25/26 Football thread DEAD, USE A NEW ONE

[tiger_rick]

Anthony Gordon heading to Barcelona for £70m. Raises an interesting question over Marcus Rashford's future now given they both play wide on the left. Also doesn't scream a Barcelona player to me. He's very good and when he was linked with Bayern, that seemed a good fit for him but Barcelona is another level of everything isn't it? Would love to see an Englishman succeed in La Liga but I'm predicting he joins Liverpool for £50m in a year's time!

[TheBurningRed]

I can see the Marcus Rashford interview now. Camera on his seat before he walks to it and sits down. Bit of talking with the producer. Before it kicks in and he talks about being “home” and how he always wanted to come back to us and never leave.

That or walking round a park with Gary Neville. 

[The Curious Orange]

28 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

I can see the Marcus Rashford interview now. Camera on his seat before he walks to it and sits down. Bit of talking with the producer. Before it kicks in and he talks about being “home” and how he always wanted to come back to us and never leave.

That or walking round a park with Gary Neville. 

Can see him ending up back at Villa.  Made sure to thank Emery and co when he was named in the England squad last week.

Garnacho could even post a another pic wearing his shirt if he fancies a move from Chelsea.

 

[Wretch]

18 hours ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Pissed until March. Mab’s doing the awards.

He ain’t kidding.

Edited May 28 by Wretch

[MPDTT]

Just back from Leipzig in the early hours of this morning...what an experience! Up the Palace! Unbelievable period in the club's history.

Really impressed with the city of Leipzig as well - great food, nice architecture, lots to do, well priced alcohol....I could quite easily do a long weekend there with the wife sometime - it's not what I expected part of the former East Germany to be like.

[Mr_Danger]

Gutted for Slot. As much as it all turned to shit this season he’s not a dick head. I often thought a lot of his more questionable comments came from his plain spoken Dutchness. A bit like Ten Hag in that respect. Still, came in after Klopp and won the league straight away, what a start it was. Plus as a fellow baldman I wasn’t a fan of all the baldest comments he faced. 

[SuperBacon]

Somewhere Klopp is smoking a 100 fags sweating over whether he goes back or not.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Two years for Slot with an average finishing position of 3rd isn't good enough apparently. I know they spent all that money this season to finish 5th but considering how much Chelsea have spent to finish 10th he hasn't done bad. 

[tiger_rick]

I'm surprised in that I thought they'd stick with him but not shocked. I've been thinking as Andoni Iraola has been linked with Milan and Leverkusen this week that it's now or never for Liverpool. His football feels such a perfect fit for them and Slot's really doesn't. 

If you're going to go out this summer and replace Salah, it makes perfect sense to do it knowing you're going to play the sort of high risk, high reward of an Iraola rather than the possession style of Slot, only to regret it later.

Agree with @Mr_Dangerthat it's a shame because Arne seems a great man and his first season was a wonderful achievement. Sadly, his second has given far greater rise to the opinion that it was Klopp's team that won it.

Mo Salah's parting shots haven't helped there either.

[SuperBacon]

7 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

Two years for Slot with an average finishing position of 3rd isn't good enough apparently. I know they spent all that money this season to finish 5th but considering how much Chelsea have spent to finish 10th he hasn't done bad. 

Massively hampered by Wirtz being absolutely awful and Isak unfortunately missing a huge chunk of the season as well.

But even Spurs got a point away at Anfield, so the sacking was probably justified. 

[The Gaffer]

I understand some of the reticence from non-supporters - it seems honestly quite rational and lovely in what can often be such a reactive, toxic hiring and firing landscape - but they're generally not coming from a place of having had to watch every Liverpool game this season. Or most of the games towards the second half of last season. 

Arne Slot done a fabulous job caretaking the club through what could have been a post-Klopp disaster slump. He was buoyed by Mo Salah having a generational freak season and the final tinkering of Klopp's formula and squad renewal clicking into place. There was obvious skill and composure within him as a manager that helped all of this to happen. 

But. But. 

When Slot's imprint started becoming more obvious toward the second half of last season, there was already cause for concern. I don't want to list the negatives, but they were there. I know people also don't want to hear about the emotional play/personality style arguments from the world's most annoyingly emotional club, but they're also there. They can't be removed. 

There's every likelihood Arne Slot would have made some improvements and tightened things up. There's probably a greater likelihood it still wouldn't have been enough for what Liverpool fans want to see. If someone like Iraola is interested, the right time is right now. 

I really liked Slot as a person too, and the news initially made me sadder than I thought I'd be. Hope he does well wherever he goes next. 

 

[Mr_Danger]

12 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Massively hampered by Wirtz being absolutely awful and Isak unfortunately missing a huge chunk of the season as well.

But even Spurs got a point away at Anfield, so the sacking was probably justified. 

Wirtz has been far from awful, he’s no Mac Allister or as I suspect the doppelgänger of the old Mac Allister who has taken his place for the last year. He is however ineffective in this team. He does loads of nice tidy things but often feels like he’s playing a different game to everyone else. I suspect with a midfield built to facilitate him we’ll see a much improved player next season. 
 

It’ll be Iraola I think, we clearly don’t want the big personality steward type which is why we weren’t interested in Xabi and we definitely won’t get Klopp back unless we cull the hierarchy set up.

[SuperBacon]

41 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

I suspect with a midfield built to facilitate him we’ll see a much improved player next season. 

I completely agree, but when I have seen him play, he's been dreadful, like he's trying too hard. But that's completely understandable. I think he's a great player, he's just been a big flop this season when Slot could've really done with him hitting the ground running. It happens.

[Cousin Jim Bob]

I saw quite a lot of Liverpool last season and Wirtz was often their best player. What probably hurt them most, was Salah usually looked their worst. He blatantly had given up on the pitch, and was being a pain in the arse in the press. Presumably he was being a total nightmare in the dressing room too.

Slot had a lot to deal with this season with that team, I think anyone would have struggled following up a title win.

Edited May 30 by Cousin Jim Bob

[SuperBacon]

Honestly? I thought Arsenal deserved to win that. Yeah they defended since the 6th minute but they completely nullified PSG, who were shite. It was a defensive master class. 

But thank fuck for that.