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Reply | Up? Down? Stay where we are? You choose
at 22:02 1 Apr 2025
Not caring about promotion is quite different from not caring about winning a match. The latter is always a thrill. The former is, at best, a nerve wracking prospect these days. [Post edited 1 Apr 22:12]
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Reply | Up? Down? Stay where we are? You choose
at 20:19 1 Apr 2025
Football has changed massively but the principles remain the same
I guess that depends on what you think those principles are exactly.
The dimensions and markings of the playing area haven't, neither have the size of the goalposts nor the number of players on the pitch, but much else has in the past couple of decades.
Examples:
The increasing number of substitutions during a match. Shoot-outs instead of replays. The introduction of VAR, and the informal increase of time-outs. Some, like the fourth official in the bench areas are fairly inconsequential but others,VAR especially, isn't and constitutes enough of a reason to deter me from watching Premier League football at all. These innovations are mainly indirect adaptations from North American leagues where they've either been integral to professional sport for decades, or are easy for them to accommodate. Which is why I believe an enclosed English Major League seems an inevitable eventuality. [Post edited 1 Apr 20:22]
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Reply | Up? Down? Stay where we are? You choose
at 23:11 31 Mar 2025
Hasn't football changed significantly since then though? For example 10 of the 20 EPL clubs are currently US owned. The sports ownership models they're familiar with are enclosed major leagues with no movement up or down. They certainly won't want their investment "downgraded" to what they'd perceive as a minor league level. If economic variables don't change in the next decade or so I'm guessing the much discussed 'breakaway league' will become more than a pipe-dream. And I certainly wouldn't want QPR becoming part of it. |
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Reply | Up? Down? Stay where we are? You choose
at 22:57 30 Mar 2025
Re: "not wanting to go up."
Probably the way I was introduced to football as a kid. In the senior 'Greek' shamateur leagues there was no promotion/relegation. But there were an awful lot of cup competitions. Five or six, from the FA Cup, and the FA Amateur Cup at the top, to the county Cups and Shields at the other end. |
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Thread | Up? Down? Stay where we are? You choose
at 20:51 30 Mar 2025
Put bluntly I'd rather not go up. Once the euphoria of promotion wears off we'll be scrabbling around trying to establish survival, followed by eventual mediocrity until we're relegated. Also, best guess, the top clubs are going to fcuk-off to an international super league within the next decade. So we'll essentially be back where we are now anyway.
Going down will initially be very depressing, then kinda fun for awhile as we'll probably win more than we lose. But after a couple seasons the gloom will begin to settle in big-time.
TBH I'm pretty happy with where we are. Most of the matches are genuinely competitive (not true 'up there') and of a decent skill level (unlike 'downstairs.') For me, it's always been about the two hours on the pitch. Division aside, I just want to see the guys in hoops put in a good shift wherever, and whenever, they play
So Division Two works well enough for me. I really, really would like to see us put some genuine effort into winning cup matches though. Our recent record is pitiful, as is our not so recent record. C'mon guys gimme that as something to dream about.
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Reply | Football quotes my late Dad used to say
at 16:18 25 Mar 2025
"Oooo! That ball went right off his Brylcream!" On a favourite striker's attempt to head a difficult cross.
" Oh Come on! Don't pass to him. He'll score once in a Preston Guild if he's lucky! |
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Reply | This season......your thoughts.
at 01:35 25 Mar 2025
There are still eight games to play. Let's wait until the corpse has stopped twitching before the post-mortems start. |
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Reply | Out of Contract
at 15:47 18 Mar 2025
The midfield is slightly worrying as Field, Varane, Morgan, Madsen is asking a lot of a 19 year old and asking Madsen to rapidly adapt.
Asking Madsen to do anything rapidly is a real stretch. Weirdly though, I have an uncanny, and quite irrational, feeling that he might come good... probably elsewhere. |
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