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News thread for the 2017-2018 season

HNIM

Well-known member
I wouldn't normally start this one, but Ranger just tanked out of the Europa league 2-0 to Progres Niederkorn, the fourth place team last year from... Luxembourg. Ouch. Guess they wanted to maintain the domestic focus.
 
I wouldn't normally start this one, but Ranger just tanked out of the Europa league 2-0 to Progres Niederkorn, the fourth place team last year from... Luxembourg. Ouch. Guess they wanted to maintain the domestic focus.

I doubt it. They needed the home gates from those extra matches.

Here's the thing ... Rangers aren't even really in camp yet and they have to play a European qualifier. Anything can and does happen. Some pretty decent Celtic sides have bombed out of Champions League qualifying in recent year to turkeys from junk leagues. Not to mention that all of us American fans have seen just how bad even really good Premiership sides generally look in their pre season tours of North America. Those qualifiers are tricky, tricky business.
 
I doubt it. They needed the home gates from those extra matches.

Here's the thing ... Rangers aren't even really in camp yet and they have to play a European qualifier. Anything can and does happen. Some pretty decent Celtic sides have bombed out of Champions League qualifying in recent year to turkeys from junk leagues. Not to mention that all of us American fans have seen just how bad even really good Premiership sides generally look in their pre season tours of North America. Those qualifiers are tricky, tricky business.

I get the bit about lack of preparation, though it applies to the opponent as well. But I hesitate to buy comparison with the preseason marketing dog and pony shows that come to the US.
 
Yeah I more mentioned that to illustrate how even really talented players can look like garbage when they weren't really in game form.

And yes ... the early qualifiers largely cut both ways, but not always. Not everybody in Europe has the same season. Don't think that applies in this case, but it does happen a lot.
 
The first qualifying round of the Champions League is already in the books too.
 
The first qualifying round of the Champions League is already in the books too.

Yeah ... Celtic drew the Northern Irish champs, who are a protestant team, and there's already a bunch of BS sectarian crap going down.

Oh, and although their league has a 0.000 coefficient, Kosovo's champions made the qualifiers for the first time this year and the whole of that tiny country threw a HUGE party for both legs of their loss to some freaking body. Seems they scored in both legs and the country went nuts. There are no full time professionals in their domestic league, although a couple of Kosivars play for other countries ... mostly Bosnia. I've got a good buddy who lives and works in Kosovo ... sorry for the sidebar.
 
Yup ... and the Faroe teams WERE consistently the worse in the tournament. Not they've got Kosovo to kick around.

Their coefficient is higher than Wales, which is shocking. Faroe Islands are 49th at 3.625, Wales 51st at 3.500. If they can increase their coefficient to 4.625, they'll come into the tournament in 2nd Qualifying Round and get an extra 2 weeks.
 
Yeah ... but look at the Welsh league sometime when you're truly bored. It barely exists as a professional league. Even the Irish leagues dwarf them for investment and Irish fans don't give a crap about their domestic leagues. It's like dog racing in the States. Punters only.
 
Yeah ... but look at the Welsh league sometime when you're truly bored. It barely exists as a professional league. Even the Irish leagues dwarf them for investment and Irish fans don't give a crap about their domestic leagues. It's like dog racing in the States. Punters only.

OK, but don't they get coefficient points for the National teams too? Wales lost in the semi finals of Euro 2016 in their first ever appearance.
 
Arsenal club captain Per Mertesacker will retire after the 2017-18 season and take over as coach of the Arsenal Academy.
 
OK, but don't they get coefficient points for the National teams too? Wales lost in the semi finals of Euro 2016 in their first ever appearance.

The national teams are pretty much the only reason Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland even have coefficient points.
 
On the Men In Blazers podcast, Mark Clattenburg said he let Spurs “self destruct” in their match against Chelsea near the end of the 2016 season. They needed a win alto have a chance of catching Leicester but drew 2-2. He handed out 9 yellows but didn’t send anyone off. He said he easily could have sent 3 Spurs off but didn’t want that to be an excuse of why they didn’t win the league.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327


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On the Men In Blazers podcast, Mark Clattenburg said he let Spurs “self destruct” in their match against Chelsea near the end of the 2016 season. They needed a win alto have a chance of catching Leicester but drew 2-2. He handed out 9 yellows but didn’t send anyone off. He said he easily could have sent 3 Spurs off but didn’t want that to be an excuse of why they didn’t win the league.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327


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Clatts has got to have the biggest ego of any non-politician on Earth.
 
You mean like getting tats for calling the 2016 Champions League and Euro finals?

I mean ... yeah, but that's more of the tip of the ego iceberg. Every interview I've ever heard from the guy is enough. I don't need the visual evidence.
 
On the Men In Blazers podcast, Mark Clattenburg said he let Spurs “self destruct” in their match against Chelsea near the end of the 2016 season. They needed a win alto have a chance of catching Leicester but drew 2-2. He handed out 9 yellows but didn’t send anyone off. He said he easily could have sent 3 Spurs off but didn’t want that to be an excuse of why they didn’t win the league.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/42219327


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You have to figure Costa had at least two yellows that went undrawn on his own. That's true just about any match he ever played. So there's that, as well. But Clattenburg's statement makes it clear he thought his job was bigger than to call the game in front of him.
 
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