2020/21 football season

[Blackpool Rock]

Reaction not great to the PPV for extra games, consensus is that £15 is way too much

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[mr.bluesky]

I subscribe to Sky sports but there is no way I am going to pay extra to watch additional matches.    Fair play to Leicester City who were the only Premier league team to vote against it. On another topic I thought the Uefa nations league was introduced to the international calender to do away with meaningless friendlies yet England played Wales recently and are playing Belgium on sunday both meaningless friendlies. 

[Blackpool Rock]

I subscribe to Sky sports but there is no way I am going to pay extra to watch additional matches.    Fair play to Leicester City who were the only Premier league team to vote against it. On another topic I thought the Uefa nations league was introduced to the international calender to do away with meaningless friendlies yet England played Wales recently and are playing Belgium on sunday both meaningless friendlies. 

Nah England Vs Wales is a proper Nations league game then we have England Vs Denmark on Weds so I guess the Wales game was a warm up where neither country had to travel too far

Agreed Leicester are the only club to come out of the PPV with any honour 

[martini2429]

Nah England Vs Wales is a proper Nations league game then we have England Vs Denmark on Weds so I guess the Wales game was a warm up where neither country had to travel too far

Agreed Leicester are the only club to come out of the PPV with any honour 

I think you mean England v Belgium.  This International window was extended due to the Euro 2020 (now 2021) playoff semi-finals, so some Countries were able to fit in a friendly as well, lots of Nations League games tomorrow, a few on Tuesday and lots on Wednesday

 

[martini2429]

Reaction not great to the PPV for extra games, consensus is that £15 is way too much

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Possibly only those supporters of clubs involved will pay to watch the games, I certainly won't be, I pay enough for Sky Sports as it is, I have a feeling you may see this change in the next couple of days, if it doesn't just shows how greedy Premier League clubs are, especially those with Billionaire owners 

 

[Blackpool Rock]

I think you mean England v Belgium.  This International window was extended due to the Euro 2020 (now 2021) playoff semi-finals, so some Countries were able to fit in a friendly as well, lots of Nations League games tomorrow, a few on Tuesday and lots on Wednesday

 

Yeah typo 

[Digby232]

Leicester did vote against it but no reason why! Did they want to charge more?

[ratedj]

Leicester did vote against it but no reason why! Did they want to charge more?

They voted against it because they were not in favour of the proposal, no matter how much, or how little, the amount. 

[Digby232]

How many of you wasted hundreds or even £1000 plus on season tickets ? Now got to hope you can get the money back as unlikely you’ll get to see any games! They’ll all plead poverty and can’t afford a refund. Why buy a season ticket when it was obvious that you’d see hardly anything this season anyway! Lower league clubs got no money but still pay bloody good wages to the players compared to the average working man!

[paper7]

How many of you wasted hundreds or even £1000 plus on season tickets ? Now got to hope you can get the money back as unlikely you’ll get to see any games! They’ll all plead poverty and can’t afford a refund. Why buy a season ticket when it was obvious that you’d see hardly anything this season anyway! Lower league clubs got no money but still pay bloody good wages to the players compared to the average working man!

And not only that, clubs are talking about £15 pay-per-view and so yet make more money out of cash-strapped 'fans'

[Gordon Bennett]

How many of you wasted hundreds or even £1000 plus on season tickets ? Now got to hope you can get the money back as unlikely you’ll get to see any games! They’ll all plead poverty and can’t afford a refund. Why buy a season ticket when it was obvious that you’d see hardly anything this season anyway! Lower league clubs got no money but still pay bloody good wages to the players compared to the average working man!

I bought a season ticket. Mainly cos it gives me free access live streams of all my team's games and partly to help prop the club up during this difficult season. I have also paid to have a cardboard cutout of me plonked in the stands. I have no idea how the Prem will proceed but I assume they will introduce a mechanism to give season ticket holders free access to PPV broadcasts of their games.

[Blackpool Rock]

Project big picture could shake things up 

Reaction from Rick Parry of the EFL is good as they get an immediate bail out but reaction from those who are currently coining it it is slightly less enthusiastic, wonder why 

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[mr.bluesky]

Project big picture could shake things up 

Reaction from Rick Parry of the EFL is good as they get an immediate bail out but reaction from those who are currently coining it it is slightly less enthusiastic, wonder why 

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The big six of Liverpool, Man utd, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal want to run the premier league and screw everybody else. I wonder why ? Could it be they are all owned by foreign investers who want to make more money by wringing more cash out of the fans and tv companies . I think this is the tip of the iceberg and eventually they will break away to form a European super league with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG , Juventus etc thats where the big bucks lie. You only have to see how the Champions League has expanded from the old European Cup. Cash is King in football nowdays

[martini2429]

I have no idea how the Prem will proceed but I assume they will introduce a mechanism to give season ticket holders free access to PPV broadcasts of their games.

I very much doubt that 

 

[lostandfound]

The big six of Liverpool, Man utd, Man City, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal want to run the premier league and screw everybody else. I wonder why ? Could it be they are all owned by foreign investers who want to make more money by wringing more cash out of the fans and tv companies . I think this is the tip of the iceberg and eventually they will break away to form a European super league with the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, PSG , Juventus etc thats where the big bucks lie. You only have to see how the Champions League has expanded from the old European Cup. Cash is King in football nowdays

Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy may be disappointed to learn they are no longer British. 

[mr.bluesky]

Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy may be disappointed to learn they are no longer British. 

True but the ENIC investment group is registered in the Bahamas  which in my eyes is foreign investment. I wonder why. Tax reasons perhaps  Liverpool , Man Utd and Arsenal owned by Yanks. Man City - Arabs, Chelsea -Russian.

[Digby232]

What team do you support Gordon Bennett? Surely not  a premiership team! They hardly need your money to help prop them up. A cardboard cut out in the stands😂😂. How ridiculous can you get. Anything to get a  bit more out of fans.

[lostandfound]

True but the ENIC investment group is registered in the Bahamas  which in my eyes is foreign investment. I wonder why. Tax reasons perhaps  Liverpool , Man Utd and Arsenal owned by Yanks. Man City - Arabs, Chelsea -Russian.

But the controlling mind / interest of Tottenham is still British.

Also, inward investment as a feature of a Capitalist economy has long been a feature of our country and championed by successive govts. Football is no different from the rest of the UK in this regard.

[The Film Director]

A cardboard cut out in the stands😂😂.

I think you'll find they had them at Highbury for years. 

[Gordon Bennett]

What team do you support Gordon Bennett? Surely not  a premiership team! They hardly need your money to help prop them up. A cardboard cut out in the stands😂😂. How ridiculous can you get. Anything to get a  bit more out of fans.

Of course it's not a prem team. It's a useless shit lower league team that loses more games than it wins. My understanding is that most clubs are selling cardboard effigies of fans to plonk in the stands - I think Leeds have sold 25K of them maybe? Makes the stadium look colourful and reminds the players the fans are watching at home so they need to pull their fingers out and stop thinking it's a training game. Once Covid ends I can go get my cutout from the ground and have endless fun with it.....  surely everyone wants a lifesize cardboard cutout to arse about with, or is it just me?????

[mr.bluesky]

I think it's just you  All cudos to you for not jumping on the glory bandwagon of a top premier league team . My team has had more "downs" than a whores knickers

[County Militia]

Digby your still banging on about this?  Give it a rest, your just sounding like a broken record now. It's clear your just a bitter plastic "fan" who has fallen out with football because in your eyes Premier League clubs "charge too much". 

It's funny how some people on here have the money to spend on banging escorts but then all of a sudden £15 becomes too much money to watch a live match. 

[mr.bluesky]

England loose to Denmark 0:1 in the European Nations league. A poor performance after beating Belgium. Harry Maguire's early sending off for two rash tackles not helping. They drop down to third in the table and qualifying for the next stage could be out of their hands now. The penalty decision was somewhat dubious but England struggled against mediocre opposition. 

[martini2429]

England loose to Denmark 0:1 in the European Nations league. A poor performance after beating Belgium. Harry Maguire's early sending off for two rash tackles not helping. They drop down to third in the table and qualifying for the next stage could be out of their hands now. The penalty decision was somewhat dubious but England struggled against mediocre opposition. 

Sadly Southgate got his changes wrong, Sancho was ineffective, should have brought on Grealish instead, but they can still win the group, in the last Nations League no one expected them to go to Spain and win, just as no one will expect them to go to Belgium and win

 

[Blackpool Rock]

England loose to Denmark 0:1 in the European Nations league. A poor performance after beating Belgium. Harry Maguire's early sending off for two rash tackles not helping. They drop down to third in the table and qualifying for the next stage could be out of their hands now. The penalty decision was somewhat dubious but England struggled against mediocre opposition. 

Yeah and straight on the back of the plaudits bigging us up after beating the worlds number 1 ranked team Belgium, just shows we are still too inconsistent.
I gave up years ago actually expecting England to win anything as it inevitably leads to disappointment 

[Gordon Bennett]

Sadly Southgate got his changes wrong, Sancho was ineffective, should have brought on Grealish instead, but they can still win the group, in the last Nations League no one expected them to go to Spain and win, just as no one will expect them to go to Belgium and win

 

I think Southgate's time is up. England still look tentative and crippled by nerves every game.... Given the standard of players the national team has its ridiculous they don't have more arrogance and confidence about them. Should be battering a team like Denmark, not cagily probing and huffing and puffing all night.

[mr.bluesky]

I think Southgate's time is up. England still look tentative and crippled by nerves every game.... Given the standard of players the national team has its ridiculous they don't have more arrogance and confidence about them. Should be battering a team like Denmark, not cagily probing and huffing and puffing all night.

But is the standard of players we have that good  or have we hyped them up too much. Remember the so called "golden generation" of Beckham , Lampard, Gerrard etc never won anything. A lot of so called "good" players look very ordinary when they put on an England shirt. I don't subscribe to this weight of expectation nonsense  when they put on an England shirt. Surely if you are a international player for somebody like Germany the weight of expectation is greater simply because of their past record in tournaments. They are expected to be there or thereabouts when the big tournaments come around.

[ratedj]

I think Southgate's time is up. England still look tentative and crippled by nerves every game.... Given the standard of players the national team has its ridiculous they don't have more arrogance and confidence about them. Should be battering a team like Denmark, not cagily probing and huffing and puffing all night.

I think this is somewhat of an overreaction. Granted, the performance wasn't anything to write home about but it's not all doom and gloom. The team that Southgate picked was experimental to a certain extent, so we shouldn't be completely surprised to find that the performance lacked a certain element of panache. International football is about rhythm, and you tend to earn the right to play with arrogance. If anything, that comes from players being afforded the opportunity to express themselves in an environment that lends itself to such an approach, and one could argue that of recent England managers no one has been as good as Southgate in providing such a platform.

When you say 'battering a team like Denmark,' it's important to remember that many nations have players who perform in high-standard leagues, and whilst a team like Denmark might not have many household names (bar Erikson) it has implemented a cohesive system with players who are technically efficient. Of their recent games I believe that their only defeat came against Belgium, who in turn were recently beaten by...England!

[Jumping Jack Flash]

Southgate is the latest in a line of England managers whose safety first/we can’t afford to lose mentality means that they put safety first ahead of actually playing attractive football. So he doesn’t pick an in-form player like Grealish who has the ability to open up a defence with a clever through ball.

So add Grealish to the list that includes Le Tissier, Merson, Bowles, Curry, Hudson, Worthington etc.

[mr.bluesky]

Southgate is the latest in a line of England managers whose safety first/we can’t afford to lose mentality means that they put safety first ahead of actually playing attractive football. So he doesn’t pick an in-form player like Grealish who has the ability to open up a defence with a clever through ball.

So add Grealish to the list that includes Le Tissier, Merson, Bowles, Curry, Hudson, Worthington etc.

Have to agree .Players with flair don't often get a good run in the England team . Someone once said of Le Tissier that he was a scorer of great goals but not a great goalscorer. Perhaps it's because flair players tend to have a reputation of being lazy when it comes to trying to win the ball back or tracking back. In defence of Southgate we did reach the semi-finals at the last World Cup and Semi- finals of the last European Nations League just the usuall story of falling at the final hurdle. If you got rid of Southgate who would you have  We don't want to go down the route of another foriegn manager. Capello who could hardly speak English or clueless Sven who had a plan A but never a plan B when things weren't working out

[Digby232]

Capello could speak pretty good English in s conversation. I met him couple of times. Just couldn’t speak it when didn’t want too. Bit like poch who couldn’t at Southampton but could at spurs😂

[Blackpool Rock]

But is the standard of players we have that good  or have we hyped them up too much. Remember the so called "golden generation" of Beckham , Lampard, Gerrard etc never won anything. A lot of so called "good" players look very ordinary when they put on an England shirt. I don't subscribe to this weight of expectation nonsense  when they put on an England shirt. Surely if you are a international player for somebody like Germany the weight of expectation is greater simply because of their past record in tournaments. They are expected to be there or thereabouts when the big tournaments come around.

Yeah I seem to recall the hailed Golden Generation produced our worst overall run of performances since WW2, they were shite and just didn't sparkle  though that could be in part to how the Manager set the team up to play etc.

I remember the players we had in the late 90's always seemed to be good and I had an expectation that we could perhaps achieve something with Shearer; Gascoigne; Owen; Beckham etc but it never happened.
I put a lot of that down to the manager in Euro 96 and then WC 98 when Glenn Hoddle had what I consider the best talent available since we won the WC in 66 but squandered it with his shit team selection and all the Eileen Drury faith healing shit 
Hoddle having been a Spurs man through and through definitively favoured Spurs players over other players and that affected his selection, seemed hell bent on playing Darran Anderton despite him being shit other than passing the ball in from the right.
Already mentioned but I never understand how Matt Le Tissier wasn't a regular, beggers belief especially when he was such a good penalty taker and that's often how we got knocked out FFS 
If Hoddle had picked Owen to play from the start in the Argentina game then I believe we would have won it, give the fresh young talent a chance as they are seem keen to play and impress, that's what Southgate seems to do rather than sticking with tired old hands who have lost their flair

Anyway rant over and more to the point who would people pick to replace Southgate  As far as I can see he's done more with the players at his disposal than anyone else could do so he's still the right man for the job 

[Digby232]

Flair players of today still arnt as entertaining as they used to be. You’d pay to go and seen, le tissier or Bowles. You don’t pay to watch grealish . You pay  to see villa and he’s just part of it! People paid to see George best even if didn’t support the team he played for. Different class to the ones today who can’t play if there’s a divot on the bowling green pitch😂

[Gordon Bennett]

I think this is somewhat of an overreaction. Granted, the performance wasn't anything to write home about but it's not all doom and gloom. The team that Southgate picked was experimental to a certain extent, so we shouldn't be completely surprised to find that the performance lacked a certain element of panache. International football is about rhythm, and you tend to earn the right to play with arrogance. If anything, that comes from players being afforded the opportunity to express themselves in an environment that lends itself to such an approach, and one could argue that of recent England managers no one has been as good as Southgate in providing such a platform.

When you say 'battering a team like Denmark,' it's important to remember that many nations have players who perform in high-standard leagues, and whilst a team like Denmark might not have many household names (bar Erikson) it has implemented a cohesive system with players who are technically efficient. Of their recent games I believe that their only defeat came against Belgium, who in turn were recently beaten by...England!

Southgate is fundamentally a blazer, a company man. His schtick doesn't work for me... There's no desire, panache, passion. The players play like they have 4 foot sticks up their arses. I've felt this way for bulk of Southgate's tenure - it's not a recent thing. It constantly annoys me that you always get the impression our opponents would run through a brick wall when they play us but our lot seem to swan around acting like they've done us a favour purely by turning up. They need geeing up but I don't see Southgate as man to do that.... his solution would probably be to show them a PowerPoint presentation or something.

[ratedj]

Yeah I seem to recall the hailed Golden Generation produced our worst overall run of performances since WW2, they were shite and just didn't sparkle  though that could be in part to how the Manager set the team up to play etc.

I remember the players we had in the late 90's always seemed to be good and I had an expectation that we could perhaps achieve something with Shearer; Gascoigne; Owen; Beckham etc but it never happened.
I put a lot of that down to the manager in Euro 96 and then WC 98 when Glenn Hoddle had what I consider the best talent available since we won the WC in 66 but squandered it with his shit team selection and all the Eileen Drury faith healing shit 
Hoddle having been a Spurs man through and through definitively favoured Spurs players over other players and that affected his selection, seemed hell bent on playing Darran Anderton despite him being shit other than passing the ball in from the right.
Already mentioned but I never understand how Matt Le Tissier wasn't a regular, beggers belief especially when he was such a good penalty taker and that's often how we got knocked out FFS 
If Hoddle had picked Owen to play from the start in the Argentina game then I believe we would have won it, give the fresh young talent a chance as they are seem keen to play and impress, that's what Southgate seems to do rather than sticking with tired old hands who have lost their flair

Anyway rant over and more to the point who would people pick to replace Southgate  As far as I can see he's done more with the players at his disposal than anyone else could do so he's still the right man for the job 

I think you've got a bit of this wrong! Though I was still quite young during Euro 96 and the 98 World Cup I have a vivid memory of both. Until the 2018 wC, I would argue that England have not performed as good at major tournaments as they did in 96 and 98. Terry Venables got the best out of that team, and there's no shame in losing a semi-final in the manner that England did, especially to the eventual winners. As for 98, let's not forget that England played almost the entire second half and extra time with 10 men against a very good Argentina side, and up until the sending off that was a very even game. Glenn Hoddle was good for England, and the fact remains that he was sacked for non-football reasons. I've always thought that the FA should tap into his knowledge. Also, just to clarify, Michael Owen did start the game v Argentina!

As for the so-called 'Golden Generation,' I'm pretty sure it was the media who coined that phrase.

[Blackpool Rock]

I think you've got a bit of this wrong! Though I was still quite young during Euro 96 and the 98 World Cup I have a vivid memory of both. Until the 2018 wC, I would argue that England have not performed as good at major tournaments as they did in 96 and 98. Terry Venables got the best out of that team, and there's no shame in losing a semi-final in the manner that England did, especially to the eventual winners. As for 98, let's not forget that England played almost the entire second half and extra time with 10 men against a very good Argentina side, and up until the sending off that was a very even game. Glenn Hoddle was good for England, and the fact remains that he was sacked for non-football reasons. I've always thought that the FA should tap into his knowledge. Also, just to clarify, Michael Owen did start the game v Argentina!

As for the so-called 'Golden Generation,' I'm pretty sure it was the media who coined that phrase.

Yes you're right there is an error in my post, just looked at a record of the match and Owen did start, I could have sworn he came on and scored his wonder goal then Beckham fucked it up by getting sent off but he actually scored it after about 16 minutes, perhaps just shows how pissed i was 

I've also messed up the wording / context and meant to say after we did so well in Euro 96 that Hoddle fucked it up in WC 98
I will never agree that Hoddle was anything other than bad for England though 

[Yankee21]

Funny seeing Red scouse lose their shit over this.

[Blackpool Rock]

Funny seeing Red scouse lose their shit over this.

What over what 

[Goldfinch]

What over what 

Henderson's late goal ruled out by VAR:

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[ratedj]

Yes you're right there is an error in my post, just looked at a record of the match and Owen did start, I could have sworn he came on and scored his wonder goal then Beckham fucked it up by getting sent off but he actually scored it after about 16 minutes, perhaps just shows how pissed i was 

I've also messed up the wording / context and meant to say after we did so well in Euro 96 that Hoddle fucked it up in WC 98
I will never agree that Hoddle was anything other than bad for England though 

Haha, it's okay. Maybe you're thinking of the Romania game where Owen did come on and score a late equaliser...only for Romaina to score a late winner! Though he only managed England for 28 games, Hoddle has one of the best win percentages of England managers.

[Blackpool Rock]

Haha, it's okay. Maybe you're thinking of the Romania game where Owen did come on and score a late equaliser...only for Romaina to score a late winner! Though he only managed England for 28 games, Hoddle has one of the best win percentages of England managers.

Yeah I know I did have a major bee in my bonnet about Owen not being 1st on the team sheet as he was such a hot property back then, a draw with Romania would have seen us top of the group and into the other half of the draw which didn't really have many decent teams in it.
France were in that easy half and got to the final almost unopposed

[Sparta Prada]

West Ham coming back from 3-0 down to Spurs in one of the comebacks of the season. Spurs raced into a 3-0 lead after 16 minutes, Kane and Son looking deadly yet again. The Hammers first goal came only in the 82nd minute. Gareth Bale missed a glorious chance to seal the game, before Manuel Lanzini scored possibly the goal of the season (so far) to equalise in the 94th minute.

Astonishing game.

[mr.bluesky]

West Ham coming back from 3-0 down to Spurs in one of the comebacks of the season. Spurs raced into a 3-0 lead after 16 minutes, Kane and Son looking deadly yet again. The Hammers first goal came only in the 82nd minute. Gareth Bale missed a glorious chance to seal the game, before Manuel Lanzini scored possibly the goal of the season (so far) to equalise in the 94th minute.

Astonishing game.

Yes all credit to West Ham. At 3-0 down they looked dead and buried. Bale is not match fit or match sharp yet. On any other day he would have buried that chance. When West Ham pulled one goal back you thought it would just be a consolation goal .

[Blackpool Rock]

Villa win 1-0 in injury time away to Leicester which isn't an easy game to win, 4 wins from 4 and the only 100% record although they have played a game less than most teams

[mr.bluesky]

Villa win 1-0 in injury time away to Leicester which isn't an easy game to win, 4 wins from 4 and the only 100% record although they have played a game less than most teams

Quite some turn around in form from the Villa. Not forgetting the recent spanking they gave to Liverpool recently. Looked doomed for relegation  not so long ago. Could be the surprise team of the season now.

[Blackpool Rock]

Quite some turn around in form from the Villa. Not forgetting the recent spanking they gave to Liverpool recently. Looked doomed for relegation  not so long ago. Could be the surprise team of the season now.

Yeah it's good to see smaller teams who weren't given any chance such as Villa and Everton putting it to the big guns as it shakes things up a bit and makes it more interesting, can anyone do another Leicester this season and the top teams aren't firing on all cylinders yet 

[Sparta Prada]

This has been such an exciting start to a top flight season I can remember. Who would have thought the top 2 spots would be deservedly held by Everton and Villa at this stage?

Man City appear to have made decent defensive acquisitions in Ake and Dias, both of whom have made City appear a little bit more solid. With Liverpool losing Van Dijk for the season, this may tilt things in City's favour. City and Liverpool are clearly still the teams who will end up battling for the title though I'm sure the neutrals among us would prefer another team 'doing a Leicester'.

[Hobbit]

This has been such an exciting start to a top flight season I can remember. Who would have thought the top 2 spots would be deservedly held by Everton and Villa at this stage?

Man City appear to have made decent defensive acquisitions in Ake and Dias, both of whom have made City appear a little bit more solid. With Liverpool losing Van Dijk for the season, this may tilt things in City's favour. City and Liverpool are clearly still the teams who will end up battling for the title though I'm sure the neutrals among us would prefer another team 'doing a Leicester'.

I'm tempted to put a tenner on Everton to win the league this season. You never know, Leicester did it many years ago and it could happen. Being a Gooner myself, I don't see Arsenal winning it this year, unfortunately.

[ratedj]

This has been such an exciting start to a top flight season I can remember. Who would have thought the top 2 spots would be deservedly held by Everton and Villa at this stage?

Man City appear to have made decent defensive acquisitions in Ake and Dias, both of whom have made City appear a little bit more solid. With Liverpool losing Van Dijk for the season, this may tilt things in City's favour. City and Liverpool are clearly still the teams who will end up battling for the title though I'm sure the neutrals among us would prefer another team 'doing a Leicester'.

It's always nice to have an unfamiliar look to the table. The lack of a proper pre-season has definitely impacted some clubs more than others. I think that it will essentially be a Liverpool v City title battle, though how close of a title bettle there is will be totally dependent on whether City's defence delivers a marked improvement.

[ratedj]

I'm tempted to put a tenner on Everton to win the league this season. You never know, Leicester did it many years ago and it could happen. Being a Gooner myself, I don't see Arsenal winning it this year, unfortunately.

I still have no idea how Everton managed to atrract a manager the calibre of Ancelotti to the club. I ultimately think that a sustained title challenge will prove a step too far, though I do believe that they have a very good chance of securing CL football.