A Horse Named Stranger

Anyway, that is now curtains. Russian Petrodollars versus Middle Eastern Petrodollars. And game for the football nerds.

Footballing aesthetics. I still prefer the Barca teams built around Iniesta, Messi and Xavi. Heynckes Bayern was to some degree a rip off of Klopp's Dortmund, which annoyed him to no small extent. I think he was quoted saying something along the lines that Bayern does what the Chinese do, they see something that works, and then they just copy it. This is really a bit down to what school of football do you prefer. The Cruyff school or the Sacchi school. Like I said, I find watching Guardiola teams more enjoyable.

Heynckes was more successful with the squad, yes. But I thoroughly enjoyed Guardiola''s Bayern's football more. Same way I prefer to watch a Guardiola team over a Klopp team. It's not a statement about the individual qualities of the managers, merely a judgement on football aesthetics. Flick's Bayern and Guardiola's Bayern are different teams tho. There are a few players that were there during Guardiola's time (Neuer, Boateng, Lewandowski, Müller, Kimmich, Alaba and Martinez), but the managers who were in charge between Guardiola and Flick were not nearly as good at getting the best out of that squad as Guardiola. And winning the CL always involves a certain degree of luck, and there was still a more or less prime Barca with the MSN attacking line around. During Heynckes tripple run, happened to coincide with Tito Vilanova's cancer diagnosis, which looked like he had an impact on their team, understandbly. So a lot of stars alligned for Bayern that year. Anyway, going back to Jens Lehmann. Short trivia question: is there any other footballer/pundit that can claim the tripple crown of awfulness: Racism, Homophobia and Corona denialism?

I am not saying he is as good as Guardiola, which he obviously isn't. I am saying they share their idea of football. However, I think you are underestimating Tuchel quite a bit. Small story from their Bundesliga days. During Tuchel's sabbatical (14/15 season I think), the two of them regularly met at high priced restaurants in Munich and discussed football games, tactics and plays from games that happened years ago. One of the stories goes, that they were pushing around so many salt- and pepper-pots around, while discussing stuff so lively, that the staff didn't dare to go near their table to deliver drinks, because they were not sure how to deliver them without an accident. Former Bayern head of scouting, Michael Reschke, once shared how such a metting (probably the first one) happened. Tuchel was in town and asked Reschke, if he was up for dinner. Michael Reschke went to Guardiola told him, "Tuchel is in town, we know each other and will be meeting for dinner. Nothing to do with you or your job, just wanted to tell you before you read some nonsense in the papers." Guardiola asked if he could tag along, mainly because he was impressed by how Tuchel had Mainz play. So the three of them were sitting at the restaurant table, and Tuchel and Guardiola were talking about plays of a Barca game that happened 2 or 3 years prior, about the players positioning and movement, and what they should have done, how the other player should've responded to that. And so they went. Reschke said, he basically checked out at some point, because he couldn't keep up with their discussion. Guardiola was also talking up Tuchel at the Bayern bosses as his successor. So I think Guardiola would disagree with the assessment of Tuchel being lucky to lace his shoes. Anyway, came here for something else. Can we all agree, that Jens Lehmann is a trainwreck of a person and a total moron on top of that, and that he really shouldn't get a job in football like ever again? He accidently sent a whatsapp message to former International Dennis Aogo, who was working as a pundit at yesterday's CL game between City and PSG, inquiring whether Aogo was the channel's token black guy. I guess the good thing is, he didn't use the N-word. After Aogo published the message, Lehmann lost his advisor post and position on the supervisory board at Hertha Berlin. Lehmann said, he used poor wording. And what he meant was: Aogo is such a great and competent pundit, that he is driving viewer ratings up. Probably an explainer is in order: The german word for token black guy is Quotenschwarzer, Quote in relation to tv means viewer rating. If you think that explanation is total BS, you are right.

Not sure what to make of Scholz latest stand up comedy gig of attacking Baerbock over her lack of experience in goverment. Quick reminder: Ordered the of emetics on suspect drug dealers, which directly caused one death (during his time as senator of the interior) Is one of the key players in the Warburg Bank cum ex scandal (Hamburg Mayor) Hosted the G20 summit in Hamburg with all the associated police brutality (Hamburg Mayor) and related to that Sunk milions of tax payer money on that failed bid to co-host the olympics, which was never gonna fly, and got shot down by the electorate in Hamburg (Hamburg Mayor) Is yet again, a key player in another financial scandal, Wirecard. This coming from the guy being on top of the ticket for the party that is polling at 15%. If I were him, I really wouldn't bring up experience in goverment.

Yeah, City-Chelsea would be the CL final for football nerds. Tuchel and Guardiola have the same idea about football. So that's gonna be one of those games, where they try to outwit each other with formations and tactics.

Oops, sorry, you are right.

hum, just here to make the lazy. Ross has been found offside by the Scottish tories joke.

Yeah, but better passers like Toni Kroos get those label too on twitter for reasons. On McTominay himself, he is a useful player for United, who is doing the workhorse job there. Underappreciated, possibly, but that's part of the role. Essien, was basically the most important player for Madrid's first galacticos, but he was underappreciated and undervalued there and thus left for Chelsky. I am not saying McTominay is as good as Essien was, just that those roles often get a bit overlooked.

Has anybody mentioned Inception, yet?

That one doesn't really fit in here. The Rocky Horror Show was a musical. The Rocky Horror Picture Show put it on screen.

I guess we will learn the Italian translation for Don't sack Mourinho. So that's something to look forward to.

As of right now they are more or less slowly sucking life and cash out of the club - over 1bn as of right now. United is really literally their magical money tree right now. If forfeitures affect other teams and owner in the EPL there might be sufficient pressure to sell fast. If they go into asset stripping mode, there's a fair chance they'd have done that anyway. And maybe, if United were to fall victim to that, it could really trigger change in English club football.

More lube. is always sound advice there.

Nope, they can try force the cancellation and ultimately forfeiture of quite a few games (+ fines) to make United unprofitable for the parasites. It's surely destructive. But if the bottom line isn't working for the Glazersites anymore, they'll hopefully bugger off to somewhere else.