Football: Forever blowing bubbles...or more?

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Look on the bright side. Carrick is just one win away from signing a 2 year contract next week.

[Winterfell is Burning]

Benfica missed the mother of all chances in the last minute against Barcelona. Still, they'll probably qualify.

[Corvinus85]

Chelsea forgot they weren't playing in EPL and continued to dismantle their opponent.

@Tywin et al. here is the most recent example of teams needing to use an orange ball. It seems to have made life more difficult for Neuer,  but the rest of Bayern was unphased by the early Ukrainian winter.

 

[BigFatCoward]

Benzema found guilty. Why would an international player get involved with this case for such a relatively trifling amount? 

[mormont]

Because his childhood friend asked him to, it seems.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Because Benzema is like really stupid?

[Winterfell is Burning]

1 hour ago, BigFatCoward said:

Benzema found guilty. Why would an international player get involved with this case for such a relatively trifling amount? 

 

1 hour ago, mormont said:

Because his childhood friend asked him to, it seems.

 

5 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Because Benzema is like really stupid?

It can be two things.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Also short comment on Chelsea.

Can we all agree that Lampard was simply a sub-standard manager for Chelsea, who was not up to the task.

[mormont]

I think even Redknapp (senior and junior) would struggle to differ on that point. They'd certainly try, but they'd struggle.

[Heartofice]

21 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Also short comment on Chelsea.

Can we all agree that Lampard was simply a sub-standard manager for Chelsea, who was not up to the task.

I think Tuchel has just shown that he is an elite level manager and that is what is needed by big clubs. The days of having some bloke in charge who can just play players in their most obvious positions and shout a bit to get them to run faster are over.

Club management is a lot more detail oriented and requires far more intelligence and knowledge than I think it probably ever did to compete with the best. 
 

Lampard just isn’t in that bracket, I hope he actually realises that. Maybe with the right team behind him he can do well somewhere but he’s at most only ever gonna be a middling or championship manager. Probably a pundit.

[Spockydog]

4 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Why would an international player get involved with this case for such a relatively trifling amount? 

Yeah, that is entirely the wrong question to be asking.

One has to ask how this sex-tape came to be in the hands of Benzema's childhood friend in the first place. And it doesn't take long to come up with the answer, especially if you've read the transcripts of their secretly recorded conversations.

It was Benzema's caper all along. The cretin. And shame on every single football journalist who was cumming in their pants over Benzema's reintroduction into the French squad, without ever bothering to tell people why he was excluded in the first place.

I hope he goes to prison, the cunt.

ETA: Just seen the sentence. Disgraceful that he didn't go to jail.

 

[Heartofice]

49 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Yeah, that is entirely the wrong question to be asking.

One has to ask how this sex-tape came to be in the hands of Benzema's childhood friend in the first place. And it doesn't take long to come up with the answer, especially if you've read the transcripts of their secretly recorded conversations.

It was Benzema's caper all along. The cretin. And shame on every single football journalist who was cumming in their pants over Benzema's reintroduction into the French squad, without ever bothering to tell people why he was excluded in the first place.

I hope he goes to prison, the cunt.

ETA: Just seen the sentence. Disgraceful that he didn't go to jail.

 

How would it have been Benzema’s scheme all along??? That makes zero sense. 
 

Firstly it seems Benzemas friend was only involved a little later after the tape was taken and Valbuena had already gone to the police , and only after that was Benzema involved , brought in as a middle man to get Valbuena to do what he was told.

The transcripts show that Benzema is a unpleasant fella who has no problem lying and screwing people over, I certainly don’t buy his defence that he was trying to help Valbuena out. 
 

But what on Earth would he get out of being behind the whole thing. That really doesn’t add up at all.

[broken one]

5 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

 Why would an international player get involved with this case for such a relatively trifling amount? 

Because he grew up to be a crook? For fun and thrills? Recently ive read about a young swedish player of yugoslavian descent, a big talent, who chose to become a bandit. 

[ljkeane]

It’s an unsurprisingly scrappy game at Anfield with Liverpool not really having too much to play for but Thiago’s been really good and he’s capped it off with a cracker of a goal. It’d be useful if he hits top form again.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

5 hours ago, broken one said:

Because he grew up to be a crook? For fun and thrills? Recently ive read about a young swedish player of yugoslavian descent, a big talent, who chose to become a bandit. 

You mean the one that stole bicycles as kid. Who posed as police man and wrote up Johns int eh red light district of Malmo? At least his exploits were entertaining.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Anyway, just came home from a my club's re-scheduled fixture.

3-1 in the end, back to the first spot. But boy. VAR in a stadium can be fucking annoying.

Three minutes before the execution of a corner, to check whether the duel in the box might have been enough for a penalty. (it wasn't). Another 3 minutes to check whether the goal to make it 3-1 was offside (I admit I was suspicious, too). It wasn't, but boy waiting in the cold on a decission to be taken in a far away video room was kinda annoying. And they didn't have to check like 5 games at the same time, we were literally the only team playing tonight.

Game itself is easily recapped. 2-0 up early in the first half, against a relegation battling team. Could've been more with a bit more precission and coolness in the final third. 

Second half, my team totally eased off. No access to the game, if you don't win tacklings, you invicte trouble. 2-1 after a corner. Things got a bit better, but they were still not bothered to go into a high gear again. A lot of half arsed shit. So that made the game way more interesting than it had to be. Eventually after a few subs, better access to the game again, and the third goal. (check above)

[broken one]

24 minutes ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

You mean the one that stole bicycles as kid. Who posed as police man and wrote up Johns int eh red light district of Malmo? At least his exploits were entertaining.

I did not know about the bicycles but it sounds like a good start. Anyway, he got 11 years of prison, so if my idea of scaninavian justice is correct, he went on to something really serious.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And Dortmund are in deep shit. Looks like they'll continue in the EL. that's real upset. Thar group didn't look that difficult on paper.

[The Sunland Lord]

Atletico probably deserves to go out, I think Milan were hard-done by some ref decisions on San Siro, plus Atleti play some godawful brand of football.

[Mark Antony]

Thiago has been brilliant the last couple games