*Official* English Football Season 2016-17

[Niall]

Herrara is a dirty player and deserved his yellows. Heck, you could argue Rojo could have been gone for his stamp on Hazard also.

Chelsea deserved winners, not total desolation for United, Rashford reminded Jose the world would not end if Zlatan was to leave, defense was pretty solid also.

However another game where Pogba offered absolute **** all.

 

[duffer]

Have they said he has the full support of the board yet? That's always the death knell.

Don't think this the dreaded "vote of confidence" just yet. Looks to me like they're preparing us for 2 more years.

 

[Uppercut]

I think Herrera was unlucky but he was badly overdue a red. Glad it came in the cup.

Looking down the list of teams left in the Europa and we have a pretty serious chance there. Would prefer winning it to finishing top 4.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Yep. I wish the referees would actually do this.

The whole footballing culture stinks. Would love a rugby union like refereeing culture. The pathetic crybabies wouldn't know what's hit them.

This is something I can get behind. There's going to be no referees left to push around in twenty years if it stays like this.

 

[dontcloseyoureyes]

Looking down the list of teams left in the Europa and we have a pretty serious chance there. Would prefer winning it to finishing top 4.

What, you'd rather win a major European cup competition than finish 4th in the league and achieve the same goal? Shocking revelations.

 

[GIMH]

I think Herrera was unlucky but he was badly overdue a red. Glad it came in the cup.

Looking down the list of teams left in the Europa and we have a pretty serious chance there. Would prefer winning it to finishing top 4.

What, you'd rather win a major European cup competition than finish 4th in the league and achieve the same goal? Shocking revelations.

Pretty refreshing, though. The English ambivalence towards the competition even with the CL place staggers me. You see a club like Hull delighted to qualify for Europe and then put their under-12s out. It's absurd.

 

[sledger]

Pretty refreshing, though. The English ambivalence towards the competition even with the CL place staggers me. You see a club like Hull delighted to qualify for Europe and then put their under-12s out. It's absurd.

This is like a subset of the discussion we had about Ranieri being fired though. It's another thing that can basically be attributed to "money talks".

 

[GIMH]

Yeah and hence #AMF

Fans buying into this nonsense is the worst thing.

 

[Uppercut]

Pretty refreshing, though. The English ambivalence towards the competition even with the CL place staggers me. You see a club like Hull delighted to qualify for Europe and then put their under-12s out. It's absurd.

TBF one of the big advantages of winning it is not having to play in it next season. It's a horrid competition. Fly hundreds of miles to Europe's arse-ends for games against mediocre teams with ultra-hostile fans. When you lose a game you get bad press and when you win nobody cares. The atmosphere at home games is one of mild embarrassment, if anyone even shows up. It involves far too many games and no one in England has yet found a way to stop the Thursday games from absolutely destroying your league form.

I agree with you though. My argument is circular: nobody cares about it because it's ****, and it's **** because nobody cares about it. Spain's second tier pulling ahead of England's has a lot to do with Atletico and Sevilla taking it seriously and getting a lot out of it. But I can't bring myself to break the cycle, the games are just so grim. I like it a lot more in theory than in practice.

 

[Furball]

This is something I can get behind. There's going to be no referees left to push around in twenty years if it stays like this.

Referees have only themselves to blame on this one. It's difficult to feel sympathy for them when they constantly refuse to take any action against dissent.

 

[GIMH]

TBF one of the big advantages of winning it is not having to play in it next season. It's a horrid competition. Fly hundreds of miles to Europe's arse-ends for games against mediocre teams with ultra-hostile fans. When you lose a game you get bad press and when you win nobody cares. The atmosphere at home games is one of mild embarrassment, if anyone even shows up. It involves far too many games and no one in England has yet found a way to stop the Thursday games from absolutely destroying your league form.

I agree with you though. My argument is circular: nobody cares about it because it's ****, and it's **** because nobody cares about it. Spain's second tier pulling ahead of England's has a lot to do with Atletico and Sevilla taking it seriously and getting a lot out of it. But I can't bring myself to break the cycle, the games are just so grim. I like it a lot more in theory than in practice.

Large chunks of what you say sounds like the FA Trophy tbh, I want to win it and not be in it next year too, and the games with an attendance of 2500 at PP were bleak afternoons, felt like pre-season friendlies.

But a trophy is a trophy.

 

[sledger]

Large chunks of what you say sounds like the FA Trophy tbh, I want to win it and not be in it next year too, and the games with an attendance of 2500 at PP were bleak afternoons, felt like pre-season friendlies.

But a trophy is a trophy.

Yeah, but when the trophy is basically this...

...why would you put your possible successes in other areas on the backburner for it?

 

[Uppercut]

Large chunks of what you say sounds like the FA Trophy tbh, I want to win it and not be in it next year too, and the games with an attendance of 2500 at PP were bleak afternoons, felt like pre-season friendlies.

But a trophy is a trophy.

Yeah, from what I know of the FA Trophy it feels a bit similar. Also the fact that it comes alive once you're into the later stages and/or get drawn against a big team or rival.

Strangely I don't feel that way about the League Cup. It's just a bit of fun, but that's fine, not every game has to be life-or-death. Its existence doesn't annoy me.

The FA Cup is my least favourite competition, it just keeps on trying to sell itself as something it isn't anymore. So patronising to be repeatedly told how magical it is when Wolves Reserves beat Half-Arsed Liverpool Reserves in front of a record-low crowd.

 

[Pothas]

I have always seen the League Cup as a total waste of time but it is hard to disagree with what you say about the FA cup, there really should be room in a season for one domestic cup that people really care about though.

 

[sledger]

I've said it before, but I really like the League Cup these days, especially in comparison to the FA Cup.

Like Uppercut says, it's not life or death, it's a break from the norm, you get to see players you wouldn't ordinarily, and because it's held mid-week it doesn't wipe out a weekend of league games.

 

[Pothas]

Brentford usually exit immediately (we play reserves likes pretty much everyone else) and then I pretty much ignore it. I guess when you have no real chance of winning it at the end it seems especially pointless, a good run does not even feel that special because you will have likely just beaten reserve sides.

Problem is that now applies to the FA cup as well.

 

[sledger]

Yeah, fair enough. I suppose I've been enjoying it from the perspective of being a fan of a club that has a seemingly perpetual reserve of interesting young/reserve players. I hadn't really stopped to think about how it might be viewed from other perspectives.

 

[Uppercut]

Just watching the build up and they're showing clips from the previous leg. Holy Jesus, Ranieri's tactics were absolute dog ****.

 

[Furball]

Yeah, from what I know of the FA Trophy it feels a bit similar. Also the fact that it comes alive once you're into the later stages and/or get drawn against a big team or rival.

Strangely I don't feel that way about the League Cup. It's just a bit of fun, but that's fine, not every game has to be life-or-death. Its existence doesn't annoy me.

The FA Cup is my least favourite competition, it just keeps on trying to sell itself as something it isn't anymore. So patronising to be repeatedly told how magical it is when Wolves Reserves beat Half-Arsed Liverpool Reserves in front of a record-low crowd.

The League Cup has the decency to get out of the way and be played in midweek. If anything it feels like a bonus whenever games are on.

The FA Cup is like that annoying **** on a night out that nobody wanted to come and who won't stop talking to you when you'd rather be talking to anyone else.

Like I said, I'd keep the 3rd round as is, but the rest of the competition should really be midweek and they should get replays to ****.

 

[Furball]

Just watching the build up and they're showing clips from the previous leg. Holy Jesus, Ranieri's tactics were absolute dog ****.

Yeah but it's all the players fault for not trying. Had nothing to do with Ranieri being hopeless.