Off Topic English football

[samhardy]

1 defeat in 13

7 wins in the last 9

6 goals conceded in 13 games

Fair fucking play Parky no-one saw this coming. 8 year contract please. First time this season I have actually thought we have a chance of getting promoted

[Ashez]

1 hour ago, samhardy said:

1 defeat in 13

7 wins in the last 9

6 goals conceded in 13 games

Fair fucking play Parky no-one saw this coming. 8 year contract please. First time this season I have actually thought we have a chance of getting promoted

Sounds a tad boring for you tbf. 

[Ashez]

Gerrard's getting his title! 

To think one of the Premier League's greatest ever players was robbed by cheats. Justice will be done. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8008205/amp/Manchester-Citys-Premier-League-title-2014-THREAT.html?__twitter_impression=true

Hahahahhahahaha

Click bait trash. 

[Woody]

God i hate Arsenal.....we played very well 1st half and should of been 2 up and then Bruce think we can defened our box and snatch a point with just 18% possession in that 2nd half! When the fuck will he learn!!

[FuddledFox]

I can’t see what the problem is @Woody

[Woody]

52 minutes ago, Foxy said:

I can’t see what the problem is @Woody

Its laughable, we are very very lucky to be where we are.

[FuddledFox]

Looks like the Bury situation is finally coming to a conclusion.

 

[Mr Tree]

well as soon as we got within sight of the top two, we seem to have fallen apart - horrendous loss at Luton last night, awful goals to concede, odd shuffling of the squad, yuck yuck yuck.

my second child is due around the end of the season, so i was starting to envisage the most amazing few days ever... instead, it'll be playoffs (if i'm lucky!) while sleep-deprived. Brentford are 0 for 8 in the playoffs, by the way - losing again would give us the distinction of the most playoff campaigns without success

first 11 games: 12pts

next 16 games: 34pts

last 8 games: 10pts

strangely, the middle spell never really had a run, lots of WWLWWL... so if we could string together an unbeaten run or a winning streak, then let's talk. we can beat anyone on our day, but inconsistency kills and we can look bloody awful sometimes

[FuddledFox]

@samhardy

Don’t forget that you aren’t allowed to celebrate any goals that Sunderland score for the rest of the season and in fact only celebrate them when you play clubs of equal size or bigger.

 

[BatiGoal]

The Derby Double 😁 👍 

[billy2shots]

Obviously Shankly was wrong, there are plenty of things in this life that are more important than football. However that doesn’t mean football can’t be discussed.

So what do we think then, a minor blip and an extension at the end of the season or is that it?

For me personally I can’t see this only being a month thing. That would be the same as Italy playing in 2 weeks time given we are a fortnight behind them in developments. I just don’t see that happening. 

Even if the Euros are scrubbed I don’t see how the games can be fitted in allowing for a decent close season break. 

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by billy2shots

[Ian]

26 minutes ago, billy2shots said:

Obviously Shankly was wrong, there are plenty of things in this life that are more important than football. However that doesn’t mean football can’t be discussed.

So what do we think then, a minor blip and an extension at the end of the season or is that it?

For me personally I can’t see this only being a month thing. That would be the same as Italy playing in 2 weeks time given we are a fortnight behind them in developments. I just don’t see that happening. 

Even if the Euros are scrubbed I don’t see how the games can be fitted in allowing for a decent close season break. 

 

No idea what will happen but I do know that anything other than completing the remaining games at some point would cause an absolute shitstorm and can you imagine trying to start a new season with all that going on? It’ll be farcical.

[billy2shots]

16 hours ago, Ian said:

No idea what will happen but I do know that anything other than completing the remaining games at some point would cause an absolute shitstorm and can you imagine trying to start a new season with all that going on? It’ll be farcical.

I completely agree but that is simple for the Premiership. Hand Liverpool the trophy because they have won it. However if you do that then you would have to decide who came 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc and who go relegated. Could that decision be made from the current standings? I think that would be equally as unfair as not declaring Liverpool champs. Then there’s Europe, do winners need to be randomly picked?

its going to take a lot of hard work to fix this. The only 2 options are to somehow finish the games in time for a new season (should that season be suspended indefinitely?) or to cancel this season and void all results. 

Strap in, it’s going to get bumpy. 

[Ashez]

To think this virus will be gone or under control within weeks or months feels foolish to me, Obviously I'm no expert but until a cure is found or we somehow develop immunity/resistance how will this end soon? Sure it might naturally slow down but it'll just take hold else where. 

I think European games are done this season, pay out for where they are and move on, unfortunately I think next season's European games are also in doubt. The risk of travel and spread is massive, how can we have fans and clubs travelling the world next season? It currently just doesn't feel possible unless massive developments take place. Obviously that also means international football is over.....How heart breaking...Not. 

As for league football Jesus what a mess. No solution is fair, no outcome will please everyone but if we're robbed of this title we've waited 30 years for there will be riots in the streets 😂. Same goes for clubs like Leeds who are on the verge of something equally as important. It's infuriating to know we're potentially one win away from the title and it could be wiped from us. We need six points and our next match is verse Everton or City depending on where they pick up, however I just don't see the league restarting in April. If it's cancelled put every match as a 0-0 draw and you finish where you finish is like one of the only options but even that sucks. 

The biggest issue is actually next season though, anything that happens now obviously massively impacts the next campaign. If we kick off again in a few months when does next season start? How would a transfer window work? Unless the league starts late and the cups don't happen, that at least gives free mid weeks and weekends to try cram it in.  

[Mr Tree]

It really is tricky and frankly the defining factor is "when can we get back to normal?" - it's just impossible to know how to move forward otherwise.

I would like the season to be finished and then work from there. However it doesn't seem likely before contacts expire, so some sort of "mini" transfer window will probably be needed too (as well as a preseason really, so that teams can get back up to fitness). Dependent on timing, maybe 2-4 weeks of player movement and fitness, play out the season, and work it out from there...

Every plan is flawed - difficult situation. Beginning to feel bad about saying "nothing can stop Liverpool now"...

[samhardy]

58 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

However it doesn't seem likely before contacts expire

Exactly this, people who think oh we’ll just wait a couple of months and start again in June or something forget how many lower league clubs have the majority of their players on either 1 year contracts or out of contract this summer.

There’s been multiple club owners now saying they’re resigned to the fact that no more football will be played this season and imo the season is over too. What they do though is anyone’s guess.

With regards to Liverpool/Leeds/West Brom they can’t hand them the title/promotion as not one of them has actually won it yet. If you do that then you have to relegate the current bottom 3 (one of which has a game in hand and would climb out of the bottom 3 if they won it).

[billy2shots]

14 minutes ago, samhardy said:

 

With regards to Liverpool/Leeds/West Brom they can’t hand them the title/promotion as not one of them has actually won it yet. If you do that then you have to relegate the current bottom 3 (one of which has a game in hand and would climb out of the bottom 3 if they won it).

 

Which leaves the only 2 options that I said earlier. Finish the season properly or void everything. 

At the moment void seems odds on to me. 

 

Edit. 

I really hope this doesn't come across as ‘I told you so’ as this really isn’t my intention. A few weeks ago I said what a joke ffp is. Penalising clubs for spending their own cash in the bank whilst allowing others to spend hundreds of millions whilst in debt just because they can service the debt at that moment in time. I said god forbid a team had another Munich disaster or something and their finances changed to being unable to then service the debt. 

We just don’t see these things coming so ffp is fundamentally flawed  

 

Edited March 15, 2020 by billy2shots

[samhardy]

1 minute ago, billy2shots said:

Which leaves the only 2 options that I said earlier. Finish the season properly or void everything. 

At the moment void seems odds on to me. 

I agree at the moment

[FuddledFox]

Everything is clouded by self interest so my club currently sit in 3rd in League 1 with a decent chance of promotion but if we were 3rd from bottom I would want the season declared void.

Personally I would say they should reduce the number of games in 2020/21 by getting rid of the cups for a year and if they want to play European competitions have it as a straight KO. Then in July/August IF things are getting back to normal finish this season and then go straight into next season.

The bigger issue is how some of these clubs are going to survive with barely any income for the next few months whilst being locked into paying the players. A few clubs are going to be pushed to the brink and possibly a few may end up like Bury especially Macclesfield who can’t pay there players even with games being played.

[samhardy]

8 minutes ago, Foxy said:

Then in July/August IF things are getting back to normal finish this season and then go straight into next season.

That isn’t possible.

Where is the transfer window going to be? About 3/4 of Sunderland’s squad for example is out of contract this summer.

By August it’s likely some clubs will have 5 players on their books. And if the transfer window is in June what lower league clubs are going to splash the cash without having any major income for the last 4 months?

[Ian]

I really feel for the lower league teams who operate so close to the limit, you just can’t see how a fair few of them will be able to survive this. There needs to be a major shake up of the model after this you’d think as although you can call this unprecedented there is always the chance of something like this happening and there needs to be more things put into planning for this happening again in the future.

I’d be lying if I said my primary concern in football was anything other than our league title and I just hope common sense prevails on that one. Honestly not sure how I’d feel about the game going forward if not as I’m already heartbroken and pretty sure I’d never get over this one. It’s all just speculation at this stage and I’m getting a bit of headache with it all so I’m just going to wait until we know more now.

[FuddledFox]

6 minutes ago, samhardy said:

By August it’s likely some clubs will have 5 players on their books.

I don’t care as we have all our best players on longer deals as that’s the one thing we do right as a club 

[samhardy]

3 minutes ago, Foxy said:

I don’t care as we have all our best players on longer deals as that’s the one thing we do right as a club 

You’ll sell them to Wigan for a tenner and a tube of Pringles in May

[FuddledFox]

23 minutes ago, samhardy said:

You’ll sell them to Wigan for a tenner and a tube of Pringles in May

Take what you can get in these turbulent times.

[Rob]

32 minutes ago, Ian said:

I really feel for the lower league teams who operate so close to the limit, you just can’t see how a fair few of them will be able to survive this. 

Weymouth played yesterday, which I thought was:

a) Weird, as you’d think the decisions would have filtered down, regardless of the governing body at each level;

b) Interesting, as we had a bumper crowd of 1.5k. We tend to average around 1k.

I am not sure what to make of that information. I just thought it was worth sharing 🤣

[samhardy]

9 minutes ago, Rob said:

Weymouth played yesterday, which I thought was:

a) Weird, as you’d think the decisions would have filtered down, regardless of the governing body at each level;

b) Interesting, as we had a bumper crowd of 1.5k. We tend to average around 1k.

I am not sure what to make of that information. I just thought it was worth sharing 🤣

I was at Darlington yesterday and there was 1.3K there and they also average about the 1K mark.

[Ian]

Yeah I saw that there were national league games going ahead this weekend but this will be the last week of that for a bit you’d think. My brother did a cross country run yesterday too and even that looks like being the last for a while for him. I’m guessing the snooker will also go unfortunately but I’m going off topic now 😂

[FuddledFox]

Season to be extended indefinitely.

Looks like we could meet at Wembley yet @samhardy

 

[samhardy]

Happy birthday to a true legend of not only Sunderland but in fact that can be extended to the entire country. His 0 England call ups were 150 too few. Now no doubt absolutely ripping up the Eredivisie for Venlo.

And more importantly than that one of my favourite players of all time.

Many happy returns to Lee Barry Cattermole.  

 

[FuddledFox]