Vesper 31,180 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 wow, what a miss should be nil 4 and that would have been a brilliant team goal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 fucking Citeh we actually would have had a shot at CL if they had not choked v Bournemouth nil 3 FT Villa back with a major Euro trophy for the first time since they won the European Cup in 1982 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 hats off to Emery for tying 3 giants for most UEFA trophies class manager far better than anything we have had since Tuchel (and hopefully now with Alonso) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 it is always a good day when the English beat the Germans Johnnyeye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laylabelle 9,754 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 Awww good for Villa! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAM09 7,100 Posted May 20 Share Posted May 20 Emery's reign continues. The chokehold he has on that trophy (unless he's playing us 😄). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 21 Share Posted May 21 Chelsea have a shot at qualifying for Europe. But should they want it? https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7293210/2026/05/20/Chelsea-europe-qualify-pros-cons/ So Chelsea have something to play for in their final Premier League game of the season after all. A 2-1 victory over Tottenham — their first in the top division since March 4 — has kept their chances of playing in Europe alive. But would they be better off not qualifying? It is certainly worthy of debate. Chelsea are currently eighth. Should they finish there, it would put them in the Conference League, a competition they won last year. There are various permutations about what could happen on Sunday but to avoid causing anyone a headache, a win at Sunderland should be good enough to ensure Chelsea finish eighth at the very least (Brentford are also on 52 points but go to Liverpool with an inferior goal difference by four). Should Brighton & Hove Albion also fail to defeat Manchester United at home, then Chelsea will climb to seventh and take a Europa League spot instead. Lose and they be out of contention because Sunderland will leapfrog them. Chelsea’s incoming manager Xabi Alonso will inherit the ramifications of whatever takes place. What would he or anyone connected to Chelsea prefer? The Athletic debates the pros and cons. For Chance to add another European trophy Chelsea will instantly be the strong favourites for the Conference League and very fancied for the Europa League, too, if they get into that. The club may have just lost their seventh domestic cup final in a row, but their European record is very good. They have two Champions Leagues, two Europa Leagues, two Super Cups, two Cup Winners’ Cups and one Conference League. UEFA gave them a special award last August for being the first club to claim the full set of their trophies in the men’s game. Both tournaments will provide Alonso a great opportunity to claim silverware in his first campaign in charge at Stamford Bridge. A useful way to get fans, players and critics onside. It will also perhaps make amends for one of his biggest personal disappointments since going into management as his Bayer Leverkusen team suffered their only defeat in 2023-24 in the Europa League final against Atalanta. Europe would give Xabi Alonso another chance of winning an early trophyFlorencia Tan Jun/Getty Images Another way of qualifying for Europe The winners of the Conference League go into the Europa League the following season (as long as that team have not qualified for the Champions League via the league). An even more appealing award is lifting the Europa League trophy because that automatically puts you into the Champions League. It’s a nice insurance policy if league form falters. Keeps players happy It is much more difficult to give the whole squad lots of game time if Chelsea are competing in just three competitions. European football provides an opportunity to rotate and that includes looking at giving academy talent a chance to get some experience. Nine homegrown teenagers got to feature under head coach Enzo Maresca last term in the Conference League. Alonso can also use more fixtures to work on tactical improvements and adjustments while still expecting to win. Interrupt bad runs It can be very easy to go on bad set of results in the Premier League. Chelsea lost six straight league games recently to see that. Being able to secure comfortable wins in Europe can kill negative momentum and keep the team, as well as individuals, confident in what they are doing. It was certainly useful for Maresca last season. Avoiding reputational damage A club with Chelsea’s record, and resources, should be in Europe. Given they went into this season with qualifying for the Champions League as a minimum target, not being good enough for all three is a bad look. Chelsea also failed to book a spot in the first season of the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium in 2022-23. They followed that setback by playing in the Conference League (2024-25) and Champions League (2025-26) in the last two seasons. That makes it a 50 per cent success rate. The hierarchy will want that to go up, not down. It sends a more upbeat message that the ‘project’ is still on the right path, albeit relatively compared to standards set under previous owner Roman Abramovich. What You Should Read Next Inside Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea appointment and why Liverpool did not turn to manager seeking ‘mentality monsters’ Xabi Alonso wants to turn Chelsea into 'mentality monsters' and the club will support him with at least two new top-level signings Against Busy schedule/travel Playing in Europe means more fixtures and the dreaded Thursday-Sunday grind that few head coaches or managers like to have in the Premier League. There is also a lot of air miles involved, which can have a negative impact. Even with the possibility of making mass changes to the line-up to share the workload, it can still increase feelings of fatigue, mentally and physically. Players could do with a break With Chelsea playing in the FIFA Club World Cup last summer and many of their players involved in the World Cup coming up, there are some key individuals who have been playing a lot of football with very little respite for years, including the likes of Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo. Enzo Fernandez has played a huge amount of footballJustin Setterfield/Getty Images Fatigue has to be one of the factors as to why Chelsea’s form in the second half of this season dropped significantly. Having a full week between games on regular occasions is clearly going to keep them fresh. You only have to see how Manchester United, who were not in European competition this season as well as being knocked out of both domestic cups in their first game, have benefited. With one fixture a week to concentrate on since early January, United have taken advantage to secure third spot in the table. Little credit for winning Due to spending well in excess of £1billion on signings over the last four years, few outside of Stamford Bridge will lavish Chelsea with praise or see it as a notable achievement if they win one of Europe’s lesser trophies. When the gulf in resources is this large, Chelsea have little to win and an awful lot to lose. Certainly appearing in the Conference League again will be largely ignored as it was so easy for them to dominate the competition in 2024-25. They won every single game from the group phase onwards, despite Maresca picking a lot of fringe players. Alonso gets more time to work on things in training Having decent gaps between fixtures would be fantastic for Alonso to get his message across. Predecessor Antonio Conte used it to good effect in his first year at the helm. He is the last Chelsea manager to win a Premier League in 2016-17, when the club were not distracted by European football. Antonio Conte won the Premier League when Chelsea were out of Europe in 2016-17Michael Regan/Getty Images Financial reward is minimal Chelsea earned only around €22m (£15m) for winning the Conference League in 2025. Some reports suggest Aston Villa will have made about £36m if they triumph in tonight’s Europa League final. Is having some income for participating better than nothing? Maybe, but if playing in it has a detrimental impact on the league results, there could be a big price to pay. So if you were in Alonso’s position what would you choose? For me, despite all the potential negatives, Chelsea should do their utmost to beat Sunderland and give Alonso, as well as the club’s fanbase, another European adventure to look forward to. Simon Johnson has spent the majority of his career as a sports reporter since 2000 covering Chelsea, firstly for Hayters, then the London Evening Standard and finally The Athletic for the past six years. This included going to every game home and away as the west London club secured the Champions League in 2012. He also reported on the England national team between 2008-19 and been a regular contributor to talkSPORT radio station for over a decade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Champions League final will not be free to watch in UK for first time in 34 years https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7289137/2026/05/18/champions-league-final-how-to-watch-uk/ The Champions League final will not be made free-to-air in the United Kingdom for the first in over 30 years. TNT Sports, which is owned by Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), has the exclusive UK rights to screen the final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal in Budapest on May 30, but they will place the fixture behind a paywall. It also means UK-based viewers who don’t already subscribe to TNT Sports or HBO Max, WBD’s streaming platform, need to pay to watch Aston Villa’s Europa League final against Freiburg on Wednesday, May 20, as well as Crystal Palace’s Conference League final versus Rayo Vallecano seven days later, on May 27. The cheapest option for fans wanting to watch the trio of European finals will be to sign up to HBO Max’s most basic subscription, costing £4.99 a month. Although it is still a cost viewers have not needed to pay in 34 years, it is markedly cheaper than forking out £31.99 to subscribe to TNT Sports. What You Should Read Next Paramount wins Champions League broadcast rights in UK and Ireland Meanwhile, Sky Sports will become the exclusive UK broadcaster of the Europa league and Conference League. Ever since BT Sport, TNT Sports’ predecessor, acquired the Champions League and Europa League rights in 2015-16, the finals have been streamed for free, including on YouTube. TNT Sports continued that tradition, although last year viewers had to sign up to Discovery+ — at no extra cost — to access the broadcast. A TNT Sports source, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said placing the Champions League final and the two other UEFA finals behind a paywall is a business decision. The broadcaster holds the UK rights to all three European competitions, but lost out to Paramount for the Champions League and to Sky Sports for the Europa League and Conference League during UEFA’s media rights sale for the four-year cycle commencing 2027-28, meaning next season will be its last showing the competitions. Prior to BT Sport buying the rights ahead of the 2015-16 campaign, the Champions League final was broadcast live on ITV, with the free-to-air television network having exclusivity from 1992 to 2003, before sharing the rights with Sky Sports until 2015. Dan Sheldon is a football news correspondent for The Athletic. He has previously covered Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Southampton FC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Harry Kane scores DFB-Pokal hat-trick to finish season with 61 Bayern Munich goals https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7303545/2026/05/23/harry-kane-bayern-munich-dfb-pokal/ Harry Kane concluded the most prolific season of his professional career with a hat-trick in the DFB-Pokal final to take him to 61 club goals across 2025-26. Kane, 32, scored three times in the second half as Bayern beat Stuttgart 3-0 in Saturday’s final to complete a domestic double, having been crowned Bundesliga champions in April. The pitch at Berlin’s Olympiastadion was shrouded in smoke during the second half following a mass pyrotechnic display from fans. Both sets of supporters had also conducted a protest against the German Football Association (DFB) with an anti-DFB banner after the break. Kane ended the season with 61 goals in just 51 appearances — 36 in the Bundesliga, 14 in the Champions League and 10 in the DFB Pokal — to bring his goal tally for Bayern to 146 in 147 games following his move from Tottenham Hotspur in the summer of 2023. Supporters took part in a mass pyrotechnic displayReinaldo Coddou H./Getty Images The England captain said in November it was “very unlikely” he would leave the German Bundesliga club at the end of the season, while the club’s board member for sport, Max Eberl, confirmed in January they were in discussions with the striker over a new contract. Kane said conversations over his future had been put on hold until the end of the season but described the situation as “calm”. “It’s not the time to talk about that now, but there’s no panic,” he told Sky Sports Germany. “We wanted to hold conversations until the end of the season and we’ve got a World Cup still to play. But everyone knows how much I enjoy it here. That situation is calm.” Kane opened the scoring in the 54th minute on Saturday as he headed home a Michael Olise cross. He added a second in the 79th minute, recovering possession after hitting the post from the edge of the area, spinning in the box and finding the bottom corner. Kane completed his hat-trick in second-half stoppage time as he converted a penalty after Stuttgart’s Angelo Stiller was penalised for handball. Kane was named in Thomas Tuchel’s 26-man England squad for this summer’s World Cup on Friday and is set to captain the side during the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Ali Rampling is a Deputy Managing Editor at The Athletic. Prior to joining The Athletic, she worked as the Women's Football Editor at 90min. Ali attended Loughborough University, and originates from Ipswich. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 24 Share Posted May 24 Keir Starmer urges TNT Sports to make Arsenal’s Champions League final free to watch https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7302478/2026/05/23/keir-starmer-tnt-sports-champions-league-final-arsenal/ UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has “strongly urged” TNT Sports to make the Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain free to air for the British public. The broadcaster, which is owned by Warner Bros Discovery (WBD), has the exclusive UK rights to screen the final in Budapest on May 30, but for the first time in more than 30 years the fixture will be placed entirely behind a paywall. UK-based viewers who do not already subscribe to TNT Sports or HBO Max, WBD’s streaming platform, needed to pay to watch Aston Villa’s Europa League final win over Freiburg on Wednesday, May 20, and would also have to do similarly for Crystal Palace’s Conference League final versus Rayo Vallecano seven days later, on May 27. In an open letter to TNT Sports, Starmer, who is an Arsenal supporter, wrote that he was “saddened” by the decision not to make the Champions League final free-to-air and that he believed it should be “free to watch, whether Arsenal have made it or not”. “I want as many fellow fans as possible to be able to watch our team in this historic final for the first time in 20 years. However, this is bigger than that,” read the letter. “This is about supporters of all teams coming together in living rooms and pubs in every corner of the country to watch the most elite players in Europe battle it out. Hard-working people should not have to worry about forking out for a subscription to watch a game of this magnitude. “We should be putting supporters first … That is also why I want to strongly urge you to reconsider and make the final next Saturday free to watch for the millions of passionate football fans in this country.” A TNT Sports spokesperson said the company’s pricing of all three European finals represented “exceptional value for fans”. The cheapest option for fans wanting to watch the trio of European finals will be to sign up to HBO Max’s most basic subscription, costing £4.99 ($6.71) a month. Although it is still a cost viewers have not needed to pay in 34 years, it is markedly cheaper than paying £31.99 ($42.99) to subscribe to TNT Sports. Since BT Sport, TNT Sports’ predecessor, acquired the Champions League and Europa League rights in 2015-16, the finals have been streamed for free, including on YouTube. TNT Sports continued that tradition, although last year viewers had to sign up to Discovery+ — at no extra cost — to access the broadcast. Dan Kilpatrick is a Deputy Managing Editor for The Athletic, joining the company in 2025. Previously he was the chief football correspondent for the Evening Standard and Tottenham correspondent for ESPN FC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Juan 28,869 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 For the good of football please PSG win this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulham Broadway 17,810 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Think PSG will overcome the evil set piece cheats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laylabelle 9,754 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Just have a horrible feeling how it will go... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheHulk 2,680 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Laylabelle said: Just have a horrible feeling how it will go... Yeah 5-1 PSG thats how it will go, these wankers robbed the league with refs won't have that luxury in the final. Edited May 27 by TheHulk Fulham Broadway 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laylabelle 9,754 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 6 hours ago, TheHulk said: Yeah 5-1 PSG thats how it will go, these wankers robbed the league with refs won't have that luxury in the final. Hopefully but we managed to get 2 past them before our goalie and defence gave up..shall see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulham Broadway 17,810 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Should be easy for Palace tonight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Special Juan 28,869 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Give me Wharton over Enzo any day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 1 nil Palace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fulham Broadway 17,810 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Mateta scores - Spaniards gave Wharton so much time and room. Idiots Vesper 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vesper 31,180 Posted May 27 Share Posted May 27 Just now, Fulham Broadway said: Mateta scores - Spaniards gave Wharton so much time and room. Idiots I would kill to get Wharton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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