Subscriber Dan+ Posted February 24, 2018 Subscriber Posted February 24, 2018 Would you back Inter to beat Sevilla over two legs? We managed that, and that's even after we've had our purple patch of 2015/16. We're a good side on our day. For what it's worth I don't think it would be a shock if we did beat this Inter side. Did they not come bottom of a Europa League group last year containing Sparta Prague, Southampton and Hapoel Be'er-Sheva? If they got their act together, they'd become something we'd struggle to compete with. As it is now, we've benefited from making some very clever signings in recent years and the obvious things such as bonus for playing in, and of course winning the Premier League. It isn't implausible at all that we compete with the shambolic Milan sides. That goes for a lot of clubs in England as well. I don't think a lot of people appreciate the potential clubs in England have. That said I don't think many are even close to realising it. I can't believe how bad the standard is outside of the top six considering how much money the clubs in it spend.
Harry Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 English clubs often lack consistency in terms of having a longer term plan and sticking to it. Rebuilding costs money and if you're rebuilding every time you change manager to suit a new style and philosophy it is a expensive exercise.
Eco Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 6 hours ago, SirBalon said: But that’s a different story not connected to having less money mate. That quote was from someone else in regards into why Inter are shit.
Spike Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 On 2/23/2018 at 02:04, ScoRoss said: Tottenham being a 'smaller' club in the Champions League is hilarious. They are the 11th richest club in the world. Yet, somehow Juventus (the 10th richest club) are some behemoth that "should be taking the piss out of a team like Spurs" is a nice convenient storyline for the English media and as such gullible people to fall for. That is only with the conjecture that 10th and 11th are close. Without looking at the actual numbers one could easily be right in assuming that 10th has $10,000,000,000 and 11th has $10.
SirBalon Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 9 hours ago, Dan said: I don't think a lot of people appreciate the potential clubs in England have. That said I don't think many are even close to realising it. I can't believe how bad the standard is outside of the top six considering how much money the clubs in it spend. Potential for what exactly?
Danny Posted February 24, 2018 Author Posted February 24, 2018 1 hour ago, SirBalon said: Potential for what exactly? Potential to not be completely shit in Europe. Its interesting as when Liverpool won it, including that season, English clubs made the final in 7/8 seasons. Then since Chelsea won it there's not been a single one.
SirBalon Posted February 24, 2018 Posted February 24, 2018 1 hour ago, Danny said: Potential to not be completely shit in Europe. Its interesting as when Liverpool won it, including that season, English clubs made the final in 7/8 seasons. Then since Chelsea won it there's not been a single one. What I was getting at with that question is that it doesn’t matter how much money comes into any one League because what it does is saturate itself and in turn maintain the status quo. The same results with the biggest brand names within it becoming bigger due to the present nature of world football and nothing changes. The money means nothing in the Premier League.
Danny Posted February 24, 2018 Author Posted February 24, 2018 Just now, SirBalon said: What I was getting at with that question is that it doesn’t matter how much money comes into any one League because what it does is saturate itself and in turn maintain the status quo. The same results with the biggest brand names within it becoming bigger due to the present nature of world football and nothing changes. The money means nothing in the Premier League. I agree there mate and made the argument about the saturation of quality in the league over the last few years when everyone was waffling on about how "competitive" it is. Now it's competitive because there's a world beaterish side in the league that hasn't been there for a while. But with the money available English clubs at the top end should be performing better than they have done.
Subscriber RandoEFC+ Posted February 24, 2018 Subscriber Posted February 24, 2018 Problem for me is that we've reached a point where any team outside the big four leagues and PSG getting past the first knockout round is a huge upset. In fact seeing Basel, Besiktas and Shakhtar get through the groups is a big upset. I'm not sure why people are rating Spurs' success as an upset though given they've finished 2nd twice in England recently which is more than can be said for Man Utd or Liverpool. It would be more interesting if teams like Benfica, Ajax, Lyon had a cat in hells chance of making the odd deep run into the Champions League without having their squads butchered by oil money the second they look halfway competitive. Even better but even more unrealistic would be seeing the odd run from Austrian, Romanian, Polish, Russian sides for example but yeah it has sort of gone stale because you know what you're getting every year.
bozziovai Posted March 2, 2018 Posted March 2, 2018 this year in the last 16, we have 5 english clubs. 3 from spain and 2 from italy. city and liverpool is sure to advance. while Chelsea, united and spurs still has some work to do with them all statemates. the ailing Madrid shocked us with their win against the favourites PSG .. for me, it's not stale, with that many teams from england i'm excited who will reach where in the competition and let's not forget Bayern, with the "old man" back, it seems that their players has bathed in the lazarus pit haha
ScoRoss Posted March 14, 2018 Posted March 14, 2018 Into the Quarter Finals and safe to say that there will be no teams from outside the 'Big Four' league in the draw. It really is a closed shop now.
Harry Posted May 27, 2018 Posted May 27, 2018 this wasn't a bad year tbf however it served up unpredictability with the confines of the usual suspects and how they fared. The Leicester city of unexpected champions league winners still look to be some way off yet....
Danny Posted May 27, 2018 Author Posted May 27, 2018 4 minutes ago, Harry said: this wasn't a bad year tbf however it served up unpredictability with the confines of the usual suspects and how they fared. The Leicester city of unexpected champions league winners still look to be some way off yet.... The semi finals was a bit more interesting but still involved Real Madrid and Bayern Munich....nice to see a slight change in Roma and Liverpool, but still the quarter finals were all English, Spanish, Italian and German. No one else has a chance of attempting to win it.
Happy Blue Posted May 27, 2018 Posted May 27, 2018 It's just a european carling cup ..City & Barca should play pre season to see who the real best team in the world is! ..infact, the CL should be a tournament between the champions of England, Spain, Germany & Italy
Panflute Posted May 27, 2018 Posted May 27, 2018 15 hours ago, Happy Blue said: It's just a european carling cup ..City & Barca should play pre season to see who the real best team in the world is! ..infact, the CL should be a tournament between the champions of England, Spain, Germany & Italy I agree. And we should call it the Sour Grapes Cup.
Berserker Posted May 27, 2018 Posted May 27, 2018 Yep, Madrid stealing it every other years has made it so.
SirBalon Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 Return to the original reason for this trophy which was to find our who the best of the best of each nation was in the continent. Only the champions should be in it.
Honey Honey Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 22 minutes ago, SirBalon said: Return to the original reason for this trophy which was to find our who the best of the best of each nation was in the continent. Only the champions should be in it. That'll be shit now that players and managers cross borders. Quarter final - Barcelona 12 Ludogorets 0
SirBalon Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 5 minutes ago, Kitchen Sales said: That'll be shit now that players and managers cross borders. Quarter final - Barcelona 12 Ludogorets 0 Yeah, but there was no seeding system back then and you could get paired up with anyone. The system was fairer and provided great clashes almost all the way through the tournament. Obviously because it's based on the luck of the draw you could have the eventual finalist going all the way without meeting anyone of weight. All the same it gives all teams a much higher possibility of winning in my view. Add to this that due to that change in nature it would also push to change the main problem in football these days with once great clubs that have disappeared from the Euroropean competitive stakes in that players eventually would stay at their clubs and clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Marseille etc... would be able to potentialise a golden generation. But maybe I'm just a dreamer.
Honey Honey Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 1 hour ago, SirBalon said: Yeah, but there was no seeding system back then and you could get paired up with anyone. The system was fairer and provided great clashes almost all the way through the tournament. Obviously because it's based on the luck of the draw you could have the eventual finalist going all the way without meeting anyone of weight. All the same it gives all teams a much higher possibility of winning in my view. Add to this that due to that change in nature it would also push to change the main problem in football these days with once great clubs that have disappeared from the Euroropean competitive stakes in that players eventually would stay at their clubs and clubs like Ajax, Benfica, Marseille etc... would be able to potentialise a golden generation. But maybe I'm just a dreamer. They wouldn't stay because those clubs still wouldn't have the money to stop someone leaving. The Champions league would be downgraded and the Europa League would be regarded as harder and more prestigious.
SirBalon Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 1 minute ago, Kitchen Sales said: They wouldn't stay because those clubs still wouldn't have the money to stop someone leaving. The Champions league would be downgraded and the Europa League would be regarded as harder and more prestigious. Let's universally cap wages and prohibit masking wages with club infused sponsors. It's a process, a better and actually realistic one compared to the current Manchester United one which in the end with a certain modem of restrictions based on fairness will eventually bring things back to a status quo which gives football fans more than just a sensation of competition.
Subscriber Mel81x+ Posted May 28, 2018 Subscriber Posted May 28, 2018 I kind of agree with SirBalon. If you start making it so that only the winners of each league are in then things start to get far more interesting. Nothing to suggest that anyone can beat any other team with a first meeting anymore but that is really just dreaming. The implications of making it just the best of each league are far more important because any club vying for a top four/three/two spot now have to do much more work over the course of a season to get into the CL and that potentially helps leagues improve as well. I don't think you'd see the benefits immediately but the long-term benefits for a league and its competitiveness across Europe will definitely be there. The only problem with such a plan is that UEFA will shoot it down before its even heard because alas their pockets would start to get a bit thin and they wouldn't like that one bit.
Cicero Posted May 28, 2018 Posted May 28, 2018 Barca are the only club in Europe that wont capituate against Madrid
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