It's the first James. It begins with your dismissive LOL. Me explaining my reasoning. Kyle agreeing with my initial assessment. Then you unable to leave it alone continuing your obsession with astrology and my professional life. But, I'm more than happy to hold reasonable debate, even if the arguments are a bit stilted, cause that's just the nature of a message board. The practice of patience here helps me in other areas of my life. And with your fan police act fallen flat, or unneeded now that 99% of the board is behind Nancy, I'm more than happy to help you address your kinks.
You and Kyle being in agreement isn’t exactly convincing me of anything. The main reason for a coach or player to leave England is for opportunity, not courage. Sure, it takes courage to pack up your life and move to a different country, as my parents both did, but the actual reason for that move is for the opportunity. You can have the last word, which I am positive you will use to disparage me personally instead of debating the topic.
Considering how chicken shit British coaches are to leave the UK for continental Europe, especially compared to how flexible European coaches are leaving their home countries, I’d say it’s brave. Ask Gary Neville how Valencia worked out, and then compare that to his brother Phil.
Is that opinion based on anything other than how few English coaches are employed outside England? To me, that speaks more to how shit Englishmen are at managing. Even you would have to admit the reason coaches move to England to work has to do with money and exposure. The rest has to do with opportunity.
Two things can be true at the same time. It’s even braver IMO to go to somewhere like Belgium though, even if it’s his (Parker’s) level. Belgian teams literally have salary structures equal to or less than (mainly less than) MLS teams. American teams even pay higher transfer fees. To go somewhere like Belgium is much harder than just going to some mediocre PL or Championship team that has money simply because it’s England. That’s part of it, sure. There are also a lot of dudes that never leave their home countries. I’d say it’s brave for anyone to leave their country of origin to go work abroad, period. Forget the English, forget soccer. It’s just hard, and it takes balls to do it. Much easier to stay in your domestic comfort zone (like Landon Donovan).
I subscribe to the theory that every football culture has the capability to create "shit" managers. There are very bad Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, German, American, French, Dutch, and Danish managers. Many bad managers from many bad countries manage poorly abroad from their home country. The English football culture is much more insular for accomplished, middling, and poor managers. Nearly all are more likely to choose the comforts of England over other challenges. It's been this way for the English for decades. Recent money into the EPL is part of the reason, but English managers rarely took risks abroad before that Kyle covered the obvious that two things can be true at once in terms of exposure and opportunity. I'd also just like to reiterate that with opportunity comes risk. In Parker's case, managing Brugge was an opportunity. It's a Champions League club. He likely wasn't going to manage a Champions League club in England. But it was also a risk. Expectations are higher at Brugge than a Fulham or Bournemouth. He took over a team that hasn't finished lower than 2nd since 2013-2014. The expectations are always to win the league. Second place is a disappointment, 3rd or 4th will get you fired. And Parker was sacked because the team was mostly terrible under him. There is opportunity to win. There is opportunity for a paycheck. There is also significant risk of failure. Taking a risk takes courage. Parker failed, but he took the risk.
I think the same has been true of English players at times. It was a huge deal, for example, when Kevin Keegan left for Hamburg (I actually saw him play vs Hertha Berlin). Not that the Germans were much better in that regard--leaving usually cost you your spot on the national team back in the day.
Kinda. When he went to the Cosmos. The German coach in 1978 wanted him for like 3 months (as I recall), which was a large chunk of the season, while the Cosmos were willing to give him up for a month. Mind you this is from my memory of 40 years ago (but I was living in Germany at the time). Now Beckenbauer *had* retired from the national team in 1977, but I think would have gone had he been selected. Also missing was Paul Breitner, supposedly due to the political situation in Argentina (his politics were to the left). But he'd moved to Real Madrid. A similar situation had occurred in 1974 with Netzer, who was chosen but did not play much. I do recall the Bundesliga folks boasting about having the most players in the World Cup of any league, and all of the German players played in the BL. I'd be willing to bet, however, that Beckenbauer and Breitner would have made a difference (in fact, Breitner was on the 1982 finalist), as in 1978 Germany were embarrased in the 2nd round by Austria.
3 teams in the final 8 of the Champions League for shitty old broke ass Serie A, including likely the second most entertaining of the bunch (Napoli, behind Benfica). Not bad.
Though there are complaints with Napoli as they are not allowing *any* Frankfurt fans to travel. The head of UEFA is "upset" and threatens rule changes (like forcing a neutral site game in these cases).
I missed this. But given that maybe 4 out of the last 5 seasons Roma fans haven't been able to travel to Napoli (and often vice versa) for the Derby Della Sole, this isn't surprising. Was there any violence in Germany, or is this just Aurellio De Laurentis being his crazy self?
Police said something about having intel of potential trouble. And I think some of Frankfurt’s supporters have been a bit, shall we say, rowdy at other European away games. Something about another away team playing another Italian team and supporters joining to fight as well. Fans weren’t banned just for shit and giggles.
That's true (I'm not defending their 'fans'), but it does set a precedent, especially as it was the second leg. Not like Napoli doesn't have Ultras either.... It will be interesting to see what UEFA does going forward. The original ban, BTW, was anyone from Germany.... That didn't stand.
Real Madrid v Chelsea Man City v Bayern Munich —————————————— Inter Milan v Benfica AC Milan v Napoli
Work to do to make it happen, but Benfica vs Napoli would be simply one of the most aesthetically pleasing matchups in recent UCL memory. The way both teams have been playing this season would be such a counterweight to recent cautious and dull late round UCL matchups.
60 Minutes had a feature on the Fiorentina owner tonight. He's spending a lot of money on a new practice/developmental facility for men and women players, he seems to be adored by the fans and, naturally, he's under a ton of scrutiny. Fiorentina hasn't won a title in 60 or so years and the Tifosi are starting to get anxious.
Nagelsmann out, Tuchel in. Its been coming for a while now, but man this is some ruthless stuff lol. Lukewarm take: Nagelsmann is overrated.