el clasico crazy

Jose is never gonna be that guy Ismael. He'll stay at a job for 3 years and work the best with what is there and not give a toss about how the u13s may come through to change things in 15 years time.

At pretty much any time except 2000 England have potentially been stronger than Portugal. It's a basic consequence of being a larger country that still plays football to similar extent

this is just addled, have you slid into some future perfect parallel dimension nultworld where they never had ronaldo, figo, deco, rui costa (all better than any english player of that time), never had a tradition of producing technical players in every position and england weren't a load of fucking cack?

That's true but it's not like England has a dreadful system - there's pretty much always half-a-dozen really top players, which is only sometimes true of Sweden or Portugal. In any single tourney England's chances should be better than those countries, luck permitting and golden generations apart. I'm saying the prospect of being the factor that turns that into victory might be an attractive one for Mou, more so than with Portugal.

xp to nv, aplogies for slow typing

Portugal not really producing great strikers iirc

"top players" in England maybe, the number of English "top players" to really prove themselves at international level in the last however many years is laughably small compared even to Portugal tho? Also compare numbers of English players who enjoy successful careers outside of England with any other top 20 nation.

I mean, I agree that with our resources and football's total dominance as national game we ought to be a couple of orders of magnitude better than we are, but we never have been and it will still take something a lot deeper than a new national team manager to really change that I think.

also, we shd be doing this on the England thread really.

also, Fuck Madrid

That's my basic position really (to nv). I'm not taking it forward much more than by saying that with good organisation, luck and a tailwind England could still win a world cup, which probably isn't true of Portugal. So I could see Jose taking a punt on England.

France and Spain have turned themselves into countries that don't need those things, but yeah that isn't happening here any time soon.

yr talking terrible self-deceiving syllogistic drivel and yr not even english iirc?

Not sure being English is a prerequisite for syllogistic, whatever that is?

idk man, i just find the blithe dismissal of verifiable fact in favour of 'what will have been' rather deranged

holland's 40 yr ability to compete with and often defeat far larger nations further undermines yr population argument

Well not sure that's what I was doing, but whatever you like.

Fwiw I'm pretty sure Capello was taking exactly that punt. Jose's greater experience here might warn him off I guess, or make him more confident of the cure.

there are explicable structural reasons for england's failure, both in general terms and specifically wrt the 'golden generation' (a lilgloss on that subject)

i think capello, anticipating retirement, could care less about failure and the inevitable damage to his reputation when he gets paid more than at madrid or juventus for a part time job

Not destroy, but yeah this. I can imagine Mourinho spending every day since the 0-5 plotting letting Barca pass their way to four 0-1 defeats. (what's the fourth game btw? Copa del Rey?)

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 10 April 2011 14:24 (3 hours ago)

didn't u just predict shakhtar to knock them out of the cl?

fwiw i think the 5-0 is a bit misleading wrt the difference between the teams because mourinho chose an uncharacteristically attacking midfield

some crazy talk itt.

the way i see it: mourinho is going to not give a shit about the copa del rey final and the league game. the league is lost, the cup on its own will not keep him in a job. if he wins the champs league he wins mandril their 10th, iirc, wins it himself back to back, and has a chance to beat barca and win it and la liga next season, after which he can go to another great club - manure maybes - and continue his amazingly succesful run. he's years away from heading out to the pasture of international management if he can win the champs league this season.

otoh guardiola's motivations and expectations are a bit harder to fathom. of course my reading of mourinho and his possible trajectory is pure pish conjecture but whatevs, pep defo more enigmatic. seems a bit languid and fatalistic - had "a bad feeling" about the tie against shakhtar when shakhtar had injuries and farca were playing at home. also has made comments to the effect that he can see himself leaving. vague comments which are positing a departure in seasons to come but still not really the kind of thing you expect when his side is being labelled the best ever, he's on track to win the league, again, and in the running for the champs league. i feel he might be cautious in these games. draw in the league would be enough to end any semblance of a challenge from madrid, he won't want to concede away goals in europe and will be wary of the counter-attacking threat.

so, i predict lacklustre encounters in both league and cup. cagey as fuck encounters in europe, with mourinho going for a victory by a goal or on away goals. barcelona are the better team, but won't win all the games, the gulf is not as wide as 5-0 suggested. i would say, however, that if puyol is back and in form for the champs league ties i'd expect barca to get to the final and for mourinho to get his jotters. this is of course wishful thinking, madrid being a horrible club, and mourinho's style of football being one i've never enjoyed.

Mourinho has said that he wants to manage Portugal, wants to come back to England and doesn't expect to do anything with Madrid until next season at least (which is pretty reigned him for him). If he is a success at Real (which he will be, if they give him time), I wonder if he has plans as well to manage Bayern Munich and try to win the league in five different countries which would surely be unprecedented.

In more immediate matters, I hope Real spank Barca all over the shop in the CL, but can't see it happening.

It's time to choose - this thread or the La Liga one?

I SAY HERE.

Are Real playing five defenders?

yeah pepe in midfield i think? and no özil :(

is there one of those nice HD streams on the go? My craving for more pixels is swelling.

streamhub.tv, if you don't mind US commentary

Who the hell is this Geordie twat on my stream?

Real on the counter are amazingly swift, and this is without Özil

the angelic Messi shouldn't be asking for cards :'(.

Does it all the time tbf

They need a topclass poacher but otherwise Real side is basically what I want from a football team. Pepe has been extraordinary.

They best stay away from Hernandez. They can have Owen back though.

lol this thread, IK uncharacteristically vague & misty-eyed for english glory, nakh characteristically pugnacious in disagreement. Love it.

I'm missing this game, what up?

hudson calling özil "little avatar eyes" (?)

katy perry vid innit

Penalty barca, red Albiol

lol mourinho gets his red. stupid challenge.

So the Geordie is Ray Hudson then? He also said that "Victor" has "beautiful soft hands"

I'd just been typing that only real were going to score as well

good work, if you're going to blatantly tug the attacker, then at least go all out and wrap two hands around his head.

are they selling real laser pens at the ground or something?

game

joke penalty

Was a clear penalty surely?

yeah it was

shouldnt the ref just give the fk to messi there? Is he waiting for a dive? Not in box anyway

Özil is so good

srsly

co-sign

pepe givin messi some advice on keepin cool under pressure there huh

shouldnt the ref just give the fk to messi there? Is he waiting for a dive? Not in box anyway

― the salmon of procrastination (darraghmac), den 16 april 2011 23:44 (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah it's just ridiculous to see ramos dive seconds later in a 50/50 and get a free kick

o villa

Still not convince by him tbh

Have that villa eh u've not convinced me

i was about to say that before but then he got them the peno at least

What do you mean you're not convinced by him? He hasn't really done it for Barca (17 goals i think) but his record speaks for itself

Taking advantage of Young Boys: Champions League & Europa League 2010/11

I have both my laptops primed & ready to go

there is a football contest on tonight

Eamon Dunphy just called Ronaldo's goal in the Copa Del Rey the best header he's ever seen.

It was good, yeah. I might post here for a bit.

His header for Utd against Roma was better

I love how Real are pressing here. It's like they're putting 80% into it most of the time, letting Barca paint themselves into a corner, then snapping into the tackle when it counts.

Get it to Villa more. What's he going to do except cut inside though?

Last one for a few months then. Sky reporting that Jose won't be in attendance.

I'm glad we've got six more days to decide who's going to come off best here

I think it's great that this thread hasn't been filled with all the lame shenanigans between Wednesday and now. Let's play ball!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

couldn't find la liga thread but yikes the end of this clasico has been nuts

that said, i am reminded of just how irritating ray hudson is

fuckin sergio ramos

El clasico has became a bit of a non event with this current mandril mob.

Shug Ramos is fitba's greatest villain

vinicius jr looked kind of amazing in those matches & rly should've scored like 2-3 goals

zizou back in? which seems like a bit of loss of face for perez considering zidane left in the first place cos he knew the team was dying and they didn't have the cash to fix it. not sure I can see bale at any of the current epl top 6.

I thought Zidane was going to Juve, but apparently not. Perez has lost so much face since selling Ornlado and not getting something half decent back he hasn't any face left.

No idea why Zizou would want to go back. The food's nice *shrugs*

They probably promised him Neymar or something, which wouldn't make a big difference.

fifou if he goes back tbh

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1aFP5lWsAAfCTk.jpg

to say I'm struggling with this is an understatement can someone from the continent explain please

second worst decision made today