26/27 football thread

[SuperBacon]

4 minutes ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

Well yes but when you've spent £150 million or so over those two years and completely replaced most your squad it's kinda hard not to Championship Manager your team into the top 3 or 4.

It's much more complex than that. Sure they spent money, but up against Fergusons United, and Wengers Arsenal (coming off the back of the unbeaten season) to win a first league title for 50 years with 95 points and 15 goals conceded over a league campaign was very impressive.

Playing really good football to do it, he absolutely elevated some of those players beyond their level. He was an elite manager.

[d-d-d-dAz]

8 minutes ago, I Bent My Wookie said:

Well yes but when you've spent £150 million or so over those two years and completely replaced most your squad it's kinda hard not to Championship Manager your team into the top 3 or 4.

I don't know about this. There's lots of examples of teams spending shit loads of cash and it not working because they haven't got a strategy for tying it all together and giving the team an identity.

Chelsea couldn't have won the league without investing, but they also couldn't have won it without Mourinho's ability to craft a bunker mentality, and have players ready to run through walls for him. It was just a perfect fit; they had the resources and the right man to manage it.

He also did get performances out of some players which you look back on and think... i'm not sure they were really that level, but he made them so.

[I Bent My Wookie]

I will hold my hands up and point out I was 11 during that season so maybe I wasn't as knowledgeable as I could've been back then, but it did feel like when half the team left for nothing or very little amounts and this wave of European league talents came in, while admittedly to be as defensively sound as they were did still feel a bit like finding the chest code. 

Maybe I'm just looking at it from too close to a business sense, inflation wise it's close to £300million he spent in his first summer if inflation rates rise which needed to guarantee success but that was a summer where United were buying Wayne Rooney and the second coming of Jesus in Alan Smith. Arsenal were buying young Robin Van Persie's, Liverpool sold Michael Owen and replaced him with Cisse. 

All this is never minding the £120 million profit loss Chelsea made the year before on transfers under Rainieri that laid foundations of a squad already with Makalele, Lampard, Terry, Joe Cole even someone like Glen Johnson who was in and around the England squad at that point. 

I don't doubt Jose is one of the best managers of the 21st century, but I feel any manager with a bit of forward thinking could have done anything with Chelsea at the time Roman was throwing money about. 

[Carbomb]

2 hours ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Not sure where else to post this.

Jose Mourinho reveals in his Netflix documentary that he agreed to succeed Sir Alex at Man United. Fergie pops up and confirms.

Interesting (well to me anyway) to think what Jose could have done if he didn't change his mind and go back to Chelsea. 

The cynical side of me reckons he wouldn't have done anything, for the simple reason he was in full-on grifter mode. If you look at his pattern back then, he invariably took over at a club, got some silverware, then would lose the locker-room with some spurious grumpiness and mercurial bollocks, then get fired with a big payout.

I remember posting a tweet on an older football thread that a journalist had pointed out that, at the time just before he left Spurs, he'd already netted £97m in golden handshakes. It seems his business model is the same as the British League Managers' Lunch Club.

Edited August 10 by Carbomb
Ralph Milne

[air_raid]

The Premier League starting on Friday night instead of Saturday is utter bollocks.

[SuperBacon]

14 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

just before he left Spurs,

I love him, just not when he's managing my team.

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

The Premier League starting on Friday night instead of Saturday is utter bollocks.

No? Football on a Friday night is great. What else you going to watch, Not Going Out? (Took a punt on a show I'm not even sure is still going!)

[Frankie Crisp]

Brennan Johnson to Everton in a swap for Dwight McNeil might be the only bit of business in football history where both clubs are getting done over.

Although we can all put our mortgage on Johnson scoring the winner in the season opener.

[SuperBacon]

2 minutes ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Brennan Johnson to Everton in a swap for Dwight McNeil might be the only bit of business in football history where both clubs are getting done over.

Although we can all put our mortgage on Johnson scoring the winner in the season opener.

Ange honestly worked wonders with him, as he has been absolutely honking since he left Spurs. There's a good player there I think, but only when it's playing to his strengths which is solely arriving at the back post for a tap in.

[TheBurningRed]

1 hour ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Brennan Johnson to Everton in a swap for Dwight McNeil might be the only bit of business in football history where both clubs are getting done over.

 

Both will probably end up doing well for the other. Sanchez and Mkhitaryan swapping as great players to end up being absolute shite for United and Arsenal went down as a both clubs got done over for me. 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

5 hours ago, Frankie Crisp said:

Brennan Johnson to Everton in a swap for Dwight McNeil might be the only bit of business in football history where both clubs are getting done over.

Although we can all put our mortgage on Johnson scoring the winner in the season opener.

Smarter money is Dwight scoring the winner for your lot in a true Everton That moment

Genuinely shocked that we’ve pulled that deal off in all fairness, just so unusual, by our standards, to do a deal like that

[Devon Malcolm]

They're both shite, aren't they? A couple of seasons ago when Johnson was banging them in for Spurs was an anomaly in an otherwise below mediocre career so far. As for McNeil, he's got about 250 Premier League career appearances under his belt and I couldn't tell you a single thing he's done in them. A completely weird deal that neither strengthens nor weakens either team.

[tiger_rick]

On 8/6/2026 at 12:56 PM, SuperBacon said:

This is an interesting read. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/aug/06/coming-up-six-promoted-teams-to-look-out-for-in-europe-this-season

I had no idea that despite playing in the Swiss Super League, Vaduz aren't eligible to win it.

Bit like how Spurs aren't eligible to win the Premier League every season eh? Waheeeeeeeey. 

 

I did but only because this is a popular Football Manager challenge. You have to win the Champions League with Vaduz but the only way to get into it is to qualify for the Conference League through their domestic cup, win that, then the Europa to qualify for the CL and then win that. All the while, trying to build a team good enough, which means finishing top of the Swiss league every season without ever winning it!

[air_raid]

On 8/10/2026 at 5:38 PM, SuperBacon said:

No? Football on a Friday night is great. What else you going to watch, Not Going Out? (Took a punt on a show I'm not even sure is still going!)

My arse are you wasting your Friday watching the Arsenal.

[SuperBacon]

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

the Arsenal

[air_raid]

22 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

Edit - nvm

Edited August 11 by air_raid
Fam.