2022-2023 Football thread of sadness

Ah the glory days when the football thread used to be the hidden refuge of Effoff. An oasis of unfiltered and unregulated banter unbound by the stifling online message board rules so prevalent everywhere else on the site. And a lot of actual great football discussion from the suprisingly well-informed and insightful crew of regulars who participated every year (minus the fairweather dross panayi used to shower on us)

Nothing is sadder about the decline of EoFF than the death of the football threads, to me.

Still, a pulse beats here again, worryingly weak though it may be. I'm here, Pauw is here, Lonny BoB is popping up more frequently so... one last dance boys?

Not sure how to answer because Erling Haaland is indeed a holy love cyborg from outer space and Mbappe isn't fit to clean his boots, and Man City will undoubtedly win the league, but also I hate them deeply.

My main hope is that Leeds or even better Brentford can sneak into a top 5 spot somehow, but realistically of course that will not happen.

For the sake of "not picking Man City" I'm going with Spurs for the beautiful Son.

I spent my days looking at memes ragging on Man U and Harry Maguire specifically. Which option do I choose?

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Originally Posted by Spuuky

Not sure how to answer because Erling Haaland is indeed a holy love cyborg from outer space and Mbappe isn't fit to clean his boots, and Man City will undoubtedly win the league, but also I hate them deeply.

My main hope is that Leeds or even better Brentford can sneak into a top 5 spot somehow, but realistically of course that will not happen.

For the sake of "not picking Man City" I'm going with Spurs for the beautiful Son.

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Well you can at least look forward to us once again contriving to bottle the Champion's league in one comical fashion or another! Personally this year I think it's going to end up with us getting dumped out by Barcelona because I hate them and they are a colossal bunch of tits but their obsession with us combined with our typical City power that has now settled onto our CL campaigns is going to come together to manifest our nightmare of the beautiful Bernardo dumping us for them. It's going to happen and I hate it.

I just hope they don't actually win anything and their lever pulling gamble results in the most spectacular Leeds implosion of all time

Also yes I have been besotted with Erling for a while now as Krakow Paul knows, and always knew there was a good chance he was going to end up with us but...I don't know. Aside from just being a goalscoring monster he has that special sauce about him that just, I am already deeply in love with him. Boyhood City fan, walked into our squad with all this comedy "Oh ho ho is it going to be Haaland or Darwin" nonsense, calmly mirrors and then outdoes Sergio on the pitch, and then promptly swears on live TV like Micah and Super Mario Balotelli. It really was destiny with him and us and as much as I love our guys, this is the first time in a while that a player has wormed his way into that deep part of my soul as a fan. I am very much looking forward to this ride!

Which reminds me, I do still love Mbappe for his part in the humiliation of Madrid in the transfer window.

Glad to see this place is still hanging on, if only barely.

The passing of the Queens and now pausing of games comes at a very strange point in time for the league as several teams seem in flux or in need of a break, chief among them Liverpool. It's been a fun year as I accepted a freelance job writing for a Liverpool online mag last December, which has helped me to live the dream of watching the EPL and being paid for my thoughts and opinions, though so far this season, it's been more of a waking nightmare.

This year I really do think it's going to be a tale of two seasons, with the World Cup break happening right in the end of the first third of the season. With so many players going and having to be pushed in an unexpected way, I think a loss or gain of form or an injury could drastically shake things up. Teams that looks so solid now might have to start from scratch again come Christmas.

I am firmly of the opinion that every team in the league looks flawed to me this year, even City. I really think they look fragile defensively, especially on the flanks and for now the Haaland goal assault has papered over that. However, once they face another truly elite team firing on all cylinders, that could come back to bite them. Almost certainly in Europe, AGAIN.

Here's to another wacky year, with all the ups and downs we can hope for. I'm excited to see if Forest bring in another 20 players in January, if Leeds can find a way to nab Pulisic and become a true American destination and really want Brighton to find a way to finish above Chelsea.

Take care all.

At least Manchester City winning is marginally better than Manchester United winning. May Cristiano go out with a 0 goal Europa campaign to feel bad about.

I'm suspicious of the Ten Hag mini-revival at United because he may be decent as a manager, but behind the scenes it's a shambles of a club still. I genuinely believe, with no hint of arrogance or delusion, that if you dropped me into that club at a directorial level, me, an actual idiot, I would do a better job.

Also, Liverpool to come 7th this year and 1st next (NEXT YEAR IS OUR YEAR 2) you heard it here first.

Joao Cancelo's outside the foot crosses are better than most peoples normal crosses what a god damn hero he is

City will walk the league, and will do so for some time assuming Haaland stays fit. There have been a lot of discussions about who will replace the likes of Ronaldo and Messi, with Mbappe and Neymar touted at times, but Haaland is it, and it annoys me to no end that he signed for city because we insisted they couldn't have Ronaldo (and look how that turned out, gosh, who would have expected such a thing would turn out so badly... haha yeah just me and everyone else). Haaland getting a break over the World Cup period will mean he will continue devastating in the second half of the season while many others are going to be tired. It's going to be crazy, the records this guy is going to break. Always wished we bought him earlier, even when he was at Molde I thought he looked incredible. Stupid not to have, really.

ETH is fantastic. "We played smurfing good football." Said right on live post-match interview, superb. Roy Keane even praised him for it after the apologies were made, ha.

I'm hoping it continues. United as Paul said can be a bit of a mess at the best of times, and I've no idea when the senior management of the club will improve, but the football manager we have is at least proving capable thus far. I'm cautiously optimistic about top four chances. Beating Liverpool and Arsenal was satisfying, but we'll need to beat the lower teams consistently before we're really in with a shot. Fingers crossed, long way to go yet.

I know, I know, no one cares about Nations League, but it's pretty hilarious that England was relegated with a full match to spare.

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Originally Posted by DK

And a lot of actual great football discussion from the suprisingly well-informed and insightful crew of regulars who participated every year

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Not sure who those were

TheCaptain, Heath and Cz mainly

You forgot Rocket Edge.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

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Originally Posted by DK

And a lot of actual great football discussion from the suprisingly well-informed and insightful crew of regulars who participated every year

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Not sure who those were

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Not you.

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

You forgot Rocket Edge.

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I've had a stinker, Donal is a king :(

Daniel BoB do your internet magic and find Donal and bring him home

https://i.imgur.com/yf8kcTF.jpg

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Originally Posted by DK

Well you can at least look forward to us once again contriving to bottle the Champion's league in one comical fashion or another

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You have one more chance

I've spent my Friday evening spotting this place in my web browser favourites, logging in again, and reading through some of the old football threads, in particular the end-of-season quote posts. Good times, man. You don't get those sorts of 'discussions' anymore. /r/soccer is flat out trout. I feel sorry for zoomers.

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Originally Posted by DK

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

You forgot Rocket Edge.

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I've had a stinker, Donal is a king :(

Daniel BoB do your internet magic and find Donal and bring him home

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I only just saw this post now for some reason. I'll see what I can do!

No shocks for me in the Premier League outside of perhaps Newcastle being that quick to rise up and Chelsea being that damn flacid.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

/r/soccer is flat out trout.

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Lads

Lads

Emotional moment. It's taken like 15 years or whatever, but I have finally beaten him.

https://i.ibb.co/6Nr2b7S/Screenshot-20230529-182758.jpg

Oh nice, I beat him too. I got 2435 so only just, and you still did me in. Didn't even know EoFF league was still a thing tbh.

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

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Originally Posted by DK

Well you can at least look forward to us once again contriving to bottle the Champion's league in one comical fashion or another

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You have one more chance

I've spent my Friday evening spotting this place in my web browser favourites, logging in again, and reading through some of the old football threads, in particular the end-of-season quote posts. Good times, man. You don't get those sorts of 'discussions' anymore. /r/soccer is flat out trout. I feel sorry for zoomers.

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It's going to happen, I knew it when it was confirmed we were up against Inter. Edin Dzeko the ageless will smite us for the sin of selling him after everything he did for us.

Also, 50/50 on the poll predictions is a pretty decent result imho.

The "everton lol" poll option almost came so very true.

I think that one is the most accurate tbh

Yeah. This year was so crazy for so many clubs. Chelsea, Leicester and Everton definitely were the year's biggest losers for me. City obviously the biggest winner, but Newcastle and Arsenal definitely had "up years" as well, alongside Brighton and Villa. Villa, though, wow. Sacked their manager in October and ended up in Europe. Not often a manager sacking goes that well for a club.

Everton are the turd that just won't smurfing flush.

Thanks to Daniel for reminding me to come back. The reason I really wanted to stay away was because:

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Originally Posted by Old Manus

Lads

Emotional moment. It's taken like 15 years or whatever, but I have finally beaten him.

https://i.ibb.co/6Nr2b7S/Screenshot-20230529-182758.jpg

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Enjoy the title Manus, I'm hunting you down come August baby. (I celebrated more for you than i did me.)

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Originally Posted by Loony BoB

ETH is fantastic. "We played smurfing good football." Said right on live post-match interview, superb. Roy Keane even praised him for it after the apologies were made, ha.

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My favourite part of the season I swear

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Originally Posted by DK

I've had a stinker, Donal is a king :(

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Originally Posted by DK

https://i.imgur.com/yf8kcTF.jpg

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:lol: You know, on reflection of the season I thought i'd be bothered if City won the treble, and when it happened I didn't feel that at all. When they won and I thought of the likes of you DK and some of my other friends who have followed them for years and was secretly happy haha.

Hope everyone's well. Psy, DK, Manus, BoB, all the crew.

Everyone sign up for the EoFF fantasy league!

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