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The shitness of modern football


Redder Lurtz
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14 hours ago, magicrat said:

Bit harsh , I guess many people do get something from the women's game and disagree. Personally I have zero interest in it, don't watch it and have no opinion on whether their facilities are up to scratch. 

I don't know how the attendances have gone this season, but last year the average gate was less than 500. They've about the same pulling power as Marine. Sure there are a few people watching, but it would seem not much beyond family and friends. 

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13 hours ago, Trumo said:

I've had a quick read-up on the fortunes of the Liverpool women's team, and honestly it looks like they've been left to fend for themselves by the club. They train at the club's Academy facilities in Kirkby, they were invited on the US Tour last summer alongside the men's team and they have their own set of sponsors, but other than that there doesn't appear to be any inclination to invest in the women's team and make them competitive. Even a sizeable investment for the women's team - one that could put them on par with the best in the league - is a drop in the ocean compared to the vast amounts generated on the men's side. Up until a couple of weeks ago, the women had failed to score in all but 1 game, and that goal came from the penalty spot. They have yet to register a league win this season.

 

About 5 or 6 years ago, the club decided to make the women's team fully professional. Because the other teams in the league were still only semi pro, it meant Liverpool could attract the better players from the league plus a few decent ones from abroad. They had access to high-level coaching for the women's game. The result of this change was immediate as Liverpool won the league for 2 years running. We had a competitive advantage.

 

Several other teams then decided to go fully professional to close that gap, and Man City invested significant sums in their women's team, even taking players from Liverpool. City had the training facilities and the women's team could play at their Mini Etihad stadium which is probably of League Two or Conference capacity but far more modern. Decent facilities. Decent players. Decent coaches, and probably a pay structure that made them far more attractive compared what Liverpool could offer. Liverpool were caught up with and then left far behind.

 

The women's game is actually quite popular in this country and they do get OK crowds, but they still lag behind when it comes to investment. It's a strange one because FSG could probably afford to carry the Liverpool women's team as a loss leader for a few years while investing in bringing in better coaches and better players. Raise the profile and it will bring in a whole subset of Liverpool fans that can look up to and identify more easily with those players. There is money to be made there if they want to look at it in those terms. The top players in the women's game have shown they are prepared to play anywhere as long as there is investment, and that's something that's no different to the men's game.

I was involved,in a minor role,during H and G ownership and Rafa's management tenure and although the club made overtones about how it fully supported the women it was like getting blood out of a stone getting facilities and not just because of Stadtler and Waldorf in charge. There was a first team,a reserve team and we started a female centre of excellence which attracted over a hundred girls between about 7 and 16 and more were turned away. They are significant numbers and something which should not be ignored or mistreated.

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I'd like to take my little girl to the odd match, preferably in the spring and summer. Maybe it should should be like rugby league played over the warmer months?

 

And I've always though women's football should be shorter - 30 minutes each half. 

 

It tries to copy men's football, when i think it should be it's own thing. Well, that's just my opinion anyway. 

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53 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

I'd like to take my little girl to the odd match, preferably in the spring and summer. Maybe it should should be like rugby league played over the warmer months?

 

And I've always though women's football should be shorter - 30 minutes each half. 

 

It tries to copy men's football, when i think it should be it's own thing. Well, that's just my opinion anyway. 

Didn't Joey Barton get in shit last week for trying to suggest they should play on reduced sized pitches and smaller goals? 

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Women’s football is a complicated subject.

 

The quality is far inferior to the men’s game, but it’s only been in the last 10 years or so that they’ve been professional so that is pretty understandable.

 

so chicken and egg... should the women’s game have to wait until it’s at a higher level of quality before it gets an even playing field (pardon the pun) or is the lack of an even playing field going to prevent the quality from improving.

 

Ultimately, women have been unable to play professional football for over a century. The opportunity hasn’t existed. Men were the reason for that.

 

But at the same time, as a result, they now benefit from the game being a million miles better than it was when men’s football started in terms of science, technology, pitches, media, exposure, etc.

 

My view is that the women’s game needs to be made accessible to inspire future generations of girls that want to play football, and so the (in my view) over emphasis in media reporting vs it’s actual appeal is reasonable and a positive.

 

the women’s teams associated with big clubs however are for those clubs to think about.

 

Liverpool FC (and all the others) have a women’s team because it is first and foremost good for business.

 

Its not their responsibility as such to ensure the growth of the women’s game, but they have a major part to play and a significant vested interest.

 

with all that said, and to the matter being discussed, playing their games at the stadium of a local, professional football club sounds about right to me.

 

they may only have the pull of Marine right now, but that’s far more likely to change than Marine’s own situation will, so it’s the right thing to back it.

 

so long as the game is run professionally, is visible to people who want to see it, that’s enough for me.

 

hopefully it grows. I can’t see a point where it’ll ever be “for me” unless my daughter really happens to take to it and wants to start watching matches, at which point I’ll get more involved.

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These kids are just happy to pull

on that blue shirt ...

 

“Tammy Abraham has told Chelsea that he wants to become one of their highest earners during talks over a new deal. The striker will have two years left on his deal at the end of the season and the Stamford Bridge club intended to offer a five-year contract worth £100,000 a week.

However progress has been slow since talks began in September and it is understood that Abraham, who has scored 13 goals in all competitions this season, has adjusted his expectations since Callum Hudson-Odoi signed a new deal worth £120,000 a week. Abraham believes he deserves more than Hudson-Odoi, who has dipped in and out of form since returning from a serious achilles injury.”

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4 hours ago, Bruce Spanner said:


Five year deal at £150k will do that to you.

 

“It's hard to get up at 6am when you're wearing silk pyjamas.”

 

 

Was he ever any good though? I'm not against paying kids when they're good, I think we should have responded more quickly to sterlings rise as a player as an example, but they have to earn it. I just don't see Hudson odoi did anything aside from have a good agent who got Bayern Munich all moist for him, so Chelsea had to respond. 

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10 hours ago, Barry Wom said:

Was he ever any good though? I'm not against paying kids when they're good, I think we should have responded more quickly to sterlings rise as a player as an example, but they have to earn it. I just don't see Hudson odoi did anything aside from have a good agent who got Bayern Munich all moist for him, so Chelsea had to respond. 


He had Chelsea over a barrel with the transfer ban and set himself up for life, good on him.

 

Is he good?

 

Ive seen him a few times and he’s the archetypical ‘potential’ player. Can look great at times, a world beater at other and then fucking horrific for the rest. I guess time will tell, but the signs and noises from this season ain’t looking promising.  
 

As an aside. Why would this profile of player head to Bayern? They seem to stockpile them, let them kick a ball for five minutes at the end of a game when they’ve invariably thumped some chumps once in a while and then flog them to some shite team once their career has been destroyed.

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13 minutes ago, Bruce Spanner said:


He had Chelsea over a barrel with the transfer ban and set himself up for life, good on him.

 

Is he good?

 

Ive seen him a few times and he’s the archetypical ‘potential’ player. Can look great at times, a world beater at other and then fucking horrific for the rest. I guess time will tell, but the signs and noises from this season ain’t looking promising.  
 

As an aside. Why would this profile of player head to Bayern? They seem to stockpile them, let them kick a ball for five minutes at the end of a game when they’ve invariably thumped some chumps once in a while and then flog them to some shite team once their career has been destroyed.

Definitely good for him (and his agent) for getting the deal. I don't think I've seen him look a world beater, not playing with grown ups anyway, but then I've not watched him that closely, mostly just when I watch Chelsea. 

 

As for Bayern. I think there was an idea in Germany where they thought they could grab young English talent who were being frustrated getting into the 1st team because the squads in the PL are so stocked. We had Sancho go to Dortmund, there was that lad from Everton who went out on loan (lookman?) and looked great, BMG offered the earth to Brewster and there were others I'm just too old to remember! There's one constant in world football, the desparation of clubs to find players who'll turn a profit that others can't see. Look at what Dortmund want for sancho and they were rating Sancho as being worth 80m within just a few months of playing in the team,  so it's easy to see why clubs like Munich would be willing to go as for as 30m for Hudson Odoi.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

It seems manchester united think most if not all their troubles are off the pitch and not on it and, some good PR will resolve the situation.

 

Neil Ashton, the journo with the voice seeming to be permanently on the edge of breaking but never quite doing so, is jacking in his journalistic roles and sky's Sunday Supplement programme to become the fulltime PR visage and mouthpiece of manchester united.

 

I thought one united fan summed it up perfectly: If you can’t figure out how to actually make things better, instead, figure out how to make things appear better.

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Hakan Sukur is Turkey's greatest ever goalscorer and once one of Europe's most prolific strikers. A legend.

So, how did he end up driving taxis and selling books for a living in the US, in exile from his home country?

According to an interview with German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, the 48-year-old former striker's life has taken an unusual and troubling turn since retiring from football in 2008.

He claims that a rift with the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has exposed him to death threats, false accusations and lack of access to funds.

'I have nothing left, Erdogan took everything: my right to liberty, freedom of expression and right to work," he told the paper.

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