Been watching a lot of old matches. Iconic teams, players, I've heard mention on here and other places. Guess what? Liverpool were pretty good in the '70s!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcl0wWR3QSc&t=34s

What surprised me was the level of skill. I hadn't realized just how good some of these players were. When people trot out the old line "they could play today" it seems over the top but some of these guys really could.

I realise you’ll pretend not to see this so won’t reply, but why would it surprise anyone that former players could play today? Players from the 60s, 70s and every other other past decade would be subjected to today’s dietary restrictions, playing styles, training and fitness regimes plus other facets of the modern day rather than those when they played.

Taking that into account, why on earth would anyone think they couldn’t adapt to play today, especially when considering how much more violent the tackling was in their day making it even easier for talented players to perform now.

I suppose if the argument ‘they would not function today’ does apply to anyone, it would be the players who relied on violence. But I certainly believe the large majority could carve a career out in the modern game. The recently deceased Norman Hunter easily had enough about his game to function today. His teammates like Johnny Giles and Billy Bremner had great skill as well as using violence, and their non-teammate Alan Ball was similar. I think less talented guys like Peter Storey and Tommy Smith would have as well. I would even expect Chopper Harris to as well considering his leadership qualities.

By comparison I suspect it would have been much easier for talents like Charlie George, Alan Hudson, Eddie Gray, George Best, Peter Osgood, Liam Brady and countless others to play today.

Enjoy this Bernard
https://youtu.be/1TW41P5KQGg

Thanks for that. I was a young kid at the time but my dad took me to that away game at Man City when Charlie scored twice. I’m not certain but I think the game was played midweek because it was an FA Cup tie which had been postponed from the previous weekend. Looking at the state of the Maine Road pitch when it was played, if that was an improvement to what it was like at the weekend I’m not surprised it had been postponed.

I still don’t see the logic in thinking that Charlie and countless other guys with talent couldn’t play in today’s game. Of course they could.

Yes of course, completely agree. Charlie and the like would have been top players in any era.
Very nostalgic seeing a proper mudbath at Maine Road - used to play on pitches like that as a youth. Has football really improved with all the money etc? Probably my age but football in the 70s was more exciting and passionate than the sterile fare we often get served up with today.

Özil has rejected the 12.5 percent reduction

Didn’t you just know it would be him. Disastrous signing

Wonder who the other 2 are.

I was wondering that.

Kinda cool hearing the small things behind the scenes we were never privy to. RvP improving from what Sol said to him about how he plays. If I were a striker, I'd definitely ask the defenders on my team what aspects of my game gave them an advantage. Seems simple and logical but I wonder how many ask that? a
PS: Robin, you are still a Judas rat b@astard.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... l-21898866

One of the toughest things is leaving at the right time. Ferguson knew he wasn't going to win again his last title. The landscape changed and credit to him, he was smart enough to see it.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/extraordin ... 13320.html
'Extraordinary guy' Wenger should have left after 2017 FA Cup final triumph - Arsenal great Wilson

You haven't countered anything. Simply labelling anything you disagree with as 'fake news' doesn't count.

What do you mean 'negativity'? There may be a time and a place for looking away from the harsher aspects of reality -- childrens' parties, when one is about to go to bed at night and needs to clear ones mind --but I'd suggest that the midst of a pandemic is not the time or place, least of all for the likes of Trump and Johnson.

My guess would be 'all'.

It’s hard to imagine just how the transfer situation will play out. Surely we won’t still have insane bidding and salaries will we?

Today it’s being reported that there are ‘leaked’ documents showing Barcelona’s Doomsday scenario of £882m losses and the Nou Camp being closed for 10 months.

Surely the only way that anybody can bid a price up is with sugar daddy injections of the sort that Financial Fair Play was supposed to stop (but didn’t).

Hi ltg,

Who knows how this will play out, football is a law unto itself. You would think (hope) that the financial implications of the coronavirus would be a massive reality check and that if, and when, things get back to some degree of normality, the landscape will have changed forever.

The problem is how do you undo the financial excesses in football of the last decade or so. Players used to obscene salaries paid for largely by tv money will not want to get paid less, as evidenced by the reluctance of players to take salary cuts.

The transfer window might be quiet for a while but I suspect it won't be too long before stupid fees get paid again as the biggest clubs battle for the best talents.

FFP should be called FFS, its not going to work. Anyway, logically prices should be going down as well as the PL revenue it shares with all the clubs. The players will likely have to live under this new environment, cut back on the lifestyle and go for the bargain brands at Tesco.

I can imagine a scenario where the lower divisions are ravaged and broke or have no cash. This must have a knock-on effect above. I can’t actually see where Arsenal would get any money from to fund an improvement. The will might be there but unlikely to be the means.

I don’t know how many clubs could make a decision to seriously invest in the current climate.

What should be happening is that sponsorship, television rights and players contracts should all be altered temporarily or renegotiated now whilst this is going on. This is what pretty much most services businesses are having to do up and down the country.

The 12.5 percent is just the start of this. Just wait. If you can’t open a pub till Christmas what about opening a football stadium

This however would involve pragmatism from players, execs and business partners of the clubs. Don’t expect to see this happen anytime soon. This is the thing about football, everyone wants their cake and eat it.

Two issues arise about attendance and therefore gate receipts. When will clubs be allowed to open their stadia is one thing. More crucially is how many people would be prepared to take the risk of putting themselves into such a crowd?

Many of Arsenal’s older generation might decide to opt out for the foreseeable.

You know nothing of whether I care for people dying or whether I am doing anything to help. This sort of slander is precisely what bigots do: you have a psychological need to justify to yourself that the object of your hatred 'deserves' all they get, so that you can continue with the illusion that you are a decent human being. If anyone disagrees with any of your views, it must be because they are an evil Lefty with evil motives and probably advanced venereal disease too.

Please carefully peruse post #520170 and let me know which of the the points you contest.

Not a problem for China apparently.

It’s reported that a new stadium is being built for Guangzhou Evergrande with a capacity of 100,000. Hope it’s not near a virus research lab.

I agree, those who are elderly or have underlying health issues (let's face it that's a fairly large percentage of the over 40s) are unlikely to want to risk big gatherings at least until an effective treatment or a vaccine are available.

I'm not sure how the lower league clubs survive this as they are heavily reliant on gate receipts to pay wages.

Yes. If the stadium doesn’t get you then the tube/train will.

That's rather harsh, bubble.

Personally I couldn't care less who is in government, my concerns are solely about how well this pandemic is being navigated. I think we were slow out of the blocks both in terms of lock-downs and in garnering supplies of PPE and the cost of that could be the highest death rate in europe.

Absolutely, imagine travelling on the tube or train on a matchday.

Me neither.

I see that the EFL are keen to finish the Championship but not Div One and Two because the lower leagues would have virtually no TV income and zero gate receipts.

In their typical half arsed way they are suggesting that the Championship be played out to a conclusion and that Divs One and Two be decided on a points per game basis. Which is all well and fine except that many of the non league divisions have been simply wrapped up as though they never happened (devastating to those clubs in a Liverpool type situation. In fact one club was already mathematically certain of being promoted having won every game).

Decaf your answers are in the link posted by Niall

If these posts are left on the site I promise to never argue them again.

Enough said by me. Let's talk football or Brexit...............

I have removed two lengthy posts regarding the British Governments rebuttal of the recent articles written about their response to CoronaVirus over the weekend.

For those interested in that they can be read here: It looks like a direct lift from this site.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ponse.html.

Cheers Niall sorry for the aggro. I got this from another site and thank you for posting link to same.

That would be good.



Except for the Brexit bit

Never going to happen. Ooops

I really hope all the first class cricket counties survive. Even my personal least favourites Surrey and Yorkshire, as well as those I find the most boring (Northamptonshire top of the list though the other East Midlands ones, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire aren’t too far behind).

My dislike of some football clubs is clearly more extreme. While I realise they won’t, if any (or ideally all) of Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool went under, it wouldn’t bother me at all.

Presumably linked to me coming from the area, I’ve never liked Barnet FC. But I do hope they survive.

Well that is news to me, I never knew one cricket team could be more boring than another.

I read somewhere (not sure how true) that the players would effectively have to be quarantined in a hotel for the duration of the remaining games, which could be a couple of months. Lower league clubs would not want the expense of doing that plus the players are hardly likely to relish being locked away from their families for two months at such a difficult time.

The County sides don't get any spectators anyway so it wouldn't be too bad playing behind closed doors.

The quarantine requirement looks to be a nailed on certainty.

I’ve always found Middlesex (as I support them), the other Greater London ones Surrey and Essex, the northern rivals Lancashire and Yorkshire (but not Durham) and Warwickshire (because Birmingham is such a big place) as the most interesting counties. The south coast ones Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Somerset are also fairly interesting (though less so than the others I’ve just mentioned). Then come the West Country ones, Glamorgan in Wales, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, probably around the level of Durham from the north. Bottom of the pile in who I find interesting are the East Midlands ones, from the least boring to the most boring Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire.

I do hope they all survive though.

I have already done all the hard work for Gooners and found a song for him if his name is pronounced anywhere close.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/04/20/atletico ... -12584744/
Atletico Madrid offer to double Thomas Partey’s wages to fend off Arsenal interest