ponsaelius

Even as Serie A fell well behind La Liga and arguably also Bundesliga in terms of quality over the last 15 years, I have still always much preferred it. I think much of it is how football reflects society, history and culture. It sounds terrible but the bitter intensity of the local/regional rivalries, the history of corruption and outright mistrust of officials, the 'problematic' ultra culture, the decaying stadia (a direct result of glacial bureaucracy) - all of that contributes to the interest from my point of view. For a lot of people it turns them off - especially when it has all definitely contributed to a drop in quality on the pitch. If you were to ask me how I wanted English football to be run then the Bundesliga would probably be the model I'd point to. Fan ownership and direct involvement, amazing stadiums and infrastructure, great full capacity attendances, 'nice' fan culture with 'good' politics, great youth academies. Yet for some reason I find the Bundesliga boring to follow from afar... go figure.

Ligue 1 produces players that have made France world champions and have ridiculous depth. They also supply half of Africa with their national teams for those that aren't good enough for Les Bleus. Even if players are constantly leaving the league, which is unfortunately the case, there's a constant churn of new domestic talent coming through. PSG have had a super team for a decade and have still been beaten to the title twice now. I say this as somebody who finds it really hard to generate an interest in French football, too. But to be honest that's rarely down to the talent and quality of the teams. It's more down to the lack of cultural cache I have attached with the clubs - which I just don't find interesting. Which I think stems from a lack of historic exposure in the UK, and a lack of historic success in Europe (Ligue's track record in winning European trophies is atrocious).

I think there's an argument that, despite their dominance, Bundesliga games are generally more competitive than Ligue 1. Not sure I agree mind. Ligue 1 is generally pretty underrated in terms of standard, while Bundesliga is probably slightly overrated.

He actually does. Messi is good pals with Maxi Lopez, who's wife Wanda left him for Icardi. That's why Icardi never got near the national team for ages. Indeed still doesn't.

Swedish.

This is true enough like. You only have to look at somebody like Danilo who is just about the most successful player of all time by simply bouncing around the top clubs.

I think it's more just that Ronaldo has moved around throughout his career anyway. People expected better of Messi being a 1 club player. I did anyway. But to be fair Messi's never moved around like Ronaldo has because there's never been a realistic step up - or a motivation to do so. Now there is loads of teams that are a step up at the moment (PSG included).

Tedious.

Correct.

Get in! Got that already as my sis gets it for free/near enough free Every game being broadcast, too. Ace.

Good chance of 50% capacity before the season starts, but not confirmed yet IIRC.

Atalanta probably stood still really as Musso is an upgrade in goal but Demiral not in the same class as Romero. Still to be seen what happens with Ilicic and Zapata probably going and who comes in to replace them. Milan will be doing well to replicate last season I think. Biggest wildcard this season is probably Napoli under Spalletti as they haven't really got any weaker (yet) and first XI on paper is still strong. At the moment without guarantee of fans back in the stadium then it's more likely that players continue to leave than new signings coming in. That either makes it an open field or clears a path for Juve.

This financial crisis/ownership situation is such a disaster for Inter and Serie A in general. Really felt like they were building something promising.

Absolutely creased at that

Some that would be up there off top of my head: Feyenoord vs Ajax at the De Kuip before they leave. Boca vs River at La Bombonera. Raja vs Wydad Casablanca. Persepolis vs Esteghlal (Tehran derby) Red Star vs Partizan at the Marakana

In last 10-15 years Denmark >> Sweden > Norway id say. Danish teams have been stronger in CL generally. The teams that have had success tend to have been sides formed from late 20th/21st century mergers of smaller clubs (Copenhagen, Midtjylland, Nordsjaelland) so are basically new clubs altogether representing greater regions or perhaps more logical geographical areas. Not great for the traditionalists but has probably allowed them to consolidate better, gather bigger support and put together stronger sides in Europe. The traditional big clubs in Sweden have on the other hand kind of fallen further behind in the modern game (similar to Brondby in Denmark - although they finally won the league again last season). Early 2000s Norway were probably on top but that was more entirely down to Rosenborg.

People haven't been able to go to football in 18 months. Barely been able to socialise. They're going to a pre season friendly with their mates for a laugh and a few drinks - and have had a bit of a pantomime boo at half time. It really isn't that deep.

Well obviously. Still doesn't mean they can't boo if they want to

Equally anybody paying for travel and a ticket on a Tuesday night is well within their rights to boo.

What's mad about Phil Jones is he broke into top flight football so young and has ended up playing so few games. Bizarre career.

No. No Brazilians. This is a very different model to some of the naturalization they've tried in the past and have done controversially in handball. Most of the squad is actually homegrown, either born there or moved there at a young age. Some of the star players have heritage from Africa or elsewhere but that's not unsurprising considering the demographic nature of the country. A majority of the population ultimately come from somewhere else. There's one or two players who've been naturalized having played there only as adults/professionals - but even then they've been there a long time.

Their players have been playing together for a long time. From the Aspire academy, through youth sides, and then the national team. They've had the same coach throughout as well with Felix Sanchez being at Aspire as early as 2006 and then moving up the age groups. Put together with that a lot of players playing for the same couple of club sides and they have something approaching club level chemistry. Clearly there has been a long term goal in place even before they got awarded the World Cup. They didn't win the Asian Cup by fluke - they absolutely dominated it in a country that was extremely hostile to their presence.

Pulling for the bants of Qatar being champions of two continents going into the World Cup.

To be fair, there's always a chance squad numbers can change right up to the start of the season. Anybody buying a shirt now runs that risk.

It's probably not to do with blending with grass. It's probably more to do with interfering with the augmented adverts on the pitch side green screen... Ridiculous either way. Do wonder if they'll actually enforce it considering Sassuolo's kit is 50% black. You'd hope it's more for entirely green away/third kids.