Football thread 2022/23

[Shimmyhill]

My first recollection of meeting a footballer was looking around a new house on an open day, my mum was chatting to a chap about the kitchen as I recall and I did a double take and it was Andy Townsend who at the time played for Norwich - this was a long time ago and  I was very young but I feel I could have done more to prevent him becoming a terrible pundit….. My mum had no idea who he was!

 

Most recent was meeting various members of the Sheffield Utd team and their families…. A mate of mine grew up with various players who play for Utd and other prem league teams - he gets good tickets so ive seen a few games with him with the players families - what strikes you the most is just how normal these lads are when their guard is down, maybe that changes when they hit the elite clubs and the money is even more insane.

[Plissken]

Most players (and famous people) are normal - it's people like us who put them on an insane pedestal.  I thoroughly include myself in that, as I've turned into a complete gibbering wreck when meeting various famous people. 

[Art Vandelay]

Wordle for journeymen footballers: https://j-man.today

[bradigor]

Loads of reds whilst I was living in Liverpool. Best was when I apparently gave Daniel Agger the filthiest look because he has the gall to fuss my then 6 month old son in his buggy. 

 

I didn't mean it, but I still feel bad to this day. 

[glb]

Besides inventing a new greeting when meeting Fitz Hall (as mentioned in the World Cup thread), served James Beattie when I was working at Riley's in Bournemouth during my uni days. He was somewhat bemused when I insisted he paid the £3 guest fee. Sorry, James, you're not Igor Biscan, you don't get no freebies.

[Stopharage]

I was once delivering pots to Sharon Davies in the back of a Ford Galaxy. The car broke down about 10 miles away from her shop so Andy Gray and his brother came to help me out and transfer the pots over to another vehicle. Andy Gray was an utter twat, his brother was sound and took me for a pint. 
 

Danny Murphy runs the U-14 team at my kids’ club. Raheem Sterling lives opposite my mum. I once saw John Terry reading magazines in WH Smiths and his face had as many dents as a badly behaved robot. The eldest has played against various kids whose footballer parents were watching - Rio, Redknapp, Viduka etc. Urinated next to both Heskey and Neil Lennon. Spent my formative years clubbing in London and you’d see loads of footballers at certain venues. 

[glb]

17 hours ago, Stopharage said:

Danny Murphy runs the U-14 team at my kids’ club. Raheem Sterling lives opposite my mum. I once saw John Terry reading magazines in WH Smiths and his face had as many dents as a badly behaved robot. The eldest has played against various kids whose footballer parents were watching - Rio, Redknapp, Viduka etc. Urinated next to both Heskey and Neil Lennon. Spent my formative years clubbing in London and you’d see loads of footballers at certain venues. 

 

[bradigor]

Obviously our best best one is Missy-Bo Kearns putting on luxury travel to Anfield from Essex because we broke down on the way to the game! 

[glb]

16 minutes ago, bradigor said:

Obviously our best best one is Missy-Bo Kearns putting on luxury travel to Anfield from Essex because we broke down on the way to the game! 

 

Roy Keane would have made yous walk!

[bradigor]

[neoELITE]

I helped a barmaid throw Graham Coughlan out of a pub. Ex Wednesday and Argyle legend and a horrible drunk.

[Silent Runner]

Manuel Neuer broke his leg skiing and is out for the rest of the season. Seems absolutely wild that players getting paid millions are allowed have these dangerous hobbies. 

[Fry Crayola]

And to think Stefan Schwarz was explicitly banned from space travel.

[Wallpaper]

Zaha used to come and get his hair cut a couple of doors down from where I worked and we crossed paths a couple of times, he seemed like a really nice guy.

 

I used to knock doors and wash cars with my little sis when I was young.  One of the people I did turned out to be Dean Gordon’s mum and because I was wearing my Palace top I ended up going to a game and going in the players lounge.

[Rsdio]

Many of the Leeds players of the time used to live in the posh bits of where I went to high school so a lot of people had a story or two. Once when walking down the street looking down at a magazine I felt a sharp clash of heads, looked up and Ian Harte jogged off apologising. I was distracted, not sure what his exuse was or if he just fancied planting one on me.

 

I delivered post to quite a few of them in my teens and once, feeling feisty/brave/idiotic, made a little crack to David Batty about his England penalty miss. He just shot me a sort of 'I'll shank you in the showers later' prison smile and allowed me to escape with my life. A mate of mine said he was once in the car on the main street when a pedestrian walked into the road without looking and his dad had to slam on the brakes at the last second. It was Batty again, who apparently didn't really flinch and gave out that same smirk before carrying on across the road. Sounds a bit apocryphal perhaps but I guess I can believe it.

[Art Vandelay]

Any correlation between the timing of Ronaldo's professional life exploding very publicly into a supernova of hilarity and him becoming bezzies with human dog shit Jordan Peterson? Food for thought perhaps.

[bradigor]

1 hour ago, Art Vandelay said:

Any correlation between the timing of Ronaldo's professional life exploding very publicly into a supernova of hilarity and him becoming bezzies with human dog shit Jordan Peterson? Food for thought perhaps.

 

He'll go full Kanye before all is said and done. 

[deerokus]

The Cinch is back and already a bit mental. 15 minutes gone and Hibs 2-1 up at Ibrox.

[Azrael]

12 hours ago, deerokus said:

The Cinch is back

 

[ryodi]

Siniša Mihajlović has died of leukemia aged just 53. As a football fan in the 90s without Sky Football Italia was my go to for live football and he was the best free kick taker I;d ever seen. RIP. 

 

His best Seria A goals. 

 

 

[Naysonymous]

He was a hell of a player. Bit of a spiky character by all accounts but an absolute superstar on the pitch. 53 is no age. RIP. 

[Plissken]

On one hand a raving Serb nationalist lunatic. On the other:

 

Quote

During the Croatian War of Independence, his home was destroyed by Croatian forces, among whom was his childhood best friend, an ethnic Croat, forcing his parents to flee. His maternal uncle called his mother and said that she should stay in Borovo, while her husband, Siniša's father, was to be killed.[6] When the Serbian Volunteer Guard took over Borovo they captured the uncle, and found Siniša's number in his address book; Siniša was called and asked if they were relatives – he had him saved. In a 2016 interview Mihajlović said he had forgiven his childhood friend in a meeting in Zagreb prior to the crucial Euro 2000 qualification match between FR Yugoslavia and Croatia.

 

[SMD]

racist cunt https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/mihajlovic-at-centre-of-racism-claims-1.1110960

[Loik V credern]

[Sirloin]

Think the goalie in the Melbourne derby just got hit in the face by a bin.

[milko]

Just seen the clip, that looked ugly. He'd thrown a flare back into the fans apparently? Not that it excuses it obviously, but what a mess. 

[Sirloin]

Yeah both sets of fans were throwing flares by the Victory keeper lobbed in back into the crowd and that provoked a mass melee. The early game was pretty rough as well, two mass brawls between the players. Think they must think they are playing Aussie Rules instead.

[Naysonymous]

 

 

There are quite a lot of angles of it floating around, I don’t think anybody comes out of it looking good. I’m amazed at how many people seem to think the keeper did nothing wrong, yes he was getting a load of abuse and having things thrown at him but throwing something blindly into a crowd makes you a cunt too. The chances of hitting an innocent bystander don’t justify doing it regardless of how annoyed you are and you can see the hooligans were just waiting for an excuse to rush the pitch.  Security was poor, but I’m guessing the stewards aren’t paid enough (or are numerous enough) to deal with it.  

[Orion]

1 hour ago, Naysonymous said:

Security was poor, but I’m guessing the stewards aren’t paid enough (or are numerous enough) to deal with it.  

 

If it is anything like here which I expect it is, the stewards will be on minimum wage or very close to it. They are just supposed to be a visual deterrent tbh with a few experienced heads mixed in. This seems unusual for Australian football too.

 

You're right the keeper throwing a flare back into the crowd then just standing there, fronting of about 50 people charging him is about the stupidest thing he could he have done. Should be used as an example to show players what not do in the situation and security on how things can escalate quickly with a large volatile crowd.

[Hamus]

What does everyone make of the big match news?

 

A fair few people are going to be disappointed, what a sicker.