Premier League 24/25

[Maradona37]

Coming up to 600m spend by Tent Peg. Bar Lisandro, all the rest have been unanimous flops. Utd fans are as delusional about Hojlund as they were about Martial.

Apparently, he doesn't score because he doesn't get enough chances, nothing to do with the fact he was never even prolific in Serie A or that he just looks bang bang average whenever he does find himself in front of goal.

Zirkzee just looks like another big fish in small pond type of player and De Ligt is not suddenly going to be worth the 70m they will pay for him a year after getting dropped for Eric Dier.

All music to my ears as they are one of the 3 clubs ( bar Madrid ) that I can't stand. Chelsea and PSG being the other 2.

I hate them too.

And yeah, Hojlund just has nothing to his game at all. They're hanging on to him scoring some goals in the PL - but most came in bunches where everything he hit went in - that isn't sustainable. And the problem isn't even that - it's that his technique and all-round game is so poor that he isn't gonna be able to improve it to the required level.

But they do this with all their players. They constantly overhype them and 'look for positives' which do not exist. It's sheer delusion. On Redcafe I have been reading some of them describe Dalot as 'the best RB in the league or the world' (lol) after one acceptable season. He's still very mediocre and players like him, Rashford, Fernandes, Hojlund, de Ligt, Zirkzee, Shaw, Onana, Mount and so on are never gonna get them anywhere near Man City, especially coached by a guy I think makes it up as he goes along. And a new management structure that couldn't make Nice competitive in Ligue 1.

I mean, we might be wrong as I said earlier, and there is a touch of arrogance in our posts. But still - I don't see a thing changing for Man United. They're not suddenly going to rise again. Top 4 battles (at best) and the odd domestic cup will be their lot for the foreseeable. A lot of the clowns on Redcafe just cannot accept that and still talk about being 'in transition' (they are permanently in transition it appears) and 'future title challenges'.

United will never be a dominant force again unless Man City lose the PL case or they fall apart after Pep leaves. If Man City maintain their level I think they could well reach 21 titles before United too.

But like I say, I hate United with a passion. So it could be my bias coming into play a little.

 

[Givenchy]

I hate them too.

And yeah, Hojlund just has nothing to his game at all. They're hanging on to him scoring some goals in the PL - but most came in bunches where everything he hit went in - that isn't sustainable. And the problem isn't even that - it's that his technique and all-round game is so poor that he isn't gonna be able to improve it to the required level.

But they do this with all their players. They constantly overhype them and 'look for positives' which do not exist. It's sheer delusion. On Redcafe I have been reading some of them describe Dalot as 'the best RB in the league or the world' (lol) after one acceptable season. He's still very mediocre and players like him, Rashford, Fernandes, Hojlund, de Ligt, Zirkzee, Shaw, Onana, Mount and so on are never gonna get them anywhere near Man City, especially coached by a guy I think makes it up as he goes along. And a new management structure that couldn't make Nice competitive in Ligue 1.

I mean, we might be wrong as I said earlier, and there is a touch of arrogance in our posts. But still - I don't see a thing changing for Man United. They're not suddenly going to rise again. Top 4 battles (at best) and the odd domestic cup will be their lot for the foreseeable. A lot of the clowns on Redcafe just cannot accept that and still talk about being 'in transition' (they are permanently in transition it appears) and 'future title challenges'.

United will never be a dominant force again unless Man City lose the PL case or they fall apart after Pep leaves. If Man City maintain their level I think they could well reach 21 titles before United too.

But like I say, I hate United with a passion. So it could be my bias coming into play a little.

Redcafe used to be great, good times there when we played them in that '09 final with good banter Ronaldo vs Messi (before it became a cult) but these days, without trying to bring politics into this, it's a lefty woke echo chamber to the point they call criticism from a journalist of Kobbie Mainoo (before the euros) "deep rooted racism". If you disagree with them, expect a pile-on followed by a ban.

They also have some strange hatred of Barca. One guy literally said: Yamal is the latest Barca hype job and his potential is Alexis Sanchez

 

[Maradona37]

Redcafe used to be great, good times there when we played them in that '09 final with good banter Ronaldo vs Messi (before it became a cult) but these days, without trying to bring politics into this, it's a lefty woke echo chamber to the point they call criticism from a journalist of Kobbie Mainoo (before the euros) "deep rooted racism". If you disagree with them, expect a pile-on followed by a ban.

They also have some strange hatred of Barca. One guy literally said: Yamal is the latest Barca hype job and his potential is Alexis Sanchez

Yeah I am left wing myself to be honest, but that stuff about Mainoo is an example of left wing extremism gone too far. The criticism was valid and they called it racism. They say it about any black player. It makes no sense, can black players not be criticised now? If a player isn't performing or has a bad game he should be criticised, black, white, yellow, green, whatever.

They do hate Barca. I know why that is though - they're such a jealous, bitter club and fanbase who cannot stand to see another club get credit. They've hated Barca ever since you guys pumped them in two CL Finals - it's their inferiority complex and anger that they never had a team as good as Barca from 2008 to 2012. Barca hammered their greatest ever team once then did it again to a lesser side two years later. They're so in denial about this that they've invented a theory that 2009 was a close game and it was only 2011 they got hammered - no, I have seen 2009 two or three times since that night, and Barca were running rings around United and toying with them, no matter what the stats say.

Their inferiority complex over that then extended to Spain, because of the Barca influence in the team. All through Euro 2012 they were slagging Spain and calling them so boring. And they also hate Pep too because he has pissed over them both with Barca and now with Man City.

They're basically envious and very bitter.

Also, they have a real cheek to talk about hype jobs when you look at the long list of failed young 'superstars' from their academy.

 

[Birdy]

Fair enough mate - you make some good points. You also seem to have a soft spot for United/Ten Hag whereas I hate United and don't rate Ten Hag, so we are both a little biased.

Just a couple of things to point out - I reckon Onana is very overrated with the ball at his feet. I watched most Man United games last season and, while his short passing is generally good, most of his long passes went straight to the opposition, His appalling long pass percentage would bear out what i seen is true too. You could say that maybe players weren't making themselves available for his passes, but plenty of times he kicked it straight into touch too. He's also a disaster with his hands - he makes regular saves look difficult and just doesn't have a good shot-stopping technique for a keeper.

As for Ferguson's times - I am willing to compromise there. Obviously they were more possession-oriented than now (because they were a better team), but they had no qualms about conceding the ball (especially against the better teams and their peers). They also abused wide play and spammed too many crosses for my liking. Their 90s and 2000s style of play looks prehistoric when you watch a Pep team - seriously, watch a Pep team then watch a Ferguson United team. It is night and day.

Also, you say he should be lauded for never shutting up shop - quite often Ferguson went away in Europe and played 4-5-1 so he could bring teams back to OT and beat them there. He was negative plenty of the time imo. This was more in the 2000s as he had been burnt plenty from going all out attack in the 90s in the CL.

As for the other stuff, I do respect your opinion as a good poster. I might be wrong about de Ligt and Zirkzee - I am not arrogant enough to think I am always right. We will see what happens in the future, but I believe I will end up being right. It isn't even about the players themselves (even though I am not a fan) - it's just that Old Trafford is career suicide and I don't see that changing under Ratcliffe.

I don't have any soft spot for UTD. It's not the team I traditionally like in England, and I have fiercely criticized the mess Glazers made of this club.
But I try to be objective. I see good moves from the new INEOS management, and ETH is a top coach even before coming to UTD

About Onana, he played it long effectively at Inter. I think it's a systematic fault. I will give time to see how he fits in an attacking minded UTD

Agree on Ferguson football, of course it was prehistory after Pep came into the scene

 

[Porque]

Zirkzee is absolutely fabulous at everything bar scoring. My observations from watching 8-10 Bologna games while on Motta watch.

If he gets that part of his game around then he will be a fantastic player. If he don't, well they already got Hoj-in-the-mud.

Seems UTD have agreed a 50m fee with Lille for Yoro. Let's see how much he really wants Real Madrid now.

 

[serghei]

Gonna be an interesting season. City and Pep are bound to get complacent and be off for a season, and then it's gonna be interesting to see if anyone can match Arteta from the pretenders group.

If Pep gets the title again and starts to build Bayern numbers... then the league is questionable. Even Pep Barca couldn't get more than 3 in a row and that's an outrageous team.

 

[Givenchy]

Zirkzee is absolutely fabulous at everything bar scoring. My observations from watching 8-10 Bologna games while on Motta watch.

If he gets that part of his game around then he will be a fantastic player. If he don't, well they already got Hoj-in-the-mud.

Seems UTD have agreed a 50m fee with Lille for Yoro. Let's see how much he really wants Real Madrid now.

He'll join United, become a world class CB then fuck off to Madrid in his prime sadly.

The football food chain. Then United buy some over the hill oldie from Madrid for 80mil.

 

[Windhook]

Voted for Arsenal. I feel it's time for the apprentice Arteta to win it from the third attempt as they were so close last two seasons.

 

[serghei]

Yep, time for the league to get out of Pep's boot.

 

[KingLeo10]

Gonna be an interesting season. City and Pep are bound to get complacent and be off for a season, and then it's gonna be interesting to see if anyone can match Arteta from the pretenders group.

If Pep gets the title again and starts to build Bayern numbers... then the league is questionable. Even Pep Barca couldn't get more than 3 in a row and that's an outrageous team.

Our competition in 2012 was a great RM team (Ronaldo, Benzema, Di Maria, Alonso, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo, Casillas etc.). That CL semi-final between Bayern and RM that year is probably one of my favorite non-Barca matches of all time.

 

[serghei]

Our competition in 2012 was a great RM team. That CL semi-final between Bayern and RM that year is probably one of my favorite non-Barca matches of all time.

Even in 2011 Madrid is CL favorite if not for us to knock them out.

 

[Maradona37]

I don't have any soft spot for UTD. It's not the team I traditionally like in England, and I have fiercely criticized the mess Glazers made of this club.
But I try to be objective. I see good moves from the new INEOS management, and ETH is a top coach even before coming to UTD

About Onana, he played it long effectively at Inter. I think it's a systematic fault. I will give time to see how he fits in an attacking minded UTD

Agree on Ferguson football, of course it was prehistory after Pep came into the scene

Fair enough. We will see how it goes the. Better to wait and analyse as it goes.

 

[Maradona37]

Our competition in 2012 was a great RM team (Ronaldo, Benzema, Di Maria, Alonso, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo, Casillas etc.). That CL semi-final between Bayern and RM that year is probably one of my favorite non-Barca matches of all time.

Mainly because Ronaldo missed a penalty in the shootout?

Just messing. It really was a high quality couple of games. Both teams were very good. And I'd say that 2012 team was a brilliant team that did well to win the league, though Pep took his eye off the ball a bit with the Fabregas saga.

I mock Ronaldo/Real Madrid for only winning La Liga twice in 9 seasons, but it's actually a bit unfair as he and Real Madrid came up against some brilliant Barca sides and even some good Atleti sides too. La Liga was the pinnacle of domestic club football back then.

 

[Windhook]

I mock Ronaldo/Real Madrid for only winning La Liga twice in 9 seasons, but it's actually a bit unfair as he and Real Madrid came up against some brilliant Barca sides and even some good Atleti sides too. La Liga was the pinnacle of domestic club football back then.

Real side grew up immensely on the ground of Barca humiliations and defeats during 2009-2012 era.

Just like the Joan Gaspart era Barca was complete loser bunch before key transfers happened.

Barca and Real Madrid balance each other in Spain. That's beyond facts.

 

[Maradona37]

Real side grew up immensely on the ground of Barca humiliations and defeats during 2009-2012 era.

Just like the Joan Gaspart era Barca was complete loser bunch before key transfers happened.

Barca and Real Madrid balance each other in Spain. That's beyond facts.

Yeah that is true.