The 2024-2025 Football Thread

[laptech]

Some people need to give a re-think about what they say about the Glazers because it is not all like they say it is. Yes it is a fact the club was bought on debt BUT the facts of the Glazers buying the club purely for profit reasons and not for winning titles is a bit skewed because the fact is the club was a different club when under the control of the father Malcom Glazer then it is now under the control of his children.

Here are the facts:-
Malcom Glazer bought the club in 2005. He passed away in 2014 one year after Alex Ferguson retired (2013). During his tenure as club owner (2005-2014), the club won 5 league titles, 1 FA Cup, 3 Football League Cups, 5 Charity shields, 1 Champions league and 1 FIFA Club World Cup. Also during his tenure as owner he spent money on improving the then out dated training ground and it's facilities. The stadium did not need any work doing to it during his time as the club owner. Does that sound to you like a club owner who is purely in it for profit and not interested in winning trophies? because it sure doesn't to me.

Now, where things go wrong and where they support the version of events people have mentioned is A) when Ferguson retired in 2013 and B) when the father Malcom Glazer died and the ownership of the club passing over to his children.

Malcom Glazers children, whilst having experience of the business world have no experience of running a football club. It was their father Malcom who had all the necessary experience of being able to run a sports club. It is Malcom's children who have caused the rot at United. It is his children who have failed to keep the stadium in good condition, it is his children that have failed to update the training ground and it's facilities, it is his children who have persistently taken out dividends from the club, it is his children that has not spent a dime of their own money on the club.

This is why when people talk negatively about the Glazers and the demise of United, they have to understand there are two sides to this debate/argument, the father side and the children side. The club even though in heavy debt was extremely successful under the tenue of the father Malcom Glazer. Everything went wrong when he passed away in 2014 and it has stayed wrong under the control of his children.

 

[timber]

Just read a news article where it is stating that Sporting Lisbon's manager Ruben Amorim has agreed in principle to be United's new manager. Else where in the report it highlights the Man City connection now within United, that being United chief executive Omar Berrada defecting from City, bringing technical director Jason Wilcox, formerly a coach and academy director at City and also arranged for the appointment of chief communications officer Toby Craig, having known him at City. But here is the kicker, West Ham interviewed Ruben for the manager's job but they went Julen Lopetegui instead. So if Ruben is not good enough for West Ham, what makes United think he is good enough for them?

Every Sporting fan I know is currently having a meltdown and praying all available saints for the deal to fail and keep Amorim until at least the end of the season.
I saw Lopetegui at Porto and I have been seeing Amorim. I don't know anything about who runs West Ham but just from that I wouldn't trust them to run an automatic water dispenser near the desert.
Perhaps they were skewed by his age, he isn't even 40.
And if you want to annoy Sporting fans even more keep calling the club Sporting Lisbon. That drives them nuts.

 

[laptech]

It will be interesting to see if RVN now as interim manager will be able to achieve the same success that Solskjaer did when he was interim manager (19 games, 14 won, 3 losses, 2 draws)

 

[Silencio]

Given the apparently accelerated timeline of Amorim taking the job, maybe the interim manager comparison won't be Solskaer, but Michael Carrick, who won twice and drew once before Rangnick came in.

Malcolm Glazer may have been better at running the club than his children, but the rot did begin setting in under his watch. They started cutting corners and making bad transfer decisions after Ronaldo left the first time. It was SAF and their core players who kept them at a fairly high standard, but when SAF retired and David Gill left, the wheels started truly falling off.

Still early days for INEOS, who are making all the key decisions now. I think they fumbled the ETH situation over the summer — largely due to Barreda and Ashworth's extended gardening leaves — but at least they finally got there. They actually have football people in place to properly select a new manager based on whatever overarching footballing philosophy they agree to pursue. Amorim certainly has a well-defined philosophy of his own. It worked great at Sporting, will it work with United and in the PL?

 

[timber]

Sporting has just announced to CMVM (FCA in UK or SEC in USA) that Manchester United has shown the willingness to cover Amorim's release clause (10M EURO).

They are obliged to do so as it's market relevant news. Sporting SAD is a listed company. It's the sign of a done deal.

It's an understatement to say that Sporting fans are extremely disappointed and plainly just shattered. They have been aiming for a 2 win run for 70 years. Although it will benefit my Benfica I'm not that happy. Today it's their turn, yesterday it was ours and tomorrow it will be the same again.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

It's interesting to see how the INEOS Grenadiers cycling team has now totally imploded since Sir Dave Brailsford was redirected to INEOS's footballing empire. He was essentially that team's Ferguson and they won everything with him. It remains to be seen whether he will be able to make the transition to football with equal success. Brailsford was a marginal gains guru when that was still innovative - but now everybody is doing it. With the money Man Utd have, they can afford to fail until they succeed - as long as Ratcliffe keeps the taps open. But it has been a notably long fallow period now. If Amorim is indeed headed to the hot seat it'll be by far the toughest task he's ever faced.

In other news, though I pay little attention to the Ballon d'Or circus, I think Real Madrid's childish antics over perceived 'snubs' have reached 'Yaya Toure Birthday Cake Spat' levels of silliness. This from grown men running multibillion dollar sports teams....I can only look on in disbelief.

Columbus are in the playoffs again, and have a real shot at the final. I finally got a chance to see a match at the new stadium recently - it's a fantastic space. I don't care who wins MLS Cup - as long as it's not Miami [spits].

 

[Lioness~]

Sweden - Luxemburg, 8 -0, today (total 12 - 0)

As I knew, it's good for Sweden (women) to play the play-off.
Against Serbia next, soon.

 

[daneoni]

England women back to winning ways after beating South Africa.
Welsh women into play off finals, and Scotland beat Hungary 4-0.

Amorim has his work cutout for him. He has a 'good' squad to play with albeit lacking leaders. But he is also early in his career, and i fear he may do serious damage to his reputation if he fails to deliver. But gd luck to him.

 

[Lioness~]

So Manchester City gets a Swedish Women's Director of Football - Therese Sjögran - she have a lot competence and experience, so good luck to both ManCity and her.

Sjogran appointed Women’s Director of Football

Manchester City are delighted to announce the appointment of Therese Sjogran as the Club’s new Women’s Director of Football.

www.mancity.com

 

[pachyderm]

1 - 1

Lost on pens 5 - 4

We can focus on staying up now... lol.

 

[laptech]

I personally think the problems at United extend beyond the manager. I looked at the careers or Klopp and ETH before they moved to Liverpool and United because both of them had very similar successes at their previous clubs before moving onto Liverpool and Man United, Klopp at Borussia Dortmund and ETH at Ajax, neither of them had European success, Klopp won 2 league titles, 1 German Cup and 1 German Super Cup. ETH won 3 league titles, 2 Dutch cups and 1 Dutch Super Cup.

Thing to note here though, whilst Klopp went on to do great things with Liverpool, it took him 3 years before he won his first trophy at the club. ETH on the other hand won a trophy in his first year and then again in his 2nd year. Would he have won anything in his 3rd year if he had stayed at the club?

Klopp first year at Liverpool they finished 8th, 2nd year 4th, ETH in his first year at United finished 3rd, 2nd year 8th.

In my opinion ETH should have been allowed to see if he could get the team out of trouble and into winning ways. Yes 14th was not a good position to be in but everyone except the club owners and INEOS knew that United was not going to be challenging for champions league position because the team just was not good enough. The problem the club has is with player contracts and sponsorship contracts with regards if they have penalty clauses in them if the club does not get into the champions league or penalty clauses if the clubs performance drops to a certain level at the end of the season. Such clauses would play heavily on the minds of the club owners, especially if the penalty clauses in the contracts means the owners having to pay out millions of £££ in penalties for breaches of contract.

Could that be why ETH was sacked because if the club failed to get into the champions league again the club would be in breach of sponsorship contracts and have to pay out huge sums in penalties to the club sponsors?

 

[laptech]

OK Arsenal fans, how many of you want this jacket??

The woman in the picture is Dennis Bergkamp's 22 year old daughter Yasmin. She had it custom made in support of her fathers time at Arsenal.

Dennis Bergkamp’s daughter delights Arsenal fans with custom leather jacket

'Damn, I want this jacket!'

metro.co.uk

 

[Scepticalscribe]

OK Arsenal fans, how many of you want this jacket??

The woman in the picture is Dennis Bergkamp's 22 year old daughter Yasmin. She had it custom made in support of her fathers time at Arsenal.

Dennis Bergkamp’s daughter delights Arsenal fans with custom leather jacket

'Damn, I want this jacket!'

metro.co.uk

View attachment 2444341
View attachment 2444342

Not I.

Far too loud, and garish.

Personally, I prefer something a lot more understated, and elegant and classy.

 

[laptech]

Not I.

Far too loud, and garish.

Personally, I prefer something a lot more understated, and elegant and classy.

I thought it did look classy.

I do not want to be rude here but does Arsenal or 3rd party make any fan clothing that is elegant and classy?

 

[laptech]

Not I.

Far too loud, and garish.

Personally, I prefer something a lot more understated, and elegant and classy.

I wore this United leather jacket when I was a young lad at college, bought it with my first year college grant money hehe.
Too loud and garish? or somewhat understated?

I have to admit I do like the customized Arsenal one that Bergkamp's daughter had made. Maybe because it is loud and garish I suppose

 

[Silencio]

The jacket is a pretty nice piece of work. This style with all the big logos and disparate design elements everywhere is very current in streetwear circles. It's not my personal style — I'm way too old to rock most of that kit — but I can appreciate it.

I don't own any shirts these days aside from a green NY Cosmos away shirt I got for free when I did some work for them. Adidas has done some nice United-related lines recently: I have the Peter Saville scarf with the Unknown Pleasures pulsar "pulse beat of Manchester" motif and a Stone Roses / MUFC reversible windbreaker with John Squire's distinctive paint splatter.

 

[laptech]

The jacket is a pretty nice piece of work. This style with all the big logos and disparate design elements everywhere is very current in streetwear circles. It's not my personal style — I'm way too old to rock most of that kit — but I can appreciate it.

I don't own any shirts these days aside from a green NY Cosmos away shirt I got for free when I did some work for them. Adidas has done some nice United-related lines recently: I have the Peter Saville scarf with the Unknown Pleasures pulsar "pulse beat of Manchester" motif and a Stone Roses / MUFC reversible windbreaker with John Squire's distinctive paint splatter.

Don't you collect much for the team you support? I collect lots, football shirts, jackets, scarfs, hats, pin badges, sweatbands, music (when they make it), video's, dvd's, books, magazines, Subbuteo. When as a young lad I once persuaded my parents to re-decorate my bedroom in everything Man United (it was when the store sold everything for the bedroom), I had Man U wallpaper, curtains, bed covers and a floor mat, I was an obsessed 11 yr old United fan lol

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I thought it did look classy.

I beg to differ, but then, personal taste is a highly subjective matter.

I do not want to be rude here but does Arsenal or 3rd party make any fan clothing that is elegant and classy?

No.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I wore this United leather jacket when I was a young lad at college, bought it with my first year college grant money hehe.
Too loud and garish? or somewhat understated?

View attachment 2444375 View attachment 2444376

I have to admit I do like the customized Arsenal one that Bergkamp's daughter had made. Maybe because it is loud and garish I suppose

I neither own - nor wear - and never did, for that matter, any gear or kit, or so-called collectibles from any team.

Actually, as it happens, I don't much care for labels, or brands.

 

[laptech]

I neither own - nor wear - and never did, for that matter, any gear or kit, or so-called collectibles from any team.

Actually, as it happens, I don't much care for labels, or brands.

But isn't that how you show support for your team? Do you not own anything that shows you support the football team that you do?

Or do you just say 'I support so n so' and that's it?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

But isn't that how you show support for your team?

No.

Do you not own anything that shows you support the football team that you do?

No.

Or do you just say 'I support so n so' and that's it?

Yes.

That is it.

I never wear - and will never wear - anything - in politics, or sport, music, or suchlike - that signals, or shows, support for anything or anyone, anywhere.

Just no. Not for me,

However - and, if you had read Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch" you would understand this reference, for he described this process (emotion? feeling?) exceptionally well - I do suffer when they lose, are defeated, implode, or stupidly throw away games (not least by collecting red cards as though these are about to go out of fashion).

 

[laptech]

No.

No.

Yes.

That is it.

I never wear - and will never wear - anything - in politics, or sport, music, or suchlike - that signals, or shows, support for anything or anyone, anywhere.

Just no. Not for me,

However - and, if you had read Nick Hornby's "Fever Pitch" you would understand this reference, for he described this process (emotion? feeling?) exceptionally well - I do suffer when they lose, are defeated, implode, or stupidly throw away games (not least by collecting red cards as though these are about to go out of fashion).

Again not wanting to be rude but I thought those who supported football teams and followed musical artists and such but did not show any material support was a myth. In all my years of supporting football and music, everyone I've known or seen has always worn or displayed something that showed their support, even if it was just a small insignificant pin pinned to their coat/jacket. Well now I know it is no longer a myth.

 

[Lioness~]

Looking forward to the impact this will have on Women's Football in Europe, to start with ⚽️💥

Unstoppable: A six-year plan towards a sustainable ecosystem for women's football

UEFA's new women's football strategy sets bold and ambitious targets that will enable us to take the game to another level by 2030.

www.uefa.com

 

[Silencio]

I was never big into sporting merch, TBH. I've been a San Francisco Giants fan for many decades, and I never went beyond owning a Giants baseball cap or two at any given time. I never even bought posters of the players or anything when I was a kid — just wasn't my thing.

I bought a MUFC pin in Camden Market in 1992. That was the only bit of United merch I owned for a long, long time.

Speaking of books, the book "No Logo" by Naomi Klein really spoke to me about branding and confirmed my distaste for runaway branding and logos on everything.

 

[timber]

I used to like to have a jersey just to own or see a match with it (along with a scarf witch is very popular around here) but the system nowadays where every year they need to come up with some new detail (sometimes wrecking the club heritage or making it look uglier) just to sell again killed the vibe for me.
That and a new kit costing 120 euros. Even they recognize the ridiculousness of the situation as there are now official replicas (60 euros). It's like the ECB sold official forgery Euro bank notes.
And getting tickets has been really difficult for many years for non season ticket holders. And it's also quite difficult to become a season ticket holder despite the price being OK if you factor the number of games.