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Football: Lamping on towards the finish line.

A Horse Named Stranger

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Corvinus85 Council Member

Corvinus85

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What has happened to Leicester City? Seven years ago they shocked the world by winning the PL. And even up to last year they were competing for the top spots in the league. The roster was still largely the same. They did have some injuries, though.

Seeing them last night against Newcastle they absolutely looked like a team that has no business being in the PL. They played like a small team against a big team, parking the bus and booting the ball away more than trying to create something.

Maybe Kasper Schmeichel saw the writing on the wall when he decided to leave.

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Consigliere Council Member

Consigliere

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23 hours ago, AncalagonTheBlack said:

Isn't he also a supporter of the far right Vox party? 

He is. He was also a student member of the Fuerza Nueva party that wanted to preserve Francoism during Spain's transition to democracy.

Unsurprisingly, he's being doubling down insisting that there's no racism in La Liga.

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polishgenius Council Member

polishgenius

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1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

Seeing them last night against Newcastle they absolutely looked like a team that has no business being in the PL. They played like a small team against a big team, parking the bus and booting the ball away more than trying to create something.

 

Well, that's because Dean Smith took over a squad not suited to the style he'd normally attack with and was trying to shore up any way he could. They were bad under Rodgers, obviously, that's why he got sacked, but they weren't playing anti-football.

 

A few things happened. When Vichai died, it seems like his son isn't quite as in control of things. That wasn't helped by Covid- Leicester have been set up to basically be ready to sell their best players and freshen the squad with the money they gain, but that didn't happen during Covid and they built up a logjam of players who are either past their best or clearly want to leave, without being able to replace them.

 

Also, Vardy got old, and while he's still effective in the box, he can't function half as well in the rest of the final third. So rather than trust to the replacements they've got, they spent far too much time breaking up their shape to push the midfield closer to Vardy, so they can supply him without him having to run so far. Which left their defence exposed.

 

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ljkeane Council Member

ljkeane

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5 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

A few things happened. When Vichai died, it seems like his son isn't quite as in control of things. That wasn't helped by Covid- Leicester have been set up to basically be ready to sell their best players and freshen the squad with the money they gain, but that didn't happen during Covid and they built up a logjam of players who are either past their best or clearly want to leave, without being able to replace them.

It's a bit more than that apparently. The Srivaddhanaprabha (looked that spelling up) family's money is very tied up with the travel industry so covid really had a big impact on them beyond just the general covid losses for football. So they've really not been in a position to make the kind moves they needed to make to refresh their squad.

Also it's really starting to look like Rodgers is a good manager but one with a clear shelf life while working with the same group of players, at least at Premier League level. It worked quite well at Liverpool until it didn't and then the wheels came off and the same seems to have happened at Leicester. 

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A Horse Named Stranger Council Member

A Horse Named Stranger

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Anyway news from Hertha BSC.

They are still trying to find a way to somehow close the holes in their budget. A BFP is loan they issued, which will reach maturity in October or November. That's round about 40m € they simply do not have. So they are proposing an extension of two years (so that they will have to pay it off in 2025) to that loan, and hope enought creditors sign up to that. They need the consent of people who hold two thirds of its volume. In return for extending the loan, they offer to raise its interest rate from 6.5% to 8.5%. Getting the creditors to sign off on that is vital, if not it's pretty much game over for them, and they are also busy communicating that they will default, if they don't get that extension.

As of right now, they have debts of around 88.5m € to serve this year. Cash at their disposal? Around 1.5m €. They have debt claim to ~26.5m €. So they really (desperately) need 60m €. Thus getting those 40m from that loan off the books [for this year] would help them quite a bit.

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polishgenius Council Member

polishgenius

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It's a weird one coz if we go for him it feels like ETH is giving up on midfield control and committing to Brunoball. Which isn't a bad decision necessarily, if he can find the control via other means, because centering the plan round the strengths of the best player in the team is often the right thing to do. And if he does that, then Mount is a decent addition to midfield, certainly stronger defensively and in pressing/recovery than Eriksen... but surely then we could do better. As good as Mount is. 

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Spockydog Council Member

Spockydog

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Yeah, this guy* is right up there alongside Trump, Johnson, and all the other gammon cunts who I simply cannot bring myself to listen to. 

So, not going to listen, but I can imagine the sort of thing he's saying.

*The stupid person's idea of an intelligent human being.

 

 

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baxus Council Member

baxus

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4 hours ago, polishgenius said:

Fuuuuucking hell. This is just straight racism.

I'm not familiar with this guy and his work and would appreciate some more info before making that call.

Did he say similar things when some white players were given big contracts? Or is there something in Saka's track record to indicate that he might start acting this way? Is he going out, partying through the night* etc.? Also important, is this guy giving Grealish crap for doing that? And Grealish would also be as good an example as Sterling for a great player that could've been much better had he been "more professional", whatever that means.

If he's consistent in his opinions, I'd have no problem with it regardless whether I agree with him or not. But if he's using different sets of "rules" for players of different ethnicities then it most definitely is straight racism.

* To be clear, I don't think that would make someone a worse footballer, but most journalists and pundits would disagree with me. Btw, I've never heard Saka doing things like that, but I don't follow him closely either so I might've missed something.

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Spockydog Council Member

Spockydog

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He's a full-gammon, White Lives Matter type. He is absolutely, 100% racist. Comes down on the side of the wankers in every societal issue. 

Dreadful, dreadful excuse for a human being. 

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