Champions League 2012/13

BobbyBox said:
Yeah I wonder who we will have in the next round?.......:WOOT:.......:COAT:
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lol! don't do this to yourself bobby :)) besides, who knows, crazy shit happens. i still remember that insane comeback arsenal pulled against inter a few years ago..... (although i can't honestly see bayern screwing up like inter did).
from where i stand, arsenal are doing very good.... chances are i will never see my team playing in champions league :((
 
lo zio said:
lol! don't do this to yourself bobby :)) besides, who knows, crazy shit happens. i still remember that insane comeback arsenal pulled against inter a few years ago..... (although i can't honestly see bayern screwing up like inter did).
from where i stand, arsenal are doing very good.... chances are i will never see my team playing in champions league :((
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It will be a miracle if we get through, no doubt about it. Maybe with a Henry in his prime we might have a better chance....but we don't :CRY:

We need to score 3 goals and not let in any, The 3 goals could be possible as I think our attackers could do that (Even though Bayern's defence are doing amazing this year) but I can't see in any way we can keep a clean sheet, especially while we are going for 3 goals.

One day you will see Palermo in the mix.....one day! :))
 
lo zio said:
chances are i will never see my team playing in champions league :((
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The question is if a team really should aim for the CL. In the blog section i wrote a piece about how things went after the CL participation of underdogs. For almost all of them it went downhill after that (financial problems and relegation).

A notable exception was my favourite team, Racing Genk. After their 2 CL participations they are doing exceptionally well financially but in both group stages they were the laughing stock of European football (6-0 Real Madrid, 5-0 Chelsea, 7-0 Valencia) because they refused to invest for their CL participation.

This year they played Euro League and won their group...

Who needs CL ? Only the big clubs.
 
I think for a small/young team, CL experience can be good. Just don't get over your heads with the competition and money. Invest in it slowly and really target the third spot in the group stages to get into Europa league and doing well there first. Then, you can play with the big boys in CL...

But in the short term, CL is really only for the big clubs as they need that money to be competitive
 
YoungGun_UK said:
Isn't that a possible sign of growth and a great example of what CL money can do if used wisely? :))
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It could seem so.
But when do you expect a club like Genk being competitive with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona ? It will take 200 years. That simply isn't realistic.

To put things in perspective. Anderlecht still is our richest club. When Zenith bought Witsel and Hulk, to buy those two players, Zenith spended more than twice the annual budget of a club like Anderlecht. 25 years ago a player like Witsel would have ended up with Anderlecht, then maybe Ajax and then an absolute top team.

When Genk played Chelsea, the English press said this was the weakest ever team in the CL (wich is bullshit Genk didn't loose a single home match in that campaign), but financially they are the only team in that group that makes profits.

And what do you think they do with those profits ? Buy better players ? Hardly. Because they know that they can't afford the Witsels and Hulks let alone absolute big players (or even mediocre English players). What they will do with the money is doing a favour to the fans. Next season the season tickets will be much cheaper. It depends on the amount of season tickets they will sell, but it is possible that they will halve the price of a season ticket...

I know i'm biased because i'm a fan of that club, but IMO that is a proper run football club, and not Valencia who are in huge debts but ridiculized Genk on the pitch.

Im sorry for this semi-rant. I can see your point, but in the end i don't agree. Theoretically you are right, but in practice it doesn't work like that.
 
lo zio said:
lol! don't do this to yourself bobby :)) besides, who knows, crazy shit happens. i still remember that insane comeback arsenal pulled against inter a few years ago..... (although i can't honestly see bayern screwing up like inter did).
from where i stand, arsenal are doing very good.... chances are i will never see my team playing in champions league :((
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The matchup between Inter and Arsenal was in the group stage and not in the knockout round ( I saw this mentioned in the Arsenal thread too.. I dont know why people keep thinking it was a knockout round :P). We were in the same group and although we did get knocked out of the competition but it wasn't because of this match, it was last match of the group stage against Dynamo Kiev.
 
gerd said:
It could seem so.
But when do you expect a club like Genk being competitive with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona ? It will take 200 years. That simply isn't realistic.

To put things in perspective. Anderlecht still is our richest club. When Zenith bought Witsel and Hulk, to buy those two players, Zenith spended more than twice the annual budget of a club like Anderlecht. 25 years ago a player like Witsel would have ended up with Anderlecht, then maybe Ajax and then an absolute top team.

When Genk played Chelsea, the English press said this was the weakest ever team in the CL (wich is bullshit Genk didn't loose a single home match in that campaign), but financially they are the only team in that group that makes profits.

And what do you think they do with those profits ? Buy better players ? Hardly. Because they know that they can't afford the Witsels and Hulks let alone absolute big players (or even mediocre English players). What they will do with the money is doing a favour to the fans. Next season the season tickets will be much cheaper. It depends on the amount of season tickets they will sell, but it is possible that they will halve the price of a season ticket...

I know i'm biased because i'm a fan of that club, but IMO that is a proper run football club, and not Valencia who are in huge debts but ridiculized Genk on the pitch.

Im sorry for this semi-rant. I can see your point, but in the end i don't agree. Theoretically you are right, but in practice it doesn't work like that.
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I agree Gerd but football is a world game and can't be regulated in the way Beach proposes similar to US Sports, even when running things well there is always going to be a glass ceiling and that ceiling is dependent on many factors too.

for Genk, slow growth but growth nonetheless should be looked as a positive, even if it's true they'll never have real aspirations of winning European Cups.
 
Interista said:
The matchup between Inter and Arsenal was in the group stage and not in the knockout round ( I saw this mentioned in the Arsenal thread too.. I dont know why people keep thinking it was a knockout round :P).
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oh yeah, right, now i remember :))
Gerd said:
It could seem so.
But when do you expect a club like Genk being competitive with the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd, Barcelona ? It will take 200 years. That simply isn't realistic.....
.....And what do you think they do with those profits ? Buy better players ? Hardly
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that's true, but there are many things a club could do with cl money, other than signing players. years ago udinese improved their training facility with CL money.... german midlcass clubs clubs often improve their stadia with those money.
i partly agree with u. they only clubs who need to partecipate to CL are the top clubs (because for those clubs, failing to join CL means having to rethink their financial strategies for the following season).... however it's not like midclass clubs couldn't use an extra injection of cash. there are a lot of things a midclass club could do with those money (other than signing players), and although a single CL partecipation is hardly enough to close the gap with the big clubs, upgrading your real estate assets can also be regarded as part of a growth-project. ;)
u remember a few years ago, when palermo was battling with sampdoria for the CL spot in serie a? we eventually ended up 5th in the table and lost this opportunity, but, had we reached CL, we already had a plan in place to build a new training ground and clubhouse.
amineken22 said:
That day may be closer than you think ;)
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i appreciate your efforts to cheer me up guys, but sadly, right now we're much closer to serie b than to CL :((
 
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Hi Ben.
I agree, but it frustrates me that an exemplary club with a fantastic youth working (Courtois, Defour, Benteke, Anele, De Bruyne and watch out for Praet and Schrijvers, to name only a few) get's hammered by fraudulent clubs (Valencia) are clubs that aren't very well led (Chelsea).

But of course sports is a mirror of life and life is unfair...one can only dream that his favourite club might win a Euro Cup (and as frustrating that may seem, that is also the beauty of supporting (relative) underdogs...look at the reaction of fans who are used that their club wins all the time...IMO you need the low points to savour the the moments of - relative- triumph).

As for USC Palermo, you know i really like that club, i hope they can stay up or otherwise that they will come back, or at least that Zamparini walks away from Palermo...that would already be a decent start.
 
gerd said:
Hi Ben.
I agree, but it frustrates me that an exemplary club with a fantastic youth working (Courtois, Defour, Benteke, Anele, De Bruyne and watch out for Praet and Schrijvers, to name only a few) get's hammered by fraudulent clubs (Valencia) are clubs that aren't very well led (Chelsea).

But of course sports is a mirror of life and life is unfair...one can only dream that his favourite club might win a Euro Cup (and as frustrating that may seem, that is also the beauty of supporting (relative) underdogs...look at the reaction of fans who are used that their club wins all the time...IMO you need the low points to savour the the moments of - relative- triumph).

As for USC Palermo, you know i really like that club, i hope they can stay up or otherwise that they will come back, or at least that Zamparini walks away from Palermo...that would already be a decent start.
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Good point, clubs like Genk dedicate a lot of time to those players only to have them get transfered after one year. Obviously, the get plenty of money for the players, but with the inflation getting even higher, this money is not enough for anything outside maybe domestic success, all because one person got bored and decided to buy a football club. It is unfair to the teams who try to have a proper youth setup, because in the end they will only benefit from those players for a short while. It may seem controversial, but in my opinion there should be a rule that a player can't move outside his domestic league untill they're 25.
 
Damjan said:
...in my opinion there should be a rule that a player can't move outside his domestic league untill they're 25.
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Well back in the day Yugoslavia had something like this, player couldn't move away from the league unless they were 30 YO ;)
 
Yep and it worked. The Yugoslavian league was very good. But the age was 28.
 
I'm 100% for stopping youth players moving out of country til they're 21 or so...BUT...it has to be restricted by country.

So countries with leagues that are alright, great, but I'm from Bermuda - if you prevented a young Bermudian from leaving til they were 21 they'd of already missed the opportunity to develop to a good level.
 
beachryan said:
I'm 100% for stopping youth players moving out of country til they're 21 or so...BUT...it has to be restricted by country.
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that would be impossible in europe today. european football players, as any other "worker", have complete freedom of movement inside the schengen area (wich is pretty much the entire europe, except former juvoslavian countries and and uk).
therefore no european country could approve or enforce such restrictions... it would be a violation of the schengen agreement, of the amsterdam treaty and of the maastricht treaty. and as the bosman ruling proved, european football players can't be treated differently than any other EU worker.
 
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lo zio said:
that would be impossible in europe today. european football players, as any other "worker", have complete freedom of movement inside the schengen area (wich is pretty much the entire europe, except former juvoslavian countries and and uk).
therefore no european country could approve or enforce such restrictions... it would be a violation of the schengen agreement, of the amsterdam treaty and of the maastricht treaty. and as the bosman ruling proved, european football players can't be treated differently than any other EU worker.
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You're right Ben, nevertheless Damjan's idea would be great.
 
Terrible idea.

Put aside for the moment that you'd be putting the very existence of clubs in peril, destroying football careers before they had even really begun, from where did you get the right to infringe upon an individual's freedom of association, employment and movement?
It's de facto communization of football, you're not free to leave. It's a form of slavery and an attack on a person's ambition. It's stupid and unethical in almost equal measure.
 
Let's start talking about today's two mouth-watering contests!

I think Milan will need a goal to be confident and not having Pazzini there will be a big loss.

I'm betting $200 to win $400 that a penalty kick will be awarded in the Barca vs. Milan game.

I think we'll see an early goal in that game but the Galatasaray vs. Schalke game will have a more cagey first half and likely a goal in the second.

I'm really excited for both games and can't wait to see what happens!
 
Damn in Florida on vacation, in laws don't get fox soccer. Sitting at a bar realized Europe hasn't moved clocks forward yet. Game isn't for another hour and not sure if I would get funky looks asking to put on match. Only in Miami has football taken off... Not so much where I am... Gutted for being a pussy, LOL
 
Dear lord: Lionel Messi has scored more goals this season (52) than Premier League champions Manchester City (51). #fcb #mcfc
 
Tottaly deserved by Barca...Milan missed big oportunity...

Pretty good win for a team in "crisis"...
 
Well they did it, 4-0 and business done. When you have a genius like Messi, it makes things easier. But the score line was very unflattering to AC Milan. If you think how Barca's 2nd goal was offside and the 4th was mainly due to Robinho's stupidity, it was closer than it looks.
Plus that kid Niang missed a key away goal. That would have been very difficult to overcome.

On a side note, I'd like to say here that I watch the Champions League only to see the big stars playing against each other, but the referee standards is simply a disgrace.

A couple of things today reminded me of previous injustice to Arsenal. Like how Van Persie was sent off for shooting a split second after the whistle. Well today, Alexis Sanchis was caught offside, but rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into the net just for the hell of it, and the ref didn't show a yellow.

There's a complete lack of criteria, and UEFA's referees are a disgrace as usual.

This ref today was the same one who made Wenger get a 3 match ban for nothing last year.

I fully expect something to happen tomorrow against Bayern, where Wenger will complain and will get his customary 3 match ban.

Anyway, I digress. Today Milan could have had Costacurta, Maldini and Baresi at the back and Messi would still have scored those 2 goals.
 
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