The Real Football Thread

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Jul 26, 2011
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Froome19 said:
The flaw is that clubs are required to focus on their domestic leagues and they then will consider the CL a bonus, a big one which many clubs spend a lot of money but still it is merely a subsidary one and that Imo takes away from the competition.

Hm, not sure that applies to all clubs. Lampard said: "It means everything, this competition. We've been so many years trying to do this. This is the one we really wanted and we've got it. "

There're plenty examples of teams resting good players in league matches so they can have a full squad for a CL game. I remember Benitez got a lot of criticism over this.
 
Mar 6, 2009
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gooner said:
I follow Arsenal since 1991 when I was 9 years of age. I followed them through thick and thin so don't be talking about me as if you know me.

I am also against Barca and R.Madrid as well. They rob all the TV rights as they sell them individual while the other 18 sell them collectively. That is wrong also. They don't care about the lesser clubs in La Liga. I can show you posts in this thread where I stand up for these clubs and that will put you firmly back into your shell and place. Instead of talking rubbish with no counter argument why don't you come up with a legit point to debate, then talk about a load of f****** nonsense yourself about bandwagon supporters. The bandwagon supporters are the johnny come latelys who arrived at City and Chelsea when the Sheikhs and Abramovich took over. You just follow the game on the green grass and don't care about the running of it while I follow it at all levels be on the field and the adminstrative side of things. I feel sorry for clubs like Wigan who spend nearly 100% of their turnover on wages. Dave Whelan is doing a good job running the club but Wigan are also a victim of what Chelsea and Man City are doing.

What I just said, Uli Hoeness has said last week also when he criticised Abramovich and what he has done to football. He has criticsed Chelsea and Man City on numerous occasions. So has Karl Heinz-Rummeniegge and Arsene Wenger. Are they "f****** bandwagon jumpers preaching about so called ethics in football" so as well? Frankly speaking you don't know what your talking about.

Chelsea were training at a terrible university pitch which they were renting out when Abramovich took over. Abramovich comes in and spends a rake of money on a modern state of the art one at Cobham. The difference with Arsenal and United is that they built their state of the art ones at London Colney and Carrington through their own money. Chelsea were in the stone age before Abramovich arrived. Liverpool modernised their ground at Melwood through their own money also.

Typical response from a glory hunter on the bandwagon. You "chose" Arsenal as your team. A club from a city in a country that I would imagine you have zero connection. Thick and thin, dont make me laugh, thin for Arsenal is not winning titles like all big clubs yet in their thin years they are still more successful than the small clubs. Last time Arsenal didnt qualify for CL was ??? yeah, so tough to follow.

Why didnt you pick a team like Everton, Villa or some mid ranking team who have little success. No reflected glory to boast about I guess. Almost everyone in Ireland picks their team based on their level of success and wouldnt cross the street to watch their local team. Glory hunters all and the level of obsession they invest in teams from places they have no connection with is pathetic.

You fail to see that part of the reason football is ruled by money is that all the glory hunters around the world make the already rich clubs even richer making competition even more skewed because they choose to only follow successful clubs. This has been excaberated in the last 20 years as more money has entered the sport and the gap widens between the haves and have nots.

How much do you reckon Irish "fans" invest in "their" English team each year, now imagine that multiplied by similar fans around the globe. Imagine if that money was going to Wigan or wherever. Would make a huge difference. As a result, the only way a smaller club can ever compete is to find a rich sugardaddy like Chelsea or City. I dont particularly like it either buts its fantastic to see a club like City put one over their neighbours.

However when a club attains the same level of finance from elsewhere, nothing but whining. Fans of the big clubs cannot see past their own success and would rather see their own clubs dominate every season rather than see other teams offer competition.

As for Bayern Munich, they are the biggest most popular club in Germany with the most money and they like it like that. They dont want competition and when someone can compete with them financially, they moan. Munich were one of the main aggressors of the G-14 group of supreclubs who wanted their own greedy little super league. Dont try to tell me they care about anyone else, they dont.

I remember when Bayer Leverkusen started to compete with them in the early 00s, Hoeness was moaning about Leverkusen having the financial backing of the Bayer group. The director of Bayer pointed out that much of their finance came from the fact that Bayer had signed Brazilians like Lucio, Cafu etc for very little when they were unknown and sold them on for millions. Bayern do nothing except moan about their rivals, if anyone beats them, there is usually an excuse.

I would like to see football run along the lines of NFL where everyone has the same budget regardless of popularity, money etc. Even though I dont think it would ever work in soccer, it would make it more interesting but there is no way the big clubs would ever accept it as they simply do not want a level playing field as some smaller club might have success and start to draw those glory hunters who would normally support the big club.

Football is about money, however it is attained.
 
Jan 20, 2011
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Chelsea must be the worst team to win the champions league. Robben let Bayern down big time. He's a big game bottler and extremely selfish. Bayern should have sold him rather than extending his contract.
 
Oct 30, 2011
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the asian said:
Chelsea must be the worst team to win the champions league. Robben let Bayern down big time. He's a big game bottler and extremely selfish. Bayern should have sold him rather than extending his contract.

It's not like Bayern were great either. Barcelona bottled it over 2 legs, Napoli crumbled in the 2nd. Chelsea kept on playing and playing and did what htye had to do.

"Negative" football is an odd idea - it is the responsibility of the team who need a goal more to go out and get it. If a team need to not concede, then going on the attack too much is just stupid.

Ultimately, the enjoyment in football is watching two teams go and actually try and break each other down. Sometimes people seem to be extremely keen on having 0 defenders and just goals galore.
 
Sep 30, 2011
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Bizarre situation in Georgia. Two sides claiming they have won the league title. (Metalurgi & Zestafoni) No one knows who has won the league
 
Jun 14, 2010
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Zam_Olyas said:
Bizarre situation in Georgia. Two sides claiming they have won the league title. (Metalurgi & Zestafoni) No one knows who has won the league

I remember hearing this happened with a south american cup once. Might have been the libertadores not sure. Anyway one side had got a very easy route to the final and one side had had a very difficult one. So it was agreed before the match that if it was a draw there would be extra time, but also if team b won by 1 goal, there would also be extra time.

So team B won 1-0. And they decided they celebrated the final whistle as if they had won. They told the referee to shove it and took the trophy onto the streets and the fans followed them.

Team A then decided that Team B had by this act, withdrew from the competition, making them the winners, so their fans created some symbolic trophy and carried it onto the streets with their fans to celebrate.
 
Jul 26, 2011
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978x.jpg


:)
 
Sep 16, 2011
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the asian said:
Chelsea must be the worst team to win the champions league. Robben let Bayern down big time. He's a big game bottler and extremely selfish. Bayern should have sold him rather than extending his contract.

Aston Villa won the European Cup in 1982 and finished 11th in the old first division the same year.
 
Jun 14, 2010
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Schewinsteiger. What a ****. Refused to shake the Bayern presidents hand after the defeat. It was his own fault they lost for missing the penalty. you failed, take it like a man.

Team seems full of unpleasant individuals. Ribbery clocked Robben because he wanted to take a free kick, while Robben, according to the interview with the itv presenter posted in the clinic, in what was supposed to be an exclusive interview made the reporters wait 6 hours for him, tried to evade them and then in the interview lied to them that he didnt know where he would be the next season, a couple of hours before bayern munich announced that he had extended his contract.
 
Jan 20, 2011
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Parera said:
Aston Villa won the European Cup in 1982 and finished 11th in the old first division the same year.

I meant in the Champions league era. From 93. Ason Villa bt Bayern in that final too. :eek:
But I don't think they would have played such inept football like Chelsea did on Saturday.
 
Mar 6, 2009
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The Hitch said:
Schewinsteiger. What a ****. Refused to shake the Bayern presidents hand after the defeat. It was his own fault they lost for missing the penalty. you failed, take it like a man.

Team seems full of unpleasant individuals. Ribbery clocked Robben because he wanted to take a free kick, while Robben, according to the interview with the itv presenter posted in the clinic, in what was supposed to be an exclusive interview made the reporters wait 6 hours for him, tried to evade them and then in the interview lied to them that he didnt know where he would be the next season, a couple of hours before bayern munich announced that he had extended his contract.

Bayern are knicknamed FC Hollywood in Germany and its for good reason. Egos abound at all levels.
 
Apr 7, 2011
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The Hitch said:
Schewinsteiger. What a ****. Refused to shake the Bayern presidents hand after the defeat. It was his own fault they lost for missing the penalty. you failed, take it like a man.

Team seems full of unpleasant individuals. Ribbery clocked Robben because he wanted to take a free kick, while Robben, according to the interview with the itv presenter posted in the clinic, in what was supposed to be an exclusive interview made the reporters wait 6 hours for him, tried to evade them and then in the interview lied to them that he didnt know where he would be the next season, a couple of hours before bayern munich announced that he had extended his contract.

Ah, Schweinsteiger already appologized. He just didn't see him:rolleyes:
It was the German president, though.
 
Jun 22, 2009
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Bavarianrider said:
Obama pretending to know what football is.

Obama knows what football is! As I have mentioned before, he has attended a game at Upton Park in the past and follows the fortunes (which are often hiding;) ) of West Ham United.:cool:

Why else would I have voted for him?:p
 
Jul 26, 2011
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Here's a pretty cool success story. Steve Clark, a football goalie from the US, came to Europe basically on a back-packer trip to trial for various clubs, trying to get a pro contract.

Two weeks before he would have been forced to return to the US, (he had about 100$ left of his savings), he found himself in Norway. His first trial with a club didn't lead to anything, but then he got a tip that Hønefoss BK were looking for a backup goalie. He called them himself to arrange a trial.

He trialed for them and voila! He got a contract as their backup. Two years later he's their first goalie and is now getting press for maybe being the league's best goalie when he's hot and in-form.

So, moral of the story, you don't need a pro agent to get a pro contract!
 
Oct 30, 2011
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Nielsa said:
Here's a pretty cool success story. Steve Clark, a football goalie from the US, came to Europe basically on a back-packer trip to trial for various clubs, trying to get a pro contract.

Two weeks before he would have been forced to return to the US, (he had about 100$ left of his savings), he found himself in Norway. His first trial with a club didn't lead to anything, but then he got a tip that Hønefoss BK were looking for a backup goalie. He called them himself to arrange a trial.

He trialed for them and voila! He got a contract as their backup. Two years later he's their first goalie and is now getting press for maybe being the league's best goalie when he's hot and in-form.

So, moral of the story, you don't need a pro agent to get a pro contract!

Great story. Reading's Aussie goalkeeper Adam Federici has a similar one. Travelled up and down the UK and then Italy before getting a contract after something like 4 years. Slept on teammates sofas for a while, and now he's a starter in the PL.
 
Jul 26, 2011
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I think I remember reading something like that.

BTW. If Manchester Utd buy Kagawa, I hope it's because they want to use him in the team, not just for selling shirts.
Anyone remember Inamoto in Arsenal? He barely played for them, but Arsenal sold enough shirts in Japan to cover his transfer fee+++. :eek:

Kagawa is a much better player than Inamoto though, so I suspect they're genuinely interested in his footballing qualities.
 
Apr 10, 2011
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Nielsa said:
I think I remember reading something like that.

BTW. If Manchester Utd buy Kagawa, I hope it's because they want to use him in the team, not just for selling shirts.
Anyone remember Inamoto in Arsenal? He barely played for them, but Arsenal sold enough shirts in Japan to cover his transfer fee+++. :eek:

Kagawa is a much better player than Inamoto though, so I suspect they're genuinely interested in his footballing qualities.

Absolutely, he'll play a lot . United is ****e. Their midfiled is weak. Kagawa will play every match as he possess the quality United dont have at the moment.
 

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