Football The 2025-26 Football Thread

[SilverHood]

I just keep thinking that if Man United had won that first game against Arsenal, we'd be champions now.

 

[Scouse]

Naughty, @Aoami...

Southampton expelled from play-offs for spying on Middlesbrough, Oxford and Ipswich

Southampton have been thrown out of the play-offs after admitting they spied on three clubs during the Championship season.

www.bbc.com

Championship playoffs should restart with Wrexham replacing Southampton, says Windass

The Wrexham forward Josh Windass has called for the Championship playoffs to be started again, with his team involved, after Southampton’s expulsion

www.theguardian.com

I thought that immediately tbh.

 

[Raven]

They should certainly be postponed, I imagine half the players have abandoned any training for a bit, as their season is over...or was over

 

[DaGaffer]

Championship playoffs should restart with Wrexham replacing Southampton, says Windass

The Wrexham forward Josh Windass has called for the Championship playoffs to be started again, with his team involved, after Southampton’s expulsion

www.theguardian.com

I thought that immediately tbh

Unfairly penalises Hull if they restart.

 

[Ormorof]

Will certainly be an interesting playoff final.

 

[caLLous]

I have not enjoyed this. I will never take being safe with a load of games left to play for granted ever again.

 

[DaGaffer]

I'm pleased United didn't take their foot of the gas in the final game (they've done that a lot over the years); and Hull City getting promoted is nice too. Also Liverpool and Chelsea are rubbish (great) and Guardiola lost his last game, which is also great.

As for Spurs/West Ham, well Spurs have always been my "London team" and I loathe West Ham, so it's all good, but fuck me, Spurs are shite.

All in all a pretty good final day.

 

[caLLous]

...Spurs are shite.

Noted, but I don't think people appreciate the injury trauma we've been through this season. A number of key players have been injured all season or picked up season-ending injuries during it and we didn't do nearly enough in the January window after somehow getting £35m for Brennan Johnson. We lost Kudus to an injury about a day after that, then didn't buy anyone to cover for that loss for the last 3 weeks of the window and then we lost Odobert the week after the window closed. So the right winger position has just been "whoever's fit" for the last 4 months. Which in turn made the whole front line feel makeshift because players weren't in their preferred positions, Richarlison is over the hill (although he's somehow our top scorer this season) and Kolo Muani was out of position and "only" a loan so it didn't feel like he was giving it his all (presumably reflected by his exclusion from France's World Cup squad).

Three serious ACL injuries in one season (Maddison, Odobert and Simons) is just plain bad luck, whichever way you look at it, then add Kudus who was supposed to be back but had a set back and Solanke who has been injured more often than not, Kulusevski who (it feels like) might never play again... All of those are offensive players and all of them are either starters or first names to be called from the bench. It's basically the entire front half of the team that's been patched together for the majority of the season.

Also, it's what you get when you're coached by a fucking coward for 2/3 of the season. Frank basically taught the players to be scared of every single opponent. The guy's a total loser who is incapable of coaching a big club where it's expected that they should dictate the game, not cower in their own half waiting to launch a tentative counter or nick a goal from a set piece. An all-timer disastrous appointment who should've been sacked months earlier (he should've resigned in shame but that was never likely to happen).

 

[caLLous]

Wow!

Liverpool sack head coach Arne Slot one year after winning Premier League title

Liverpool have announced: ‘Arne Slot is to depart his role as head coach with immediate effect and that the process to appoint a successor is under way’

www.theguardian.com

Not sure why you think it's political but I bet they're kicking themselves for letting Alonso go to Chelsea if they were planning to sack Slot all along. He would've been a much more sensible appointment than Iraola, who is a hell of a risk for such a big club.

 

[Raven]

Shame about Arsenal. Penalties suck.

 

[Deebs]

Shame about Arsenal. Penalties suck.

Yeh but it was Arsanal so all is good.

 

[Raven]

World Cup 2026: Iran fan ticket allocation revoked, says FFIRI

Iran's football federation says its allocation of tickets for the group stage of the World Cup has been revoked just days before the tournament.

www.bbc.co.uk

*plays Benny Hill music*

 

[DaGaffer]

World Cup 2026: Iran fan ticket allocation revoked, says FFIRI

Iran's football federation says its allocation of tickets for the group stage of the World Cup has been revoked just days before the tournament.

www.bbc.co.uk

*plays Benny Hill music*

What a shock. FIFA's mission for the last 25 years has been "let's find a government who are bigger cunts than we are". Mission finally accomplished.

 

[caLLous]

 

[Embattle]

So far I'm not sure he'll be adding a World Cup to his honours.

 

[Lamp]

How is FIFA allowed to continue given the amount of corruption inside it ?

 

[Ormorof]

How is FIFA allowed to continue given the amount of corruption inside it ?

Can’t be corrupt if it’s a non profit in Switzerland, no profits to embezzle!

 

[Scouse]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvcxfaQo79s

 

[Overdriven]

You know if it wasn't for the fact I check Reddit I'd have ZERO idea that the World Cup was actually happening right now. There have been no conversations about it in town, there has been very little announcements about it, and the timing is horrid. I only noticed a few days ago that our local has got stuff hanging off their walls with flags, but there's no... "Wow" as it was last time.

I know England are playing (Today?) but like.. Meh.

I suppose this is a benefit of not having watched broadcast TV in over a year, no adverts/no news spamming it.

 

[Scouse]

I'm in a sweepstakes, got Ecuador.

Even that hasn't prompted me to watch any. But I saw that, and thought it was funny.

 

[DaGaffer]

You know if it wasn't for the fact I check Reddit I'd have ZERO idea that the World Cup was actually happening right now. There have been no conversations about it in town, there has been very little announcements about it, and the timing is horrid. I only noticed a few days ago that our local has got stuff hanging off their walls with flags, but there's no... "Wow" as it was last time.

I know England are playing (Today?) but like.. Meh.

I suppose this is a benefit of not having watched broadcast TV in over a year, no adverts/no news spamming it.

It's the scheduling. Most people are watching at best one in three games because of the times the games are on. I'm basically just checking my phone when I wake up and that's my World Cup done for the day. Oh and I've watched The Rest Is Football (which ironically is by far the weakest Goalhanger podcast) once because it's on Netflix.

 

[caLLous]

It's a consequence of it being not only on the other side of the world but also in multiple time zones. With Euro 2024,. there was a game at 3, a game at 6 and a game at 9, every day after the opening day, for the duration of the group stages. Here, there might be a game at 6pm, 7pm, 9pm, 10pm, midnight... it's a total mess.

Also I don't hate the idea of expanding to 48 teams but it takes so fucking long to get through each round of fixtures. There are 24 matches per round, they should be playing 4 or 6 every day to get through them. It's outrageous that it takes over a week to get through a single round of fixtures. I'm also not a fan of 75% of the entering teams getting through to the knockouts. It used to be 32 teams, 8 groups of 4, top 2 from each group proceed to a RO16 but here we have 12 groups of 4, top 2 (plus the 8 highest ranked 3rd place teams) from each group proceed to a RO32. So, not only does the group stage take longer but there's a whole new knockout round with 16 more matches to play.

 

[Gwadien]

It's the scheduling. Most people are watching at best one in three games because of the times the games are on. I'm basically just checking my phone when I wake up and that's my World Cup done for the day. Oh and I've watched The Rest Is Football (which ironically is by far the weakest Goalhanger podcast) once because it's on Netflix.

'football, haha you're bald, haha, now to the annoying shrieking woman'

Yeah it's not great...

Why they thought they needed daily episodes I don't know.

 

[Raven]

More weak teams.
Stupid times.
I am boycotting it anyway (corruption)

 

[Raven]

Today I learned that Ivan Toney was born in Northampton, and started at Northampton Town, don't remember him at all. The reason I googled it was because a bus went past with "Toney Town" on its display.