ziggyram59

Can't wait for Sunday and the United States Grand Prix in Austin let's hope Mercedes have the best car on the day and hopefully Lewis can retain the championship lead. 

It will get to the point soon when the top 10 clubs in England will be demanding they be entered into a new Champions League such is the greed for the game, and were getting done by the EFL on FFP/Overspending it shows you the mockery the game as become. 

Can't wait for Sunday and the United States Grand Prix in Austin let's hope Mercedes have the best car on the day and hopefully Lewis can retain the championship lead. 

I still kind of do. I don’t watch the games religiously or anything, but if an English team gets to the final, I’ll support them. Likewise, if they lose, I’ll laugh heartily. Such is football. 
it goes in this order in any sporting competitions:
- My house,
- my street,
- mickleover (not my village, but where I grew up, I would have a oft spot for my village though)
- Derby,
- Derbyshire,
- East Midlands (so yes, I would support Nottingham in an ice hockey match, for example, or Leicester Tigers, Forest is always the exception though),
- midlands (ie if villa were in an fa cup final against a northern or southern team, I’d support villa),
- england,
- Great Britain,
- united kingdom,
- europe (this gets a bit sketchier, I’d mostly support a European team against another team in the World Cup, but if it’s Germany vs Paraguay or something, then I love a good underdog story too, at this point it’s possible to be a bit more neutral),
- the world (in Space Jam, for example).
Like a kid writing his address.
I genuinely feel that if an English club does well, it speaks to the quality of football in England throughout the whole pyramid, and ensures more and more people want to be part of it. Just like Derby winning something lifts the whole city, england winning something lifts the whole country, an English team winning something says ‘this is the place to be’, which benefits everyone, even if it’s just a little bit.
 
 
 

No. That’s not football, I’d rather watch non league 

Not really. I hardly watch any of it now but that's more down to the fact that it's not on ITV now. 

No, not because they're nominally English at least. If I like a team because of the way they play, then maybe.
It seemed different back in the days when you could argue that the clubs who made it to these competitions were representing the nation, but that isn't really the case anymore. In the last round of group games 24 of the 63 players fielded by the English sides were British, and none of the managers or owners were.

The Champions League has already turned into a part Super League anyway the moment they allowed the top 4 clubs from England, Spain, Italy and Germany to automatically qualify.
Once they did that, those clubs can then regularly pocket the earnings, meaning more money to buy the best players and distance themselves from the rest.
There is no chance of any other league breaking into the coefficient top four rankings now as the gap between clubs like Lyon, Monaco, Marseille, Porto, Benfica, Ajax, PSV, Anderlecht, Brugges etc and the rest is simply massive now.
The CL also made it that no team from the same nation can be in the same group, while league winners are seeded 1st and the 2nd seeds are the next best. Again, this means that the top two in each group will be a mixture of the best clubs from the best leagues.
As Carnero mentioned above, this stage of the CL is drawn out and boring. Sure you may get a shock result along the way and some big clubs facing each other, but we all know the last 16 will be made up of Real Madrid, Bayern, PSG, Man City, Liverpool, Atletico, Barcelona, Chelsea, Juve, Dortmund just like it is every year.

I like Manu to do well abroad.  Maybe it’s the tragedy in Munich.  But I also remember watching them win it on the tele in a bar in Sorrento, full of Germans, another tragedy for Munich.
That was fun.
 

I genuinely can't remember the last time I watched a Champions League match. For me, it's basically a load of multi-millionaire footballers with whom I have no affinity playing another load of multi-millionaire footballers with whom I have no affinity; which country the respective teams are based in is irrelevant. The fact that one team might be English has no bearing on that; I couldn't care less. I quite enjoy it if Man Utd go out at an early stage though.

I pay no attention to the European competitions at this stage as they're so dragged out just to end up with the same selection of clubs come the Q/F's & S/F's.
I'll watch the final and like you, happy to back Liverpool if they're in it, would have cheered on Spurs too if they hadn't been playing Liverpool.
I'd rather see the other English clubs lose in all honesty, if we can't have nice things then why should I want anyone else to have them!!

Have such fantastic memories of Charlie, I was there on that great European Cup Tie against Real Madrid Charlie was unplayable. 

The way the Newcastle fans have treated Steve Bruce has been truly awful.
Steve Bruce is a big fan of the club and it’s his dream job and yet the geordies have been treating him terribly.
I am glad for him that he doesn’t have to put up with it any longer. 
 

?
Second only to Kevin Hector.
Charlie at his peak was superb. Heck, I miss those days.

Fantastic match, when the FA Cup Final was a major football event, it was great to see Saint and Greavesie at the end, 2 great TV legends. RIP. 

It's been great to watch The Big Match Revisited on ITV4, where most teams could beat each other, fantastic commentary by Brian Moore one of the best in the game, nice to see that some matches were from 2nd/3rd division as well. 

Fantastic match, when the FA Cup Final was a major football event, it was great to see Saint and Greavesie at the end, 2 great TV legends. RIP. 

Efl’s problems are not really comparable with Parliament v Supreme Court.
More like the GMC looking after the interest of Doctors, and supposedly regulating them  at the same time. So Dr shipman gets under the radar.
Efl being a regulator and also acting in the interests of Gibson and all the rival clubs just does not work. Especially when they are also supposed to be acting in the interests of Derby … as a founder member! 
 
in such a hopelessly conflicted position . Efl should be bending over backwards not only  to be independent but also to be seen to be independent .
yet almost every action they do screams they are not independent . Saying they are “shocked” that Derby has appealed against the 12 point deduction is not the words of  an independent body .
 
Efl is just not fit for purpose … I hope their last act is not to kill off the Rams in an act of spite.

'Mrs Iris Jenkins, who lives in Ealing, writes to ask if she can see Stan Bowles hattrick against...' etc

The atmosphere of those games was second to none and as been mentioned, crowd standing was part of that.

It's been great to watch The Big Match Revisited on ITV4, where most teams could beat each other, fantastic commentary by Brian Moore one of the best in the game, nice to see that some matches were from 2nd/3rd division as well. 

I've been enjoying the programs. 
Dreadful pitches, flapping comb-overs, not so much obvious diving or trying to trick officials. 
And getting players into the studio to be interviewed without it being a complete media circus, now looks very quaint ?

It's been great to watch The Big Match Revisited on ITV4, where most teams could beat each other, fantastic commentary by Brian Moore one of the best in the game, nice to see that some matches were from 2nd/3rd division as well. 

It's been great to watch The Big Match Revisited on ITV4, where most teams could beat each other, fantastic commentary by Brian Moore one of the best in the game, nice to see that some matches were from 2nd/3rd division as well. 

Wouldn't it be fun if one of these mega mega rich groups bought say Burton Albion or Doncaster Rovers, and then won the Champions League in front of their 2000 loyal fans?