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Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread) (Read 1344106 times)

cheque

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Quote from: South China Morning Post
nine of the 20 current top flight sides, including Stoke

 :-\

In February 1995 I went to watch Mansfield play away at Wigan. We tonked them 4-0 and sang all match. Their pitch was 60% sand and some of our lot had improvised a song about donkeys on the beach.

It was bitterly cold, their ground at the time seemed to be largely built of wood and the wind whipped not just around but actually through it. It seemed like there were fewer than 1000 home fans of whom we barely heard a peep out of all match and they started leaving 15 minutes from time. As we left, Annie Lennox’s “Walking on Broken Glass” coming over the PA for some reason, I thought (and you’ll have to bear in mind here that I support Mansfield Town, one of the least successful and least affectionately thought-of teams in England, a club whose colours, even in Mansfield itself, it’s rare to see anyone wearing) “I can’t imagine how miserable it must be to support this lot”.

Less than two weeks later Dave Whelan bought the club and just over a decade later they were playing in the Premier League. We were still in the fourth tier- by 2013 they were lifting the FA Cup and we were in the fucking Conference.

English football’s most proud and unique feature if you ask me isn’t the Premier League, it’s the fact that we have a further three, almost four, fully-professional, national divisions with generous numbers of clubs moving between them each summer. Looking at the other big five European leagues, once you get down to the third and fourth tiers they’re either regional, amateur, stuffed with the B teams of the top flight sides or all three. Most, even the semi-utopian Bundesliga, have only a few going up and down each year.

For a long time it’s felt like the Championship at least is an insane bubble waiting to burst (reading that article Moose links to referring to how unlikely Wigan’s fan base is to ever increase feels like reading foreign newspaper articles incredulous at the popularity of Brexit) and it’s hard not to feel like the dissolution of Bury was the start of the end of this. With the ramifications of the virus it could be happening much sooner than we think.

cheque

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Any Leeds fans on here? I reckon that next season will be the first in 20 years that there’ll  a Yorkshire derby in the top flight!

dunnyg

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There were plenty out and about last night round here! ALAW into the early hours.

webbo

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I used to follow them before starting climbing in1972 I saw them beat Arsenal at Wembley. Climbing even in those days was less risky.

moose

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I'm a Leeds fan, of the armchair variety (maybe one trip to Elland Road a year). I lost the love during the Ken Bates / GFH years. The football was terrible and enjoying our rare and ugly wins felt complicit with an incompetent and corrupt regime.

Bielsa had intrigued me for years before he came to Leeds. For "Inverting the Pyramid" tactics nerds (i.e me) he's long been the football equivalent of the Velvet Underground ("they sold few records but all their fans formed bands"). I remember finding his 2012 Athletic Bilboa side's UEFA cup final run and collapse so romantic (those games versus Man Utd.. woof!).

His arrival at Leeds was utter wish fulfilment. I figured it would probably end quickly and badly but might at least break up the prolonged lower-mid-table tedium. 

The result has hugely exceeded expectations. The football has been beautiful and lively enough that results have seemed (almost) irrelevant.  And this is with the same mid-table quality squad and median wage bill. Bielsa has elevated this team with intense drilling and fitness work (Luke Ayling, never notably large, recently said he lost 10kg training under Bielsa).

That said, I hope he can be persuaded to mitigate his methods a little. Without the Covid19 break we might have burned out, like last year.  Bielsa's is very reluctant to use his full squad - he tries to play the same 11 every game until they break, and is reluctant to fit in newcomers. He'd prefer to use a U23 youth player than a proven player more unfamiliar with his ways. It's kind of admirable but does leave us horribly exposed when injuries occur...

cheque

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With Watford relegated I feel massively vindicated- I’ve been saying it was a certainty all season (hardly sticking my neck out you’d think given that they’re shit with an aging defence that was never good to start with and it was November before they won a league game) but Seemingly no-one else, from pundits down to the likes of us, has. A gambler could have made some good money from the mental odds they were on for most of the season.

The main reason everyone gave for this is the loathsome Troy Deeney, the most overrated striker in the Premier League. His most revered attribute seems to be that he can wind opponents up- when you consider that the most famous of these beefs are with the team that beat them today and the team that survived because of it it’s hard to see that as an asset. :lol:

Anyway, congratulations to Ste Graham’s Golden Graham’s FC for winning the 2019-20 UKB Premier League in association with Ozito Leaf Blowers. I trust you’ll be hoisting the trophy to an imaginary crowd with a backwards baseball cap on.

sxrxg

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Thanks for the congratulations. Was my second best overall position in 10 years of playing fantasy football and my best ever points total. Was helped by jumping on united players at he end of the season when they hit form (this is always hard for me to do as a Liverpool fan!)

I will be doing a little Jordan Henderson shuffle in my living room and looking forward to trying to retain the UKB title next year.

tomtom

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Nice one Ste. Cheque - can you post up the full UKB league? I want to know if I get the bottom of the league prize (a Homebase / Ozito sticker pack)

bolehillbilly

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Well done Ste   :2thumbsup: I think you were out front pretty much all season.
Came right with my prediction for a strong finish by Rankinio and although it pains me   :clap2: on the second place.
Thought I might get a champions league place on the last day but pipped by Neil's Notvery Athletic, so all very Leicester for me after a good first half of the campaign. 
First time, I've played and great fun, looking forward to next season. Thanks for organising this one Mike.

cheque

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Sadly there doesn’t appear to be a way to show it without my own mid-table performance highlighted.  :lol:
« Last Edit: July 27, 2020, 05:15:56 pm by cheque »

Falling Down

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Sad to see David Silva play his last game for City. He’s been an absolute marvel and surely one of the best players in the Premier League.  Hopefully we can have a tilt at the Champs League title as a fitting tribute to his service for the club. Adios Merlin.

cheque

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Really enjoyed watching the tournament format conclusion to the European competitions this year!

He wasn’t the only player who didn’t “turn up” to the big cup final last night but seriously, how overrated is Neymar?!

mark20

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Yep, and his theatrics in the last 20mins were embarrassing - not a good advert for football. I thought the first half was great, despite no goals, so fast paced! Bayern were amazing in Europe this year and well deserved winners.

And only 3 weeks til the PL starts again -  best get thinking about my fantasy team  :boxing:

mark20

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#5713 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
September 09, 2020, 10:53:42 am
Fantasy team sorted, Is there a code to join the league Mike? :bounce:

cheque

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#5714 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
September 09, 2020, 11:37:12 am
I’ve just renewed the league so if you had a team last season then you’ll be entered when you pick your squad for this season I think.

For any new players who fancy it, it’s on https://fantasy.premierleague.com/ and the code is pgaxpr.


bolehillbilly

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#5715 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
September 11, 2020, 10:56:19 pm
Robugen Antihydral UKB League :2thumbsup:
 Back in after some account issues
Bring it on...

mark20

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#5716 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
December 15, 2020, 12:00:23 am
All midweek Premier League matches are on Amazon Prime this week, which you can get a free 1 month trail of if you have a new Amazon account (I set up a new gmail account to register a new Amazon account to)
There's another load of midweek matches between Xmas and NY on Prime too. Just remember to cancel after 1 month.

But I mainly just came here to gloat that I've finally over taken Bolehillbilly in the Fantasy League  :whistle:

cheque

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#5717 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
December 21, 2020, 09:54:35 pm
God, I really paid the price for having no Liverpool or Man United players in my fantasy team this week.  :lol:

bolehillbilly

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 NNFN, went out this afternoon, made it home in time to play my FF wildcard but my phone started playing up and then before I knew it I'd missed the deadline.
Game over. :wall:

cheque

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#5719 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 04, 2021, 08:59:27 am
Does Aston Villa left back Mat(t) Target(t) have the most bouldering-related name in football?  :-\

tomtom

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#5720 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 04, 2021, 09:17:26 am
Philippe Send-eros?

bolehillbilly

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#5721 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 06, 2021, 06:04:46 pm
Philippe Send-eros?

Matt Smith played for Oldham, scored 2 when they knocked Liverpool.out of the FA cup about 10 years ago, apparantly he was also really handy at taming a dodgy landing.

cheque

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#5722 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 07, 2021, 03:39:19 pm

moose

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#5723 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 07, 2021, 04:01:47 pm
Steve Guppy, Gaston Ramirez...Jose Font(e)?!

cheque

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#5724 Re: Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread)
February 07, 2021, 05:32:06 pm

 

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