ponsaelius

Jesus, I thought I was a miserable twat. The transfer window literally doesn't even actually open until next week ffs.

Hopefully this means he is kicked out of SoccerAid. Rules are rules.

Cba to check but also shows the global appeal of the NBA. I presume they have much higher follower counts than those other leagues.

Was at Whitley last season. Came up from the Alliance. Didn't do anything at all in fleeting appearances and dropped down to NL2. Been surprised by how ridiculously well he's done this season. Fox in the box is probably a good description in that he seems to be a bit of a pure goalscorer.

The Fairs Cup wasn't weak at all really. The one club per city and qualification rules were a bit all over the place but it wasn't too similar to the later UEFA Cup and the line up was definitely far stronger than the current edition of the Conference League. For example in the year we were in there was: 3rd, 4th, 5th, 10th in England - Liverpool, Leeds, Chelsea, Newcastle 2-4th in Serie A - Napoli, Juve and Fiorentina 2nd, 4th and 6th in France - Nice, Marseille, Metz 4-7th in Spain - Valencia, Zaragoza, Atletico Madrid and Athletic Bilbao 2nd in Holland - Feyenoord 2nd in Portugal - Sporting 3rd in Yugoslavia - Dinamo Zagreb 2nd, 3rd and 5th in Scotland - Rangers, Hibs, and Aberdeen 3rd and 4th in Belgium - Liege and Waregem You can continue through the Eastern European leagues which were much stronger at the time where big sides were entered. If you were to go off current European format many of these clubs would have been playing in the European Cup instead. Indeed it is arguable that the Fairs Cup and subsequent UEFA cup often had more depth, on paper, than the European Cup.

Yeah he's played left side all season. He is right footed though, so not sure if he could play the other side.

Yeah it's a fair point. Just probably worth noting that Hungary, while not in their 50s heyday, were a big footballing country (twice WC quarter finalists in the 60s) with a stronger domestic game than they have now. And within that context Ujpest are the second biggest club after Ferencvaros - so it wasn't like we were playing a scrub side that it might appear today.

They did get to the European Cup semis in 1974 tbf.

A third European competition is hardly ridiculous though. We had the cup winners cup for decades.

Aye, McTominay

Great interview that. He comes across as an absolute credit to the club and the area. So vital to have people like that involved in the club as it changes beyond recognition.

I really don't like Onana. Physically dominant but doesn't appear able to pass water to me.

Budnocost were the best Montenegrin team in Yugoslavia but their highest ever finish was 6th and they bounced up and down between the top two divisions. Montenegro as a country is pretty small, similar in population to Luxembourg. While the quality of footballer which comes out of the Balkans is very high compared to population, this probably doesn't lead to a better quality of league in the modern game.

Arsenal paid £25 million for him straight from Scotland. He has since proven himself a very good PL performer. There's no way he's worth less than that fee now.

It'll be real since it's using the lasses for promotion imo. The sponsor will be photoshopped on adding the weirdness to the photos.

Left on a free. Don't know where he'll go next to finish his career.

Messi going back to Barca now that the last of that generation of players has moved on (Alba, Busquets, Pique) and playing at the Olympic Stadium next year will have weird vibes.

Wouldn't read into attendances being up that much - they're pretty much up across the board at all levels of football over that period.

He's had an amazing career. One of my favourite ever players to watch, particularly in his early years. Reinvented himself as a footballer on a number of occasions to remain effective. Its always weird when a player lasts as long as he has at the top level. The Ajax team he broke through at over 20 years ago feels like it was from a different era of football entirely. He's actually older than all of Sneijder, VdV, Heitinga, Mido, De Jong. He's only slightly younger than the likes of Chivu and Van de Meyde ffs. The daft quotes and persona became a little bit tiresome in recent years but I'm still not entirely convinced he isn't willingly taking the piss out of himself.

Didn't realise it doesn't start until 20th July (and runs to 20th August). Seems a bit late? I know women's football has to exist of its own accord but can't help but feel it would be better not to be on a bit earlier before pre-season and start of next season ramps up. I'm sure they're usually on June-July. Is this something to do with Oz sports venues being used?

I'm creased just from those photos like. The publishing quality is very Business Secrets of the Pharaohs.

What the fuck

At the risk of boring everybody to death with this again, Miley and Anderson are irrelevant for now as they don't need to be named in the CL squad being under 21. The requirement for four club grown players isn't really that much of a deal, tbf. For example Man City only named 1 in Foden so the max they could have is 22 players named in their 25 man squad. They actually only named a 21 man squad - leaving one empty space completely in addition to the 3 missing club grown players. It matters little as they can rely on youngsters to step up from their youth set up. The likes of Palmer, Lewis etc for example don't even need to be named in a CL squad but effectively take their squad up to the 25. Its a bigger issue for us right now because I suppose we don't have the academy quality coming through. But even so we could name a 22 man squad with just Longstaff named - and still rely on the likes of Miley, Anderson etc to step up. For if we also signed for example somebody like Lavia, or kept Kuol around, they'd also be able to play as the B list of U21 players is unlimited.

Possibly, but equally loads of average managers have got average teams to top half finishes. I don't think at face value there's a huge difference between Poch finishing 8th with Southampton and Postecoglu's record in Scotland, Japan, Oz and at international level. It comes down ultimately to whether they think the manager has the character and acumen to step up. Personally I have no idea if he does - but I wouldn't rule the bloke out completely based on his track record. He has at least had coaching success on a few different continents and cultural environments.

To be fair Spurs have recently appointed two expensive 'sure thing' high profile managers in Mourinho and Conte and both have been rubbish. They might as well gamble on somebody a bit more left field. Poch had a less impressive career record when they went for him.