Official Football Thread

Forostar said:
As you know I had the chance to fully "enjoy" their "qualities" and I am not surprised, not at all.
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::)

Milan and Manchester United are in a similar situation. Difference being that United is still in CL (but on its way out) and they still have a lot of money.
 
I checked Man U's history since Fergy joined and looked not further than 1988-89 (11th). I had not expected that it got worse after that.
 
Manchester United back to its former self before Sir Alex arrived? The end of an era?

M. Utd.'s History is very curious. They have 3 eras: one at the end of the 1910's, when they were champions and won then the most important trophy, after they struggle for a looong while to be even a First Division team.

Then they just disappeared, and were just an average team, going down and up the first and second divisions for many decades.

Then then 2nd era: they were of one the English rising forces after the Second World War, until they reached their peak with the European Champions title in 1968. For about 25 years they finished 12 times in top-two position and 16 times in top-5.

Then they just... disappeared again (!), so much they were relegated once (!!) and they waited 25 years (!!) for another top division title. Since 1969 they finished in top-two positions only 6 times and top-5 9 times. They were happy winning the FA Cup here and there and for 15 seasons (!) they didn't even participate in the European Cups.

Then Sir Alex arrived and his early seasons were pretty bad, but for some reason they bet on him and he saved himself after winning the Cup Winners Cup in 1991. Then it's History: M. Utd. was the greatest club of the new found Premiership in 1993, winning 8 (!) of the first 11 seasons and until 2013 they literally won everything, inclunding 2 Champions League titles, and only lost 8 Premiership titles.

So... what now? Will they disappear again? For decades? Will they be relegated, like they always did after their dominance eras? :eek::eek:
 
Galatasaray are 8 points behind Fenerbahçe, fucking hell. Four consecutive road games without a win. We're playing Chelsea this week, hopefully we get a good result there.
 
Furious Van Basten screams his opinion on what happened straight into the camera. :)
Unfortunately I haven't seen the situation but he disagrees with the red card.
"**inaudible first words** It is a ridiculous action! At maximum yellow card and penalty! This is really fucking bullshit!"
The commentator says he agrees completely. (The penalty was missed but Feyenoord won the match with 2-0)
 
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Rotam said:
So... what now? Will they disappear again? For decades? Will they be relegated, like they always did after their dominance eras? :eek::eek:
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Of course not. The footballing world looks very different now than it did in 1968 (or 1986, for that matter). The economical differences between the top clubs and the other clubs are much bigger. United are having a nightmare of a season, but are still doing better than e.g. Liverpool were doing only two years ago under Hodgson. The way back to winning the title may take time - perhaps many years - but I am quite sure it won't get much worse than it is now. Even without Champions League football next season, Manchester United will be able to attract players at a higher level than the teams around them on the table, like Tottenham, Everton and Newcastle.
 
At least Manchester United will have an advantage over competition because they (probably) won't have European games next season. They'll have more rest than the others.
 
This has helped Liverpool massively this season, they haven't been forced to rotate as much, meaning they have been able to get their attacking players to gel together as a unit. Resulting in great attacking football. The reason why I don't think they will win the title is their tendency to be very sloppy in defense. Not in every game, but too often.
 
M.U. for 20 years after the second world war was also a step ahead from most other clubs, and was the only English club to win a major European title before English teams started to dominate the competition in the last half of the 1970's.

My point was this club went very high and then went down really bad.

Of course i was joking a bit since i don't believe they will down to the Championship in the near future. But it's true this season is their worst perfomance since 1991 and for the very first time they will end up the Premiership below the 3r position. So, for all reasons, this is something new.

At least for me, since i started to watch football, this is the fall of a giant.
 
AVB is going to be the new Zenit St. Petersburg manager. Oh Andre, you had the world at your feet after winning the UEFA Cup with Porto and now you're in Russian football.
 
A steep hill to climb for Galatasaray now ...

Drogba coaching? I know where he could teach:

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