2017/18 (Soccer) Football Thread

1. Which teams are the top favorites to win the Cl? Which teams might surprise? Real Madrid, Bayern. RB Leipzig, Rijeka (if they get to the group stage), one Manchester side (surely one has to reach the last eight)
2. Which teams are the top favorites to win their respective leagues? in UEFA country coefficient order: Real Madrid, Bayern, anyone, Juventus, Paris, I'd like to say Zenit but they have underachieved the last two seasons so Spartak Moscow again for now, Benfica.
3. Which players will impress the most? Which rather unknown players might have their breakthrough this season? Joshua Kimmich, Marco Asensio, Paul Pogba. Niklas Süle, Marvin Plattenhardt, Youri Tielemans, Kasper Dolberg (the last two are sort of more known but will be even better this season).
4. Which teams had the best transfer period (yet)? Hannover 96, Man City, Bayern, Paris.
5. What is the best transfer done (yet)? Sead Kolašinac easily. With the large piles of money thrown to virtually every player this transfer window, Arsenal managed to grab one of the best left wingbacks last season (was voted into the Bundesliga TOTS) on a free; calling that a steal is a large understatement.
 

reyscarface

is a Tournament Director Alumnusis a Social Media Contributor Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Community Contributor Alumnusis a Tiering Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnusis a Dedicated Tournament Host Alumnusdefeated the Smogon Frontier
World Defender
Good result for Napoli but cant help but be disappointed. 20 shots and only 2 goals? We were very, very wasteful, and thats the difference between teams like Madrid and us. Pls Sarri do some finishing drills on training.
 
Can we do it on a cold rainy night at Stoke? No
Can we play Bundesliga's left back of the season as a left back? No
Really depressing stuff from us yesterday, we desperately need Sanchez and Koscienly back. Man United however look really good and while Swansea and West Ham are not good, it's against teams like them that United dropped points last season.
 
Can we do it on a cold rainy night at Stoke? No
Can we play Bundesliga's left back of the season as a left back? No
Really depressing stuff from us yesterday, we desperately need Sanchez and Koscienly back. Man United however look really good and while Swansea and West Ham are not good, it's against teams like them that United dropped points last season.
Let's wait a bit longer before passing judgements. Last season, Man Utd and Man City both won their first 3 games and were tipped for the title while Chelsea was nowhere to be seen after 5 games or so. Plus, as you said, West Ham and Swansea are not very good teams while Man Utd usually start their season strongly.
 
Since the new season is just around the corner, it seems about time to make a new one :D

Questions to get some discussion started:
1. Which teams are the top favorites to win the Cl? Which teams might surprise?
2. Which teams are the top favorites to win their respective leagues?
3. Which players will impress the most? Which rather unknown players might have their breakthrough this season?
4. Which teams had the best transfer period (yet)?
5. What is the best transfer done (yet)?

Happy posting!

249553-82594 is the code for the Smogon Fantasy League.
1. Real Madrid, ofc. I think Man City can surprise this season, but I'm not sure about it.
2. PSG, Both teams of Manchester, Real/Barcelona and Bayern.
3. Neymar kek. Richarlison, who plays in Watford, is very good. I know him 'cause he played for Fluminense FC.
4. Man City.
5. Neymar again.
 
Tired of Arsenal as a club. Love em but hate em.

Can't wait for Wenger to leave.. getting knocked out of playing in the CL wasn't enough to shake things up... hell... it didn't do a fucking thing.

Massive changes starting from the top is needed.


Other than that.. enjoy watching those colors play :)
 
Tired of Arsenal as a club. Love em but hate em.

Can't wait for Wenger to leave.. getting knocked out of playing in the CL wasn't enough to shake things up... hell... it didn't do a fucking thing.

Massive changes starting from the top is needed.


Other than that.. enjoy watching those colors play :)
I actually started asking a bunch of Arsenal fans every year since 4-5 years ago if they would trade a CL spot for firing Wenger, the answer was "no" every single year, mainly because no CL means players are less likely to want to come (though I really believe the problem with Arsenal signing players is more with Wenger than anything, CL or not). and now they miss the CL and keep Wenger lol.
 
We're just a bunch of pretenders. The whole club puts on this act like they're some top club, top threat and always competing.. no.. never. It's a cash cow.. literally all Kroenke cares about with every fucking team he owns. And Wenger doesn't put any pressure on anyone because he's a standup guy, stubborn, and believes in the relationships he makes with players lmao.

Man United, Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs.. regardless of success and history.. all these top clubs legit try to adapt, grow, strengthen, and compete to get the title. That's their goal. Whether they fail, never succeed, take a few seasons off to get shit going again and figure it out.. that's why they exist, and as a supporter surely you feel your club is doing what they can to please their fans.. (of course to make a profit as well.. but it's a balance)

Arsenal just want to do juuuuuuuust enough to keep them at the top, but don't give a fucking fuck if they win it all or not. And that's the worst part.. being in limbo.

I wish so much I could just say fuck it and bail on Arsenal.. aka Groundhog's Day FC, but it's just not possible.

Just feel like venting.. sure there are plenty of clubs that wish they were in our shoes.. doesn't mean you still don't want the best for your club and to grow from where you're at.

If you're gonna be a top club.. you fucking commit and be a top club. Sure all the supporters could not care about performances and be like.. eh we lost oh well.. love watching the boys play.. but it's too late for that. The bar has been set and met throughout the years.. there's no turning back now.. can't just keep riding history and just coasting along.



It's a beautiful fucking thing watching your club win, in any capacity.


I'm sure the players love playing for Arsenal though.. once you learn to ignore the fanbase, you can just coast and enjoy the pay with no pressure from a single person at the club.
 
We're just a bunch of pretenders. The whole club puts on this act like they're some top club, top threat and always competing.. no.. never. It's a cash cow.. literally all Kroenke cares about with every fucking team he owns. And Wenger doesn't put any pressure on anyone because he's a standup guy, stubborn, and believes in the relationships he makes with players lmao.

Man United, Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs.. regardless of success and history.. all these top clubs legit try to adapt, grow, strengthen, and compete to get the title. That's their goal. Whether they fail, never succeed, take a few seasons off to get shit going again and figure it out.. that's why they exist, and as a supporter surely you feel your club is doing what they can to please their fans.. (of course to make a profit as well.. but it's a balance)

Arsenal just want to do juuuuuuuust enough to keep them at the top, but don't give a fucking fuck if they win it all or not. And that's the worst part.. being in limbo.

I wish so much I could just say fuck it and bail on Arsenal.. aka Groundhog's Day FC, but it's just not possible.
I feel similarly about my own club (Roma), in that we only really care about the money and not winning, all while pretending we're a top club in our league. The difference is that your brand is way better than ours, and we fire our managers too often, unlike Arsenal. Since the beginning of the 2010-11 season, we've had 8 different managers (Ranieri, Montella, Enrique, Zeman, Andreazolli, Garcia, Spalletti, Di Francesco). That's 8 managers in 8 seasons. Oh, did I mention we've also had 4 different owners in that time span (Sensi, Cappelli, DiBenedetto, Pallotta)?

Every time we come close to winning and look like we're becoming a threat, we sell one or two of our key players (Marquinhos, Osvaldo in 2013-14; Benatia in 2014-15; Pjanic in 2015-16; Salah, Paredes, Rudiger in 2016-17), some to domestic competition, too, for way below their market value. Our promising young talent who have been on loan also get sold to domestic competition (Bertolacci, Romagnoli to Milan in 2015-16), and our replacements are usually overpriced players from random leagues that turn out to be utter garbage that we struggle to sell (Ibarbo, Doumbia, Trashley Cole [okay he came for free], Iturbe, Holebas).

This season we brought in Monchi who was supposed to get us good talent for cheap and transform us into a Sevilla of sorts, and before he came he even said his job would be easier since we have 10x the budget Sevilla did (hard to believe). Oh, but then rumour was that we had to come up with €100m for FFP, and so we sold Salah, Paredes, and Rudiger for below market value, whilst struggling to get anyone in return smh. He was trying to get Mahrez for close to €40m ffs.

Just had to rant some, especially after only narrowly beating Atalanta 1-0 in our opener smdh.
 
We're just a bunch of pretenders. The whole club puts on this act like they're some top club, top threat and always competing.. no.. never. It's a cash cow.. literally all Kroenke cares about with every fucking team he owns. And Wenger doesn't put any pressure on anyone because he's a standup guy, stubborn, and believes in the relationships he makes with players lmao.

Man United, Chelsea, City, Liverpool, Spurs.. regardless of success and history.. all these top clubs legit try to adapt, grow, strengthen, and compete to get the title. That's their goal. Whether they fail, never succeed, take a few seasons off to get shit going again and figure it out.. that's why they exist, and as a supporter surely you feel your club is doing what they can to please their fans.. (of course to make a profit as well.. but it's a balance)

Arsenal just want to do juuuuuuuust enough to keep them at the top, but don't give a fucking fuck if they win it all or not. And that's the worst part.. being in limbo.

I wish so much I could just say fuck it and bail on Arsenal.. aka Groundhog's Day FC, but it's just not possible.

Just feel like venting.. sure there are plenty of clubs that wish they were in our shoes.. doesn't mean you still don't want the best for your club and to grow from where you're at.

If you're gonna be a top club.. you fucking commit and be a top club. Sure all the supporters could not care about performances and be like.. eh we lost oh well.. love watching the boys play.. but it's too late for that. The bar has been set and met throughout the years.. there's no turning back now.. can't just keep riding history and just coasting along.



It's a beautiful fucking thing watching your club win, in any capacity.


I'm sure the players love playing for Arsenal though.. once you learn to ignore the fanbase, you can just coast and enjoy the pay with no pressure from a single person at the club.
Everyone is saying that about Liverpool too with not being able to attract top transfer targets and Klopp not wanting to get any alternatives or players in to bulk up the squad. Plus, with the future of Coutinho uncertain, I am not sure we can have a good Europe + league run.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top