Association Football 2023/2024 Discussion Thread

[Santander]

lol, Arsenal. Tierney is good, and so is Leno I guess, but the rest of the starting XI do not belong in a top-half team. I don't know how some pundits have them finishing in the European places - they are miles off that.

I do like Tierney, but he’s a little overrated. Arsenal fans and pundits have a tend to massively big up our best players and make huge scapegoats of our worse ones. After watching that performance, though, I have no idea why we, to borrow a turn of phrase from the Prime Minister, spaffed £50 million up the wall for Ben White.

Arsenal are now basically where Spurs have historically been, or worse, West Ham a few years ago. Enough money to pay decent wages, but no chance to win anything, so they end up overpaying for questionable talent and be a semi-retirement club for older players looking for a pay day and/or London lifestyle. They don't have the pulling power to get players like Varane or Upamecano, so they make desperation buys like Ben White for £50m.

Although Barcelona were shopping Lenglet around, who would've been cheaper from a transfer fee perspective, and probably not that much more expensive on wages.

[NewYorkExpress]

lol, Arsenal. Tierney is good, and so is Leno I guess, but the rest of the starting XI do not belong in a top-half team. I don't know how some pundits have them finishing in the European places - they are miles off that.

I do like Tierney, but he’s a little overrated. Arsenal fans and pundits have a tend to massively big up our best players and make huge scapegoats of our worse ones. After watching that performance, though, I have no idea why we, to borrow a turn of phrase from the Prime Minister, spaffed £50 million up the wall for Ben White.

Arsenal are now basically where Spurs have historically been, or worse, West Ham a few years ago. Enough money to pay decent wages, but no chance to win anything, so they end up overpaying for questionable talent and be a semi-retirement club for older players looking for a pay day and/or London lifestyle. They don't have the pulling power to get players like Varane or Upamecano, so they make desperation buys like Ben White for £50m.

Although Barcelona were shopping Lenglet around, who would've been cheaper from a transfer fee perspective, and probably not that much more expensive on wages.

Did Lenglet even want to go to Arsenal? If I were him, and I were looking at London clubs, I'd want to go to Chelsea (and he's probably an immediate upgrade over Thiago Silva right now too, if Chelsea were interested).

[Lechasseur]

Embarrassing start to the season by my Arsenal. Getting thrashed 2-0 by promoted Brentford.

The way Arsenal played in that in that game, I wouldn't be shocked if they were relegated, quite frankly.

And the sad thing is I think it's really an issue of squad quality. I don't think replacing Arteta would change much...

[Lechasseur]

Embarrassing start to the season by my Arsenal. Getting thrashed 2-0 by promoted Brentford.

The way Arsenal played in that in that game, I wouldn't be shocked if they were relegated, quite frankly.

But yeah, I unironically agree with you there. And I support Arsenal as well (well, along with PSG ofc lol)...

[Alcibiades]

Taking a break from the Premier League discussion, on a personal note (and because I know many from afar have been taken in by the fairytale story), professional football returned to Wimbledon for the first time in 30 years today, as AFC Wimbledon played their first game in front of fans at their new stadium at Plough Lane - a thrilling 3-3 draw with Bolton.

Before that, AFC had played at Kingsmeadow in Kingston, while the old Wimbledon FC were forced to move to Crystal Palace’s Selhurst Park in 1991. I sadly couldn’t get tickets (hopefully soon though!), but it was great to see the throngs of blue and yellow shirts in Wimbledon town today. Regardless, this is yet another important and emotional milestone on a magnificent and remarkable story.

[JGibson]

UEFA is considering replacing the Financial Fair Play model in favor of an NBA/MLB-esque model of salary caps and luxury taxes, effective the 2022/23 season.

90Min:

UEFA will soon lay out proposals to replace their current Financial Fair Play system by introducing a salary cap and a luxury tax.
FFP rules, which were first introduced in 2010, demand that teams break even over a three-year period in an attempt to stop teams from recklessly spending, although the regulations have come under fire in recent years.

According to The Times, UEFA are open to the idea of completely overhauling the system by introducing a salary cap, similar to those seen in the United States in Major League Baseball and the NBA.

[...]

Teams would be given the freedom to exceed that salary cap, but only if they are prepared to pay an extra luxury tax, which could see them pay nearly double the amount of their breach into a fund which would then be distributed to other teams in their competition.

[...]

Repeat offenders could even be threatened with bans from European competitions, with UEFA keen to do more to prevent mass overspending.

[NewYorkExpress]

UEFA is considering replacing the Financial Fair Play model in favor of an NBA/MLB-esque model of salary caps and luxury taxes, effective the 2022/23 season.

90Min:

UEFA will soon lay out proposals to replace their current Financial Fair Play system by introducing a salary cap and a luxury tax.
FFP rules, which were first introduced in 2010, demand that teams break even over a three-year period in an attempt to stop teams from recklessly spending, although the regulations have come under fire in recent years.

According to The Times, UEFA are open to the idea of completely overhauling the system by introducing a salary cap, similar to those seen in the United States in Major League Baseball and the NBA.

[...]

Teams would be given the freedom to exceed that salary cap, but only if they are prepared to pay an extra luxury tax, which could see them pay nearly double the amount of their breach into a fund which would then be distributed to other teams in their competition.

[...]

Repeat offenders could even be threatened with bans from European competitions, with UEFA keen to do more to prevent mass overspending.

Doing something like that would probably lead to a revolt from both players and certain clubs (Manchester City/PSG/Chelsea).

There's a reason MLB has no salary cap at all, and that's because players would strike immediately if one was implemented.

Hell, the players in MLB still want to get rid of the luxury tax.

[Alcibiades]

Gerd Müller, arguably the greatest out-and-out striker of all time, has died aged 75. RIP.

[Lechasseur]

Gerd Müller, arguably the greatest out-and-out striker of all time, has died aged 75. RIP.

RIP

[Santander]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

[NewYorkExpress]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

[Santander]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

How is that impressive? Shakhtar are always a very strong team who regularly beat much stronger teams than Monaco and are a mainstay of the Champions League group stages. Sheriff are the champions of the 41st-ranked league in Europe and have never reached a Champions League group stage.

[NewYorkExpress]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

How is that impressive? Shakhtar are always a very strong team who regularly beat much stronger teams than Monaco and are a mainstay of the Champions League group stages. Sheriff are the champions of the 41st-ranked league in Europe and have never reached a Champions League group stage.

Sheriff also had a much easier opponent than Shakhtar did, even if they were underdogs, France's Ligue 1 a significantly stronger league than the Ukrainian Premier League, and the game was being played in Monaco.

[Santander]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

How is that impressive? Shakhtar are always a very strong team who regularly beat much stronger teams than Monaco and are a mainstay of the Champions League group stages. Sheriff are the champions of the 41st-ranked league in Europe and have never reached a Champions League group stage.

Sheriff also had a much easier opponent than Shakhtar did, even if they were underdogs, France's Ligue 1 a significantly stronger league than the Ukrainian Premier League, and the game was being played in Monaco.

Transfermarkt values Monaco's current squad at $424m. Shakhtar's squad is $196m while Zagreb's is $145m. Sheriff's squad value is $13m. Anyone who knows anything about football would've immediately known which was the bigger upset, and it's not even close.

Shakhtar beating Monaco is like a bottom club beating a mid-table club in the same division. Sheriff beating Zagreb is like a 3rd division club beating a top-flight team. 3-0, even.

[Alcibiades]

Sheriff showing the former Yugoslav giants Red Star and Dinamo who's... well, Sheriff. Even better, they have a literal knockoff Adama Traore.

I admit to being slightly more impressed by Shakhtar Donestk's win over Monaco, in Monaco.

How is that impressive? Shakhtar are always a very strong team who regularly beat much stronger teams than Monaco and are a mainstay of the Champions League group stages. Sheriff are the champions of the 41st-ranked league in Europe and have never reached a Champions League group stage.

Sheriff also had a much easier opponent than Shakhtar did, even if they were underdogs, France's Ligue 1 a significantly stronger league than the Ukrainian Premier League, and the game was being played in Monaco.

Transfermarkt values Monaco's current squad at $424m. Shakhtar's squad is $196m while Zagreb's is $145m. Sheriff's squad value is $13m. Anyone who knows anything about football would've immediately known which was the bigger upset, and it's not even close.

Shakhtar beating Monaco is like a bottom club beating a mid-table club in the same division. Sheriff beating Zagreb is like a 3rd division club beating a top-flight team. 3-0, even.

Not to mention that Zagreb had a pretty impressive European run last season.

[Santander]

Looks like Martin Odegaard is returning to Arsenal on a permanent contract. Great business imo, and he has everything good associated with Arsenal players (technical, intelligent), with things Arsenal often sorely lack (work rate, quality pressing). He did well on loan, imo.

[Suburbia]

Gerd Müller, arguably the greatest out-and-out striker of all time, has died aged 75. RIP.

[Suburbia]

Harry Kane made an appearance today, as the Spurs won over the Wolves......

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/aug/22/nuno-espirito-santo-praises-harry-kane-for-helping-tottenham-to-win-at-wolves

[Santander]

Yusuf Demir's Barcelona debut shows that no matter what troubles they're going through right now, they are still one of the most attractive brands in the world. They literally have 4 out of the 5 most highly-rated teenagers in the world now, the other of course being Camavinga. Pedri, Ansu Fati, Ilaix Moriba and Yusuf Demir all coming of age at the same time is a slightly sickening thought but also a recipe for another dominant era in 5-6 years. Eric Garcia even came back from a Manchester adventure like Pique...

For the time being though, obviously they aren't winning anything other than maybe a Copa del Rey, which neither Barcelona nor Madrid give a damn about unless they're playing each other in the final.

[Alcibiades]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

[NewYorkExpress]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

[Donerail]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

No one on the planet will ever embrace the draconian punishments you have suggested for all variety of sporting misbehavior.

[Alcibiades]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

No one on the planet will ever embrace the draconian punishments you have suggested for all variety of sporting misbehavior.

Evidently my idea of hefty sanctions (matches behind closed doors, possibly a few points deducted) are mere slaps on the wrist to NYE.

[Never Made it to Graceland]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

No one on the planet will ever embrace the draconian punishments you have suggested for all variety of sporting misbehavior.

Tom Brady should have been imprisoned for 10-25 years and Bill Belichick executed for secretly filming Eagles' practices in 2005.

[Santander]

Utter carnage in Nice-Marseille. The worst fan violence I’ve seen in a while, not to mention some of the players going at it and Jorge Sampaoli going totally berserk. There have surely got to be hefty sanctions for both teams, but Nice in particular.

Given this appears to be Nice fans, forced relegation for Nice has to be the minimum here. Forced relegation multiple divisions should be considered.

No one on the planet will ever embrace the draconian punishments you have suggested for all variety of sporting misbehavior.

Tom Brady should have been imprisoned for 10-25 years and Bill Belichick executed for secretly filming Eagles' practices in 2005.

UNC basketball should've been given the death penalty.