Super League Poll

[Scott_M]

3 minutes ago, aws said:

It'd be interesting to see how many times clubs outside the top six have won a domestic trophy since City bought their success. One benefit of the ESL would have been proper FFP controls which would probably  have made domestic success less of a closed shop. 

 

Since the Premiership began, the only non current Big 6 winners are...

 

FA Cup - Everton (1995), Portsmouth (2008) & Wigan (2013).

 

League Cup - Villa (1994 & 96), Leicester (1997), Leicester (2000), Blackburn (2002), Boro (2004), Birmingham (2011) & Swansea (2013).

[VladimirIlyich]

3 hours ago, aws said:

It'd be interesting to see how many times clubs outside the top six have won a domestic trophy since City bought their success. One benefit of the ESL would have been proper FFP controls which would probably  have made domestic success less of a closed shop. 

I think that FFP thing is bullshit myself. It wouldn't exist in whatever league was formed in my opinion. The 'big boys' were just all going to take their football's home and play their own matches. It's a disgusting idea,just as is and was The Premier League.

[Scooby Dudek]

22 hours ago, Scott_M said:

I went for a beers with my mates last night, and as we're all reds, we inevitably got onto the subject of the ESL.

 

Like me, they weren't in favour of the "closed shop" element of it, but weren't precious about ditching UEFA given how in particular Athens, Basel and Kiev were handled. 

 

2005 - Everton got beat in the qualifiers.

2003 - Newcastle got beat in the qualifiers.

2000 - Leeds had a good run.

 

Leeds only had a good run by bankrupting themselves to do so.

 

I would also put Istanbul 2005 in there as a shit, not give a fuck about fans location. Stadium in the middle of nowhere with one road in/out taking hours to go a few miles. Plus walking across a deserted building site once actually off the coach.

 

The thing I would add however is the ESL would not have changed anything for the fans, it was to maximize income and corporate/football family do that, not legacy fans. They may have thrown out the odd bone initially but nothing more.

 

 

I remember going to Euro 96 final, got tickets all through and bought expensive ones for the final. Surrounded completely by people who obviously knew nothing about football and had no idea what was actually happening. Always remember one couldn't understand why handball wasn't given whenever the GK picked it up. That was organised by the moral guardians that are the FA and UEFA.

[m0e]

17 hours ago, Scott_M said:

 

Since the Premiership began, the only non current Big 6 winners are...

 

FA Cup - Everton (1995), Portsmouth (2008) & Wigan (2013).

 

League Cup - Villa (1994 & 96), Leicester (1997), Leicester (2000), Blackburn (2002), Boro (2004), Birmingham (2011) & Swansea (2013).

Swansea win the League Cup in 2013!!?

 

I must have been paying as much attention to the competition as Klopp has.

 

On another note, that League Cup list in general must make Everton fans so proud.

[KMD7]

33 minutes ago, Scooby Dudek said:

Surrounded completely by people who obviously knew nothing about football and had no idea what was actually happening. Always remember one couldn't understand why handball wasn't given whenever the GK picked it up. That was organised by the moral guardians that are the FA and UEFA.

 

[dockers_strike]

1 hour ago, m0e said:

Swansea win the League Cup in 2013!!?

 

I must have been paying as much attention to the competition as Klopp has.

 

On another note, that League Cup list in general must make Everton fans so proud.

Swansea played 2nd tier Bradford in that final. Everyone's been playing second string teams in both domestic cups for years. The only time any team plays one of their stronger sides is when they get to the semi and final.

 

There may be the exception here and there but most clubs dont give a fuck about the cups any more because promotion or avoiding relegation is more important to them.

[Scott_M]

2 hours ago, Scooby Dudek said:

Leeds only had a good run by bankrupting themselves to do so.

 

I would also put Istanbul 2005 in there as a shit, not give a fuck about fans location. Stadium in the middle of nowhere with one road in/out taking hours to go a few miles. Plus walking across a deserted building site once actually off the coach.

 

The thing I would add however is the ESL would not have changed anything for the fans, it was to maximize income and corporate/football family do that, not legacy fans. They may have thrown out the odd bone initially but nothing more.

 

Yeah, considering Istanbul is partially in Asia, it was a mission.

 

I doubt that the ESL would have helped the supporters but UEFA in their high and mighty tower can fuck themselves. Each final we've had with them, we've only got 25% allocation.

 

We're fortunate that Dortmund, Istanbul, Athens, Basel & Kiev, the other clubs didn't take their full allocations.

 

I seem to remember that after Athens, Platini saying the Champions League Final would only be held in stadiums >=75k. It's only been played in a stadium that size 3 times since and Wembley was that stadium twice! The other ground was the Bernabeu. 

 

The next few host venues are Istanbul (72k), St Petersburg (65k), Munich (62.5k when all seated) & Wembley (90k).

 

I know demand will always out-strip supply but they don't help themselves. I know there are <10 grounds in Europe with a capacity >=75k (and one of them is Twickenham) but I'd be happier with that rather than appeasing these countries who simply don't have the required stadia. 

[DalyanPete]

1 hour ago, KMD7 said:

 

Quality comedy and much missed.

[Scott_M]

11 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

Swansea played 2nd tier Bradford in that final. Everyone's been playing second string teams in both domestic cups for years. The only time any team plays one of their stronger sides is when they get to the semi and final.

 

There may be the exception here and there but most clubs dont give a fuck about the cups any more because promotion or avoiding relegation is more important to them.

 

I think the point being made was before City got their act together in in 2011 & 2012 there were some random winners of the other tournaments. Since then there has only been Swansea & Wigan (and City lost that final to Wigan) & they were both in 2013. 

 

Other clubs don't seem to give a fuck that City and their dubious accounting practises are hoovering up every domestic trophy going. Since Swansea won it, City have won 6 of the 8 competitions. 

[aws]

42 minutes ago, Scott_M said:

 

I think the point being made was before City got their act together in in 2011 & 2012 there were some random winners of the other tournaments. Since then there has only been Swansea & Wigan (and City lost that final to Wigan) & they were both in 2013. 

 

Other clubs don't seem to give a fuck that City and their dubious accounting practises are hoovering up every domestic trophy going. Since Swansea won it, City have won 6 of the 8 competitions. 

Exactly. The CL has always been virtually a closed shop. Since the arrival of the oil and laundered money, so have the domestic cups.  There are many reasons to hate the principle of an ESL but damaging non-existent competition isn't really one of them.  

[Bobby Hundreds]

BRING IT BACK! BRING IT BACK! 

 

The game is totally fucked anyway, we may aswell be outraged by its demise than witness the pissing contests between bored oligarchs and sheiks like its footballing minds that have elevated their piss stains.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

13 hours ago, dockers_strike said:

Swansea played 2nd tier Bradford in that final. Everyone's been playing second string teams in both domestic cups for years. The only time any team plays one of their stronger sides is when they get to the semi and final.

There's the rub.  If you go around spending hundreds of millions hoovering up talent, your second string is stronger than the starting XI of most teams.

 

This was City's bench for the League Cup Final.

Aké

Gabriel Jesus

Agüero

Zinchenko

Rodri

Bernardo Silva

Torres

Mendy

Ederson

[chrisbonnie]

Just to annoy those two wankers Neville and Carragher, I'd like to change my vote.

 

Oh, and sky can fuck off to. Holier than though, my fucking Hoop they are

[Scott_M]

Looks like all roads lead to Gdańsk. 
 

Although funny there won’t be any mancs there, what a fucking joke. 

 

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Gdansk has a stadium????

[Scott_M]

Also a joke. They are looking at getting 21k for the FA Cup Final.