Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[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.

[JGibson]

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.

Stuttgart is currently in the Bundesliga, but will drop to the 2. Bundesliga alongside Hertha BSC and Schalke 04 if they lose to Hamburg SV in the relegation/survival playoff, and in that case, Hamburg would be in the Bundesliga instead, joining Heidenheim and Darmstadt in being promoted.

[NewYorkExpress]

Luciano Spalletti will not return to Napoli next season.

This is a major blow to Napoli's hopes of winning a second straight Scudetto, quite frankly. It looks like the decision to leave was Spalletti's, and he says he's taking a year off, so we'll wait and see where he ends up.

It looks like Daichi Kamada is heading from Eintracht Frankfurt to AC Milan when his contract expires at the end of next month.

Kamada's a decent signing, and might honestly be an upgrade over Oliver Giroud at this point in both their careers.

[NewYorkExpress]

Real Madrid closing in on a deal that would bring Espanyol Forward Joselu in on loan for a season.

Real Madrid does need cover for Karim Benzema, but they probably can do better than Joselu.
 
It looks like they are going to wait until Kylian Mbappe's contract expires next season and make another attempt to sign him then, rather than make a serious effort to deal with the position now.

That kind of thinking could cost them La Liga next season too.

[Santander]

If Roma go on to win now...

EDIT: lol, and one immediately goes in Sevilla's favor.

[Santander]

Absolutely horrendous match, but Sevilla deserve it on balance.

[Mike88]

Sevilla has won.

I was rooting for a Mourinho win.

[Santander]

Sevilla has won.

I was rooting for a Mourinho win.

I kinda wanted to see Mourinho's reaction to winning. It's strange seeing him lose a European final.

[NewYorkExpress]

Given Sevilla's expertise with the Europa League, I'm not surprised that they won.

[Santander]

Man Utd to pay Maguire £10m to leave the club. The meme that keeps on giving.

TBF, he could actually be a good player in the right system where his lack of pace isn't a liability. He'd be good in a Mourinho team.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Cosenza should have been relegated to Serie C for the fourth straight year but has just scored in the 95th minute of the relegation playout against Brescia to take the aggregate lead.

In 2020, they got half of their total points in the final 10 games after the COVID pause, including a win in their final match, to escape the play-out by a single point.
In 2021, they were the last team relegated but the disqualification of Chievo Verona allowed them to remain in the league.
In 2022, they were destined to be relegated before jumping Alessandria and Vicenza with a win in the final match. After conceding in the play-out road game to Vicenza, they netted two at home.

It looked like it would be the reverse of last year in 2023 as the lower seed since they scored one at home and could not get anything going on the road - but Andrea Moroni's late header puts them to safety.

All the luck in the world!


We will not be getting our first ever competitive Brescian derby next season as FeralpiSalo will replace the provincial capital in Serie B. Unbelievable. Brescia just could not get things back on track after Bari exposed them in what was supposed to be a battle with promotional pecking order consequences. First time outside the top two leagues since 1985.

https://twitter.com/FootColic/status/1664368642782273542?s=20

https://twitter.com/CalcioEngland/status/1664370558241234945?s=20

[NewYorkExpress]

Karim Benzema is heading to Saudi Arabia. He'll be signing a two year contract worth four hundred million Euros with Al Ittihad.

[Santander]

Disgraceful scenes at Budapest airport after the Europa League final.

Now we know what happens when Mourinho loses a European final. Cheeky interviews are replaced with shouting expletives at referees in the parking garage and inciting harassment. He is such a charismatic character he can get away with being a bad boy most of the time, but this is beyond the pale.

https://twitter.com/momo50SSL/status/1664333852376965137?s=20

[NewYorkExpress]

Manchester City is one step closer to the Treble, as they won their Manchester Derby FA Cup Final, 2-1 today.

Next weekend is the Champions League final, which should be about as easy as this was for Manchester City.

[NewYorkExpress]

RB Leipzig shut down Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 to repeat as winners of the DFB-Pokal.

This result means Bayer Leverkusen is heading to the Europa League, with Eintracht Frankfurt heading to the Europa Conference League.

[JGibson]

Manchester City is one step closer to the Treble, as they won their Manchester Derby FA Cup Final, 2-1 today.

Next weekend is the Champions League final, which should be about as easy as this was for Manchester City.

And with Manchester City being both the FA Cup and PL winners, Arsenal will take part in the Community Shield as the runner-up in the Premier League.

[Mike88]

Next Sunday, it will be the Cup of Portugal final between Porto and Braga.

FCPorto wins the Cup of Portugal after defeating Braga by 2-0.

[Battista Minola 1616]

That was a crazy Serie A finale! In the end, Spezia will go to a relegation playoff with Verona. Funnily enough that's also how the first football year I remember (2006/2007) ended, although in that case it was in Serie B. Spezia won.

[NewYorkExpress]

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.

[Zinneke]

I advise any football fan who takes a fleeting interest in the wider football world to watch what happened on the last day of the Belgian pro league. Literally 3 different champions in the last 5 minutes. Insane drama.

[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.

[NewYorkExpress]

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.

[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.

[Santander]

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.

[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.