...::[The Footy Desk]::... (Part 2)

[Jason]

On one hand I want him to get the job ASAP because he well and truly f*cking deserves it, on the other hand I kinda want to wait til after the Arsenal game cause we're totally going to lose the first game after giving him the job permanently. 

[TheSantader25]

5 hours ago, Wolver_321 said:

I want to do the exact same thing next wednesday morning.

Gonna be difficult. Being behind against Atleti is the worst thing that can happen to a team. They park the bus like no team. EXTREMELY difficult to break them. 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, TheSantader25 said:

Gonna be difficult. Being behind against Atleti is the worst thing that can happen to a team. They park the bus like no team. EXTREMELY difficult to break them. 

Yeah, absolutely... But 2 Atleti players won't probably play because they're injured and 2 miss the 2nd leg for multiple yellow cards. Oh, and Alex Sandro won't play too, that's a good thing!

Another thing that could help a bit is our championship: with 16 points over Napoli Serie A is basically over for us, against Udinese there'll be the B or even the C team! On the other hand Atleti have to keep the 2nd place and possibly make pressure to Barca, surely against Leganes they'll do a massive turnover, but they can't leave all key players on the bench like us.

For me there's a 25-30% chance of reaching the quarter finals... I want to see Chiellini scoring 3-0 with a volley at 95th minute 

Edited March 7, 2019 by Wolver_321

[TheSantader25]

1 minute ago, Wolver_321 said:

Yeah, absolutely... But 2 Atleti players won't probably play because they're injured and 2 miss the 2nd leg for multiple yellow cards. Oh, and Alex Sandro won't play too, that's a good thing!

Another thing that could help a bit is our championship: with 16 points over Napoli Serie A is basically over for us, against Udinese there'll be the B or even the C team! On the other hand Atleti have to keep the 2nd place and possibly make pressure to Barca, surely against Leganes they'll do a massive turnover, but they can't leave all the key players on the bench like us.

For me there's a 25-30% chance of reaching the quarter finals... I want to see Chiellini scoring 3-0 with a volley at 95th minute 

Good luck. Though I'm rooting for Atleti. I just like their hard working mentality and tbh I'm afraid Juventus could be really dangerous for us if they come up. So the sooner they're out the better. 

 

Atleti have knocked us out two times in the past couple of years. They are an absolute nightmare to play against in knockout stages. 

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, TheSantader25 said:

Good luck. Though I'm rooting for Atleti. I just like their hard working mentality and tbh I'm afraid Juventus could be really dangerous for us if they come up. So the sooner they're out the better. 

 

Atleti have knocked us out two times in the past couple of years. They are an absolute nightmare to play against in knockout stages. 

Ahahah, thanks

Atletico are surely candidate for the trophy, the final at Wanda Metropolitano might give them some "extra energy". If Atletico manages to go through, I'll definetely support them (and Ajax of course), I know how it feels choking the final for multiple times... And that's why Juventus - Atletico won't ever be a UCL final 

[TheSantader25]

Tottenham are really starting to bottle it huh? 

[Lonely-Martin]

3 hours ago, TheSantader25 said:

Tottenham are really starting to bottle it huh? 

Yep!

 

Still got City and Liverpool too, lol. Champions league next year is looking like a no go. Ahh well, we had a good spell these past few years and so long as Liverpool don't win the league and it's not Arsenal in the top 4, I'm good.

[Tchuck]

So is Liverpool, lol. Already 1-0 down to Burnley. Let's see if they have the needed skills to turn it around.

 

Otherwise may as well engrave Man City's name on the trophy.

[TheSantader25]

Nope they didn't. 

 

Gonna be an interesting match Wednesday. Bayern have been extremely on form recently after a horrible start in the beginning of the season. 

[Jason]

Meh. Frustrating game for United. Fluke/howler for the first goal and a very soft pen for the second. Couple that with 3-4 really good chances all missed, woodwork twice. If you don't take yer chances you don't deserve to win and all that.

 

Just hope it's a bump in the road and not a sign of anything, we created chances and didn't really get carved open or anything so I don't think it's a result to worry about long term but ffffffffff*ck man. What could've been that game, and potentially a huge game for top 4 too. Would have put us joint 3rd.

[Tchuck]

Aaand Zidane is back at the Santiago Bernabeu. Guess he proved his point/worth to the owner, eh!

 

Too little too late, I fear. Real Madrid's season is lost, now they have to focus on identifying their key targets and get shopping. Selling Bale would also be a pretty big deal.

[Crokey]

Zidane will have been brought back now to start prep for next season, and I'm calling it now, Bale will still be playing in white next season... that's Spurs white not Real Madrid white.  The Spurs board will want to splash out on a big name to sort or Christen their new (old) home, so will re-sign Bale again.

[TheSantader25]

Let's see if Zidane has the capability to bring Madrid back on track. 

 

I could only wish for Pep to be with us as long as Ferguson. We could rule Europe for decades or if not at least play some beautiful football. 

Edited March 12, 2019 by TheSantader25

[Jason]

Zidane must have gotten some promises to come back, but from what I hear Madrid buying depends on them selling and I think they not only vastly overestimate how much they'll get for the players they want to off-load but they also vastly underestimate how much their targets will cost. This isn't 5 years ago when Madrid last splashed the cash, the names floating around now, they'll be 100m each at a minimum I'd expect. Add a premium on top of that as well cause clubs now now Madrid are desperate.

 

Off-loading Bale will be ridiculously difficult if they want any sort of fee for him, he's turning 30, injury prone and as far as I know on wages far above the highest in the Premier League. Seen a few people nonchalantly say that United will take him, United being the team that are haggling over paying our best player this decade (De Gea) the same wage as our current highest earner (Sanchez). Yea, no lol.

 

Madrid are gonna get a nasty shock if/when they go sniffing for their rumoured targets this summer.

[TheSantader25]

You have to be absolutely crazy to buy Bale at this point. He is clearly not even interested in football anymore. He is a golfer now. 

[TheSantader25]

Juventus got kinda lucky with the ref in both legs but they deserved it. Ronaldo's finishing capability is basically what any team requires for winning the champions league. He is made for this competition. 

[Guest]

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

DON'T WAKE ME UP YET, I'M DREAMING!!

CR7!! CR7!! CR7!! Hattrick hero!!

 

Quarter finals, perfect match, probably the best performance made by Juve I've ever seen in the last decade. No mistakes, 3 goals, clear win! And now what do I have to say about Allegri? What?

[Tchuck]

It was always in the cards. With CR7... We can see how much weaker Madrid is without the man. Mr Champions League. He was signed to help Juve progress in the Champions League, and delivered when expected. Unlike a certain Brazilian superstar...

 

That cross by Bernardeschi too, f*cking perfect.

[Jason]

Why don't I gamble, man? I was calling a Ronnie hat-trick all day. Just had the feeling that it was set up perfectly for a Ronaldo special tonight. Massive boost for Juventus this game and with the teams that are knocked out you'd have to make them favourites now.

[Crokey]

Dammit City, you useless b*stards.

 

Not Man City, Bristol City, had them in the Last Man Standing at work and they could only draw with Ipswich, dumbasses.

 

As for Man City, well that easy, and next round... I got a sneeky that we're going to be drawn against Juve.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Tchuck said:

It was always in the cards. With CR7... We can see how much weaker Madrid is without the man. Mr Champions League. He was signed to help Juve progress in the Champions League, and delivered when expected. Unlike a certain Brazilian superstar...

 

That cross by Bernardeschi too, f*cking perfect.

Bernardeschi and Emre Can (who played in a different role than the usual) were both masterclass tonight. But please, next time I don't want to lose my voice at the 85th minute of the 2nd leg, I'd prefer seeing them playing like this also in the 1st leg!

 

Just now, Jason said:

Why don't I gamble, man? I was calling a Ronnie hat-trick all day. Just had the feeling that it was set up perfectly for a Ronaldo special tonight. Massive boost for Juventus this game and with the teams that are knocked out you'd have to make them favourites now.

Ahahah, I would have bet a 3-0 too, actually from what I heard our UCL winners quotations dropped even below Ajax at a certain point! Favourites? I'm not that sure yet, a team that wants to win the UCL can't make mistakes like the ones we made at Madrid... But let's say that the current state of Serie A helps a lot, with 18 points over Napoli we just need to win only 4-5 matches I think.

Looking for the draw, I see a massive amount of English (and dangerous) teams, the surprise Ajax, the "on paper" easy Porto and then probably Barcelona, I don't see Lyon making a miracle at Bernabeu... Very curious to see who will join us between Liverpool and Bayern.

Considering the amount of luck we both had in draws this season, I wouldn't be surprised to see Juve - United again 

 

3 minutes ago, Crokey said:

As for Man City, well that easy, and next round... I got a sneeky that we're going to be drawn against Juve.

Listen, Manchester is nice but we've already been there recently... I'd rather prefer enjoying the beautiful beaches that Oporto and Portugal have to offer this time 

Anyway if even Liverpool goes through, we could possibly see again at least one "all-English" match. 

[Jason]

If Liverpool go through it'll be the third time there's been four teams from the same country in the quarters of the CL, the other two times were also four English teams. Think we even had four English semi finalists once before as well. Really goes to show how good our top 4 teams generally are, we've just lacked that final bit of quality (and Ronaldo and Messi) to match Barca/Madrid over the past 10 years or so. United would've had two more CL's if it weren't for Barca.

[Eutyphro]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

United would've had two more CL's if it weren't for Barca.

if if if if I mean c'mon this is a silly one

 

Anyhoo.. Pretty savage destruction of Schalke, and a great Ronaldo show. A great evening of football. I enjoyed it. Juventus were fantastic and Atleti were dull and negative. Too bad for Atleti they didn't have Diego to harass the opposition to the point of losing concentration. It might've helped. I actually like Atletico more than Juve, but Juve showed such good football that I'm happy anyway.

By the way, I expect Bayern to go through, but I might be surprised.

[Jason]

22 minutes ago, Eutyphro said:

if if if if I mean c'mon this is a silly one

Not really, not really at all actually. We were comfortably the second best team in the world in 2009, this was a team with Ronaldo, prime Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Scholes, prime Carrick, Giggs, one of the greatest PL defences of all time. The year before it when we knocked Barca out Iniesta him self said United were the team they had to match. The 2008-2009 team is one of our greatest ever teams, it had world class in pretty much every position other than rightback lol.

 

The 2011 final team less so but the only team on the other side of the draw that we wouldn't expect to roll up to and beat is Madrid, who Barca knocked out. Hell if you wanna go into "what ifs" then if it wasn't for Robben we'd have won in 2010, cause we'd have actually turned up in the final unlike Bayern. 

 

Might be easy to forget given how sh*t we've been recently but we didn't reach 3 CL finals in 4 years (winning 1), 4 PL titles in 5 years (including 3 in a row, which has only happened twice in the PL era, both times by us) during that time for no reason. The latter years of the 200X's were peak United.

Edited March 12, 2019 by Jason

[Lonely-Martin]

22 hours ago, Crokey said:

Zidane will have been brought back now to start prep for next season, and I'm calling it now, Bale will still be playing in white next season... that's Spurs white not Real Madrid white.  The Spurs board will want to splash out on a big name to sort or Christen their new (old) home, so will re-sign Bale again.

Mixed feelings on Bale coming back myself. I'm not sure, but I thought I read way back when that we get first refusal too, could be wrong mind you.

 

If he takes a fair sized pay cut and doesn't come back with a poor attitude/lack of desire by feeling he can be a part-timer, could be a great signing (we don't want an Ozil on our hands). And if we splash some cash on his wages it can only help grow our rep in future signings of bigger named talent too. But if his heart isn't in it, it could be a costly misfire.

 

It could be epic to have him on form with Son, Erikson, Kane, and Alli though. Could help get Erikson to sign a new deal too which is a concern at the moment for me, lol. And could help convince the manager we're willing to back him (if he wants Bale of course). Once we get into a stadium like we've got shortly, we really need to step it up a gear if we wanna be taken seriously I feel.

[Jason]

Given how much the stadium has cost the only way Spurs can buy Bale is if he takes a massive wagecut and they sell at least one of their stars. My guess is that Eriksen will be in high demand this summer personally, Kane's a pointless endeavour until he actually gives a sign that he might leave.

[Eutyphro]

26 minutes ago, Jason said:

We were comfortably the second best team in the world in 2009, this was a team with Ronaldo, prime Rooney, Tevez, Berbatov, Scholes, prime Carrick, Giggs, one of the greatest PL defences of all time.

Very old Scholesy though. I mean sure, good team. I remember recently seeing a vid of United with Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Cristiano and Rooney beating Arsenal in 2004-05. There's no way other than to think "what a team". But in 2009 and 2011 they were absolutely destroyed by Barca. Rio Ferdinand admits this. They were not in the same realm of quality as Barca at all. But then again that Barca is the greatest team of all time I guess. In the end ifs don't matter in sports anyway. You win or you lose. Doesn't matter United is my favorite Premier League team, but this is common sense, and would hold the same criticism against Ajax or any other team.

Edited March 13, 2019 by Eutyphro

[Lonely-Martin]

5 minutes ago, Jason said:

Given how much the stadium has cost the only way Spurs can buy Bale is if he takes a massive wagecut and they sell at least one of their stars. My guess is that Eriksen will be in high demand this summer personally, Kane's a pointless endeavour until he actually gives a sign that he might leave.

Yeah, Kane will cost a fortune to pry away I feel, he seems keen on records and he loves the club like we love him, young settled family too I feel. Not impossible by any means but it'll take a huge offer given he's tied up well. But with Erikson's contract up in a year, if he doesn't want to sign, we gotta cash those chips in. Can't afford to do what arsenal have with what's his name off to Juve. Same with Alderwierald. Resign or sell both asap.

 

Gonna be an important spell for us now into the start of next season and our recent form has really not helped as we really have thrown away 3rd almost. Champions league next year should've been in the bag pretty much.

[Eutyphro]

Kane would be THE player to get Real back on track in my view. He can't be Cristiano, but then again no one can. Kane is a fantastic striker really..

[Jason]

7 minutes ago, Eutyphro said:

Very old Scholesy though. I mean sure, good team. I remember recently seeing a vid of United with Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Cristiano and Rooney beating Arsenal in 2004-05. There's no way other than to think "what a team". But in 2009 and 2011 they were absolutely destroyed by Barca. Rio Ferdinand admits this. They were not in the same realm of quality as Barca at all. But then again that Barca is the greatest team of all time I guess. In the end ifs don't matter in sports anyway. You win or you lose. Doesn't matter United is my favorite Premier League team, but this is common sense, and would hold the same criticism against Ajax or any other team.

Hence why I said "if not for Barca". They were miles ahead of us in both finals, but I (along with a lot of other United fans and I suspect Fergie) believe that if that Barca team wasn't around for another 3-4 more years we'd have won at least one more CL, probably two. Of course it means nothing to say that in reality but what's football without speculating about the future and reminiscing about the past.

 

Also Scholes might've been old but his worldy is the reason we got into the 2008 final. Still a class player up until his original retirement. Less said about his comeback tour the better, though, lol.