The 2023-2024 Football Thread

[daneoni]

Its also a case of Bayern running out of prospective managers, having gone through quite a few already

As for Kompany, there's a manager in there somewhere. But he may be too one-dimensional in current form. Forgetting he needs to earn the right to play his brand of football.

Agree Maguire hasn't been that bad, compared to previous seasons. But Rashford has been consistently poor and there are far too many alternatives to take him

As for ETH and Utd, i'm not sure tbh. Part of me thinks there might still be something there. Then i remember he signed Antony, Eriksen, Amrabat, and Mount and has failed to get a tune out of them.
But if they get rid of him who will they bring. RDZ? Poch? Allegri?

 

[danny842003]

Last years FA Cup between the two, United literally gave City the cup because United did not play, they just limped and whimped. This year is different because the United's women's team won their version of the FA Cup and I feel it would be extremely embarrassing for the men's team if they fail to win the FA Cup hence they will not want that embarrassment.

I don’t think that squad of players care enough to give a toss what the women did.
Pea hearted to a man.

 

[danny842003]

It makes me laugh seeing these news articles about Rashford not being picked for the England team for the Euro's (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cd11e0v7rlgo), the authors of the articles basically saying it is due to Rashfords poor club form which is why he's been dropped and yet Southgate has picked a United player who has also played poorly this season, Harry Maguire. Rashford has a bad season, he gets dropped, Maguire also has a bad season but he is picked. It's like Maguire has got one of these 'get out of jail' free cards because no matter how badly he performs for United, Southgate always picks him.

There’s a lack of options at CB and despite club form he rarely has a bad game in a white shirt.
Rashford has been shocking and there’s no shortage of players in his position.

 

[daneoni]

A. Lookman looks set to end Leverkusen's 51 game unbeaten run after scoring a hat-trick for Atalanta who have been brilliant against Bayer

Deserved winners by a country mile. And a tactical masterclass by Gasperini.

 

[Lioness~]

Hope for a tight game, I think it will be 🔥
Barça have won most lately, but don’t forget their difficulty in winning over Lyon.
I’m also sure Bompastor want to end her long time in Lyon with a dignified win. Next year Chelsea are lucky to get her. Out of 5, I give Lyon 3 and Barça 2, to win.
As mentioned before, I have no real favourite. But of course we have a Swede in Barça, I would like her to score some great ones, as she usually do. So give us a lot of goals 😁

 

[daneoni]

Barca 2- 3 Lyon is my prediction

 

[timber]

I will be rooting for the good sheppard.

 

[Apple fanboy]

The betting scandal with Paqueta has come back to the surface.
He could be banned for 5 years if found guilty of getting deliberately booked.
Very disappointing of a quality player. I suppose Man City will not want him now.

 

[daneoni]

Doubt it’ll be 5yrs. If Toney and Tonali get months but who knows

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

I am wondering if the Paqueta yellow card scandal is connected to the wider (and I mean world-wide) match-fixing/betting scandal that has rocked the A-League.
Three Macarthur players (one of which is a NZ international in the prime of his career) have been arrested and charged with match-fixing, whereby they have been helping a South American cartel fix betting by deliberately inducing Yellow Cards.
Looking back at some of the braindead decisions made during the season, you can now see how easy it was to build a case against them.

Players paid $10k to give away yellow cards in A-League games, police allege

Three Macarthur FC players are charged with a number of offences, including participating in a criminal group.

www.abc.net.au

I dare say that they are looking at lengthy bans - and if Paqueta is involved in the same scandal, it's obviously a global corruption issue and the bans will be very very long and there could even be jail sentences.

 

[Apple fanboy]

I am wondering if the Paqueta yellow card scandal is connected to the wider (and I mean world-wide) match-fixing/betting scandal that has rocked the A-League.
Three Macarthur players (one of which is a NZ international in the prime of his career) have been arrested and charged with match-fixing, whereby they have been helping a South American cartel fix betting by deliberately inducing Yellow Cards.
Looking back at some of the braindead decisions made during the season, you can now see how easy it was to build a case against them.

Players paid $10k to give away yellow cards in A-League games, police allege

Three Macarthur FC players are charged with a number of offences, including participating in a criminal group.

www.abc.net.au

I dare say that they are looking at lengthy bans - and if Paqueta is involved in the same scandal, it's obviously a global corruption issue and the bans will be very very long and there could even be jail sentences.

I mean if I was doing it for £10k you could sort of understand why I’d be tempted. But when you are earning 5-10 times that a week you have to wonder about the motivation.

 

[laptech]

Betting is a huge thing in Asian countries, more so than anywhere else in my opinion, the people take it extremely seriously. I've worked for a couple of Chinese and Taiwan electronic manufacturers and when all of us got paid the first thing the Asian employees did was head straight down to the betting shops and they did this with out fail at the start of every month when we got our wage slips.

There has been scandals in the past where football players have done something during a game for the purpose of betting, going down injured, causing balls to go out for throw in's or corners, how many tackles/injuries can they cause, how many goals can not be saved, so on and so on. Snooker, darts, tennis, Rugby, cricket have all been affected due to the serious nature of betting in Asian countries and I cannot see it stopping.

There was this famous incident in 2017 of a betting firm placing a bet that Sutton United's substitute goalkeeper would eat a pie during the FA cup game with Arsenal

Wayne Shaw: Pie-eating keeper is charged twice by FA

The FA charges former Sutton United keeper Wayne Shaw for breaching betting rules after eating a pie in the FA Cup loss to Arsenal.

www.bbc.co.uk

Wayne Shaw (Sutton substitute goalkeeper) said it was all just a bit of fun but it goes to show the lengths players will go to for betting.

 

[daneoni]

I mean if I was doing it for £10k you could sort of understand why I’d be tempted. But when you are earning 5-10 times that a week you have to wonder about the motivation.

Ego.

"I can make this happen" or "I can influence this"

Also, some may have grown in a similar culture.

 

[laptech]

Ego.

"I can make this happen" or "I can influence this"

Also, some may have grown in a similar culture.

This article is a good read for why wealthily people steal/shoplift/break the law

Rich robbers: why do wealthy people shoplift?

Evidence suggests the rich actually do steal more than the poor – and shoplifting is only ‘the first layer of the onion’

www.theguardian.com

because they can, because they get a thrill from it, because they believe they are above the law, because they do not fear authority (the police, court judges, the criminal justice system).

A footballer earning a few hundred thousand a month making pittance illegal bets on the outcome of football games, take any one of the above reasons for why they do it.

 

[HandsomeDanNZ]

In the case of the A-League players, the money they’re being offered is a bigger sum than it would appear to European pros, as they simply don’t get paid big money.

I do have to question someone like Clayton Lewis match fixing for $10k though. He’s in the prime of his career and this will kill it stone dead. For just $10k. It’s dumb. Really really dumb.

 

[Apple fanboy]

FA cup predictions? Can’t see anything other than a comfortable City win. Hopefully I’m wrong. The main thing is we don’t want any English players injuries. Foden is in good form which hopefully he can take through to the Euros.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Well well well. After the first 30 minutes of good defending by Utd, a well timed pass and United are ahead.
Should make the game more interesting.

 

[Alphazoid]

When i say City have not been the best team this season, people say i’m being salty. They had the easiest run in against teams with nothing to play for. And they only played this final because Chelsea failed to take their numerous chances.

Utd deserve it

Speaking of Utd (and Liverpool), have Utd had a better season than Arsenal having won a trophy. 🤔 There's an argument to be had.

At least if ETH leaves, he does so with a decent record. 3 finals 2 trophies. Despite being hampered with injuries, failed signings, and having to navigate player egos who constantly sought to undermine him

 

[Silencio]

Great ending to a very poor season. The way United played today really begs the question of what could have been if not for all the injuries and drama.

Over to you, INEOS.

 

[Apple fanboy]

When i say City have not been the best team this season, people say i’m being salty. They had the easiest run in against teams with nothing to play for. And they only played this final because Chelsea failed to take their numerous chances.

Utd deserve it

Speaking of Utd (and Liverpool), have Utd had a better season than Arsenal having won a trophy. 🤔 There's an argument to be had.

At least if ETH leaves, he does so with a decent record. 3 finals 2 trophies. Despite being hampered with injuries, failed signings, and having to navigate player egos who constantly sought to undermine him

I’d agree with the people. All the teams play everyone twice. You can’t say they had an easier run in. You just didn’t get as many points. The facts don’t lie.

Agree United were the better team today. They came with a plan and stuck with it. Yes they have had a lot of injuries to contend with, but then who hasn’t this season.

 

[Alphazoid]

We'll have to agree to disagree.

 

[timber]

Well, Barcelona certainly deserved this win in the WCL.
OL never seemed to find solutions.

 

[laptech]

The 2 years of ETH has been rather confusing, his 1st year, United had a good season, finishing 3rd and winning the carabao cup but having one of if not the worst performances seen in an FA Cup final. Then we come to year 2, United putting in the worst league performance since PL records began, finishing 8th but yet putting in one of the best FA Cup performances we have seen to win the FA Cup. So in conclusion, under ETH, when United are good and get to an FA Cup final, they play abysmal but when United are really really bad, they place exceptionally well in an FA Cup final.

As for the argument about injuries, yes other teams have had injuries but not on the same level as United. The BBC mentioned that ETH has had to change his central defence pairing 14 times because of injuries. I do not think any of the other top 8 teams in the league has suffered the same level of injuries. You can correct me if I am wrong.

City had their chances, Walker had a very good shot saved, Haaland hit the crossbar, Foden was all feet when the ball came to him and the player I cannot remember his name, through on to goal but miscued his shot and put it wide. As fans will say, when it's not your time to win, it just is not your time to win and it was City's turn to not win.

What is worse for City is the stats of the game. I watched the game on TV and after the game the BBC went through the stats of the game and City were miles ahead on every stat. United's stats were extremely low and yet they came away the winners. As I mentioned in another post about strikers and Harry Kane, having a prolific goal scorer does not mean you win the league as Spurs and Bayern have found. Thus neither does having good stats in a game as City have just found out, they out performed United in every aspect of the game but still came away the losers.

 

[Shanghaichica]

At least we salvaged some pride as the season has overall been an embarrassment. But what a way to end it. Winning the cup, beating Man City, booting Chelsea out of the Europa league and surpassing Liverpool’s FA cup record.

 

[danny842003]

Frustrating we drop out of Europe with Man U winning the cup.
Man U have been awful and just jagged a lot of results, a very average baseline overall. I feel we’ve had much higher highs but probably some bigger lows as well.
Silver linings I guess we can focus on getting top 4/5 and getting back in the champions league for the season after next.