On 22/08/2026 at 02:56, Sconnie Blue said:

Agreed. I think we are in a minority who feel that way, but characters like him are just great for football. You look at what a lot of us consider "peak" football, and it's that 2004-2012 era. Mourinho was at the heart of it. Running across Old Trafford when Porto knocked out United, his entire Chelsea stint, forcing the sprinklers at the Nou Camp with Inter, and let's forget the Clásicos. They were blockbusters during that period.

In contrast, Pep vs Klopp's mutual respect for one another was just gag-worthy. No edge, no animosity, no narrative heat.

Ironically, the quest for sanitizing the game has seen ever more abuse, racism etc. in contemporary football than in that period.

I don't think you'll find too many people who agree that was the 'peak' of football though. Mourinho, Benitez etc. ushered in an era of defensive pragmatism that was only supplanted by Guardiola's nauseating version of tiki-taka. By 2010 almost every EPL club was playing a variant of 4-5-1, low blocks etc. The lone striker became dominant and centre-forward play started to virtually disappear. No. 10s were being replaced. Serie A and the Eredivisie began their terminal declines, the Bundesliga was a joke for most of that period until 2010. England dominated most of that period in Europe, then La Liga carried the torch.

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Ironically, the quest for sanitizing the game has seen ever more abuse, racism etc. in contemporary football than in that period.

I don't think you'll find too many people who agree that was the 'peak' of football though. Mourinho, Benitez etc. ushered in an era of defensive pragmatism that was only supplanted by Guardiola's nauseating version of tiki-taka. By 2010 almost every EPL club was playing a variant of 4-5-1, low blocks etc. The lone striker became dominant and centre-forward play started to virtually disappear. No. 10s were being replaced. Serie A and the Eredivisie began their terminal declines, the Bundesliga was a joke for most of that period until 2010. England dominated most of that period in Europe, then La Liga carried the torch.

04-12 was undoubtedly the peak of football, both domestically and internationally.

It absolutely was.

Football’s gone far too soft. Where’s the hatred between clubs nowadays?

I want to see players clashing after full time. I want aggressive tackles. I want drama.

Everyone’s best mates, cuddling each other after the final whistle. You don’t see managers calling each other a voyeur anymore, or squaring up to each other like Mourinho and Wenger used to.

I enjoyed Haaland vs Gabriel last season, but even that feels pretty tame compared to what we used to see. Give me Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira any day.

We definitely need more nastiness in the game. Diego Costa was f**king fantastic for it.

I’m going to echo the sentiments about 04-12 being the golden age of football. It actually felt like it meant something and each team wasn’t just a watered down version of the next. Everyone had their own style and played to it, look at Pulis’ Stoke!

I lay most of the blame at Peps door. He broke Jose and then everyone just bowed down and copied him moving forward. Footballs been pretty boring ever since.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

It absolutely was.

Football’s gone far too soft. Where’s the hatred between clubs nowadays?

I want to see players clashing after full time. I want aggressive tackles. I want drama.

Everyone’s best mates, cuddling each other after the final whistle. You don’t see managers calling each other a voyeur anymore, or squaring up to each other like Mourinho and Wenger used to.

I enjoyed Haaland vs Gabriel last season, but even that feels pretty tame compared to what we used to see. Give me Roy Keane vs Patrick Vieira any day.

We definitely need more nastiness in the game. Diego Costa was f**king fantastic for it.

Those International tournaments lining up with squads full of world class players. I look at International teams these days and find it hard to pick more than 1 or 2 world class players in each squad. Everyone trains to fit a system these days, rather than maximising their own potential.

3 hours ago, All Barco no bite said:

04-12 was undoubtedly the peak of football, both domestically and internationally.

This is the difference between Gen Z and Millennials. We had hope and it was taken away, you were born into the no-hope and know nothing else.

2006-07 was specifically and objectively the worst football season in recorded history*

*apart from anything involving BlueCo

1 hour ago, The Boehly Babes said:

I’m going to echo the sentiments about 04-12 being the golden age of football. It actually felt like it meant something and each team wasn’t just a watered down version of the next. Everyone had their own style and played to it, look at Pulis’ Stoke!

I lay most of the blame at Peps door. He broke Jose and then everyone just bowed down and copied him moving forward. Footballs been pretty boring ever since.

Yep, the Pete Sampras of football.

On 21/08/2026 at 13:56, Sconnie Blue said:

Agreed. I think we are in a minority who feel that way, but characters like him are just great for football. You look at what a lot of us consider "peak" football, and it's that 2004-2012 era. Mourinho was at the heart of it. Running across Old Trafford when Porto knocked out United, his entire Chelsea stint, forcing the sprinklers at the Nou Camp with Inter, and let's forget the Clásicos. They were blockbusters during that period.

In contrast, Pep vs Klopp's mutual respect for one another was just gag-worthy. No edge, no animosity, no narrative heat.

We were on to something with that Tuchel and Conte handshake, I thought back then that'd be the start of something amazing but BlueCo had other pottery plans, shame that is.

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

This is the difference between Gen Z and Millennials. We had hope and it was taken away, you were born into the no-hope and know nothing else.

2006-07 was specifically and objectively the worst football season in recorded history*

*apart from anything involving BlueCo

I'm not sure how old you think i am or what category you think i fall into.

One single season is your reason for it being bad? 04-12 you had world class players in multiple teams. Messi and Ronaldo coming into the game and making their mark. Managers like Fergie, Mourinho, Wenger and Rafa going at each other every other week. Inter winning the CL.

Like i said, the greatest era and it isn't even close.

On 21/08/2026 at 07:38, BolaBall said:

What does having to watch the whole thing have anything to do with how we address jose's obvious misbehavior in that particular incident? It's not like it's going to be the opposite of what has been reported (in which the report was presented in jose's own quote from the show). That particular incident is not a matter of having different opinion, it's a fact of someone misbehaving, act of bully and unremorseful. Don't you realize you are kind of low key defending mou of his wrongdoing? You sound like denzel washington on will smith slap case, the different is you haven't brought out the devil in play as excuse.

Btw, I notice someone call you a bellend (puta??) and this time I'll (conveniently) distance myself from saying whether that's right or wrong especially on a community forum like this one but do you think he should apologize? I don't think he should if that's how he truly feels about it because after all, it's his personal feeling that matters. An apology would have been fake anyway.

Bola Bola Bola,

Ive been away so please don't feel i've been ignoring you, I did not notice anyone call me a puta (I also thought it meant something very different in Spanish but ok) and of course you don't need to take a position on it, you can even agree, I personally take no offence from someone who has never met writing there random thoughts about my character on the internet, if it needs to be addressed or not is a question for the community admin's and far above my station, if you break the rules you do the time as they.

Regarding the actual matter at hand - what are your thoughts on it? Was it worth watching? This is essentially what Just posted in his initial post, he received a response from someone that hadn't seen it, that was very obsessed with some clips he/she/them had seen on Socials... my thoughts are watch the documentary then give an opinion on it, I'm not sure why this is such a controversial take. I personally don't think that the Eva discussion in the doco affect the quality of it. My point regarding the apology or lack there off, is that it might be what you want but that doesn't mean in needs to be provided, He doesn't want to apologies, he doesn't feel he did anything wrong, the documentary is just a window in to that that doesn't make the documentary bad.

The issue as I see it, is that people want to have a debate about the rights and wrongs of the incident which has been done to death on here but feel free to continue, i'm just saying judge the quality of the production by watching it and not a clip you saw on IG

On 20/08/2026 at 16:28, All Barco no bite said:

Shouting expletives and getting a woman fired for doing her job isn't really a hill you can justify. His ignorance not to apologise and your insistence to defend it is weird. I won't "low key passively aggressively attack you", i'll say it. You sound like a bellend.

Have you watched the show yet... did you like it?

2 hours ago, theGreenBaron said:

Have you watched the show yet... did you like it?

No, I have more important things to do