A very Poch-like tenure for Southgate. Got the fans believing again, but wasn’t able to get the ball over the line. Not overly enthused by any of the candidates. Though amusing three of the four were the last three managers of Chelsea.
AEK Athens have just signed Erik Lamela on a free. At least that's my interpretation based on the photo. The text is all in that moon-man gibberish code that the Greeks are always using.
yeah, but we’re real good at taking existing words and assigning totally different meanings making English as indecipherable as Greek
Steady, Dimitrios. Just a bit of self-effacing humor. Only an idiot would suggest Greek to be a secret code, or that 'oi' is a word. Don't get your bechamel in a clump.
None taken, after all caustic is a Greek word. We should really demand royalties for all the words and letters from us you heathens use. Just think of what we could get from the fraternities and sororities, not to mention the entire field of mathematics.
Girondins de Bordeaux have gone tits up. They've filed for bankruptcy and relinquished their professional status. I've always seen them as one of France's most traditional clubs ... multiple Ligue1 titles, multiple domestic cups, and (I think) a European Trophy*. Sad day, to my thinking. *Wrong (just looked it up). They lost the UEFA Cup final to Bayern in '96, back when it mattered (more). I'm sure that's what I was thinking about.
Went to see Toronto FC play Pachuca in something called the Leagues Cup. Maybe we should have hired John Herdman - the former national team coach from Newcastle has TFC playing a lovely passing and pressing game, without the defensive chaos we see at Spurs. The 2-1 scoreline flattered the Mexicans, who for some reason were designated the home team in a game that was played in Toronto. Add to that a massive VAR blunder that chalked off a good TFC goal for a phantom offside, and the scoreline would have been more reflective of the home side's dominance. And it was a cracking atmosphere, better than you see at most PL grounds these days.
The League’s Cup is a glorified friendly where the organizers have to concoct or contort rules to “make it work”. Groups of three where the top two teams qualify for the next stage meant at least one team went through with a loss and a draw, another went through having scored 2 goals. There are no games in Mexico so the “home” team plays in their opponents home stadium. A big 3 week pause in the regular season so MLS and LigaMX can earn a few bucks and one team will be crowned champions of a tournament that won’t exist in a few years time (this is the third or fourth attempt to have a cross-border tournament and they’ve all failed after a few years)
47 teams involved and 77 games - it hasn't taken the North Americans long to figure out how to add bloated, needless competitions to fatten the pocketbooks.
Canadian forward Ike Ugbo's transfer from Troyes to Sheffield Wednesday has finally gone through. Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri, who for much of his 10+year tenure at the club has appeared somewhat clueless, is backing his manager, and there's real excitement around Hillsborough these days. Gaffer Danny Rohl did brilliantly to keep Wendesday in the Championship after his predecessor (Xisco Munoz) got them off to a shockingly poor start (0-2-9). And after bringing in some quality loans last January to keep them up, Chansiri has made the most important ones permanent this summer. Good stuff in South Yorkshire.
Best guess. There aren’t many good fit club opportunities. As the USMNT manager without needing to qualify means he can easily keep his family in London. If the US get the usually home country over performance and they make the quarterfinals or better he’ll have a success story and there may be better club options in 2026. I hope he smashes it.