SirBalon

Practically everything was shared out in football honours back in the day. Unless there’s an anomaly, you know as well as I do that ain’t happening again. But then again you never know... There’s always the chance of some fuel injected petroleum that could be applied.

Wow! I mean, I was born in 1971 and I can’t recall the tournament not having some sort of sponsorship. Obviously that was indeed the case as you’ve well pointed out. But my earliest memories are of Liverpool winning the Milk Cup.

I’m currently in the process of doing a total rewatch of every Star Trek series ever made up until arriving at the present with Discovery and the new one Strange New Worlds. Boy am I having a Great time doing this.

I do care about protecting the interests of smaller clubs. I’m all for that even if it were at the detriment of the bigger clubs. But I know this competition doesn’t do absolutely anything to address that ever widening disparity. This competition only hinders our clubs in England where what ultimately matters is concerned... competing to our true level in Europe. Out of all the European nations, English football does the most to offer the fairest deal for all its professional clubs and I know more can be done, but it isn’t down to the League Cup to provide this because it doesn’t. If the argument of the biggest clubs not taking it seriously (because they ARE in it) is the reason behind the theory of smaller clubs having a chance at “major” silverware. Then tbh, I don’t think I even have to formulate an argument to dismantle that so as to prove it’s total rubbish mate.

It was indeed called the Milk Cup when I was a kid. Then I remember it even more as the Coca-Cola Cup. Tbh... it’s not a trophy I care for at all and I’ve always been on the side of it being cancelled. I don’t even care for the argument of it protecting the interests of smaller clubs because 99% of the time it’s the bigger clubs that reach the final or win it. The FA Cup is enough. Everyone is in that too.

I hate time-wasting. We had it done to us by Newcastle Utd at home and more recently against Villa until that particular game turned on them. We did indeed apply that form of cheating yesterday. I said on a thread a week ago or so that many don’t get annoyed enough with that type of cheating until it’s used on them.

The Leicester City v Arsenal game brought us more of that shit refereeing or should I say VARing. It's becoming quite nauseating. Important 3 points for us.

Got to love Napoli. For me the best team in Europe right now... another victory and continuing to break Serie A records. I so hope they are capable of winning not only the Scudetto, but also the Champions League. It would be beautiful for football. An authentic football club which these days is rare.

I think Atleti have more than just a bit to be aggrieved at the refereeing in El Derbi Madrileño yesterday. But then again, maybe I'm biased. Kind of makes sense what Miguel Ángel Gil said a few weeks back.

Totally agree and Madonna's 80's (plus some of her 90s) music is where she ceased to mean anything to me. But I'm an 80's kid and as far as I'm concerned there hasn't been a decade like it where music is concerned. The amount of legendary tunes from that decade are too many to mention.

Tbh mate, I'm a bit old for things like Reggeaton lol. But even back in the day when it came onto the scene in Spain, I found it to be quite misogynistic. Treating women like they're some kind of experiment tool.

I haven't listened to Spanish music in quite some time and I don't know why. It is a catchy tune.

You’ve cited some if the hundreds of more recent headlines football has been embroiled in. There are hundreds of them, an endless myriad of non football asinine moments. But for me and my loss of passion for this sport has a more simplistic sentiment basis. It’s what fandoms have become (Infact it transcends football and is more a social phenomena)... the focus on non sporting outside issues that have added to the “win, lose or draw” sensation when attempting to put one over on a “rival”. The fact traditional historic rivalries are now simply a media based selling point of an overall product... the ‘overall product’ actually being the authentic basis of support etc... etc... etc... I could go on. But what I do know is that this football has practically no relationship to the football I once knew aside from the sphere on the lawn.

Beginning? It's been that way for quite some time imo mate. I still watch football but the love affair I had with the sport isn't the same as it was for me most of my life. I don't find practically any personal association with what's going on in the sport now. This is not fan based and I was a football fan.

You still into your canutos!!! lol

One of the most poignant events in all of that was when he appointed Francisco Rufete (a past Valencia star) as technical director for sport and the club saw improvement. But the players Rufete was bringing in were being sold on within the following transfer window. Rufete went public when the fans started to place the blame on him and then a month later he was fired. we’re talking about a personality (Peter Lim) that doesn’t understand all of this and tbh, the Valencia CF fan club were told by both Bancaixa and local government that they’d done their due diligence on Peter Lim and that he was the worst possible option. In the end they gave into fan pressure and the rest is history. This guy is using the club as a guarantee for authenticity in Europe. It’s not unusual. The same is occurring on a much larger scale with Man City and PSG, the difference being that the Qatari consortiums are a lot cleverer and more in tune with the stupidity of us football fans.

Perfect

For sure. They got to two Champions League Finals in a row. Lost one against Real Madrid and the other very unluckily against Bayern Munich. They had a golden generation plus hand picked world beaters from all over the place. But they overspent and didn’t invest the money they were earning wisely. They ended up owing a Spanish bank (Bancaixa) an extortionate amount of money and started to sell all their assets (top players) all over Europe. Then when they should’ve been solvent, the then President Juan Bautista Soler (who was gifted the club by his father who was a major shareholder) absolutely ruined the club 5 fold. Enter the auctioning of the club by the creditors (Bancaixa) whilst it was being protected by local government who were paying the interest rates (to be returned). Then came Peter Lim who paid the debt but has never really cared about the club and here we are unfortunately. It’s a HUGE club with immense support. But it’s never recovered its former status.

I agree with the lament many Valencia fans have been vocalising. But they DID march on the regional government building back in the day (I witnessed it as I was living there at the time) to push local government (La Generalitat Valenciana) into giving up their protection ownership of the club and hand it over to Peter Lim. They’ve conveniently forgotten about this particular detail.

Madonna has some totally iconic tunes. She’s completely bonkers, has been for years. But her music is legendary.

Madonna is never old!

They're (VCF) in big trouble. It's very competitive at the bottom this season by the looks of things. This could be huge!

Football is corrupt on almost every level, particularly up top and in every league everywhere. But this lot along with PSG have been manipulating the financial rules for years + some. I'd be very surprised if the correct punishment is administered. Juve just had a 15 point deduction and in the past they were relegated for other examples of corruption. 10 years of corruption is a hell of a long time. So did it take the authorities 10 years to ascertain the proof? Why weren't they caught red handed 9 years ago, instead of letting it roll on? Why can't they have every honour won in that time of benefitting from illegal measures to compete, stripped? Something has happened... Someone (or a group) have obviously joined forces and scared them to tell all and we have now seen it all come to light. It's been 10 years ffs!

Unprecedented for sure. What he’s done surely puts many to shame imo. It’s not as if he’s on his last legs either. The guy has played at elite level and before he made this decision he was a vital part of the Cádiz game. Really hope this can be the start of Depor’s recovery. You guys belong clashing with the big guns in Primera.

The most curious of those points that I was always quite bemused with was the point on Roy Keane finding it seemingly impossible to criticise Cristiano Ronaldo. I say this when we consider his career long opinions on that sort of attitude with others. A bit cowardly there and it doesn’t hit with his natural persona. But yeah, the harkening back with nostalgia infused nonsense to have a reason to criticise with any constructive point of view is ridiculous.