SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2021/22

Tbh I don't blame Rice and Grealish. They have "options" and the Republic of Ireland setup has never been less attractive. I mean we got beat by Armenia the other day. We can't score goals. We just can't score. Our manager is a hopeless dolt. It's practically impossible to attract crossovers especially with how attractive the England set up is today

 

Whilst that's true the likes of Grealish and Rice are the kind of players Ireland needed to start turning the corner and becoming a good side again. What does it mean if they can just switch allegiances to England? I don't like that shit at all. It hasn't really happened with Wales yet even when they've had legit world class players in terrible sides, I can respect that.

 

I think both Rice and Grealish were born in The UK, no?

 

How does eligibility work in the British Isles? You figure with the history and geography virtually anybody can claim some sort of tenuous ancestral connection, and basically pick and choose a country that suits them at the time. Sad.

 

If you were born on the Isle of Man, you get a free serving of Spotted Dick whenever you visit the town of Cockermouth.

 

Woah! I'm surprised pregnant women from all over the world don't attempt to get there in time to birth their children.

 

Unlrss you're Tony Cascarino and you can just lie and play for Ireland regardless of where your forbears came from

 

Or if you're not pregnant you can go up to the Swiss Cottage and get up on Saint Johns Wood.

Still not preggo?

Try Cockfisters.

 

Cascarinos ADOPTED Grandfather was Irish.

That's how he qualified.

 

I'm not sure exactly where the cutoff should be but this "forbearers" nonsense should be strictly limited. It's ridiculous that someone can be born, raised and played their football in one nation but somehow be eligible to play for another country because their great grandmother had citizenship there or some such shit. The birth thing is a bit trickier. In a lot of countries when a child is born there they are automatically granted citizenship.

I suppose that's better than only ancestry, but if the family moved away when the kid was 2 and they lived all their life somewhere else the connection to their birth country is basically gone.

I could be wrong but i believe under the current rules you can represent a country even if you've never stepped foot on its soil in your life.

 

Also his uncle operated a bakery for a couple of years in Milwaukee so he was eligible to play for the U.S. and his ancestry.com results showed him having 6% West African DNA so he could play for Morocco too.

 

I heard he was shit which made him a lock for Upper Volta's starting XI

 

I've been watching quite a bit of the Brazilian Serie A to pass the time of league play. Some class players and class clubs I've started following in that league.

 

Are you not watching Latvia vs Liechtenstein in the nations cup mate?

 

I know you were joking, but my ass actually was watching about 20 mins of Lithuania vs Luxembourg on Saturday.

Also been watching matches here and there on the CONCACAF nations league side.

 

Who isn't?

 

I'll watch anything. Some of these have the potential to be wildly exciting.

This was not one of them albeit losing 1-0 away is pretty good for Liechtenstein

 

I honestly watch anything futbol right now. Any nation, any league, I don't give a shit. If it's on, I watch.

I even watch USL League 1 games.

USL League 1 is the third tier of U.S. soccer/football - behind MLS, and USL Championship.

Actually, a lot of USL Championship games are pretty damn fun.

 

Yeah, beat me to it on the "watch anything" statement.

 

6,000 attendance. Nobody in even Latvia gives a fuck

 

I'll even watch womens soccer.

Its their fucking agenda that ribs me, not the actual football

 

I draw the line there.

ONLY time I'll watch women is if it's tennis.

 

Well tonight at 3pm ET you've got France vs Croatia.

MENS

 

Yeah, I'm tuning in now!

 

Nkunku has gotta be one of the top 10 best players on the planet right now.

 

Croatian penalty guy

 

Well.....I wouldnt go that far. He's at Leipzig.

 

He won't be there long, in fact I'd be surprised if Bayern aren't encouraging him to run down his contract as they did with Lewandowski, they won't be keen on paying what Leipzig will want for him. I could also imagine Chelsea wanting him if they can offload Lukaku, ditto Man Utd...just because.

 

Lukaku was given every benefit of the great many doubts that presented themselves following his return to Chelsea.

It was embarrassing seeing them prostrate themselves at the altar of the great returning King. Some of the utter wankery said and written about that guy in the aftermath of his return was truly perplexing.

He was actually being treated as if he'd been written off and dismissed before his time. He'd always been very very well received and fairly treated and his departure from England was treated as nothing more than de rigeur.

He'd done the rounds, gone on loan, scored goals and finally made the move to Italy. Ho Hum. He hadn't been written off or forced out or any of it.




Only thing worse was the Pogba and Rashford situations where exploratory deep dive after exploratory deep dive was entered into by pundits like footballing alchemists convinced that some grand elixir was within their grasp, if they only tried hard enough to understand it.

All codswallop. All bollox.

They're just average footballers gone off the boil.

So pumped-up were the pundits on the George Floydery of it all that they just couldn't settle for the most obvious of explanations.

There had to be some deep, unsettling, sinister phenomenon at work, some "they don't get it cos they're not with it" bollox.

Nope.

These guys found the going tough, and quit. No more no less.

 

Memphis Depay was another one. Huge queries about how it wasn't working out. Just an average to good player toiling in an unproductive environment. No Biggie.