The Real Football Thread

Yeah good move. Not a guarentee he will succeed but the ceiling/potential is now higher than it's ever been.

Got Spurs (a club with 1 league cup in the last 60+ years) to a Champions league final. Nearly got PSG there except for Man City finally not choking. The fact that he got Chelsea up to 6th last season given the absolute boardroom chaos he had to deal with, was impressive.

Bayer Levurkusen needs a 30 for 30.

Xabi Alonso took over as manager in 2022 while they were in relegation zone. He got them into Europa league qualifiers that season. Last season he led them to their first ever league title, with 0 losses and 30 goals scored after the 85th minute. They also won the German Cup and their only loss was the Europa League final vs a very good Atalanta team.

Over the summer he turned down Liverpool and Bayern Munich (2 of his playing days clubs). Had Ancelotti not won the double with Madrid and have his Brazil move fall through, it's likely he would have been their top choice as well. Star player Florian Wirtz allegedly turned down the same moves.

This season they won the German Super Cup (3 trophies now, Bayer had 2 in their entire 120 year history), and today they played their first game of the Bundesliga season. Monchengladbach equalized 2-2 in the 85th minute. Wirtz then scored the winner in the 11th minute of stoppage time.

I've been watching football for almost 30 years and this may be the most insane run I've ever seen in any league. Leicester City is probably the only thing close but that was 1 season amd they eventually got relegated (but are back now).

Someone somewhere has a 20 leg parlay riding on this game

"And Sensoli has won it! San Marino have reached the promised land!"

- Clive Tyldesley, probably

I disagree about him failing upward. He's no Roberto Martinez.

Chelsea and PSG were insanely challenging jobs. PSG was drama and egos in the locker room, Mbappe always wanted out and hated being 2nd fiddle, Neymar is injury prone, Messi while not necessarily on the decline was becoming less effective at dictating Champions League games which was PSG's only objective. A weak league also didn't challenge them enough to prepare them for Champions League, and good but not great talent outside of their 3 Rolls Royce attackers just mentioned.

Chelsea is a disaster and has continued to be under Todd Bohley. They have a video game transfer policy and the fact that he managed to get them to gel enough to finish 6th is amazing to me. Getting fired at Chelsea is always a matter of time, and that dates back to the Roman era.

The USMNT will be a challenge. We also have egos, players based in weak leagues, and insane expectations from the media/fans. But if he can tactically organize them like he did in the Spurs era, there may be a chance to do well. Spurs have won ONE trophy (a league cup lol) since the 1960s and he got them to challenge for the Premier League title and a Champions League final with not much world class talent outside of Son and Kane. I'm sure our 2026 WC group draw will be friendly to us thanks to FIFA.

Poch is an amazing get compared to back to back Gregg hires. 

I bow down to my new loon idol:

I think Barça might be back.

lamine > mpoopie

i don't care much about Rodri winning the Ballon d'Or, but Leverkusen not winning club of the year is a robbery.