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rockstrongo said:
Listened to a podcast on spurs -91 season.
Where they almost went bankrupt ,had gazza out binge drinking so much he hardly was fit for games and got injured constantly because of it.
But the fun part of that pod was Terry Venables.
The guy coached Barca late 80s and was famous for? (with some adjustments to the story/transfer)
Selling Maradonna and buying Steve Archibald instead!
Wtf...

Didn't he move on to the NT after that? (Barca-spurs-England)
And was one of the worst ever?
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He did well with England. England v Holland in Euro 1996 is still the best I think I've ever seen the England team play. Also bought 51% of Portsmouth for a £1 in the late 90's and actually got the new Fratton End built that had seen the top tier closed for about 10 years prior to that due to being unsafe. The only thing he did do in about a year before leaving with a pay off and I think we were bottom at the time as well! Also signed half a dozen Australian players as he was Australia manager at the time. One of them could actually play!


Flipper the Priest said:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59048667

Good on the guy. Sad that it's news but that's where we are. Football can be that vehicle for change. Although there are some entrenched beliefs to overcome.
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Good on him and incredibly brave to be the first - not that it should have to be brave but sadly it is.

Why your sexuality has to be of any relevance to anyone else I don't know. Why should anyone care and indeed why should it matter?
 


This is just so bizarre. But credit to them, they're throwing themselves at it and seem like decent guys. I'm a huge advocate of fan ownership but if a club is to be owned by investors, locally or otherwise, they at least should be is visible. Still in the honeymoon period, of course, and the novelty might wear off for them but I doubt they'll leave the club high and dry.
 
rockstrongo said:
Listened to a podcast on spurs -91 season.
Where they almost went bankrupt ,had gazza out binge drinking so much he hardly was fit for games and got injured constantly because of it.
But the fun part of that pod was Terry Venables.
The guy coached Barca late 80s and was famous for? (with some adjustments to the story/transfer)
Selling Maradonna and buying Steve Archibald instead!
Wtf...

Didn't he move on to the NT after that? (Barca-spurs-England)
And was one of the worst ever?
Click to expand...
I just happened to read Guillem Balague's book about Maradonna. Your podcast has it wrong.
When Maradonna was transferred from Boca to Barcelona, Udo Lattek was their coach and Bernd Shuster was the other foreigner (only 2 foreginers were allowed).
After that first season Lattek was sacked and to accomodate Maradonna, Bardelona hired Cesor Luis Menotti (Argentinian coach of the 1978 World champions) as coach.
Maradonna suffered the Goicochea horror tackle when Menotti was his coach and was out for months after that (in fact his ankle never was the same again and he very often had to play with pain killing injections). Soon Maradonna started to become bored and he started to hate Barcelona and their president at the time. Jorge Cysterzspiler, his manager actively searched another team because Maradonna wanted out. He got transferred to Napoli and Menotti had enough too and moved to Argentina. Then Venables came. When the transfer was finished (the last day of the transfer window) Venables was already Barcelona coach, but he had nothing whatsoever to do with that transfer. It was Maradonna himself who wanted out and the Barcelona president also wanted him out. But Barcelona wanted the maximum possible transfer fee from Napoli, that is why it took so long. Venables is not mentioned in the whole Maradonna transfer saga in the book. And by the way. Venable was in Barcelona from 1984 until 1987. He won to league titles and led Barcelona to an ECI final wich they lost on penalties against Steaua. At the time he was perhaps the most succesfull coach ever for Barcelona (they last title before he made them champions was 1974 when Cruijff played for Barcelona).

That book is a great read by the way. It shows all the madness around Maradonna. Maradonna himself soon had more than enough of it, but he couldn't stop all the madness and soon became addicted and a litle bit mad himself. I'm convinced that he was a very decent guy who helped dozens of other people and who always did everything he could to help his team mates earn more money. In those times his clubs earned money with Maradonna by playing friendlies all over the world. The players weren't paid (payed? sorry) extra for those matches. Maradonna didn't want extra money himself for those matches, but he wanted his team mates to get extra money.

I never really liked him, and i've completely changed toward him after reading that book and seeing the great documentary by Asif Kapadia. That documentary really shows you the madness in Napoli...i wouldn't be able to live a week like that... pure madness.

And the madness around Maradonna never stopped. Today in Rosario there is a church around Maradonna. It started as a joke, but it became deadly serious and that church has followers around the world now. Coïncidentally tomorrow those followers have their Christmas, because 30 octobre is Maradonna's birthday. Their Easter is the date Maradonna scored both his goals against England. That book is perhaps one of the best biographies i've read about football players (the one about Enke is the best and the Dutch one about Cruijff is also great, but this one is also really recommended).
 
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Yes ,the podcast acctually said that he wasn't really responsible for transferring Maradonna ,just a common "truth" that he did ,hence my "with some adjustments to the story/truth".

After seeing that Maradonna documentary and all the madness in Napoli ,it's really a great achievement that he could perform at all ,he was more or less a prisoner in his own apartment.

I think one of his demands for moving to Napoli was a house ,with walls/fences so that he had some space for him and the family.
Napoli screwed him and gave him an apartment ,in which he had to have his curtains closed at all times ,and he could hardly get outside since it was crowds outside his door pretty much 24/7
 
Chris Davies said:
Absolutely horrendous. What the hell are they doing.

Looks eFootball inspired...

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I guess they'll have some 'engineer' explain to us, that those ridges actually make the ball rounder!

EDIT: I thought for a second, "I won't even mention the colours".. but here we are :LOL:
 
Stan said:
I actually like that design a lot. Am i having bad taste?
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I wouldn't say "bad taste". If Picasso made a ball, it'd look like that.

I just think art belongs on a wall, and footballs should look like footballs, for genuine technical reasons (not just "in my day, rant rant rant").

I can't imagine it's easier to see that ball coming towards you and judge the flight of it etc. than it is to see a purely orange ball, with alternating black panels that let you see the spin. All these balls are about product sales and marketing, which is sincerely depressing to me.
 
@Chris Davies The other thing that tells us the winter ball is purely for marketing purposes is this ridiculous narrative that it was introduced to be able to see it better in the winter. Right, so evening games prior to the clocks going back are no darker than a winter afternoon then? So I imagined the darkness at 9pm two weeks ago at football with a white football on the pitch then? Bollocks.

Actually just thinking about it, I'm sure it was a white ball at last nights game. Have the EFL stopped using one or does it not start after the clocks go back now and on some other date?
 
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Chris Davies said:
I wouldn't say "bad taste". If Picasso made a ball, it'd look like that.

I just think art belongs on a wall, and footballs should look like footballs, for genuine technical reasons (not just "in my day, rant rant rant").

I can't imagine it's easier to see that ball coming towards you and judge the flight of it etc. than it is to see a purely orange ball, with alternating black panels that let you see the spin. All these balls are about product sales and marketing, which is sincerely depressing to me.
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Chris, i'm the first to acknowledge that football is all about money and i don't doubt for a second that this ball too is all about sales and marketing, but imo he looks gorgeous and so i'm ok with it.

IMO there are far worse things in football. Courtois got stick because he said that in football the calendar is way too busy and that this causes injuries in the long term.IMO he's right.

Look also at the injuries. KDB is having a bad season. But there are valid reasons, look at the CL final and the injury he got there. Despite that injury he played in the Euro's. Against Portugal an horrific foul was made against him (the Portugese should have been sent off). Despite that injury he played against Italy less than a week later. Later it transpired that he had ruptured his ankle ligaments. Exactly the same injury ended my football carreer in 1994. I played what is now futsal in first division and played 55 times for my country (i don't want to brag about this, i just want to illustrate that i was followed medically in a more than decent way). When i heard about KDB 's injury and that despite that injury, he played against Italy, i was flabbergasted. He should never have played that match. This is only an example how these players are treated and no matter that they have ridiculously high wages... Look also at Vertonghen who never had the guts to tell Spurs that he had serious balance problems after his concussion against Ajax...

I'm sorry about this rant, don't see it as a personal attack, because it isn't... take care Chris!
 
Stan said:
Chris, i'm the first to acknowledge that football is all about money and i don't doubt for a second that this ball too is all about sales and marketing, but imo he looks gorgeous and so i'm ok with it.

IMO there are far worse things in football. Courtois got stick because he said that in football the calendar is way too busy and that this causes injuries in the long term.IMO he's right.

Look also at the injuries. KDB is having a bad season. But there are valid reasons, look at the CL final and the injury he got there. Despite that injury he played in the Euro's. Against Portugal an horrific foul was made against him (the Portugese should have been sent off). Despite that injury he played against Italy less than a week later. Later it transpired that he had ruptured his ankle ligaments. Exactly the same injury ended my football carreer in 1994. I played what is now futsal in first division and played 55 times for my country (i don't want to brag about this, i just want to illustrate that i was followed medically in a more than decent way). When i heard about KDB 's injury and that despite that injury, he played against Italy, i was flabbergasted. He should never have played that match. This is only an example how these players are treated and no matter that they have ridiculously high wages... Look also at Vertonghen who never had the guts to tell Spurs that he had serious balance problems after his concussion against Ajax...

I'm sorry about this rant, don't see it as a personal attack, because it isn't... take care Chris!
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You are right mate. The players have way too much pressure on them with these ludicrous contracts.
No one thinks about the players health, when they are just adding games on to the calender.

But hey ... money!!! There was that unfortunate incident at the Euros with Christian Eriksen fighting for his life, and the fucking camera men zooming in to try to get a better picture. I felt so sick in that moment, watching as his teammates made a circle & tried to cover him up.

Fuck UEFA, Fuck FIFA & FUCK all these greedy TV scum taking over our game.
 
Chris Davies said:
I can't imagine it's easier to see that ball coming towards you and judge the flight of it etc. than it is to see a purely orange ball, with alternating black panels that let you see the spin. All these balls are about product sales and marketing, which is sincerely depressing to me.
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I agree 100%, they are completely exchanging functionality for marketing. Imagine seeing a tricolor blur coming at you, it's enough to confuse any keeper. :LOL: Totally impractical.
 
PRO_TOO said:
Anyone watching that RBL:BVB match right now?! What action on the pitch! I feel so well entertained. :APPLAUD: So FIFAish! Loving it.

edit:

FIFA 22 footage! :LOL:

the roulette… 2 times…!? man, that’s what I call a thug move! pretty sure he’s making TOTW! :LOL:
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Bloody scripted AI :LOL:
 
Good game, disappointed by Lautaro again as now the highest paid player at Inter, he is not constant enough yet so I consider him a bit overrated for now, of course he is still young compared to Alexis and Dzeko and I hope he will get better and become what you can expect from him, the new top goalscorer and key player soon. Obviously Inter fans have high expectations with all those fantastic strikers we had over the years like Ronaldo, Vieri, Adriano, Lukaku, Ibra, Crespo, Milito etc. Icardi was a great finisher but for me the most unpleasant person ever to wear the Inter shirt. Dzeko is surprising me positively with his goals but his performances are also going up and down. Anyway a good transfer considering his price and the financial situation, but you can see the difference in quality, especially in Milan derbies Lukaku was always amazing. The 1st derby after Ibra returned from MLS was one of the best games I remember, for me the best derby since the 4-2 win for Inter in 2012 which was the last derby for many legends in both teams.
Hakimi is missing too, those two often made a difference. Now we have a solid guy like Darmian and Dumfries who is struggeling to adapt to Serie A but hopefully will not end like Lazaro and all the other sidebacks/wingbacks that disappointed (the list is endless). Hopefully also Brozovic signs a new contract soon. Next game will be crucial against Napoli. I hope no injuries will happen during the International break. So far it's a very entertaining season.
 
Can anyone explain to me how Barcelona have managed to afford sacking Koeman and hiring Xavi? Heard rumours it cost them £15m all in.

Has someone dipped their hand in their pockets? Deferred payments? Have they put up some kind of collateral?
 
Flipper the Priest said:
Can anyone explain to me how Barcelona have managed to afford sacking Koeman and hiring Xavi? Heard rumours it cost them £15m all in.

Has someone dipped their hand in their pockets? Deferred payments? Have they put up some kind of collateral?
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I would lie if I had any insights or a clue but I assume: They don't have Messi on their paycheck anymore, so that's a big part I guess.
 
Siimjon said:
I would lie if I had any insights or a clue but I assume: They don't have Messi on their paycheck anymore, so that's a big part I guess.
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Can't be enough to have the financial surplus to pay this coach carroussel. If this was a club from a small country, they would have been santioned a long time ago (same goeds for Real Madrid, Jventus and others). This is exactly the reason why they still want a Super League.
 
I'm can't get my head around what direction Newcastle will take after the take over.
I think most of us thought "massive spendings"?
But signing Eddie Howe?
Don't get me wrong ,good manager ,but top manager?
If Newcastle signs big stars ,is he the guy to deal with them.
I'm sceptical.

To me it looks like Newcastle will thread carefully with their signings ,getting Howe in signals that.
Which in all fairness is a good approach ,keeping it more local (but expensive)

I was expecting a Zidane type/level of manager.
 
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