Recent Posts

1

General Football and Sport / Re: Arsenal: Top of the divers league

« Last post by Kalito on Today at 11:32:24 pm »

That was completely different. That was about Klopp wanting to reinforce the connection between the players and the fans. Also to remind the fans about staying with the team until the final whistle.

Exactly.

How that moment is still lost on Liverpool fans after nearly 9 years is fucking astonishing ...

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General Football and Sport / Re: Arsenal: Top of the divers league

« Last post by Andar on Today at 11:31:34 pm »

I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up with fewer points next season.

Almost everything went right for them this season, and it still wasn't enough. Their best season in decades (that too following a huge bottle job the year before). That will take a toll on everyone. They likely won't be as lucky with injuries and key players missing for opposition teams next year.

Sounds like wishful thinking.

Actually expect the opposite. They will use the heartbreak and get off to a flyer like a certain other side did in 19/20. City will have there customary slow first half to the season but think the gap will be too big to catch up on compared to this season.

I also think City had the drive to win 4 in a row and become the first club to do so. Foden did say how there was a sign up in the training ground with the quote 'No club has ever won 4 in a row...... yet.'.

They have clearly used that as fuel in the run-in but I think next season will be a step too far. 5 in a row is a seriously big ask in a league as demanding as the PL. Think we might start seeing the likes of Walker, Silva and De Bruyne drop off. There is also the potential for Guardiola to call an announcement mid-season that he is leaving. It's his last year and he is yet to renew. A few of his recent interviews, he has given indications that he might not stay any longer.

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General Football and Sport / Re: Premier League Fixtures 11th - 15th May

« Last post by TheShanklyGates on Today at 11:28:58 pm »

Assuming city win the fa cup and with us winning the league cup, does that mean an extra 2 Europa places go to teams based on finishing high enough up the league?  If so, that means 8th place finish goes into that conference tourno.  I think.  Watch Utd spawn a Europa spot on Sunday.

England gets 7 places, not 8. Additional places can be earned in some instances through winning European competitions but no English team has done that this season. At the start of the season, these places are distributed as follows:

1st-4th = CL
5th = EL
FA Cup winners = EL
League Cup winners = ECL

If the cups are won by teams who have qualified for Europe through their league position then those places get handed down to the league. Since we have qualified for the CL, the ECL place we earned by winning the League Cup currently goes to the 6th place team in the league.

Should Man City win the FA Cup, the EL place they earn by winning it will pass to the league, meaning the 6th place team now qualifies for the EL and the 7th place team now qualifies for the ECL. Should United win it they will qualify for the EL and, since they won't qualify for Europe by league position barring a highly unlikely set of results on the last day, the place will not pass on to the league.

So the possible scenarios are:

City win the FA Cup:

6th place = EL
7th place = ECL

United win the FA Cup:

6th place = ECL
7th place = Not in Europe

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General Football and Sport / Re: Man City - Cheating Bastards on & off the pitch - 115 Charges

« Last post by smutchin on Today at 11:25:39 pm »

do you really think the US government feels a need to funnel money to an athlete via the Post Office to - possibly, maybe - improve their image abroad? 

USPS was the de facto national pro cycling team and the reason for the sponsorship was to raise the profile of the USA in the sport. Being sponsored by the posties gave it a romantic veneer but it was unequivocally state sponsorship for political reasons.

Don’t forget the USA had virtually no profile at the top level of pro cycling before the 90s. Sure, they had Andy Hampsten and Greg Lemond who both won grand tours in the 80s but they were one-offs and had to join a French team to get anywhere. USPS/Armstrong were so successful because they were vastly more powerful financially than the other teams and could buy up all the best riders. It was impossible for other teams to compete. Does that sound at all familiar?

Cycling didn’t have FFP rules at the time so they weren’t doing anything illegal in that respect but the team used their vast (relative to other teams) resources to orchestrate a massive doping regime. I recommend reading Tyler Hamilton’s book The Secret Race if you want to get an idea of the extent of what they were doing. (Until the 90s, doping in cycling was mostly an individual affair and teams officially turned a blind eye to it, but big money meant doping became much more organised and systematic for those who could afford it.)

The main differences between USPS and Man City are a) the much bigger scale of the money involved in the City case (football is a much richer sport); and b) the fact that the US government ostensibly didn’t approve of the shenanigans once they found out what was going on at USPS - they sued Armstrong for fraudulent use of public money. Although they must think we’re stupid if they expect us to believe they had no idea where their money was going because it was obvious to anyone who followed the sport (I never liked Armstrong).

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Jürgen Klopp

« Last post by only6times on Today at 11:16:53 pm »

It's been boss hanging flags from windows in May and clocking the gurning blue grids muttering "Red Sh#te" under their breath.

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General Football and Sport / Re: LIVERPOOL TRANSFER THREAD - 2023 (FSG posts = get muted) - No Mbappé

« Last post by disgraced cake on Today at 11:16:03 pm »

Palmer obviously won't happen and I wouldn't ever want someone born in Manchester to play for the club.

Gordon's had a good season but he's not the standard required IMO.

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General Football and Sport / Re: Man City - Cheating Bastards on & off the pitch - 115 Charges

« Last post by stockdam on Today at 11:14:34 pm »

Let’s just make it very clear. Here are the timelines…….

Cheating started in 2009/2010 season.

Premier League (old 1st Division).
Pre cheating, City won in in 1936/37 and 1967/68.

So they won it a grand total of twice in their history from 1880 to 2009. So twice in 119 years.
Then after starting cheating in 2009 they won the title 2 years later then came 2nd then won it then came 2nd then have only came 2nd (to us) once in 6 seasons, winning the other 5. They will probably make it 4 wins in a row this season.

You’ll see a similar pattern if you look at the FA Cup although they did win it 4 times pre cheating but their previous win was 41 years in the past pre cheating.
So they had basically won nothing in over 40 years (one League Cup trophy in 1975/76 was their only trophy in those 40 barren years).

So the correlation between cheating and winning is clear to see. They won the FA Cup one season after the cheating began and the league a season after that.


Where did the money come from to fund the new success as they had basically won nothing for 40 years then suddenly they come from “nowhere”. Obviously we know why and their failure to provide clear financial records aligns perfectly with their success.

It’s the most blatant cheating and so obvious. It was so obvious that they had to hide their records.

The City fans are obviously loving it but some of them must be wondering how they went from zero to world champions overnight.


There is no other outcome that can be tolerated other than all trophies since 2009 being removed.

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General Football and Sport / Re: VAR! Video Assistant Referee & Shite Referees in General

« Last post by Tonyh8su on Today at 11:14:27 pm »

Bin it off, it’s used to set agendas and is, quite frankly, legalised match fixing in England IMO.

Also, after the absolute shambles of refereeing this season, Howard Webb’s position is completely untenable as well and he needs binning off as well.

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Liverpool FC Forum / Re: Jürgen Klopp

« Last post by sheepfest on Today at 11:13:16 pm »

When he came to us, Davek, that rancid, bitter twaygat on Grand Old Scream, called Jurgen, "The Cliff Barnes of football" . Well, Davek, I will take great pleasure in knowing that you booted doors in your house and threw cups at walls when "Cliff goosed Sue Ellen" .

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General Football and Sport / Re: Premier League Fixtures 11th - 15th May

« Last post by Andar on Today at 11:12:43 pm »

There's plenty of quality players there (impossible not to be with what they've spent) but it was only the other week Arsenal ripped them apart.

Be funny if they finished above Spurs though on top of the two cup runs, given the start they made.

They do seem to take a bad beating. Like Pochettino said himself.... when they are bad, they are really bad. I think as time goes on, results of that nature will become less and less. Besides it was against Arsenal who have beaten 5 other sides by 5 goals or more.