Soccer Thread 2021-2022
 

I think this is the right way to start of a new thread for the soccer year.

Lionel Messi to leave Barcelona Argentina captain won't sign new contract

PSG bound I think, which is a damn shame. Apparently too late for Pep and would require leaving Kane at the altar so to speak.

Also think there is a chance of a 180 here as Barcelona and La Liga are shady as fuck.

I am closer to this line of thinking. Wasn't it yesterday that Barcelona was in the clear due to the private equity firm buying piece of La Liga?

Pep desperately rummaging in his pockets trying to find his receipt for Grealish…

Hah! I know Messi shares more in common with Grealish, but I actually think Pep wants Grealish more than Kane. He had success with Lewa at Bayern, but he loves midfielders and attackers that can play all over the pitch. From what I understand City wanted Kane last summer, but had their attention diverted when Messi said he wanted to leave. This time I think it's just too late to make it happen and I don't think Pep is all that happy with his ex-player or desperate for him to join. It's City owner that is obsessed with Messi joining City, so unless he decides to overrule Pep I don't see it happening. And I think there is way too much respect between owner/chairman and Pep for that to ever happen.

Manchester United no longer to be called Manchester United in Football Manager. They've "protected their copyright" and they'll be called Manchester UFC in Football Manager 2022.

Another reason to not like them.

Not sure if anyone saw this, but Wesley Fofana will be out until likely Christmas after an absolutely shocking tackle in a pre-season friendly against Villareal.

No place for that type of tackle at any time, but particularly not on the half way line in a preseason friendly

I won’t link the video: although it’s not the worst, there is a little bit of a floppy leg

Some things never change.

Lol

Arsenal still rubbish

I feel like just saying the top two strikers at the club missed the match with "illness" is a bit loaded in the age of COVID.

Good thing City is such a money all squad that doesn't spend as much as everyone else.

Nice troll, dispshit.

To be fair though, without the money you’re Newcastle.

I won the ticket lottery to get seats at the new stadium here in Austin for the USMNT v. Jamaica World Cup Qualifier.

Nice to see after spending most of the last few years moaning about VAR every time decisions didn't go their way, the poor snowflakes who manage some of the largest teams in the world are now moaning about less fouls and letting the game flow ruining the game. When we said we wanted the role of VAR reduced and the game opened up we didn't mean the ones that we benefited from, silly.

Whew! It wasn't me who typed those three letters first in this first lol.

LIVE Transfer Talk: Cristiano Ronaldo agrees deal to join Manchester City

Looks like there’s a spare spot in the squad

Benjamin Mendy charged with rape

Ronaldo is probably the perfect CF for the Man City squad - probably a better fit than Kane

Like for like swap

If CR7 is that good, should be able to play anywhere!

What Easy Mac (did you know he watched Clint Dempsey play at Furman???) is saying is that Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of raped in the past.

No doubt. I suggest you read up on the history of other clubs like Arsenal and United if you haven't already though. They were built on heavy investment at various stages. Besides, I don't really subscribe to the belief that only a handful of clubs deserve to eat at the big boys table. Not that it matters anymore as FFP has closed the drawbridge. Too late to keep out the bad brown guys, however.

Ah - I’d forgotten that.

Remember when COVID shut down the game, football finances were going to be restructured due to no fans in the stand, the entire transfer market was going to be frozen?

Well, Ronaldo is expected to take a 50% pay drop in the new deal.

I hope he’ll be OK, what with the rising cost of living and everything

Looks like Ronaldo is going to Man Utd now instead.

Not surprised. I was shocked when City didn't come out right away and brief the press they were not going to be signing him. I am still holding out hope that another striker is being chased.

I didn't say he was underpaid (though, vs the market, he kinda would be). Just pointing out that along with a few other deals I've seen mentioned there is somewhat of a shift in the norm.

After the Europa League draw, Midge Ure has been asked what he thinks about West Ham drawing Rapid Vienna, he says “this means nothing to me”…

I’ll get my coat…

I am listening to Man City v Arsenal on the radio. Pep has to have pity on his former assistant right?

How are you listening on the radio? SiriusXM or streaming an English feed like BBC??

I had so little knowledge of soccer prior to getting hooked during Leicester's run to the title that I had no idea Ronaldo used to play in the PL.

Arsenal sucks. The one thing I don't get about soccer fans is their ability to put up with only a select few teams having a realistic chance of winning every year. I would love to see an Arsenal get relegated (I know it won't happen but it would be great).

SiriusXM

El Trafico never disappoints. Brian Rodriguez having a game.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Remember when I complained about the England fans booing the national anthems of Germany and Italy... Apparently our very own fans felt the need to make noise during the anthem of Montenegro. At least the English fans didn't run onto the pitch to make a selfie with players or the UEFA managed to keep it from getting broadcasted. We clearly have obtuse football fans as well. Yuck.

Brazil v Argentina world cup qualifier this afternoon went a crazy. Brazilian health authorities decided that some of the Argentina team should have been in covid quarantine, so some health officials walked onto the pitch after seven minutes and halted the game. Dont see that every day. Game has now been abandoned.

Seems like it's the Argentina players who play in England are the ones they're protesting about although nothing official yet. Brazilian covid rules say they should have been in quarantine for 14 days after arriving.

Good luck to FIFA sorting that all out.

At least there isn't an active coup d'etat underway (which is why Morocco is trying to escape from Guinea instead of playing their match)

World Cup field expansion can't come soon enough. Although maybe that won't even be enough for the US to qualify.

Was at the USA vs Canada game and they looked really off. I just dislike Brooks on D, he seems so slow to make decisions and move the ball. The Canadian players spent so much time on the ground. Having watched all of the Concacaf games, these team just was not playing together well.

Did GB forget to make subs? Why did he wait so long with a squad that was completely gassed?

I was thinking the same thing regarding the subs. Not a great lineup or coaching job in this one.

There is some reporting that the health agency issued the decision to call off the match three hours before the match. The football authorities just tried to ignore the decision.

As usual, questionable defending and questionable coaching. Waiting until the 84th minute to make some changes is silly.

This should be an easy 3-0 loss for Argentina here, despite that both football associations are doing crazy stuff here.

Reportedly the Argentinian players tried to get away with fraud to be able to get into Brazil. Did they really expect to be able to return to the UK without getting arrested there? Surely these players will be suspended by the (English) FA upon return to their clubs.

So let me get this straight... the Brazilian FA has had FIFA suspend the players who didn't show up for the games during this break, but had they shown up for the games they would have had to quarantine for 14 days and missed the games anyway?

Seems like only FIFA could fuck a situation up this badly, unless I'm missing something?

Brazilian nationals coming home from the UK were not required to quarantine. The problem for their clubs is that they would be required to quarantine upon their return to the UK.

Also it is not just Brazil that has complained. Paraguay, Chile and Mexico have also complained which may affect Wolves, Newcastle, Watford and Blackburn.

Makes sense, although that makes the situation with the postponement even more absurd. Also falls over if any of those nations play in a nation that has the UK on the red list during this break and has similar restrictions I guess. All in all a total mess, not surprising given FIFA and some of the countries involved.

Ban them for life! Or at least this weekend. Leicester play Man City, and the drop off between Ederson and Scott Carson is significant

The five day thing is a long standing rule to prevent clubs from refusing to release players for international duty. And considering how ridiculous some of the determination of 'red' countries were, I'm fine with South American countries asking to enforce it

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Pepi :)

NBC has managed to have one of the six streams on Peacock working this working. !@#$!$#!$#

I am catching up on the weekend's matches and I unexpectedly saw the Harvey Elliot injury. My sensibilities say that it was a a bad tackle but I understood that it was a fair tackle in the EPL. However the player was sent off because according to The Athletic it was "deemed to be serious foul play due to the intensity of the challenge and endangerment to Elliott." That does not make any sense to me. It feel like the red card was a result of the injury and not the tackle. This is especially the case since there is no allegation of intent. I am seeing that Leeds is going to appeal the red card and I agree with this decision. If the EPL is going to punish hard fair challenges when they cause injuries, they need to do the same when they don't and vice versa.

Also, Dortmund is must watch TV for me every week. They are going to score goals and give up goals consistently.

Go camping and naturally I miss a City UCL match with nine goals.

The context is the Luton Town player (in red) was trying to take a free kick quickly and the Swansea player was trying to be slick and stop the play. I feel like for all the conversation about athletes stopping an action midway through the action this should probably have been a red card. However, play stupid games...

Sometimes your team makes you look like the smartest guy in the stadium and other times they make you look like David Moyes looks right now.

That is one large dude playing up front for Wycombe. He looks easily 30-50 pounds heavier than anyone on the pitch.

Let me guess. Is this the guy?:D

📲 - "The only person that can hit me up on WhatsApp this time is Klopp so we can celebrate together!"@daRealAkinfenwa may have just given the best post-match interview ever...😂pic.twitter.com/MAxCPgFZqq

— Sky Sports (@SkySports) July 13, 2020

Saw this too. Sort of feel like if you make the decision to interfere in the action, you're going to have to deal with the consequences.

Contracts for Muratan's transfer from FCSB (the club formerly known as Steaua Bucharest) to Galatasaray have been leaked. Interesting for FM2021 players, all the options and clauses tie in with the little buttons you have to press in an FM negotiation:

Full transfer papers: Morutan from FCSB to #Galatasaray. Here's the contract, as published earlier in GSP by @CostinStucan . pic.twitter.com/OTPeuO8esz

— Emanuel Roşu (@Emishor) September 23, 2021

What is preventing an MLS team from winning a CONCACAF club competition?

MLS is a league that doesn't want competition or desire to have teams get really good. So while the overall talent of the league has improved, you'll never really have a great team come out of it.

I am still not seeing any benefits for players to stay on their feet in the penalty box.

Nope. You will never get a single call if you don't flop to the ground. It's why players do what they do.

The flopping dramatics are almost enough for someone like me not to watch. I wasn't much of an EPL fan until last year when I watched the shows on Amazon Prime. So, I don't have much history with it.

The kid who broke is ankle for Liverpool a few weeks ago didn't act anything like how these clowns act when they're barely or not even touched. It's lame.

You have guys that don't get touched flop around on the ground for 4 minutes while the other team is scoring on their team. Lame.

^
Lol

Milner should be off. Not even debatable

Great match. Shit ref.

Newcastle confirm £300m Saudi-backed takeover to end Mike Ashley era | Newcastle United | The Guardian

A new member for the future Super League.

Look for me on TV at the US-Jamaica world cup qualifier tonight. I'll be the one wearing a US Soccer t shirt

They have lots of work to do and there will be plenty of roadblocks before they even get to that point. The other Super League clubs will want nothing to do with them. It was created to get separation and guaranteed money. They don't want to share that shit.

Ricardo Pepi is pretty pretty good

He is very good.

Watching the last 3 qualifiers, it's clear how important Tyler Adams is. He allows everyone else to be more creative. Just a totally different team when he isn't out there.

I think when this squad has Pulisic and Reyna back, they're going to be really tough.

I'm excited to be going to the USA/MEX qualifier here in Cincy in November. I hope we win this one!

Anyone know what is going on at St James Park? I am just listening to the game and the game has been stopped.

Medical issue in the crowd. Most likely a heart attack.

Completely caught off-guard by Leicester's win over ManU. I had basically written this season off. Perhaps a reason for some optimism although the trend has been a hot start and crap end so if they finish weak again, it'll be a bottom half finish given how bad this start had been up until now.

I went to the game: we were excellent, but Utd made it easy for us. Our issues have largely been committing errors while trying to play out from the back against the press, and then not being positive enough in the final third.

One we fixed ourselves: we had noticeably more men in the box than for a long time, but they played into our hands for the other - they just didn’t press, and we could pass around without jeopardy and pick our passes.

They were really poor: Ronaldo, Sancho, Bruno were all non-factors, and even though they conceded 4, de Gea was their best player.

Hopefully it gives us a boost, and we can use it to kick one

I just saw the incident. I am surprised that the supporters were able to get the attention of the players. It probably helped that Newcastle was down 2-1 at the time. I am even more surprised that the players actually took them seriously as opposed to taking it as some sort of banter or something to put the players off.

Atleti and Liverpool shaping up to be a cracker!

Man Utd and Liverpool not a cracker unless you enjoy watching Man Utd getting humped. And luckily I do.

4-0 Liverpool at half time. Man Utd will be trying to work out if they can fire a manager at half time, should never have been Ole.

There is only like two managers worthy of managing Manchester United right? Maybe three if Sir Alex come out of retirement? I mean it can't be a midtable guy like Moyes. It can't be a experienced guy who has won things outside the Premier League like Van Gaal. It can't be a experienced guy who has won things in the Premier League like Mourinho. Now it can't be a club legend like Ole.

Who's next?

This is kinda fun to watch.

Worthy of managing United? They've been in shambles for years. Maybe they can go after Steve Bruce.

Ronaldo forcing his way out of a team underachieving for a team that is going to be out of everything by Christmas and scrambling to make the Champions League next year is absolutely hilarious.

Eagerly awaiting for the Ole At The Wheel images!

lol

IFAB recommends five substitutions to be allowed across all levels of the game | Football News | Sky Sports

I thought this would be the return from shutdown change that became permanent. Looks like this will be the case moving forward.

AlexB, is Leicester going to lose Rodgers to ManU?

The one thing that I absolutely cannot understand about the popularity of football is what basically amounts to a caste system that people willingly live with. It's like living today what it must have been like being an American League non-Yankee fan from the mid-30s to the mid-60s. It's like 3-4 teams playing against their farm teams.

No chance of him going to Utd. He’s an ex-Liverpool manager for a start, and he’s personally holding out to succeed Pep at Man City.

It will be interesting to see who United's next manager will be. I assume they will just draw names from a hat. I'm pretty sure that's how their player recruiting works at least.

He's going to Newcastle.

Wait, he went to Newcastle in my FM save.:lol:

So I just turn on my TV and uh who the hell are the men in the Arsenal kits?

Michael Oliver has decided it is time to get out of the rain so anything goes?