Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - We are SO back, the Premier League returns!

[Kunty McPhuck]

Yeah his style of play is not the most attractive and quite defensive at times, it was like that for Liverpool, but he will always be loved at Liverpool for what he did there

It was his team plus Alonso and Garcia what won us the CL and we can never forget our triple winning season of 00-01

Even with his Red Bull tenure. Everyone goes on about Rangnick and him implementing the pressing and all action style of play. But their transfer policy and scouting is all from Houllier.

He also won PSG their first Ligue 1 title.

 

[TobiOT]

Must have been an a bad split if Mark/Drawty aren't even
allowing the guy to at least say goodbye live.


KG brought some flavour to TUS and the last few fan forums without him just weren't great. I have no issues with any of the hosts besides that annoying white dude who stans Dean Henderson but besides Mark, Flex and sometimes Kev, they just lack personality which takes the entertainment out of it. Also, with KG not being around, Flex is gonna have tone himself now like when Rants and Saeed left.

Looking to me (without any inside knowledge) as if Mark and Drawty are only happy to keep you around if you're a yes-man.

Jay is probably the most liked person on the fan forum because he tells it how it is, Kev I like for his dry humor, Alex and Beth are cool, the Welsh breh Jordan is a good fit, the other Irish guy they got is , Jack doesn't piss me off as much nowadays but he still acts like he snorts caffeine, dude needs to relax.

From what I've seen Saeed low-key got bushed but he said he left, Adam and Rants probably realized it was better to focus on their own channels, more so on Rants since it wasn't worth getting abused by top reds because of your opinions and you're not earning money from it, same reason he doesn't go on Twitter that much.

KG had his own thing going on since he's an actor/comedian and he has boxing podcast, but him not being able to say goodbye is a little..concering

I assume Flex is on a break.

Lost respect for Brent after what he did to Aaron though.





Imagine doing fancams in the freezing cold at Burnley and it doesn't get uploaded,not being allowed to do your own watchalongs.
Aaron said he sent a congratulatory message to Mark for getting an interview with Fabrizio Romano.....He got put on read and also got blocked later after that.

 

[TobiOT]

Speaking of Fabrizio Romano...



Gonna milk this till he gets 4M followers.

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

The 90s area was definitively the moment when the French Federation decided to professionalize and centralize the sport. We historically had a strong public education system in France and the federation used this philosophy for football as well. Which means you end up with a formation open to everybody regardless of their background, including non-citizen, and FREE. Some argue that this is prime meritocracy.
This is why: 1/ The French league became basically the best youth development league and produced mad talents for other leagues and countries. 2/ Other EU countries started to copy this system in the mid 2000s. 3/ The negative consequence is that it's hard to keep the talent home and it favors a business model where local academies rely too much on richer foreign clubs.

Regarding the "diverse" aspect of the squad, it simply reflects the immigration waves in France. Anglo American media have been recently obsessed with the number of Black and Muslim in our team but it's not a new thing. People started immigrating to France in the late 1800s... Eastern europeans after WW1, then Southern Europeans, then Maghreb and Caribbean, then West Af in the 70s/80s, Central Af in the 90s/2000s. These waves were composed of mainly poor and low educated individuals, which means school success is less likely for their offsprings. So sport, not just football, is seen as a great opportunity to move faster in the social order. But it's a riskier option too.

Not entirely true. Belgium is more Dutch/Spanish/Catalan centric than French even tho France did help in some regards buts that is more the French speaking Belgians. Can possibly argue Germany but their system feels more Dutch than French.

 

[Premeditated]

The Grizzi hate in the last few pages legit got me

crazy thing is, I actually like him as a person, just not a player

 

[Civilisé]

Not entirely true. Belgium is more Dutch/Spanish/Catalan centric than French even tho France did help in some regards buts that is more the French speaking Belgians. Can possibly argue Germany but their system feels more Dutch than French.

I admit I was simplifying a lil bit on this one. Agreed, the Dutch have been traditionally advanced when it comes to recruiting. Not sure what you mean by Dutch/Catalan centric. I guess you have the Barça youth academy in mind. In my example I was more thinking about Germany when Löw praised the French formation system as a model to follow in the mid 2000s. And by system I mean the fact to broaden your scouting base and give a chance to disadvantaged individuals at a early age. You can see this formation process being normalized today in Austria, Norway, Switzerland, etc. I believe the French model got more attention due to its success and has inspired many countries.

 

[Montez]

I know about that

It's known that Griez isnt smart but brehs were hating on his footy skills not his character.

He’s like Alexis Sanchez or Bruno in my eyes. Players who tend to slow play down.

Players I respect for their aggressive attitudes on the pitch but wouldn't want them in my team. I feel the higher in quality the team is or the less it's built around them their quality don't shine through.

 

[Liu Kang]

He’s like Alexis Sanchez or Bruno in my eyes. Players who tend to slow play down.

Players I respect for their aggressive attitudes on the pitch but wouldn't want them in my team. I feel the higher in quality the team is or the less it's built around them their quality don't shine through.

Man has been balling in 2021 for Barça and the team is not built around him at all

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

I admit I was simplifying a lil bit on this one. Agreed, the Dutch have been traditionally advanced when it comes to recruiting. Not sure what you mean by Dutch/Catalan centric. I guess you have the Barça youth academy in mind. In my example I was more thinking about Germany when Löw praised the French formation system as a model to follow in the mid 2000s. And by system I mean the fact to broaden your scouting base and give a chance to disadvantaged individuals at a early age. You can see this formation process being normalized today in Austria, Norway, Switzerland, etc. I believe the French model got more attention due to its success and has inspired many countries.

German football completely overhauled it's whole football structure from 98-02. From who controlled the league structure went from the FA to Bundesliga/Clubs while having a positive working relationship with everyone pulling together for the same goal for football in Germany. Which is the total opposite in England even tho they have a similar structure in place. Mainly difference is the clubs care about themselves in England. The ownership structure changed, youth development and then implementing the youth into the senior teams. And that only came about due to financial problems in the league and most clubs were broke. So it forced them to play the youths more instead of the high value transfers they had been doing previously. That's why most of those young German talents who won the World Cup in 2014 had already been playing senior football for 7-8 years.

Dutch/Catalan centric basically all levels of the youth teams play the same way in formation and style as the senior teams. Pre Roberto Martinez Belgium were a 433 team since the overhaul in 2000.

The main thing taken from the French and Dutch was embracing it's immigrant/former colonies population talent pool more than done previously

 

[thatrapsfan]

Can thank Houllier for that. I think after 98 the football syllabus is set in stone for life. The interesting thing is before Clairefontaine opened in typical French fashion it took them like 8 years to make the decision to go ahead with the academy and it took winning in 84 to actually sign off on it.

Another interesting thing about French football is all of their big name players have either born elsewhere or been sons/grandsons of immigrants. Kopa (Polish) Fontaine (Born in Morocco Spanish mother French father) Platini (Italian) Tigana (born in Mali) Luis Fernandez (born in Spain). The Djorkaeffs (Mongolian/Polish). Everyone knows the squads from 96 onwards. Even Cantona is from Spanish and Italian background.

The only French French player I can think of is JP Papin.

I always thought Djorkaeff was Armenian?

 

[Kunty McPhuck]

I always thought Djorkaeff was Armenian?

I was speaking more on his father who played for France in the 60's and early 70's. But yeah it's on his mothers side.

 

[Blessings]

 

[blues_funk_reggae]

 

[Montez]

Swear Portugal had this same line up in 2010

 

[Lakerman0834]

GOATnaldo bout to make only famous iranian player irrelevant