Football thread 2022/23

[Timmo]

1 hour ago, Gabe said:

Was that after the latest bid fell through though? I know he said before he was staying but it was contingent on the Kirchner deal being finalised. 

 

Well we had it confirmed two weeks ago what a cowboy Kirchner is when, along with the sale not going though, it became evident that he hasn't been paying his staff. Rooney could have walked then.

 

We'll never know the full story.

[ryodi]

1 hour ago, feltmonkey said:

Regarding Phillips going to Man City, it's a shame. He won't play. Like Delph and Rodwell before him, and Stones and Carson in the current squad, he's there to ensure that City meet the quotas for home-grown players.  Guardiola will go on about him being the most important guy in the squad in an interview at some point in the season, but he will make less than five starts.

 

He's their Fernandinho replacement isn't he so I think he will and I'm sure moving away from the Bielsa training grind will help with his fitness as well. 

[feltmonkey]

Rodri is the Fernandinho replacement and was for the entirety of last season.  I suppose you might be right if you mean the role Fernandinho played last season, warming the bench for the most part, coming on as a late substitute, and filling in at full-back from time to time.

[Timmo]

On the plus side, it might force Southgate into a more exciting midfield.

[ryodi]

14 minutes ago, feltmonkey said:

Rodri is the Fernandinho replacement and was for the entirety of last season.  I suppose you might be right if you mean the role Fernandinho played last season, warming the bench for the most part, coming on as a late substitute, and filling in at full-back from time to time.

Good point. Still I’m sure he’ll tear it up in the cups and as Maguire has shown being in form or even playing regularly is no hindrance to make it in to Southgate’s squad if you played at the Euros.

[feltmonkey]

True, and John Stones as well - 14 Premier League appearances last season but still first choice centre back for England.  That, and Maguire's survival, probably owe more to the lack of options in the position than anything else though.  Other players have been jettisoned for not playing enough, but only in areas where England are strong.  The midfield isn't great, so Phillips might well retain his place.

[Plissken]

Southgate has undying loyalty to most of his first XI, but if you were on the subs bench then one bad club performance and you are fucked.  Ask Nick Pope or James Tarkowski.

[dizogg]

Great move for Bale, can’t blame him!

[Naysonymous]

More transfer news, Gareth Bale breaks Cardiff fans hearts by deciding to sign for Los Angeles:

 

 

[feltmonkey]

Players coming to the end of their career always go to the MLS thinking it will be easy, and they always underestimate what a physical league it is.  It'll be a test for Bale.

[glb]

Some lovely golf courses in California, he’ll be fine.

[feltmonkey]

I can't believe he picked that over Barry Island crazy golf.  

[Timmo]

43 minutes ago, feltmonkey said:

Players coming to the end of their career always go to the MLS thinking it will be easy, and they always underestimate what a physical league it is.  It'll be a test for Bale.

 

I read he had the best goals per minute in the Prem last season, he's still only 32, Johnny Russell tears it up over there, I could go on. It could be a massacre if he's in any way motivated.

[Loik V credern]

 

[Petrousgyre]

On 23/06/2022 at 13:39, Fry Crayola said:

All to accommodate a tournament in a country nobody wants it to be in, at a time nobody wants it to be played at, at a human cost nobody should ever have to pay.

All for an indigenous population smaller than Sheffield, almost none of whom give the slightest shit about football. 

[Ork1927]

I am laughing at all my fellow Cardiff fans who are either blaming the club for failing to get Bale or cross at Bale for not signing for us (or at least not saying he was never going to sign for us last week/month) as they've fully swallowed all the rumours and bullshit that he was 100% coming to a bottom 3rd Championship club where he has never shown any particular allegiance to (his uncle played for us/he was born here, but he was never seen at any City games even the cup finals) because we share trainign facilities with the Welsh FA so that would be really easy for him when the season shuts down and he joins up with the Welsh squad?

[glb]

2 hours ago, Loik V credern said:

 

But can he do it on a wet, pot-holed road in Stoke?

[Yobo Ahoy]

So one-footed as well. 

[deerokus]

I love shit footballers making ridiculous excuses for being shit.

 

For example disastrous goalkeeper Vasilis Barkas today claiming he was only as bad as he was at Celtic because Covid rules meant he didn't feel part of the team.  Presumably that caused him to forget the basics of goalkeeping and adopt positioning like this?

 

 

 

As we all know, failing to settle during Covid was why he made this wonderful save a full year later, under a different manager (who speaks his native language fluently).

 

 

 

Honestly, Joe Hart would be popular here anyway cause he's just a really decent guy, but when he's replacing that he seems like a god in comparison. Barkas cost 5m quid and ended up 4th or arguably 5th choice behind random youth team keepers.

[Stopharage]

For anyone having football withdrawal, the England U19 semi-final is on BBC iPlayer at the moment. They've looked dangerous in attack but an absolute shambles at the back, so you should be entertained. 

 

[Naysonymous]

Really good game that.  England have a few really good players in the squad but you can’t half tell how valuable experience is at the back when you watch age group football. 
 

France are probably still favourites, right?  Not that it makes a huge difference, there’s enough in this squad to show plenty of the players will go on to success at senior level. 

[Naysonymous]

Well, so much for France! 

[neoELITE]

I don't understand why the big clubs can't do this instead of opting for betting companies.

 

Our 'sponser' this year is Project 35.

Quote

Project 35 is our landmark social action initiative aimed at reducing poverty in Plymouth, through a comprehensive campaign of fund-raising, awareness raising, social outreach, food donations, education, and charity support.

The Project's titular number, 35, represents the percentage of children in Plymouth reported to be living in poverty in some wards of our city, according to the most recent (2019) pre-pandemic data.

 

 

[Dayman]

2 hours ago, neoELITE said:

I don't understand why the big clubs can't do this instead of opting for betting companies.

 

[Ork1927]

Money and it feels like they move further and further away from their community/local roots as they get bigger and foreign owners (or owners that aren't fans) can't help and the fan groups become more irrelevant unless they are literally stopping games being played (like the super league protest at Old Trafford) as do the big clubs really care about the locals turning up every week (if they can afford it).

 

 

[neoELITE]

53 minutes ago, Dayman said:

 

 

It was a rhetorical question really.

Our owner lives in the US but he's Plymouth born and a fan. He does attend a lot of games and when he's in the US streams the games with exiled fans over zoom. 

 

They could all have done something this season given the cost of living crisis. 

[Plissken]

4 hours ago, neoELITE said:

I don't understand why the big clubs can't do this instead of opting for betting companies.

 

I know our owners are looking to do similar (they are Mormons, therefore don't gamble) but the flipside is that they had 7.5m reasons a season not to.  That was three high end first team players wages.

[Naysonymous]

Villa had Acorns as a 'sponsor' for two seasons when they were fighting for Champions League spots.  The cynic will point out it was done because no satisfactory offers for shirt sponsorship place were made and the regime in charge at the time were trying to drive up prices, and maybe taking whatever money was on offer would have meant we could do a bit better than Emile fucking Heskey during the January window where Arsenal bought Andrey Arshavin but it was still a really cool thing to do.  Once you get to the top end of the table then the money does start getting real, like £6-10m a season. It's worth pointing out that betting companies tend to go for mid table clubs in the Premier League (and it's a free for all in the Championship and below).  Really big clubs like Manchester United get sponsored by free to use video conferencing apps who are happy to pay £50m a year to be less popular than Zoom.  

[ryodi]

Splitting the rights between two paid services isn’t good and I also wonder if this is the end of the Champions League Goals Show if Amazon have priority on Tuesday. 

[Fry Crayola]

Another case of bullshit "competition" that's anything but.

 

What we really want is for Amazon to say "we will pay £x for the football", and UEFA to say, "yes, now you can also show the football", and then we customers think "where shall we subscribe to watch the football?"

 

As a side note, as great as the Champions League Goals Show is, I fear the new CL format will do more to fuck that over. Why do I want to see the goals going in when so few of the matches have any meaning?