Football (Soccer) Thread

[Josquius]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/may/21/mauricio-pochettino-leaves-chelsea-by-mutual-agreement-after-one-season

Gawd, just as I was warming to the guy. Seems like he wanted to be a more traditional manager while the leadership wants somebody who just takes whatever they buy for him and wins the PL that way.

I am afraid they still want to manage Chelsea like it's a baseball team.

This is a big problem across the game lately.
Teams increasingly moving towards a sporting director and head coach model whilst the top managers obviously want to be full traditional managers.
Sunderland lost their decent ex coach in this way, replacing him with a guy who was apparently top class as an actual training ground coach but crap for game management. Lasted less than 3 months.
I suspect it's why we are struggling to get someone new.

[Sheilbh]

I mean yes and no. Poch and Potter and Tuchel all have experience of that model.

Who is Chelsea's sporting director? Looking at all the players they've signed I'm also not fully sure what they want/are working towards. I think in that situation it makes sense for the manager to try and create some sort of coherence.

[Gups]

It depends on the individuals though. Managers demanding specific players at over-market pirces without any regard to residual values are super risky to the financial stability of a club.

[Jacob]

Greenland has applied to become a member of CONCACAF

[Grey Fox]

All 55k of them. Great.

[Jacob]

All 55k of them. Great.

They just need 23 on a squad.

[Syt]

All 55k of them. Great.

That's more people than Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, or San Marino, all of which are full UEFA members.

[Josquius]

Are there any Greenlandic pros about?
Gibraltar cobbled together their team from an odd assortment I recall.

I found this article interesting. The gulf between pl and championship has become a chasm since covid with those lucky enough to be on top before it hit now very hard to move.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakgarnerpurkis/2024/05/26/southamptons-premier-league-promotion-shows-how-ffp-broke-competition/


Potentially a bit overblown I think. Last year was particularly special in some strong premiership teams going down. This year was quite different....though proving the point from a different angle with crooks Nottingham forest surviving whilst the 3 promoted go down, 2 without a fight.

Big fingers crossed the next government can get some regulatory reforms in to level the playing field both at the top of the top and across the pyramid.

[Threviel]

My local team went up into the highest Swedish level, Allsvenskan, in 2019. Last season, spring/autumn here, they let some school kids go to some matches free. Me and mu boy went to two rather lackluster games with some 1000 people in the audience. The team went down, which is nice because we have no real local football culture here. 

But my kid got hooked to the idea of football. A semi-local hasbeen, GAIS, from Gothenburg went up last season. They were a big team back in the day, but since the 70's they've been up and down in the leagues, mostly down. Like a Swedish Sunderland perhaps.

They still have a semi-large following and can be described as the smallest team in Sweden with a proper supporter culture. They identify as a workers team with mild leftist leanings. I've always liked them, but that's all.

Last Saturday they played a derby against another Gothenburg team Häcken, the least popular team in the city. So I took the whole family there, to try some real football.

It was a glorious day, sunshine and we went to the art museum first. GAIS made a goal after 5 mins and won 3-0. About 11,000 in the audience.

So now my wife and kids have become football fans and wants to go to more matches.

[Duque de Bragança]

All 55k of them. Great.

That's more people than Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, or San Marino, all of which are full UEFA members.

If one adds Gibraltar, the lousiest team along with San Marino, however, so 32k people roughly the same as Gibraltar, it's significantly more. 

[Valmy]

We have plenty of members of Concacaf who have less than 55K people already.

The Island of Saint Martin alone contains two Concacaf members.

[Josquius]

Funny people are focussed on the low but not unprecedented population.
More an issue for Greenland is surely the lack of grass?

Greenland might do quite well off the back of some carribean islanders suddenly having to play on astroturf in arctic conditions.

[Sheilbh]

Bamboozled by that Bayern-Kompany thing. And I like Kompany a lot.

[Gups]

I know. It amazing really - from 19th in the EPL to the biggest club in Germany!

[Josquius]

My local team went up into the highest Swedish level, Allsvenskan, in 2019. Last season, spring/autumn here, they let some school kids go to some matches free. Me and mu boy went to two rather lackluster games with some 1000 people in the audience. The team went down, which is nice because we have no real local football culture here. 

But my kid got hooked to the idea of football. A semi-local hasbeen, GAIS, from Gothenburg went up last season. They were a big team back in the day, but since the 70's they've been up and down in the leagues, mostly down. Like a Swedish Sunderland perhaps.

They still have a semi-large following and can be described as the smallest team in Sweden with a proper supporter culture. They identify as a workers team with mild leftist leanings. I've always liked them, but that's all.

Last Saturday they played a derby against another Gothenburg team Häcken, the least popular team in the city. So I took the whole family there, to try some real football.

It was a glorious day, sunshine and we went to the art museum first. GAIS made a goal after 5 mins and won 3-0. About 11,000 in the audience.

So now my wife and kids have become football fans and wants to go to more matches.

Awesome.
Gothenburg is quite a Sunderlandy city too from all I hear- never actually been. So good luck to them