Smiley Culture

Jurgen Klopp is a massive cunt, so yeah, he’s bang on with that one. The PR bullshit around him was exactly that, bullshit.

David Coote comes across as a man of excellent opinions to me. Klopp was a vitriolic man who spent far too much time covering fourth officials in his saliva whilst being inches from their faces. Him getting called out on it and how he acted and behaved is fine by me.

I've seen a few videos on social media of the League of Ireland games and for a small league with small grounds, Dublin derbies were sell-outs and looked pretty tasty. Belfast looks decent too - there's a documentary on Glentoran on BBC iPlayer and their rivalry with Linfield features, that piqued my interest.

Loads of time till the new one comes out, so plenty of time to get stuck into a new save. Académica de Coimbra Back in 2012, Académica made it to the final of the Taça de Portugal for only the fifth time, for the first time since 1969 and had the chance to lift the trophy for the first time since 1939. They were facing Sporting, one of Portugal's "Big Three", on that day so it wouldn't have been particularly pessimistic to say that the 73 year wait for a trophy might go on a little longer, however, after four minutes Marinho scored what turned out to be the only goal of the game. Wild celebrations ensued and European Football for the following season was confirmed. Atletico Madrid, Viktoria Plzen and Hapoel Tel-Aviv were the opponents at the Group Stage and despite an impressive 2-0 win over Atleti, 'Briosa' finished third and failed to qualify for the knockout stages. Since that jubilant day back in 2012, life hasn't been too good to Portugal's oldest club. Relegation from the top flight in 2016 was soon followed by relegation to Portugal's third tier in 2022, finishing twenty points from safety. Portugal's oldest club languishing in the third tier, a weird league format and promotion system, a 29,744 all-seater stadium built for Euro 2004 and youth and training facilities ranked as "Great" and this is very much something I can get my teeth into for a bit of fun. Portuguese Third Division - The third tier is split into two sections, a Northern and a Southern section, made up of ten teams each. You play the other nine teams in your region home and away and after eighteen games, the league splits. The top four from each region goes into the Championship Group and the bottom six from each section goes into their own Relegation Group, where you then play everyone in your group home and away. The top two in the Championship Group goes up automatically and third go into a play-off with a team from the bottom end of the second tier. Hopefully I won't find out but the bottom two of the Relegation Group goes down to the fourth tier of Portuguese Football. --------------------------------------------- Finances are pretty good upon starting, which is not usually the case with some big clubs in lower leagues. £901,685 is in the bank, which is a nice surprise, and the projection predicts a profit come the end of the season, which is even better. Being a little greedy and seeing a potential profit, I couldn't help but arrange for a money spinner of a home friendly against FC Porto, to go with the home friendly against Braga, who are an affiliate club. --------------------------------------------- The playing squad is reasonable for the level. It's definitely workable. There's very few real standout players but it should be enough to challenge at the top end of the table. Nwankwo Obiaro is a 31 year-old Nigerian international centre midfielder who will boss this level despite his age. Having played in his homeland, Spain, Italy, Romania and Greece before discovering a love of Sagres and Pastel de Nata, he'll lead this team. I've no plans to make any signings, the squad size and depth is sufficient for now and I don't think I need to do much. Lucas Henrique has left as quickly as he joined the club. He's a number 10 and I'm going to be playing a 4-4-2 and he simply didn't fit and he's returned to Brazil's third division, for a fee of £950 that may rise to £1,300 and has shaved £350 per week from the wage bill. We're predicted to finish 5th but that is a list of all the twenty teams at this level. I'm quietly confident we can do slightly better.

One away win post-Christmas essentially killed their Champions League chances and a pot of whatever ghastly sum they’d have earned. Such honking away form has meant they’ve now won two away games this calendar year. Their run to Christmas sees them playing City, Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool and if they get nothing from those and continue being disgraceful away from home, coupled with his “I always win something in my second season”, which will quite possibly see them out of one cup tomorrow evening, then he’s on borrowed time. Frankly, it’s pretty shameful that they’re that woeful away, with or without Kane. They’ve enough resources and financial power to not turn out 10pts from 15 away games.

8th place, which was no worse (or better) than the previous years finish of 8th. The only signings of any relevance and over £10m were Gabriel and Partey, compared to half a billion pound spunking by Ten Hag and significant drop from 3rd to 8th. What you’re saying is really as comparable as a walking holiday with Jay Slater or a worldwide cruise with a golden toilet in your room.

Would Spurs or Chelsea take two trophies but their worst final league position in decades followed by their worst start since a time where Jimmy Savile was seen as a great bloke and people wanted to be in Gary Glitter’s gang? I suspect not.

What a way to spunk £220m+ up the wall by INEOS, though. INEOS didn’t want Ten Hag, spent the summer going after Tuchel and then had to go with their tail between their legs to apologise and to give Ten Hag the option on his contract as an apology. Firstly, was United’s shortlist of managerial targets a list of one? Surely, they had more options or targets than just Tuchel? INEOS then backed this summer’s signings, including yet more Dutch shite, costing them approximately £200m in the process. They also then brought in a load of coaching staff, you’d expect that Ten Hag had some say on who/what roles, so that’s probably another few million in wages spent. INEOS wrote the season off in July. Ten Hag probably did too. He knew he wasn’t wanted by the board and surely knew it was a matter of time before his even juicier payoff than he was due pre-contract option.

Two away wins since March. He’s crap. Once their away form goes to shit, he’ll be gone.

It’s utterly meaningless. Twenty-four teams qualify, you’re going to have to be unbelievably shit as a team from any of the top five leagues not to qualify and the bottom twelve will just be the cannon fodder that were from the old Pots 3 and 4 and clubs that are massive domestically but cut adrift financially by the behemoths from the top five leagues. You can have appetising looking fixtures in this format but they’re worth nothing because almost everyone goes through. It’s just the latest greed move by UEFA and its clubs, pushed through the back door whilst people stamped their feet about the Super League, and it’s effected domestic football and will continue to do so.

The European Super League is a bit shit, isn’t it?

Postecoglu has basically issued his own P45. I don’t rate him as it is, I think he does ridiculous shit like naming one centre mid against a team like Arsenal, and no matter how blunt and different he is during interviews, but he’s said that now so as soon as they go out of the cups, he’s done, isn’t he?

Narrator: Playing one CM was, indeed, a bold choice from Toadfish from Neighbours.

Gave it 45, switched off. Almost no actual football on show from either.

Vegans

I rarely watch the Premier League but playing one CM is a rather bold choice this afternoon by Toadfish.

FOREST GREEN ROVERS v Wealdstone - 4/9 £10 returns £14.44

Poorest England crowd I can remember for some time. Looks like the Capello era, not what become normal under Southgate.

I don’t think any of what isn’t there is a big deal. I’ve genuinely never even considered weight when looking at a player to buy or any player at the club I’m “managing”. I don’t even know if the number ever changes like when you get the “Player A has returned to training in great shape” or whatever the line is. I’ve never done create a club, either. That’s very FIFA. Also don’t think I’ve managed internationally for about 10 years, if not even longer.

Ten Hag, Silva, Postecoglu, Dyche, O’Neil, Martin and Lopetegui won’t see the end of the season at their current clubs.

Another cup win for Boro' today, beating Redbridge 3-1 in the FA Trophy.

NOTTS COUNTY v Accrington Stanley - 8/15 (SkyBet) £10 returns £15.33

You know that those morally responsible bodies like UEFA and FIFA will be all for this sort of thing.

I’m not too sure tbh but I would guess covering the rising cost of bills and upkeep of the 3G playing surface, in all honesty. Given they hand out free season tickets to all, it’s income they’re probably making up from not charging for tickets. £4,819 is equivalent to 482 adult tickets and £8,944 is 895 adult tickets, which given the last attendance was 205 is equivalent to a little over 2 and 4 of those crowds.

Haringey drew with league rivals Brightlingsea Regent in the FA Cup First Qualifying Round on Saturday and played last night in the replay, meaning that the two had actually met for three times in nine days, and won, setting up a home time in a couple of weeks time against Witham Town, also from the same league. It’s a guaranteed £4,819 in FA Cup prize money, though a win against Witham will guarantee a minimum of £8,944. That’s pretty large money at that level.