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Football, what the fuckball?


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Posted (edited)

MLS has one last team in the CONCACAF champions league, the Columbus Crew.  Currently, they are playing the second leg of their semifinal versus Monterrey and leading  4-2 on aggregate.  I'm hoping they can get to the Club WC.

Edited by Teng Ai Hui
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8 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

New season of welcome to wrexham drops tomorrow. I wonder how they are turning it round so quickly? Surely they want to show the conclusion of the season? 

It seems that there will only be 8 episodes this season.  The first 2 are about the early part of the season.  Eps 3~5 aren't about the men's team.  So they have about 4 weeks to finalize eps 6~8.

Also, a part of Wrexham's success this season was due to their goalkeeper, Arthur Okonkwo, who's an Arsenal loanee.  I'm hoping that he is Arsenal's starter in 2~3 seasons.

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In breaking duhs.

Rangnick has turned down Bayern's offer to become their next headcoach.

I've said it before, I was kinda surprised that he was in the running, as he had not worked on the frontlines for a while and preferred the bigger picture boardroom roles to the hands-on day to day business of being in charge of a team.

My guess is, they will go the interim route with Flick. Not what they'd ideally want with the CL final in Munich next year. But beggars can't choosers.

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Posted (edited)

Mourinho in.

eta. I think Thiago Motta would be a good choice. He seems to be another very promising young manager. Dunno if Bayern would consider him though if they are still insistent that their manger must be able to speak German.

Edited by Consigliere
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Eberl said the German language requirement is not killer for a candidate. Emery was the second name after Rangnick on their list apparently.

Problem is atm really that the guys in charge have to reach a consensus. That was what more or less killed off Nagelsmann's comeback (even before he withdraw himself by extending with the German FA). Eberl and Freund really wanted him, Hoeneß and folks who were already at the club when Nagelsmann left were vehemently opposed.

Rangnick was sorta the candidate that they could all agree on.

Flick apparently also has some opposition from Hoeneß, who is not entirely convinced that he has the quality for the job. And it's very difficult (or impossible?) to do anything against the wishes of Hoeneß at Bayern. Right now with the manager market being what it is, I still think they will eventually settle on Flick for lack of alternatives.

So Hoeneß openly attacking Tuchel before the Frankfurt game means that Tuchel will most definitely not be in charge next season, something Hainer confirmed. Not that Tuchel wants to be.

Btw. Mourinho is somebody, whom Hoeneß has ruled out for the Bayern job years ago, as too much drama with him (too toxic), and that was way before he went to United, Spurs and Roma.

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Poor Ange, came with such positivity and everyone loved him so much. But he won't last a second season. Could see us starting off with a run of defeats and having to do an emergency sacking like with Ramos. Maybe we can get Harry Redknapp in again.

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2 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Poor Ange, came with such positivity and everyone loved him so much. But he won't last a second season. Could see us starting off with a run of defeats and having to do an emergency sacking like with Ramos. Maybe we can get Harry Redknapp in again.

Yeah, his innovative tactics have been found out. He needs to have a wee think over the summer, and rehire a set-piece coach.

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I know Arteta took a long time to get things right but were things as bad as this in his first couple of seasons? Did Arsenal fans see that there was potential?

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1 minute ago, Darryk said:

I know Arteta took a long time to get things right but were things as bad as this in his first couple of seasons? Did Arsenal fans see that there was potential?

Weren't they worse at times? I remember people really laying into Arteta at one point, I was convinced he was going to go. There was this whole thing about his 'horsehoe of doom' tactic, the ball just moving around not doing anything useful. 

Think Ange will get more time. Spurs are in 5th, they had some excellent periods and some terrible periods this season. Ange is also universally liked as a guy.

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1 hour ago, Darryk said:

I know Arteta took a long time to get things right but were things as bad as this in his first couple of seasons? Did Arsenal fans see that there was potential?

The results were not all that great initially. Arteta took over in December 2019 with Arsenal in 10th place. They finished the season 8th but won the FA Cup which banked some credit for Arteta. The next season they finished 8th again and the season after that they finished 5th - were looking good for a 4th place finish but ended the season poorly and lost out to Spurs.

There's no guarantee that Ange could do similar for Spurs but it'd be foolish to not give him the chance. This season looks to be ending in a bit of disappointment for Spurs since they've had the lightest fixture list compared to the teams around them but Ange has also radically change the style of play to something a lot more exciting while losing the club's most influential player.

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4 hours ago, Darryk said:

I know Arteta took a long time to get things right but were things as bad as this in his first couple of seasons? Did Arsenal fans see that there was potential?

Most did but there were definitely loud, vocal fans that wanted to sack Arteta after finishing 8th a second time and then sack him again when we collapsed to finish 5th. Gary Neville is famous for coming out and saying that "4th is the ceiling for Arsenal  with Arteta and this squad". But smart fans saw what Arteta was doing. You could see the vision he had for the team. You could see the details he was putting into the squad. You could see the purpose in who they were signing and how they fit into the team (outside of Havertz). And you could start to believe that as those pieces started to come together, there could be something special there. I think the All or Nothing doc helped some of that too. It showed the progress and the loss, it showed the leadership of Arteta and the obsessiveness over details. Even though that third season collapse was poor, you saw the hint of something more to come if he got the players he needed to to build his vision. And now you end up with a team that's competing for a title for a second year in a row, that leads the league in goals scored, goals against and while they'll probably still lose out to City, they're right there competing and bloody fun to watch.

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6 hours ago, Darryk said:

I know Arteta took a long time to get things right but were things as bad as this in his first couple of seasons? Did Arsenal fans see that there was potential?

Obviously it's all turning out fine in the end, but I would say Arsenal were way too hasty in giving Emery the boot.

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