West Ham Online

Day one of the international break and already I'm as bored as a bored, no, listen, really fucking bored, bored person. I'm more bored than I am boring.

Why can't the suits just fuck off and let everybody enjoy club football?

Like I expected, we're playing utter shit and the line-up for me screamed of arrogance by the interim manager to think he could beat this Greek side without playing a single Striker, instead playing 2 Midfielders up front. Not a good look, Khazi.

Think this Greek side have been on a great run of late too just 1 loss against Germany in their last 8 matches, so he shouldn't have underestimated them the way he did prior to KO with that disrespectful line-up with no Striker.

We should be 0-2 by now and very fortunate it's still level.

Howe, Dyche, Martin & O’Neill are the only English managers in the Premier league 
Not really much of a pathway though always thought it’s a job for an older manager on a part time basis

T-Rex arms is one lucky fucker

Pickford

Takashi Miike" wrote: ↑10 Oct 2024, 19:06 why have we got a pound shop peter reid in charge of the england team? fucking cunts at the FA 
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why have we got a pound shop peter reid in charge of the england team? fucking cunts at the FA 
​

Clueless Lee Khazi going with no Strikers, even though Kanes out and 2 proven, specialist Strikers are left on the bench.

I can see the Bubbles and Mavropanos turning us over or at least getting a draw out of this game. 

Fat baldy 50

so you would remove the possibility of those nations currently less strong to be able to qualify against their continual neighbours? What if they eventually surpass them? It isn’t impossible that Ireland could one day have a better team than England. Highly unlikely, but not impossible. And how would you ever know this unless you had a form of European qualification which is accessible to ALL European nations? How arrogant to say that because we’re better than most now, we should always be in it and because Luxembourg are shit now, they can never even try.

If you are an England fan, then your view on this is parallel to a Tottenham fan supporting their desire to be in that Super League.

its arrogance and entitlement and I don’t like it at all. Greece would never have won the Euros using your logic.

kylay wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 19:13

Swiss. wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 09:13 For me a WC and Euros every 4 years. The year in between a summer qualifiying tournament. 

Y1  Euro Qualify
Y2 Euros
Y3 WC qualify
Y4 WC
Y5 Euro Qualify
76 Euros

No internationals between Aug - May 

That is nice in theory, but for the players who are regular internationals, they would never get a break from playing. They need to scrap the club world cup, nations league, and about half of the current windows. It should also be forbidden for regions to have more than 1 tournament per world cup cycle (looking at you AFCON), and only in the summer (especially the World Cup).  It will never happen because it means less money for FIFA, but something is going to give eventually.

We seem to be in a situation where the media, sponsors & suits benefit from all the gain, and the players suffer all the pain.

An international players' strike might wake people up a bit - it can't go on like this.

Sydney_Iron wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 02:48 Needs sorting out if you ask me, have the WC and Euro Qualifications no problem, the pointless friendlies are a waste of time, surely with all the bellyaching about fixture congestion especially from the "big clubs" they should just scrap these and kill 2 birds with 1 stone, if scraped for everyone then it's not like any disadvantage.

and let's face it even with all these friendlies and so-called matches to try different players and formations, England went off to the Euros and did just that in the group games!!! Made Southgate look like an even bigger plonker than he already was!

Have said before I’d bin friendlies bar a 2 week window before tournaments
Bin the Nations League
If you are having a World Cup of 32 teams say 20 teams across the world should be seeded directly in 
If that includes say 8 European countries with another 2 Europe spots available all the countries should be put in a hat to be drawn out as one game qualifiers 
If that’s say 32 countries you just keep drawing 16 , 8 , 4 until there are 2 countries going to the WC
European qualifying done in 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 30 matches

I’m in Corfu. Anyone know where I can watch the match?

Do away with it altogether..it's done.
It's a collection of players from all over the globe, playing for whoever they decide is convenient.

 Rashford has  no allegiance to England..he's as English as Dawn Butler.




 

I suspect that the only "viable" solution put forward by the suits will be an increase in squad sizes (which the media and their darlings will love) tied to a cap on total match minutes (which the players and clubs will hate).

Imagine us getting to the FA Cup Final and Bowen getting the call from England, using up all his remaining game time...

Swiss. wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 09:13 For me a WC and Euros every 4 years. The year in between a summer qualifiying tournament. 

Y1  Euro Qualify
Y2 Euros
Y3 WC qualify
Y4 WC
Y5 Euro Qualify
76 Euros

No internationals between Aug - May 

Yeah to be honest, the Nations League is a rare win for UEFA.

There’s just too many international breaks. Would rather have fewer but longer breaks, so maybe you play 3 or 4 games rather than 2, then don’t have a break for a long while, rather than as it is now where it’s every month.

Gank wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 09:13 Why do people keep talking about “pointless international friendlies”?


Sydney_Iron wasn't it, ffs.

 

Have the internationals if they need to but just don't have a break... league matches carry on regardless.

If Man City feel the need to have 25 internationals on their books then fuck em, might sharpen the mind and might give some youngsters an opportunity.

Only change is that you wouldn't play all age group internationals on the same week... spread it out a bit so the U21s can play in the league game when the seniors are off.

Not ideal but at least it keeps the league rolling along.

Why do people keep talking about “pointless international friendlies”?

The Nations League was put in place to make sure that these fixtures are neither friendlies nor pointless, and it isn’t just a rename as there is significant jeopardy involved with winning gaining you automatic qualification for major tournaments and being poor getting you relegated so that you have to win a lot more of these matches to go up again and attempt qualification once more - so there is always something to play for. 

For those who hate international football but love club football - which is weird - then this might not make much sense but it makes perfect sense to spread the matches out to allow rotating a larger international squad, deal with injuries, try new combinations all the while trying to get a result. Southgate didn’t do that, he just did the same thing over and over which of course took some of the prestige of England matches away from us but the European Nations League doesn’t disadvantage European teams as they are all in the same boat, unlike the AFCON which does affect the European teams - but even then, why would the African Cup need to consider the English leagues when scheduling their most prestigious tournament? If you don’t like it, don’t sign any African players. Apparently they all create mayhem anyway.

For me a WC and Euros every 4 years. The year in between a summer qualifiying tournament. 

Y1  Euro Qualify
Y2 Euros
Y3 WC qualify
Y4 WC
Y5 Euro Qualify
76 Euros

No internationals between Aug - May 

It seems that the authorities have added a couple of additional structures - regional & international - to the current and successful national football pyramids, but these are 100% political layers and in no way related to the level & quality of football or footballers available to every nation.

Maybe a requirement/rule that you cannot represent your nation if you play in a foreign league would shake things up a bit.

My preference would be to start the season later and end it earlier with just a single interruption mid season. Even if you like international football these breaks are miserable. Feels like interrupting your piss mid flow…. Stop start stop start stop start. 

Manuel wrote: ↑08 Oct 2024, 05:39 Below was Wenger's blueprint for intl breaks, but he was also suggesting a World Cup every two years ffs..

• Either one (October) or two (October and March) mid-season international breaks, for a month in total, when qualifying for major tournaments will take place, rather than the current five windows.