The English Football Thread

[YorkshireBlue 2,825]

2 minutes ago, Vesper said:

most stream sites are fucked up on this game, if they come up I will post them

Tbh only games am watching this year is, chelsea games and Leeds games.

[Vesper 27,310]

use this one for now

https://www.vipleague.cc/sheffield-united-vs-wolverhampton-wanderers-streaming-link-2

[NikkiCFC 7,581]

23 hours ago, Special Juan said:

The Mourinho negativity stamp is in full effect at Spurs.

 

[Vesper 27,310]

nil 1 Wolves, 

Raul

[LAM09 6,547]

Wolves ahead 2-0 already

[Pizy 17,860]

If Jimenez was 25 instead of nearly 30 he'd be the hottest property in Europe and cost £100m. What a striker.

And Wolves...wow. 2-0 already 

[Vesper 27,310]

nil 2 Saiss

[Vesper 27,310]

my stream is obviously delayed 

[Ryan Fong 2,776]

With the rising of like Everton and Wolves this season’s epl would be tough and exciting.

[Vesper 27,310]

better stream is up now

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/premier-league-sheffield-united-vs-wolverhampton-wanderers-s2/

[Vesper 27,310]

José Mourinho's creative criticisms impress … unlike his Spurs team

FOOTBALL UNSTOPPED AGAIN

Like Bond films, the prodigal son, nits and wearing bucket hats in public, the Premier League was always going to come back sooner or later, and now here it is. There was a time, only a matter of weeks ago really, when it felt like football’s return was a wonderful distraction from the awfulness of everything, whereas now, when many of us in our real lives are attempting to paddle tentatively in the pool of vague normality, football, with its empty stands and computer-generated crowd noise, is a reminder of the awfulness of everything. Having restarted in temporary fanlessness with the absolute elite, sport has now respread so far that this week’s behind-closed-doors fixtures involve, with respect to the footballers of Macedonia, Latvia and Ukraine, such sporting irrelevances as Shkendija, Ventspils, Kolos Kovalivka and Tottenham Hotspur.

Poor old Spurs. They used to be the kind of team Amazon wanted to make documentaries about. That felt a long time ago as Everton comprehensively outplayed them at White Hart Lane. Tottenham’s most creative force now seems to be José Mourinho, whose attempts to find ways of blaming the players he can no longer afford to upgrade, for whatever failing he wants to be the focus this week, continue to impress … unlike his team. “I go home with the feeling that some of the boys could do more,” he concluded, after Everton’s expensively remodelled midfield gave his side the runaround.

[NikkiCFC 7,581]

49 minutes ago, Ryan Fong said:

With the rising of like Everton and Wolves this season’s epl would be tough and exciting.

Everton finished 12th last season and Arsenal 8th. This season I see them in top6 over Spurs, Wolves and Leicester.

[Vesper 27,310]

Souness is wrong about Noble. West Ham’s failings are not his fault

https://theathletic.com/2061650/2020/09/14/souness-noble-grenade-diangana-sullivan-brady-gold/

“In my opinion, Mark Noble has let him (David Moyes) down. Eight days ago, he threw a hand grenade into the mix by questioning people further up the tree who made that football decision to sell the young player (Grady Diangana) to West Brom. Does Noble know the ins and outs of the finances at West Ham where he feels he can say that? If he felt that, then he should have kept it to himself. That’s not helped their cause.”

It is the aftermath of West Ham United’s 2-0 opening day defeat by Newcastle United, and according to Graeme Souness, it would seem there is one person more culpable than others as he vehemently explains how Noble’s tweet would have affected morale at the London Stadium.

“Moyes won’t say it had an impact on what happened but I guarantee you, I’m a football person and I’ve been around football clubs a long time, that would have impacted on West Ham in the build-up to the game,” continued the former Newcastle, Blackburn and Liverpool manager speaking as a pundit on Sky Sports.

“Their captain has shot himself in the foot. He’s got no business — if he felt like that then he should have kept it to himself. I don’t know why he came out with that because it didn’t help.”

Regardless of what happens this season for West Ham, 9.13pm on September 4 will always live long in the memory. Noble’s tweet in which he said he was “gutted, angry and sad” about Diangana’s £18 million move to West Bromwich Albion wasn’t something he had done in the heat of the moment or a tweet he will regret posting. It was a tweet that perfectly encapsulates the mood among West Ham supporters.

If there were an award for tweet of the year run by West Ham fans, then Noble’s would be tough to beat. Perhaps Souness could present the West Ham captain with his award, because accusing Noble of letting his team-mates down and having no business voicing his opinion makes no sense.

It is worth mentioning that Declan Rice and Sebastien Haller liked Noble’s tweet, and Arthur Masuaku responded with a sad face and broken heart emoji.

Jack Wilshere wins the category for best supporting act having responded to Diangana’s post on Instagram by saying: “Go and do your thing at a club that respects you.” “The lads are gutted,” a West Ham source told The Athletic.

Contrary to Souness’s belief, this shows a dressing room that is united, but ultimately very annoyed that one of their best young players had been sold to a club who could potentially become West Ham’s relegation rivals. The hierarchy may not have been impressed by Noble’s tweet but The Athletic was told at the time that the sale brought a group who had been in good spirits this summer even closer together, uniting them in opposition to what had happened.

What good would it have done if Noble had remained quiet about the board making what he (and a lot of other people) perceived to be a poor decision when it comes to their recruitment? This is a player who has made 503 appearances for West Ham and whose loyalty can never be questioned. He is a player who former team-mate Calum Davenport thinks “deserves a statue”, a player who Gianfranco Zola likened to Andrea Pirlo and who always went out of his way to make people feel comfortable.

“It didn’t matter if you were a player, a receptionist, or the tea lady — Mark always had time for you that’s why he’s such a likeable guy,” Joey O’Brien said in an interview ahead of Noble’s 500th appearance.

Mark Noble is West Ham. It may be a cliche, it may sound cheesy but, like it or not, it means one thing above all else: he cares.

When Bobby Zamora appeared on the U Irons podcast in August, he said: “I would like to see Noble have a proper role at the club and have a real say because I know he isn’t going to do it for a pound note, or to make himself look good — he’s going to do it because he just wants West Ham to win.”

Noble, whose contract expires at the end of the season, is 33 and nearing the end of his career and wants to be competing higher up the table, not continuously being involved in relegation scraps. Having impressed in pre-season, Diangana was supposed to be a key player for West Ham this season. Moyes stated on numerous occasions that he was looking forward to working with the young talent. In January 2019, Diangana signed a six-year contract and had five years remaining before his departure.

Diangana brought a buzz. In their first pre-season game without him, the 5-3 defeat by Bournemouth, the players didn’t look fully switched on. Promising right-back Ben Johnson played poorly and was taken off in the 25th minute, the passing was slow and at times, it seemed as if the players would have rather the match not taken place at all.

In an ideal world, it would have been Diangana on the left flank against Newcastle United, but instead, Moyes used three different players over 90 minutes on the left wing — Pablo Fornals, Jarrod Bowen and Felipe Anderson.

Before the match, there was a small section of West Ham supporters near the press entrance at the London Stadium with banners that read “GSB out” and “Club Killers. GSB out. RIP West Ham United”. We are only 90 minutes into the new season. Souness must know these protests have been sparked by far more than a tweet. Could anyone truly think Noble is at fault for fans being angry at the direction in which the club is heading?

It was only in March when protesters walked from the Victoria Tavern pub, near Plaistow station, towards the London Stadium. As they vented their frustration towards vice-chairman Karren Brady and co-owners David Gold and David Sullivan they chorused: “Where’s our fucking money?”

The club has said that they have been strongly affected by the economic fallout of the coronavirus shutdown, putting more of their own money into the club this summer and still being short on transfer funds. But the resentment towards the trio has only increased due to a lack of signings.

Teams of a similar standing continue to spend as West Ham stay stagnant. Sheffield United have invested well having signed promising talents Aaron Ramsdale, Jayden Bogle and Max Lowe. Crystal Palace augmented their attack with the signing of Eberechi Eze, a player West Ham had been linked with. Fulham signed Antonee Robinson, another previously linked with West Ham. Aston Villa spent £16 million on Matty Cash, which is more than what the board have spent on full-backs in their 10-year reign, and to compound matters, he was also linked with a move to the London Stadium. Leeds United broke their transfer record to sign Rodrigo. Even Mike Ashley has invested in Newcastle following the arrivals of Callum Wilson, Jeff Hendrick, Jamal Lewis and Ryan Fraser.

Brady’s only public comment after the game on Saturday was to tweet her column about Kim Kardashian. Perhaps, given the reaction to it from West Ham supporters, it was a message Souness might have advised would have been best kept to herself.

West Ham’s next six league games are against Arsenal, Wolves, Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Liverpool. It wouldn’t be outlandish to say the club may enter the month of November with zero points.

It’s such a shame considering the good work Moyes has done whether it’s integrating young players into the first team, attending under-23 fixtures with his first-team coaches, or giving Declan Rice the confidence to grow into a leader.

There was so much momentum towards the end of last season, especially with West Ham playing free-flowing attacking football, and now there is very little optimism.

Yet whatever Souness may think, that is not the fault of Noble, it is the fault of the club.

In his press conference in January, Moyes outlined his vision: “I want to stop the idea that what we’re doing is just buying someone who will fill the gap. I want it to be the vision for the club that we’re looking to bring in young, attractive, hungry players who are saying, ‘We’re going to make West Ham better’.”

In the board’s defence, the arrivals of Bowen, 23, and Tomas Soucek, who turned 25 a month after joining, are a case in point that they can get it right but it has happened all too rarely. Lord knows how West Ham supporters would react if the unthinkable scenario of Rice leaving to join Chelsea were to materialise. On this, the club have promised to stand firm.

Yet the frustration among supporters is hardly their own fault either. They have been promised so much more than this.

Moving to the London Stadium in 2016 was supposed to enable the club to compete higher up the table. If we’re judging statements on Twitter, how about the one from co-chairman Gold a year ago? “There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t be playing in the Champions League within the next five years,” he wrote.

Well, Moyes certainly has a task on his hand if he is to achieve that objective, considering the last time West Ham came close to finishing in the top four was during the 1998-99 season when the club finished fifth under Harry Redknapp.

Noble’s tweet was just another reminder that some of the decision-making in the hierarchy at West Ham hasn’t always turned out best for the club.

The board have three weeks to change the mood among fans. To change the mood in the dressing room. The arrival of new players with the funds generated from the sales of Diangana, Albian Ajeti and Jordan Hugill is the only way to do that.

Yet whatever happens to West Ham this season, however bad it gets, Souness and the board must understand: Noble’s tweet was the warning, not the cause.

[Vesper 27,310]

2020-21 English Carabao Cup, Second Round

Burton Albion v Aston Villa

http://www.sportnews.to/sports/2020/efl-cup-burton-vs-aston-villa-s1/

https://www.totalsportek.com/aston-villa/

[Vesper 27,310]

Bats starts for Palace but I cannot find a stream

[Vesper 27,310]

lol

Burton 1 nil

[NikkiCFC 7,581]

27 minutes ago, Vesper said:

lol

Burton 1 nil

How is our GK doing for them?

[Vesper 27,310]

12 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

How is our GK doing for them?

Just gave up the tying goal to Ollie Watkins