Llangennech

Congratulations Hannah Hampton. As we know the "better" side don't always win. What is the better footballing side, granted, I understand. Shame about the English press over the years and some of the lyrics in the songs sung by English people.

We've got the FFP/PSR stuff in the background too. This is about what feels right not about x's and o's on a sheet of paper. Relegate City, give us a 30 point deduction, get all the charges out of the way and have a reset. The small/smaller teams won't have that type of punishment as they haven't been as successful. We'll be back, City will be back, City were in the third tier 20 plus years ago. Give someone else a chance.

And they looked out of sync, lacked sharpness I suppose. I'm really looking forward to Saturday night, love night PL football under lights.

Probably other clubs are hiding payments. Doesn't make it right that we should avoid punishment for shining a light on illegal stuff the club has done over the years. I don't want people in the pub thinking, "Pfff, they got away with murder just because they have money".

Is it Actovegin? NRL scandal more than 10 years ago about Actovegin injections, calves-blood product as far as I know. Manly Sea Eagles were involved, possibly Cronulla as well.

Do Spanish and Italian supporters say the word 'boring' anywhere near as much as English people? People in Cymru don't go on about football being boring as much, I think it's down to John Toshack who is labelled as the guy who brought a more balanced attitude to football in Spain, possession and conserving energy is quite important in football. Toshack is such a massive figure on this side of the border, and the way Swansea have traditionally played. Most English people should be watching rugby league not football, it's obvious. Chelsea 3-1. Palmer 28'.

Fulham? Yeah, in probably the best city on the planet, what's the big deal?

It was a penalty, defenders have gotten away with far too much over the years.

"It's a funny old game". - Mr Jimmy Greaves

Conserving energy. Could have been a penalty, took a bit of a dive though.

Congratulations Gusto. Should have been starting at 8pm Noo Yaak time though. Nice to see Mr Trump and his wife there. Jesus is the only answer to the issues of this planet. Sport not war.

Football is what's on the pitch not what's decided in board rooms. Shouldn't we be playing against other big cities not towns? So you don't get the same teams at the top of the table every year. We know who are in contention for the 2026 PL already. Have a salary capped ESL where 18 plus teams could win the comp. at the start of each season.

On ya Ellie. Up the New South Wales Blues.

Of course the fear of having to pay out millions is the main driver for these decisions.

I'm not dismissing what you wrote. I'm not sure if an average side has ever reached the CL Final, probably not.

This thread is about a match in May 2012.

Tymoshuk was out the following year and the left-back and Gomez, never to return to Bayern. Who won the WC for France in 1998? Thuram, Blanc, Bartez, Dessailly and Lizurazu or Guivarc'h, Djorkaeff, Karembeu, Zidane and Dugarry?

Intensity? What does that mean in football, intensity is a word you use when talking about rugby league. What I dislike about the PL is the way it's refereed, defenders get away with far too much, the skillful players aren't protected enough. Re. Bale, Benzema and Ronaldo not being better than Rooney, Tevez and Ronaldo, just look at the Champions League wins. Big matches are the only ones that really really matter. Has there been a global vote whether fans want an ESL? Bale only cheesed off the Madrid fans towards the end, as he was protecting his dodgy calf for Wales matches, F Perez gave a donation to Welsh football to help in the fight against rugby union, that donation being Bale's ridiculous contract extension.

Entertainment is a matter of opinion. Bale, Benzema, CR7 and Suarez, Messi, Neymar are better front threes than any front three in PL history. Henry played some top stuff in Spain. Modric and Bale played most of their best football in Spain. Terry, obviously one of the best defenders in history, IMO Cannavaro was better, I'd certainly prefer to watch Cannavarro play. What about P Maldini and F Baresi. There was never talk about Maradona coming here in 1992, yes, what happened in 1982 is obviously the reason why and maybe 1986, that was Shilton's fault though. Buffon, Donnarumma, Neuer, Kahn, Oblak nor Casillas have ever kept goal in the PL. Courtois has played far more matches outside of England. I'd have Mbappe and Vivicius jnr in my side before Salah. What about Cafu, R Carlos, Lizarazu and P Lahm? What about the players who were mainly responsible for taking teams to the final of World Cups? How many were playing in the PL? The Spain side of 2010, that fantastic Barca midfield. I would say that the majority of the best of the best have played their football outside of the PL. An ESL would help Barca more than Madrid, granted it would help the short to medium financial stability of the big clubs in southern Europe, so you admit that it's the greed, selfishness and small mindedness of people living in and close to London and Manchester that is stopping an ESL from happening? I voted Remain. Did you?

Uh?

The PL is not by far the best league in the world. Granted it's the most competitive. Look at the top top players who have never played in the PL, and other top top players who only played for a short time in the PL. Also it's nothing to do with money for me, it's the right thing to do for football fans around the world. I agree that the Nations League should be scrapped and the Euros should be a 16 team tournament.

Does it? Graf - laaaf. Do some people say graaaf, like some say Baaaath?

That Munich defence wouldn't have given the Munich forwards much confidence. The best teams are built from the back, well the teams that win.

Small minded.

IMO we won't be able to compare teams until we have an ESL, should have happened 50 years go, about 10 years after the NFL was formed. You can't compare playing in the Eng. Prem with Ligue 1. We can still have the FA Cup. Could have an ESL 1 and 2. Top 8 go into an end of season play-off, played over 3 weeks. 28 regular season weekends. You don't play everyone home and away. You would play everyone in your league at least once though. Re. Maresca, maybe he's teaching players to pace themselves not just throughout matches but through the season too. They play too many matches. Maresca knows this. It's not his fault, it's the fault of the administrators. Surely most fans think players are playing too many matches.