World, Writing, Wealth discussion

Premier League 19/20

Heard that Liverpool is going to win the title.

So what should we do to ease into the new era?

How about enjoy it? :) However, it's probably too early for them to rest on laurels.
I've been there that night in Kiev when they lost to Real Champion's League final and their fans through all the tears and booze promised to be back next year with a better goalkeeper.
Never thought it would happen, but hey - here they are holding the trophy this year. And going strong again.
With Italy dominated by Juventus (maybe this year they'll have competition), Germany - by Bayern, Barca & Real in Spain and PSG in France, English league remains most competitive and intriguing. So competitive, that domination eras of just one club like that of MU or Arsenal in the recent past, looks unlikely.

This year is Liverpool's best chance as Man City showing cracks and rest not up to it although keep eye on Leicester again flying high and have more secure defence than Liverpool - so far.

Liverpool 2 Watford 0

Read that Zidane said Real will destroy Liverpool if it gets it in Champions League. Hope we'll see this pair at some stage

My post already backfired as Liverpool lead stretched after Leicester drew

Hope their performance is not entirely dependable on our discussions here :)
Leicester is still a Cinderella and as such deserves all the superlatives. Bringing Rodgers as the manager seems to be a wise move

Liverpool is in the Club World Cup. They beat Monterrey 2-1 to reach the final of Club World Cup. They will face Flamengo (Brazil) in the final.

Due to a clash in schedule, Liverpool fielded a young squad in the EFL Quarterfinal. Liverpool lost 5-0 to Aston Villa.

EFL Cup Semi finalists: Man Utd, Man City, Aston Villa & Leicester

With Mour & Ancelloti getting recent appointments, Premier League has collected all the best managers, apart for .... Zidane, it seems

Week 19
Wolves 3 Man City 2
Leicester 0 Liverpool 4

Week 20
Liverpool 1 Wolves 0
Man City 2 Sheff Utd 0
West Ham 1 Leicester 2

Liverpool 13 points clear with game in hand at half way stage of games - theirs to lose

The stars are lining up for a Liverpool's league title after exactly 30 years.

13 points clear with a game in hand. And 17/18 games to go.

Both Sadio Mane and Mo Salah will NOT be affected by African Cup of Nations in April 2020 as their countries did not qualify.

The main thing - not to start celebrating too early, as sort of happened last year, when M.City won the title in the end :)

Week 21/22
Tottenham 0 Liverpool 1
Aston Villa 1 Man City 6
Man Utd 4 Norwich 0

I am not a Liverpool fan btw.

Just want to know what you all think.

Is a new era of English football coming?

Is this a one season wonder?

Long overdue for Liverpool after their 1980s history. I am sure City, United, Chelsea and Arsenal are all plotting for next season

One of the many advantages of the English football in recent years is its unpredictability. Quite a bunch of potent contenders and every once in while - a Cinderella making a spurt from behind :)
This season Liver looks unstoppable, but I expect a more close competition the next one.. And wait ... it's dangerous if they think its in their pockets already

Week 22/23
Liverpool 2 Man Utd 0
Man City 2 Crystal Palace 2

Chelsea 0 Man Utd 2

English league is decided this year. Nothing, incl. corona, will stop Liver from winning the title again after a few decades.
What I find amusing though is that 2-3-d tier teams managed to beat Liver & Tottenham this round of Champions League. A formidable Liver's attacking trio ends up with "0' strikes to the goal?! Simeone proved once again that tactical, defensive football is live & kicking.
Leipzig returning with a win from London? Amazing

What do I hear: the first loss of Liver in the league and a spectacular one no less!

And another one ... All of a sudden, Liverpool might be a little groggy

Disrupted indefinitely, wonder how and when it would end

End season with current positions - Liverpool love it but relegated clubs will not. Rugby has just closed season for most - Saracens relegated but were anyway due to financial scandal. Top club promoted they have big league. Rest stay where they are - i.e. no promotion or relegation
Football much harder because more money involved and relegation race is much closer and frequently goes to last game of season. Multiply that through the leagues.
I suspect 2019/20 season will continue to resolve but beyond June it gets very messy as players/managers contracts expire. This never used to be an issue until transfer windows forced contracts and moves into narrow windows.
Then there are the qualifying for other competitions on the back of results from Champion's League down, but also affects domestic cups for next season.

Coronavirus 1 Premier League 0

Jason wrote: "Coronavirus 1 Premier League 0"

Unfortunately, Jason, but I hope football will have a chance to score an equalizer soon :)

The season continues.

Man City beat Arsenal 3-0 to keep the pressure on pools.

Meanwhile, Man Utd drew their manager-turned-nemesis Jose's Tottenham side to dent Spurs' chance of qualifying for Champ League.

Chelsea helped to make it faster.
Congrats to Liver for the title and remarkable domination this year!

Congratulations to Liverpool for winning the Premier League!

Finally after 30 long years, they have finally succeeded!

Leaving the clubs aside for a sec, I'm glad for Yarmolenko returning from a long disability and scoring a winner for West Ham in injury time yesterday

I was glad for him too even if it ruined my small bet on yesterday evenings result.... :-(

Philip wrote: "I was glad for him too even if it ruined my small bet on yesterday evenings result.... :-("

Yeah, Chelsea looked a clear favorite b4 the game. Sorry, for your bet

Premier League season summary

Champion Liverpool

Top 1-4 qualify for Champ League: Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea

Top 5-6 qualify for Europa: Leicester, Spurs.

No 7 Wolves may qualify for Europa if Arsenal doesn't win Fa cup. Otherwise, Arsenal qualify for Europa.

Relegated: Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich.

Jason wrote: "Premier League season summary

Champion Liverpool

Top 1-4 qualify for Champ League: Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea

Top 5-6 qualify for Europa: Leicester, Spurs.

No 7 Wolves may qualify fo..."

That's what the statistics will read

Well summarized, Jason. The break shouldn't be long this summer. Looking forward to renewal of Champions League and the new season. Wonder whether corona will influence transfer market this year. With Patrick Mahomes signing the biggest, half a billion dollars worth, contract in sports just recently, who knows - maybe all is good in European football too

Nik wrote: "Well summarized, Jason. The break shouldn't be long this summer. Looking forward to renewal of Champions League and the new season. Wonder whether corona will influence transfer market this year. W..."

Premier League OK due to TV revenue which is why they had to finish the season. Rest of English pyramis is in serious trouble as they are very dependent on crowd revenue especially below championship.

Now that Man City have avoided ban for monetary misbehaviour all gloves will be off among Euro top leagues and the stupidity will get worse. Saw that Aston Villa spent £120m last summer plus wages. Luckily they scrapped to stay in PL The promoted clubs and relegated clubs get some compensation. The ones who spend in the Championship to get into PL will suffer. Wigan have just gone into Administration and may lose relegation appeal. i suspect they will be joined by several over the summer

UK TV revenue is something amazing, awarding even the bottom clubs with incomparably bigger than other leagues' income. They announce "financial fair play", but with the deep pockets of some owners, not sure it's not mostly a slogan.
In this sense, NBA and NHL in my opinion have a better system to ensure competitiveness, whereby the weakest team gets the best draft

Inspired by Philip’s post about football managers, but not in the context of discrimination, wonder what you, guys, think whether best footballers should necessarily become good managers? Zidane or Ancelotti were excellent players and became successful coaches, while Mourihno or Koop didn’t exactly shine as footballers, but reached the coaching top. And the best steel worker doesn’t necessarily become the manager of the steel plant.

Nik wrote: "Inspired by Philip’s post about football managers, but not in the context of discrimination, wonder what you, guys, think whether best footballers should necessarily become good managers? Zidane or..."

All true although the best footballer I ever saw play live (Christiano Ronaldo and George Best close 2dn's) Johann Cruyff was an excellent manager.

The absolute best footballer is not a pre-requisite but surprising on numbers who don't given numbers who play.

Arsenal won the FA cup so they qualify for Europa.

Wolves (Eng) now needs to win the Europa to qualify for Champ League.

Shakhtar Donetsk 3, Wolfsburg 0 (Shakhtar advances 5-1) |MATCH REPLAY
Copenhagen 3, Istanbul Basaksehir 0 (Copenhagen advances 3-1) | MATCH REPLAY
Manchester United 2, LASK 1 (United advances 7-1) | MATCH REPLAY
Inter Milan 2, Getafe 0 (single elimination)

Inter Milan advances by playing one match on neutral ground.




Thursday, Aug. 6


Sevilla vs. Roma, 12:55 p.m. on CBS All Access (single elimination)
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Rangers, 12:55 p.m. on CBS All Access (Leverkusen leads 3-1 on aggregate)
Basel vs. Frankfurt, 3 p.m. on CBS All Access (Basel leads 3-0 on aggregate)
Wolverhampton Wanderers vs. Olympiacos, 3 p.m. on CBS All Access (tied 1-1 on aggregate)

Tons of matches coming up every 2-3 days.

Thanks for the updates, Jason. As we have the bartender and the chief sanitary inspector, an unpaid sports commentator position is up for the grabs, if you want it :) Looking forward to Real vs City tomorrow

Not this time, Zidane. City was better. Hazard disappeared on the pitch, while Varane starred for ... the City. Pretty good football though

Any thoughts on Arsenal's actions sacking 65 staff to save £2-3m whilst owner increases fortune by £300m and Ozil sits doing nothing for £320,000 per week...

Unveiled hypocrisy, I guess, although I understand they cut salaries of managerial staff and players too. Unfortunately, the lower the rank the more disposable is the employee. It's easier to fire 65 than deal with the real problem

Champ League

Which teams are involved in the Champions League draws?
When the draw is made on July 10, only four teams are confirmed for the quarter-finals. They are: Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Man City and Lyon.

Meanwhile, real madrid, chelsea and juventus are out of champ league.

Champ League QF:

Atalanta vs PSG
Barcelona vs Bayern Munich
Leipzig vs A. Madrid
Man city vs Lyon

Barca vs Bayern looks by far the most intriguing

Europa league semi final.

Man Utd vs sevilla

Inter milan vs Shakhtar

who will win?

Shock of Leipzig is interesting. Give being played on neutral venues in single match very hard to cal it. Copenhagen gave United a very hard game (despite united chances).I suspect Sevilla will be harder but very hard to judge.

Prima facia, MU & Inter are clear favorites, but Leipzig demonstrated again that everything's possible. Lucesku - a former coach of both Inter and Shakhtar suggests that it would be very hard for Inter to get the ball from the Shakhtar's Brazilians (they have 13 on the roster no less)

Sevilla is the first finalist on account of MU