TheBrownBottle

Ever blame the ball, King? @Alan Pardew

Rooney doesn’t seem like he’ll ever learn that management isn’t right for him. He’s like a dog repeatedly returning to its own sick

We didn’t win 11 in a row in all competitions in 92/93. We had a few draws in the cups during that run (League Cup and the much-missed Anglo-Italian)

‘Might as well put the £150m back in the bank, lads’ What planet are these cunts on?

I honestly don’t know why they do it to themselves - I don’t tune in to laugh at shit mackem sides; I’m fucked if I’d tune in to watch a really good one

I’m guessing that they’re doing the standard Mackem juggle between ‘Arsenal are fucking shit man’ and ‘Arsenal divvunt care aboot the Mickey Mouse Cup’

Yep, add me to that list. That Hornby-inflected writing style just bores me.

Haha fucking radgepacket

Great that. Nee idea how Tonali wasn’t given MOTM, though Hall and BDB just behind him for me.

It’s in his line of sight, too. Fuck all from the linesman either. Twats.

Fucking great this so far. The Bein commentators have done their job by spending five mins after the goal selling Isak to Arsenal.

I’m one of those who quite likes a good circular design. For most of the club’s history we didn’t have a crest - it holds no real significance for me.

Yeah, you’re right. That is really iffy to me.

Win this trophy and we’ll qualify for Europe 👍

Love the idea that SJP is a cauldron of noise compared to the soulless new stadia built elsewhere. It’s also as if the current SJP wasn’t chucked up with precisely that in mind, only to be rendered out of date within a couple of decades.

Has there ever been a serious link for Isak to Arsenal beyond the wishful thinking of Paul Merson? Edit: it does seem like it’s just because of the similarities to Henry.

Yeah, this is always the case though. No PL or Division Two side play in the first round - all start in the second round, except European-qualified clubs who start in the third round. Been that way for yonks.

Which we’ll take advantage of next season with European football European qualifying teams have skipped a round for quite some time now.

Real Madrid won three European Cups from 1998-2002, but Spain did nothing in international tournaments. In reality, Spain has produced one truly great team international-wise during their history; otherwise, they’ve tended to be well short. Germany won the WC in 1990 and Euros in 1996, losing the Euros final in 1992. During that period German sides won only one Cup Winners’ Cup and one UEFA Cup. During that same period, Italian teams won three European Cups two Cup Winners’ Cups, five UEFA Cups and the national team won sweet FA. France’s only European Cup win (1993) came between two WCs (1990 and 1994) for which they failed to qualify. England is Europe’s second most successful country in terms of club football in Europe, yet hasn’t won a trophy in nearly sixty years internationally. That’s because it has nothing to do whatsoever with ‘bottle’ and everything to do with talent. England has not produced talent consistently until very, very recently. There is often no correlation between performances by club sides and international football. When it does happen, it is often when a big team also has a lot of the players - so Bayern’s side which won three successive European Cups from 74-76 (sprinkled with talent from Moechengladbach’s great ‘70s side which won the UEFA Cup in ‘75) won the WC in ‘74 and lost the Euro final in ‘76. The great Barca team of the late ‘00s-early’10s was the basis of Spain’s dominance. Otherwise - pretty much zip. England has more European Cup / CL winning players than Germany - that hasn’t translated to international trophies. Scotland (with 35) has almost as many winning players of the CL / European Cup as France (with 37). Which we can see correlate with France and Scotland having such similar success at international level

Wasn’t usually my experience tbf. Case in point - European and League Cup early rounds.

The campaign starts here!

I don’t think Kelly is shite, I just think he’s here as a squad player.

I can remember that vividly - that was when Beardsley got his 200th league goal (or something like that) and grabbed his son who was a ball boy in the Gallowgate. Juninho was a superb little footballer, but everyone pissed themselves laughing at him squaring up to Albert.

There is zero connection between European success and national team success. Spanish, Italian and English sides have pretty much always dominated European football, but Germany is Europe’s most successful European national team. When I was a kid, Italian teams were absolutely dominant, but Italy’s national team won nowt from 1982 (when I was born) to 2006 (when I was 24). England’s club sides have been successful other than the post-Heysel period - but England haven’t won anything. Spain’s national team was a joke for a long time, yet their clubs always won continental trophies. English teams winning or losing in Europe has absolutely no impact on the national team whatsoever, because it doesn’t impact the conveyor belt of talent.