**Official** English Football Season 2024/25

[wpdavid]

So Nottingham Forest then?

The 1970s revival starts here.

 

[Molehill]

Surprisingly decent performance from a largely reserve England side. Jones and Gallagher excellent in midfield.

 

[Hungry Llama]

yes it was, although it was quite tense until the og. great back heel from curtis. dunno why pickford got booked.
however given the choice of a holiday in the sun or watching england play, its a holiday everytime.

 

[wpdavid]

Bellingham was very good once he'd got the yellow card behaviour out of his system. Another example of how he has the ability to impose himself on a game when his side needs it.

 

[Skipper Pup]

Surprisingly decent performance from a largely reserve England side. Jones and Gallagher excellent in midfield.

Jones is coming of age this season. Was always just a matter of keeping him fit given his technical ability and raw potential. He showed glimpses in the past but then inevitably got injured.

He's benefitted massively from Slot pushing him into the 10. Coming through the academy he was levels above his peers but took some time transitioning to the first team squad. Klopp almost drilled the attacking instincts out of his game as an 8 but we're now seeing that side return as he's playing further forward.

The most underrated qualities he has are his tempo setting and ball retention. He simply never gives it away and knows when to put his foot on the ball and slow things down. Hard to find that sort of player.

Still only 23yo, has won it all and learnt from the very best, he's going to be a fixture in the England side for a while to come.

 

[grecian]

Apologies on behalf of my club, if anyone watched a second of that shite this afternoon.

 

[sledger]

Rodrigo Bentacur then eh

Can't wait to hear ikki's take on this

 

[Furball]

A 7 match ban for making a stupid joke about a team-mate is a nonsense.

 

[Chubb]

San Marino beat Liechtenstein 3-1 and are promoted to Nations League C whatever that is.

 

[Chin Music]

San Marino beat Liechtenstein 3-1 and are promoted to Nations League C whatever that is.

To get stuffed by the likes of Finland, next league probably.

 

[Molehill]

When England scored their 2nd on Sunday, Matterface produced a stunning bit of commentary as he said "and England are now all but assured of promotion back into the top echelons of International Football"!! Is he being paid by UEFA now to big up the Nations League?? Truly the worst football commentator I think I've ever heard.

 

[Chin Music]

When England scored their 2nd on Sunday, Matterface produced a stunning bit of commentary as he said "and England are now all but assured of promotion back into the top echelons of International Football"!! Is he being paid by UEFA now to big up the Nations League?? Truly the worst football commentator I think I've ever heard.

I am guessing ITVs production of Nations League is very low budget. I am the type of person who only ever tunes in to the games just before kick off and don't bother listening to the half time discussions or anything that happens afterwards. He is useless though.

 

[speirz]

Genuine question, what would those of you who don't care for the Nations League rather have in it's place for European countries in those international windows? More Euros and World Cup qualifiers? A straight cup style competition? Or back to the days of friendly matches so teams can experiment more? Scrapping the windows altogether just doesn't feel like a realistic option with all the games being played in the other confederations.

 

[Furball]

An actual rest period for players.

 

[speirz]

An actual rest period for players.

Perfectly fine with that as well, but it just feels odd to have a rest period for the Europeans while everyone else flies to all parts of the world and back to play a couple of games. I feel like the result would be you'd have even more pressure on those non-European players from their clubs to skip their qualifiers to guarantee they keep their game time for their clubs.

 

[Chin Music]

Genuine question, what would those of you who don't care for the Nations League rather have in it's place for European countries in those international windows? More Euros and World Cup qualifiers? A straight cup style competition? Or back to the days of friendly matches so teams can experiment more? Scrapping the windows altogether just doesn't feel like a realistic option with all the games being played in the other confederations.

Makes more sense to have the world cup qualifying process more elongated but with not as many games. Always find it a little nuts that you have 2 fixtures congested into four days with an already stupid domestic schedule. The old qualifying system lasted over a year and a bit. These days they start a qualifying campaign in March and finish in November. Less would be more for me, with friendlies only being played ahead of international finals competitions.

 

[sledger]

There has always been that pressure though, even without a dedicated rest period.

You don't seem to see it that much these days, but it certainly didn't used to be uncommon for South American players playing in the Premiership to end up missing games (either for club or country) due to the time/fatigue issues associated with having to fly to and from their home nation, and play a few games in between, in the space of a week.

Edit: @speirz

 

[speirz]

There has always been that pressure though, even without a dedicated rest period.

You don't seem to see it that much these days, but it certainly didn't used to be uncommon for South American players playing in the Premiership to end up missing games (either for club or country) due to the time/fatigue issues associated with having to fly to and from their home nation, and play a few games in between, in the space of a week.

Edit: @speirz

I think it'd be 10x more though if their European team mates weren't playing at all in that same break though. The pressure is certainly there, especially on African and Asian players every time their continental competitions roll around in January and fall outside the windows, but I fear it'd become even more unbalanced if the European nations weren't playing at all.

There's definitely too many games played in general, but to keep international football relevant I feel like it needs whatever protection it can be offered. If it isn't, I actually think leagues and clubs will start to look at playing more games abroad themselves to chase money like the Spanish Supercopa in Saudi, and then you'll end up with regular season games in America or China or somewhere like they now do in the NFL and NRL.

 

[Skipper Pup]

I think it'd be 10x more though if their European team mates weren't playing at all in that same break though. The pressure is certainly there, especially on African and Asian players every time their continental competitions roll around in January and fall outside the windows, but I fear it'd become even more unbalanced if the European nations weren't playing at all.

There's definitely too many games played in general, but to keep international football relevant I feel like it needs whatever protection it can be offered. If it isn't, I actually think leagues and clubs will start to look at playing more games abroad themselves to chase money like the Spanish Supercopa in Saudi, and then you'll end up with regular season games in America or China or somewhere like they now do in the NFL and NRL.

The problem is half the international games aren't relevant.

I'd wager big international tournaments will always have pull. It's the nonsense glorified friendlies that most fans/players have an issue with.

 

[speirz]

The problem is half the international games aren't relevant.

I'd wager big international tournaments will always have pull. It's the nonsense glorified friendlies that most fans/players have an issue with.

To me those irrelevant games seem to be a largely European problem though, rather than a global one. It's why I asked the initial question in the first place of what people would prefer to see over the Nations League, because these breaks and windows look to be set in stone so that every other confederation can get through the games that they do consider relevant and important.

And if they continue to expand the big tournaments, they'll become watered down as well. I fear at some point that there will be a similar proposal to the European Super League for the Euros or the World Cup to guarantee the places of certain nations at the finals, making all the other games before that point seem relatively inconsequential. From that point I think you'd see the global impact of the game lessened, because there's no context to just how good those nations are for anyone outside of that bubble.