Football thread 2022/23

[layten]

Lived just long enough to see Argentina win another world cup.

[Bucky]

Pele is an abstract to me, and I'm too young to associate with memories of him playing.  I've read reports of him trying to claim amature goals to add to his total of "1,000" that seems beneath a player of such unquestionable accomplishments.

 

I'm of a generation that lived in his shadow but got to see Zidane, Matthäus, Maradonna, Pirlo etc.  So I have to be guided by their views.  

 

All of them consider Pele to be preeminent.  

 

Like the Olympians that saw Emil Zátopek run.  On this subject, I'm happy to be guided by finer men than me.

 

 

[Naysonymous]

One of the immortals.  The first superstar of the television era. The first global superstar. He was Muhammad Ali. He was Elvis Presley. He was The Beatles.  The eulogies will be plentiful, but let’s just highlight the fact he scored a hat trick in a World Cup semi final and then two more in the final when he was seventeen. 

[Loik V credern]

 

[Ry]

The greatest to ever do it. 

 

I loved him as a kid. My dad had so many classic Brazil matches on tape I used to watch on repeat

[SeanR]

[Naysonymous]

14 minutes ago, SeanR said:

People who slate Gareth Southgate as being a bad manager would do well to remember that a team with Pele, Ossie Ardiles, Bobby Moore, Kazimierz Deyna & John Wark playing for them could only scrape a draw against a bunch of German screws.  

[Hamus]

He certainly gave everyone a hard on, football or otherwise.

 

 

[Plissken]

Was coming to post that compilation.

 

Imagine the footage that we didn’t get.

 

RIP to one of the all time greats.

[Naysonymous]

 

Some happier news.  I remember this being spoken about a few months back when he had to retire but hopefully Mwepu can have a long and fruitful coaching career after his playing one was so cruelly snatched away.  Staying in football is probably the most important thing for him from a mental health point of view.  

[Mike1812]

You see how good Pele was if you watch him play in the world cup, then watch some English club games from the same era. It's like he's playing a different game.  

[Chindie]

 

When Pele came to Villa Park.

[Naysonymous]

Hilarious Wout Faes own goals are like London buses then. 

[SeanR]

Henderson, you soft shite!

[Timmo]

Ronaldo resigns himself to complete obscurity, then, for a team I’ve forgotten the name of already. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer rapist. 

[SeanR]

8 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Ronaldo resigns himself to complete obscurity, then, for a team I’ve forgotten the name of already. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer rapist. 

Al Jazeera?

[Naysonymous]

39 minutes ago, Timmo said:

Ronaldo resigns himself to complete obscurity, then, for a team I’ve forgotten the name of already. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer rapist. 

I don’t want to become the leader of the Ronaldo defence force, but let’s have a dose of realism here.  He’s a month shy of his 38th birthday and by all reports he’s been offered nearly half a billion Euros for two years work. He’s not going to get a contract at a club with serious ambitions of winning the  Champions League, he’s not going to reduce himself to playing mid table football in a big league either.   Nobody cares that Rivaldo went to Uzbekistan, that Xavi went to Qatar and most people would have to use Google to find where Iniesta has been playing for the last couple of years.
 

Ronaldo will be quietly earning four million euro a week and when he does retire people will still just talk about how utterly brilliant he was for Real Madrid and in his first spell at Manchester United. 

[deerokus]

The non-league version the Glasgow Derby was funny. Rangers B players celebrating in an annoyingly cocky way at 1-0 and 2-1 up after 70 minutes. Ended up 5-2 to Celtic B. Beautiful instant karma.

 

 

 

[Chewylegs]

7 hours ago, Naysonymous said:

I don’t want to become the leader of the Ronaldo defence force, but let’s have a dose of realism here.  He’s a month shy of his 38th birthday and by all reports he’s been offered nearly half a billion Euros for two years work. He’s not going to get a contract at a club with serious ambitions of winning the  Champions League, he’s not going to reduce himself to playing mid table football in a big league either.   Nobody cares that Rivaldo went to Uzbekistan, that Xavi went to Qatar and most people would have to use Google to find where Iniesta has been playing for the last couple of years.
 

Ronaldo will be quietly earning four million euro a week and when he does retire people will still just talk about how utterly brilliant he was for Real Madrid and in his first spell at Manchester United. 

However, all we heard these last few months was, Ronaldo was still good enough to be playing a high standard of football, not Ronaldo is happy to play anywhere as long as he gets paid zillions! It's just pure greed.

[Timmo]

Yeah, exactly. What’s he going to do with his new pile of money, put it on top of his existing pile?

 

If he hadn’t been such a toxic arsehole in the last 6 months, plus if he’d taken a pay cut, he could have signed for a Portuguese side and be playing in the Champions League next season (or even this season with Benfica), the thing he supposedly wanted to leave Man Utd to do.

[Fitzcarraldo]

However anyone tries to spin it, there's no chance this is what he had in mind when he did that interview. He didn't burn bridges at United so he could play in Saudia Arabia, an offer he rejected in the summer, right?

 

He's football's Dennis Reynolds. Waited for his minions to swarm the golden god, but everyone put their phones on silent. 

[spork]

Even Eintracht Frankfurt have said they were offered him. Sounds like he was hawked around to pretty much every CL team and no one wanted him.

[MikeBeaver]

6 minutes ago, spork said:

Even Eintracht Frankfurt have said they were offered him. Sounds like he was hawked around to pretty much every CL team and no one wanted him.

Ein’s are ok, but if a soft spot for them, they don’t deserve to have him dumped on them, he’s got what he deserves!

a sham transfer purely for the money.

[Fry Crayola]

Even Usain Bolt got better offers*.

 

 

 

* Usain Bolt did not get better offers.

 

[Gabe]

4 hours ago, Chewylegs said:

However, all we heard these last few months was, Ronaldo was still good enough to be playing a high standard of football, not Ronaldo is happy to play anywhere as long as he gets paid zillions! It's just pure greed.

I think, as evidenced by subsequent posts, is that whilst I think he could still do a job for a team that was willing to accommodate him, the simple fact is that nobody at that level wanted the toxicity and disharmony he would bring to the dressing room. At that point, if you don't want to retire, then why not go for a massive payday?

[Fry Crayola]

I'd rather he shacked up at some non-league club. Preferably an exclusively Tuesday evening league in Stoke-on-Trent.

[Chewylegs]

1 hour ago, Gabe said:

I think, as evidenced by subsequent posts, is that whilst I think he could still do a job for a team that was willing to accommodate him, the simple fact is that nobody at that level wanted the toxicity and disharmony he would bring to the dressing room. At that point, if you don't want to retire, then why not go for a massive payday?

I'm not convinced that "nobody at that level wanted him" TBF.  More like, as this signing suggests, it is about money.  Only him and his agent know though.

 

 

[Plissken]

Clubs wanted him alright. But not for his football skills anymore.

[deerokus]

I imagine someone like Milan would have taken him but not for that kind of money.

[Plissken]

Everything that is wrong with football punditry in a single post.

 

 

So the decision of a professional referee at the highest level, backed up by several colleagues specifically assigned to review the footage is irrelevant because a guy whose job it is to write about the

sport is watching several streams and Sky Sports News simultaneously and can do a better job.