ponsaelius

But then, the FA Cup is dying and the CL is thriving. So perhaps TV supporters and big clubs are actually all that matters.

Spot on. If all the big teams take each other out in the FA Cup, it opens up chances for other clubs. Nobody is asking for seeding there. Yet with the CL, as its a TV competition, people seem to want the same clubs filtered into the latter stages and watch the same clubs win.

Because I'm watching the games not posting.

I'd have both our right backs ahead of Bruno, but they've shared pitch time all season.

Pocchetino's the best thing to happen to English football in years, but he has made a handful of odd signings.

He's been tearing it up this season. His heart was never in it here. Shows what a mess we are/were. Sign players who don't want to be here, mismanage them when they are here, then lose money on them.

The side had a dip mid-season over Xmas.

I don't know why people get hung up on these teams. They're voted for by the players.

Yes they are the 'best', but it's made the tournament boring. Globalization has turned the best clubs into global brands, with enormous revenue streams, that monopolize their leagues and hoover up the world's talent. The CL is a tournament built to allow these clubs to reinforce their brand as they qualify every year (even if they finish 3rd or 4th in their league), get to play 6 group stage games against lesser sides due to seeding, then have country restrictions help them out in the last 16 too. It's basically a guaranteed quarter final place every year at this point. They've always been big clubs, but they're almost indestructible now. Barca have 3 of the best forwards in the world, Real Madrid too, and they have a bench filled up with talent that would star for teams elsewhere. It's not just the tournament that's 'rigged', it's the entire set-up of the global game, but the Champions League has become a particularly powerful tool in reinforcing unbreakable and insurmountable hierarchies. This is the kind of post that suggests you don't actually go to many games and watch much football in person. Football is worth watching at all levels. It's the best sport in the world for entertainment, atmosphere, tribalism, and a feeling of belonging. People turn up in their droves every week to watch all kind of levels, all around the world, all poorer than the Champions League. The CL is a 'shit' tournament not because of the players that are involved in it. Obviously it has most of the best players in the world playing in it and has the highest pure footballing level. The problem is the inequality involved, the monopolization of talent, the few number of teams who actually have a chance of winning it, the fact the same ties are consistently repeated year on year. There's only so much of Bayern vs Barca, Barca vs PSG, Bayern vs Real Madrid before things become very dull. I guess not though, because plenty the world over still stick the telly on to watch, so it must be me that's got it wrong by being so fatigued.

I don't particularly rate him but I'd be tempted to give him a new deal just because of how much of the rest of the side needs spending on it.

It's a shite tournanent. Monaco winning it would be mildly interesting, but Real will. Tedium. I've always preferred the UEFA Cup/Europa League for that very reason. Much more open with who can win it and the kind of sides that make runs to the final. Sevilla monopolizing it got a bit dull, but impressive that a small club has been able to build a dynasty and have the record number of successes. Can't imagine how pig sick Betis fans are after the last 10 years.

That said, they've only conceded 2 goals all tournament. Which is obscene.

Juventus love bottling the CL. They'll lose in the final.

The tournament is long overdue somebody who is not a superclub winning it. There's only really Porto in my memory as an unfancied team winning it, and even then they were winning their second title. For what is a knockout competition, it is far more of a closed shop than you would imagine it should be. The likes of Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid have become ridiculously strong in recent years. This has coincided with the decline of the Milan clubs and under-performance of English teams post-Fergie which has closed the possible winners to literally 3 clubs. Then they're funneled through a tournament rigged with rigid seedings and country match-up restrictions that leave you with the same boring ties in the latter stages every year. I'm no fan of Monaco as a club, or the place, but their young side winning it would be a breath of fresh air. Unlikely though looking at how poor they are defensively and how easily they crumble when the tide of a match turns against them.

Ronaldo has played in 4 finals.

It's not romanticism, it's more being afraid of it going too far the other way and destroying the essence of the game. Football is the only sport I watch on a regular basis, and one of those reasons is when I've tried others (Rugby Union, Rugby League, American Football) the stop-start nature of things makes it completely unwatchable. In Rugby they spend minutes on end watching and rewinding decisions, and half the time they still don't know for sure because of subjectivity or varying camera angles. This is just my opinion, and there are others who enjoy those sports, and would perhaps enjoy the sacrifice of the tempo of the game in favour of increasing the percentage of correct decisions. For me it's an extremely fine margin that is being tread by doing so, and it doesn't take much to change the very fabric of the game. Technology that comes in has to be for cut and dry decisions and it has to be close to instant. For goal line stuff this was a no brainer as the technology is instantaneous. For other stuff, it's a lot harder. I would probably support technology that helps with offside decisions as I feel that could feasibly be done very quickly.

I've solved it. We've been shite since that geek with his laptop went to Hearts.

Possibly aye, Iberia in made a mess of Romance origins. Then the Latinos fucked it up some more.

Spanish is a fugly language in general.

If the same shite happens tomorrow at the Nou Camp I reckon I'll fuck off watching the CL for good. Dull competition these days.

I've always been a big fan of Rafa, and thought he was a great manager for Liverpool. I put down his career wavering due to some poor choices in terms of clubs. Going to Inter after winning the treble, replacing Mourinho just as Moratti had fulfilled his ambition to win the CL meant he was on a hiding to nothing in a new financial reality. The fact Rafa was the last Inter manager to win a trophy tells you everything. Chelsea, too, as an interim, was not the kind of project or club suited to him. But he ultimately did an excellent job in the end to guide them to 3rd and win a trophy. However, I was disappointed with how he did at Napoli. While he did win the Coppa Italia, Mazzarri had also managed that, and he ultimately took them backwards to finishing 5th. Also, losing the Europa semi-final to Dnipro was a big disappointment. He succeeded in improving the status of the club by attracting big signings, but failed in developing the team on the pitch and developing the players they had brought in. Since replacing him Sarri has had them playing significantly better football. You only have to look at the level of goal output Higuain, Insigne and Mertens have produced and the way they've developed as players to see that. So I'm not sure whether I agree with the hypothesis that managers can pass their sell-buy date. But I do think they can make bad career choices, and become looked at less favourably because of it. Rafa has done that in a pursuit for trophies for his CV. With us he finally has a project more in line with what he had at Valencia and Liverpool, so long as he receives the backing and support he deserves from the board. There should be no short termism to it. He is back in England, close to his family, and in a job where the expectations aren't high and the timeframe is longterm. He needs to prove himself as a manager who can build and shape a team over a number of seasons again. Then, he only needs to deliver one of his usual trophies, and he'll have a statue outside the ground.

That Bordeaux side got 16 points in a CL group containing Bayern Munich and Juventus the following season. Were a Hugo Lloris wondersave off making the semi finals as well.

Mitrovic has been a huge disappointment this season, and I'm pretty sure at this point he'll not do anything here, but to be honest he's not really been afforded a proper crack at it. Carroll had scored 4 league goals by February in 2009/10, and he got played through a lot of average-to-poor performances. I could dig up posts, but lots of people didn't think much of him at all. Eventually he clicked into gear particularly when we started playing more expansively and he started scoring quite prolifically. Rafa has been prioritizing results over patience with players. It's why Mbemba was binned after one mistake and Mitro has not really been given a run in the side. It's fair enough, especially since we'll go up, but I reckon the utilization of the squad hasn't been perfect as much as certain players haven't contributed. I'd say 50/50 in terms of blame.

What the hell has any of that got to do with anything? Watch him play for us. He's fucking shite. I'd take Burton Albion's wide players over the cunt.

Let's hope it's a birthday promotion for me.