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On May 20 2026 01:27 FlaShFTW wrote:
I think Pep takes a stab at managing the Spanish national team at some point, at the same time Jurgen takes over the German team. Just for one last bromance rivalry in European football.
I would love that, but as a Spaniard I can tell you it probably won’t happen. Pep Guardiola has been very vocal about his support for Catalan independence, so I really doubt he would want the Spain job. And honestly, the Madrid-based media press would go absolutely crazy over it. Every bad result or controversial decision would instantly become political instead of just football.
It is sad, because Spain with Pep would be awesome.
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51693 Posts
Rename the UEFA Europa League to the Unai Emery League
Winner with:
Sevilla
Villareal
Aston Villa
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Norway28895 Posts
That is funny.
That Tielemans goal is just delicious
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Northern Ireland27403 Posts
What other teams have Villa somewhere in the name who could realistically challenge for Europa glory if Emery took over I wonder?
That wasn’t even a close game, Villa were pretty firmly in control for big chunks of it.
Not like me to be negative but the Prem clubs are looking stupidly dominant in the tiers below the CL. And even there they’re still pretty competitive
Can’t remember the exact stat, but IIRC it was something like in the Europa/Conference league English clubs had won 14/14 knockout tied since the restructure against non-English opposition.
Back in the day when CL 3rd place teams could drop down, you could get sides who are either as well-financed, or just more savvy in European competition who can challenge the English cup winners/6th-7th places
Who’s doing that now?
Conference League I’d probably apply a sort of reverse co-efficient/bring in Cup Winner’s Cup vibes to it.
I don’t think any team from say the top 5/6 European leagues or w/e should qualify for the Conference League by virtue of league position. I would allow cup winners, but that is the only route in. Come on a team like Chelsea should not be in that competition, not to pick on them in particular!
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On May 21 2026 07:09 WombaT wrote:
What other teams have Villa somewhere in the name who could realistically challenge for Europa glory if Emery took over I wonder?
That wasn’t even a close game, Villa were pretty firmly in control for big chunks of it.
Not like me to be negative but the Prem clubs are looking stupidly dominant in the tiers below the CL. And even there they’re still pretty competitive
Can’t remember the exact stat, but IIRC it was something like in the Europa/Conference league English clubs had won 14/14 knockout tied since the restructure against non-English opposition.
Back in the day when CL 3rd place teams could drop down, you could get sides who are either as well-financed, or just more savvy in European competition who can challenge the English cup winners/6th-7th places
Who’s doing that now?
Conference League I’d probably apply a sort of reverse co-efficient/bring in Cup Winner’s Cup vibes to it.
I don’t think any team from say the top 5/6 European leagues or w/e should qualify for the Conference League by virtue of league position. I would allow cup winners, but that is the only route in. Come on a team like Chelsea should not be in that competition, not to pick on them in particular!
The money drop off after the big clubs in the other BIG 5 leagues is huge compared to the PL where everyone gets big TV money
Barca, Real >>>> Atleti >>>> Rest
Bayern >>>>>Dortmund, Leipzig >>>>> Rest
PSG >>>>>>>> Rest
Not sure about Italy
EDIT:
Also PL clubs shit on financial fair play rules regularly without anyone caring so there is that
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Holy moly. No Palmer, Foden, TAA. Tommy Tuchs what are you cooking
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On May 22 2026 20:10 Harris1st wrote:
Holy moly. No Palmer, Foden, TAA. Tommy Tuchs what are you cooking
MGW has more goals than any other English EPL player this season.
He takes Henderson and Toney (who he hasn't seen play live this season) instead, and takes 9 defenders because half of them have something like zero minutes since the start of the year.
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Northern Ireland27403 Posts
On May 22 2026 20:21 Jockmcplop wrote:Show nested quote +On May 22 2026 20:10 Harris1st wrote:
Holy moly. No Palmer, Foden, TAA. Tommy Tuchs what are you cooking MGW has more goals than any other English EPL player this season. He takes Henderson and Toney (who he hasn't seen play live this season) instead, and takes 9 defenders because half of them have something like zero minutes since the start of the year.
It feels he’s going for a bit of a mix of form, players with certain attributes and a few preferred old hands.
With a Southgate or generally with Deschaumps you can tell they value continuity greatly in their picks, so even if you don’t agree in x form player not being in, you do generally know why.
With Tommy Tuchs it’s all over the place. What matters for one pick seemingly doesn’t at all for another. So it looks a bit scattergun overall, but it may gel!
So say Bellingham is in because he’s Jude Bloody Bellingham (fair enough), but Palmer isn’t despite past heroics (also fair enough, I think he needs a break to overcome injury. Rodgers is a good pick on form, and he’s a physical bloody player as well as skillful, but Morgan Gibbs-White has had a comparable season and is the form player right now and isn’t in
For me, unless there’s an injury I missed probably the worst selection is not bringing Lewis Hall. I haven’t seen a huge amount of Newcastle but basically every podcast I consume (I think I’m at 10 currently) have been waxing lyrical about him all season and think he’s one of the best in the league, never mind amongst English players
Well, the worst outside Henderson. He’s clearly a leader of men, why not just make him a member of the coaching staff rather than the playing? Always baffled me. And doing that means someone else misses out, Wharton has a skillset nobody else does to his level, and James Garner has been quality this season. It puts extra pressure on his Mainoo pick, who’s got in on a few good months, that doesn’t need to be there.
I’ve no innate issue with Toney, my issue there is that Tuchel seemingly discounted him his entire reign, what’s changed there? Additionally Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who’s a similar player has had a pretty good 6 months, and has featured prior. I get Toney if none of the other Kane understudies were remotely in form, just turn in desperation to the guy in semi-retirement in Saudi
It’s not all negative, I don’t think any of the high-profile misses are necessarily going to be big difference-makers really, the ones that could be are way out of form or not fit.
I can see some rationales in there that make some sense, Tuchel clearly favours powerful, speedy and skillful runners on the left and right flank to stretch things. I think that makes a load of sense, especially as you have the world’s best central pivot of a 9 to interchange. Before England have stuck a bunch of pseudo-10s out there, and they end up naturally drifting inside, into the very areas that Kane or a Bellingham excel in and it gets very messy.
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Northern Ireland27403 Posts
On May 21 2026 16:34 Harris1st wrote:Show nested quote +On May 21 2026 07:09 WombaT wrote:
What other teams have Villa somewhere in the name who could realistically challenge for Europa glory if Emery took over I wonder?
That wasn’t even a close game, Villa were pretty firmly in control for big chunks of it.
Not like me to be negative but the Prem clubs are looking stupidly dominant in the tiers below the CL. And even there they’re still pretty competitive
Can’t remember the exact stat, but IIRC it was something like in the Europa/Conference league English clubs had won 14/14 knockout tied since the restructure against non-English opposition.
Back in the day when CL 3rd place teams could drop down, you could get sides who are either as well-financed, or just more savvy in European competition who can challenge the English cup winners/6th-7th places
Who’s doing that now?
Conference League I’d probably apply a sort of reverse co-efficient/bring in Cup Winner’s Cup vibes to it.
I don’t think any team from say the top 5/6 European leagues or w/e should qualify for the Conference League by virtue of league position. I would allow cup winners, but that is the only route in. Come on a team like Chelsea should not be in that competition, not to pick on them in particular!
The money drop off after the big clubs in the other BIG 5 leagues is huge compared to the PL where everyone gets big TV money Barca, Real >>>> Atleti >>>> Rest Bayern >>>>>Dortmund, Leipzig >>>>> Rest PSG >>>>>>>> Rest Not sure about Italy EDIT: Also PL clubs shit on financial fair play rules regularly without anyone caring so there is that
Yeah last year no Prem teams made the top 4 in revenue of football clubs, but made up the rest of the top 10, and almost half the top 20. And an even higher portion of the top 30, given outside the very big boys a big chunk of revenue is TV money and it’s quite evenly distributed, so ‘the rest’ as it were are all quite close together.
IIRC the PL isn’t that bad on FFP rules, indeed its own variant in PSR has been quite a straitjacket for some clubs. Newcastle and Villa, especially the former haven’t been able to throw all their money around. There are problems here too, namely it kinda ringfences the positions of traditional big boys. But it does mean you don’t see Newcastle doing a PSG, which is no bad thing in my book.
Aye Italy aren’t doing great. Inter earned a bit more than usual for their CL run, and Club World Cup participation, but the baseline for the traditional Italian giants is in the Atletico/Dortmund kind of bracket. Drop a bit if not CL, push ahead if a deep run. And there’s a pretty chunky drop-off there too.
I think because the Mbappes, Neymars and Messis left, there’s a perception that PSG aren’t spending at quite the same rate, it’s a more sensible squad construction so less costly. Actually not the case, their wage bill overall is actually bigger, and gaps pretty much everyone in Europe.
Wages being a stronger predictor of performance than transfer fees, this does matter rather a lot. PSG more than doubled Inter’s when they faced off in the final, and you see that reflected on the pitch.
I’m worried that football is getting ‘smaller’ all the time. You start by leagues like the Swedish, Scottish, Belgian from being able to be competitive, then the likes of the Portuguese go, we’re almost at the stage where even Serie A’s best can’t do so reliably.
This is exacerbated a bit with the competitions being discrete and the removal of dropping down. You have a cohort of teams who are too strong to not reliably always make the CL, but they’re not strong enough to compete in the business end of that competition and would prosper in a Europa League they can’t really access
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everton have completely bottled the chance to send tottenham to the championship. for fucks sake
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Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win.
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On May 25 2026 02:05 evilfatsh1t wrote:
everton have completely bottled the chance to send tottenham to the championship. for fucks sake
They should be deducted another 6 points next season.
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On May 25 2026 04:13 KobraKay wrote:
Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win.
Huge moment for them. And they get Europa League too!
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United States10565 Posts
Sunderland getting Europa on their return to the prem, on top of finishing above Newcastle and doing the double over them is incredible.
Chelsea no european football next season is incredible lol.
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Northern Ireland27403 Posts
On May 25 2026 04:13 KobraKay wrote:
Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win.
That is pretty cool!
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On May 25 2026 04:13 KobraKay wrote:
Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win.
Do they get to play Europa league now? In theory the cup should grant them access, but I can see them struggling to fulfil requirements for that in one way or the other.
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On May 25 2026 23:54 Bacillus wrote:Show nested quote +On May 25 2026 04:13 KobraKay wrote:
Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win. Do they get to play Europa league now? In theory the cup should grant them access, but I can see them struggling to fulfil requirements for that in one way or the other.
Yes, they can just play on a different stadium if theirs doesn't meet requirements. We had a 2nd division team, Corvinul Hunedoara, win the Romanian cup 2 years ago and they played in Europa qualifiers. They eliminated a Hungarian team then lost a pretty close tie to Rijeka. Their stadium wasn't up to standards and they played their home games in a different city.
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On May 25 2026 23:54 Bacillus wrote:Show nested quote +On May 25 2026 04:13 KobraKay wrote:
Portuguese Cup has just ended and a second division team was crowned this year's winner.
Cup's Magic as people say :D always nice to see these stories about lower level teams doing deep runs but these guys actually managed to get to the final and win. Do they get to play Europa league now? In theory the cup should grant them access, but I can see them struggling to fulfil requirements for that in one way or the other.
Let's see when the registration phase starts if they confirm but as others have mentioned, they can use some of the bigger stadiums around.
They are directly qualified to europa league though, thus kicked Benfica to the path of qualification (6 games needed now), Braga to conference league and Famalicão out of european competitions all together.
They finished the second division in a playoff spot so they might still reach first division for next season which somewhat takes it a bit away from the magic stuff.
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Oliver Glasner is definitely a living legend for Crystal palace right? 3 trophies within one year when they had none before. Should name a stadium or build a statue for him.imo.... i am pretty sure they will within the next 50 years! Probably after he dies
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EPT
