Official Football Thread

The Flash said:
Yeah, definitely but there was no team on the 4th pot with a richer history than Celtic, so.
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Perhaps, but Steaua Bucharest have won the European Cup more recently and Napoli had Diego Maradona where as Celtic's prestige in European competition is all pre-1990 after which Scottish domestic football started to die and so did Scottish clubs' chances of competing in European competitions. Celtic did make the UEFA Cup final a decade ago where they were beaten by Jose Mourinho's Porto (so you could argue that they were part of history then) and had their last big name in world football, Henrick Larsson. Recently though their big results in the Champions League have been overhyped and probably less remarkable than Rubin Kazan's results against Barcelona and Famagusta's progress in the Champions League.

CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
You've probably got to give them that Black Wizard? I broadly agree with what you said though; it's the same with the Gers 50 championships thing. That said, many (great) clubs have done very little in recent times.
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The 50 championships thing doesn't really count to be honest. Since football started in Scotland only two clubs have regularly competed for the league title, one of which one could argue is history now. Queen's Park used to be a major player, but they're now the only amateur team in the erroneously named Scottish Professional Football League, and Aberdeen and Dundee United were good in the 80s. Linfield (Northern Ireland) have also won 50 league titles but nobody makes any grandiose claims about their history. :P

I think a big reason behind many (formerly?) great clubs doing very little recently is due to UEFA's ridiculous "Champions" League qualification format where four teams from once country can qualify for the tournament. There's no way that Celtic, national champions, should have to play three qualifying rounds to reach the group stages when the third placed teams in Spain and England reach the group stages automatically. I'm not suggesting that the Scottish champions should have an place in the group stages automatically, but it's extremely unjust that a team that won their national league should have to go through so many rounds to make the group stages but Chelsea, who literally achieved nothing last season, are already there.
 
Well said, Wingman!

wiki:
In 1988, Johan Cruyff returned to the club as manager and he assembled the so-called Dream Team. He used a mix of Spanish players like Pep Guardiola, José Mari Bakero, and Txiki Begiristain while signing international stars such as Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup, Romário, and Hristo Stoichkov. Under his guidance, Barcelona won four consecutive La Liga titles from 1991 to 1994. They beat Sampdoria in both the 1989 Cup Winners' Cup final and the 1992 European Cup final at Wembley. They also won a Copa del Rey in 1990, the European Super Cup in 1992, and three Supercopa de España. With 11 trophies, Cruyff became the club's most successful manager, until being overtaken by Guardiola in 2011. He also became the club's longest consecutive serving manager, serving 8 years.


Other notable Ajax players who went to Barca:
Johan Neeskens, Patrick Kluivert plus Ronald and Frank de Boer.

Half-time: 1-0. :/
 
Aye, totally agree with most of what you say Black Wizard. The three qualification rounds is a nonsense for Celtic this year. Still, Rangers & Celtic have both now got out of the groups on a few occasions --& if you forget the past & just look at money & personnel available, that's still pretty good going. They need to keep doing it though. I just always look at an Arsenal, for example, & think: Champions League qualifications for, whatever it is, 17 consecutive years running --what have they done in the competition though? Not much. Apologies for talking past you there Forostar...
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I just always look at an Arsenal, for example, & think: Champions League qualifications for, whatever it is, 17 consecutive years running --what have they done in the competition though? Not much.
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Arsene Wenger always annoys me with this. He's perfectly open about the fact that he considers Champions League qualification second in its importance to only winning the league, which they don't challenge for anyway. There's no glory in finishing fourth in your league. If I were English (*shudders*) then I would rather my team were to win the FA Cup and have something to remember. No football club lists "4th place in the Premier League" on their list of honours. Unfortunately though, most Boards of Directors disagree with me.
 
Black Wizard said:
Arsene Wenger always annoys me with this. He's perfectly open about the fact that he considers Champions League qualification second in its importance to only winning the league, which they don't challenge for anyway. There's no glory in finishing fourth in your league. If I were English (*shudders*) then I would rather my team were to win the FA Cup and have something to remember. No football club lists "4th place in the Premier League" on their list of honours. Unfortunately though, most Boards of Directors disagree with me.
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As an Arsenal fan, I agree wholeheartedly. Consistency isn't a success if it's not on a high level.
 
They still fucking deprived me of £190 by failing to bear Forfar fucking Athletic in the League Cup last month! The only team to let me down in my £1, 8-fold accumulator.
 
Fucking Chelsea fucked up my fucking bet. Fuck.
Also: Aaron Ramsey in his last 6 games for Arsenal = 6 goals. His previous 105 games = 6 goals.
 
Basel never fails to give Chelsea a hard time. Chelsea's first home loss in European stage since 2003 which was a loss against Beşiktaş, if I remember correctly.
 
Basel have given several good teams a hard time over the last few years (Man United, Bayern, and now Chelsea). After what they have done earlier, I wasn't really all that surprised this time around.
 
Midfielder Gerrie Mühren (67) died of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

He played from 1968 to 1976 with Ajax. 298 official matches in which he made 72 goals.

Big successes: three times EC 1, three times League title, three times European Supercup, one time the World Cup.

Legendary was his bold piece of football in the semi final of the EC1 versus Real Madrid in 1973. Ajax won the match with 1-0. 'It symbolized that Ajax was above the mighty Real Madrid', he said himself.

Mühren was a technically gifted player. 'Gerrit has such a good kicking technique that he can get the shoelaces from your shoes with the ball', said the admiring co-international Willem van Hanegem.

As player of Betis Sevilla Mühren became Spanish footballer keague player of the year in 1977.

In 1985 Mühren ended his career.

Check this video of the legendary moment, and if you don't want to see the whole vid, check the beginning plus 4:19 til the end. :--)

More of such fun:
1:18 - 1:38 plus 4:10 - 5:10(!) plus 7:51 - 8:22.

And this goal was his own favourite (1h09m00s - 1h09m30s)
RIP Gerrie!
 
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Mourinho leaves out both Juan Mata and David Luiz from 18 players for today's match, even though both are fit :eek: Guy's clearly insane.
 
Seeing how Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City started off the season, I'm actually hopeful that Arsenal can win the championship this time around. Midfield is fantastic, Özil-Wilshere-Ramsey-Cazorla can match up with any midfield in the world. With Giroud being as on form as he is, I don't see any reason not to get excited.
 
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