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Football: international suffering


Iskaral Pust

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8 hours ago, ljkeane said:

I don't know, the pre Guardiola Abu Dhabi money City sides were competently run but they weren't close to this level. I could see Newcastle getting to Mancini/Pellegrini at City levels in three years but I think City would have had to dropped off for that to actually be challenging them.

 

 

As dominant as they look where they're dominating the gap between them now and the previous teams isn't as big as it seems. Last season they got 93, sure, but they only won the title by one point. Previous to that they got 86 and 81, point counts that they matched or beat on several occasions pre-Pep (the Agueroooo season was 89). It's only the 98 and 100 point seasons that they really went mad, and even there, in the 98-pointer Liverpool were right there.   

 

7 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

Well, in the 2000s you laid what should've been the foundation for a Bayern like dominance (as did Liverpool in the 1970s-80s) But you failed to build on it.


The Glazers taking over obviously didn't help us but the notion of a Bayern-like dominance was done as soon as Abramovic took over Chelsea. And it's worth noting that even under the Glazers the club was still competently run until Gill left. 

Liverpool haven't overtaken us yet btw unless there's some early word of the next report covering last season, but even then it'll likely be mostly because they made CL and we didn't. 

 

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5 hours ago, Winterfell is Burning said:

This probably speaks more to the quality of his opposition in both elections as well as the fact that he latched himself to whoever was leading the polls in the state for President both times (Dilma Rousseff in 2014, Bolsonaro in 2022). He also ran for governor in 2018, but didn't make to the 2nd round, with stronger competition and no support from a strong presidential candidate.

Kind of mirrors his football career a little bit, when he arranged who knows how many friendlies to become top goal scorer of all time.

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3 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Time to contact Pogba's witch doctor :D

My rates are as follows... (if you question my legitimacy, I assure you, I am as good as Paul's)

 

2 hours ago, polishgenius said:

The Glazers taking over obviously didn't help us but the notion of a Bayern-like dominance was done as soon as Abramovic took over Chelsea. And it's worth noting that even under the Glazers the club was still competently run until Gill left. 

I said foundation for a Bayern like success. Bayern did have a few challengers over the decades, which then quickly fell off. Our city rivals in the early 1980s (their economic potential was objectively there to become a force in the Bundesliga), then there was Bremen late 1980s early 90s (who have a less beneficial location),  1990s to early 2000s had Dortmund (who were mismanaged and were nearly lead into administration). Bayern also had a dreadful year in the early 1990s, where they spent most of the year in relegation battle and managed to end the season on 10th place 8it was in 92 iirc, give or take a year). The 2000s also saw the resurgence of Bremen (they simply lacked the financial firepower and losing out on the rat race had then started a vicious cycle, of cutting costs on the pitch, with the weaker squads missing targets, forcing them to reduce costs etc.). Schalke (another club with a huge fanbase, thus good potential) was also a regular on the international  stage, and they came very close to winning the league in the early 2000s (them missing out on the rat race has triggered a similar cycle to Bremen's, just way more dumber, and their relegation + corona almost sent them into administration). Wolfsburg have VW in the background and also more money than sense (and won the league once). Leverkusen (Bayer backed) were also pretty strong in the early 2000s, and could've won the league then. 2010s had Dortmund more or less rebuilt as a domestic challenger + plus the appearence of RedBull. 

Anyway, point is, when you are succesful and have the financial resources, you should be able to build on that. United was the richest club in the world during the 2000s, with a very strong team on the pitch. You could pretty much sign, whoever you wanted. You were able to poach van Persie from Arsenal for crying out loud. Just that your club has overall been totally mismanaged, and thus you squandered your very promising position within English football. In all honesty, if you had been run competently, you would be the team that's pushing City (or the other way round?). Difference is, their sport washing operation has been very competently run by people, who know what they're doing.

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19 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Said the Serb who's tired of Joker. :P

That's tennis, mate. Who cares?

19 hours ago, Darryk said:

Can anyone see someone other than City winning in the next few years? Right now they're miles ahead.

City is not miles ahead. They're not even top of the table. Sure, they are looking better than everyone else, but they have failed to perform from time to time. They seem to be hitting their stride and I think we all agree they'll win the league this season but they won't do it with 20 points to spare.

Also, they are lucky that most of their rivals are in transition - Arsenal are trying to get back to the top (looking pretty good so far) as are United (not looking as good as Arsenal), Chelsea are transitioning to post-Abramovich era, Liverpool are in the process of replacing Salah-Mane-Firmino with Jota-Darwin-Diaz and their midfield is in shambles at the moment. If 2 of those teams sort themselves out soon, City will not walk to the title in the upcoming years. They might still win it but it won't be a foregone conclusion.

15 hours ago, polishgenius said:

And let's be honest, financially we should absolutely be able to compete with City. We're just not run well enough. Though I'm not completely convinced ETH can't get us there if some cards fall right. Not this season obviously.

I've seen some Sky sports graphics that said United spent more than City since Fergie left, so it's not finances that are holding United back.

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5 hours ago, The Sunland Lord said:

Kind of mirrors his football career a little bit, when he arranged who knows how many friendlies to become top goal scorer of all time.

This is somewhat exaggerated by people that didn't follow it too closely his career- the vast majority of his goals were in competitive games, and he managed to be top goal scorer of the Brazilian league at 34, 35 and 39, the last time with a mid-table side and losing many games to injuries. And he didn't became top goal scorer of all time, he reached 1000 goals, but even he admitted at the time it was more just a way to motivate himself and have a new target.

But yeah, during his career, he was an opportunist drifting through left, right and center, always looking for chances to score, and that hasn't changed...Unfortunately, the level of Brazilian politics is so low there's always an opponent that's more incompetent, more corrupt than him, or both.

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City are far from invulnerable. Couldn't beat Newcastle. Couldn't beat Villa.

And they've not played us yet. I'm not even joking.

Bottom line is Haaland won't be able to score if we don't let City have the ball.

I mean, I love that kid. I like the cut of his jib, and he's already one of my favourite players of all time. But let's see how The Big Fucking Viking gets on against The Best Fucking Centre Back In The League.

 

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Looks like Nkunku to Chelsea is pretty likely to happen.

Ornstein: Nkunku to Chelsea agreed

 

Quote

News emerged last week that Chelsea have moved for Christopher Nkunku, with the RB Leipzig player undergoing medical tests prior to a proposed move for the 2023-24 season.

There has been some conjecture as to the status of the situation but The Athletic is told Nkunku has signed a pre-contract agreement with the west Londoners and that the Premier League side have committed to paying their German Bundesliga counterparts a price in excess of the 24-year-old’s €60million (£52.7m, $58.8m) release clause.

With the clause not coming into effect until this campaign is over, Chelsea are spending a higher figure to secure Nkunku in advance and avoid a potentially intense battle for his services.

Sources close to the matter say Chelsea have overcome competition, including from other leading English teams, to make the eight-cap France international a fundamental part of the rebuild going on at Stamford Bridge.

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21 goals in 23 games.

But the service he gets at City is vastly superior to that of the national team or at Dortmund (where he scored 86 goals in 89 games). City create boatloads of chances and were scoring 100+ goals every season in all competitions without Haaland. 

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