Football 2025-26

[Skip997]

On 30/11/2025 at 16:00, Skip997 said:

At last

 

Just hope it was a builder they got in to fix the cracks and not a decorator to paper over them 

Damn, seems like they only got a decorator in.

 

I guess there’s 10 million reasons not to sack Slot, although considering the summer spending, it’s not that much 

[charlierc]

11 hours ago, thetime said:

Yeah, that block was unfortunate. Don't watch Liverpool to much, but they were dire.

 

Only aspect thats saving them this season, is a lot of teams are equally as bad. Or lets say most of the teams are competitive, to put a positive spin on it. 

 

Liverpool are only 1 point from a likely champions league place (5th).

 

I can't really see much change from 3rd to 13th, a lot of teams dropping points regularly. Villa are on a nice run, but arguably a nice run of fixtures. Even utd who haven't been great, can be in 5th tonight. 

 

Its certainly no vintage year.

There's a much of a muchness really. Man Utd just drew that West Ham game, which means 8th rather than 13th. Certainly, the form table shows that how your entire line of thought can change thanks to such a compression - Bournemouth were at the front of the chase for the European hunt at one point, a run of one point from 5 games later and they're plummeting down to 14th, but still only 5 points off Chelsea in 4th.

 

Feels like it's still anyone's game as to who will be in the Euro chase come season's end. Maybe by the time of the FA Cup Third Round next month, it'll look a bit more clear-cut. 

[charlierc]

5 hours ago, thetime said:

Nearly spat my coke out. 🤣

 

Perhaps start winning multiple leagues and champions leagues first. 

 

I mean, like it's the first football club CEO to make grand proclamations.

 

I still think that in a universe where Leicester won the Premier League, every club's fanbase should dream their team can do it. I don't think I'm even that arsed about the idea of being a global super-club, and all that comes from such a nebulous concept to begin with, just would like to win trophies, that's all.

[charlierc]

World Cup group stage draw today. Already I'm dreading to think how much FIFA will be using it to suck up to the man Infantino seems to be trying to make his best friend. 

[Ben7amin_]

Having ignored the national teams games all year -  I am now suddenly interested in the WC draw

[kaosmark2]

20 hours ago, thetime said:

Nearly spat my coke out. 🤣

 

Perhaps start winning multiple leagues and champions leagues first. 

 

The official line is "one of the top clubs in the world" but yeah, far too optimistic.

[Neil]

20 hours ago, thetime said:

Nearly spat my coke out. 🤣

 

Perhaps start winning multiple leagues and champions leagues first. 

 

most despised for its despot. 

[thetime]

2 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

The official line is "one of the top clubs in the world" but yeah, far too optimistic.

 

Might be something to aim for in 15-20 years after a successful period, winning titles and finals of the CL.  In 4 years with no real hope bridging the gap to challenge though? Empty words. 

 

 

[Crazyfool01]

This is vomit inducing from infantino 🤮

[Skip997]

2 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

This is vomit inducing from infantino 🤮

The World Cup has itself been vomit inducing for a long time. Horrible corporate nonsense where cash and dodgy political deals are more important than the football. There’s also far too many teams involved 

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Skip997 said:

The World Cup has itself been vomit inducing for a long time. Horrible corporate nonsense where cash and dodgy political deals are more important than the football. There’s also far too many teams involved 

Disagree on the 2 many teams . It’s great to give hope to some of the smaller nations and sometimes the odd upset happens . But giving a peace trophy very similar to the World Cup so he doesn’t try to run off with that is bonkers ( probably for another thread though ) and yeah it’s ridiculously corporate but huge money is involved these days not sure how that can ever be stopped 

[kaosmark2]

2 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Might be something to aim for in 15-20 years after a successful period, winning titles and finals of the CL.  In 4 years with no real hope bridging the gap to challenge though? Empty words. 

I mean the goal should be to mimic City right? Have a period of winning more league titles than not and be in contention for the Champions League any time the team isn't in transition. But City took 15 or so years to win the CL post-takeover, and they had an easier time with the financial rules at the time.

 

But yeah, this is just corporate nonsense speak.

[charlierc]

29 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I mean the goal should be to mimic City right? Have a period of winning more league titles than not and be in contention for the Champions League any time the team isn't in transition. But City took 15 or so years to win the CL post-takeover, and they had an easier time with the financial rules at the time.

 

But yeah, this is just corporate nonsense speak.

The history of football is full of people claiming they're going to make their club a superclub so it's easy to be fatigued. Plus I'm aware that this is consistent boasting - seem to remember there was similar chatter 4 years ago when the takeover first went through.

 

I mean, the end of next season (26/27) is 100 years since Newcastle last won a top flight title. I'd settle just for ending that streak before any further attempts at world domination.

[kaosmark2]

1 minute ago, charlierc said:

The history of football is full of people claiming they're going to make their club a superclub so it's easy to be fatigued. Plus I'm aware that this is consistent boasting - seem to remember there was similar chatter 4 years ago when the takeover first went through.

 

I mean, the end of next season (26/27) is 100 years since Newcastle last won a top flight title. I'd settle just for ending that streak before any further attempts at world domination.

Honestly, I don't even care about the league yet. I'd be very happy with qualifying for the CL in consecutive years while winning a cup every few years. We've got a team that's (mostly) decent to watch again, we've won a cup, we're qualifying for Europe every other season and getting some wins and being competitive. I'm happier with the steady build than I would be splurging on mega stars.

[charlierc]

On 22/11/2025 at 21:32, charlierc said:

 

One thing that is worth keeping an eye on is that Paramount's new parent company Skydance are trying to buy Warner Bros Discovery, who own TNT Sports. I don't know if it'll happen what with monopoly concerns or the fact that another US media empire in Comcast are joining in for a bidding war but if that does happen, it could lead to TNT being a part of Paramount+. In theory. Would also become more expensive, but then that seems to be a regular issue.

 

I would agree that TNT would have problems if they lose this. I don't know if the Ashes or the WWE are helpful. Personally, the main sports I would pay to keep tabs on are football and F1, both of which are heavily covered by Sky, and I'm not sure if TNT, even with it eating Eurosport and putting all the stuff on there behind a paywall, has enough.

Well the fact that this morning, it was just announced Netflix are buying Warner Bros Discovery means that this idea of TNT and Paramount+ being merged together isn't happening.

 

... unless Paramount buys TNT, which Netflix-Warner will apparently be putting up for sale.

[charlierc]

1 minute ago, kaosmark2 said:

Honestly, I don't even care about the league yet. I'd be very happy with qualifying for the CL in consecutive years while winning a cup every few years. We've got a team that's (mostly) decent to watch again, we've won a cup, we're qualifying for Europe every other season and getting some wins and being competitive. I'm happier with the steady build than I would be splurging on mega stars.

Oh I'd like to win the Premier League because I think it would be a nice moment. I'm content tbf that we're making progress if we're now able to compete at the top end and qualify for Europe more frequently, even with FFP/PSR making it that we can't just throw hundreds of Saudi bucks at the problem.

[charlierc]

In before pessimists already say England can't get through a group with Croatia, Panama and Ghana even with best third place teams getting to go through.

[thetime]

1 hour ago, kaosmark2 said:

I mean the goal should be to mimic City right? Have a period of winning more league titles than not and be in contention for the Champions League any time the team isn't in transition. But City took 15 or so years to win the CL post-takeover, and they had an easier time with the financial rules at the time.

 

But yeah, this is just corporate nonsense speak.

 

I can't see Newcastle doing a city, they are still a long way off even challenging for the big titles. City won the league in 4 years, chelsea in 2 years. 

 

Newcastle is just bad timing, with the amount of new rules in place. 

 

I think Newcastle owners are doing a good job. I really can't see them bridging the gap from European qualification contenders, to 1 of the teams challenging for titles year in year out. 

[pink_triangle]

Congratulations to Trump, am sure it must have been a very competitive voting process.

[lost]

I didn't realise how watered down the competition was with 48 teams till now. A few of the european qualifiers if they get through could potentially go on and win their entire group.

[Skip997]

5 minutes ago, lost said:

I didn't realise how watered down the competition was with 48 teams till now. A few of the european qualifiers if they get through could potentially go on and win their entire group.

It’s ridiculous, pointless nonsense 

[pink_triangle]

Should be first trip to the knockouts for Scotland.

[charlierc]

Sky put up a graphic on Instagram saying that between the ceremony starting and the first names actually being put in the hat took 87 minutes, and that's not including have the leaders of the US, Mexico and Canada revealing what groups they were going in.

 

Quite something that I was able to fit in a trip to Tesco and back and had already put my shopping away before the damn thing proper had even started. It really is a ceremony that could've been an e-mail.

[charlierc]

23 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Congratulations to Trump, am sure it must have been a very competitive voting process.

Infantino a few years ago: "Football should stay out of politics and politics should stay out of football"

 

Infantino 2026: "Look at my new best friend, let's give him a medal"

 

Also dubious that Ronaldo got his 3 game ban reduced to 1 less than a week after going for dinner at the White House. Perhaps something Portugal fans might have reason to be annoyed by given Ronaldo has really looked like being a handbrake on a decent team at the last few major tournaments.

[charlierc]

15 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

Should be first trip to the knockouts for Scotland.

I'm kinda disappointed Norway weren't put in their group just to really hammer home the 1998 reprise.