The soccerball thread

[jadis]

I have no idea what type of demographic or culture these clubs are associated with in the UK but Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest are my two favorite club names.

Speaking as a neutral from North America, I've liked City ever since they had that team with Touré, Silva and Aguero. They play brilliant football... Also, if even the greatest moment of the greatest player at a World Cup gets to be appropriated by some piece of shit from the Gulf who also happens to be his employer at PSG, what can you expect.

This season I'm rooting for Arsenal though

[jimmy jazz]

I don't know when you got into football, but MC were of a similar stature to a club like West Brom. Switching between divisions, one or two moments of glory many decades ago but generally a laughing stock. They were a nothing club.

Then obviously they were taken over in 2008 by Abu Dhabi and the sheikhs, injected with 30bn of oil money and proceeded to buy whoever they wanted as well as destroying the transfer market and inflating the value of players. They didn't earn the money through on pitch success, they essentially won it in a lottery.

Since then, they have broken financial rules regarding how much money they can lose and made dodgy sponsorship deals (massively inflated deals with fake companies fronted by actors, basically the owners and board cheating the system to spend whatever they want, while the rest of us play by the rules and get nowhere).

Over the past decade or so, I've watched four of our captains and best players (Barry, Milner, Delph, Grealish), literally one after the other be poached away by them, and it is back to square one for us. They kill competition by stacking players in the squad they don't need with money they didn't earn.

They're everything that is wrong with football in this country and in general. It is absolutely infuriating how they've been able to get away with it and hoover up trophies while breaking the rules.

I obviously have eyes and can see the players on the pitch are talented and the team plays well but it doesn't matter.

[Trollheart]

This is why you call them Abu Dhabi United is it? Didn't know all that. It is unfair, but as in all walks of life, money talks.

[jadis]

Yeah I remember City before they bought Robinho and Tevez...

I mean Real Madrid's success in the 1960s is down to being the official team of a fascist dictatorship that poured unlimited resources into the club and sometimes even murdered the players of its main rival... With Chelsea it was a certain Russian oligarch who bought them success: he's gone now but the titles are there and the club is now a "natural" part of the elite, like Juventus or LFC or Barcelona. 

I used to be really mad about Abramovich because I despise this guy and it did feel like he's unfairly corrupting the game or whatever. And yes, the reason I've always loved the English game is all the tradition and local flavor. But also because it had Cantona and Schmeichel and Berkgamp and Henry and David Ginola and all the other stars only big money could buy. I know that there were LFC fans saying that Fergie's United bought they success unfairly. "ABU", "all but United", was a thing for a while (still is?)

What I'm trying to say is that while now it's clearly more inflated and absurd than ever, old money was new money once. 

[jimmy jazz]

@jadis sorry I thought you were saying you first saw them during the Toure team. Didn't mean to be patronising.

All of that is true, but MC are actually breaking the rules as well as financially doping. They've got over a hundred charges against them from the FA. Also tbh it doesn't really bother me as much when teams in other countries do it as they aren't a direct threat to my own. (Chelsea are second only to MC on the cuntometer.)

I think there is a mutual respect between MU and Liverpool, both of them know their revenue is built on sustained on pitch success. Obviously they hate each other but both of them see each other as 'proper' clubs not the plaything of an oil tycoon or Gulf State.

At least Trolls knows what MC are up to now.

[Trollheart]

Let's at least get it right: it's Anyone But United! 

[jadis]

@jadis

I think there is a mutual respect between MU and Liverpool, both of them know their revenue is built on sustained on pitch success. Obviously they hate each other but both of them see each other as 'proper' clubs not the plaything of an oil tycoon or Gulf State.

One thing I've seen online and even IRL is United fans regarding City as the lesser evil and not taking the rivalry as seriously, precisely because City are a "not a real club anyway" or something like that. I once watched a City game in a sports bar (it was toward the end of the season where Stevie "slipped on his fucking arse and gave it Demba Ba") and a few British tourists who were there, very clearly United fans, really wanted City to win. One of them screamed something like "cummon you blue turds, fucking score already and end this nightmare of a scouse title"   

[jimmy jazz]

Yep that's true. The vast majority of them would prefer an MC win. It's because they know that for the most part nobody considers MC titles to be valid because of how they've done it.

Hopefully if/when they're found guilty, they'll get Lance Armstrong'd 

[Trollheart]

Or Rangers'd.

[jadis]

Do Villa fans have any trademark chants? English football chants are the greatest

[jimmy jazz]

Do Villa fans have any trademark chants? English football chants are the greatest

Yeah a few.

The most famous is 'My Old Man' which loads of teams have pinched. Tbh I don't like that one because there is too much swearing. I know that sounds ridiculous me saying it but I just don't like it and it means kids and families don't really get involved.

Ghost Riders in the Sky is very popular and sounds great when it's going also.

[jadis]

One of my favorites is from Everton fans for Diniyar Bilyaletdinov:

"He's quick, he's game, we can't pronounce his name, Russian lad, Russian lad!"

(Neither can I for the record, though we were both born in Moscow. It's a "Tatar" name, meaning some kind of Turkic derivation)

Really hope Everton don't go down this season

[jimmy jazz]

I giggled like a child when the first goal went in. Looked like Watkins was falling over his own feet and then the ball rolling in at a snail's pace. Luck is on your side when goals like that are going in.

Last ten minutes were dramatic and I'm still full of adrenaline now.

I can't believe how well the team is doing.

[Trollheart]

Ironic how "the uploader has made this video not available in your country"!!!

[jadis]

Guess the decision to stick with Young despite his age does pay off: he was done for pace in the first goal but knew how to ensure the sending off.