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[chaddyrovers]

6 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Definitely ditch the 2 international breaks you mention and the Nations League in general. Just have a couple of friendlies prior to a tournament, otherwise just the qualifiers.

The new FIFA club world club plans are ridiculous. Sort of understand the past theory of the champions of each continent playing each other but its getting silly and like with the Nations League, players seem to be coming out against it.

Fair enough 

6 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

I didnt see much wrong with the Champions League format of last season. This one group of 36 idea makes no sense though.

I did. It's all about bigger clubs in Europe not about champions of each country playing each other. 

I watched highlights on BBC and they were enjoyable because it was knockout football

[K-Hod]

The CL as it is, is kinda bollocks.

I’m no Celtic fan, but it can’t be right that they win their league and don’t automatically qualify, yet a club that doesn’t win their league, does!

[Mattyblue]

‘Well the Nations League was about replacing meaningless friendlies’… ok, how about not replacing them to start with?

The Mattyblue International Calendar™️ :

For the World Cup in 2026:

November 2024; qualifiers, March 2025; qualifiers, at the end of the 24/25 domestic season; qualifiers. November 2025; qualifiers, March 2026 WC play offs, summer 2026 warm ups and World Cup.

Then start the cycle again in November 2026 for the 2028 Euros and we can all enjoy August to November every season with no interruptions. 👌 

Edited September 5 by Mattyblue

[chaddyrovers]

11 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

‘Well the Nations League was about replacing meaningless friendlies’… ok, how about not replacing them to start with?

The Mattyblue International Calendar™️ :

For the World Cup in 2026:

November 2024; qualifiers, March 2025; qualifiers, at the end of the 24/25 domestic season; qualifiers. November 2025; qualifiers, March 2026 WC play offs, summer 2026 warm ups and World Cup.

Then start the cycle again in November 2026 for the 2028 Euros and we can all enjoy August to November every season with no interruptions. 👌 

Totally agree there Mattyblue 

[simongarnerisgod]

ditch this nations league b******s,players risk burnout and injuries with these pointless competitions

put the likes of liechenstein,san marino etc in pre qualifying  groups when it comes to euros and world cup

bring back the european cup,just for teams who are champions,no seeding,two legs knockout games,the current champions league is a borefest until the knockout stage

as for carsley,he`s just another southgate clone,if we really want to try and win the world cup,the fa should pay the money and get pep.he`s achieved everything at city and will after a new challenge soon,he is`nt one for stopping when he feels like he`s nothing else left to win,his record illustrates that

 

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

The CL as it is, is kinda bollocks.

I’m no Celtic fan, but it can’t be right that they win their league and don’t automatically qualify, yet a club that doesn’t win their league, does!

But equally, as a spectacle it wouldnt be as interesting if say the 2nd best in England/Spain/Italy/Germany were missed out in favour of the best teams in say Hungary, Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg.

I think the format last season was fine, I dont know (well I do, money and power) why they changed it.

This idea of all the champions playing seems to be putting principle (and maybe nostalgia) over the actual quality and IMO there has to be a balance. 

[chaddyrovers]

12 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

But equally, as a spectacle it wouldnt be as interesting if say the 2nd best in England/Spain/Italy/Germany were missed out in favour of the best teams in say Hungary, Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg.

I think the format last season was fine, I dont know (well I do, money and power) why they changed it.

This idea of all the champions playing seems to be putting principle (and maybe nostalgia) over the actual quality and IMO there has to be a balance. 

Champions league is meant to be champions of each league not 4th team in PL or Ligue 1 or La Liga. It's bollocks now with the amount of non league winners in the competition whilst league champions of Norway, Austria or Sweden have to play a playoff just to get there 

[Upside Down]

20 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

Champions league is meant to be champions of each league not 4th team in PL or Ligue 1 or La Liga. It's bollocks now with the amount of non league winners in the competition whilst league champions of Norway, Austria or Sweden have to play a playoff just to get there 

Exactly, it's supposed to be a CHAMPIONS League. Fourth place is not even a podium finish.

The move away from having only league winners in the competition is what has destroyed football and made it the closed shop bore fest that it is now.

Besides, what exactly are Newcastle United champions of? I've never seen them win a fucking thing.

[roversfan99]

As a neutral, and one who has enjoyed plenty of Champions League games. I would rather watch the likes of Arsenal, Barcelona, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Liverpool etc play the likes of Real Madrid/Inter City than Malmo and Bodo Glimt.

Would this idea based on the principle (over entertainment) of having only Champions be reduced/removed if it was called the European cup?

[chaddyrovers]

3 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

As a neutral, and one who has enjoyed plenty of Champions League games. I would rather watch the likes of Arsenal, Barcelona, Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Liverpool etc play the likes of Real Madrid/Inter City than Malmo and Bodo Glimt.

Would this idea based on the principle (over entertainment) of having only Champions be reduced/removed if it was called the European cup?

The champions league format as been farce for many of years. 

Malmo and Bode Glimt have won their domestic league and they should be in the champions league competition but they aren't. Its bollocks 

[roversfan99]

Good job you dont have BT then, so you wont be frustrated that you arent missing out on the potential of a mouthwatering encounter between Bodo Glimt and Malmo.

[Mattyblue]

It’s a European Super League in all but name that enriches the elite clubs at the expense of the sport as a whole.

Now if you enjoy watching Bayern v Real Madrid year after year because as uber rich clubs they understandably contain lots of the world’s best players, fair enough, but it’s been a disaster for the game.

[chaddyrovers]

9 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

Good job you dont have BT then, so you wont be frustrated that you arent missing out on the potential of a mouthwatering encounter between Bodo Glimt and Malmo.

Its a good job that I don't have BT given that Amazon Prime have some games and others on TNT sports with highlights on BBC 1 on Wednesday night

Its called the Champions League for a reason but its a load of bollocks and its all about making loads of money for UEFA and the bigger clubs within Europe whilst teams who won their domestic league have to missed out for 4th place team in the PL cos its created more money and keeps these clubs happy 

Edited September 5 by chaddyrovers

[MarkBRFC]

Starting from the 26-27 season they are getting rid of the October international break, but making the September international break twice as long. So Rovers would play on the 19th September, but then the next match would be on the 10th October. Not sure which one is better.

The November and March international breaks remain as they are, as well as the June internationals.

That looks to be the case until at least 2030.

 

[Mattyblue]

Sounds terrible either way. But whichever way you slice it that’s just the way it is without actually reducing the overall number of international games. 

If they’d have scrapped friendlies but just not bothered replacing them, would anybody (roverandout aside) have cared?
 

Edited September 6 by Mattyblue

[chaddyrovers]

shocking scheduling again. Pathetic 

[ABBEY]

so this Irish clown manager of England has said he won't sing the English anthem .

 

[Guest]

Just now, ABBEY said:

so this Irish clown manager of England has said he won't sing the English anthem .

 

Carsley also didn't sing the Irish anthem when he played for them. Some people just don't do it, and most do a half-arsed token effort. At least he is honest, and I hope this isn't yet another petty thing that we can look at for the usual pillorying of somebody in the national spotlight.

The only thing that matters is if Carsley can get the best out of the players, which many believe Southgate (who sang the anthem) didn't do. If he does that, then England supporters will be happy.

[Mattyblue]

.

Edited September 7 by Mattyblue
Feck it, can’t be arsed with the back and forth.

[Forever Blue]

On 05/09/2024 at 20:35, roversfan99 said:

But equally, as a spectacle it wouldnt be as interesting if say the 2nd best in England/Spain/Italy/Germany were missed out in favour of the best teams in say Hungary, Estonia, Finland and Luxembourg.

I think the format last season was fine, I dont know (well I do, money and power) why they changed it.

This idea of all the champions playing seems to be putting principle (and maybe nostalgia) over the actual quality and IMO there has to be a balance. 

Very short-sighted. At present the CL is a European Super League in all but name. The same clubs qualify for the group stages every year pretty much and therefore get all the money.
 

If the CL was purely for the Champions of each league then the quality of those clubs would increase, simply because they would have access to more resources. 
 

Your idea of allowing the top 3 or 4 clubs from the top 4 richest leagues in Europe to control a de facto European Super League, as they do now, is uncompetitive and unfair. 

[Mattyblue]

Yeah odd take from ‘99 this. He’s always bemoaning the Chadster for his love of all things Sky and how the ‘PL is the greatest thing in the world’, yet he’s no issue in seeing an elite club dominated European Super League (a UEFA run one) hollowing out the rest of football.

Edited September 7 by Mattyblue

[roverandout]

The new champions league format is ridiculous.  Loved the old format.  Groups of 4. Now it's just another superleague

[roversfan99]

Perhaps it is somewhat short sighted and even selfish. The predominant reason is that it provides great entertainment and the best players which I feel is enriched by having more than one team from the countries that naturally have the strongest leagues.

But equally, wouldnt it become even more elitist if we had the same dominant side in each country being in the tournament potentially year after year. I suppose you could argue that one team wouldnt win the league repeatedly but take City now, wouldnt their strangelhold on a now predictable Premier League become even stronger if they were the only team pocketing the UEFA millions? We have Aston Villa in this year, Newcastle last year (I appreciate thats a seperate case due to Saudi money) and Leicester not too long ago, all of whom have been in the Championship not that long ago.

I also think that a lot of the issue seems to come around the fact that the Champions League is named how it is. If it was still known as the European cup, that argument that it should only br

My issue with chaddys view on Sky is that I feel that because he has Sky and not BT, he can not look beyond endlessly defending and parroting everything Sky does. The endless kick off changes, thinking that every single pundit on sky is great, he can not see any fault in what they do because he has Sky.

The issues more domestically could be eased with the removal of parachute payments, a fairer distribution of funds and on a more logisitical level, a limit in kick off moves both per individual team and across the board.

[roversfan99]

I think we are already seeing signs that Lee Carsley wouldnt be a popular choice if he became England manager. Southgate had an initial period where everyone bought into him as a patriotic Englishman at a time where our pool of players was limited and expectation was low, and it was only as time went on that we saw his limitations as a very average manager coupled with an emergic crop of players that led to people becoming frustrated by him.

At this point, we have players where people demand success off the back of nearly moments. Carsley seems to have rubbed people up the wrong way by saying that he wont sing the national anthem (certainly no problem from me on that) and discussing his pride not only of his English roots but his Irish roots.

My issue is, surely he can not be the best person we can attract especially if we forget this supposed desire to pick from such a limited pool of English coaches. But I predict that he will win these easy and ultimately pointless nations league games and be appointed longer term.

[London blue]

5 hours ago, ABBEY said:

so this Irish clown manager of England has said he won't sing the English anthem .

 

Fine. Singing a little song about the king has zero bearing on his ability to coach a football team.