The Football.....

[Mike_P]

I hadn’t realised he is only 33!
That’s younger than some of his players.
You can’t imagine older, more experienced managers getting caught out by Suzy’s stupid plan.

Would the players have known ?
Its the norm that the opposition has been watched so even if they knew that they would have taken reference was to a match not a training session.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

And now Wrexham want the playoffs restarted with them in

Replay the entire season. Get all the teams together, play it over four weeks, shorten the games to two halves of twenty minutes, play two games a day per team and you've got a 46 game season done in 23 days and then a week to do the playoffs (full length games). If you didn't care about sporting integrity you could make the argument that with all these games played in a neutral venue (or venues) there's technically no need for "home" or "away" matches, so you only need 23 games and each team only plays once per day. The second halves are played seven a side (still on the full size pitch) to ensure goals get scored in the shortened match-time. Televise the entire tournament, 12 games a day for 23 days , that's 8 hours of football daily, you could sell the TV rights for an absolute fortune. Get a camera crew following each of the main teams in promotion/relegation/legal battles for premium behind the scenes content, with a panel of legal experts offering live punditry on each club's arguments. Allow a transfer window halfway through for lawyers, see who can pick up the top level barrister you need in today's game and ...err... who's got the strongest bench.... And at the end of the season there's a £150 million prize of promotion for three teams, and the abyss of relegation for three others.

 

[laurentian]

. . . and as our thoughts turn to the summer . . .

England Squad Announcement:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Manchester City)

Defenders: Reece James (Chelsea), Tino Livramento (Newcastle), Marc Guehi (Manchester City), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), John Stones (Manchester City), Jarell Quansah (Bayer Leverkusen), Nico O'Reilly (Manchester City), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Djed Spence (Tottenham Hotspur)

Midfielders: Declan Rice (Arsenal), Elliot Anderson (Nottingham Forest), Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Jordan Henderson (Brentford), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United), Eberechi Eze (Arsenal)

Forwards: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Noni Madueke (Arsenal), Marcus Rashford (Barcelona, on loan from Manchester United), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)

 

[No Ta Doctor]

I hadn’t realised he is only 33!
That’s younger than some of his players.
You can’t imagine older, more experienced managers getting caught out by such a stupid plan.

Err... Bielsa, when caught spying for Leeds, was in his late sixties, with a managerial career that included Newell's Old Boys, Espanyol, Marseille, Athletic Bilbao, Lazio, Argentina and Chile. Arguably one of the most experienced managers on the planet.

 

[Vapin' Joe]

I hadn’t realised he is only 33!
That’s younger than some of his players.
You can’t imagine older, more experienced managers getting caught out by such a stupid plan.

They'd be better at hiding it.

 

[Alex321]

Err... Bielsa, when caught spying for Leeds, was in his late sixties, with a managerial career that included Newell's Old Boys, Espanyol, Marseille, Athletic Bilbao, Lazio, Argentina and Chile. Arguably one of the most experienced managers on the planet.

But at that time there was no specific rule against it. They were penalised on the basis of "bringing the game into disrepute", and the rule was introduced afterwards.

 

[Beebo]

Panini Stickers have to guess the World Cup squads, as they print the albums before the actual announcement.

To cover off their chances of making a mistake they only pick 17 out of the 26 man squad. So only go for the players they are certain will be picked.

But they have still got 3 wrong, Palmer, Foden and Trent AA.

That’s going to disappoint a few people.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Panini Stickers have to guess the World Cup squads, as they print the albums before the actual announcement.

To cover off their chances of making a mistake they only pick 17 out of the 26 man squad. So only go for the players they are certain will be picked.

But they have still got 3 wrong, Palmer, Foden and Trent AA.

That’s going to disappoint a few people.

Palmer has really fallen off a cliff this year. First season at Chelsea he was unplayable. Not sure what has happened, it can't just be injury related.

 

[No Ta Doctor]

Panini Stickers have to guess the World Cup squads, as they print the albums before the actual announcement.

To cover off their chances of making a mistake they only pick 17 out of the 26 man squad. So only go for the players they are certain will be picked.

But they have still got 3 wrong, Palmer, Foden and Trent AA.

That’s going to disappoint a few people.

Haven't they all had poor seasons? Not sure re Trent, but Palmer and Foden haven't pulled up any trees this season. If we're looking at the right wing then taking Madueke makes sense in that while he's maybe not the player people expect most from his inclusion won't cause noise and instability like Foden/Palmer might if the team goes through a rocky patch. Just remembering the fuss the media made of Foden's incredible "lays it on a plate for him" pass for Eze's tap-in (from outside the box on the left, tapped in with power and curl to the top right corner).... At least the "MUST PLAY FODEN!" stuff won't be there this time round