Football 2025-26

[kaosmark2]

21 hours ago, charlierc said:

I think it's reached saturation point that a lot of people are egging on Spurs falling through the trapdoor. 

 

I thought Forest would go down tbf having gone through 4 managers but they do look like they've lucked into a decent choice. I'm not sure if I'd back Vitor to carry on for next season based on his awful work with Wolves at the start of this season. 

 

But with that, Leeds looking like they can get a result where needed and West Ham having something about them, it just doesn't look good for Spurs. It's not inevitable, but it's not great either. 

It's funny to me, as West Ham's owners and Marinakis are doing the exact sort of things to make them fun cartoon villains and enjoyable to watch go down.

 

But between Spurs doing all the same sh*t themselves, making a rape apologist the 4th highest paid manager in Europe, and the super league sh*t, it's incredibly easy to get caught up in enjoying Spurs' struggles with everyone else.

[charlierc]

17 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

It's funny to me, as West Ham's owners and Marinakis are doing the exact sort of things to make them fun cartoon villains and enjoyable to watch go down.

 

But between Spurs doing all the same sh*t themselves, making a rape apologist the 4th highest paid manager in Europe, and the super league sh*t, it's incredibly easy to get caught up in enjoying Spurs' struggles with everyone else.

Certainly, when we played West Ham, there was a lot of dislike by their fans towards the others being expressed and that's been the way pretty much since they moved to the Olympic Stadium. Plus yeah, as a narrative, it almost seemed like Forest's owner was being hubristic with the flux he caused last summer. 

 

But yeah. Spurs are just a mess. It's kinda crazy to an extent that some of their fans have already just kinda accepted it, like when I was on Reddit some fans are practically accepting already. It's crazy though also hints their squad just isn't good though. I think also a few outside their fanbase have that idea of schadenfreude both at Spurs being part of the Super League 6 and one of the richest clubs in the world having such a ridiculous fall into the abyss. 

[kaosmark2]

5 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Certainly, when we played West Ham, there was a lot of dislike by their fans towards the others being expressed and that's been the way pretty much since they moved to the Olympic Stadium. Plus yeah, as a narrative, it almost seemed like Forest's owner was being hubristic with the flux he caused last summer. 

 

But yeah. Spurs are just a mess. It's kinda crazy to an extent that some of their fans have already just kinda accepted it, like when I was on Reddit some fans are practically accepting already. It's crazy though also hints their squad just isn't good though. I think also a few outside their fanbase have that idea of schadenfreude both at Spurs being part of the Super League 6 and one of the richest clubs in the world having such a ridiculous fall into the abyss. 

I also think there's the thing of, West Ham/Forest can still easily make the mistakes to go down in future, whereas if Spurs escape this, they'll spend their way out of it and it's less likely in future seasons. The PSR/revenue rules absolutely benefit and enable Spurs far more, so this feels like a rarer opportunity to laugh at a specific club.

[charlierc]

20 hours ago, charlierc said:

PSG remain decent at football. Nothing new learned there. Ekiteke getting started off looks very much like something Liverpool didn't need given he's been one of the new signings that's worked out best. 

 

Guess for them the quest now is trying to re-qualify for it next season. 

Started off? Stretchered off for f**k's sake.

 

Though "for f**k's sake" might be what Liverpool fans are saying as Ekiteke has apparently suffered a major Achilles injury and could well be out for the rest of 2026. Which sounds painful. And probably not what the beleaguered Slot needs given Ekiteke is one of last summer's better signings there and Isak still doesn't look 100% fit (or indeed like he suits the way he wants to play but that's a different query).

[charlierc]

7 hours ago, kaosmark2 said:

I also think there's the thing of, West Ham/Forest can still easily make the mistakes to go down in future, whereas if Spurs escape this, they'll spend their way out of it and it's less likely in future seasons. The PSR/revenue rules absolutely benefit and enable Spurs far more, so this feels like a rarer opportunity to laugh at a specific club.

I agree that if Spurs don't go down now, they'll recalibrate, realise they had a lucky escape and throw huge amounts of cash at building a better squad to recover from this nadir.

 

The Championship isn't a guarantee you'll be ok to recover straight away though. Stoke have hugely wealthy owners (among the top 10 in English football) yet have never found an alchemy to get them back in the Premier League since their 2018 drop, Leeds famously took over 17 years and a 3 year spell in League One, Portsmouth still haven't come back and Aston Villa took 3 years and an existential financial crisis before they got back after their 2016 drop.

 

Indeed in 2009, I actually was not confident we'd come straight back up and was braced for us being down there for at least 2 seasons, so was pleasantly surprised Hughton and a group of experienced players successfully got everything back together. Indeed, that squad got 8 more points than Benitez in 2016/17. Though I actually thought the division got a lot harder between 2010 and 2016, and much as I like watching the Championship, it looks massively stressful to support a team in.

[charlierc]

9 hours ago, thetime said:

 

Slot to Newcastle makes sense to me. 

Speaking of managers, should Carrick stay for next season or get shifted aside?

Edited April 15 by charlierc

[Punksnotdead]

This Bayern/Real game is a bit dull isn't it? 🤣

Shame it wasn't the final.

[thetime]

Just now, Punksnotdead said:

This Bayern/Real game is a bit dull isn't it? 🤣

Shame it wasn't the final.

 

Awesome game so far. 

[Punksnotdead]

1 hour ago, charlierc said:

Speaking of managers, should Carrick stay for next season or get shifted aside?

As a red I'd say it's still too early to say. If we f**k up champions league from here, then probably not.

[charlierc]

20 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

This Bayern/Real game is a bit dull isn't it? 🤣

Shame it wasn't the final.

Any neutrals who chose Arsenal v Sporting instead for that first half are regretting their choices huh.

[Punksnotdead]

9 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Any neutrals who chose Arsenal v Sporting instead for that first half are regretting their choices huh.

This and the Madrid/Barcelona game last night (& PSG) kinda makes a nonsense of England getting 5 teams in the CL next year. They are so much better than the English teams! Although I suppose England have greater strength lower down in the leagues.

Edited April 15 by Punksnotdead

[charlierc]

12 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

This and the Madrid/Barcelona game last night (& PSG) kinda makes a nonsense of England getting 5 teams in the CL next year. They are so much better than the English teams! Although I suppose England have greater strength lower down in the leagues.

I do wonder if the Premier League is time limited because of the way its structured meaning the greater strength in depth and the extra competition in the Carabao means teams wear out quicker. Platini made comments when he was UEFA President many years ago that used an analogy to essentially say English teams would be amazing in autumn but burnt out by spring. This season, tick.

[andyrhodes24]

34 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

This and the Madrid/Barcelona game last night (& PSG) kinda makes a nonsense of England getting 5 teams in the CL next year. They are so much better than the English teams! Although I suppose England have greater strength lower down in the leagues.

Bayern and PSG are probably helped by the fact that they can walk their respective leagues. PSG also massively helped by Ligue 1 rearranging games for them

[kaosmark2]

55 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Any neutrals who chose Arsenal v Sporting instead for that first half are regretting their choices huh.

Dunno why any neutral would watch an Arsenal game atm. Dullest team in football.

[thetime]

33 minutes ago, charlierc said:

I do wonder if the Premier League is time limited because of the way its structured meaning the greater strength in depth and the extra competition in the Carabao means teams wear out quicker. Platini made comments when he was UEFA President many years ago that used an analogy to essentially say English teams would be amazing in autumn but burnt out by spring. This season, tick.

 

Personally just think the premier league is just very basic. Once the big clubs started to take it seriously in the knock outs, they have all got found out. No doubt Arsenal will get found out in the semi finals. 

[thetime]

2 hours ago, charlierc said:

Speaking of managers, should Carrick stay for next season or get shifted aside?

 

I am split.

 

Although if you have to start Ugarte after 1 injury you are in trouble. Likewise Harry Maguire being the saviour defensively.

 

I would hazard a guess, he won't get it champions league football or not. 

[charlierc]

16 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

Dunno why any neutral would watch an Arsenal game atm. Dullest team in football.

Something just looks broken with them right now and I don't know if Arteta seems to know what exactly it is that's seized up or how to fix it. 

 

Although tbf I think right now they'd take a 0-0 at City that bores the life out of everyone watching it.

[charlierc]

10 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

I am split.

 

Although if you have to start Ugarte after 1 injury you are in trouble. Likewise Harry Maguire being the saviour defensively.

 

I would hazard a guess, he won't get it champions league football or not. 

Feel like that's a problem with squad building and depth as much as anything. But then given the team I support has a real depth problem right now, I can't talk.

 

My guess is Champions League football would help but if a massive name is available and willing to come, that name might get courted heavily.

[Punksnotdead]

9 minutes ago, thetime said:

 

I am split.

 

Although if you have to start Ugarte after 1 injury you are in trouble. Likewise Harry Maguire being the saviour defensively.

 

I would hazard a guess, he won't get it champions league football or not. 

Ugarte has got to be one of the worst signings in premier league history! He is almost always appalling!

 

As for Carrick, I think it may depend on who is available. 

[thetime]

14 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Feel like that's a problem with squad building and depth as much as anything. 

 

I would put it down to the recruitment policy in the last 2-5 years. The last year has been good, hopefully the summer will be also. 

 

The failing from the new signings (Onana, Hojlund, Anthony, Sancho, Garnacho etc). Plus trying to get rid of players on big wages like Rashford and Sancho, its going to have a negative impact on squad depth.

 

That won't change over 1 or 2 windows. Utd will struggle next season I am sure, with European football guaranteed. Utd will need at least 6 or 7 signings to compete. 

 

[kaosmark2]

31 minutes ago, charlierc said:

Feel like that's a problem with squad building and depth as much as anything. But then given the team I support has a real depth problem right now, I can't talk.

 

My guess is Champions League football would help but if a massive name is available and willing to come, that name might get courted heavily.

I think our squad is better than Man U's (before we get raided this summer), but that's largely because their depth is all unwanted players on huge wages. I fully expect this to change this summer.

[Punksnotdead]

I have zero confidence that Ratcliffe & Ineos will make the right decisions this summer - their incompetence eclipses anything the manager does!

[thetime]

2 minutes ago, Punksnotdead said:

I have zero confidence that Ratcliffe & Ineos will make the right decisions this summer - their incompetence eclipses anything the manager does!

 

They had a good summer last year. Mbuemo, Cuhna, Sesko and Lammens have been good signings. Certainly better than what was there before. 

 

[thetime]

10 minutes ago, kaosmark2 said:

I think our squad is better than Man U's (before we get raided this summer), but that's largely because their depth is all unwanted players on huge wages. I fully expect this to change this summer.

 

Utd haven't needed a squad this season, infact quite the opposite. The players are not playing enough, that was obvious 1st half on Monday night.

 

Where Utd will need a good squad next season, Newcastle won't need one so big if they don't get Europe. So if you can give us Tonali and your Bruno, that would help massively. 🤗

Edited April 15 by thetime

[dingbat2]

I think why the English teams struggle in the knockout stages is mainly because there are at least 4 teams who are streets ahead of our teams, PSG and Real especially but also Barca and Bayern. PSG alone have knocked out 6 English teams in the past 3 years so far (2 this, 3 last year and one the year before) and Real always seem to have the better of Man City. Englands best are just not good enough to beat these at the moment and havent ben for the past 5 years or so. 

 

Saying that our teams have been looking really tired the last few weeks, Liverpool and Arsenal especially this week, I can see Arsenal getting walloped in the final, although I think Atletico will beat them in the SF