Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Lechasseur]

No-one going to mention Iker Cassillas's "hillarious" "joke" then?

Didn't hear about it

[Lechasseur]

No-one going to mention Iker Cassillas's "hillarious" "joke" then?

Just googled it, apparently his account got hacked

[Lechasseur]

Arsenal's kids are maturing, the manager is growing wiser, and now they have an elite man up front... this team could win a title, if not this year, in the next few.

Agreed, I think it may well be this year, but if not this year then soon

[Lechasseur]

Arsenal lost to Manchester City in the FA Cup

But Arsenal are having their best league season in many years, so I'm happy with that

[Lechasseur]

It says a lot about PSG that they forgot how to play defense in their game against Lille today and they still won 4-3. as all three of Mbappe, Messi and Ronaldo Neymar scored at least once (Mbappe bagged a brace).

[Lechasseur]

I think Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Napoli and Inter make it to the Champions League semifinals while Manchester United, Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Roma I think will make the Europa League semifinals.

Those are my predictions.

[Lechasseur]

Bayern Munich fall behind Dortmund in the title race... definitely missing Lewandowski but there wasn't much they could do about him leaving. Still, they are massively underperforming for such a stupidly talented team.

Oh absolutely

Honestly I think the last Bundesliga team that was as talented as the Bayern Munich team of the time was Bayer Leverkusen in the early 2000s (and they were massive underachievers, never won anything. They were arguably even more talented than early 2000s Bayern).

But after that team broke up in 2002, Bayern shouldn't have had any serious competitors, and other teams only won when Bayern underperformed.

[Lechasseur]

Given how well Tuchel did at Chelsea, this is an amazing hire...but on the other hand, he really underperformed at PSG, especially with the roster he had.

"Really underperformed" = won the league in both seasons and made it to the finals of the Champions League for the first time in club history, losing 1-0 to Bayern Munich, who had an even more frightening squad? Sounds like a pretty good job to me.

I think Tuchel's a fantastic hire for Bayern Munich, and definitely an upgrade on Nagelsmann

[Lechasseur]

The UEL and UECL semis are now set:

UEL: Juventus v. Sevilla [Juventus just got their 15-point deduction in Serie A reversed... for now] and AS Roma v. Bayer Leverkusen
UECL: Fiorentina v. Basel and West Ham v. AZ Alkmaar

Going to go out on a limb and say we'll have an all-Italian Europa League final.

I'll take Fiorentina and West Ham in the Europa Conference League, and in the Champions League, I'll take AC Milan and Real Madrid.

My predictions are actually the same as yours, I totally agree with this

[Lechasseur]

It looks like Mauricio Pochettino will be in charge at Chelsea starting from next season.

Not a bad hire, with three trophies from his time at PSG, but Chelsea definitely could have been able to hire Julian Nagelsmann or Luis Enrique if they put the effort in, so they could have done better than Pochettino.

Honestly, I think Pochettino was probably the best fit for the Chelsea job. He's who I would have picked as well.

And it's good to see he's getting better than Spurs. I think there goes any chance of Tottenham holding onto their star players like Kane. Spurs will be mid-table at best next year lol

[Lechasseur]

Whichever club buys Kane at anywhere near Spurs' valuation of him will be committing the biggest fail since Barcelona signed Coutinho. Then again, Man Utd paid £80m for Maguire and £90m for Pogba who they let go for compensation and then let go for free a second time, so maybe they are the one club dumb enough to do it.

Tbh I think Spurs are simply demanding that much for him out of spite. There's no reason to demand 100 million pounds for a player who can leave on a free transfer in a year's time.

[Lechasseur]

Arsenal are actually going to lose the title. Incredible.

Yeah, they bottled it. Today was basically the title decider, but they didn't manage a win in their last 3 matches while conceding 8 and having a 2-goal lead in 2 of those matches.

Granted, they'll probably end the season on at least 80 points and in the title race for most of the season, which is fantasyland compared to where they've been the past decade.

Yeah, I think the title is Manchester City's now

Well, as an Arsenal supporter, while I'm disappointed, I'm still happy with the season overall. I honestly didn't think this Arsenal team was even Champions League qualification level, let alone a title contender who lead the table for large chunks of the season.

Ultimately I do think Manchester City have the more talented team, which explains why they've caught up and most likely will win the title now (I'd be surprised if they didn't).

But Arsenal have come a long way and their performance this season gives me hope for next season. I think with a bit of improvement and additions to the squad, Arsenal could maybe actually win next season.

This isn't 2016, where Arsenal and Tottenham blew it against Leicester City lmao (that was inexcusable).

[Lechasseur]

Arsenal gets flattened by Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0.

With the result, Manchester City just needs a point against Chelsea, paired with a Arsenal Nottingham Forest, or win against Chelsea, regardless of Arsenal's result, next week to win the Premier League.

Seeing Arsenal blow an 8-point lead at the beginning of April and being 4 points behind makes me want to puke.

Really, it comes down to squad depth. The wheels fell off after they lost Saliba. Rob Holding cannot be the 3rd-best central defender in a title-winning team.

Pretty much. That's why I'm not particularly surprised by what's happened here in the last few weeks, nor particularly frustrated with Arsenal. Sure, it's annoying they blew the lead they had, but with their current squad I think it was inevitable. I frankly don't think this was a top 4 squad (and I'm saying that as someone who's been an Arsenal fan for nearly 20 years now), the fact that Arsenal led for large chunks of the season was already a great achievement.

This wasn't like blowing the League Cup final to Birmingham City (there I was so angry haha), nor to a lesser degree letting a clearly less talented Leicester City squad win the league (Kante imo was the only truly top player on that team, it was probably an FA Cup winning quality side that could have made Europa League, shouldn't have been winning the league against Arsenal and Tottenham).

[Lechasseur]

With their 4-2 win in the Catalan Derby today, Barcelona has clinched the La Liga title.

Good

[Lechasseur]

Manchester City destroys Real Madrid 4-0 and advances to the Champions League final with a 5-1 aggregate win.

I would be shocked if Manchester City doesn't win a treble now (they basically have the Premier League wrapped up now, and need wins over Inter Milan in the Champions League final, and Manchester United in the FA Cup Final to wrap up the treble).

Ugh

I had planned on pulling for whoever won the Milanese semifinal in the UCL final regardless, but with the other finalist being City, it makes the decision even easier. Unfortunately, I think City will win the treble as you said.

That being said, Forza Inter! Never City!

[Lechasseur]

Pretty much. That's why I'm not particularly surprised by what's happened here in the last few weeks, nor particularly frustrated with Arsenal. Sure, it's annoying they blew the lead they had, but with their current squad I think it was inevitable. I frankly don't think this was a top 4 squad (and I'm saying that as someone who's been an Arsenal fan for nearly 20 years now), the fact that Arsenal led for large chunks of the season was already a great achievement.

I actually think they have a very good squad, just a bit lacking in depth and experience. Odegaard has been one of the best players in the league this season and players like Saka and Martinelli are babies who can get a lot better. When everyone is fit, they're not weak in any position. I would rate their squad comfortably ahead of Man Utd or Newcastle. Chelsea actually have very good players but nobody expects that dumpster fire to get put out any time soon.

City clearly had a stronger squad than Arsenal, as much as I would like to deny that, I won't. Chelsea as you said are very talented and should easily be Top 4, but they clearly have problems.

I agree, Arsenal are miles ahead of Newcastle, I never thought Newcastle had a shot. However, without hindsight I did think Arsenal would finish 5th or 6th (with Tottenham holding the other spot, and I thought the two Manchester clubs, Chelsea and Liverpool would make the Top 4.

But yeah Arsenal proved me wrong. And I do think they'll at least be in the Top 4 next season, and may even win the League with some reinforcement and some luck.

[Lechasseur]

With Leicester City's 3-0 loss to Liverpool, the Foxes have dropped to 19th in the English Premier League table.

If Leicester, which is two points from 17th placed Everton is relegated, they will be the first former Premier League champions to be relegated since Blackburn Rovers were relegated in the 1998-99 season after winning the Premier League in the 1994-95 season.

Football wasn't invented in 1992. Villa going down was was far bigger than Leicester going down would be.

Aston Villa are clearly a much, much bigger club than Leicester (Villa are easily in the top 10 of English clubs, whether it be in terms of historical success or in terms of popularity).

And yes Aston Villa were the last European Cup Winners to have been relegated (won the European Cup in 1982, got relegated in 2016).

However, a point I'll concede is Aston Villa were pretty bad in the 5 seasons or so before their relegation. It was basically inevitable it was going to happen, unfortunately.

While Leicester won the FA Cup only two years ago and frankly I thought had a decent squad. I never thought they were going to go down this year.

[Lechasseur]

Picking Manchester City for the Champions League, Sevilla for the Europa League, and West Ham for Europa Conference League.

I probably agree with these picks, however I'm pulling for their opponents lol

[Lechasseur]

3 European finals, 3 Italian finalists. Serie A isn't done yet.

Three Italian teams in European finals but both Juve and Milan eliminated (and Napoli, but at least Napoli won the Serie A)? I couldn't ask for more!

I just did the math, the last time you had Italian clubs in 3 European finals was all the way back in...1994! AC Milan won the Champions League, Inter Milan won the UEFA Cup and Parma lost to Arsenal in the Cup Winners' Cup final.

And the irony is the last time Italian clubs won every European final in a season was in 1990...and of course Napoli happened to win Serie A that year. Maybe history repeats itself?

[Lechasseur]

Inter Milan won the Italian Cup earlier this week by beating Fiorentina 2-1 in the final.

[Lechasseur]

The Premier League season has wrapped up for 2022/23. 



The Top 4 are Manchester City, Arsenal, Manchester United, and Newcastle, who will be in the UCL. The UEL participants will be Liverpool and Brighton.

Aston Villa clinches the UECL spot, sending Tottenham home without a European trip.



As for the relegation race, Everton blanked Bournemouth 1=0 to stay up. Leicester City beat West Ham 2-1, but fell short. Leeds got spanked by Tottenham 4-1 to join Leicester in being relegated with Southampton. 



Over in Germany, Heidenheim got promoted to the Bundesliga for the first time ever with two stoppage time goals by coming back from a 2-nil deficit against Jahn Regensburg in the 2. Bundesliga to win 3-2. Darmstadt also got promoted. Hamburg will have to settle for a playoff game against Stuttgart for the right to be in the Bundesliga. 

LOL Tottenham

The team is definitely going to break up this summer, especially given they won't even be in Europe next season. I can't see Kane staying around any longer, for example. I think any player who has any intention of winning trophies needs to leave the clubs ASAP. Imo Kane should have left 2 years ago.

And also based Villa, I've always had a soft spot for them (even if I support Arsenal), and I'm happy to see them in Europe again.

And yeah it's incredible with Leicester, this is a team that was FA Cup winner and playing in Europe like just two years ago, and now they're relegated. If you exclude Newcastle in 2009, Leicester here are probably the best team to have been relegated in decades. This is a team that should have been no worse than Top 10 imo, arguably should have qualified for Europe, and they went down (when you get down to it, that was the story with Newcastle in 2009 as well).

Ah the Bundesliga playoffs. Imo Stuttgart and Hamburg both underperformed, both should have been automatically promoted. I don't follow 2. Bundesliga enough to predict the match, but I'll be pulling for Stuttgart.

[Lechasseur]

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has played his final match.

Ibrahimovic retires after a glittering career that includes two Eredivese titles with Ajax, Five Serie A titles (three with Inter Milan and two with AC Milan, plus two more with Juventus that were revoked after a scandal), A La Liga, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup title with Barcelona, Four Ligue 1 titles with PSG, and a Europa League title with Manchester United.

He also won the League Cup with Manchester United, along with 2 French Cups with PSG and a KNVB Cup with Ajax I believe.

I thought he'd retire this year, but seeing him actually retire is strange.

[Lechasseur]

It looks like Celtic Head Coach Ange Postecoglu will be the next Head Coach at Tottenham Hotspur.

This has the potential to be a fantastic hire for Tottenham. Postecoglu has a reputation for winning everywhere he's gone, with titles in Australia, Japan and Scotland, and he's even won the Asian Cup managing the Australian National Team.

However, managing in the English Premier League is a massive step up from managing somewhere like Celtic. It looks like Eric Ten Hag has made the transition successfully, but it remains to be seen if Postecoglu can.

Good. Hopefully this means Rangers can win the league next year lol

In all seriousness, Postecoglu's a good coach, but probably not the caliber Tottenham are going to need to hold on to their star players. I expect to see a lot of exits and a considerably weaker Tottenham team next year.

[Lechasseur]

While I respect anyone who went from semi-pro player to Australian league manager to manager of a big club that plays in Europe every year, Postecoglou hasn't really done much. The A-League is very poor, his title-winning season at Yokohama is sandwiched between mid-table seasons where they finished below their previous season results, he only had to beat one real team to win the Asian Cup, and a couple good seasons at one of the Scottish giants is no indicator of good management, as Stevie G proved.

The step up for Postecoglou is like 5 times bigger than for Ten Hag, who had a much stronger resume before taking the Man Utd job.

I can't really say I know enough about his pre-Celtic career to comment on that, but I definitely agree with your last paragraph.

[Lechasseur]

West Ham fans and media calling West Ham "champions of Europe" is pretty cringe. They won Europe's third-tier competition as one of the biggest teams.

On top of that, they're going to lose their best player this summer (Declan Rice), maybe to Liverpool or one of the Manchester sides (or if, Todd Boehly loses his mind, Chelsea).

I think Declan Rice ends up at Arsenal.

Me too, and I hope so