The Football Thread 2022/23: End of season reviews pg79

[ITSMILNER]

Spurs going for Ange Postecoglou feels weird to me, the Scottish league is far from the most competitive, doesn’t really show how good a manager he is just off his time at Celtic

[Moggy]

Spurs going for Ange Postecoglou feels weird to me, the Scottish league is far from the most competitive, doesn’t really show how good a manager he is just off his time at Celtic

Probably nothing to do with his time at Celtic, more likely they looked at his 12.50% win rate with Whittlesea Zebras.

[Drumstick]

Gerrard fared well in the PL after a successful stint in Scotland, lest we forget.

[ITSMILNER]

Spurs going for Ange Postecoglou feels weird to me, the Scottish league is far from the most competitive, doesn’t really show how good a manager he is just off his time at Celtic

more likely they looked at his 12.50% win rate with Whittlesea Zebras.

[Preezy]

Sevilla win their seventh Europa League title, what a shock!

[BOR]

Sevilla win their seventh Europa League title, what a shock!

We could have beaten them, but well done to them.

I believe the referee did book more than 14 times tonight.

[Peter Crisp]

Real Madrid's French forward Karim Benzema, 35, is considering a 400m euro (£346m) two-year contract offer from Saudi Arabia. (ESPN)

£346m for two years? That's, like, £3.32m *every week*. How can it be worth paying the guy that much? Football seems to be pretty crazy nowdays.

There is no sanity behind it.
There is zero chance that can be at all justifiable on a financial basis it's a pure vanity signing.

The thing that makes it even worse is he'll pay almost zero tax as well so it makes his pay even more insane.

[Herdanos]

Spurs going for Ange Postecoglou feels weird to me, the Scottish league is far from the most competitive, doesn’t really show how good a manager he is just off his time at Celtic

Unless you were expecting him to win the Champions League, there's not much more he could have done to show how good a manager he is. While Gerrard may have struggled to adapt, Rodgers arguably didn't. Compared to other big European clubs there have been relatively few Celtic managers so it's not really useful to compare how their managers fare when they make the switch to the PL, if they do.

Regardless, I'm not confident Spurs will succeed whomever they appoint. There is no consistency behind the scenes. It's not a coincidence that a host of top managers have held talks with the club and then walked away, despite them having an elite stadium, realistic prospect of CL football each season, good squad, precedent of solid financial backing in the transfer market, etc. It'll be because there's no coherent strategy. So any manager coming in will need to be able to play the role of Director of Football as well as General Manager and Head Coach. There was a time when this was to be expected - and arguably SAF was the only manager who carried this on through into the 00s and 10s, possibly Wenger also but he deferred to the board and the priority became infrastructure - but nowadays the scope is global and its not realistic to combine the roles.

Levy has backed managers with transfer budgets but not with time or backroom support. So the money they've spent on Mourinho's players, Nuno's players, Conte's players is arguably wasted as there is very little continuity between those three managers. You could accuse Levy of being as scattergun with his staff recruitment as much as with players. Grétar Steinsson is currently the club's "Performance Director", since July 2022. He was previously Fleetwood's technical director then Everton's head of recruitment. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence at this level. In April they appointed Scott Munn as "Chief Football Officer". Who is he? What style does he want to implement? They need someone directing the very DNA of the footballing side of the club (someone other than Levy) who can support the manager and bring relevant, quality players in. If the manager decides to have a rant they can appoint someone else - but you need continuity, you need to know your options, etc.

[Monkey Man]

twitter.com/centregoals/status/1664165315498876930

[Preezy]

Seeing lots of burps on Twitter that United are getting close to signing Mason Mount, having agreed personal terms already (remember when that was called tapping up? ). Not sure how I feel about it to be honest, can't say I've ever rated him that highly and I would much rather see United put the rumoured £70-80m(!) it might take sign him towards other targets.

[<]:^D]

Mount is a very good player in a good team - so i think he'll be excellent for Utd.
im very pissed off that Chelsea are even entertaining the idea of selling him

[Drumstick]

Mount is great technically but is physically too lightweight IMO.

[DML]

I think Mount is going to be like Ake this season and have a really good season next time.

[Preezy]

Well I've just watched this and I guess he might be a decent signing:



I just don't know if the club should be spending that sort of money on a player that isn't going to be a starter. He won't replace Bruno, and Eriksen & Casemiro are the new and improved McFred. I guess he'd be above McTominay, Fred and van de Beek as first reserve. It's that difficult job of bulking out your squad with quality, without wanting to seem like you're wasting money.

[DML]

I think he could replace Bruno long term very easily.

[darksideby182]

twitter.com/centregoals/status/1664165315498876930

Didn't watch the game but did the ref have a bad game? Mourinho will be in for a big ban for this surely.

[Herdanos]

Most reliable accounts claim the ref had a good game (I too didn't watch it). Sounds like it's just Jose being Jose.

[Herdanos]

i.e., a weapons grade bellend.

[Return_of_the_STAR]

twitter.com/Football__Tweet/status/1664343172774764558

Totally normal behaviour.

[KK]

Loyal Premier League football fans have been forced to pay more for their season tickets despite the cost-of-living crisis - with some hit with 20 per cent price rises.

14 of the 20 top-flight clubs have announced hikes in the cost of an adult season ticket for the 2023-24 season, with just four freezing their prices.

Nottingham Forest ticket prices have rocketed by 20 per cent - with a new price structure penalising younger fans - despite the club only just avoiding relegation.

Fulham have increased by 18 per cent in some areas of Craven Cottage, which now has the Premier League's most expensive seat at £3,000 (or £158 a match).

The Fulham Supporters' Trust, who said they were not consulted on the rises, wrote an open letter to owner Shahid Khan calling it 'draconian'.

'The pricing structure has caused distress, anxiety, anger and disillusionment among a significant proportion of our loyal fan base.'

Price increases based on average.

Aston Villa: 15%
Everton: 10%
Bournemouth: 9.7%
Burnley: 8% (early bird)
Wolverhampton Wanderers: 5-11%
Crystal Palace: 5-10%
Manchester City: 5%
Manchester United: 5%
Arsenal: 5% (the package will include four games fewer than in 2022-23)
West Ham United: 4-8%
Brighton: 4%
Liverpool: 2%
Newcastle: TBC
Luton Town: TBC
Brentford: Frozen
Chelsea: Frozen

Guess a new stand doesn't come cheap. Well that, or Shad Khan making Fulham supporters pay for his son's AEW venture...