Football (Soccer) Thread

[Josquius]

I do think with Forest and Palace there's the Europe factor. IIRC teams getting into Europe for the first time in a while tend to do worse in the league the following year due to the extra fixtures.

I did write that before the first game. Based on that....yes. Would put West Ham down below Sunderland and Leeds at least.
Its quite frustrating to see all the analysis focussing on how terrible West Ham are and how much trouble they're in rather than on Sunderland playing well.... but there were aspects of both.

[Norgy]

Young man, I will have you know Nottingham Forest have played in Europe before. Even winning a few cups. /brianclough

Cloughie did quite well at Sunderland too, as a player.

[Norgy]

Seems like Sheffield Wednesday are on the brink of collapse thanks to their scumbag owner. Transfer ban, manager leaving, stand closed due to safety reasons, unpaid wages allowing player to leave for breach of contract etc etc.

Unbelievable that a single person can just destroy a 150 year old institution, apparently out of spite. And of course, the EFL have taken no action whatsoever except the transfer even though its odds on that Wednesday won't be able to finish the season. 

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13386307/sheffield-wednesday-latest-news-on-unpaid-wages-contract-nightmares-hillsborough-stand-closure-and-takeover

I think it is terrible.
The Owls were never my team, but growing up, they were always "there", you know.
This is the opposite of "Welcome to Wrexham".

[Norgy]

I think Palace-Forest tomorrow could be an ugly affair.

Looks like Marinakis has also managed to piss off Nuno. So... who's our next manager? 

[Threviel]

So, there are interesting things afoot in Swedish football. The, very small, team Mjällby is leading the series 5 points ahead of the second team with 10 games remaining. This is something of a sensation and even BBC had an article on it: 'Bigger than football' - how Mjallby are gatecrashing Sweden's elite

Mjällby (the village) has a population of about 1000 or so, the team has an arena taking about 6000 and it's normally half full when they're playing. It's located by itself on a field outside the village. They have a turnover of about 85 MSEK, compared to a big Stockholm club like second placed Hammarby with 384 MSEK or giants Malmö FF with 660 MSEK.

That's all good and fun, but the team with the lowest turnover is my team, GAIS, about 70 MSEK which is, well, not much. And looking at the modern mathematical shenanigans we should be leading the series. Second highest xG, lowest xGA, but we're currently 5th, 1 point and two goals from 3rd place. Until the fuckers from IFK won last time we had the longest unbroken series of games without loss since the 20's. The 1920's.

It's shaping up to a fantastic autumn for Swedish football fans.

[Norgy]

In Sweden, I like GAIS. 

[Sheilbh]

Really need to get up to Liverpool for a game this season - the new stadium looks fantastic.

[Norgy]

I forget you're an Everton fan, Sheilbh. You'll have a very decent season, I think.

A point at Palace was good enough for me. The match wasn't great, but Forest have some serious quality when going forward, and the Milenkovic-Murillo partership at the back is strong.

[Zoupa]

Big Ange seems to be waiting in the wings if/when Nuno gets sacked. I love Ange (obviously), so I wish he'd get a job in France or Italy instead.

[Josquius]

Depressing weekend.
On paper easiest away game of the season and Sunderland fluff it.  Le sigh.
Have to hope it was just one of those days.

Brentford not looking like the disaster they seemed to be either....

Young man, I will have you know Nottingham Forest have played in Europe before. Even winning a few cups. /brianclough

Cloughie did quite well at Sunderland too, as a player.

I said for a while :p

It has nothing to do with history and more just not having a current squad adapted to extra long distance games.

[Norgy]

I'd not want Ange. At all.

[Sheilbh]

I forget you're an Everton fan, Sheilbh. You'll have a very decent season, I think.

I hope so. I like and rate Moyes and glad to have him back. I hope the Grealish deal pays off (and yesterday it looked very promising). Also really pleased that Pickford got to save a penalty yesterday so had the whole stadium doing his songs because there's no player who's done more to keep us in the league - and he's definitely a great for our side, up there with Southall. I hope we have enough to just be boringly, stably mid-table after the last few years.

I still don't fully understand how, despite the chaos of those last few years, we managed to build a really good stadium and still acquire some decent players (I don't understand how we have Ndiaye for example).

Brentford not looking like the disaster they seemed to be either.... 

Yeah I get the confidence people have in Brentford struggling this year - but also they're a really well-run club and I think maybe they know what they're doing.

It has nothing to do with history and more just not having a current squad adapted to extra long distance games.

And the opposite is true for Man United - and very early days, but I'm not sure how much it'll help

(At some point I assume Long Ferguson will pass and I'll stop finding it quite funny to see United struggle, but it's not now.)

[Zoupa]

Did y'all see the Bruno Fernandes show with the penalty? This guy must be toxic as hell in the dressing room. What a baby.

[Norgy]

A Solskjær signing. Along with the other dressing room destroyer Cristiano Ronaldo.

How anyone can think "Ole at the wheel" was good, is beyond me.

[Sheilbh]

Oh no. The FT have built a PSR game
https://ig.ft.com/football-game/?spoor-id=2aa14c14-1930-4328-839d-bf1b2d8f018b