Popular Post 479Villan Posted August 22 Popular Post Share Posted August 22 (edited) I will remember this season forever. I walk into my closet, look at my kit with star ball on it, tilt it back and forth to see the little holographic star balls inside, and I grin. I want us to absolutely smash it, but remembering holding my then 2 day old son and watching us lose 2-1 at Stoke from the hospital? And going down? And watching us lose to Fulham in the Championship Final while on a trip to Kansas City and being the ONLY one paying attention to that game as dozens of Liverpool fans were assembling to watch some big match? And praying that the clock would run out at West Ham so we'd stay up after the elation of Grealish's goal then them tying it at the death? And 100 other emotions, from Benteke willing us into likely safety in a hat trick on a Monday night game, to conceding 8 at Chelsea on Boxing Day while I watched the match at a house of an exuberant Chelsea fan, to beating SHA every damned time, to cheering for a cabbage against Steve Bruce.... I will feel differently when the matches start, but for now? I still wonder how in God's name it happened. There is not a damned ounce of shame in this world in pausing and absolutely taking in your deepest breath to enjoy where you are. Take pride in it. Sing for it. Tell some small heath dogshagger to do one for it. Edited August 22 by 479Villan 16 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 On 21/08/2024 at 09:42, Stevo985 said: Honestly in our first season in the competition for 40 years I couldn't give a flying **** about an extra 10m for the club I don't think any of us watch football to see an extra 10m of revenue in the accounts next year. I'd rather see us play Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and Milan than watch us play Leipzig, Brugge etc but get an extra 10m in the bank It might be another 40 years before we're in this competition again. I hope it isn't, and I don't think it will be, but it's very possible. I'll remember it far more fondly with some prestigious ties against Europe's elite than I would if we played RB Leipzig but the club got an extra 10m We had no chance of winning it in 1982, we hadn’t long left the third division and drew Bayern Munich who had a team full of German internationals, who were the European Champions at the time. We had no chance but it didn’t stop me from going or Ron Saunders having a plan to win the game, which the players believed in, “Oh it must be, it is!!” 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wedge Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 On 22/08/2024 at 13:58, Jas10 said: I am more raging that is publicly acceptable to admit that they've botched the anthem just as it's about to be played at VP for the first time ever! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted August 23 VT Supporter Share Posted August 23 32 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said: We had no chance of winning it in 1982, we hadn’t long left the third division and drew Bayern Munich who had a team full of German internationals, who were the European Champions at the time. We had no chance but it didn’t stop me from going or Ron Saunders having a plan to win the game, which the players believed in, “Oh it must be, it is!!” I can't profess to know what it was like in 1982, but from the sounds of it we have a greater chance of winning it now than then. We have the best manager in World football. We have excellent players and great depth. We know we can beat anyone on our day. Trouble is we have to day have our day for most of the days in a row, such is the nature of knockout tournaments. But could we win it? Absolutely. Will Emery be telling the team the same? I'm sure of it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 (edited) 1 hour ago, fightoffyour said: I can't profess to know what it was like in 1982, but from the sounds of it we have a greater chance of winning it now than then. We have the best manager in World football. We have excellent players and great depth. We know we can beat anyone on our day. Trouble is we have to day have our day for most of the days in a row, such is the nature of knockout tournaments. But could we win it? Absolutely. Will Emery be telling the team the same? I'm sure of it. I’m ready to concede that winning it this season is unlikely but never impossible. You can take anything but never the hope. After all football is all about dreaming, regardless of how outrageous the dream mighty be. I stood on the Holte and asked my mate, in December 1980, “can we win it? (The League I meant then) He answered, “we’re playing Liverpool in the new year, if we beat them then yeswe can”. Liverpool at that time were serial champions pretty much like Man City are now, the rest as they say, is history. UTV!!!! Edited August 23 by DaveAV1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinebro Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 Draw in 2 days How is everyone feeling? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S-Platt Posted August 27 VT Supporter Share Posted August 27 34 minutes ago, Pinebro said: Draw in 2 days How is everyone feeling? Calm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 On 23/08/2024 at 19:02, fightoffyour said: I can't profess to know what it was like in 1982, but from the sounds of it we have a greater chance of winning it now than then. We have the best manager in World football. We have excellent players and great depth. We know we can beat anyone on our day. Trouble is we have to day have our day for most of the days in a row, such is the nature of knockout tournaments. But could we win it? Absolutely. Will Emery be telling the team the same? I'm sure of it. Am sure we won it during a 5 year in a row of English clubs winning the tournament It was harder in that opponents were not as known and were all champions plus a knockput phase 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Zatman said: Am sure we won it during a 5 year in a row of English clubs winning the tournament It was harder in that opponents were not as known and were all champions plus a knockput phase It was definitely easier to win it back then. All the Champions are still there plus every other good team in Europe. There are more big sides and fewer chances to play one of the minnows these days. When we won it we played 5 teams in total including minnow leagues from Iceland, East Germany and Ukraine. The competition started with a round of 32 and no seeding. We had a favourable draw where we managed to avoid the big sides until a one off match against Munich which we scraped a 1-0 win. There’s no way you could do that now. It’s all seeded these days so you have to play all the big sides in the knockout rounds, and that is if you even make it to the knockout stages after the league stage. There is a reason why there used to be more random winners in the past, it was much easier to fluke a win with a favourable draw than it is these days. It was harder to qualify for back then but once you were in it was a much smaller task to win it. Edited August 27 by LondonLax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 37 minutes ago, Zatman said: Am sure we won it during a 5 year in a row of English clubs winning the tournament It was harder in that opponents were not as known and were all champions plus a knockput phase Yes it's far far harder to win it now. We won the league in 81, only the league winners entered, fewer games to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fightoffyour Posted August 27 VT Supporter Share Posted August 27 2 hours ago, Pinebro said: Draw in 2 days How is everyone feeling? I feel like we're going to be given the Thursday slot for the first match Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 19 minutes ago, LondonLax said: It was definitely easier to win it back then. All the Champions are still there plus every other good team in Europe. There are more big sides and fewer chances to play one of the minnows these days. When we won it we played 5 teams in total including minnow leagues from Iceland, East Germany and Ukraine. The competition started with a round of 32 and no seeding. We had a favourable draw where we managed to avoid the big sides until a one off match against Munich which we scraped a 1-0 win. There’s no way you could do that now. It’s all seeded these days so you have to play all the big sides in the knockout rounds, and that is if you even make it to the knockout stages after the league stage. There is a reason why there used to be more random winners in the past, it was much easier to fluke a win with a favourable draw than it is these days. It was harder to qualify for back then but once you were in it was a much smaller task to win it. Was there really more random winners back then? The leagues were more evenly split so the teams might sound random now but werent at the time. Dynamo Kiev had a Ballon Dor winner in the team and were one of Europe beat teams and so were Anderlecht. Anderlecht and Dynamo Berlin were serial cheaters as well so wasnt easy to turn them over Anyway it was also harder back then as also couldnt scout the opponents as well compared to now. The great Liverpool team got smashed in Georgia and were knocked out by multiple unknown Eastern Bloc teams 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 3 minutes ago, PaulC said: Yes it's far far harder to win it now. We won the league in 81, only the league winners entered, fewer games to play. You can lose up to 7 games and win Champions League now 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 13 minutes ago, Zatman said: You can lose up to 7 games and win Champions League now You play more matches though so that is logical. Back when you only had five rounds you could lose 4 matches and still win it Seeding teams makes it more difficult to win a competition, that is just objectively true. You can’t get to a final by the luck of the draw in a seeded system. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 5 minutes ago, LondonLax said: Seeding teams makes it more difficult to win a competition, that is just objectively true. You can’t get to a final by the luck of the draw in a seeded system. Gareth Southgate would definitely disagree with that 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 2 hours ago, Pinebro said: Draw in 2 days How is everyone feeling? Do we know the time of it yet. Also is it free to view anywhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted August 27 Moderator Share Posted August 27 3 minutes ago, turvontour said: Do we know the time of it yet. Also is it free to view anywhere? I think it's 17:00 on Thursday and it'll be on TNT and the UEFA website. There will most likely be an hour of pre-amble and faff as various UEFA bigwigs talk about the environment, children, world peace and so on in an effort to pretend they aren't money grabbing uber capitalists. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turvontour Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 13 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: I think it's 17:00 on Thursday and it'll be on TNT and the UEFA website. There will most likely be an hour of pre-amble and faff as various UEFA bigwigs talk about the environment, children, world peace and so on in an effort to pretend they aren't money grabbing uber capitalists. Cheers. Sorry, probably also been covered on here, but can we play English teams in the league stage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 1 minute ago, turvontour said: Cheers. Sorry, probably also been covered on here, but can we play English teams in the league stage? No 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayls Posted August 27 Share Posted August 27 (edited) 2 minutes ago, LondonLax said: No So how do they draw that then because it’s going to be based on pots isn’t it? Or if they draw an English team after one has been drawn already, do they draw again? Edited August 27 by Tayls Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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