25/26 Football thread DEAD, USE A NEW ONE

[Mr_Danger]

I’d take Sesko over Gyorkeres. It’s an age thing more than anything but I like the look of Sesko, has a bit of a rough Lewandowski about him. I fully expect that to vanish the moment he kicks a ball in a premier league match for United. Gyorkeres is coming from a pretty weak league at a team that has been dominating and not to be ‘pens don’t count’ but the fucker scored 20 pens last season which is some impressive stat padding. He does have the skill set to play in the league but it’s whether he can skill up a level. Pretty telling that a top team never came in for him.

As an aside, massive crybabies that they are, Newcastle fans coining the name Seskoffender is pretty fucking funny. 

[mim731]

1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

He's had two excellent seasons in a two or three team league. Otherwise it's been a mediocre career. I'm also not convinced Arsenal's playing model will fit a very fixed central striker such as him unless Arteta is planning on changing it. If he does then Gyokeres *should* score plenty of goals. But you're asking established players like Saka to change what they're very good at and that's a risk.

Thanks for that. An interesting viewpoint, although I'm not sure I agree on everything.

Honestly, having a fixed central striker at various points last year would have seen a lot of massively frustrating chances at least get on target rather than go begging and that in itself would have been a huge help. I also don't think Arteta would have bought a player he didn't think would fit the system. He's a lot of things (and not people's cup of tea for many valid reasons), but he's shown a demonstrable willingness to change the way Arsenal play as needed, so I can't see that being an issue.

I also think "mediocre career" is a bit harsh, he has increased his goal tally every year in the the last five, and while the PL will certainly be a step up, I think that's a little off base. He's improved year on year and earned himself a big money move, not sure what else he'd have to do to be seen as credible to this point. 

Still, interesting points to consider, and we'll have to see how it unfolds. Sesko, given his age, may actually have a significantly higher ceiling than Gyokeres (I was actually more inclined towards Sesko than Gyokeres initially, but I can see why Arsenal pivoted for a variety of reasons), but whether Man United given it's recent instability is the place to maximise the raw talent Sesko has is a question mark for my money.  

[Fog Dude]

Time for the annual double FPL plug, then I promise I won't need to sully this thread with updates about it throughout the season.

As was eventually bound to happen on a wrestling forum, the Predictions League ended in a murky finish last time (though not yet a Dusty one - we haven't quite reached the point where I declare one person a winner on the final day and then hand the title to somebody else later).

Strangely the fella who came off worse out of that has re-entered but the official reigning champion hasn't yet confirmed he'll try to defend his crown.

Anyway, sign-ups began a week ago and I've had a steady drip feed of entries via DM but with seven more days until the main thread is due to get started we probably need at least a couple more to make it a minimum viable product.

===

Meanwhile as the Chippy Tea League Cup holder over in the Fantasy League who's planning to dine out on that unlikely success for as long as possible, I thought I'd take the liberty of summarising the lie of the land over in that competition as well.

Basically they've decided after a single season that the "mystery" Assistant Manager chip was a failed experiment (I managed to get 5 lots of points instead of the intended 3 thanks to Oliver Glasner - cheers Frankie!) so they've got rid of it and simply said you can you all the other chips twice a season now, not just the Wildcard.

Also the user interface on desktop now looks the same as it does on mobile, which I find fiddly as someone who almost never changes their team on the phone app. It's all "powered by Copilot" now, apparently.

Oh, and you can now add a badge to your team - but not by uploading your own for perhaps obvious reasons - but either by choosing from a generic selection or prompting AI to make one for you. Ugh.

Lastly, none of the 'Keff private leagues has been automatically renewed for me with under nine days until kick-off. Does anyone know who set those up?

[tiger_rick]

Men's Balon D'Or nominees (top 30). All McTominay aren't we?

Spoiler

Ousmane Dembele (PSG & France)
Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG & Italy)
Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid & England)
Desire Doue (PSG & France)
Denzel Dumfries (Inter Milan & Netherlands)
Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund & Guinea)
Erling Haaland (Man City & Norway)
Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal & Sweden)
Achraf Hakimi (PSG & Morocco)
Harry Kane (Bayern Munich & England)
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (PSG & Georgia)
Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona & Poland)
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool & Argentina)
Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan & Argentina)
Scott McTominay (Napoli & Scotland)
Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid & France)
Nuno Mendes (PSG & Portugal)
Joao Neves (PSG & Portugal)
Pedri (Barcelona & Spain)
Cole Palmer (Chelsea & England)
Michael Olise (Bayern Munich & France)
Raphinha (Barcelona & Brazil)
Declan Rice (Arsenal & England)
Fabian Ruiz (PSG & Spain)
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool & Netherlands)
Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid & Brazil)
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool & Egypt)
Florian Wirtz (Liverpool & Germany)
Vitinha (PSG & Portugal)
Lamine Yamal (Barcelona & Spain)

Women's

Spoiler

Lucy Bronze (Chelsea & England)
Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride & Zambia)
Aitana Bonmati (Barcelona & Spain)
Sandy Baltimore (Chelsea & France)
Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal & Spain)
Klara Buhl (Bayern Munich & Germany)
Sofia Cantore (Washington Spirit & Italy)
Steph Catley (Arsenal & Australia)
Melchie Dumornay (Lyon & Haiti)
Temwa Chawinga (Kansas City Current & Malawi)
Emily Fox (Arsenal & USA)
Cristiana Girelli (Juventus & Italy)
Esther Gonzalez (Gotham & Spain)
Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona & Norway)
Patri Guijarro (Barcelona & Spain)
Amanda Gutierres (Palmeiras & Brazil)
Hannah Hampton (Chelsea & England)
Pernille Harder (Bayern Munich & Denmark)
Lindsey Heaps (Lyon & USA)
Chloe Kelly (Arsenal & England)
Marta (Orlando Pride & Brazil)
Frida Leonhardsen Maanum (Arsenal & Norway)
Ewa Pajor (Barcelona & Poland)
Clara Mateo (Paris FC & France)
Alessia Russo (Arsenal & England)
Claudia Pina (Barcelona & Spain)
Alexia Putellas (Barcelona & Spain)
Johanna Rytting Kaneryd (Chelsea & Sweden)
Caroline Weir (Real Madrid & Scotland)
Leah Williamson (Arsenal & England)

 

[SuperBacon]

An absolute nonsense as always. Those are the 30 best players in Europe? Do me a favour.

Having said that, Kvaradona is currently the best (and most exciting) player in the world for me Clive, so give it him.

[SaitoRyo]

Fair play.

[tiger_rick]

Could be in the minor annoyances thread but I know not everyone on here is a football fan so I'll put it here. The phrase "total agreement" is everywhere now. I presume it's come from that Romano chancer but all the media now throw it around. As if an agreement isn't enough. 

[Carbomb]

I reckon it was invented by the Dutch

[SuperBacon]

9 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

that Romano chancer

This made me crack up a while back. Obviously bullshit. 

Here we go? I tell you what young man, the only thing going is the game of football!

[Mr_Danger]

6 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

This made me crack up a while back. Obviously bullshit. 

Here we go? I tell you what young man, the only thing going is the game of football!

I heard there was no room for Martin Samuel in his team of the week as he was reluctant to use more than 6 right wingers.

[SuperBacon]

On 8/6/2025 at 3:52 PM, SuperBacon said:

I still think we will win 5 trophies this season, but it wont be as straightforward as I'd hoped.

OK, 4 trophies.

[Carbomb]

The brand is being maintained.

[Mr_Danger]

Thomas Frank understood the assignment.

[tiger_rick]

They were even 2-0 up on pens and still lost. Mad bastards.

Not that I can talk, we wrote the latest chapter in the Wrexham fairytale ourselves on Tuesday. Absolutely peak City.

[Dai]

Could be in the minor annoyances thread also; MOTD2 has changed the way they recap games from the Saturday, and now do them in a sort of 'cinema mode', which has made them unwatchable. I assume it will get a load of bad feedback and then changed back to normal in a few weeks.