The 2015-16 World Fitba Thread!

Are these oil barons even spending their own money at other clubs? Chelsea and Man City seem to have terrifying levels of debt.

 

Guy was a fucking legend :bears:

 

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Sounds good. I'm hoping my Broncos come back to London soon. I was there in 2010 when we lost to the 69ers.

 

Does anyone feel Clough could have brought home a trophy if he'd been given a shot at managing England?

 

I'm up for a trip to wembley for an NFL game.

:bears:

 

Possibly. I'm not sure he'd have gotten more out of the side than Robson did late on but he certainly would have gotten more out of them during the late 70s - early 80s.

MTF

 

If he'd been given complete autonomy, I think he could have either done it or come damned close

Especially if he had Taylor alongside him

 

He'd probably have ended up quitting soon after taking the job.

 

He never would have taken the job unless he was given total control

 

This.

I think he would have won something, obviously in tournaments there's always the possibility of a mistake or moment of brilliance derailing your plans but he had a knack for winning tournaments and maximising the potential of his players. When it came to creating that "siege mentality" there was nobody better at it than Clough, Mourinho needs to sit down and watch the master at work.

 

Clough also wasn't a moronic dinosaur like a lot of the idiots in power at the FA at that time... These are guys who took seriously the analysis of a misguided idiot called Charles Reep, whose logically and mathematically flawed interpretations of football were mistaken for sensible and astute observations. You can't underestimate the effect this had. Charles Hughes put Reep's moronic theories into action, retarding the development of English football... As the great Clough said of him... “I want to establish without any shadow of a doubt that Charles Hughes is totally wrong in his approach to football. If it were up to him, the ball would come down with icicles on it"

Clough would have had them playing football on the ground, pass and move, find space... the same game that turned Nottingham Forest into the best club in Europe... The English FA were not ready for any such thing

 

Just hoof it down the field and chase after it.

Brilliant.

 

All of that passing is pointless! It's hard-charging and "bottle" that win matches! Especially when it is 85 degrees with 90% humidity somewhere in South America or Mexico and your players are dead tired after about 60 minutes and Brazil or Argentina or the Dutch are almost casually backheeling the ball to one another calmly

 

It would be the NFL equivalent of never using your running backs and just throwing bombs to your wide receivers every down. Then just punt when it doesn't work out and give the ball back to your opponents.

 

Every English club that said "fuck off" to that thinking and went for a hybrid of the best aspects of English play (the physical challenge for the ball and physical assertiveness) mixed with the best aspects of "continental" play (passing, shape, creativity) had enormous success... Forest won two European Cups, Liverpool won 4, and Aston Villa won one, Spurs won the UEFA Cup... The national team that won in 1966 and competed well in 1970 played a hybrid game, fot the most part (you could argue though that they were guilty of wasting energy against Brazil in a 1-0 defeat and in the defeat to Germany 3-2 where they started brilliantly but were exhausted in the second half)... The English can play great football, some of the greatest players have been English players... England is dogged by a lot of stupid, antiquated ideas that were there in the 19th century and are still there

 

yup... Hail Marys and "Go" routes on every play

 

Excerpt of a book I haven't read... but I liked what this chap had to say

http://www.bennionkearny.com/England-Football-Failed-Vision-Book-Chapter.htm

 

These kinds of thinkers are becoming more and more ubiquitous, which is a great thing if you are a supporter of England's footballing ambitions

 

There are probably still some high ranking people at the FA who would read that and say "Bullshit! The only thing we need to change is our bad luck".

 

There's been an element of that tbh. You can't put losing so many penalty shoot outs down to deep tactical causes. England have done as well as anybody in getting to the last 8/16 of major tournaments....i'm inclined to put them never winning anything since 66 down to happenstance as much as anything else.

 

Bad luck does come into it, there wasn't much England did wrong tactically in '90 or '96, especially '96 where we played some great stuff, but we have been left behind as the game has moved on. The foundations Clough could have possibly laid had he been given a chance might have left us with a better chance to bridge what has now become a colossal chasm in technical skills compared to the leading nations.

 

Disagree completely, bitch

 

Slice nailed it

Hughes' largest impact is felt when you look at players who were children in the late 80s and the 90s... That is where English football is in the doldrums

The guys of the Beckham, Gazza, Owen, etc era didn't grow up under Hughes, they grew up watching the best English club sides winning trophies and a talented 80s national squad right in the mix

 

The sheer number of foreigners in the premiership probably hurts you more than tactical naivety. Your personnel at this w/c was just nowhere near strong enough to compete, I'm skeptical that tactics had a huge amount to do with it

 

I blame Hut for Scotland's inability to win anything

 

I'm gonna chib you with occam's razor, Clogg :fightme:

 

I believe most people in Scotland ... brought to you by IRN BRU think the same.

 

I disagree with this... The foreigners have little if anything to do with with a shitty generation of players... It's how the players were taught and developed that has everything to do with it

The sheer number of foreigners is a result of the problem, not the root cause of it

 

see below, HUT

:bears: