Football: Lamping on towards the finish line.

[baxus]

On 5/5/2023 at 9:44 PM, Tywin et al. said:

Wasn't there a year where they had to give the fourth place finisher in the Tour de France because all three on the podium were busted?

Wouldn't the willingness to take down the biggest stars of the sport make cycling LESS corrupt?

Do we remember any star football player getting busted for doping? Not sure we even need "star" there, anti-doping in football is a joke. I remember Maradona and Mutu getting busted for cocaine and Rio Ferdinand getting banned for 8-9 months for avoiding testing NOT a positive result. Not many more (if any).

[The Sunland Lord]

4 hours ago, baxus said:

Wouldn't the willingness to take down the biggest stars of the sport make cycling LESS corrupt?

Do we remember any star football player getting busted for doping? Not sure we even need "star" there, anti-doping in football is a joke. I remember Maradona and Mutu getting busted for cocaine and Rio Ferdinand getting banned for 8-9 months for avoiding testing NOT a positive result. Not many more (if any).

Onana was banned for using paracetamol once.

[Raja]

I can't stop watching this

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

5 hours ago, baxus said:

Wouldn't the willingness to take down the biggest stars of the sport make cycling LESS corrupt?

Do we remember any star football player getting busted for doping? Not sure we even need "star" there, anti-doping in football is a joke. I remember Maradona and Mutu getting busted for cocaine and Rio Ferdinand getting banned for 8-9 months for avoiding testing NOT a positive result. Not many more (if any).

The rumor with basketball players is they all lose 10-20 pounds leading up to the Olympics. Maybe that's 5% true, but who knows. 

Doesn't change how winners of major races get disqualified a lot though due to doping, and then it's comedy when the runner up also does. 

[baxus]

4 hours ago, The Sunland Lord said:

Onana was banned for using paracetamol once.

Yeah, that's a really powerful PED. It's a good thing powers that be finally decided to put a stop to that

Also, didn't some players get banned for using their wives diet pills or something like that?

[baxus]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Doesn't change how winners of major races get disqualified a lot though due to doping, and then it's comedy when the runner up also does. 

I'm not much of a cycling fan, but if the info I've come across is correct, there have even been years when no Tour de France trophy has been given out since so many of the top finishers tested positive during or soon after the race.

[The Sunland Lord]

23 minutes ago, baxus said:

Yeah, that's a really powerful PED. It's a good thing powers that be finally decided to put a stop to that

Also, didn't some players get banned for using their wives diet pills or something like that?

Don't know anything about that. What I do know is that the list of banned substances is being modified often, and players use what they are allowed to until that is also put on the list, and then move to something else.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

31 minutes ago, baxus said:

Also, didn't some players get banned for using their wives diet pills or something like that?

No silly, they got pinched because their wives were the one's ordering banned substances. But they totally didn't use any of them. Everyone knows it's the athlete's partner that's taking all the steroids! Peyton Manning's wife was totally eating all the the pills!!!

32 minutes ago, baxus said:

I'm not much of a cycling fan, but if the info I've come across is correct, there have even been years when no Tour de France trophy has been given out since so many of the top finishers tested positive during or soon after the race.

I don't follow it either. Cycling has just always been described from the limited coverage I've caught as among the dirtiest sports when in comes to PEDs. That's why Armstrong seemed like a fascinating outlier until it was proven that he might be the dirtiest athlete of all time. 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

45 minutes ago, baxus said:

I'm not much of a cycling fan, but if the info I've come across is correct, there have even been years when no Tour de France trophy has been given out since so many of the top finishers tested positive during or soon after the race.

I think you might have the story in mind, that L'Equipe refused to recognize any Tour winner past Indurain (1995), and did so publicly when the big scandal around Armstrong and Ulrich broke the news.

Tbf, there were and are rumours surrounding Indurain, but if you look at the field of cyclists he beat on his way, not so say En Tour, on his way to his fifth Tour win in a row.

Second place finish: The Suisse pro Alex Zülle. He was convicted of doping in 1998 as part of the now infamous Festina team.

Third place: Bjarne Riis of Denmark, who went on to win the tour the next year (proven using PED, showed little remorse, and is still active in the cycling scene, not as a driver, but team boss)

Fourth place: Laurent Jalabert of France. Test from 2004 showed him using PEDs in 1998.

Fifth place: Ivan Gotti of Italy. Later convicted for the possession of PED, 5 months on parole.

Sixth: Melcho Mauri (Spain). Known customer of Fuentes. Anecdote about Fuentes MD. He was seen on a plane with a cooling box back in 1991 (!). When he was asked, what was in it, his response was the ingredients for a Vuelta Champion (Sauri won the Vuelta that year)

Seventh: Fernando Escartin (Spain). Known customer of Michele Ferrari MD. Ferrari was also the medical professional, who helped Armstrong later on. 

Eighth: Tony Rominger (Switzerland). Another patient of Ferrari. And one of the pre-tour favorites (not named Indurain).

Ninth: Richard Virenque (France). One of the key players in the 1998 Festina scandal.

Tenth: Hernan Buenahora (Colombia): continued to cycle for another 13 years, before being caught and banned for two years in 2008.

Honorable mentions in the field: best young professional Marco Pantani (Italy). We all know how his story ended. A young Lance Armstrong also won a few parts of that tour.

 

Indurain is sorta Usain Bolt. He won in a field where virtually all his major rivals are using PEDs, but he was supposedly clean. Not guilty until proven otherwise and stuff, but you can be forgiven for having some doubts.

Mid-late nineties EPO was the PED of choice. No idea, what they are currently on. Probably some designer shit none of us have ever heard of. 

[The Sunland Lord]

West Ham down 1-0 to AZ Alkmaar, Juve down 1-0 to Sevilla. Fiorentina-Basel 1-0 and Roma-Leverkusen 0-0 at halftime.

[The Sunland Lord]

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by The Sunland Lord

[Winterfell is Burning]

Press from Argentina and Uruguay is reporting Bielsa has signed to become Uruguay's manager until 2026

[Raja]

 

[A Horse Named Stranger]

And West Ham have rumoredly found a new Sporting Director.

Lutz Pfannenstiel is their frontrunner. If you think you know, what a journeyman footballer's career looks like, think again. Seriously, look at his playing history. You won't get more journeyman than that, I challenge you to prove me wrong on this.

Edited May 12, 2023 by A Horse Named Stranger

[Rorshach]

That's quite a CV. Even includes some Tier 3 clubs in Norway.

Perhaps he's just a very easy-going fellow who has built a vast network around the globe? 

 

Nah, just not good enough as a player. Don't know anything about him as a DoF, though.

[A Horse Named Stranger]

Interesting choice. Would be a risky appointment, as he lacks a bigger club appointment, but it could work out great.

I'd be more enthused about him taking the DoF position at West Ham than Schamdtke at Liverpool.

 

[Consigliere]

Jim Ratcliffe closing in on Manchester United takeover.

 

Quote

Ratcliffe moved ahead in the contest with a Qatari group, fronted by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, and other rival bidders when his final offer represented the highest valuation — it could reach as much as £6 billion — for the Premier League club.

Insiders believe that valuation, and Ratcliffe’s willingness to agree a deal that enables Joel and Avram Glazer to retain a 20% stake in the club has proved a significant factor. The Qataris’ third and final offer for a 100% buy-out came in below £5 billion, despite claims to the contrary.

But any deal would almost certainly conclude with Ratcliffe purchasing the stake retained by Joel and Avram over two possible phases in the next two to four years. A staggered deal would enable Ratcliffe to part with a fraction over £2.5 billion now — pretty much what he was prepared to pay for Chelsea — and complete the rest of the takeover in stages.

Sources close to the Qataris believe they remain part of the process and it could yet be that they respond with an 11th-hour bid that forces the Glazers to reconsider. However, there has been minimal contact between Raine and the Qataris since those third and final offers were submitted last month, with the Ratcliffe bid understood to be the one favoured by the six Glazer siblings.

Known to have seriously undermined the Qatar bid is the collapse of Credit Suisse in March, which is understood to have cost Qatar’s Investment Authority billions as the second-biggest shareholder and not helped the case of Sheikh Jassim, the bid leader, who had close links with the failed Swiss bank.

The identity of a preferred bidder could be announced within the next few days, with Ratcliffe and his Ineos colleagues seemingly in pole position going into the final stages of what has been a six-month process.

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by Consigliere

[polishgenius]

Well this seems like a failure of security

[Rorshach]

I'm continually amazed at how bad Frank Lampard is at this managing thing. He seemed like a decent one when he managed Derby. Now .. I don't think I could do much worse. And I'd be horrible.

[ljkeane]

1 hour ago, Rorschach - 2 said:

I'm continually amazed at how bad Frank Lampard is at this managing thing. He seemed like a decent one when he managed Derby. Now .. I don't think I could do much worse. And I'd be horrible.

He wasn't terrible at Derby but considering his connections got them Mount, Tomori and Harry Wilson on loan I don't think coming 6th in the Championship was particularly impressive either.

Southampton officially down with that loss to Fulham.