Premier League 2019/2020 Thread

[weasel]

Real v's City
Atletico v's Liverpool
Chelsea v's Bayern
Spuds v's Leipzig

Napoli v's Barca
Lyon v's Juve
Atalanta v's Valencia
Dortmund v's PSG

Spurs will be delighted with that draw, it was about the best they could have hoped for. The top two going to Madrid will be interesting. Not sure I fancy Chelsea's chances against Bayern. A lot can happen in 2 months but I'm not really sure fat Frank has the brains to outwit a manager with a team like Bayern have. I hope I'm wrong though.
Barca should beat Napoli, Juve will hammer Lyon, Whoever wins Atalanta/Valencia will be the team EVERYONE wants in the quarter finals. Asfor Dortmund PSG, I think Dortmund have a chance there. Fingers crossed anyway as I despise PSG

 

[lejackal]

Arsenal will be getting knocked out by Olympiakos this season :lol:

Olympiakos v Arsenal

Club Bruges v Manchester United

Wolves v Espanyol

Copenhagen v Celtic

Rangers v Braga

and the rest:

Sporting Lisbon v Istanbul Basaksehir

Getafe v Ajax

Bayer Leverkusen v Porto

APOEL v Basel

Cluj v Sevilla

AZ Alkmaar v LASK

Ludogorets Razgrad v Inter Milan

Eintracht Frankfurt v FC Salzburg

Shakhtar Donetsk v Benfica

Wolfsburg v Malmo

Roma v Gent

 

[edd_jedi]

It's about time Spurs had a decent draw result, mind you will probably blow it now

 

[lejackal]

The Italians really don't get racism do they? I'm sure they meant well but this is ridiculous :!:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/50814275

 

[edd_jedi]

Yes that is shocking!

 

[Snaketibe]

It boggles the mind! How could anyone NOT think such a poster campaign would itself be viewed as racist in this context?... Idiots!

I'm getting pretty sick and tired of FIFA failing to tackle racism in football. They might not themselves be able to stop racist chanting on the terraces, but they could impose very hefty penalties for clubs that have 'fans' that engage in it, instead of giving them a trivial slap on the wrist or the very brave sod all they often mete out currently!

And on a far less important note than tackling the odious, completely unacceptable and frankly stupid practice that is racism, I would also like to point out that the pictures feature chimpanzees, which are apes, not monkeys. Why are so many people incapable of understanding the distinction? Monkeys have tails, apes do not. It's really not difficult.

 

[weasel]

APPARENTLY, the artist wanted to take something that was used by the far right and try and deweaponise it. The logic makes sense but **** me ut did not work. Whoever signed off on that should be fired.

I agree on FIFA and racism. I saw something about how Nicholas Bendner got fined more during the Euro's when he pulled his shirt up to reveal the top of his shorts were embroidered with a bookies name (or whatever it was) than any club or country has been fined for racist abuse etc by their fans. That sums up FIFA's priorities. Racism, not good. Advertising for a non FIFA/UEFA partner VERY bad. :roll:

 

[edd_jedi]

It's not just racism, I think football bodies and clubs need to tackle all anti social behaviour. I got a bit sick of going to games because of the unpleasant language used by 'fans', much of it is not illegal but just horrible and unneccessary. Footballers shouldn't have to put up with it, and neither should the real fans. I also don't buy the argument that it's 'impossible to police', there are stewards everywhere, they know exactly who is doing it!

 

[theforceuk]

I completely agree with Edd, the last game I went to the foul lounguage and general abuse to the players and ref was disgusting. I don't understand why as soon as you enter a football stadium its exceptable to behave in a way that anywhere else in public you would get done for antisocial behaviour. The stewards turn a blind eye because that is what they have always done.

My 7 year old son is getting into football and he wants to go to a game, I really don't want to expose him to one yet.

 

[lejackal]

I know what you mean about the unnecessary language directed at players. I took Logan to the Emirates Cup in the summer, we sat 3 rows back so you were really close and two twats in front of us were cheerfully shouting at Mustafi calling him a wanker and **** etc
FFS it was a pre season friendly :!:

I'm certainly not taking him to a league game until the Emirates is a bit more positive

 

[weasel]

True, but when the players (Wazza and JT were particularly bad at it) stand three inches in front of the ref and call him everything under the sun every time he gives the slightest decision against them and don't even get a booking, there's not much point in trying to control morons in a crowd when you have 22 of them on a pitch. It's 'chicken and egg' you need to control both.

 

[edd_jedi]

So Arteta to Arsenal is finally official. Will he do a Solskjaer and win 15 games in a row against the odds? It's going to be an interesting few weeks.

 

[Snaketibe]

There's some good news for Spurs with Alderweireld signing a new contract... at long last!

 

[weasel]

Arteta is a mad man. You can't polish a turd, FFS Bob Paisley/Fergy/Pep couldn't make that Arsenal team good. They need such an over haul it isn't even funny, plus they have no money to do it and no likely CL to attract players. Not many of their players will sell for what they paid for them and they are all on big money so anyone who does stump up a decent offer will need to pay them a **** load too. More likely Arsenal will take a big loss on each AND coninue to subsidise their wages.

Sad to say but Arsenal are at a cross roads. Fook this up and they are looking at a long time in the doldrums, and I mean Everton levels of doldrums. I hope they get it right, but I wouldn't be too confident.

 

[lejackal]

He will either fail miserably for one of many reasons from inexperience, the club, the team, lack of support etc or he'll be truly fantastic and all we'll have to worry about in 2/3 years time is fending off Citeh or Barca for his services.

I very much hope it's the latter but I think he's up against it.

The rules of blind optimism still dictates that I declare this season the one where we get back to the land of milk and honey anyway :lol: :lol:

 

[weasel]

Been having this discussion with a few mates, where do you put the world club cup thing in the peckng order of trophies?
Obviously CL and PL are miles out on their own but where do you put the others?
FAC, Worthless Cup, EL, World Club Cup, Charity Shield, European Super Cup.

 

[lejackal]

Been having this discussion with a few mates, where do you put the world club cup thing in the peckng order of trophies?
Obviously CL and PL are miles out on their own but where do you put the others?
FAC, Worthless Cup, EL, World Club Cup, Charity Shield, European Super Cup.

Probably depends if you win it or not :lol:
I know you have to win a big competition to enter it but as champions of Europe you'd expect to be in the final with over 60% chance of winning so I guess somewhere around the Charity Shield (or whatever it's called these days)

 

[weasel]

My thinking was, assuming you have CL and PL as the big two, The World Club Cup thingy (WCC) probably has to rank above Charity Shield and ESC if only cos you have to have won CL to be in it. Ditto ESC over Charity Shield. Then it depends on how much importance you attach to each cup. Does winning FAC/worthless cup out do winning ESC/WCC. The latter two probably have more international prestige, not sure on prize money which probably needs to be taken in to account, but at the same time both are distinctly Mickey Mouse.

I had EL on it's own in 3rd ONLY because it has a CL spot. Although it is probably more prestigious than FAC and Worthless cup. FAC is obv better than Worthless cup.

 

[edd_jedi]

Oh the joys of being a Spurs fan (I use that phrase loosely.) Spurs have a pretty abysmal record against Chelsea, but surely this time with a multi Champions league winning manager playing at home against a manager with zero experience, it should be our day? Well no, this is Spurs we're talking about.

The first goal somehow managed to go through about 17 Spurs players, watching the slow motion replay I'm struggling to understand how one of them didn't stop it. Then a bizarre penalty, the kind that only Spurs concede (or Lloris so I thought.) Followed by a bizarre red card, again the kind only Spurs concede (what's that, about Son's 11th red card for retaliating now?)

Needless to say things didn't go our way today, and literally everything did for Chelsea. Not surprised with the result, was prepared for a loss or draw, but come on Spurs do you have to lose like such a ****ing embarrassing pile of **** in EVERY derby?

 

[Snaketibe]

Yes, Spurs were woeful today in every department, including luck. However, even if the first goal was a little unlucky for them to concede (albeit from an excellent strike by Willian), the bottom line is that Spurs played very poorly. Many of the old Poch-era bad habits were still on display, with no imagination, creativity or ambition going forwards. Instead, there was an immediate desire to pass the ball sideways and backwards instead of running forwards with it whenever they took possession. They failed to press Chelsea, and when being pressed themselves, as usual the players waited until the last possible moment (if then) before even thinking about passing the ball, and inevitably ended up losing possession. Son lashed out like a petulant child and got himself dismissed (yes, the cheating Chelsea player acted like he'd been poleaxed, but Son was an idiot for doing what he did). Dier was his usual shite self, but he wasn't alone. Aurier was a complete waste of space once again, and the passing generally from the team was simply appalling, just gifting the ball to Chelsea as often as not. Chelsea played well, though not fantastically, but they didn't need to :-(