Citeh are indeed a well funded juggernaut. But with Kompany waving bye-bye, and the club possibly facing a UCL ban, I wonder if any of their staff or fans are starting to get a little nervous about the next year or two.
Don't look now but this guy is in charge of an EPL club already! https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...ring-graham-potter-four-year-deal-not-gamble/ https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/ar...-round-of-32-first-leg.2081166/#post-36326996
I doubt they'll be banned, if only because if they're truly guilty then something more must be done about this issue. Time for a salary cap, I say.
I saw his Swansea team at Loftus Road in April. They were down 3-0 within 20 minutes, and it is not hyperbole to say they could easily have lost 10-0 (it was 4-0 in the end). It was one of the poorest, most disjointed defensive performances I've ever seen. I mean, it was bad. Now, it can't be representative, or they'd've not finished anywhere near the top half. And every side has 'one of those days' on occasion. But it was so chaotic that as you watched it, you had to wonder what they'd been doing all week - literally, I sat there thinking 'what did their manager and coaches do the last three days?'. I didn't know enough about them to know if a key player was missing or if someone was out of position, but they had Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kyle Naughton (both decent Prem level players) on the left side of their defense, and they got abused - like, over and over. I actually wondered if their manager might get the sack, as it looked like his players had downed tools. Did some nice stuff in the Swedish lower divisions, apparently, though. Good luck, Brighton.
I dunno. UEFA seems to be making this Citeh accusation a sort of last stand on FFF. If they fail, then what legs does FFF have to stand on? UEFA seems to have taken the reins from FIFA in the last year or two. And I don't mean this as a compliment.
I'm sure your observations are correct. All I know is that we had a bit of trouble with his little Ostersunds side (they beat us at our place until we put our foot down at theirs). And also that he had his players and coaches doing a silly broadway song & dance routine... TBF I don't know whose idea that was!
As I said, I only saw the one game, which isn't much to go on. But apparently Dan Ashworth, Brighton's DoF, who's a bit under fire having sacked the popular (and relatively successful) Chris Hughton and replaced him with … well … Graham Potter, clarified the selection by saying he'd gone to see Swansea under Potter and it was the best 45 minutes of football he'd seen from any one team. Well, he might have benefited by going to another, to my thinking. Anyway … it's only four years, eh?
Is Hughton popular though? He had Brighton basically safe by March and then led them right into the thick of the relegation fight by failing to win any of their last 9 league games, including 6 consecutive matches where Brighton failed to score. I get that a lot of people were upset because the lone racial minority coaching in the Premier League was let go (and that's a huge problem that English football needs to deal with), but the results at the tail end of the season screamed for a managerial change.
he is at Spurs. yeah, as I understand it, he is - pretty much wherever he's been. they definitely went through a rough Spring at Brighton, and there may have been some grumbling, but I think the general consensus is that a rough patch wasn't worth sacrificing the stability he was bringing to a club trying to punch above it's weight and stick in the prem. I don't have any insight into what folks think at Brighton, but I don't think this is going over terribly well.
Good guy and good manager are different things though. The consensus I've seen is that he isn't a particularly good manager and probably deserved to go, with a smattering of "he wouldn't have been fired if he was white."
From what I can tell, Ashworth rather fancies himself as having his finger on the pulse of the game and believes that he knows the new school of management - 'the future' - that distinguishes itself from the fast-becoming-passe old school of English management, and he sees Potter as representing the former and Hughton as the latter. He'll claim he's making the bold decision that is required to keep Brighton at the forefront of the game and punching above their weight. Fair shout. Hughton's defenders (myself included) will be the same folks that scoffed at Soton's sacking of Nigel Adkins for Mauricio Pochettino. Both dismissals can be viewed as harsh (Adkins' certainly was), but were/will be vindicated by the right results. And, Mr. Ashworth, condemned by the wrong ones. The question, of course, is whether or not Potter will get the right results at Brighton. Ashworth is definitely rolling the dice, here, however much he denies it. As for the 'race' issue, it's hard to credit here. Hughton fits nicely (or sadly, depending on perspective) into a long-established category of English manager - promotion specialist, organizer, motivator - that's valued at a certain level of the game, but disparaged at higher ones. One can easily name a half-dozen or more white gaffers pigeon-holed thusly who would surly have suffered the same fate in this dynamic. That is, to be clear, in no way weighing in on the 'race in management' issue, which surely exists. But Hughton, who has to his credit cleared some of those hurdles gracefully, was tripped up by something rather different this time.
That's for damn sure. But you questioned his "popularity" and in this case I think that may be based on him being more a good guy than a good manager.
a) Not entirely, especially in this situation. Sports leagues are closed, insular markets. If we're to insure parity there has to be some vehicle that keeps spending power within reasonable balance across the league. Now if there's a way to do that other than a cap then I'm game. In the meantime you tie the cap level to the league revenues to ensure the labor is constantly getting the appropriate share. b) I say this knowing full well the powers that be won't let it come to pass. The power teams want to hoard more of the revenue and will fight against anything that nips away at their oligarchy.
If you impose a salary cap in England, the Premier Leaue may never have another Champions League finalist.
Poch trolling Real. Kinda brilliant actually. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/48399542 Anything that gets Real's panties in a bunch is okay by me.
Ideally there should be one for each league, with more balanced payouts if league revenues within each. Either that or some other mechanism that tears at the rigid caste system that keeps bigger clubs big. But again, I know the power brokers won't go for it so it's a pipe dream.
Well, so far both promotion playoff finals have gone down to the wire. Tranmere with the late OT winner and today Charlton scores in the 94th min to best Sunderland. Wonder if the Villains and Blades can match that?
My bad. Forgot Derby was the other half. I'm with you, tho. Prefer Aston Villa return to the top flight.
Bear might kill you for this. I’m ok with villa coming back, but only if that diaby goal gets replayed every villa match.
Bruh, salary caps are anti labor. There is no caveat. Footballers are workers, the labor. The clubs in football are independent entities which is different from American sports. Salary caps favor owners. (They should abolish them in American sports too but Americans don’t support workers rights anymore, from the big earners to people at Walmart) I don’t understand this desire for parity. Some clubs are just better than the other. I don’t care that Gateshead FC will never win the premier league, and neither do their fans.
Villa coming back up after a few years in the Championship. I just watched it in a funny way: watched Sky Sports News which was live on NBC during the 2nd half. The highlight for me was seeing Prince William's reaction at FT... screaming, jumping, pumping his firsts... just like a typical, unrestrained footy fan, rather than a Royal. That kind of stuff comes from his mum. Frankly I was a little happier to see Charlton win their playoff to get back up to the Championship... I'd welcome The Valleyr back in the Prem... I've got some personal history there. (another story)