Your Most Unhinged Football Take?

[Irlamblue]

I believe Paul Scholes is the greatest midfielder ever and doesnt get better the older he gets.
i Also believe the 6 youth players from the class of 92 played all 38 games the season Alan hansen mentioned them.

 

[OnlyOneUweRosler]

City winning just one Champions League between 2017-2023 is a really disappointing and a poor reflection on Pep (still the greatest coach ever) and that City team (still the greatest domestic team ever).

We had the best team in Europe for most of that period and winning it just once should be considered a failure across those six years.

That's actually a pretty fair comment. A team with limitless money and the best coach in the world only made two finals in that period, and only won one of them.

 

[PinkFinal]

Lineker was past it in 1992 and was lucky to be in the squad
His irk at being subbed and replaced by Alan Smith is tiresome

 

[RodneyRodney]

Lineker was past it in 1992 and was lucky to be in the squad
His irk at being subbed and replaced by Alan Smith is tiresome

 

[.db.]

City winning just one Champions League between 2017-2023 is a really disappointing and a poor reflection on Pep (still the greatest coach ever) and that City team (still the greatest domestic team ever).

We had the best team in Europe for most of that period and winning it just once should be considered a failure across those six years.

Just to add to this; I also don’t think David Silva ever really stepped up for us in the crunch CL games when we really needed him to.

 

[shemnel]

Football will be slowly and painfully sold to the middle east and America and commercialised to never seen before levels. Technical interference will continue to grow as the cost of incorrect decisions spirals out of control. Europe will have a huge identity crisis.

Lower league football may, or may not, break away or have a small renaissance but essentially the sport as we know it is dying.

 

[Bobby the blue]

Football will be slowly and painfully sold to the middle east and America and commercialised to never seen before levels. Technical interference will continue to grow as the cost of incorrect decisions spirals out of control. Europe will have a huge identity crisis.

Lower league football may, or may not, break away or have a small renaissance but essentially the sport as we know it is dying.

Non league is becoming a lot more professional and attracting some really decent crowds. I think there are 3 maybe 4 clubs in the conference south that have gone full time. Lots of decent ex pros playing at that level as well.

I went to watch one of my local non league sides a while back and the whole set up was very well done and even the chairman of Gillingham came down to have a look at how they are run and how they seem to be making good money .

 

[OnlyOneUweRosler]

Football will be slowly and painfully sold to the middle east and America and commercialised to never seen before levels. Technical interference will continue to grow as the cost of incorrect decisions spirals out of control. Europe will have a huge identity crisis.

Lower league football may, or may not, break away or have a small renaissance but essentially the sport as we know it is dying.

I can see that happening. The idea of a "half time show" at the World Cup Final is blasphemy to a football fan.

 

[Cellarite]

That's actually a pretty fair comment. A team with limitless money and the best coach in the world only made two finals in that period, and only won one of them.

Is that you Jurgen?

 

[KentBlue]

Non league is becoming a lot more professional and attracting some really decent crowds. I think there are 3 maybe 4 clubs in the conference south that have gone full time. Lots of decent ex pros playing at that level as well.

I'm with you on this. I go and see my local non-league team play as often as is possible, and it's great fun. No lengthy travelling, exorbitant ticket prices, hassle with crowds etc, just a great couple of hours of football and a chance to meet up with a few mates.

Grass-roots, you can't beat it.

 

[SWPISHOME]

The constant banging the drum debate of Gerrard, Lampard and Scholes...

Personally I'd rather Yaya Toure, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne as a three man midfield as the other three aren't good enough to clean their boots.

 

[Bobby the blue]

I'm with you on this. I go and see my local non-league team play as often as is possible, and it's great fun. No lengthy travelling, exorbitant ticket prices, hassle with crowds etc, just a great couple of hours of football and a chance to meet up with a few mates.

Grass-roots, you can't beat it.

What team do you go and watch?

 

[yankblue]

Stoppage time and the general way the clock runs is absolute fucking lunacy in the age of modern technology, and all it does is lead to corruption and favoring certain teams

 

[OnlyOneUweRosler]

Stoppage time and the general way the clock runs is absolute fucking lunacy in the age of modern technology, and all it does is lead to corruption and favoring certain teams

We all remember Fergie Time i.e., play until Man Utd score.

 

[Gazza]

We should have a handicap system for teams in the Premier League.
We can do this by tilting half of the pitch upwards that the better team is attacking, the angle of tilt would be determined by the points difference between the two clubs last season up to a maximum of 45 degrees.
So when City play utd this season, the half that City are attacking will be tilted upwards by 29 degrees.

 

[Crooked_rain]

David Beckham wasn't that good a footballer. Dead ball specialist with great PR.

Nobody else seems to be able to see it.

I feel like that's the general consensus?

Although one thing I'll say about him, he certainly put a shift in on the pitch. All the stardom and fame in the world but he never phoned it in on the pitch.

But yeah, he was pretty limited in some ways.

 

[mattcity5]

The larger 18 yard box should be scrapped for a hockey style semi circle, e.g. 14 yards radius. Getting penalties in the corners of the current box, especially when a player is facing away from goal or running into a corner, is far too big a prize for the position on the pitch. A dangerously located free kick should be reward enough.

This one is practically unworkable: if a team has 6+ players behind the edge of the box not including goalie (18 yard or revised semi circle!!), the attacking team can't be offside

It should be banned for investment groups to own more than one club

Your second one fits in well with my unhinged take.

I think offside should be scrapped altogether. Anything where the rules get ridiculous intricate or complicated isn't worth the bother. Financial rules - gone (though I don't class that one as unhinged!). Messing about with technology to check if someone's off/on by a few millimetres when all the players think it's a goal? Madness.

 

[Crooked_rain]

Messi isn't the best player of all time. He's played at a time where his club team had all time amazing players to occupy defenders and create spaces and also where he gets referee protection against fouls and plays on carpets for pitches.

The all time GOATS are Maradona and Pele and it isn't even close.

How many full games have you seen Pele play?

Considering he spent pretty much his entire career in Brazil, playing most games untelevised, especially not televised in the UK, then nobody outside of fans in the stadiums 65 years ago saw much of him. Some world cup games and a bunch of clips is what we're going on.

 

[.db.]

The larger 18 yard box should be scrapped for a hockey style semi circle, e.g. 14 yards radius. Getting penalties in the corners of the current box, especially when a player is facing away from goal or running into a corner, is far too big a prize for the position on the pitch. A dangerously located free kick should be reward enough.

This one is practically unworkable: if a team has 6+ players behind the edge of the box not including goalie (18 yard or revised semi circle!!), the attacking team can't be offside

It should be banned for investment groups to own more than one club

I definitely agree with your last point.

 

[pace89]

I'd argue that all things considered City's record in the Champions League from 2017 to 2022 is better than a lot people give the club credit for.

City playing in the Premier League never allowed us to concentrate on Europe in the way that playing in Spain or Germany does. The fact that Madrid have done so well in it is not a reflection of their brilliance, it's a product of them being able to prioritise it because even in a bad year they'll never finish lower than third. City have never had that luxury.

In the period we only won a single Champions league we also accumulated 100 points and beat Liverpool twice in title races with 98 and 92 points respectively. Five league titles in that 6 year period is extraordinary.

The only team comparable to City in that period was Liverpool, and whilst they are generally regarded as having succeeded in Europe, they too only one the Champions League once. And when they did it was against Spurs.

Furthermore, when you take into account the fact that the 2018 quarter final against Liverpool was appallingly officiated (4 goals incorrectly awarded or disallowed which all went against City) and Spurs knocked City out a year later thanks to a handball goal where VAR didn't show the ref the appropriate replay it's fair to say we were up against it. In that period Uefa didn't want City to win the Champions League as evidence by the fact they made up a case to ban City.

Ultimately the Champions League is a knockout competition and hinges on single moments and one off games. And that assumes it's a fair fight in the first place.