EPL 2024/2025
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And while the League Cup Final is still in the memory, here's a list of obscure teams to have made a final
Rotherham (1961)
Rochdale (1962)
Oldham (1990)
Tranmere (2000)
Bradford (2013)
and winners
Swindon 1969
Oxford 1986
Luton 1988 (losing finalists 1989)One strange thing is that Arsenal have won only 2 cups (and lost 6 finals), having won the most FA Cups and have won 11 FA Cups since the League Cup started.
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
I'm not a great fan of Newcastle but pleased for them to have finally won another trophy. Ties were against Forest, Wimbledon, Chelsea, Brentford, Arsenal, Liverpool - that's all of the current top 4 so it's a deserved triumph. Liverpool will win the league but the rest of their season has fallen apart within a week. Slot out!
I quite often lie when I tell supporters of teams I don’t support that I’m happy for them when they win…. I suspect I’m not alone here.
No lies here tho. Genuinely absolute stoked for them. I know I’m not alone here too.
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@MajorRage said in EPL 2024/2025:
@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
I'm not a great fan of Newcastle but pleased for them to have finally won another trophy. Ties were against Forest, Wimbledon, Chelsea, Brentford, Arsenal, Liverpool - that's all of the current top 4 so it's a deserved triumph. Liverpool will win the league but the rest of their season has fallen apart within a week. Slot out!
I quite often lie when I tell supporters of teams I don’t support that I’m happy for them when they win…. I suspect I’m not alone here.
No lies here tho. Genuinely absolute stoked for them. I know I’m not alone here too.
The Dan Burn story is great, he actually seems a genuinely nice guy as well. A youngster discarded by Newcastle and via Darlington (and Fulham briefly) he ends up playing as a 2 metre full back for Brighton. Gets a move to Newcastle as a solid fella to help them avoid relegation and now he's in the England squad at 32 and he has won a trophy.
Also Jacob Murphy who nobody really thinks is good enough for a top club yet he keeps delivering and also has one of the great smiles when things go well. Family also originally from the north-east.
And Joelinton who was bought as a goalscorer but has become an essential workhorse in the midfield.
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
Oxford 1986
Remember watching that on TV, thrashed QPR 3-0.
Oxford had a pretty useful side in the mid 80s - the likes of Ray Houghton and John Aldridge who were both very handy for Liverpool and starred for Ireland. Owned of course by Rupert Maxwell.
To tie in to Newcastle, I watched them play at Manor ground in 1992, one of Ossie Ardiles last as manager.... I have no idea why the match was allowed to be played - there was so much fog you couldn't see half of the pitch from behind the goal. It was surreal, you literally could not see what was going on for half the game until the ball emerged from the mist.
Found the highlights on YT - actually a very significant match in Newcastle history it was Ossie Ardiles very last game, he was sacked within the week and replaced by Kevin Keegan.
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I'm pleased for Newcastle fans to some extent but can't help thinking that it feels a bit fake, i.e. the Saudi money has bought their way up the table. As a Chelsea fan i have some sympathy with them, its exciting at first, but if we're honest, leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. Trouble is having a parent billionaire is now the only way to reach the top table if you're not already a 'global brand' who can monetise rich muppets in foreign countries by convincing them that they're fans.
I've said before that I started to fall out of love with top level football the second season Chelsea won the league in 2005/06. I am so disillusioned by the whole thing now i not only don't watch football anymore, I have become one of those people who doesn't know when 'big games' are on, nor know who the managers or key players are. People still look to tease me about Chelsea not being very good but I genuinely couldn't name more than a couple of players in the squad and just had to look up who the current manager is.
As a sports nut, my lack of enthusiasm for Premiership football, and now any cricket outside of the County Championship and Test matches is something I wouldn't have believed possible. Rugby's ridiculous distribution of matches across different platforms and lack of profile / marketing means apart from internationals and Premiership matches, I am also losing interest in competitions I would have made an appointment to view in years gone by. Can't remember the last time i watched a Super Rugby match, haven't seen a single European club game this year, never watched a URC match.
Sport is eating itself at the expense of people who want to care or maybe i'm just getting old
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@Dodge i reckon it's a little from column A, a little from column B.
Getting older means way different priorities. Outside of a few must sees, my weekends very rarely are based around sport watching. This was definitely not always the case. If I've got nothing else to do I'll chuck a game on, but it doesn't take all that much for something to be better.
The other thing is the spread of coverage. On Saturday the Chiefs, Brisbane Lions and NQ Cowboys all played at the same time. I watched the Lions and a bit of the Cowboys, and none of the Chiefs. Why? Two were on kayo and the other needed me to change to a different app. Fuck that noise.
Before unions/sports got cute with rights, I could watch on foxtel rugby, league, AFL and Premier league soccer at the same time simply with the channel up channel down button. Now? That's 3 different apps.
I am pretty sure football in England is along the same lines now?
The money thing is a separate issue
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Premier league football, actually European football has a very "new money" problem. The clubs who were lucky to be big when international sports money exploded have been trying to ring-fence their way to a closed market.
The only guys with the money to compete with these established global giants (based on fuck all but timing) come from "suspect" countries. These older clubs are propped up by Asian shirt buyers and dumb sponsors and we're supposed to accept that is "right" money and rich brown owners are wrong money.
All these clubs are awash in obsence money, I have never understood why we care so much about why some have a slight more fuck loads than another, who also have fuck loads.
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@mariner4life said in EPL 2024/2025:
Premier league football, actually European football has a very "new money" problem. The clubs who were lucky to be big when international sports money exploded have been trying to ring-fence their way to a closed market.
The only guys with the money to compete with these established global giants (based on fuck all but timing) come from "suspect" countries. These older clubs are propped up by Asian shirt buyers and dumb sponsors and we're supposed to accept that is "right" money and rich brown owners are wrong money.
All these clubs are awash in obsence money, I have never understood why we care so much about why some have a slight more fuck loads than another, who also have fuck loads.
Good points. The thing that I most dislike right now is the multi club model where one investment group controls multiple clubs who are all part of the same family. I think it creates pretty clear conflicts of interest.
It should never have been allowed to happen.It's a practice borrowed from baseball where major league teams own teams on the minor leagues
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@Dodge said in EPL 2024/2025:
I'm pleased for Newcastle fans to some extent but can't help thinking that it feels a bit fake, i.e. the Saudi money has bought their way up the table. As a Chelsea fan i have some sympathy with them, its exciting at first, but if we're honest, leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. Trouble is having a parent billionaire is now the only way to reach the top table if you're not already a 'global brand' who can monetise rich muppets in foreign countries by convincing them that they're fans.
I've said before that I started to fall out of love with top level football the second season Chelsea won the league in 2005/06. I am so disillusioned by the whole thing now i not only don't watch football anymore, I have become one of those people who doesn't know when 'big games' are on, nor know who the managers or key players are. People still look to tease me about Chelsea not being very good but I genuinely couldn't name more than a couple of players in the squad and just had to look up who the current manager is.
As a sports nut, my lack of enthusiasm for Premiership football, and now any cricket outside of the County Championship and Test matches is something I wouldn't have believed possible. Rugby's ridiculous distribution of matches across different platforms and lack of profile / marketing means apart from internationals and Premiership matches, I am also losing interest in competitions I would have made an appointment to view in years gone by. Can't remember the last time i watched a Super Rugby match, haven't seen a single European club game this year, never watched a URC match.
Sport is eating itself at the expense of people who want to care or maybe i'm just getting old
Interesting. I'm almost the complete reverse.
I feel a lot of the "big match" feel has gone from all rugby beneath Internationals. Alot is because I'm not on the ground, and similar or M4L, have insufficient time to manage my life around games.
But Football still has this, and has this at times that really work for me. Sunday 1630 kick off is an absolute joy, quite often there is a decent match at 5:30 on a Saturday and the CL being on a Tues/Wed night is great.
Cricket has almost always been too long to watch at level above much more than "on in the background" so nothings changed there for me. Although with a son who's getting into it, the hundred has been brilliant as has a lot of the T20 games.
Although there is the Saudi backdrop to Newcastle, you only had to look at the fans in the stadium and their reactions to know that this was no skin deep victory. Which I think is exactly why I feel so chuffed for them.
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Leaving aside the ethical issues and the exponential growth in the money sports generate the underlying issue for me is the way almost all sports have become 'product' and the marketers have convinced everyone that more is better, when the reality is the complete opposite.
Wall to wall sport available 24 hours a day and it is, in the main, boringly predictable.
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On Newcastle, I believe their success has been somewhat due to not being able to spend too much money. They have spent big to bring in the likes of Isak, Gordon, Tonali, Bruno, Botman but being restricted has meant building a team around Burn, Schar, Joelinton, Murphy. Chelsea show how difficult it is to throw cash around and still build a team.
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
On Newcastle, I believe their success has been somewhat due to not being able to spend too much money. They have spent big to bring in the likes of Isak, Gordon, Tonali, Bruno, Botman but being restricted has meant building a team around Burn, Schar, Joelinton, Murphy. Chelsea show how difficult it is to throw cash around and still build a team.
You only have to look at the success Forest are having now to know you don't need an astronomical budget. It takes more skill to spend less and actually build a proper squad
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This is net spend for the last 5 years apparently plus 10 years underneath
Premier League - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Premier League miteinander verglichen.
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Chelsea -947m
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United -683m
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Spurs -571m
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Arsenal -556m
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Newcastle -422m
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Everton +33m
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@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
This is net spend for the last 5 years apparently plus 10 years underneath
Premier League - Transfer balance and five-year comparison
In dieser Statistik werden die Transferbilanzen der letzten fünf bzw. zehn Jahre der Vereine der Premier League miteinander verglichen.
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Chelsea -947m
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United -683m
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Spurs -571m
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Arsenal -556m
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Newcastle -422m
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Everton +33m
So Forest's spend rank is lower than their EPL table rank. My Spurs on the other hand, have spent a significant sum and got nothing to show for it. Mainly because they have paid a lot for some prospects that can't help the squad win consistently now, instead of buying battle hardened EPL tested players who can. Utd also guilty of spending lots of cash but not building a cohesive competitve team
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That list from before was meant to show Everton in 20th place - the only team with a positive balance. Brighton would have joined them except for their big summer splurge.
And here's a female footballer who, like Stefan Kuntz, should probably avoid joining an English club
In addition, this UEFA Nations League is more exciting than the Euros - all 8 teams are good, 3 ties went to extra time, 2 to penalties, the other tie was a 5-4 aggregate thriller. 21 goals in 4 games, fun.
France beat Croatia on pens after 2-2
Germany beat Italy 5-4
Portugal beat Denmark 5-3 after extra time
Spain beat Netherlands on pens after 5-5 -
@KiwiPie said in EPL 2024/2025:
And here's a female footballer who, like Stefan Kuntz, should probably avoid joining an English club
A new NRL player started this year, normally I would agree by not joining a club, but given this one is in Australia, Thomas Cant fits right in with the Australian vernacular
