Sports The Football Discussion Thread!

[Amore]

Well a game at Old Trafford ended dramatically...mostly for the wrong reasons. I'm wondering what the hell John Guidetti said to Eric Bailly that prompted Valencia to throw him to the ground. My initial reaction was that this was another Oxlade-Chamberlain / Gibbs mix-up except Valencia and Bailly are far less similar. It did appear that Bailly deserved his red even if he was presumably provoked.

I now think Ajax will win the Europa League. I just don't see a Smalling-Jones, Smalling-Blind or Jones-Blind central defensive partnership holding up well, and we can't seem to score despite Rashford being so good (my Scottish friends are dreading facing the combined firepower of Rashford, Kane and Alli in June) and the likes of Mkhitaryan and Martial not exactly being slouches either. It is a shame the final's in Stockholm not Wembley as it means we don't start with the Jesse Lingard Wembley 1 goal advantage (seriously, he always scores for us there).

I would have thought given his advancing age Downing would have been moved more centrally, not less. Oh well.

Norwich's transfer policy sounds like most clubs - incredibly imbalanced. In fairness the quality of attacker you can (but won't necessarily) get for your money is far better than defenders, there seems to not be so many good ones to go round. Or maybe its just because current pressing games require the entire team moving as a unit and a lot of these attackers just can't do the required defensive work and let their defenders down, who knows.

 

[Sword Master]

I now think Ajax will win the Europa League.

Fingers crossed

Congrats to Chelsea! Kante winning his 2nd title in a row.

 

[Frozocrone]

Arsenal finally breaking that 4th meme

Rooting for Man Utd of course, always support the English teams. They can that k Real Madrid too, now Europa League winner gets Group Stage automatically.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...ntborussia-dortmund-iis-daniel-farke-manager/

Farke me.

Apparently this journo knows his stuff.

 

[Amore]

So this thread just dies without me?

Intriguing move by Norwich. Given how the Bundesliga is doing so well blooding young German coaches however, would have liked to see a young English manager given the chance.

Gutted Carlisle lost so late, that's one hell of a trip back after that ending in Exeter. Liking what Keith Curle's done with the place - hopefully Trump and the Tories don't keep hurting the environment, if we have a few more years of not having to replace almost everything the club owns due to flood damage, we could be upwardly mobile again.

I'm in a weird sort of apathetic state before the final tomorrow. I feel like if we win everyone will hate us, if we lose the mockery will be unbearable given the gulf in resources. Loved getting my stream up and running right as Pogba played that outstanding ball for Josh Harrop on Sunday though. I kept laughing in that game at Mourinho's utter contempt for a completely irrelevant game - subbing two players just before half-time to stop Palace getting uppity and allow them their ovations from the crowd. Then when Eric Bailly seemed to be being forced off by the physios against his wishes you could tell he was thinking "he's not available on Wednesday, can I put him in a wheelchair and just have Jones push him around?", he'd come into the game with 3 substitutions planned out and nobody was going to stop him, not even his own medical team. That we happened to win was irrelevant. Pretty much all of our youngsters impressed - caveats being that Demetri Mitchell would probably have looked more like the winger he is if he'd had much defending to do, and I honestly kept forgetting Scott McTominay was on the pitch even though he is 6'4" (and apparently only 18 months ago was 5'6"). That may be a good thing though, given his role, as it means he didn't mess up.

Also the press conference was funny, literally nobody cared about this game other than United and Palace fans.

 

[Amore]

So this thread just dies without me?

Intriguing move by Norwich. Given how the Bundesliga is doing so well blooding young German coaches however, would have liked to see a young English manager given the chance.

Gutted Carlisle lost so late, that's one hell of a trip back after that ending in Exeter. Liking what Keith Curle's done with the place - hopefully Trump and the Tories don't keep hurting the environment, if we have a few more years of not having to replace almost everything the club owns due to flood damage, we could be upwardly mobile again.

I'm in a weird sort of apathetic state before the final tomorrow. I feel like if we win everyone will hate us, if we lose the mockery will be unbearable given the gulf in resources. Loved getting my stream up and running right as Pogba played that outstanding ball for Josh Harrop on Sunday though. I kept laughing in that game at Mourinho's utter contempt for a completely irrelevant game - subbing two players just before half-time to stop Palace getting uppity and allow them their ovations from the crowd. Then when Eric Bailly seemed to be being forced off by the physios against his wishes you could tell he was thinking "he's not available on Wednesday, can I put him in a wheelchair and just have Jones push him around?", he'd come into the game with 3 substitutions planned out and nobody was going to stop him, not even his own medical team. That we happened to win was irrelevant. Pretty much all of our youngsters impressed - caveats being that Demetri Mitchell would probably have looked more like the winger he is if he'd had much defending to do, and I honestly kept forgetting Scott McTominay was on the pitch even though he is 6'4" (and apparently only 18 months ago was 5'6"). That may be a good thing though, given his role, as it means he didn't mess up.

Also the press conference was funny, literally nobody cared about this game other than United and Palace fans.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

I'm surprised there haven't been more posts from La Liga posters tbh.

Me and Nuke are trying to forget our seasons hence the radio silence.

As for young English managers with a growing reputation and the willingness to fit into the sporting director/head coach setup. There aren't many. Lincoln's Cowley brothers were supposedly taken into consideration and deemed not ready.

 

[Eruption]

Yeah, I don't have too many reasons to come on this website these days so I'll disappear for weeks at a time here and there.

Farke seems like a good appointment, it seems like attempting to get Wagner without getting Wagner. Every coach that has came from Dortmund recently seems to be successful.

Nigel Pearson is supposedly the front runner for our job, which is first of all uninspiring and second of all someone who we could have got months ago when there was a chance of staying up. I really hope we get someone with no previous connections to the club.

I am glad Real finally won La Liga again as I can't stand Barca. Hope United win tonight as I'll always have that soft spot for them after supporting them through my misguided childhood.

 

[Frozocrone]

For UK PC users, the Europa final and possibly Champion's final are being aired on YouTube via BT.

 

[BlazingCobaltX]

Wow Ajax

 

[Frozocrone]

I'm so happy for Manchester United right now :)

 

[BlazingCobaltX]

I'm not a fan of anyone but I'm embarrassed at how Ajax played. Congrats on the win! ^

 

[Eruption]

I didn't watch the game, but I'm happy for Man United. Hopefully Jos? can press on and form a title contender next year, now Boro are out of the Premier League again I can casually root for United to win on the side.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

I did, wasn't very good. Glad the English team won.

Confirmed. Time to sign loads of literally whos from the German second division.

Spoiler:

Monk just resigned. Presumably off to Boro (or Palace). Good appointment if true that and always good to see pissed off Leeds fans.

 

[Eruption]

I suspect Monk will be off to one of the Premier League sides, but I would be happy to see him here. Even if he failed at least we wouldn't be playing boring football.

Man City having quite the clear out today.

 

[Frozocrone]

Wenger in!

After it stretched out for far too long...conveniently after the FA cup win too no less.

Well, interesting transfer window to say the least.

 

[Frozocrone]

Wenger in!

After it stretched out for far too long...conveniently after the FA cup win too no less.

Well, interesting transfer window to say the least.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

Sure will be interesting. We just confirmed Marley Watkins on a free as our first summer signing!!!

 

[Arjay]

Sure will be interesting. We just confirmed Marley Watkins on a free as our first summer signing!!!

Marley was quality for us (Inverness) and seems to have done even better at Barnsley. He'll be a great signing for Norwich, especially on a free transfer.

 

[Lipstick Vogue]

So fans of Scottish clubs that aren't the big 2 do exist on the internet.

I've read up on Watkins and like what I see. That being said I am somewhat surprised that we've signed another winger, Webber must be more confident about finding new clubs for Naismith/Jarvis/Wildschut than I am. Or I suppose they could rate him as competition for Oliviera and Jerome up front, at least for the immediate future.

Seems like a signign we'd have made a few years back under Paul Lambert. Certainly not a bad thing.