Is it really any different to late phase Ser Fergus? Who didn't get a red card or peno decision given against him for the best part of 2 years while he chased the final title? The Moyes comes in an concedes 3 penos at OT
It was for using Tevez (who was massive in keeping them up), whose 3rd party ownership was in contravention of the rules. United won a shitload of cash.
Mascherano as well I forgot about that. Such a blatant scam. Westham should have lost the points for every game those two played in.
Declan Hill's book about match fixing in football is fascinating. One of his core ideas is that a very well established Club Chairman or Manager with a big political network has a lot of power to arrange matches. Like Moggi at Juventus. Because it's a grey market you need a trusted network where you can trade favours (because obviously there can be no contracts) i think it explains a lot of what went on in the Fergus era - especially his last 2 seasons
Not sure how the time frame goes but IIRC the entire West Ham board that greenlit the Mascherano/Tevez "transfer" resigned shortly before the following season started. Probably knew that if they stayed on board it meant West Ham was going to be relegated or, in the case of the season already being started, getting a massive points deduction (probably 2 pts. for every game either one played in) which would've made them staying up a huge ask. So they essentially fell on their sword to keep the club in the PL. Still had to pay Sheffield United a boatload of money regardless.
Yes, if you actually follow Serie A. Count up all the incidents over the years and I guarantee you Juventus are 100s ahead. At the very least they go back to 1982 when Fiorentina was robbed. There's no other team, in any sport, that I can think of, that gets as much help as Juve. Not even crooked Milan with Berlusconi. Juve are run by the modern day Medicis basically...that's why things never change. Not Moggi, not some other director, it's the Agnelli's that are protected. Moggi simply took the fall.
Looks like Liverpool can handball in the box at will, just like last year. Torreira, Xhaka, or Kos get a 3 game ban if they did what Salah did today as well.
Damn Jitty. Spielverlagerung going up in the world: Due to a lot of questions: I will be moving to @borussia in summer, as long as the clubs trigger my release clause (only a formality). Thus, I'll be moving with Marco Rose, @paei87 & Alex Zickler. But there's work left to do @RedBullSalzburg which is the most important right now.— René Marić (@ReneMaric) April 10, 2019
They seemed to cope fine without him a few months ago. In fact, didn't their mediocre run of form coincide with his return. Not claiming causation but the correlation is interesting. We'll see.
IIRC Caley was wondering if Kane might not make it back to elite levels after that injury - he was not his old self when he came back
Kane also is knackered after the World Cup He was bound to get badly injured at some point due to fatigue
Bunch of fairly unexpected results in the 10am fixtures. I just caught the highlights. If you want to see one of the best examples of swiss cheese defense check out Brighton's "effort".
Now Lucasz Fabianski is doing his level best to get United to drop points for us. Edit: Bud sadly he couldn't prevent his defenders from giving up 2 PK's and he couldn't stop Pogba from burying them. Oh well, it was almost a nice story.
Yeah. Rare occasion that I root for WHU goes for naught. Team played well enough that ManU didn't deserve 3 pts. but there you go. For a spell there it even looked like WHU would be the more likely to get the win. Alas.
While we're talking about unusual rooting habits, Liverpool better damn well do their business against Chelsea tomorrow!!
I was alluding more to Liverpool doing us a favor in our quest for top 4. But I'm also totally on board with the idea of Klopp/Pool winning the league over Pep/Citeh, as I've mentioned a few times in recent weeks. COME ON YOU REDS!