***Official*** English Football Season 2020-21

[dontcloseyoureyes]

You never say never I guess but Pep has said many times he will never coach Barca again. The politics are too much.

 

[Pothas]

Spurs will be so lucky if they get Conte. All the big teams who need a manager should have been trying to get him.

 

[grecian]

Spurs will be so lucky if they get Conte. All the big teams who need a manager should have been trying to get him.

If they do, it surely means Levy will be opening up the purse string, Conte is not going there without huge insurances they do, and TBH selling Kane for silly money may give them some leeway, if Levy decides to go above and beyond tat number, and the pittance he'll get for the others that'll go.

All big "ifs" though, don't see it happening myself.

 

[Lillian Thomson]

If Spurs don’t get a big name they’re allegedly eyeing up Graham Potter. They’d be better off with Harry Potter.

 

[Uppercut]

Owners don’t like hiring Conte because he’s a nightmare for them to work with. Wins titles everywhere he goes though.

 

[wpdavid]

I gather that a fair number of supporters decided to boo when players took the knee last night. As happened at the FA Cup Final and Champions League Final too. Presumably, after careful consideration, they had regrettably concluded that actually black lives don't really matter after all. What do people think about players continuing to do this next season? I'm not keen to give in to these people, but it's only going to get worse as larger crowds are allowed to attend matches. Even if we can't change how people think, I'd prefer not to provide a platform for them to air their views.

 

[GIMH]

I wouldn't dream of booing it (and indeed having been at 4 games where it happened can safely say that hardly any around me would either) but I can't be alone in thinking it is now a meaningless platitude. What is the value of continuing with it?

 

[Furball]

It's long become a meaningless corporate gesture.

Our players stopped doing it after the game against Slavia.

 

[Uppercut]

I’d have been happy to see it scrapped a year ago but the booing makes me much more inclined to want it to continue. I feel like the booing kind of gives it meaning that it had lost. Black Lives Matter is such an anodyne statement that seeing it everywhere, divorced from its American political context, feels faintly embarrassing. Surely no one could disagree with it? But when people are booing it, maybe that shows that it is still important to keep saying it.

 

[sledger]

Yeah the booing makes me want it to continue longer.

 

[Uppercut]

It's long become a meaningless corporate gesture.

Our players stopped doing it after the game against Slavia.

Great that they could find a moral high ground to stop doing it from before fans came back to Ibrox.

 

[wpdavid]

I wonder what the black players and fans make of it. I know that Zaha has said that he won't be taking the knee now, but I don't know how widespread that feeling is. And I especially wonder how the black players feel about being booed by their own supporters. I feel it's given these people an opportunity to indulge in the 1970s and 1980s racism that had effectively been outlawed; whereas you can't kick out fans for expressing what they would claim to be a political opinion. Clearly there is still a battle for hearts and minds that still needs to be won, but I don't think this is the most effective way of doing it. If anything, it's possibly counter-productive.

 

[sledger]

I wonder what the black players and fans make of it. I know that Zaha has said that he won't be taking the knee now, but I don't know how widespread that feeling is. And I especially wonder how the black players feel about being booed by their own supporters. I feel it's given these people an opportunity to indulge in the 1970s and 1980s racism that had effectively been outlawed; whereas you can't kick out fans for expressing what they would claim to be a political opinion. Clearly there is still a battle for hearts and minds that still needs to be won, but I don't think this is the most effective way of doing it. If anything, it's possibly counter-productive.

Can't you? I doubt any would do it, but I can't think of any reason why clubs couldn't attempt this if they so desired.

 

[Uppercut]

I wonder what the black players and fans make of it. I know that Zaha has said that he won't be taking the knee now, but I don't know how widespread that feeling is. And I especially wonder how the black players feel about being booed by their own supporters. I feel it's given these people an opportunity to indulge in the 1970s and 1980s racism that had effectively been outlawed; whereas you can't kick out fans for expressing what they would claim to be a political opinion. Clearly there is still a battle for hearts and minds that still needs to be won, but I don't think this is the most effective way of doing it. If anything, it's possibly counter-productive.

I'm sure there are a range of opinions, but the idea of kneeling was entirely player-driven, so you have to think they're broadly in favour. The PL club captains agreed to do it after the George Floyd killing, and the FA, Sky etc. just offered to facilitate it.

It's easy to forget how sincere the kneeling itself is, given how surrounded it is by corporate performative wokeness.

 

[WICFan]

Can't you? I doubt any would do it, but I can't think of any reason why clubs couldn't attempt this if they so desired.

It would start a riot. Good luck evicting fans booing James McClean for his beliefs or Celtic's Green Brigade when they boo the minute silence for remembrance. We just recently seen players waving Palestinian flags after games, do they escape sanction?

Players should be free to take the knee if they wish but what shouldn't be done is bringing politics into football, they've started this without any idea or plan when to finish it?

 

[duffer]

Luis Campos is a control freak, I believe. With absent owners like ours he'd have his dream job here

 

[sledger]

It would start a riot. Good luck evicting fans booing James McClean for his beliefs or Celtic's Green Brigade when they boo the minute silence for remembrance. We just recently seen players waving Palestinian flags after games, do they escape sanction?

Players should be free to take the knee if they wish but what shouldn't be done is bringing politics into football, they've started this without any idea or plan when to finish it?

Fans are objected from stadiums for behaving in a displeasing way all the time. As I say, I doubt it would happen, but there is no reason why they couldn't attempt this if they wanted.

Anyway, the notion that racial equality is a "political" matter is pretty dire.

 

[GIMH]

Anyway, the notion that racial equality is a "political" matter is pretty dire.

A bit of devil's advocate really but I guess, and in line with the above, there is a school of thought that the knee no longer represents racial equality and has become more a symbol of 'corporate wokeism' as Uppercut put it. That and the fact that BLM is, rightly or wrongly, associated as a movement with political beliefs that go beyond race and veer into more standard left-wing stuff.

I'm not really fussed about any of that but I don't think it's necessarily a stretch to say it is political.

 

[sledger]

A bit of devil's advocate really but I guess, and in line with the above, there is a school of thought that the knee no longer represents racial equality and has become more a symbol of 'corporate wokeism' as Uppercut put it. That and the fact that BLM is, rightly or wrongly, associated as a movement with political beliefs that go beyond race and veer into more standard left-wing stuff.

I'm not really fussed about any of that but I don't think it's necessarily a stretch to say it is political.

Yeah this is a fair point.

 

[WICFan]

Anyway, the notion that racial equality is a "political" matter is pretty dire.

I very much doubt that anyone booing football players in England for taking the knee is because they’re against racial equality.