leffe186

You have set international weeks to accommodate qualifiers instead of having them scattered around the calendar. Both international and domestic coaches can prepare well in advance. Then if you’ve already qualified or are already out and don’t have a playoff you can have a couple of friendlies to try out new tactics and players, and bring squads together for training and bonding. I prefer it like this tbh. Imagine you had Bruno Guimaraes flying halfway round the world for midweek games between league matches every three weeks or so.

Just re-watched the second half. What a fantastic performance. Particularly enjoyed watching Sa take about a minute over a drop kick knowing that extra minute meant Cov winning the game

You’ll go some to beat Bryan Gil up front, Kulisevski pretending to be Maddison and Ben Davies and Emerson Royal at CB

That last two minutes of possession before the weak finish from Palmer was absolutely brilliant. Would have been up there with the best goals I’ve ever seen from a Championship club.

The most sitter of sitters. Worth seeking out if you missed it

Tbf Swansea massively on top.

I think you’ve got a chance. Can’t see them playing a full strength team (they’re obviously without Ederson and De Bruyne anyway) and we got a 3-3 draw there with a comedy line-up.

Would take that tbh. ABA.

Yes and no. The Champions League is a very different kettle of fish from the Europa Conference. West Ham won every single game in the Conference last year - all the home and away legs, all the group matches - except one, drawing one leg of their Quarter-Final with Gent. It’s not remotely as competitive, there are just a lot of games. You saw the issues. You basically had to play your strongest possible team in every game in the CL. There are some Spurs fans (not many, but some) who are saying they would rather we miss out on the CL this season for that reason: they want a stronger squad before taking on the CL and the opportunity the Europa League affords to blood younger players and keep fringe players ticking over. Luck plays a significant part. Arsenal have had very few injuries so far despite so many games, while Man U had disastrous injuries even before the Group Stage started. Your draw for the CL was rough (but fun), Arsenal had PSV, Lens and Sevilla. Don’t get me wrong, it was a terrific achievement for West Ham. The more salient problem is that the competition from other PL sides is tough so the margin for error is small. That year West Ham got 7th there was a really big drop-off after the top five. That same points total the next year would have had them in 10th and out of Europe.

Jesus Christ. More than 30 years later.

Looking at how excited and proud Gordon is, does anyone know the story behind Ben White saying “no thanks”?

Yeah, that’s clearly the reason why he‘s still there, which is a pity. Make him a coach or something Goalkeepers…whatever, not inspiring but nothing better out there. Defenders bit thin but presume Tomori is still injured. Don’t particularly rate Gomez but he’s probably partly in because of versatility. Konsa didn’t look great against us either but isn’t he versatile too? Happy to see Branthwaite but would love to see a proper fullback out there - Livramento? Midfield - feels like we’re missing someone here even allowing for giving a mascot a place in the squad. Henderson is presumably just in there as a leader. We feel like we’re one “holding” midfielder short. Forwards…and one too many here. I suppose Foden and Palmer could be included as midfielders. I do think Rashford can do a job as an impact sub though. Overall fair enough I guess.

Nice one, thanks. I’d expect the Chelsea one to come down this year but will be interesting to see how the Liverpool one changes.

Where are your figures from? I don’t think that’s true.

It’s still really disconcerting when European refs add literally no time on.

Never a free kick that.

Tbf all those years of growth hormones probably helped Messi out too.

No, that's adrenochrome. Agendachrome would have to be a specific human, maybe one where the agenda overrides all else. Like say Hitler. Or Alex Jones. Or Gary Neville.

I’m just not sure the European Super League or whatever silly name they want to call it has much to do with this decision.

Dunno man, not sure Bournemouth or Crystal Palace will be up for the Super League breakaway. Don’t know enough about the deal or the reasons why these 10 clubs and not the other 10 have cropped up. Levy is definitely a bastard though. Not sure that makes him all that different from other Chairmen . Rest of the Board seem Ok.

Agendachrome who do you have to sacrifice to get that?

I'm genuinely sorry, it just blows my mind that I actually didn't know. I'm 50 and been a footy fan since the late 70s, essentially, and a pretty serious one. Feels like I should have known

This all made me think of something. I sort of knew the Fairs Cup format was weird and changed over time but never bothered to look up the details. You probably all knew this already but Today I learned that Newcastle actually finished 10th the year they qualified for the 1968/69 Fairs Cup. Man City won the league, and so qualified for the European Cup. In theory the next four would go into the Fairs Cup. However, Man U also qualified for the European Cup because they won it that year. Then Everton in 5th weren't allowed in because they came from the same city as Liverpool in 3rd. Then Spurs in 7th weren't allowed in because we were from the same city as Chelsea in 6th - likewise Arsenal in 9th. Then West Brom in 8th won the FA Cup so they went into the Cup Winners' Cup I knew it was a bit weird, but I didn't realize quite how silly it was . I just never bothered to look it up until now.

Glad that's clarified.

This isn’t really true though. In 21/22 they were significantly lower than the top four - but they were still fifth. The years before that they were third or fourth. They offloaded some high earners…but they had to, because they’d just finished 8th two years in a row and hadn’t finished in the top four since 2016. Then cut to now - I believe they’re back to third, behind Man U and Man City. The wage to turnover ratio in 21/22 (remember, their lowest relative wage bill in God knows how long) was excellent but still not as good as Man City ( ) West Ham or Spurs. They were relatively low - relative to only four other teams - for a year or two. Still higher than everyone else. Relatively very low compared to Man City and Man U I guess so…well done?