Kaizero

I think Gabigol was the last Brazilian to have that "hype" you talk of. Remember the press going crazy after Inter Milan "stole" his signature from other European giants after him. Then, Gabigol absolutely bombed and ran back to Brazil with his tail between his legs. Been no hyped up Brazilian youngster since then. To be fair to the kid, Inter absolutely hyped him the fuck up to be "the next Ronaldo" and even unveiled him at the same location they unveiled Ronaldo after he signed

Side note; I somehow happened upon the original laws of the game when I was looking for the law stating teams had to keep their kits for more than one season: Little did I know that handling the ball used to be completely legal (rule eight)

Not sure if this was serious, but it really piqued my interest - so if it was, do you have any relevant articles/source for it being law? 2-3 minutes searching on Google didn't turn up anything relevant That said, I did learn that the shift from multi-season kits to new kits every year came as a side-effect of the massively ballooning manufacturer deals that started popping up at the "big" clubs in the late 00s/early 10s, meaning it wasn't actually something most clubs wanted as the only true beneficiary of the "new season, new kit" system was the kit manufacturers earning back their money - and then some - from fans needing to buy new kits once a year. Doesn't appear as if it will change soon, even with a few clubs reverting to the old ways, as the clubs that have broken off haven't been clubs that make a shitton of money from exclusive deals with the largest sporting goods manufacturing companies in the world - so they can "afford" to be kind to their fans wallets. More worryingly, one article I came across made a good argument for why away/third kits have become more "extravagant", "over the top colorful" and "increasingly eccentric" in their designs the past few seasons; online gaming. Stevenage specifically designed their away kit for the 19/20 season (partnering with Burger King) to "stand out" when someone played as them on FIFA and ran a contest where the participants had to post their best goals from an online FIFA match where they played as Stevenage, wearing the away kit. It apparently was a great marketing ploy as their brand awareness grew exponentially due to the 99% of FIFA players that had no idea why their opponent kept choosing a non-PL English team decked out in an extravagant kit - which triggered their curiosity and led them to familiarise themselves with Stevenage, as well as make the 19/20 away kit the most sold kit in Stevenage's history

Was seconds away from heading into a longform-post defending Siem De Jong's inclusion given how he played 278 matches for them and scored two out of the three goals that secured them their 30th total Eredivise title, this after Ajax got vaccinated against obtaining any form of trophy for seven seasons until De Jong stepped up and broke their dry spell. ...then I noticed "Albert Luque".......if my memory isn't failing, didn't he just play like a handful of games for them before Danny Blind tore up his contract after he knocked Luis Suarez out cold in the Ajax dressing room at half time during a match? What the fuck?

IIRC, back in the day there was this French lad that every now and then put on some Maradona-esque shows. Left the club after our manager at the time, @Alan Pardew, decided that type of showboating belonged at the likes of Hull City - not Newcastle United.

2. Bundesliga started yesterday.

Nevevr heard of this club before earlier today, but man... if they sold their 1st kit without sponsors on it I'd have bought that son of a bitch I love it when clubs do something actually different with their kits.

Bottom left corner looking like what the national stadium of Mordor probably would've looked like

Almost feel bad for the Celtic fans after a run of results like this, they know none of it matters for anything, to anyone or in any way shape or form to anyone.

Come join me in the Olympics thread:

It's NWOAT. Belongs in either SNWOAT or the Daft Football Questions thread, or one of similar ilk.

Oscar Bobb is starting to look like the real deal tbh, two assists and a goal (currently 3-4 against Celtic). Know it's a pre-season friendly and not the best bar to measure against, but still... if only Norway had an actual football manager as our national team manager, this generation of players, on paper, look like they could actually compete at an international tournament. Sadly it doesn't seem like the Norwegian FA possess enough self-awareness to realize how absolutely idiotic it is to constantly tell the press "Solbakken's job is safe" when they've fucked over our national side multiple times over the last decade by sacking managers for "not achieving the FA's level of expectation" when all those fucking managers have a better record than Solbakken. Lars Lagerback even pointed it out during the last round of international fixtures when asked by the studio hosts; "Me and Solbakken have now managed Norway an equal amount of games, his record is worse than mine - I was sacked for delivering below expectations, yet I delivered better results with a team that didn't have players like Ødegaard and Haaland available at the level they are today." Just a middle of the night rant about the absolute shambles that is the Norwegian national team there

They do, agents are paid anywhere from 5% to 20% of their salary.

Iconic managers

Odds make no sense tbh... We're given worse odds than Tottenham to win the Premier League, but given better odds than Tottenham to finish in the top four

Seeing pictures of iconic managers when they were players feels illegal for some reason

"Norwegian top-flight match abandoned after fans protest VAR by throwing fishcakes onto pitch" https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5650159/2024/07/22/norway-var-rosenborg-lillestrom-fishcakes/

This

Genuine question for any ref experts on here: Would doing what that player did actually be against the laws of the game? I've tried googling but have come up short and one of my absolute biggest pet hates is not getting to know the answer to a question I really want to know the answer to

Was it @SEMTEX who got the REQUIRED shirt, or?

nwoat

Playing with the shirt tucked in gives you an advantage tactically as well, as all of a sudden it's a lot more visible when an opponent is pulling your shirt.

Personally I've always felt that when it comes to international football, it intuitively doesn't make sense to hire a manager with the same nationality as the team they'll manage. Can't be arsed trying to explain in detail why I believe that, but in essence I guess it boils down to wanting the guy in charge of tactics and team selection to have a healthy emotional distance to the national pride that's at stake in every match to make the risk of them making a heat-of-the-moment decision driven by emotions instead of tactics.