The English Football Thread

[Vesper 27,282]

12 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

It's been like it since October. Yeah its lovely and all but nahhh. Why should neutrals want them to win. We dont.

I fucking hate 'em

unless it is a crucial place-clinching or title-clinching game versus the club we need to lose or draw, I am 1000000% in on the bindippers losing every time I watch the cunts

other than v spuds if the game is meaningless

[Atomiswave 6,072]

13 hours ago, Laylabelle said:

It's been like it since October. Yeah its lovely and all but nahhh. Why should neutrals want them to win. We dont.

Its incredible isnt it, the media is supposed to be fair and impartial. These cunts in eng media literally do nothing but making them look better and bigger. Yup outside that no one gives a flying fuck about them.

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

I fucking hate 'em

unless it is a crucial place-clinching or title-clinching game versus the club we need to lose or draw, I am 1000000% in on the bindippers losing every time I watch the cunts

other than v spuds if the game is meaningless

For sure, theres a good reason they are so hated or rather reasons.

[Vesper 27,282]

so fucked if true, what the fuck are the EPL and the FA thinking????

this is massively dismaying  

fucking murderous head-choppers invading our football 

Bin Salman on brink of Newcastle takeover

https://www.besoccer.com/new/bin-salman-on-brink-of-newcastle-takeover-837122

The Premier League have reportedly given the green light to the purchase of Newcastle United by Mohammed Bin Salman, according to the official news channel of the Saudi Arabian government

[Atomiswave 6,072]

15 minutes ago, Vesper said:

so fucked if true, what the fuck are the EPL and the FA thinking????

this is massively dismaying  

fucking murderous head-choppers invading our football 

Bin Salman on brink of Newcastle takeover

https://www.besoccer.com/new/bin-salman-on-brink-of-newcastle-takeover-837122

The Premier League have reportedly given the green light to the purchase of Newcastle United by Mohammed Bin Salman, according to the official news channel of the Saudi Arabian government

Mate we talked about it the other day....they were never going to say no to him. Politics does indeed play a role in sports no matter how much one will deny it. He is a friend to Eng, lots of shit has happened behind the scenes. Salman only had to show the money and thats that. EPL has gone to the rotters.....its a piss poor League with corruption and favourism.

[Vesper 27,282]

3 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

Mate we talked about it the other day....they were never going to say no to him. Politics does indeed play a role in sports no matter how much one will deny it. He is a friend to Eng, lots of shit has happened behind the scenes. Salman only had to show the money and thats that. EPL has gone to the rotters.....its a piss poor League with corruption and favourism.

If this goes through, I hope every fucking Geordie who is oki with this chokes on a hallal cock. Mind-boggling we are letting these global mass-murdering terrorists buy a fucking English club.

[Fulham Broadway 16,386]

Most Geordies will welcome the cash injection, but even more the back of Mike Ashley who they fucking despise.

Bin Salman, 'fit and proper person' my arse.

If you ever need proof that the beautiful game is run as a business, a business that would sell its mother, and burn its children for profit. 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

15 hours ago, Vesper said:

If this goes through, I hope every fucking Geordie who is oki with this chokes on a hallal cock. Mind-boggling we are letting these global mass-murdering terrorists buy a fucking English club.

And in Eng is exactly where they will thrive best......Eng and Saudi very good pals in crime. Halal cock

14 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Most Geordies will welcome the cash injection, but even more the back of Mike Ashley who they fucking despise.

Bin Salman, 'fit and proper person' my arse.

If you ever need proof that the beautiful game is run as a business, a business that would sell its mother, and burn its children for profit. 

They sure will but its not worth it....no one gives a fuck about them now, with Salman they will be hated everywhere. Yeah im not super fond of footy anymore, its money money money and ego all the way. When an agent can make 20m Pounds just for 1 player then you know its heading the wrong way.

[Atomiswave 6,072]

You cunts have nothing to laugh about you murdering deceiving low class scumbags.

[Vesper 27,282]

17 hours ago, Atomiswave said:

You cunts have nothing to laugh about you murdering deceiving low class scumbags.

besides the fact they are cunts

that graphic is full of shit

Mansour controls a shedload more than £20bn in assets and that head chopper listed wealth of £320bn is NOT at all his personally, it is the part of the state wealth he oversees, not outright owns

Bezos is worth less than half that yet is ALWAYS listed as the richest man in the world

MBS personal net worth is less than £10bn

the House of Saud is worth 1.4 trillion USD (£1.15 trillion), BUT that is split hundreds of ways

whoever made that graphic is a duncy lying twat and a fraud

to put all that in perspective, the US, between Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion and spending bills passed by congress, has spent over 10 TRILLION USD in the past TWO MONTHS due to COVID-19 and more to come, trillions more

just for the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis there was over 35 trillion USD in wealth shifts by the global banking system

COVID-19 is going to make that look like a Sunday walkabout in Hyde Park by the time it is all said and done

The US has a future-forward amortised debt load (counting mandated transfer payments like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) of over 150 TRILLION USD now

 

 

[Atomiswave 6,072]

39 minutes ago, Vesper said:

besides the fact they are cunts

that graphic is full of shit

Mansour controls a shedload more than £20bn in assets and that head chopper listed wealth of £320bn is NOT at all his personally, it is the part of the state wealth he oversees, not outright owns

Bezos is worth less than half that yet is ALWAYS listed as the richest man in the world

MBS personal net worth is less than £10bn

the House of Saud is worth 1.4 trillion USD (£1.15 trillion), BUT that is split hundreds of ways

whoever made that graphic is a duncy lying twat and a fraud

to put all that in perspective, the US, between Federal Reserve balance sheet expansion and spending bills passed by congress, has spent over 10 TRILLION USD in the past TWO MONTHS due to COVID-19 and more to come, trillions more

just for the 2007 to 2009 global financial crisis there was over 35 trillion USD in wealth shifts by the global banking system

COVID-19 is going to make that look like a Sunday walkabout in Hyde Park by the time it is all said and done

The US has a future-forward amortised debt load (counting mandated transfer payments like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid) of over 150 TRILLION USD now

 

 

Bonkers the amounts we are talking about here.....in any case as you said they are all cunts.

[Vesper 27,282]

30 minutes ago, Atomiswave said:

Bonkers the amounts we are talking about here.....in any case as you said they are all cunts.

it is madness at every level

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Laylabelle 9,292]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

 

Kinda a good thing training is still individually. Know not many but add more people into the mix and would spread more.

[Jase 43,479]

12 hours ago, Jason said:

 

 

[NikkiCFC 7,565]

Liverpool's clash against Atletico Madrid 'led to 41 additional deaths' as government failed to ban fans... while 'Cheltenham festival has also been linked to 37 coronavirus-related fatalities in data-modelling'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-8352021/Liverpools-clash-against-Atletico-Madrid-led-41-additional-deaths.html

[Vesper 27,282]

Is the Premier League fair if stars like Kante and Deeney are pulling out?

https://theathletic.com/1824189/2020/05/22/deeney-kante-premier-league-project-restart-unfair/

It feels like a long time since Troy Deeney pulled back his right boot to score Watford’s third goal in their last Premier League assignment at Vicarage Road. You might remember the occasion: Watford 3 Liverpool 0. Or “Phew”, to quote Arsenal’s Twitter account, as Liverpool blew their hopes of emulating The Invincibles. Deeney’s goal capped the shock result of the season, followed by a victory run to the corner flag, a slightly uncoordinated knee slide and a victory group-hug involving Harry the Hornet, Watford’s mascot.

The kind of scenes, to put it another way, that make you realise what it is about this infuriatingly addictive sport that drags us in.

That was Deeney’s sixth league goal from December 22 to February 29. To put that into context, only Sergio Aguero at Manchester City and Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin (seven each) managed more in the top flight over the same period.

Deeney was on target in a 2-0 pre-Christmas defeat of Manchester United, too. He scored twice a week later in a victory over Aston Villa. He got another in mid-January’s 3-0 victory away to Bournemouth and one more against Villa again — the only game in this sequence that Watford did not win. In short, nobody has done more to haul Watford out of a seemingly irretrievable position in the bottom three, where they were previously bottom of the table and 10 points adrift of 17th place. Nobody in England’s top division was exerting such an influence on the relegation positions, pre-lockdown.

All of which leaves a reasonable question for Watford, and the Premier League as a whole, if Deeney sticks to his position that he holds so little trust in Project Restart then good luck, comrades, but it is not for him.

First, it was Deeney. Then there was N’Golo Kante at Chelsea. A number of other Watford players have also stayed away from training after one of their colleagues, defender Adrian Mariappa, tested positive for coronavirus (along with two members of club staff) without realising he had it. In the coming days and weeks, it is very possible we will hear about other players at Watford, and elsewhere, who are asking to be excused.

And, in each case, it is difficult to imagine there will be any kind of public backlash.

Deeney has a baby son who has suffered from breathing difficulties and, explaining his reasons at the start of the week, he also pointed out the statistical analysis that shows there is an increased risk for BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) males.

Kante is also unconvinced that it is safe, or wise, if there is even a tiny risk of picking up the disease and passing it on to others.

The midfielder’s life, lest it be forgotten, has been touched by tragedy. His elder brother, Niama, died of a heart attack two years ago and he lost his father when he was 11 years old. Who would be so flint-hearted to challenge him if he has decided, no matter how many times he has been assured it will be OK, this is not a time to blur his priorities?

It does, however, leave the potential for everything to get very messy should the Premier League return in its new form in mid-June.

Some teams will no doubt be at full strength. Others, it seems, could be missing key players. And, at a time when “integrity” appears to be the new buzzword in football, it is certainly not going to feel particularly satisfactory if this threatens to have a direct impact on the final league positions. The bottom three, just for starters.

As it stands, Watford’s improvement since Nigel Pearson’s appointment in early December has seen them accumulate more points in that time than third-placed Leicester City and the same number as Chelsea in fourth. Watford won 13 points out of a possible 15 in the midst of that run. Yet it is only goal difference (minus-17 to minus-18) keeping them the right side of the dotted line, above third-bottom Bournemouth.

With Deeney, you would back Watford to complete their feat of escapology over the remaining nine matches. Without him, it is far easier to see them slipping back into the quicksand. He is their captain and leading scorer. He is their best hope.

Before going any further, it should probably be clarified that neither Deeney nor Kante, or anybody else, has categorically stated they will not be involved if the season resumes to the timescale that the football authorities now expect.

Plainly, though, that has to be a possibility when various players — some named, others not — have already been given permission to stay away from what is being called “Stage One” of the clubs’ training programmes, which mostly involves running and other drills where social distancing can be maintained.

Kante took part on Tuesday before asking Chelsea’s head coach, Frank Lampard, if he could be excluded. There are still three weeks to go before the big lift-off. Nobody knows what kind of numbers will ultimately be involved, whether it will be high or low, and it is probably only when we reach that stage that a reasonable assessment can be made about the potential impact on the league.

Watford, of course, could be one of the clubs to suffer. But is it fair, equally, that Bournemouth had to face an in-form Deeney in January’s loss and other clubs in the relegation frame might now come up against what, in theory, would be a weaker Watford team?

Watford still have to play Norwich City, who are bottom, as well as West Ham United (16th), Southampton (14th) and Newcastle United (13th) in their final nine matches. What if six or seven Watford players have concluded that Deeney is the only one making sense and decided en masse they are better staying away? What if the numbers are even higher? It may be one player or it may be 10 — the point is, nothing can be ruled out. And the league, with zero training in pandemics, has nothing in its rules to allow for such a matter.

For now, it is a waiting game as, bit by bit, the next phases of training are introduced to allow players to tackle and otherwise come into contact with one another. And if the players are concerned now, those misgivings will inevitably increase once it starts to feel more like football, in a real sense.

As Gary Neville, in his Sky Sports television role, says: “I do think there will be more players in training at the moment with nerves who are wary of going in and are considering their health. A large majority will be OK with it and want to play, so it’s a case of, ‘We’re not going to stop this now they’re back in training’. This is a train back on the track, so it isn’t going to stop.”

In Watford’s case, there is also bound to be heightened concern after the disclosure this week that the club accounted for half of the six positive coronavirus tests from the first set of results throughout the league.

Those figures were widely seen as positive elsewhere and it is very clear that football, as an industry, is determined that the show must go on. Not all the cast may be involved but, at the top of the sport, the widespread feeling is that the present situation should not be classified as being different from any kind of personal issue that may require a footballer to seek time off as compassionate leave.

These are, after all, unprecedented times and when the football authorities started putting together their plans for the restart it was always accepted that it would be virtually impossible to satisfy everyone. The decision-makers are also entitled to point out that the vast majority of players have been willing to go back. And, harsh as it may sound, there is so much momentum now that a lot of the relevant people are frustrated that Deeney, as a club captain, appears unwilling to accept what has become the party line.

It is safer, as they keeping telling us, for a professional footballer to start playing again than it is for that player to visit a supermarket. It is just that not everyone seems willing to believe them.

[Vesper 27,282]

Finishing this season’s FA Cup matters more than you might think

https://theathletic.com/1831147/2020/05/23/fa-cup-project-restart/

Amazon, the environment, female heads of state, flour mills, loo roll manufacturers, the NHS, Zoom… there will come a time, hopefully, when we can ask who or what “had a good lockdown” and, when we do, nostalgia must be high on the list.

If it is not families sitting down together to enjoy The Lion King or Only Fools and Horses, it is middle-aged couples watching Normal People and wishing they were 20 again.

It has been the same for football fans. Broadcasters, clubs, leagues and governing bodies have mined their back catalogues for the classics, none more so than the BBC, which has played the nostalgia card better than most.

So we should perhaps not be surprised that the national broadcaster is turning it up to 11 with its homage to the FA Cup final, which — in case you forgot — should be taking place at Wembley this afternoon.

Once upon a time, this was the only game fans could watch on television all season but today the BBC’s “full day of special programmes dedicated to the world’s most famous domestic cup competition” must compete with five Bundesliga games on BT Sport and FC Slutsk v FK Ruh Brest on the Belarussian Football Federation’s YouTube channel.

Even in lockdown, the FA Cup final must share the stage these days.

The BBC is kicking off at 9am on the Red Button with the 1973 final between Sunderland and Leeds United, and pushing on all the way to Ashley Cole’s greatest hits at 11pm on BBC One, via a themed Football Focus, a two-part 50 Greatest Moments show, an FA Cup Final Rewind programme and the latest instalment of Gary Lineker, Ian Wright and Alan Shearer’s Match of the Day top 10s.

But what about this year’s FA Cup? Is it destined to remain stuck in the quarter-finals, which is where we left it in March?

The FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham addressed the matter in a conference call of his own on Thursday, when he told the FA Council’s members that he believed the remaining games could and would be weaved into the Premier League-led Project Restart programme.

One source who was on the call said: “The FA is determined to complete the cup — there will be a huge financial impact with domestic and international broadcast rights if they don’t. Bullingham said it was something the Premier League understands and is supportive of, and it would be factored into their plans to start playing again.

“My gut feeling is it’s part of a quid pro quo for the FA being supportive of the Premier League’s efforts to finish the season.”

Another source who listened to Bullingham on Thursday agreed, saying: “I think it will happen. Look, the FA really needs it to happen and I haven’t heard anything from the Premier League to suggest otherwise.

“If everyone continues to be collaborative, reasonable and flexible — and not get too precious about dates — then I don’t think there’s any problem fitting the FA Cup in.”

This chimes with the views of the eight Premier League clubs still in the competition: Arsenal, Chelsea, Leicester City, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Norwich City and Sheffield United.

Bottom of the table, Norwich are particularly eager to do what one club source described as “something special” in a competition where they have not enjoyed much success, while Newcastle’s manager Steve Bruce is understood to believe he could require cup success to impress his new bosses, assuming he ever gets new bosses.

Three of those eight sides — Arsenal, Manchester City and Sheffield United — have 10 Premier League games still to play, not nine, while Chelsea, City and Manchester United have unfinished business in Europe, too, although there must be even bigger question marks about the Champions League and Europa League finishing this summer than a knockout competition that does not involve cross-border travel.

As things stand, the Premier League and English Football League are still aiming to cram in 200-plus games, including a full Championship programme and the League One and League Two play-offs, in seven weeks starting on June 12, although many in the game believe that date has already slipped to June 19 and could be heading to June 26.

The debate about when, where, why and how these games are going to take place has been probably the best live sport we have had for the past two months, but the FA Cup’s seven remaining fixtures have not been widely discussed.

This is understandable when you consider the fact that the Premier League is already facing a £340 million rebate to its broadcast partners and every place in the final table is worth an extra £2.5 million in prize money, compared to the FA Cup winners’ cheque of £1.8 million.

That is not to say the FA Cup games have not been mentioned at all, though, particularly within the FA, which has as much riding on these games as any of the Premier League sides do when it comes to potential losses.

The FA has already revealed it believes it will lose up to £150 million in revenue as a result of the coronavirus. As well as the disruption to its best club asset, the FA has seen two England men’s home games in March disappear and the cancellation of Euro 2020 this summer. Wembley was meant to host seven of that tournament’s games, including the semi-finals and final, and while it should get to do that in 2021, that does mean it will have to do without its usual season of concerts.

With its 90,000-seat stadium shut down and the hotel and conference centre it runs at St George’s Park in Staffordshire also closed for business, the FA has already furloughed some of its 1,200 staff and cut the salaries of anyone earning more than £50,000. Its biggest earners, including England manager Gareth Southgate and Bullingham, have agreed to a 30 per cent cut.

Some of you may be reaching for your tiny violins at this point, particularly if you are among the millions of people in the UK and elsewhere contemplating an extended period without work, and nobody at the FA will be thinking they are any more deserving of sympathy than anyone else.

But, if you care about football in this country, you should care about the FA’s more general financial concerns.

Last month, it published its annual accounts for the 12 months to July 31, 2019. They were, to put it in layman’s terms, brilliant.

Revenue was up 25 per cent on a World Cup-boosted 2018 to £467 million, which enabled the FA, a non-profit organisation, to distribute a record £165 million throughout the game, pay off another chunk of its Wembley rebuild costs and still finish with £40 million in the bank.

The FA has got plenty wrong in its long history, including a few very expensive mistakes, but in recent years it has become a very well-run commercial operation and the FA Cup has underpinned that transformation.

Last season was the first year of a six-year international rights deal worth $1 billion (£820 million). The domestic rights are shared by the BBC and BT this season but last May the FA managed to ink an improved four-year deal with the BBC and ITV starting in the 2021-22 season.

These deals, plus the contracts for the England men’s and women’s teams, helped the FA more than double its broadcast income last year to £262 million. Throw in more than £100 million from the 54 events Wembley staged and an impressive roster of sponsorships and you have a very profitable non-profit organisation.

Then the virus struck.

“In many ways, the FA is a victim of its own success,” a government source explains. “No other governing body generates nearly as much money as the FA or gives as much away, but no other governing body is as vulnerable to the pandemic’s economic impact, either.”

The old-fashioned view of the FA is that it is a collection of stuffed blazers whose main purpose in life is to ruin our summers. A more modern perspective, however, would be that the FA is the national game’s biggest single funder of amateur facilities, coaching courses, safeguarding initiatives and grassroots programmes.

This season’s competition might have to settle for midweek slots to let the Premier League fulfil its contracted weekend fixtures, or it could end up carving out a long weekend for itself in early August, perhaps with Wembley-based semi-finals and a final. Whatever form it takes, the FA Cup deserves to be part of the Project Restart conversation, not just another slice of lockdown nostalgia. Your local pitch might just depend on it.

[Laylabelle 9,292]

It's sad the effect this is having on League One and Two clubs. Burton manager stepped down to help and think Luton did the same rather then sacking as it seemed at the time. 

Not sure about our unfinished bussiness in Europe lol..though that be intresting with our 14 day quarantine. Depends when gets played.. if gets played what the situation is then.