Champions League

[Brown Nose]

They're as dominant as Lance Armstrong was.

And Pep also has history of doping as a player and manager.

And don't forget the 115 outstanding charges.

 

[Robin127]

And Pep also has history of doping as a player and manager.

And don't forget the 115 outstanding charges.

So if they get found guilty of this do the league title wins get taken away from them and awarded to the runners up? Or do they declare no winner as they did in the Armstrong affair?

And if so will clubs in England and Europe try to sue them for lost revenue due to their progression in the CL that they shouldn't have been in?

 

[give_us_a_wave]

So if they get found guilty of this do the league title wins get taken away from them and awarded to the runners up? Or do they declare no winner as they did in the Armstrong affair?

And if so will clubs in England and Europe try to sue them for lost revenue due to their progression in the CL that they shouldn't have been in?

Only 2 possible outcomes :

1) Found not guilty

2) Found guilty & fined the relative equivalent of 2 bob & a tap washer.

 

[give_us_a_wave]

And Pep also has history of doping as a player and manager.

And don't forget the 115 outstanding charges.

"...because he's an Arsenal fan " !

So UK legal proceedings are being administered by 12 year olds now are they ? Explains a lot to be fair.

 

[taupe]

They look good because everyone in the world tries to play exactly how they do. Forgetting that they can spend double the money any other club in the world can on players to play that way so will always be better.

The only time they haven't won the PL in the last 6 years was when Liverpool pipped them...by playing completely differently.

Indeed. Without pointing out the apparent contradiction, I'll actually use it to make my point. Yes, Pep-lite tikki-takka is vogue and associated with 'good football' (though in fairness, I think it has moved on from its Barcelona origins), it is not practiced by all. Not all are capable of it for starters, and many managers haven't bought in.

That Man City are the prime exponents of it, lead by example, is certainly not cause for criticism. That others copy yet don't reach the same heights doesn't make it a shit form or style of football. Man City blew Real Madrid off the park playing it. RM couldn't even play their game (of whatever style) 1st half last night. I don't know how else to measure success if not by results. Judges points perhaps?

That's not to say its my preferred style (I do genuinely prefer Klopp-ball; pace, power energy) but have to admire it when I see it working, as it obviously does and obviously did last night.

 

[taupe]

The Armstrong analogy is an interesting one, and misses the mark if one is attempting to imply that the players are doping, or an equivalent. It stands only with regard to an organised or institutional 'doping'. Armstrong's operation at USPS was pretty comprehensive, if secretive... though perhaps fairly obvious to some (maybe even common knowledge in smaller, closer circles)

An to extend the analogy, and I don't know if there are any cycling fans on here, pretty darned impressive to behold. He may well have ramped up on EPO but this is 'awesome' to watch.... 2001 Alpe d'Huez, Armstrong just rides away

 

[pork pie fox]

The Armstrong analogy is an interesting one, and misses the mark if one is attempting to imply that the players are doping, or an equivalent. It stands only with regard to an organised or institutional 'doping'. Armstrong's operation at USPS was pretty comprehensive, if secretive... though perhaps fairly obvious to some (maybe even common knowledge in smaller, closer circles)

An to extend the analogy, and I don't know if there are any cycling fans on here, pretty darned impressive to behold. He may well have ramped up on EPO but this is 'awesome' to watch.... 2001 Alpe d'Huez, Armstrong just rides away

I remember it well. The look back at Ullrich before riding away was a very famous thing for years.

 

[taupe]

I remember it well. The look back at Ullrich before riding away was a very famous thing for years.

If memory serves, and it rarely does these days, Armstrong has since said that he wasn't giving Jan the eye, he was looking at a team mate to see if they had anything left in the tank. They hadn't so off he rode.

 

[pork pie fox]

If memory serves, and it rarely does these days, Armstrong has since said that he wasn't giving Jan the eye, he was looking at a team mate to see if they had anything left in the tank. They hadn't so off he rode.

Yes I’ve seen something like that said, but it’s hard to believe much that he says, so I took it with a pinch of salt.

 

[Robin127]

The irony of that situation is that Ulrich himself was banned for doping too.

 

[taupe]

It was quite popular back in the day, I'm lead to believe!

 

[pork pie fox]

The irony of that situation is that Ulrich himself was banned for doping too.

You’d struggle to think that there were many of them not on the juice, to be fair.

 

[Robin127]

True, it's been going on in some form or another since the very early days of the tour prior to the First World War.

 

[doolochfox]

Why There May Be No Official Winner of the Tour de France From 1999 to 2005

Lance Armstrong. Photo: PoweriPics/Flickr “Twenty of the 21 podium finishers in the Tour de France from 1999 through 2005 have been directly tied to likely doping through admissions, sanctions, public investigations or exceeding the UCI hematocrit threshold. Of the 45 podium finishes during the...

www.outsideonline.com

 

[popillius]

Anyone who cannot see how exceptional that Manchester City team were against RM is a ****ing moron.

I don't care how much you may hate the manager, the club, the players etc.... they were brilliant. Not because 'all football teams nowadays are all shit' or some other pensioner type bullshit, but because they were organised, rapid, strong in and out of possession and generally effective all over the pitch.

Man City are about as far away from 'shit' as we are from 'adequate'.

 

[taupe]

^^^ Can I double like that?

 

[camberwell fox]

^^^ Can I double like that?

You just did, shitface.

 

[taupe]

You just did, shitface.

Indeed I did, well spotted. No shit on our faces.

 

[camberwell fox]

Indeed I did, well spotted. No shit in our feces.

????

 

[give_us_a_wave]

Indeed. Without pointing out the apparent contradiction, I'll actually use it to make my point. Yes, Pep-lite tikki-takka is vogue and associated with 'good football' (though in fairness, I think it has moved on from its Barcelona origins), it is not practiced by all. Not all are capable of it for starters, and many managers haven't bought in.

That Man City are the prime exponents of it, lead by example, is certainly not cause for criticism. That others copy yet don't reach the same heights doesn't make it a shit form or style of football. Man City blew Real Madrid off the park playing it. RM couldn't even play their game (of whatever style) 1st half last night. I don't know how else to measure success if not by results. Judges points perhaps?

That's not to say its my preferred style (I do genuinely prefer Klopp-ball; pace, power energy) but have to admire it when I see it working, as it obviously does and obviously did last night.

It's not cause for criticism no. It's cause for resignation.

This is the reality that first the creation of the PL & then later the change from the European Cup to the CL was designed to produce. An untouchable elite class of football clubs, entirely dependent on cash garnered from TV deals. A handful of teams with eye watering budgets, one of which will usually be even more unbelievably rich that the others, fighting it out for every honour & the shop closed to new entrants thanks to the compounding effect of the TV contracts increasing the gap between them & everyone else year on year. The only way to break in is if a super rich state (or Jeff ****ing Bezos) buys your club.

I can't get enthused about something that is destroying the game completely. This is what makes the super league, in whatever form it eventually takes, inevitable.

Of course it will wipe out the PL & the CL when it eventually starts & both of them will scream & bitch about it but they'll deserve no sympathy as it's all just the natural outcome of the process they both started.

It's all just depressing to watch.