On the Banks of the River Thames

[ShireNiner]

Good start for the new striker! Not great with a home defeat to Villa though, allowing them to come back from behind. Conceding twice in quick succession isn't ideal either. I really like the momentum graph. What a great way to show the balance of the game. According to xG you should also have got at least a point from this one.

Thank you, I’m copying FotMob, I like the momentum they show and how you can get a sense of the game without watching it completely.

Once I scored, Villa took it up another level and went all out attack on me. I would have been happy with a point against them but we missed our chances at the end.

[Captain Canada]

Narrow loss to start things off but always a good sign when a new addition scores early. Hopefully you can get that first win out of the way early.

[Petey48]

New signing scoring is always a great look for the player and fans.

[ShireNiner]

Narrow loss to start things off but always a good sign when a new addition scores early. Hopefully you can get that first win out of the way early.

We will get it. I just need to stop sucking tbh.

New signing scoring is always a great look for the player and fans.

I was worried but Pepi looks to be the right fit.

[ShireNiner]

[Agent]

Time to bounce back with a win over Bournemouth

[ShireNiner]

Time to bounce back with a win over Bournemouth

The schedule is very friendly to start. We need to get some wins here.

[Danimal5981]

I hope it goes through. It would be good for team USA and USA fans who follow the Prem more than other leagues.

Yeah, I was constantly in doubt this week, whether or not to respond to that...


I understand that for people (especially outside Europe) the Premier League might be more attractive, but understand that from my Dutch/Polish POV I really loathe the Premier League as it has very little to do with proper football (in the traditional way). They invented this financial system in the 1990s that have put them miles ahead of the rest.


Now mind you: traditionally "The Big Four" (England, Italy, Spain and Germany) have always been slightly ahead because they have bigger population, larger cities, better markets (there's more money circulating in those countries), but they've radically manipulated how European Cup football looks in the 21st century. It has essentially cancelled out the rest of Europe, so trust me when I say I loathe the EPL because they are responsible for a less diverse game in Europe and they've put great traditional teams such as Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, Feyenoord, Porto, Anderlecht, IFK Göteborg, Sparta Prague, Dynamo Kyiv, FCSB... essentially all top teams form medium or smaller sized countries offside. And that brings great entertainment in the Premier League, but also a sense of 'unfair' among the rest of Europe. (For example: Netherlands or Denmark are wealthier per person, but because of small country, small population we can't get the sums of money they can in larger countries). If you're not Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern you need to belong to the Premier League or the top three of Spain or Italy, otherwise longing for European success is just a pipe dream.


Put that in perspective of American Sports: teams only from cities over 2 million people (that's New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston) have a serious chance of winning trophies in either MLS, NHL, NFL or NBA - anybody else does not. Think about it, if you're not from any of those four, because that's the way it feels for a European football fan not coming from "The Big Four" countries...

[ShireNiner]

I hope it goes through. It would be good for team USA and USA fans who follow the Prem more than other leagues.

Yeah, I was constantly in doubt this week, whether or not to respond to that...


I understand that for people (especially outside Europe) the Premier League might be more attractive, but understand that from my Dutch/Polish POV I really loathe the Premier League as it has very little to do with proper football (in the traditional way). They invented this financial system in the 1990s that have put them miles ahead of the rest.


Now mind you: traditionally "The Big Four" (England, Italy, Spain and Germany) have always been slightly ahead because they have bigger population, larger cities, better markets (there's more money circulating in those countries), but they've radically manipulated how European Cup football looks in the 21st century. It has essentially cancelled out the rest of Europe, so trust me when I say I loathe the EPL because they are responsible for a less diverse game in Europe and they've put great traditional teams such as Celtic, Rangers, Ajax, Feyenoord, Porto, Anderlecht, IFK Göteborg, Sparta Prague, Dynamo Kyiv, FCSB... essentially all top teams form medium or smaller sized countries offside. And that brings great entertainment in the Premier League, but also a sense of 'unfair' among the rest of Europe. (For example: Netherlands or Denmark are wealthier per person, but because of small country, small population we can't get the sums of money they can in larger countries). If you're not Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern you need to belong to the Premier League or the top three of Spain or Italy, otherwise longing for European success is just a pipe dream.


Put that in perspective of American Sports: teams only from cities over 2 million people (that's New York, Los Angeles, Chicago or Houston) have a serious chance of winning trophies in either MLS, NHL, NFL or NBA - anybody else does not. Think about it, if you're not from any of those four, because that's the way it feels for a European football fan not coming from "The Big Four" countries...

I understand that from a global football perspective, my comment was for team USA fans only. I say this with no disrespect to team USA fans but for the most part, they are what I would consider casual fans. They watch the World Cup, maybe the Gold Cup and then occasionally Premier League games if it is on basic TV and they have no plans that weekend morning.

The amount of conversations I have had with USA fans and they list only the main players or PL players and have no idea about the players we have in other leagues is frustrating at times. I have tried explaining how easy it is to watch other leagues so they can watch our players in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, etc. but there is no real interest there.

So that was what my comment was directed to. For the basic USA fan, they get to watch their next (hopefully) striker more.

On your point, I am big on a financial restriction in soccer but I know that has a million issues that would have to be figured out beforehand. I truly hate the money certain clubs can spend that completely ruin the game. Even within the PL, only a few clubs rally have a chance at winning the league now. Aston Villa cracking the top four was seen as a huge achievement but even that came with rich clubs massively underperforming.

[Danimal5981]

A way more easier solution is that xx % of your first team squad needs to be home-grown.
Add to that the rule already existing in Spain of a fixed first team squad of 25.
If we say at least half (meaning 13) of all players need to be home grown, that fixes the issue a great deal.


Another one completely omitting finance is a 'qualifying' mechanism: a player needs to qualify for a foreign transfer by playing at least an x amount of senior games in his own country, or he needs to have made his debut for the national team before having qualified to go abroad.


Champions League ought to go back to Champions only, so that becomes much more a tournament for honours, while a Europa League becomes a bigger tournament where more money is involved: does the team go for winner's glory, or for the second tier money. This way you also create an automatic handicap for getting ahead. Because to become champion you need to invest, but once a champion financial profits will temporarily be limited.


If one of these three is implemented (but preferably all three) it would make the game a bit more egalitarian again.