Wullie Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Batshuayi starts in the Checkatrade Trophy tonight. Didn't realise when you posted this that he featured against Atleti last night too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted December 6, 2017 Share Posted December 6, 2017 Too early or just not possible to increase the teams that qualify for the Champions League in England? I know it's only really now that our league has been strongly represented, but the league is packed with strong teams fighting for the top 4. The team that qualified through the Europa League and is through to the last 16, the team that won the league last year jumped from 10th in the previous season. You would think that the teams that finish 5th and probably 6th in England would be more than competitive enough for the likes of Celtic. I'm not suggesting it's limited to England when it comes to the idea of expanding the teams from the league either. I'm sure there are reasons it's not a good idea, but I can't think of them at the moment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leffe186 Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Glad we've already played Liverpool recently. We didn't do too badly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leffe186 Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 It's practically sacrilege to mention such an idea but it's surely got to be a matter of time before the medium-sized European countries start considering the idea of clustering into larger leagues. Benfica 0 points, Celtic 3 points, Feyenoord 3 points. All winners of their leagues and former champions of Europe, but miles away from being competitive at this level. Quite sad, and the coefficient system has been changed this year to give Eng/Spain/Italy/Germany even more of a grip on the CL. An "Atlantic" League has been mooted for years, with Scotland, Netherlands etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Time for some insomnia posting Too early or just not possible to increase the teams that qualify for the Champions League in England? I know it's only really now that our league has been strongly represented, but the league is packed with strong teams fighting for the top 4. The team that qualified through the Europa League and is through to the last 16, the team that won the league last year jumped from 10th in the previous season. You would think that the teams that finish 5th and probably 6th in England would be more than competitive enough for the likes of Celtic. I'm not suggesting it's limited to England when it comes to the idea of expanding the teams from the league either. I'm sure there are reasons it's not a good idea, but I can't think of them at the moment. Strongly disagree personally. In my opinion it's arguably already overly represented with having 4 places. And your suggestion is coming from a point of view of ignoring the coefficient system which determines how many European spots each league gets. UEFA wouldn't just increase the places for England randomly, because the PL is currently the 2nd ranked league (by quite a distance) behind La Liga based on cumulative scores over the last 5 years. They have actually just changed the distribution of places so that the top four leagues ranked on coefficient (currently Spa/Eng/Ita/Ger) will from next season receive 4 guaranteed group stage places. Before this season the coefficient ranking between 2nd-4th (Ger/Eng/Ita) had become quite close which threatened the possibility of the PL losing a place if it had fallen to 4th. This move seemed at the time to me like a switch from UEFA to protect the position of the major leagues, particularly the Premier League's big clubs. Since then the English clubs have strengthened the coefficient ranking, and Serie A has also moved ahead of the Bundesliga, so it is actually the latter which will in fact benefit most from this distribution change. Everything about the way the competition is structured is leaning more and more towards supporting an oligopoly represented by major clubs from the biggest countries. The seeding system keeps teams from the same countries apart not just in the group stages, but in the last 16 too. It's why every year we're presented with the same teams playing each other in Groundhog Day ties. It's why it's been 4 years since an outsider of some kind (Galatasaray) reached the quarter final stage. Now this is not entirely the fault of UEFA and the Champions League. Collective bargaining of TV deals and the brand exposure that brings means that many teams have a fundamental advantage purely because they happen to be geographically located in a larger country. It's why Crystal Palace are now far richer than a club like Ajax - for example - it's simply being lucky enough to have guaranteed membership to an elite club so long as you aren't shit enough to be relegated from that club. The result is that it means big clubs from smaller countries are getting poorer relatively, and becoming feeder clubs to smaller clubs from bigger leagues (let's see for example Jairo Riedewald from Ajax to Palace's bench). This means that national champions and former European giants such as Feyenoord, Benfica, Celtic, Anderlect etc all being brushed aside in Europe and putting in dysmal campaigns like what we've just seen this year At the moment, the way European competitions are being structured is moving to reinforce the gap rather than help it. There's no doubt the 5th and 6th place English teams would be competitive in the CL, they're wealthier and stronger than many champions from other countries. They'd bring in more viewers too, particularly in terms of the global television markets. However I think it'd be quite a bad thing on principal, and it's another step towards killing off what the European Cup/Champions League was originally about. Some may disagree, many in fact, and would argue that the best teams should be involved and the current reality of modern football should be embraced. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ponsaelius Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Another point on the way the CL is going with it's changes. I think the manner in which it's structuring towards the big clubs is an attempt to copy (and even compete with) the PL's branding and television model. However I really think like this could be a bad move in the long term. Unlike the PL, the Champions League is an impossible sell to both Asian and American markets. A Wednesday 19:45 kick off in London is 14:45 in New York and 4:45 in the morning in Seoul. Even the most hard core supporters aren't going to watch at these times, never mind tune in as neutrals. It's really important for UEFA not to lose sight of the fact that European supporters, and viewers, are the most important thing. At the moment people tune into the CL more than ever, but I really believe there will be a saturation point in the near future where there's simply too much of the same thing. Alienating the ideals of what the Champions League was, a pan-European competition of national champions, in an attempt to pursue the best quality television could in the long term be a case of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. And a final side point - I think the ever expansion of the CL is killing the Europa League as a once respectable trophy. By incentivising the winners with a CL place, and allowing CL teams to drop into the last 32, it's doing the exact opposite of what is intended. It's turning it into a feeder league for the main event, with ever decreasing credibility and prestige. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
samptime29 Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Was out for work Xmas meal/piss up so missed all the goals until now. Fuck me Liverpool They looked incredible, their attacking play is so dangerous. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Village Idiot Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Winners: Man United PSG Roma Barcelona Liverpool Man City Besiktas Spurs Runners Up: Basel Bayern Munich Chelsea Juventus Sevilla Shakhtar Porto Real Madrid Arguably the English teams have f***ed themselves by finishing first Which thanks to the "no round of 16 between clubs of the same nation", means that Chelsea looks fucked (or maybe us or PSG are, who knows). http://e00-marca.uecdn.es/assets/multimedia/imagenes/2017/12/06/15125965602262.jpg Maybe they'll get lucky and get Besiktas, but it's a bit ridiculous that the draw can be like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Why can’t Chelsea draw Roma? Same group? (Not paid attention) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Why can’t Chelsea draw Roma? Same group. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaizero Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Why can’t Chelsea draw Roma? Same group. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Sewelly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Man U should be classed as neutral since they didn't go through the domestic way. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Figures 1-0 Football Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Fully expect to hear the attendance at Arsenal announced as 60,000 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
quayside Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Just found out what happened to Debuchy - thought he’d retired. Scored in the Europa League about 5 minutes ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superior Acuña Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Debuchy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NUFC_Chris Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Walcott's barnet man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted December 7, 2017 Share Posted December 7, 2017 Wilshere's first Arsenal goal for 3 and a half years apparently Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 Fair play to Debuchy. Seems to have had a nightmare with injuries from almost day one there. That 6-7 month spell in 13/14 he was as good as anything we've seen at right-back imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 He was class, probably the best fullback we've had in my time as a fan. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 Beye. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeyt Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 He was class, probably the best fullback we've had in my time as a fan. Enrique? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest firetotheworks Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 Yeah, I just assumed that Ian meant Right Back tbh. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fenham Mag Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 Who was it that Beye got a red card against when we went down, it was a criminal decision iirc https://www.theguardian.com/football/2008/oct/21/newcastle-united-manchester-city-football Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bimpy474 Posted December 8, 2017 Share Posted December 8, 2017 Cracking hit that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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