leffe186

Dude they won the League Cup in 1998, FA Cup in 97 and 2000 and the Uefa Cup in 1998. I distinctly remember the FA and Uefa Cup wins and I’m also 29. That was all before Abramovich. Yeah, and as is commonly accepted, they’d done so by running up enough debt to go under. Then Abramovich came along, wiped out that debt and spent insane amounts of cash to put them over the top and keep them there. You could argue the Man City lottery win was more egregious because they weren’t very good (despite a nice new stadium bought for - relatively - peanuts), but Chelsea’s was a lottery win nonetheless.

Generally speaking, in the unlikely event of us failing to win the league, I want a title win to be as meaningless as possible. When the moneybags club was Man U, I could tolerate them winning it, when it was Chelsea it was less palatable but still not as galling, now it’s Man City. Oh, you won the league with infinite money? Well done. I suspect most people my age are “anyone but Liverpool”. They’ve always been such insufferable pricks. My football confession is that I wanted Michael Thomas to score - it had got to that stage. There are Liverpool pundits on TV as far as the eye can see, and the media have helped nurture their powerful brand through the mediocre years: it was only a matter of time before their disproportionate commercial income would pay dividends. So, Man City for me, with a heavy heart. I can’t see Liverpool slipping up with that run-in. At least the inevitable and relentless ESPN love-in will make one more reason not to switch that channel on.

In fairness, I’d prefer them spawning wins with Ole and keeping him on than the wheels completely coming off now. Would be great to see a slow death for him but it’ll no doubt be over soon I'd say the same if it didn't mean us missing out on the CL.

Even worse, 1st sub for me and he almost certainly won't get on.

They man-marked Messi which broadly worked, but meant that they were less able to press elsewhere. Overall my impression was that Man U played like a team who just weren't good enough to consistently exploit the opponents' weaknesses while negating their strengths. The goal meant Barca could just knock the ball around knowing that 1-0 - and probably 1-1 - were perfectly good results. Man U worked hard, but couldn't afford to maximize the press and leave Messi unattended at all. The biggest surprise for me was that Barca didn't exploit the space they got out wide going forward when players were drawn to Messi. This was most obvious in the latter stages when that guy Barca had on the right whose name escapes me was consistently getting in behind but failing to really drive forward and/or make a telling cross.

We’ve been trying to get him for ages.

Except they wouldn’t because they have 52% possession.

I quite like the "most have multiple difficulties" line. Covers a wide range of possibilities.

Still have all my specials . Free hit this week, then probs wild card before week 35.

Arsenal have a really cushy run-in. Think it’s between us, Man U and Chelsea for the fourth spot.

How's that? A stadium is a lot more about just state of the art facilities and bloody microbrewery's. It's got absolute nothing on the likes of the Westfalenstadion, San Siro, Old Trafford and many, many others. Give it 20 or 30 years to cultivate a renowned atmosphere & historical nights in the world's largest competitions and then we can maybe talk about it in the same conversation as football's greatest homes. Yes it has - state-of-the-art facilities and a bloody microbrewery . You're broadly right, mind. I'm mainly happy it's n the right location tbh.

Wait 'til you see their dog, Bobby Saxton. They're from outback Ohio, so obviously they know all about the world-famous Sunderland AFC.

Just had new neighbours move in next door. They have three little boys, two of whom are named Peter and Reid. The third one is called Byron, sadly not Nyron.

Not sure if there's a particular reason for that, but I wish we went back to playing all over the country.

It's amazing how they rewrite history about their sewpa hard fans, as I went to a few games at Roker in the 80's/early 90's when football hooliganism was in it's pomp, and our lot wandered around with impunity and absolutely took the piss....they were literally nowhere to be seen. Sunderland was a stroll in the park compared to most grounds back then (especially Boro) but reading their threads on RTG, and it's about how they smashed everybody and anybody there. :lol: We were there in the 92/93 season (Liam O'Brien over the wall) and we basically took over the place and there was nothing they could do about it. Not only did we have the entire Roker End but they also moved their own fans out of the Clock Stand Paddocks and handed that over to us as well. I remember we parked up about a mile from the ground and it was NUFC everywhere, in fact we barely seen a mackem until we got inside. It was just one big pisstake and something they've never been able to do up here. Officially we had 7k there I think but in reality it was a whole lot more than that. Boro on the other hand was very dodgy. Only went to Ayresome Park once (beat them 3-1 in the league cup) and that was a pretty intimidating experience. Even the first few years at their new ground you had to have your wits about you. Roker park was a breeze I was there for the 0-0 in 90 (Burridge pen save, 91-92 liam obrien in the fog and the over the wall the year after. The worst shit we got was bricks being thrown on walk from Seaburn to the ground. Boro and Ayresome park on the other hand was a Different beast entirely you risked your life going there especially by train with the subway in the station Middlesbrough was always a bugger because of the rozzers too. It didn't matter so much who you were up against, but you knew if it was West Mids, South Yorks or Cleveland Police it would be a miserable awayday.

Currently at 100pts in this week’s Draft FF .

Sat here at work in Ohio, wish I was there tbh .

It’s quite impressive, feels like apart from the Dortmund game every single thing has been bad for us lately.

Weirdly did miles better on my draft team despite only having three guys playing today. Mind you, they were Van Aanholt, Bernardo Silva, and Vardy.

Quite enjoyed reading that tbh

How can they play football with all that racket going on?

Lloris Aldeweireld King Vertonghen Carr Bale Modric Eriksen Son Ginola Kane Seems legit.

45 from seven guys. Pretty happy with that tbh. Mainly annoyed by the draft game, where I had Maguire at CB .

#Surprisednotsurprised I hate them, but this totally neglects the fact they had a rancid group, beat Bayern and then may have to beat Barca and City to win it. Yeah, I like that they have got Barca/Man U in the next round, but on paper our group and Dortmund were tougher. Just let me wallow in my salt .

#Surprisednotsurprised