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***Official Soccer Discussion Thread*** (6 Viewers)

I know it is very unlikely to end up happening but for the sake of discussion, would Ajax be the biggest team to get relegated in the last few decades (with out having a points reduction type penalty)?

Leicester went from PL winners to Championship just recently
Correct, but the EPL title was an aberration, and far from the norm for Leicester. LC were never close the decades long top tier team in their countries top division like Ajax has been.

Ajax has been in the Eredivisie since it started in 1956. In all those decades it finished 13th once and has never finished lower than 6th all other years.
 
ETH has to be firmly to blame - he is the one that made most of these transfers.
Antony I hated at Ajax and hated the signing. All he does he dive and try to draw fouls.
Onana I was not a fan of either - DDG is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Yes, he was poor with the ball at his feet, but I haven't seen Onana as a world beater out there. What he may gain with his footwork he loses in his inability to stop the ball which is the most basic function of the goalkeeper.
Casemiro's been fine, but he seems slow. Good thing we only have him under contract for another 2 1/2 years. He'd be fine with a high motor guy out there, not sure who that would be.
Mount has been basically a non-factor for every minute of every game I've seen.
Varane is out of favor now for Maguire?

Dalot, Hojlund, Bruno I'd keep.
I'd be hesitant to get rid of Rashford, but he's been poor. High character guy though.
What good does it do keeping Sancho around if he can't even train with the team ffs.
McTomminay you almost have to keep, he's outscored all of their forwards this year (as has Casemiro).

Has there ever been a more useless signing than Van de Beek? I'm not sure he's played a full 90 minutes total in the premier league for his $40M plus transfer.

You can put a starting lineup out there on paper that looks good to great. Yet they perform like ****. Don't know what it is, but it is.
I am not sure it's entirely on ETH. There are a lot of behind the scenes issues that have influence.

I don't see Antony as a diver, at least at United. Didn't watch him at Ajax. He is only left footed and predictable, but what he brings is some bite and defensive work that the other attackers don't.
Casemiro has looked slow, Varane can't stay healthy for a run of games.
DDG was past it. Bad with the ball at his feet and prone to too many howlers. Onana may not be better but should be given time to do so,
Mount was a bad signing. Should have just kept Lingard if that;s the type of player you want.
McT should be a sub. He is not a 6 or really an 8. He is scoring goals but not creative enough for a 10. Basically he is the guy to throw on high up instead of Martial (was a big fan when he came in, but can go).
Dalot is the Portuguese Dest. Only not as good going forward and worse defensively. At least he is when Maguire is in there. He looked good with Varane and Martinez and looks lost with anyone else.
And VdB was an Ole signing so you can't blame ETH. He should have left. Maguire too.
I can make an argument to get rid of everyone but Martinez, Rashford (based mostly on last season), Garnacho and Shaw.

Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Garnacho, Amrabat, Shaw can stay. Reguilon has looked good, keep him. AWB was improving. Mainoo has a future. Onana needs time (De Gea was awful his first two seasons, as was Schmeichel). Erikson, Lindelof, Pellestri all have some usefulness.
 
I know it is very unlikely to end up happening but for the sake of discussion, would Ajax be the biggest team to get relegated in the last few decades (with out having a points reduction type penalty)?

Leicester went from PL winners to Championship just recently
Correct, but the EPL title was an aberration, and far from the norm for Leicester. LC were never close the decades long top tier team in their countries top division like Ajax has been.

Ajax has been in the Eredivisie since it started in 1956. In all those decades it finished 13th once and has never finished lower than 6th all other years.

When I first started following Euro soccer in the 80's, Ajax were a European powerhouse. Apart from dominating the Netherlands, Ajax had won three straight European Cups/Champs League titles in the 70's and were a feared competitor in Europe. At some point, it became more of a developmental selling-club. It is completely unthinkable to me that Ajax will ever be relegated. Celtic are another club I think of in this same vein.
 
Ajax certainly sellers, but they are still a strong team, third most valuable per transfermarkt behind only Feyenoord and PSV. And I mean, if you look at the Eredivise, there are some small SMALL teams in there. They will not be relegated but would be massive story if they were.
Now Lyon on the other hand....
 
ETH has to be firmly to blame - he is the one that made most of these transfers.
Antony I hated at Ajax and hated the signing. All he does he dive and try to draw fouls.
Onana I was not a fan of either - DDG is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. Yes, he was poor with the ball at his feet, but I haven't seen Onana as a world beater out there. What he may gain with his footwork he loses in his inability to stop the ball which is the most basic function of the goalkeeper.
Casemiro's been fine, but he seems slow. Good thing we only have him under contract for another 2 1/2 years. He'd be fine with a high motor guy out there, not sure who that would be.
Mount has been basically a non-factor for every minute of every game I've seen.
Varane is out of favor now for Maguire?

Dalot, Hojlund, Bruno I'd keep.
I'd be hesitant to get rid of Rashford, but he's been poor. High character guy though.
What good does it do keeping Sancho around if he can't even train with the team ffs.
McTomminay you almost have to keep, he's outscored all of their forwards this year (as has Casemiro).

Has there ever been a more useless signing than Van de Beek? I'm not sure he's played a full 90 minutes total in the premier league for his $40M plus transfer.

You can put a starting lineup out there on paper that looks good to great. Yet they perform like ****. Don't know what it is, but it is.

After watching Dalot on that first goal against Newcastle he can go. Horrible.
 
Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Garnacho, Amrabat, Shaw can stay. Reguilon has looked good, keep him. AWB was improving. Mainoo has a future. Onana needs time (De Gea was awful his first two seasons, as was Schmeichel). Erikson, Lindelof, Pellestri all have some usefulness.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that much turnover and I did forget Hojlund. Bruno - honestly, I’d sell him - he’s been the best player over 3-4 years but I don’t think he’s a guy you keep to build around.
 
Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Garnacho, Amrabat, Shaw can stay. Reguilon has looked good, keep him. AWB was improving. Mainoo has a future. Onana needs time (De Gea was awful his first two seasons, as was Schmeichel). Erikson, Lindelof, Pellestri all have some usefulness.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that much turnover and I did forget Hojlund. Bruno - honestly, I’d sell him - he’s been the best player over 3-4 years but I don’t think he’s a guy you keep to build around.
Of course not, that's why teams sack managers, they can't replace all the players. Happens in all sports.

Bruno has some issues (whiney, soft, etc) but ETH keeps pushing him wide to accommodate others, which is a bigger issue. He needs to be at the ten making things happen. I think Bruno is a guy that can push a good team to great with his work rate, creativity and play. But you need the leadership and the organization on the pitch around him. I do not think he should be the captain, but there really is no better option. There are no true leaders in this team. He is 29, I do think he has a couple good years left. Plus, selling is not something United has been good at. Getting the most out of a player then moving him on 1 year to soon rather than 3 years to late. They overspend to get guys in and then can't sell to get any money back.

Saw another comment about not sacking ETH that was interesting. A lot of these players have outlasted too many managers and you have to stop that or the player power never ends. Jose to Ole to Ralf to ETH... Back the manager not the players. They started to improve, saying bye to Jones, Tuanzabe, Fred, Elanga, Henderson, Pereira, DDG, Bailey, Telles... But they didn't go far enough: Maguire, Martial, VdB. Now decisions need to be made on Antony, Sancho, Greenwood, for off the field reasons and Casemiro, Varane for age/injury reasons. And to top it all off, WTF is going on with Rashford?
 
Martinez, Bruno, Hojlund, Garnacho, Amrabat, Shaw can stay. Reguilon has looked good, keep him. AWB was improving. Mainoo has a future. Onana needs time (De Gea was awful his first two seasons, as was Schmeichel). Erikson, Lindelof, Pellestri all have some usefulness.

Obviously I’m not suggesting that much turnover and I did forget Hojlund. Bruno - honestly, I’d sell him - he’s been the best player over 3-4 years but I don’t think he’s a guy you keep to build around.
Of course not, that's why teams sack managers, they can't replace all the players. Happens in all sports.

Bruno has some issues (whiney, soft, etc) but ETH keeps pushing him wide to accommodate others, which is a bigger issue. He needs to be at the ten making things happen. I think Bruno is a guy that can push a good team to great with his work rate, creativity and play. But you need the leadership and the organization on the pitch around him. I do not think he should be the captain, but there really is no better option. There are no true leaders in this team. He is 29, I do think he has a couple good years left. Plus, selling is not something United has been good at. Getting the most out of a player then moving him on 1 year to soon rather than 3 years to late. They overspend to get guys in and then can't sell to get any money back.

Saw another comment about not sacking ETH that was interesting. A lot of these players have outlasted too many managers and you have to stop that or the player power never ends. Jose to Ole to Ralf to ETH... Back the manager not the players. They started to improve, saying bye to Jones, Tuanzabe, Fred, Elanga, Henderson, Pereira, DDG, Bailey, Telles... But they didn't go far enough: Maguire, Martial, VdB. Now decisions need to be made on Antony, Sancho, Greenwood, for off the field reasons and Casemiro, Varane for age/injury reasons. And to top it all off, WTF is going on with Rashford?
 
France and Brazil have seemingly unlimited amounts of talent to choose from. Even acknowledging that, both countries have called up 17 year olds this window.

Endrick for Brazil and this kid for France

=====

Fabrizio Romano
@FabrizioRomano


Warren Zaïre-Emery, now officially called up by France for the national team as Didier Deschamps believes he’s top player for present and future. Zaïre-Emery keeps making history. He’s just 17.
 
For a non traditional super power, this is amazing

=========

ESPN FC

@ESPNFC

Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen this season:

16 games
15 wins 0 losses
55 goals scored14 goals conceded
Give Xabi Alonso his flowers
 
Some rare great news for the NWSL.

As many know, US woman's soccer, which had an ENORMOUS lead on the rest of the world (outside of Sweden), has now seen most of that lead evaporate and even falling behind some of the traditional powers.

The NWSL has been running on fumes, revenue wise, for many years, which allowed European leagues to start to gain a foothold and give their best domestic players a strong league to play in attracting better players than the NWSL.

The NWSL has been operating with a TV contract of only $1.5m a year from CBS. They just completed a deal with 4 different networks going forward that will see the TV money increase from $1.5m to $60m a year. That is going to obviously make a huge difference for the league to keep pace with the growing Euro leagues.
 
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Looks like NY Red Bulls will be signing Emil Forsberg this winter from RBL (staying in the Red Bull family I guess)



Fabrizio Romano

@FabrizioRomano

Emil Forsberg has verbally agreed to join New York Red Bulls in MLS from January. Deal in place, not signed/sealed but verbally agreed. Understand it will be a 4 year deal. Forsberg will leave RB Leipzig to stay in RB group with NY, as per BILD. Final steps soon.
 
For the very first time, the Revolution have advanced a stadium project past the rumor stage. The Revs have signed an agreement in principle to build a 25k stadium in Everett (right on the border of Boston).

There are still a million steps to go starting with the first vote between the house and senate which could occur today if they can iron out some points.

Here is the signed agreement.

https://htv-prod-media.s3.amazonaws.com/files/memorandum-of-agreement-nrs-signed-6553b8856284f.pdf

I am cautiously optimistic that I may see a stadium built for the Revs before I die...
 
jesus, nearly half of Europe is going to qualify for the Euro Championships and Norway did not even make the play off stage.....

I hope Haaland does not become one of the huge names who never gets to play in a big international tournament....but if they could not even make the playoffs for the Euro Qualifying, WC qualifying in 2026 (even with 48 teams) is going to be much harder.
 
jesus, nearly half of Europe is going to qualify for the Euro Championships and Norway did not even make the play off stage.....

I hope Haaland does not become one of the huge names who never gets to play in a big international tournament....but if they could not even make the playoffs for the Euro Qualifying, WC qualifying in 2026 (even with 48 teams) is going to be much harder.
Maybe he has a distant cousin from Nebraska and he'll file a one time switch?
 
Everton got hit with the largest point deduction in EPL history of 10 points.

Everton plan to appeal
That's a big oooof for a team that has been doing quite well recently (3-1-1) in their last 5 and need a little boost after such a crap season last year.
It's convenient for them they finally got the FFP hammer in the season where all the promoted clubs are complete garbage
 
Everton got hit with the largest point deduction in EPL history of 10 points.

Everton plan to appeal
That's a big oooof for a team that has been doing quite well recently (3-1-1) in their last 5 and need a little boost after such a crap season last year.
It's convenient for them they finally got the FFP hammer in the season where all the promoted clubs are complete garbage
True enough. If they hammered them last March, they'd be sitting in the Championship right now.
 
Also, Everton had 1 FFP charge. Man City has over 100 that are being investigated right now. If each charge equals a 10 point loss..... Man City is ****ed.
 

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