General football thread

Paullow B · Social player

General football thread

seagull · Hall of fame

Yep shame for Leeds but thought they would struggle. Shame Phillips left to go and play no football at City

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

seagull wrote:
Yep shame for Leeds but thought they would struggle. Shame Phillips left to go and play no football at City

Kalvin got what he wanted in some regards. He is a Premier League winner. Much like Raphinha got his La Liga title at Barcelona. I would not be surprised however to see Kalvin moving on again in the summer. He needs to play. Rumours of Liverpool sniffing around and I think that would be good for him.

As for Leeds, one of our fans as just posted an interesting stat. We have only won 11 PL matches since Bielsa was sacked - which seems like a lifetime ago. He is still revered in the hearts of so many Leeds fans.

Oakland2002 · All-time great

Emery is the best manager at Villa since Saunders. I agree with all your sentiments but talking more about my own personal circumstances. This season has been fantastic just watching the way Emery has set us up & how he has improved the players, the way we play out from the back essentially with Dean Smiths players is beyond any expectation.

Outstanding coaching.

Only missed one home game this season and I know I will go BUT it is a 7hr round trip in good traffic, so my reservations are more about my own personal circumstances as things stand I can go and stay rested for work. 16:00 Sunday kick offs are brutal. Yes I have been spoilt having seen Villa destroy Barcelona in the Super Cup, Inter Milan (a couple of times) an absolute cracker against Athletico etc Yep more fixtures will allow us to give opportunity to a larger squad particularly really good youngsters like Aaron Ramsay, Cameron Archer, Tim Irogebunam, Keyden Young but the Premier League remains the priority and champions league qualification maybe not best served by the Conference league,

Paullow B · Social player

They waited so long to get back into the top flight like 16/17 years, had a manager they loved, had a great first season back, playing good football, scoring for fun, even if it was largely behind closed doors, but it's been a disaster pretty much since. Just stayed up on the final day last year, sold Phillips as you say, Raph too of course, and a lot of the new signings haven't really worked.

Paullow B · Social player

Oakland2002 wrote:
Emery is the best manager at Villa since Saunders. I agree with all your sentiments but talking more about my own personal circumstances. This season has been fantastic just watching the way Emery has set us up & how he has improved the players, the way we play out from the back essentially with Dean Smiths players is beyond any expectation.

Outstanding coaching.

Only missed one home game this season and I know I will go BUT it is a 7hr round trip in good traffic, so my reservations are more about my own personal circumstances as things stand I can go and stay rested for work. 16:00 Sunday kick offs are brutal. Yes I have been spoilt having seen Villa destroy Barcelona in the Super Cup, Inter Milan (a couple of times) an absolute cracker against Athletico etc Yep more fixtures will allow us to give opportunity to a larger squad particularly really good youngsters like Aaron Ramsay, Cameron Archer, Tim Irogebunam, Keyden Young but the Premier League remains the priority and champions league qualification maybe not best served by the Conference league,

Fair enough, and there probably will be 5 CL places up for grabs for PL clubs next season ahead of the format changes to the 2024/25 season, but yeah it's amazing what a top coach can do. Howe has obviously had a bit of money since he has come in, but Newcastle have only had 11 players that have started more than 15 league matches this season (Isak has been amazing when he's featured, but he's missed so much of the season) - Pope (36), Trippier (36), Botman (33), Schaar (34), Burn (34), Joelinton (30), Bruno (30), Longstaff (27), Willock (31), Wilson (20), Almiron (27), and 6 (in bold) of the 10 outfield players have been here for years, and well before the takeover, and Burn has never finished in the top 10 in his life before this season, hardly a galactico, and wasn't a guaranteed starter for Brighton, and every single one of them have improved massively in the past 18 months, but with Unai, apart from Moreno, it's pretty much the same team as what Gerrard had, so to go from less than a point per game to pretty much 2 PPG with effectively the same players really is incredible, and like us last season when we won 12 of our last 18 league games, the club will feel in a position to push on further next season.

It's nice to see other clubs threatening the established order, and crazy that Chelsea will definitely finish in the bottom half this season.

-- Edited by Paullow B on Sunday 21st of May 2023 06:46:26 PM

wolf · Tennis legend

Not sure whats happening at Wolves. Moutinho made himself unavailable, Neto left before the match started, Jimenez stormed down the tunnel when we made our 5th sub, Ait-Nouri hasnt been seen in months. I know were going to have a turnover in the summer but everything didnt have to completely discombobulate.

paulisi · Tennis legend

wolf wrote:
Not sure whats happening at Wolves. Moutinho made himself unavailable, Neto left before the match started, Jimenez stormed down the tunnel when we made our 5th sub, Ait-Nouri hasnt been seen in months. I know were going to have a turnover in the summer but everything didnt have to completely discombobulate.

Rumours about financial fair play breach and no money available.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
wolf wrote:
Not sure whats happening at Wolves. Moutinho made himself unavailable, Neto left before the match started, Jimenez stormed down the tunnel when we made our 5th sub, Ait-Nouri hasnt been seen in months. I know were going to have a turnover in the summer but everything didnt have to completely discombobulate.
Rumours about financial fair play breach and no money available.

Relegate them and let the team finishing 18th stay up wink

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

paulisi wrote:
wolf wrote:
Not sure whats happening at Wolves. Moutinho made himself unavailable, Neto left before the match started, Jimenez stormed down the tunnel when we made our 5th sub, Ait-Nouri hasnt been seen in months. I know were going to have a turnover in the summer but everything didnt have to completely discombobulate.
Rumours about financial fair play breach and no money available.

i think that is out in the open

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65640344

Paullow B · Social player

One of the weirdest matches I've ever seen, but happy enough with that. Would have been an absolute sickener if Pope didn't save that at the end.

Champions League! 20 years in the making!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Paullow B wrote:
One of the weirdest matches I've ever seen, but happy enough with that. Would have been an absolute sickener if Pope didn't save that at the end.

Champions League! 20 years in the making!

Well done the Toon!

last match at St James I went to was Newcastle versus Basle in the UEFA Cup, must have been around 2005 or so Im guessing? Bobby Robson was manager, place was

full but flat, Im going to say it was 3-1 but its so long ago.

edit - it was November 2003 so 20 years ago! And it was 1-0 - and Newcastle won 4-2 on aggregate

-- Edited by JonH comes home on Monday 22nd of May 2023 09:17:44 PM

LordBrownof · Futures qualifying

Big romantic game tomorrow guys. As a life-long hopeless Coventry City fan, I've never been so excited/nervous for a match. With everything we've been through - minutes from dissolution, homeless twice, dropping down 3 leagues, it's incredible. Mark Robins has kept the club together pretty much single-handily.

I'm old enough to remember being a regular season ticket holder when we were in the premier league 20 years ago so it will be super sweet to see us back there. My Dad worked for the club his entire life as a scout and coach (James Maddison, Callum Wilson to name a few were his finds as kids - in fact, at last year's World Cup he had more England players in the squad than the Man U academy!). He's in his mid-70s now so I'd love him to experience the top flight with our hometown club again.

That all said, what a story for Luton too. A real neuturals game - both deserved winners.

Whatever happens, it's been an incredible season. We were bottom of the league in mid-October!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

LordBrownof wrote:
Big romantic game tomorrow guys. As a life-long hopeless Coventry City fan, I've never been so excited/nervous for a match. With everything we've been through - minutes from dissolution, homeless twice, dropping down 3 leagues, it's incredible. Mark Robins has kept the club together pretty much single-handily.

I'm old enough to remember being a regular season ticket holder when we were in the premier league 20 years ago so it will be super sweet to see us back there. My Dad worked for the club his entire life as a scout and coach (James Maddison, Callum Wilson to name a few were his finds as kids - in fact, at last year's World Cup he had more England players in the squad than the Man U academy!). He's in his mid-70s now so I'd love him to experience the top flight with our hometown club again.

That all said, what a story for Luton too. A real neuturals game - both deserved winners.

Whatever happens, it's been an incredible season. We were bottom of the league in mid-October!

Good luck - I well remember Coventry winning the Cup back in, what 87 or so?

Robins is a really good manager, would be great to see him get a crack at the Prem - good luck !!

Oakland2002 · All-time great

I felt for Mark Robbins but at last Coventry beginning to find their feet, a few of the better players likely to leave in the summer but championship likely to be wide open again next year with Leicester in a challenging place financially, Leeds likely to let a lot go and rely on youth, Southampton will be interesting in that you always feel they are preparing to be a yo-yo team & will Ward-Prouse stay?