Other games (2024/25)

[Erikse]

15 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

No but I'd say Arteta has been in his ear and asked him not to play. 

 

Feels like it sends a really bad message to the rest of the national team. Their captain prioritizes his club over them. He could probably still decide to play for Norway, no way Arteta can punish him for it.

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by Erikse

[Sima]

21 hours ago, astraguy said:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14066175/Pep-Guardiolas-heated-exchange-Jan-Paul-van-Hecke-revealed-lip-reader-Man-City.html

will be on my own here but i hate this bloke

 

Would be interesting to see how he would handle a really huge dip in form and significant criticism from home support.

 

He's been managing on easy mode more or less his whole career.

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Sima

[jack j]

1 hour ago, Erikse said:

 

He can't really refuse Øde to play for Norway, though? You mean since he used him for the full 90?

 

 

 

Ferguson done it with his players for years.

[Erikse]

16 minutes ago, Sima said:

 

Would be interesting to see how he would handle a really huge dip in form and significant criticism from home support.

 

He's been managing on easy mode more or less his whole career.

 

 

 

 

Bet he'll leave pretty quickly if it keeps going like this. Just for the sake of his own image and reputation.

 

 

Edited 14 hours ago by Erikse

[toon25]

International football 

[joeyt]

59 minutes ago, toon25 said:

International football 

 

Yes, two weeks to catch up on a load  of tasks and really get ahead in life!

 

Me the next two weeks:

 

[Kaizero]

59 minutes ago, toon25 said:

International football 

 

Up until Haaland and Ødegaard disgraced the captain's armband, international football was my only "safe space" left in modern football. Even though the players playing at the major tournaments now are multi-millionares, some bordering billionaires, when they put on national kit and went out to play football - the glory of winning the tournament remained, in essence, the only thing to play for. At a WC, EC, Copa or any other major worldwide or continental tournament, the players on the pitch want to be victorious so badly you can actually feel it through the TV screens (or from the pitch if you're someone that could afford traveling to a tournament and afford the ticket prices ). 

 

In a World Cup, even the minnow nations have a semblance of hope that they could put together a long enough streak of wins to take them to eternal glory and etch their names forever in the history books. International football was the only bastion left in modern football where the players give their all to represent their "hometown club", not for untold riches, but for the chance of experiencing true glory.

 

Putting on your nation's jersey used to mean something, now even the fucking captain of a national team tell the country to go fuck itself because they want to chill out on their couch in London watching reruns of old Friends episodes instead. This was my watershed moment, football's gone and it's never coming back.

[Checko]

Just gonna put this out there, if I was Martin Ødegaard I wouldn't give a fuck about playing Kazakhstan either.

[cubaricho]

1 hour ago, toon25 said:

International football 

I’m just stoked Eddie turned it around a bit there before this break so we don’t have to listen to a couple of jabronis on here wax poetic about their tactics and how they’d do it while seeing link after link to articles about Mourinho  

[Checko]

Just now, cubaricho said:

I’m just stoked Eddie turned it around a bit there before this break so we don’t have to listen to a couple of jabronis on here wax poetic about their tactics and how they’d do it while seeing link after link to articles about Mourinho  

Yeah, there's also reasonably that 'has the break come at the wrong time?' thought that journos put out when a break comes during a winning run, but it's nice just being able to be in a good spot for a couple of weeks.

 

Would still like to see Bruno and Sandro tried in a double pivot mind.

[Cf]

Wife's a Blackpool fan so being subjected to Bruceball. 

 

1 down to Harrogate Town. 

[54]

6 minutes ago, Cf said:

Wife's a Blackpool fan so being subjected to Bruceball. 

 

1 down to Harrogate Town. 

You must be a loving husband, watching a Blackpool game managed by Steve Bruce in the EFL trophy. I don't think a more grim sentence has ever been written  

 

That said, Steve Bruce might as well be living in Paul Scholes house with how much he tastes defeat.

[Mike]

3 minutes ago, Cf said:

Wife's a Blackpool fan so being subjected to Bruceball. 

 

1 down to Harrogate Town. 

 

Ooh is it time to start betting against them every time?

 

[Kilcline]

Cashed out my Blackpool relegation bet by accident when I was drunk at the weekend 

[Pilko]

4 minutes ago, Cf said:

Wife's a Blackpool fan so being subjected to Bruceball. 

 

1 down to Harrogate Town. 

 

He'll be on the phone asking the Wetherby Whaler to stay open past ten so he can divert the team bus after the game, only 20 mins down the road.

[Cf]

2 down 

[Cf]

2-2 and through to the next round as it stands. Brucie delivers. 

[Cf]

Inspired subs tbh. 

[Cf]

Sorry what. Finished 2-2. They're now going to penalties for the "bonus point". 

[toon25]

10 hours ago, Kaizero said:

I wish Norway had an actual football manager as their manager in times like these  Martin Ødegaard has just withdrawn from the national team squad for the upcoming two Nations League matches, telling the press he made the decision because he wants to focus on healing from his injury.

 

In theory, that reason is all well and good, if it wasn't for the fact he had just finished 90 minutes for Arsenal two days ago without showing any fatigue or issues related to his injury, not to mention the fact he's the team captain. 

 

Haaland stepped in as captain for the last two matches, crowning that honor by ghosting the press and refusing to talk to them after Norway's 5-1 loss to Austria - instead forcing David Møller Wolfe, the defender that made some big errors allowing Austria to round up the score, to go talk to them. What a captain... instead of protecting a player younger than him that fucked up by taking responsibility and talking to the press, the huffy fucking overgrown baby bullied the last player that needed to meet the press to go face them  To Wolfe's credit, he gave one of the better post-match interviews I've seen a player directly responsible for their team getting annihilated on the pitch, give. 

 

Meanwhile, our two biggest profiles - our team captain and vice-captain - show no leadership skills whatsoever and has no problem throwing the rest of the team under the bus if it benefits them. And some people wonder why Norway hasn't qualified for a major tournament since the EC back in year2000?

 

Doing what Haaland did as acting team captain should make a manager state that the player will not get to put on the armband again for the foreseeable future, the same goes for Ødegaard and his basic bitch excuses. The least he could do as team captain, even if him and the coaching staff decide to rest him for one or both matches, would be to actually fucking join up with the team and infuse some morale in the other players.

 

I'm so fed up with modern football and modern footballers, especially knowing that the manager and coaching staff will make all kinds of excuses for the selfish motherfucker instead of stripping him of the armband as punishment for abandoning his teammates. 

 

Just had to get this rant about fucking Norway off my chest, no matter if this place isn't exactly the most proper place to go off on a rant about the national team of a nation that maybe jonly 3-4 members on here are from or care exists  

 

Love posts from Kaiz

[Kaizero]

3 hours ago, Checko said:

Just gonna put this out there, if I was Martin Ødegaard I wouldn't give a fuck about playing Kazakhstan either.

 

When that match against Kazakhstan most likely will end up being a decisive factor between playing at the WC in 2026 or staying home, again, you'd probably think otherwise - and I genuinely believe you would, because I doubt you are a self-centred prick like Ødegaard. 

[Erikse]

8 minutes ago, Kaizero said:

 

When that match against Kazakhstan most likely will end up being a decisive factor between playing at the WC in 2026 or staying home, again, you'd probably think otherwise - and I genuinely believe you would, because I doubt you are a self-centred prick like Ødegaard. 

 

Seeing people are arguing stuff like "he can't play twice in a week", as if it's either 180 min or nothing. It's not like he HAD to start both, even just coming in after 60 would atleast show that he somewhat prioritized it. Seeing the presser with Solbakken is allways infuriating, the guy gets way less critical questions than any other manager in a similar position, and still starts crying and attacks the journo everytime someone asks him something remotely critical. Most of the time there's nothing wrong with the question, it's just that he doesn't want to answer the question, so instead he becomes super defensive. Eddie Howe conducts himself infinitely better when he gets asked questions that are 10 times worse.

 

Worst part is, the NFF are just as toothless as Solbakken himself, and that's why he's still there.

 

 

Edited 9 hours ago by Erikse

[54]

18 minutes ago, Kaizero said:

 

When that match against Kazakhstan most likely will end up being a decisive factor between playing at the WC in 2026 or staying home, again, you'd probably think otherwise - and I genuinely believe you would, because I doubt you are a self-centred prick like Ødegaard. 

This isn't necessarily on the player though, it on UEFA for creating a situation where this happens, top level footballer are just playing an exorbitant amount of football, that to try and find time to actually recover, rest and recuperate is just next to impossible, and the schedule is just getting worse and worse. 

 

So whether you like it or not, players have to make tough decisions about when that happens, especially when it's literally their body they're running into the ground for the aim of entertainment, and a competition that is basically a bunch of glorified friendlies, is going to be something that players look at as a way to actually get that rest, and recover.

 

It's going to happen more and more too and UEFA and FIFA don't give a toss about player welfare and keep adding more and more games to the calendar.

[Mike]

Blackpool aren't on draftkings ffs. Guess I'll just work for a living.

[Dr.Spaceman]

2 hours ago, 54 said:

You must be a loving husband, watching a Blackpool game managed by Steve Bruce in the EFL trophy. I don't think a more grim sentence has ever been written  

 

That said, Steve Bruce might as well be living in Paul Scholes house with how much he tastes defeat.

 

That's a fucking disgusting image