The Evo-Web Football Thoughts Blog

Stan said:
a very good scouting system where they go for lesser known player that are very good (they bought 3 players from my favourite club in Belgium KRC Genk: Castagne, Malinovsky and Maehle, for example).
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Leicester seem to be the Premier version of that, particularly in picking up really good young players that generally haven't appeared on anyone else's radar yet. Wesley Fofana a prime example, Ndidi too I seem to remember never having heard of before. Soyuncu as well. Even Iheanacho finally seems to be realising his potential. Also they seem quick to go in for those who others are perhaps unsure of at the time such as Tielemans and also the one's to take the plunge on Maddison. Not forgetting picking up James Justin from Luton too who has progressed well. I struggle to think of another team who has signed as many players who have turned out to be real quality.
 
Parma was one of the first foreign teams I saw on TV, back during Wisła's memorable UEFA Cup run in 02/03

Beating a team of Frey, Mutu, Adriano and Gilardino 4-1 was quite an experience

Only looking back I realize how much of a power they were, seems Atalanta is more or less what they were back then
 
mattmid said:
Leicester seem to be the Premier version of that, particularly in picking up really good young players that generally haven't appeared on anyone else's radar yet. Wesley Fofana a prime example, Ndidi too I seem to remember never having heard of before. Soyuncu as well. Even Iheanacho finally seems to be realising his potential. Also they seem quick to go in for those who others are perhaps unsure of at the time such as Tielemans and also the one's to take the plunge on Maddison. Not forgetting picking up James Justin from Luton too who has progressed well. I struggle to think of another team who has signed as many players who have turned out to be real quality.
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I totally agree and with Praet, Nidid and Castagne, they also have 3 former Genk players.
iMO Liecester's midfield with Ndidi, Maddison and Tielemans is one of the best in the league. Fofana was for me the revalation of the season. And now that Iheanacho seems to fullfilling his potential, they are less reliant on Vardy for goals.

I'm a Spurs fan and they seem to have the slighest hope to reach a top 4 place. If they reach top four, it will be instead of Leicester (Spurs play Leicester the last day of the competition), but to be fair, Leicester deserve CL football much more than Spurs.
 
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Weeks after the Super League fell apart we've a Champions(!) League final we deserve. Ah, merit.

The final should really be moved to England. Ridiculous to justify the travel, especially given the circumstances.
 
Flipper the Priest said:
Weeks after the Super League fell apart we've a Champions(!) League final we deserve. Ah, merit.

The final should really be moved to England. Ridiculous to justify the travel, especially given the circumstances.
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Money, my friend...money...
 
Read that Coppa Italia is exclusively for Serie A and B teams from now on.
Ah,modern football...gotta love it!
 
So pandemic football has give Athletico Madrid a chance to win La Liga.
(It's mainly RM or Barca who wins)

Inter most likely winning Serie A, Juventus is in 4th place,they had 7 straight titles prior to this season

France seeing Lille most likely winning the title,PSG having 8 out of the last 9 titles (Monaco)

Bundesliga
BM 9 straight...
 
rockstrongo said:
So pandemic football has give Athletico Madrid a chance to win La Liga.
(It's mainly RM or Barca who wins)

Inter most likely winning Serie A, Juventus is in 4th place,they had 7 straight titles prior to this season

France seeing Lille most likely winning the title,PSG having 8 out of the last 9 titles (Monaco)

Bundesliga
BM 9 straight...
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And let's not forget Rangers winning their first league title and breaking Celtic's run of nine.
 
rockstrongo said:
Inter most likely winning Serie A, Juventus is in 4th place,they had 7 straight titles prior to this season
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Wouldn't it be hilarious if Juventus and Liverpool as well as Spurs and Arsenal who are already out of it didn't qualify for the Champions League. Four of the entitled ESL breakaway group not even being in the top European tournament. Of course this is exactly why they feel they should be entitled to ensure they never miss out on the gravy train.

Yeah Villa was 7-2.
 
mattmid said:
Wouldn't it be hilarious if Juventus and Liverpool as well as Spurs and Arsenal who are already out of it didn't qualify for the Champions League. Four of the entitled ESL breakaway group not even being in the top European tournament. Of course this is exactly why they feel they should be entitled to ensure they never miss out on the gravy train.

Yeah Villa was 7-2.
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Would love to see them not qlf :)
Think the CL has gone down the toilet for years tbh.
This isn't what Lennart Johansson who created the CL would have wanted it to end up as.
Bad enough with 4 teams per (big) league.
And creating a Uefa conference league,like the underachiever classes/special education.
Too much money man.
Just glad I support a team (just like you) who are far from that mess.
 
rockstrongo said:
Would love to see them not qlf :)
Think the CL has gone down the toilet for years tbh.
This isn't what Lennart Johansson who created the CL would have wanted it to end up as.
Bad enough with 4 teams per (big) league.
And creating a Uefa conference league,like the underachiever classes/special education.
Too much money man.
Just glad I support a team (just like you) who are far from that mess.
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Group stage football is about as dull as it gets isn't it. There might be one or two games that actually matter on the last match and some of those are to get into the Europa League in another oh sorry about being knocked out, here have some more money though, you can go into this cup now.

Oh for the knockout all the way European cups of pre CL with no seeds and when every game mattered and you didn't have teams winning the Champions League who finished 5th in their league the previous season. Get knocked out first round, tough. Now you don't have to complain about playing too many games do you?
 
mattmid said:
Group stage football is about as dull as it gets isn't it. There might be one or two games that actually matter on the last match and some of those are to get into the Europa League in another oh sorry about being knocked out, here have some more money though, you can go into this cup now.

Oh for the knockout all the way European cups of pre CL with no seeds and when every game mattered and you didn't have teams winning the Champions League who finished 5th in their league the previous season. Get knocked out first round, tough. Now you don't have to complain about playing too many games do you?
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Exactly.
Old school "go big or go home" European cup night,man that was so much fun.
Every game mattered.
 
rockstrongo said:
Read that Coppa Italia is exclusively for Serie A and B teams from now on.
Ah,modern football...gotta love it!
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Yeah. They played the victims because of the SuperLeague but now they're doing the exact same to Serie C clubs (well, of course the money coming into play is way smaller but here it's not a matter of how much money is involved, it's a matter of not being hypocrites).
It's disgusting really.
 
mattmid said:
Oh for the knockout all the way European cups of pre CL with no seeds and when every game mattered and you didn't have teams winning the Champions League who finished 5th in their league the previous season. Get knocked out first round, tough. Now you don't have to complain about playing too many games do you?
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I'd love to see it back again (even with some sort of bye system like "the winners of the 8 best national leagues in Europe come in during the round of 32", I wouldn't care if it were the case) but it should be Champions League again.
Meaning that every single champion of every single European league should feature.

I know it wouldn't be perfect either, but something like this would be a dream to me.
Every national champion is given the chance to feature in the UCL. Champions of the "highest rated" leagues come in later so to avoid (at least to some extent) situations like Liverpool 12 - Hamrun Spartans 2 (sorry HS fans) which could happen with no seeding at all and which wouldn't really benefit the competition.
Bigger leagues have the chance to feature also a second team (and a third one, in some cases) but they should start from the very first round (again, this is a case in which a team from a smaller league would often get a decent beating unfortunately, but I couldn't think of a way to avoid it without promoting the "non champions" to later rounds, a thing which would be unfair as they'd get a better treatment than the champions of smaller leagues).
Well, we could also scrap "non champions" altogether after all. The only exception would be then the reigning UCL champions which, I believe, deserve to be in.
 
It's my first thought when managers complain about too many games, after they dick about earlier in the season playing largely meaningless games in a bloated money-grabber. And their answer is more, under the pretense that it's less bloated, at the expense of merit.

I'd prefer knockout all the way but group stages would be easier to accept if the competition was more open to teams from other leagues. The reason I've grown to hate the group stage is because it's designed to get the English, German, Italian and Spanish teams through. If they had only one team apiece (although I'm for the reigning champion qualifying regardless of their league position) I'd probably feel differently. The same goes for seeding.

When I see this it makes me smile.

Not as much as this though:


Still furious I wasn't alive.
 
*aLe said:
Yeah. They played the victims because of the SuperLeague but now they're doing the exact same to Serie C clubs (well, of course the money coming into play is way smaller but here it's not a matter of how much money is involved, it's a matter of not being hypocrites).
It's disgusting really.
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And Juventus is still in the super League (by themselves or perhaps with Barcelona) ?
I saw that the could be punished by Serie A with relegation.
Though I'd doubt it.
 
There did used to be a small Preliminary Qualification round and the previous season's winner did automatically qualify as well regardless of where they finished in their own league that season.

Sure there were some mismatches in the 1st Round of course but at the same time that gave it the same sort of feeling as the FA Cup when a non league team gets a big draw. I mean what chance now the 1st round tie of 1980 that I've just looked at - Limerick v Real Madrid? They lost a very creditable 2-1 at home and 5-1 away, but what an experience for fans and players alike - surely what football is supposed to be all about?

The first season Nottm Forest won it they met the previous year's champions Liverpool in the first round! And right there you had the beauty of it, the mighty Liverpool of the time, European Cup winners, dumped out in the first round, something which Forest went on to do themselves 2 seasons later.
 
rockstrongo said:
I saw that the could be punished by Serie A with relegation.
Though I'd doubt it.
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They haven't withdrawn from SuperLeague yet (along with Real Madrid and Barcelona). UEFA threatened to ban them from Europran competitions for two years as far as I know, while now they risk being excluded from Serie A.

Sadly I can't see any of the two things happen though: Serie A can't afford to lose their most winning and most recognized team, and UEFA can't afford to lose three of the teams that generate more income.
 
*aLe said:
They haven't withdrawn from SuperLeague yet (along with Real Madrid and Barcelona). UEFA threatened to ban them from Europran competitions for two years as far as I know, while now they risk being excluded from Serie A.

Sadly I can't see any of the two things happen though: Serie A can't afford to lose their most winning and most recognized team, and UEFA can't afford to lose three of the teams that generate more income.
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Don't believe they'd be punished either
 
I can't remember how long it's been a thing, but I hate the way 3rd in the CL gets you into the EL.

You get Man Utd fans thinking they've had a great season in Europe getting to the EL final, especially if they now win it.

Umm... You got dumped out of the CL group stage by RB Leipzig and lost to Istanbul Basaksehir who only finished 6 points above the relegation zone in the Turkish league this season.

Monchengladbach finished 2nd in a group including Real Madrid and Inter Milan, then lost to Man City in the round of 16.

Advancing from the group and then losing to the likely eventual winners is a worse outcome, and seen as a worse run than getting dumped out in the group stage and winning the European equivalent of the EFL Trophy?

Feels like more pandering to Super League clubs. 3 of the last 4 have been won by one of those clubs and the last 5 have had at least one as a finalist. Even when they have a shit season, they get another route back to CL football if they fail in the correct way, beat a few relative minnows then win one or two ties against equal opposition.
 
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