As long as they try mate, as long as they try :)

haha, I seriously thought she had larger headlights :) damn what a shame and seems she's not good at head     ing hahaha

yes why treaded lightly asking that question - for it will fire up hence quoting many opinions.
Lets leave it till another day good call !

Brother I took a deep breath and prepared to unleash ............. but then I thought, nah keeping good vibes today... Nobody is a "plastic" today, especially not Sofies..... ball:)

https://www.news.com.au/sport/sophie-monks-matildas-video-stuns-fans/video/ccb36095b080fe3e7e6bf742a48639ba

The English Pyramid is the least plastic thing in Football

Whatever is going on this season is just the latest chapter, and a small part of 150 years of Soap Opera

keep tabs ? like just check up scores and highlights next day ?

True mate, care to elaborate more to get the motion going :)

For sure there will be many opinions haha

im a UTD fan so i keep tabs on them but now Ange is at Spurs im trying to catch there matches

Seems to me that there's very little agreement about what 'plastic' refers to

Like 'Eurosnob' getting thrown around as a slur for whatever the latest blame game is.

Super League wont allow clubs to join without a fee nor leave without going bankrupt.... only "Super Leagues" around are MLS and Aleague mate.

Dont forget the "Dutch" AC Milan.....  but to be fair to Serie A alot of the star players were Italians and they had a cap on foreigners per club until a lot later than the rest of Europe. 

hows it any different to the Italian clubs who bought everyone up in 80s? Napoli and Juve spent huge money for the time.

At one stage they had Maradona, Socrates, Platini, Zico. Elkjaer. Laudrup. Souness, plus more.

The EPL pretty much already is the ‘super league’ with billionaires owning Chelsea, Man City etc

Half joking.....

Maybe they should introduce a salary cap?

Good thread mate, I get were you and others are coming from.

For me, overseas club support was always with a bit of a pinch of salt... Liverpool for many many many years through thick and thin but never a die hard like many others. I find myself a little jaded on EPL this year (even though with Ange at Spurs there is a another reason to watch more of) ... not so much about the money spent (as some have pointed out its all relevant, the market will pay what the market will pay) but how it seems, I dont know who to put it, sanitized.... Davstar mention the Fergie United days, remember them mate, how watching on the tellie you could almost smell the hatred every other club had against those pretty boys from united.... Now Pep and the Ababba dabba Doos steamroll everything before them and it feel like "eh, whatever" I almost watch Liverpool out of obligation these days if that makes sense?

some good points Davstar - coherent enough unlike my posts at times hahaha

Yes the FFP is like the United Nations, joke.
Citys case is still pending, you wonder why eh, yet Juve gets pinged.
Barca we're a 1B in debt just a season ago + other money questions prior, like HTF have they dodged the bullet and even still romanced getting Messi back for a while.
Agreed LaLiga is a farce and I think it hasn't changed yet re RM/Barca still getting the lions share of broadcast revenue.

As for LFC, still behind to a degree compared to the usual bigger spenders, Chelsea have spent over 1B since last season and now forked out 115 for Caicedo as mentioned.
Yes we over spend on a player or 2/3 but not half a dozen + at a time like MC/Chelsea/MU over the years.
Its social changes/differences is not any different to whats happening around cities all over.
Especially Port regions moot point, I've been there and done it and Anfield is heaven, its massive history as you know and its people/supporter base thats the draw.
I can't speak for United for I'll never set foot there.

Ofcourse more money than ever before, progress they say, trouble is those who run the Leagues have lost the plot of integrity and footballs DNA that supporters poor or not are the life blood of clubs but suck shit those you can't afford the high ticket prices today.

yes times change, when at the top the only way is down and MU are a testiment of the modern $$$ game long may it carry on.

True money talks and thats what Saudi/MLS have, will be interesting IF either gains any respect, I think that will be a long time yet no matter how much $$$ they throw into their fires.

Our country has never given football the respect due to our screwed up culture and distance from the rest of the world.
We can't even bring it into this discussion for the lack of $$$ and structure is nothing to bring in this big picture sadly.

I suppose overall it is what it is, like big pharma the consumers are conned and can't do anything about it much.
Your either in or out.
Every sport winner comes down to $$ from long ago, the best prepared, the best structure and all the pieces put together, now its become much much larger as is the divide.
Its setting new divisions in the big picture I suppose.

grazor - yer when we had aussies in the epl or Div1 ala Johnston makes for great viewing due to our own but I had been a LFC before he even arrived.
Back then alot more locals playing/scots/irish EPL changed all that as had been mentioned.
No wonder the Championship and below is supported so well to this day long may it continue.

MCG the CL group stages are what your missing though, the minnows against stronger teams and there is cupsets just as happens in our Australia Cup.
When it comes to the final stages its the usual suspects barirng the exception.

yes :) amongst others and the status que been brewing for sometime.

i somewhat 'agree' money is killing the game i got a few points but no coherent way to put them together so ill list them

-  i think FFP is bring some balance back but it will need to come down super hard City ie stripe titles and relegation if they're found guilty of multiple charges - if it is another fine slap on the wrist then FFP is a joke. 

- Ill quickly point out no club is  immune to 'spending' LFC literally offered 110m for a player that Brighton paid 4m for 18mo prior.....Arsenal just paid 105m for Rice etc the fact is if the clubs can afford to buy players under FFP i dont have an issue with it this has always happened in football....maybe not to the extent we see today but the EPL for as long as i can remember has been more international and less English....im watching UTD as we speak we literally have 3 English players in the starting line up and a manager who is Dutch 

- with all the spending the facts are you dont need to spend big to find quality you just need to scout well esp outside of Europe 

- There is 'more' money in the game then there 70s, 80s, 90s etc the fact that the womens game has players on a few million now shows how far the game has come.....

- i probably had more issues with La liga and they way they TV money was 90 percent given to Madrid and FCB [but i think that has changed] becuz the league was going to shit 

- SAF 99' squad arguably best side of all time [at the time maybe not anymore] had a large number of youth/academy players....furthermore for all the 'signings' he made he lost amazing players to in Beckham, Tevez, C.Ronaldo etc. If we had a 23 y.o CR7 today we would demand a Billion pounds for him from Real Madrid....

- LFC biggest problem is they are in Merseyside in which they have become increasingly 'socialist' getting the name 'communist Merseyside' it has gone from a working class city to a bit of ghetto....kind of like the way the city of Melbourne is going lots of big players dont want to live in a shit city. The only 'draw' the club has is its manager who i would say is top 5 in the world in Klopp if he leaves then LFC are fukd. If you have ever been to Liverpool you would understand what a dump it is....
. 
- City and CFC are clubs built on billionaires money, although i think both are plastic they got to had to break the mold some how and they best way to do that is with quick success both clubs have achieved 

- lastly im a UTD fan we have been fukn shit since SAF retired, so many in our 'fan base' still think we are a 'super club' but facts are we havent won the PL in a decade and the UCL in almost 15 years [we havent even been close] times change like it or not 

- the only way a league like Saudi is going to improve is if it 'spends big' we have seen the league quality can improve but without 'stars' no one cares, look at how much Messi and CR have done for MLS/Saudi pro league in terms of viewership, money talks in life we live in Australia where all domestic pro-athletes are on 'shit wages' in comparison to other sports ie the highest paid afl player would be on 1m AUD a season  that is a lot of money for regular ppl but in the world of pro-athletes it is pennies. The lack of money in sport and over reliance on 'government' funding is why football struggles as governments favor domestic dominated codes like NRL and AFL 

if there were 10 aussies in the epl I might be more interested

belgium, portrugal and the netherlands are nearly the same standard as the big 5 without the sense of rediculous overpriced wages

Not sure if you started this thread off the back of what I posted in the Ange thread :) 

The Super League is inevitable. It's a playground for oil-rich nations, oligarchs & venture capitalists to all virtue signal and measure dicks. 

I certainly don't enjoy it like I used to. It's why International football is so more enjoyable, even then FIFA are greedy and will probably run the majority of world cups in oil countries in the future. I don't know how long it can last, the Bundesliga is still very popular in Germany for example, but it cant last forever with Bayern winning every season surely before interest plummets. The Superleague is inevitable, just too much money at stake not to have one.

As long they dont destroy international football with greed, 48 team World Cups are already pushing the limits. 

I can only speak for myself but in the 2000s epl was so much fun I can't even explain how I felt about it then to watching it now. 

I guess you look at man city's team their bench is stronger then most teams starting 11. They can just sub grealish or Alvarez on when ever they want. 

I'm really following the epl for ange. I think group stage in the champions league is pretty stale I only really follow the knockouts. I've got no interest in the super league and the expanded world cup is gonna be shit. Also the club world cup nobody asked for. The sport is definitely changing 

I didn't want to change the course of Anges Spudz thread due to some good points about the big game.......
Its a good discussion going forward for the playing field has been changing for quite sometime and picking up pace greatly now.
Just EPL especially for UK players - worse the Saudi League is another planet let alone what the MLS paid with Miami for Messi.
Kane maybe worth to Bayern over 110k being a true proven performer for some years now but is Declan Rice a 90+k player as well for eg to the Gooners ?
Some pundits like Keano say he's not worth that money but typical Kean though he has a point.
I recall all the talk of LFC getting 50mlbs for Sterling to City back in 2015, 8yrs ago, what would he have been worth todays numbers, 100 doesn't sound out of place.
The standard has been set a local UK born talented player is 100k minimun now.


Celtic won another league and cup double in 1976–77, with Dalglish scoring 27 goals in all competitions. On 10 August 1977, after making 320 appearances and scoring 167 goals for Celtic, Dalglish was signed by Liverpool manager Bob Paisley for a British transfer fee record of £440,000 (£2,908,000 today).

Trouble is fellas its started long long ago and before 77.
I recall those days but clubs were still far more genuine back then and with smaller ogarlords, pub owners/local and larger business and very affordable yearly ticket holders whereas a whole new ball game came to party, Murdoch in '92 with the Sky $$$ and its spiralled ever since......
Not just the EPL mind you.
We all loved it way back then and before EPL for me but they/the EFA/FIFA and all luv the $$$$'s, been blinded ever since and corrupt more than before for its bigger, make a mockery of FFP and all that, its white collar crime at its finest.
The ME lords are ruthless and get away with so so much no one can stop it now just depends where it ends up, the yanky ogarlords are no better just that they are westerners, more accepting to a point.
People marvelled at Ferguson and United, he had a merican cheque book and half, sure great manager but what if he didn't have that endless cheque book till the Glasers pulled back those last couple of years look what happenned, Abromovich, Chelsea were no where also way back then, coup de grace was CFG/City, absolute nobodies back in my younger days and then came Pep after the earlier ground work was done.

Whats your take guys, how long before its the survival of richest more than ever before ?
The Super League cometh again but this time will prevail ?
Some here are long time so called euro snobs, some are I suppose, I see people as myself as just loving football here and abroad because you connected somehow.

Where's it all going and when will your bubble burst or will you just go with the flow.