight bit of a difference.
Stevie G off to Ettifaq FC....
I cant believe England are playing fucking Malta this week. They should have called up "Tom Cannon" and whoever scored the most goals in league one.
It's because no one was there to hand out plastic flags.
All the MASSIVE fans are lining the bus route (just barely), you pillock.
All the [new] City fans live in the home counties.
I don't understand.. what's wrong with Wigan Athletic fans?
I'm a twit
They're rugby fans.
Apparently the news agency which Jassim Al Thani's Dad owns is reporting the Qatari bid was successful.
Looks like it's legit but who knows.
Even if accepted, if this is allowed to pass and they can still hold ownership of PSG then we may as well call it a day for the sport.
I might be done.
Drench me in the blood money
Either the Qatar bid has succeeded, or some idiots on Twitter betting on it on the stock market has tricked the BBC economics editor Faisal Islam into thinking it's happening which would be incredible
Think I could cope with Sheikh Jassim turning up with Mbappe in his luggage [not like that] if for nothing other than the meltdown it would bring from Tebas/Madrid.
Is 'Sheikh Jassim' a real person? Not as in is it actually his hard-earned money, because obviously it isn't, but as in does that man you see in photographs actually exist? Every picture of him looks like what a Tunisian scammer would use to rinse a widow.
All part of the glorious return of the News of the World.
As much as it is fun to lol at that video there were plenty of people there when it got going as evidenced by live tv reporting and my work panicking over the amount of strain being placed on the transport network.
Apparently if you search for his name in arabic there are loads of pics.
كبير القضيب شعر ضخمة
I'm a twit
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