Football: Attempting to stay ahead (in your) City.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Just now, Consigliere said:

There's likely some clause in Mourinho's contract as United journos have reported that Mourinho has a say if a DoF is appointed and apparently his buddy and "yes man" Luis Campos is his preferred choice.

Dafuq? Who would sign up to that? I mean from a club's perspective. The DoF is supposed to the managers superior responsible for sacking and hiring managers. So Mourinho gets to pick his own boss? Damn United must have been desperate to sign him.

Either way, I am curious, what the clause says exactly, can he actually block a DoF appointment, or what would be the result of hiring a person Mourinho doesn't like?

[polishgenius]

The most plausible explanation I've seen for why Jose is still in the job is that it'll cost less to fire him if they wait until we're out of Europe. 'Course, we're dangerously close to not going out of Europe and in any case it'd surely be better to get someone new in and then not go out?

[Consigliere]

2 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Dafuq? Who would sign up to that? I mean from a club's perspective. The DoF is supposed to the managers superior responsible for sacking and hiring managers. So Mourinho gets to pick his own boss? Damn United must have been desperate to sign him.

Either way, I am curious, what the clause says exactly, can he actually block a DoF appointment, or what would be the result of hiring a person Mourinho doesn't like?

I'm not sure what's going on there tbh. There were more reports saying that United are delaying appointing a DoF while Mourinho is still at the club. From a club perspective, it probably made sense at the time. After all, United have not had a DoF/Sporting Director in the club's entire history and until recently there was no hint that we were even interested in appointing one. Plus Mourinho himself wields a lot of power. Remember, he fell out with Valdano at Real Madrid and it ended with Valdano being sacked and replaced with Mourinho's buddy Campos. 

[Consigliere]

Great half from Spurs. They were really carving Chelsea open. Chelsea lucky to only be 2-0 down. 

[Consigliere]

The footballing lesson continues. Kane and Alli should have buried those chances. Chelsea really being given the runaround here.

[Philokles]

Looks like the Copa Libertadores final is going to be delayed again. River fans attacked the Boca bus, breaking the windows and either threw pepper spray in or the tear gas used to disperse them got in. Either way quite a few Boca players aren’t in a fit state to play. Such a shame.

[Consigliere]

1 hour ago, Philokles said:

Looks like the Copa Libertadores final is going to be delayed again. River fans attacked the Boca bus, breaking the windows and either threw pepper spray in or the tear gas used to disperse them got in. Either way quite a few Boca players aren’t in a fit state to play. Such a shame.

Word so far is that the match is just postponed until 19:15 local time. Apparently the teams want the match rescheduled but Infantino and the suits at CONMEBOL want the game to go ahead. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

14 hours ago, Philokles said:

Bayern blow a 3-1 lead against the worst side in the league at home to drop to nine points off Dortmund. Watford loanee Dodi Lukebakio with the hattrick for Düsseldorf.

Boateng on the hook for the first two goals. I think at this point if United (or PSG) would renew their interest in January Hoeneß would probably deliver the play in person.

The third goal was Süle.

Anyway, on brighter Football news from Germany. No more Monday evening games. For the top flight starting from the season 21/22 that is.

The DFL has caved in to demands from fans across the league to drop those loathed monday games, once the current TV contract runs out. I hope the protests continue, so that those annoying monday games also disappear from Bundesliga 2.

13 hours ago, Consigliere said:

I'm not sure what's going on there tbh. There were more reports saying that United are delaying appointing a DoF while Mourinho is still at the club. From a club perspective, it probably made sense at the time. After all, United have not had a DoF/Sporting Director in the club's entire history and until recently there was no hint that we were even interested in appointing one. Plus Mourinho himself wields a lot of power. Remember, he fell out with Valdano at Real Madrid and it ended with Valdano being sacked and replaced with Mourinho's buddy Campos. 

Not in name, but IIRC Ferguson had this one guy from the board he collaborated quite closely with, I really can't remember the name, the guy retired shortly after Ferguson I think. (reading over that, yes, that's some very concrete gibberish).

[Consigliere]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Not in name, but IIRC Ferguson had this one guy from the board he collaborated quite closely with, I really can't remember the name, the guy retired shortly after Ferguson I think. (reading over that, yes, that's some very concrete gibberish).

David Gill. He was the chief executive (Woodward's position now). However, Ferguson was in charge of everything related to the football side of things just like United managers before him. The club has never had someone above the manager dictating transfer policy.

Even now, Woodward has never signed nor sold any player without Mourinho's permission. Even Mourinho's targets that we didn't end up signing, Woodward still tried to get them. We couldn't reach an agreement with Inter for Perisic or with Spurs for Alderweireld. The other CB targets (Boateng, Bonucci, Godin) confirmed themselves that they turned down moving to United. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Thank you both for filling in for my bad memory with names.

Somehow I was under the impression, that was more cooperative what Ferguson and Gill did. On the other hand, you know your EPL football better than I do.

8 hours ago, Consigliere said:

Even now, Woodward has never signed nor sold any player without Mourinho's permission.

Ofc not, no DoF or Sporting Director (I've never really come around to fully understand the difference) would do that, sign a player against the wishes of the manager - afterall he has to work with the player day in, day out. Usually they discuss names, so I thought that was also the case with Ferguson and Gill (with Gill having some more input).

[Consigliere]

2 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Ofc not, no DoF or Sporting Director (I've never really come around to fully understand the difference) would do that, sign a player against the wishes of the manager - afterall he has to work with the player day in, day out.

Henrique at PSG, Bartomeu with Fernandez and now Abidal at Barca and ever since Mourinho left, Perez and his team of advisors at Real Madrid call the shots over transfers. The managers don't get much of a say, if any say at all in many cases.

 

[Jordan La Cabra]

Well, that was a pathetic performance from Chelsea.

As poor as we were, credit has to go to Tottenham for stopping us from playing. One of the main problems with our style of play is how influential Jorginho is to the success of it. Sarri has brought Jorginho with him from Napoli because he is that vital to Sarri's style of play, so it seems obvious for the opposition that if they cancel Jorginho out of the game, Chelsea will struggle. Tottenham pressed him really well and gave him little time on the ball. It looked at times like Dele Alli was nearly man marking Jorginho, so that when the ball came to him, his only option was to pass back to the centre backs. Without Jorginho to circulate the ball, we were unable to get any rhythm and hardly put a move together.

The other problem with Jorginho is Kante's position. In games like that, away from home against one of the best teams in the league, it might be best to have Kante in a more defensive role. Kante is one of the best midfielders in Europe when it comes to winning the ball, so it is a good idea to put him further forward to win the ball back in higher areas, but in certain games, it might be better to be a bit more conservative and have him further back to protect the defence. The third goal was an example of this. When Son was going on his mazy run against Jorginho and David Luiz, Kante was in an advanced position, no use to anyone.

 

 

[Consigliere]

We won but fuck me that was dreadful. De Gea with an outstanding save to keep the scores level and Fellaini with the winner in injury time (which was lucky not to be ruled out for handball). We qualified but it doesn't matter who we are drawn against in the round of 16, we are going to get dicked. 

[Disturber of Peace]

They might get Porto or Schalke

[mormont]

This is... well, it's a remarkable story.

https://www.football365.com/news/irish-side-in-trouble-after-falsely-reporting-players-death

Quote

 

Leinster Senior League side Ballybrack FC face serious punishment after falsely reporting the death of one of their players to get a game called off.

Ballybrack claimed that Fernando Nuno La Fuente died in a traffic accident last Thursday, leading to tributes pouring in from fellow Leinster Senior League sides.

 

Quote

 

“We had a minute’s silence at all the other games and the players wore black armbands. You have to have something wrong with you to do something like that.

“We’ll meet on Thursday,” he added when asked what action would be taken. “One of the first things we’ll have to do is figure out what rules they broke. We’ve never had anything like this before.”

 

 

[Disturber of Peace]

PSG will be under big pressure. 

If Liverpool win while Napoli win at home against Red Star then PSG is out of the Champions league one round before the end. 

If Liverpool draw they will very probably need a win against Napoli to go through and if they lose I think they probably need a win by a 2 goal margin. 

It will be a cagey game. Kinda like City Liverpool I think. 

[Iskaral Pust]

PSG vs Liverpool could be tight.  Liverpool are guaranteed qualification if they win, but a draw is not much use; then they would still need to beat Napoli.  So if a draw is no better than a loss, perhaps Liverpool should go all-out in this one.  But that has not been their style so far this season, and you don’t want to leave space for PSG’s front three. 

[Consigliere]

Klopp set up to keep it tight and counter but Liverpool are the ones getting done on the counter. The right side of Liverpool's keeps getting exploited with both Neymar and Mbappe. Wijnaldum is dropping in to help Gomez but they are both getting done by the quick interplay and pace. 

Liverpool were well and truly outplayed in that half but are somehow still in the game thanks to an idiotic tackle by Di Maria.

[BigFatCoward]

Villa v Forest seems a cracker. 3-4 after 51 mins. Has any other country had a clash between former European champs in the second tier? 

[Consigliere]

8 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

Has any other country had a clash between former European champs in the second tier? 

No. I remember prior to the Villa/Forest game in the 2016/2017 season, there were lots of articles saying that this was going to be the first time that two former European Champions were meeting outside of the top division.