*Official* English Football Season 2015-16

[Pothas]

Just scrap the League cup completely.

 

[cpr]

Keep replays, they add fun and drama to the cup, provide great revenue for a small team (not to mention the experience of playing at a Prem venue - I'm right in thinking they can no longer switch a home tie like years before?)

If you're a big club worried about increased fixtures impacting on title/European ambitions then the answer is simple: Don't draw at ****ing Yeovil.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

I love replays tbh.

 

[grecian]

I'm a bit unsure on replays just because of the situation you get where it's better for a lower league team to earn a draw and get thumped at Old Trafford rather than win and go through. I also would think extra time and pens would vastly increase the chances of upsets too, rather than playing a full 90 minutes a couple of weeks later. You'd have to find a way to compensate for the reduced revenue of the lower league clubs if you were to scrap them though, and other than vastly increasing prize money I can't really think of one though. Regardless, the two legged league cup semi finals just after the hectic Christmas schedule are the biggest farce of the English fixture list. Deal with them first.

That really is a nonsense though often spread by a cretinous media who don't really understand lower-league football, every supporter, player and manager passionately and wholeheartedly wants/craves to win these matches. In the end a win against a big team goes down in the lore of your club, it's intrinsic to everything you support them for, it's your equivalent of a big clubs Trophy, it's ****ing everything in short.

A replay is a nice consolation, but that's all it is. Some cretinous "financial managers" at clubs might want the replay, but they're not real football people.

Say if we'd beaten Liverpool,we'd have got another big tie on BBC against West Ham, chance to perhaps beat them, so it wouldn't have hurt us that much financially, but we would have forever been the Exeter team that beat Liverpool on live TV. Matters little that it was their yoof team, it's the Cup.

 

[Cabinet96]

BBC Radio 5 live - In Short, Chelsea fan: 'I don't want us to become a Man City'

lol'd

 

[grecian]

BBC Radio 5 live - In Short, Chelsea fan: 'I don't want us to become a Man City'

lol'd

**** me, John Terry being your moral centre..........

 

[duffer]

Haha, Mills really is a bitter ****. He is right that Pires possibly was the first to really get attention for diving. from what I can recall he was one of the first to be hideously blatent with it. Obviously Ronaldo and Young have followed suit, but it does make it hard for a non-Arsenal fan to appreciate his skill when all they can remember is his flailing attempts.

Klinsmann surely?

 

[sledger]

Yeah, Mills' view here is just clearly wrong. And that's before you get onto its tone. Bloke is just horribly bitter, as others have already said.

 

[Uppercut]

Klinsmann surely?

His was for one particular dive, which was easy to forgive since it was actually a bad foul and against a really horrid, cynical Argentina team. Pires was a genuine connoisseur of diving, first time I remember seeing the flick of the boot to create contact was from him.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with that. Mills was exactly the type to set out to kick Pires out of the game then cry like a bitch about foreigners when he got duped into giving away a penalty or getting sent off. If you're constantly making direct runs into dangerous areas you absolutely have to be light on your feet in a way that means you go down easily. Look at how Bale takes a tackle in the box compared to how Luke Shaw took it. I don't think it would have been possible for Pires to make the runs that he did without diving all the time, especially considering that booting Arsenal players was everyone's favourite hobby back then.

All that said, let's not pretend he wasn't one of the biggest ever divers.

 

[sledger]

Pires definitely not shy of a dive here and there. But, not unlike Klinsmann, I think one or two notable incidents are often used to exaggerate his reputation somewhat. And the idea that he "introduced diving" into English football is just a nonsense assertion.

 

[wpdavid]

Pires definitely not shy of a dive here and there. But, not unlike Klinsmann, I think one or two notable incidents are often used to exaggerate his reputation somewhat. And the idea that he "introduced diving" into English football is just a nonsense assertion.

Frannie Lee, surely?

As for Klinsman, my abiding memory of his time at Spurs was winning over pretty much everyone with his 'dive' celebration after scoring on debut.
We're easily pleased, aren't we.

 

[cpr]

As Uppercut said, Klinsmann came with a reputation, which he didn't really live up to. Pires is the one who cemented it into our generations mind. That flick of a leg perfectly encapsulated it and brought about a plethora of 'Cheating Foreigners' jibes that Mark Lawrenson hasn't quite got over yet.

Of course there's people like Drogba who was a million times worse, but still, Pires is one of the earliest etched into the memory.

 

[Uppercut]

As Uppercut said, Klinsmann came with a reputation, which he didn't really live up to. Pires is the one who cemented it into our generations mind. That flick of a leg perfectly encapsulated it and brought about a plethora of 'Cheating Foreigners' jibes that Mark Lawrenson hasn't quite got over yet.

Of course there's people like Drogba who was a million times worse, but still, Pires is one of the earliest etched into the memory.

The last few years of Drogba's career were the most dramatic face turn in history. He used to be the one of the three or four most despised players in the league. I feel like people have forgotten how much of a diver he was. Whereas Pires's reputation is cemented by his unofficial trademark of the leg-flick dive. Every time someone does it now the whole country thinks "ah yeah, he's done the Pires move there".

 

[grecian]

The last few years of Drogba's career were the most dramatic face turn in history. He used to be the one of the three or four most despised players in the league. I feel like people have forgotten how much of a diver he was. Whereas Pires's reputation is cemented by his unofficial trademark of the leg-flick dive. Every time someone does it now the whole country thinks "ah yeah, he's done the Pires move there".

Yes, well a few long-term players in England stopped diving come the end, simply because their rep meant they never got a penalty. Ginola and DiCanio noticeably.

But yes as noted it happened before with Franny Lee and others. Steve Neville was awful at it inhis first spell with Exeter, in the early 80s, but come the late eighties he never dived, simply because his reputationwent before him, like Paolo and David later on.

 

[Furball]

Klinsmann surely?

Klinsmann came to England with a reputation as a diver, which he immediately took the piss out of on debut with his goal celebration.

I'm not even sure Mills is correct on Pires. Maybe our United contingent have a different tint of red on their nostalgia glasses but honestly, the first player I remember getting **** for diving was Ronaldo, I don't recall it being that much of an issue with Pires.

I'm not saying that to point the finger of blame at United or Ronaldo btw, diving to me has always been a complete non-issue, Ronaldo's just the first player I can remember the media as a whole giving a hard time for perceived theatrics on the pitch.

 

[cpr]

Love the way Furball conveniently ignores the Pires dive that everyone else references (that happened 3 weeks after Ronaldo came to England, so before he could get any reputation), then accuses Utd fans of rose tinted lenses.

 

[Uppercut]

Love the way Furball conveniently ignores the Pires dive that everyone else references (that happened 3 weeks after Ronaldo came to England, so before he could get any reputation), then accuses Utd fans of rose tinted lenses.

TBF his thinking on diving is along the same lines as me, so his rose-tinted glasses would probably make him fondly remember Pires's successful dives.

There must be hours of footage of pundits absolutely humiliating themselves rambling about Ronaldo being ****e. Classic stuff from the RTE lads here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-09BAIS-e_s. I get why managers find the media frustrating. They can be hopelessly and painfully wrong all of the time and nothing ever comes of it.

 

[Furball]

Love the way Furball conveniently ignores the Pires dive that everyone else references (that happened 3 weeks after Ronaldo came to England, so before he could get any reputation), then accuses Utd fans of rose tinted lenses.

I'm not ignoring it because I don't remember it.

I'd also be hard pushed to actually remember any specific dives of Ronaldo's because I don't really give a **** about diving.

 

[cpr]

Forgot in 2003 Rangers were still a decent side

It is a pretty infamous incident though.

Guess I'm different to you and Uppercut, as I do dislike diving, I remember Ronaldo going down like a sack of ***** against Derby that was pretty embarrassing, and Young flying against QPR. Also Rooney wasn't exactly doing his best to stay up in the game we ended the Invincibles run. Kinda dislike it more when one of our team does it really..

 

[sledger]

As Uppercut said, Klinsmann came with a reputation, which he didn't really live up to. Pires is the one who cemented it into our generations mind. That flick of a leg perfectly encapsulated it and brought about a plethora of 'Cheating Foreigners' jibes that Mark Lawrenson hasn't quite got over yet.

Of course there's people like Drogba who was a million times worse, but still, Pires is one of the earliest etched into the memory.

I swear this was around way before Pires even joined Arsenal tbh.