Football Focus

[62613]

1 hour ago, peanuts said:

thoughts on the treatment of Gateshead fc being denied their rightfull playoff place due to not having a long enough (10yr) lease on their stadium ?

 

also should solihull be given a bye or should they be playing Aldershot who are next in line ?

 

very shoddy by the EFL/ national league to let it get to this point in the season before acting 

Not really. The rules are there, and have been for at least 20 years. They apply allthe way down the non - league pyramid. The real villains are South Tyneside MBC who own the ground and won't grant them the lease.

 

As for The Moors, yes they should have a bye. Aldershot failed to qualify (how far down do you want to go?) and again the rules have been in place all the way down the non - league pyramid for many years now.

 

Of far more import is the disgraceful stitch - up between the FA and Premier League to remove replays from the FA Cup from round 1 onwards.

[4901]

The manager of Real Salt Lake - Major League Soccer (USA) - made this remarkably astute and profound comment yesterday.

"I just think goals change games," head coach Pablo Mastroeni said.

 

[Southernman46]

On 07/04/2024 at 01:42, kevinlms said:

How much 'Fergie Time' will they need and get at home to Liverpool?

Today - Fergie time no longer required - just VAR 🙄

 

Jammy, jammy, jammy - they didn't deserve it ................................................. 🤦‍♂️

 

EDIT

 

had to post without finishing as my train was pulling into Yeovil Junction - yup 00:40 - just another working day 🙄

 

My father is a life-long United supporter (I'm talking from pre-Munich !!!!!) and even he was gracious enough to admit it.

 

Thought Maguire's first action after winning in going to speak to the Coventry players was splendid and the mark of a true sportsman 👍 he has something of Duncan Edwards about him ...................................

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22 by Southernman46

[Ohmisterporter]

11 hours ago, 4901 said:

The manager of Real Salt Lake - Major League Soccer (USA) - made this remarkably astute and profound comment yesterday.

"I just think goals change games," head coach Pablo Mastroeni said.

 

 

You can see why he became head coach.

[Rivercider]

14 hours ago, 4901 said:

The manager of Real Salt Lake - Major League Soccer (USA) - made this remarkably astute and profound comment yesterday.

"I just think goals change games," head coach Pablo Mastroeni said.

 

I enjoyed some of the words of wisdom of former Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale.

He said words to the effect that being 2 - 0 up in a game was one of the most difficult positions to be in, not knowing whether to shut up shop, or press to kill the game off. Personally I would have thought that being 2 - 0 down was a worse position!

 

cheers

Edited April 22 by Rivercider
Altered for clarification.

[SHMD]

I found that being 3-0 up is worse !

 

 

Kev.

[gwrrob]

15 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

Thought Maguire's first action after winning in going to speak to the Coventry players was splendid and the mark of a true sportsman 👍 he has something of Duncan Edwards about him ...................................

 

 

VAR took away one of the greatest moments of my life yesterday and I'm still convinced Wright is level in those stills shewn online. I agree with the class shewn by Maguire, not so much by Anthony mind.

[gwrrob]

I've managed to find who was in charge of VAR at Wembley yesterday. He'd obviously forgot it was Mark Robins who saved his job back in the 90s.

 

[kevinlms]

Looks like the new owner at United has an expensive time ahead. He needs to find a new manager, a complete set of players and a new stadium!

 

https://www.espn.com.au/football/story/_/id/40136526/old-trafford-struggled-cope-rainfall-man-utd-chiefs

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, kevinlms said:

Looks like the new owner at United has an expensive time ahead. He needs to find a new manager, a complete set of players and a new stadium!

 

https://www.espn.com.au/football/story/_/id/40136526/old-trafford-struggled-cope-rainfall-man-utd-chiefs

They could always sell tickets to see the waterfall. 😁

[5944]

[Ron Ron Ron]

Last night, Spurs blew their last faint hope of Champions League football next season and a chance of handing their bitter North London rivals the chance to snatch the Premier League title on the final day.

Their 0-2 home defeat to Man City has effectively given City the League victory, barring an unlikely upset on the final day.

Son’s failure to score, when one-on-one with the keeper near the end, with the score at 0-1, was a tragic blow for Arsenal.

Spurs fans conflicted, but resigned to preferring Arsenal being dealt a fatal blow and ending the season with nothing, rather than their own team cementing a Europa League place, or a last gasp hope of Champions League football.

 

Top 4 (Champions League) and bottom 4 (relegation) decided.

 

.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Not much coverage of the Women’s FA Cup final, which took place at Wembley on Sunday afternoon, in front of 72,000 fans.

Man Utd women, thrashed Spurs 4-0

 

Meanwhile, the Man Utd Under-18’s completed a domestic treble in Premier League youth football, beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night, to win the Premier League Under-18 national final, after already being crowned champions of the PL18 League north (Chelsea winning the south division) and winning the Premier League Cup final, last week.

 

A contrast to the senior team’s woeful season.

 

.

Edited May 15 by Ron Ron Ron

[40F]

14 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Not much coverage of the Women’s FA Cup final, which took place at Wembley on Sunday afternoon, in front of 72,000 fans.

Man Utd women, thrashed Spurs 4-0

 

Meanwhile, the Man Utd Under-18’s completed a domestic treble in Premier League youth football, beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night, to win the Premier League Under-18 national final, after already being crowned champions of the PL18 League north (Chelsea winning the south division) and winning the Premier League Cup final, last week.

 

A contrast to the senior team’s woeful season.

 

.

 

It was live on BBC1

[kevinlms]

37 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Last night, Spurs blew their last faint hope of Champions League football next season and a chance of handing their bitter North London rivals the chance to snatch the Premier League title on the final day.

Their 0-2 home defeat to Man City has effectively given City the League victory, barring an unlikely upset on the final day.

Son’s failure to score, when one-on-one with the keeper near the end, with the score at 0-1, was a tragic blow for Arsenal.

Spurs fans conflicted, but resigned to preferring Arsenal being dealt a fatal blow and ending the season with nothing, rather than their own team cementing a Europa League place, or a last gasp hope of Champions League football.

 

Top 4 (Champions League) and bottom 4 (relegation) decided.

 

.

With Ange not happy with his fans, as many of them apparently wanted Spurs to lose! Such is the North London rivalry.

[hayfield]

4 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

Not much coverage of the Women’s FA Cup final, which took place at Wembley on Sunday afternoon, in front of 72,000 fans.

Man Utd women, thrashed Spurs 4-0

 

Meanwhile, the Man Utd Under-18’s completed a domestic treble in Premier League youth football, beating Chelsea at Stamford Bridge last night, to win the Premier League Under-18 national final, after already being crowned champions of the PL18 League north (Chelsea winning the south division) and winning the Premier League Cup final, last week.

 

A contrast to the senior team’s woeful season.

 

.

 

Whatever those who strive for parity between men and womens sport say, in football our men's Premier League is head and shoulders above all other leagues in both quality and excitement. This year we have 2 teams which in other years either would be runaway leaders, granter they may not be the biggest clubs in the world and strangely by our own standards off form. But what would you expect with such an exciting end to the season

 

I have nothing against the woman's game which is now played at an extremely high quality at the top, rightly the woman's teams are being supported by the men's teams and given the opportunity can fill our largest stadiums, but they need to develop their own franchises and fan bases. I see Arsenal have decided to play 11 home games at the Emirates next season 

 

The fact was Man U (men's) were the centre of attention last weekend and it seems for whatever reason(s) are a shadow of what they were, 34 points off City and a team certainly in disarray, A bit like Arsenal at the end of Arsene Wenger's reign, or perhaps a lot worse. I think they have been the biggest spenders yet are now struggling to put out a high quality team.

 

Mr Ratcliff has a major job on his hands, but I guess there is no better or more able person to do so. Certainly a fan at heart, plus a very able bossiness man with a record of turning around failing businesses, and seemingly with the clout to cut out all the dead wood and hangers on. I think in his hands united will rise to the top again, but to do that the whole club must be reformed.

 

Now I am waiting to see how the FA handle City with 150 charges against them, looking at what they have done with Everton and Forest and the speed in acting, I am wondering why they are taking so long. Being a Gooner I feel if these charges are true they should be deducted points for both this and previous seasons in the way Everton and Forest have been penalized. If they are crowned champions on Sunday how many months will theybe allowed to keep it?

[kevinlms]

17 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Mr Ratcliff has a major job on his hands, but I guess there is no better or more able person to do so. Certainly a fan at heart, plus a very able bossiness man with a record of turning around failing businesses, and seemingly with the clout to cut out all the dead wood and hangers on. I think in his hands united will rise to the top again, but to do that the whole club must be reformed.

Let's not carried away! Most of us don't WANT United to rise to the top again!

Edited May 15 by kevinlms
missing word

[SHMD]

...where's the "disagree" button...

 

 

Kev.

😉

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Let's not carried away! Most of us don't WANT United to rise to the top again!

 

With a fan base bigger than most of the rest of the PL added together, I wonder who "most" are ?

[kevinlms]

32 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

With a fan base bigger than most of the rest of the PL added together, I wonder who "most" are ?

Evidence of the truth of that?

[hayfield]

4 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Let's not carried away! Most of us don't WANT United to rise to the top again!

 

2 hours ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

With a fan base bigger than most of the rest of the PL added together, I wonder who "most" are ?

 

Top clubs need not only the rest of the league(s) clubs but also other similar size  top clubs, what a great season, not only with City, Arsenal and Liverpool pushing each other to higher levels but also the Likes of Aston Villa clearly leading the way of the other clubs striving for European football.

 

Football need big clubs to be successful, but their popularity world wide is waning as other clubs become more successful, supporters and players now think twice about following/joining Man U. Success breeds success, the lure of living in London (easy and quick access to Europe) appeals to European players as does the success of  City, Liverpool and Arsenal.

 

Yes many love seeing Man U loose, but they need to be there to complete

United may have the biggest worldwide fanclub, but the others are catching up (quickly)

 

Again what will be interesting is the outcome of the FA charges against City, Could we see both Manchester clubs not in the Premiership ?

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 hours ago, kevinlms said:

Evidence of the truth of that?

 

Ample evidence, from the consistently highest attendances over decades, to the world's largest official membership scheme, the global sales reach, the global TV audiences, the highest domestic viewing figures and the highest social media following across multiple platforms.

Why is it stories and news about the club tends to dominate the sports pages, as well as the TV and Radio football media?

The demand for match coverage, meaning their fixtures attract a very high number of televised games, speaks for itself.

 

Social media interest alone, accounts for....

Over 80 million followers on Facebook alone.

An estimated 183 million across Twitter/X.com, Facebook and Instagram.

Outside of the top 6 EPL teams, the other 14 clubs only have interest from about 28 million in total.

 

Ranking agencies, who have an interest in selling commercial analytical data, consistently estimate a global fan base of upwards of 660 million.

The club gives a much higher figure (up to double that), based on media viewing figures, club merchandise sales, registered email accounts, use of the club's own social media platforms and regular user web site traffic.

 

The other top 6 EPL clubs have also been doing very well, but they still fall well short of Man Utd's following on an individual club basis.

Like Real Madrid etc, this is a different level and why these clubs are being valued as worth $$$billions.

 

 

.

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

2 hours ago, hayfield said:

........Now I am waiting to see how the FA handle City with 150 charges against them, looking at what they have done with Everton and Forest and the speed in acting, I am wondering why they are taking so long........

 

115 charges.

They say this is a more complicated and more serious set of charges and will take longer to process.

The Premier League and FA are also up against a battery of very highly paid lawyers and a total lack of cooperation.

 

Everton and Forest admitted their transgressions, which are far more straightforward than the charges against City.

They also cooperated with the football authorities.

Those were FSP breaches.

City are being charged with a wider range of offences, including the more serious ones of false accounting, fraud, illegal payments and consistently and repeatedly failing to cooperate with the football authorities.

There's a remote possibility the fraud and false accounting charges could ultimately lead to investigation by HMRC and being charged under criminal law.

As a lot of the financial shenanigans were carried out completely "off-shore" and outside the jurisdiction of UK authorities (football or otherwise), it will be very difficult to find out the whole truth of what went on.

I doubt it would ever reach criminal charges.

 

 

.

[Ron Ron Ron]

3 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

 

Top clubs need not only the rest of the league(s) clubs but also other similar size  top clubs, what a great season, not only with City, Arsenal and Liverpool pushing each other to higher levels but also the Likes of Aston Villa clearly leading the way of the other clubs striving for European football..................

 

Absolutely.

It's very healthy and good for sporting ethos to see others challenging, even if the EPL is currently being dominated by a football and wealthy juggernaut in the shape of Man City.

I'm not a Villa or Spurs fan, but I'm a little sad that they couldn't get closer to this season's top 3, even if they've had pretty decent seasons, particularly in Villa's case.

I'm confident that Chelsea will start to get their act together under the new regime and be in the frame next season.

 

10 minutes ago, hayfield said:

 

United may have the biggest worldwide fan club, but the others are catching up (quickly).......

 

That's the power and marketability of the EPL.

It's no hype to say that it's the top and toughest league in the world.

 

As you say, success breeds success when it comes to fans and following successful clubs.

Look at Man City, a team that most of the world had never heard of.  An also-ran team bobbing up and down between the league tables, suddenly transformed by huge investment and subsequent on--field success.

From almost zero global presence to challenging Liverpool and Chelsea in the international support rankings, in the space of just over 10 years.

 

.

[kevinlms]

10 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

Absolutely.

It's very healthy and good for sporting ethos to see others challenging, even if the EPL is currently being dominated by a football and wealthy juggernaut in the shape of Man City.

I'm not a Villa or Spurs fan, but I'm a little sad that they couldn't get closer to this season's top 3, even if they've had pretty decent seasons, particularly in Villa's case.

I'm confident that Chelsea will start to get their act together under the new regime and be in the frame next season.

 

 

.

I hope you're right about Chelsea. Considering they've had a big forced sale, I don't think they're doing too bad, although disappointing that they kept losing all season to clubs that they shouldn't! Just like United, in fact.

10 minutes ago, Ron Ron Ron said:

 

That's the power and marketability of the EPL.

It's no hype to say that it's the top and toughest league in the world.

 

As you say, success breeds success when it comes to fans and following successful clubs.

Look at Man City, a team that most of the world had never heard of.  An also-ran team bobbing up and down between the league tables, suddenly transformed by huge investment and subsequent on--field success.

From almost zero global presence to challenging Liverpool and Chelsea in the international support rankings, in the space of just over 10 years.

 

.

Chelsea have never really been up there in the Premier League until Abramovich purchased the club (apparently was looking at United or Spurs). Sure they had some good seasons, in the 1950s & early 1970s, but never really pushing for titles consistently and of course the dreaded 'R' word, which happened too often in the later 70s & 80s!

 

But still a big club with lots of backing, CFC will never match United for sheer numbers of fans, but does that matter?

 

Importantly, it is up there with fans of other clubs that 'hate' us, so Chelsea must be doing something right!

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chelsea_F.C.#Rivalries