Champions League 24/25

[Niall_Quinn]

God has finally decided to piss on this shitshow.

[Niall_Quinn]

Pep's stink still exists at Barca. The number of useless passes. Painful.

[Niall_Quinn]

The new Neymar isn't very good. Evidence right there, as you watch. Don't tell me it's all a bunch of money driven hype- AGAIN!

[Niall_Quinn]

Inter are much better. They aren't very good, but much better.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ah ha! Scum ref saves Barca with his whistle - classic cheating - although Inter would have missed it anyway.

[Niall_Quinn]

I hope our lot can be bothered to watch this. CL on the shelf, just needs to be collected. No opposition except PSG, who aren't much of a challenge. Just go out and attack and you win. How hard can it be? When you compare this bunch of shitkickers to the Barca side we faced last time we were in a final - if we don't win it this time we've CHOSEN to throw it away.

[Niall_Quinn]

Finally, some good play by the New Neymar. Stopped clock is correct twice a day.

[Niall_Quinn]

Decent save Ches. But bad miss.

[Niall_Quinn]

OMG that bloke playing out wide for Inter. That's hilariously bad.

[Niall_Quinn]

It's so awful. LOL.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wait until you hear the pundits talk about this match - having watched it with your own eyes.

[Letters]

Great save

[McNamara That Ghost...]

How many chances does Yamal need?

[Niall_Quinn]

Routine save from shot by dickhead. Commentators make it out to be save of the century.

[Niall_Quinn]

How many chances does Yamal need?

More than Neymar - which is a lot. Yet another hyped up finance vehicle.

[Niall_Quinn]

Boy wizard does nothing again. ANY striker can do that. What is this "genius" going to do though?

[Niall_Quinn]

Every problem that Real has, Barca has it too. All in on the hype - fuck all on the team.

[Niall_Quinn]

It's funny to think Henry never won the Balon Dor, but this cunt Yamal is favourite to win it. Just shows what it's all about.

[Letters]

They think it’s all over…it is now!
Inter vs Arsenal final then :cool:

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Barca. :haha:

Bottle jobs.

[Niall_Quinn]

Ah ha ha - what a pile of shit! Barca couldn't even beat a tem with zero defence. LOL.

Fucking hilarious.

Well boys - if you want it, i'ls a freebie. Up to you!

[Niall_Quinn]

What pathetic teams Barca and Real are. All about the hype. Zero substance.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

El Clasico final they said. :lol:

[Mac76]

Epic stuff, two great teams, some really excellent performances, Sommer made some incredible saves, Yamal makes Saka look like an average schoolboy, almost kinda hope we don't get through tomorrow, Inter will make short work of us I think

[Niall_Quinn]

Epic stuff, two great teams, some really excellent performances, Sommer made some incredible saves, Yamal makes Saka look like an average schoolboy, almost kinda hope we don't get through tomorrow, Inter will make short work of us I think

You can't be serious?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Epic stuff, two great teams, some really excellent performances, Sommer made some incredible saves, Yamal makes Saka look like an average schoolboy, almost kinda hope we don't get through tomorrow, Inter will make short work of us I think

Yamal cost them the tie?

[Niall_Quinn]

Yamal cost them the tie?
Nah - he just got unlucky.

Fifty times.

[Niall_Quinn]

We're going to be hearing shit about "best game ever"

Reality:

Barca conceded SEVEN - SEVEN, that's more than six, in a semi.

There lies the reality.

And Inter conceded SIX!

Now if you can't work out what that means for us then I don't even want to be your friend.

[Mac76]

Yamal cost them the tie?

He was creating chances left right and cemtre and but for Sommer he'd have scored at least one

[Mac76]

If cynicism could be converted into electricity there's enough on here to power the national grid, can't you all just watch and enjoy instead of trying to turn everyrhing to shit?

[McNamara That Ghost...]

He was creating chances left right and cemtre and but for Sommer he'd have scored at least one

More that he was often doing exactly the same thing so Sommer could get set.

The one time he did do something differently and just leathered it straight on, it hit the post. Bit unfortunate there.

But not the others.

[Niall_Quinn]

If cynicism could be converted into electricity there's enough on here to power the national grid, can't you all just watch and enjoy instead of trying to turn everyrhing to shit?

But they are SHIT teams. Hyped to the moon. Can't you grasp that from the scoreline? If you mean it was funny watching them thrash about - yes, it was, very entertaining. 10 out of 10 for the comedy and slapstick - no argument there.

[Niall_Quinn]

He was creating chances left right and cemtre and but for Sommer he'd have scored at least one

Yeah. Seen it before. A Real or Barca hyped piece of shit. Don't tell me you haven't seen that before? Don't know why we worship the Spanish game. Maybe the same reason we worship the worst coach in the history of football, the man who killed football, Pep Guardiola.

[Letters]

By the way, I thought VAR worked well last night.

[Mac76]

Yeah. Seen it before. A Real or Barca hyped piece of shit. Don't tell me you haven't seen that before? Don't know why we worship the Spanish game. Maybe the same reason we worship the worst coach in the history of football, the man who killed football, Pep Guardiola.

He was part of a Spain team which in the Euros beat England, who maybe you think play 'proper football', completely disorganised huffing and puffing with a moronic lump of beef up front getting lucky goals bouncing in off his backside

I know which I prefer

[HCZ_Reborn]

Pretty sure Guardiola didn’t invent Tiki-Taka either

It’s an extension of what was already being played by Rijkaard and style Barca played under Cruyff

Also Spain certainly didn’t play Tiki Taka football in Euro 2024, was far more direct.

I like Yamal, explosive pace, excellent ball control

I don’t think NQ particularly admires the football Southgate had us playing. I think he has a romanticised view of football that was played in the 1980s, early 1990s and the mixture of countering and highly technical football we had under the earlier years of Wenger.


I think he makes the mistake of thinking slow sideways passing is a necessary component of “pep ball” rather than a consequence of other teams making sure that attacking teams are denied space to play in.

[Letters]

I like Yamal, explosive pace, excellent ball control
I'm not understanding the Yamal hate on here, he looks bloody brilliant.


I don’t think NQ particularly admires the football Southgate had us playing. I think he has a romanticised view of football that was played in the 1980s, early 1990s and the mixture of countering and highly technical football we had under the earlier years of Wenger.
I don't understand what he was seeing last night. For pretty much everyone this was a brilliant spectacle. Does he actually prefer the 1-0 to the Arsenal dirge of the mid 90s? I'm struggling to understand what he actually enjoys :unsure:

[Letters]

Yamal cost them the tie?

That's pretty reductive in a tie that had endless twists and turns and 13 goals - Barca were only ahead in the whole tie for about 5 minutes and they wouldn't have gone in to last night's level were it not for Yamal's contribution in the first leg.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

OK so he didn't miss those chances, got it.

[Niall_Quinn]

That's pretty reductive in a tie that had endless twists and turns and 13 goals - Barca were only ahead in the whole tie for about 5 minutes and they wouldn't have gone in to last night's level were it not for Yamal's contribution in the first leg.

That little spik fuck is going to win the ballon dor - and he can't kick a ball straight. Make of that what you will. If you are a moron it will be something good.

[Letters]

OK so he didn't miss those chances, got it.

Continuing to make a simplistic, reductive argument doesn’t make it a better one.
Yes, he missed chances. He also had one excellent effort very well saved, scored an amazing goal in the first leg to get Barca back in it and just generally looks like an exceptional talent. Especially for his age. Not quite clear what your issue with the lad is

[Niall_Quinn]

Continuing to make a simplistic, reductive argument doesn’t make it a better one.
Yes, he missed chances. He also had one excellent effort very well saved, scored an amazing goal in the first leg to get Barca back in it and just generally looks like an exceptional talent. Especially for his age. Not quite clear what your issue with the lad is

Just shut up, it's boring now.

[Niall_Quinn]

Some people need to figure out the differnce between football hype and football like yuo see it with your own eyes. A bit like cunts who buy the political message - stupid fucks, with a lot to say. Even thought they are only repeating the message. Well just shut the fuck up cunts - we can get the message from the horse. Don't need the dogshit, willing slave who is being dragged along behind that horse.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Continuing to make a simplistic, reductive argument doesn’t make it a better one.
Yes, he missed chances. He also had one excellent effort very well saved, scored an amazing goal in the first leg to get Barca back in it and just generally looks like an exceptional talent. Especially for his age. Not quite clear what your issue with the lad is

You may have forgotten why I replied in the first place, I had an issue with sniping at Saka and making him look like "an average schoolboy".

Also if we're proclaiming him as one of the world's best, we can't use his age when it's convenient.

[Letters]

You may have forgotten why I replied in the first place, I had an issue with sniping at Saka and making him look like "an average schoolboy".
Well fair enough, and I'd agree that's bullshit. Saka is quality. But, honestly, if I had to pick between them then I think I'd have to go with Yamal.
He looked exceptional at the Euros, he impressed me on Tuesday. I had a look at his stats this season and they're pretty decent.


Also if we're proclaiming him as one of the world's best, we can't use his age when it's convenient.
Also fair enough, although it's relevant in as much as he already looks top class and you'd think he can only get better.
Of course he's overhyped like any wunderkind, but he's clearly got something about him.

[Niall_Quinn]

Yamal? Fuck me, you actually saw him play and you still have a hard-on. Is it the hair?

Hyped shit. Doesn't mean he's a bad player, but he's an ordinary one. Like that marketing vehicle Neymar.

Struggling to think of any genuine talent I saw in any of these Euro frauds. Lewandowsi, I suppose. PSG had the Neves bloke and their keeper obviously. Real? Honestly - nothing stood out. Mbappe exposed again. That Vinny whatshisface - Theo was better tbf, and Theo wasn't that great. Mmmmm, racking brains... Gyokeres in the early stages.

The game is at rock bottom. We're now calling players like Yamal decent when we used to have Bergkamp and Zidane and Messi. It's all a bit of a joke really. The money came in, the talent exited. What a surprise - like everything else.

Still, the BBC will say they are all marvellous so I'd probably go with that if I were you.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'll go back to my analogy of the Monaco Grand Prix. You all must have seen an onboard lap from that race? And they have to do 72 laps? Sure, some of them crash - because for one split second they lose focus and BAM! But it's rare. Most of them do those 72 laps. It's fucking incredible really. And most of them are within a second of each other, start pf the field to the end. Extraordinary professionalism.

Maybe it's because their lives are on the line?

Not the same with this hair bunch in football, is it?

Anyone ever watched a lap of the IoM TT? Yamal on one of those bikes - LOL. Alright, unfair, any footballer would die if they tried to do that, literally. Because football is EASY these days, compared to other sports that demand professionalism and genuine talent. In football talent can be sold on paper rather than on the pitch, Neymar made a career out of it and now Mbappe is following in his footsteps. Fuck, we ended up with Sterling, one of the pioneers of the hype route to fame and fortune.

Because when one of these "professionals", with time and space, looks up, surveys the pitch, weighs the options - and then boots the fucker into touch! That's BAM - straight into that Monaco barrier. Good night - literally DEATH in the TT.

But they STILL go out and do it the next week, and the next. Those fucking, braindead lapses that show their "talent" is not under their command but rather moments that come together every now and again. Not like the real footballers we used to watch, who could do it week in, week out.

We're all raving about 115mill Isak - but he's AVERAGE! Good by the current league standard. Almost anonymous compared to the strikers of the past. A very ordinary player in the grand scheme. Like ALL of them.

I'll say though, the lad MLS is pretty impressive for his age. Not saying he's a world-beater yet - but he's on a trajectory that could get him there one day. Has to put in the miles, has to avoid those barriers.

[Letters]

Mbappe exposed again.
We are talking about the fella who has 191 goals and 75 assists in 246 league games, right?
And 55 goals and 26 assists in 87 CL games.
Oh, and 48 goals for France - 3 fewer than Henry, but Mbappe is only 26 and has only played two thirds of the games that Henry did for them so I'm going to go out on a limb and say he's going to break Giroud's record fairly comfortably.
What a bum!

I get that you think football was better when the players drunk 8 points every night and smoked at half time. The issue is you're just wrong. You're looking back with rose tinted glasses at a few exceptional players, and there certainly were some, and ignoring all the utter cloggers. As a sport it was better because it actually was a sport and not big business. But this golden age of players you romanticise simply doesn't exist.

[HCZ_Reborn]

At the same time, he’s not completely wrong (although not in saying players in the 80s better than today)

I think technical football has been sacrificed in many ways for speed and athleticism

There are far fewer natural dribblers in the game, and fewer players who can see passes and angles that a professor of geometry can’t see. Ozil was an arsehole but he was also a genius, some of the greatest pleasure I got in the game was being in the upper stands watching him play what ostensibly looked like a blind pass with his back to goal in an inch perfect way (though of course his ability wasn’t the standard fare for players).


It wasn’t just Ozil, the passing and movement of players like Fabregas, Wilshere and Rosicky was exceptional and I don’t think you see that so much in the game now.

And if we are using Arsenal as a microcosm, we’ve got brilliant hard grafters the kind of players who 9 times out of 10 you’d want on your side to win the attritional battles that we’d lose in the big matches under Wenger

But we have lost that little bit of Magic.

[Letters]

I think technical football has been sacrificed in many ways for speed and athleticism
There's definitely something in that.
Although NQ conflates "can kick other players up in the air" with "good player".
He longs for a time when you could be openly racist and homophobic. He reminds me of the oldiewonks on FB who hark back for simpler times - and I always think yeah, rationing, a 10% child mortality rate, significantly higher levels of poverty. Thems were the days! What was actually better back then was...them. They miss being young and healthy and conflate that for the world being better. It wasn't. Well, some things were, some things demonstrably aren't. But NQ has never been known for nuance.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I must admit I’m fond of some of the racial epithets and homophobic comments, used to call a gay bloke I worked for the same company as “me old poofter” (though not it should be said in the office). Went out drinking with him on more than one occasion.

I think it’s the absurdism I love, that somehow your skin colour or what you as a consenting adult get up to with another consenting adult should in anyway matter.

I think making certain words forbidden makes them strangely more enticing. And ironically it gives them more power

But equally I do understand why the language was clearly meant to be derogatory and demeaning so I’d never direct the words to someone unless we knew each other well enough to know that I meant no harm by it. I don’t think words are objectively harmful, but they obviously do create associations in the minds of people who have been slurred and made to feel inferior by others

Maybe, as a child of the 90s I think we had it best where such words weren’t outright forbidden, but we allowed people who liked to use them liberally to expose themselves

[HCZ_Reborn]

NQ seems very preoccupied with the mechanics of gay sex. You get that a lot in Ugandan homophobic literature, remember reading a news article about a “notorious bum driller” :lol:

[Mac76]

I must admit I’m fond of some of the racial epithets and homophobic comments, used to call a gay bloke I worked for the same company as “me old poofter”

Thing is, i feel like there was, maybe in the 70s, an alternative non-homophobic meaning of the word 'poof' which was someone who was a bit soft in general - i recall you called Odegaard that once and I took it to be what you meant, though feel free to correct me (on this one occasion ofc :lol:)

or maybe it always meant gay but I was too young to realise :)

[Mac76]

And more seriously (and this is where I'll play into the stereotype some of you have mistakenly cast me as), I doubt the same fondness is felt by the majority of people on the other side of the comments, even if they laughed and smiled at the time and everyone thought they 'didn't mind'

[Letters]

I fell down a YouTube rabbithole recently - some bloke looking back at 80s TV and taking the piss out of it in a sarcastic way which made me laugh a lot.
Looking back, it was mostly pretty rubbish. A lot of the comedy has not stood up well. Often the joke is "aren't Chinese people's eyes funny" or "Listen to how Indian people speak - bud bud, ding ding!" or "Don't gay people talk and mince around in a funny way?"...and so on.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Thing is, i feel like there was, maybe in the 70s, an alternative non-homophobic meaning of the word 'poof' which was someone who was a bit soft in general - i recall you called Odegaard that once and I took it to be what you meant, though feel free to correct me (on this one occasion ofc :lol:)

or maybe it always meant gay but I was too young to realise :)

Could be related to pouffe the French word for the comfy bit of soft furniture to rest your feet on

But yes generally poof went beyond a derogatory term for homosexual, and meant someone who was soft/effeminate which has always been associated with being gay. Which is kind of funny as many gay men are body builders who are built like brick shit houses

[HCZ_Reborn]

And more seriously (and this is where I'll play into the stereotype some of you have mistakenly cast me as), I doubt the same fondness is felt by the majority of people on the other side of the comments, even if they laughed and smiled at the time and everyone thought they 'didn't mind'

Oh I think that’s true as well, laughing along with the joke to fit in rather than because you don’t mind

But equally a lot of gay men use words like poof, queen and queer about themselves and other gay men

[Mac76]

Oh I think that’s true as well, laughing along with the joke to fit in rather than because you don’t mind

But equally a lot of gay men use words like poof, queen and queer about themselves and other gay men

yeah I guess that's like black men using the 'N' word or lesbians calling themselves dykes - I think part of it is to de-weaponise the words - people can make their own minds up if they think it works

[HCZ_Reborn]

I fell down a YouTube rabbithole recently - some bloke looking back at 80s TV and taking the piss out of it in a sarcastic way which made me laugh a lot.
Looking back, it was mostly pretty rubbish. A lot of the comedy has not stood up well. Often the joke is "aren't Chinese people's eyes funny" or "Listen to how Indian people speak - bud bud, ding ding!" or "Don't gay people talk and mince around in a funny way?"...and so on.

Absolutely, just because you’re not handwringing about offending people it doesn’t mean something is going to be funny.

The comedy from back then that survived (stuff like Porridge) because first and foremost it was well written and in Ronnie Barker had one of the best comedy actors of a generation


I must admit I did always like Dick Emery’s Clarence the mincing gay man and I do find it funny

Went through a phase of saying to mates “oh hello Honky Tonks”

[Mac76]

I fell down a YouTube rabbithole recently - some bloke looking back at 80s TV and taking the piss out of it in a sarcastic way which made me laugh a lot.
Looking back, it was mostly pretty rubbish. A lot of the comedy has not stood up well. Often the joke is "aren't Chinese people's eyes funny" or "Listen to how Indian people speak - bud bud, ding ding!" or "Don't gay people talk and mince around in a funny way?"...and so on.

totally, I've sometimes watching things i recall being funny but now they're absolutely dreadful on every level

mind you there was some stuff I even hated as a kid - I mean Frank Spencer - wtf was funny about that? It was f****** tragic in every sense, whether you bought into it or not

[HCZ_Reborn]

yeah I guess that's like black men using the 'N' word or lesbians calling themselves dykes - I think part of it is to de-weaponise the words - people can make their own minds up if they think it works

That and I think it just became part of the parlance of gay men, along with referring to other gay men using female pronouns

[Letters]

This is one of the videos I was talking about :lol:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V634zaOKYCc