The Football Thread 2019/20: Barcelona will have 2-8 till next season to avenge this embarrassment

[Corazon de Leon]

If you think England is bad for celebrating glorious failure, you should come up north for a bit.

[Dowbocop]

We played a great through ball from midfield in the first half, and we've just done exactly the same thing just now, except we've changed ends so it was an absolute hospital ball back to one of our centre halves

[Dowbocop]

Oh what's that? A snide little shove on an Arsenal player which nearly causes a serious injury? It's been over 180 minutes since the last one so I suppose we're due...

[7256930752]

Oh what's that? A snide little shove on an Arsenal player which nearly causes a serious injury? It's been over 180 minutes since the last one so I suppose we're due...

Then two free kicks against us for absolutely no reason in decent positions then they go and score. It's getting ridiculous.

[Dowbocop]

Oh what's that? A snide little shove on an Arsenal player which nearly causes a serious injury? It's been over 180 minutes since the last one so I suppose we're due...

Then two free kicks against us for absolutely no reason in decent positions then they go and score. It's getting ridiculous.

That foul against Nketiah was a baffling decision.

And the less said about their goal the better. It's been ten years and we still can't deal with long throws.

COME ON CEBALLOS

[Robbo-92]

Not fussed we lost really, just glad we looked a lot more up for it and actually in the game than our first 3 games back where if we were near the bottom of the table I’d be seriously worried about relegation, thankfully we don’t have to worry about that!

[Joer]

Ref was awful today. Thank god Henderson had a brain fart at the end and Dani kept his cool.

[Robbo-92]

Yeah the referee was far from great.

[Dowbocop]

Dat miss

[gaminglegend]

If you think England is bad for celebrating glorious failure, you should come up north for a bit.

Or just stop off at Newcastle

[Dowbocop]

If you think England is bad for celebrating glorious failure, you should come up north for a bit.

Or just stop off at Newcastle

Aren't you a Spurs fan?

[Buffalo]

He could be talking about Newcastle in any number of contexts.

[Rawrgna]

Just wait until Ashley finally sells the club to the saudi arabian consortium and the streets will be fillee with bare chested geordies celebrating like they won the premier League

[Lotus]

No surprise with Villa's result over the weekend. Next couple of games (Liverpool, Man U) will yield nothing either I expect, but who knows in the games after that - we could pick up another point or two, and against West Ham in the final game of the season, it could all come down to that.

One slight positive is that since the league has come back, the bottom 5 combined have earned 3 points - Villa have earned 2 of those points.

[Drumstick]

From The Athletic, via Reddit, sponsored by Corazon de Leon:

"Summer 2014 was the last time that Barca’s first XI was seriously strengthened. In that window €165 million was spent and top-quality arrivals Luis Suarez, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ivan Rakitic settled in quickly, and improved key areas of the team.

Since then Barca have spent more than €800 million on new players, without even one of them establishing themselves as a senior team leader. The current team’s key figures were all already at the club when they won that treble in 2015 but that outfield spine of Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets, Lionel Messi and Suarez are all into their 30s now.

In summer 2016 they spent €125 million on Andre Gomes, Paco Alcacer, Samuel Umtiti, Lucas Digne, Jasper Cillessen and Denis Suarez.

Twelve months later Neymar pushed through his exit to Paris Saint-Germain for €222 million. Barca’s spend following that was €375 million on Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho, Paulinho, Nelson Semedo, Yerry Mina, Gerard Deulofeu and Marlon.

The 2018-19 season involved €129 million being spent on new players — including Malcom, Clement Lenglet, Arthur, Arturo Vidal and Jeison Murillo (on loan with an option to buy).

This season there has been €273 million invested — on Antoine Griezmann, Frenkie de Jong, Martin Braithwaite, Neto, Junior Firpo, Emerson and Marc Cucurella.

So much money has been spent, but not even one of these 30+ new signings has been a complete success. It all points to deep structural problems at the club, and continuing mismanagement by the current board."

Long may it continue.

[Tomous]

twitter.com/EmptySerieA/status/1277357371782828036

[Peter Crisp]

What a Lad .

[Drumstick]

Lukaku

[Return_of_the_STAR]

Thoughts on water breaks?

I quite like the idea, think they should stick around permanently. Gives the managers a chance to discuss things with players and reorganise.

[KK]

McCoist back on commentary on Amazon.