Premier League 2019-2020 we’re off

[Papas1982]

Barcelona have had very little competition RM are not what they used to be.
But money talks in football it’s a very corrupt game at the top.
Messi is a great player but the best this year not imo.

I can kinda agree with the other two points. But who exactly gains from Messi being the winner.

Russia and Qatar getting World cups, Italian teams bribing refs. I can see the clear advantage.

But I don't see Barca or Messi earning more simply because he now has 6 awards.

 

[clubchamp98]

I can remember who said it but someone on here said VVD was overrated last season ?

The guy making the messi decision.

 

[clubchamp98]

I can kinda agree with the other two points. But who exactly gains from Messi being the winner.

Russia and Qatar getting World cups, Italian teams bribing refs. I can see the clear advantage.

But I don't see Barca or Messi earning more simply because he now has 6 awards.

Who knows what goes on with those envelopes and why.
He should have missed the whole season and been playing for a prison team for tax fraud.
What message does that give out to all the youngsters that wear his shirt.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

The guy making the messi decision.

Haha not quite. Just found it and the poster never said he was overrated, just had a snidey dig at him.

 

[Papas1982]

Who knows what goes on with those envelopes and why.
He should have missed the whole season and been playing for a prison team for tax fraud.
What message does that give out to all the youngsters that wear his shirt.

Fraud doesn’t come with a prison sentence in Spain.

 

[Liverbirdie]

VVD is an absolute joy to watch live,


VVD is an absolute joy to watch live, its effortless at times and theres no doubting his ability or his contribution to our team in the last 18 months. CB's dont get you on the edge of your seat like Suarez,Messi, Mane and Hendo do.

Midfielders and strikers are the bread and butter, keepers and defenders are there to make up the numbers 😉

But it's for best player not necessarily the most exciting player.

If TAA set up 30 goals and scored 10, wouldnt that go some way to winning it for a full back?

 

[Liverbirdie]

Fully agree overall that he and Alison have made massive improvements defensively. Which clearly helped in regards to your massive league improvement.

But if we’re using the CL as the overriding factor, deciding that’s more important than a league win for Messi. I genuinely don’t think it was your improved defence that won it. You may correct me here, but I don’t recall any resolute defensive games in the knockouts where you held on for a vital clean sheet. You either got hammered or hammered a team lol

Other than the final which was a non event.

Unfortunately defenders just don’t win these awards. I can only recall Cannavaro and that’s was after his country won the World Cup.

Barcelona 4-0 - keeping the Ballon d'or winner, Suarez, Coutinho et al quiet?

 

[Liverbirdie]

Messi is a great player, lets face it, as is Ronaldo, but it does my head in that for 30-40 years the ballon D'or has mainly gone to Spanish and Italian based players, virtually by default.

A bit like players who play brilliantly for "smaller" clubs, but as soon as they get to OT, Anfield, Etihad etc suddenly find themselves in the England team/squad more regularly.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

But it's for best player not necessarily the most exciting player.

If TAA set up 30 goals and scored 10, wouldnt that go some way to winning it for a full back?

The most exciting players tend to be the best players.

No because that doesnt qualify as being the best player but it would go some way him having a fantastic season.

 

[Liverbirdie]

The most exciting players tend to be the best players.

No because that doesnt qualify as being the best player but it would go some way him having a fantastic season.

Thats how you may see it as a fleet-footed striker, but I'm firmly in the centre halves union.

 

[Papas1982]

Barcelona 4-0 - keeping the Ballon d'or winner, Suarez, Coutinho et al quiet?

I can’t recall that game being a backs to the wall job. Don’t get me wrong, keeping them quiet isn’t an easy task. Maybe his style and elegance costs him. I always thought Terry got more plaudits but Ferdinand was the better defender but less talked about simply because Terry was putting in big tackles where as Rio never needed to.

 

[Liverbirdie]

I can’t recall that game being a backs to the wall job. Don’t get me wrong, keeping them quiet isn’t an easy task. Maybe his style and elegance costs him. I always thought Terry got more plaudits but Ferdinand was the better defender but less talked about simply because Terry was putting in big tackles where as Rio never needed to.

They still gave us some problems at Anfield.

The first leg was a weird one. Barca in the end could have got another in the last minute, but overall a draw wouldnt have been an unjust result, as we played brilliantly at times and from memory hit the bar, post etc and one of their goals had a large slice of luck against it. I think we not only had more possession there, but it was also one of the most impressive performances I had seen in the Nou camp from an away side, it's just that the goals for/against column didnt reflect it.

 

[clubchamp98]

Fraud doesn’t come with a prison sentence in Spain.

He got a 21 month prison sentence but was allowed by the appeals system to buy his way out of jail with a quarter of a million Euro fine.
What a role model for all those young footballers.

 

[Papas1982]

They still gave us some problems at Anfield.

The first leg was a weird one. Barca in the end could have got another in the last minute, but overall a draw wouldnt have been an unjust result, as we played brilliantly at times and from memory hit the bar, post etc and one of their goals had a large slice of luck against it. I think we not only had more possession there, but it was also one of the most impressive performances I had seen in the Nou camp from an away side, it's just that the goals for/against column didnt reflect it.

I don’t think the goals against was to unfair. The were all decent goals if I recall, so wouldn’t use that game as an example of your improvement with vvd. I would say you should have got at least a draw though. Albeit 4-4!

I watched it whilst in Portugal and we all thought it was the best away performance we’d seen at Barca. Now doubt the team that went through deserved too.

 

[Papas1982]

He got a 21 month prison sentence but was allowed by the appeals system to buy his way out of jail with a quarter of a million Euro fine.
What a role model for all those young footballers.

Which is in the Spain legal system.

I’m not saying fraud is right, but he didn’t get some lucky escape.

That being said I don’t expect sport stars to be role models. Hamilton lives in Monaco to avoid tax, carra spat at someone, Merson had a drug problem and Gazza a drink one I’ve yet loads of people still idolise them. Christ look at Maradona arguably the greatest of all time. One of his most iconic celebrations shows him clearly off his face!!

 

[clubchamp98]

Which is in the Spain legal system.

I’m not saying fraud is right, but he didn’t get some lucky escape.

That being said I don’t expect sport stars to be role models. Hamilton lives in Monaco to avoid tax, carra spat at someone, Merson had a drug problem and Gazza a drink one I’ve yet loads of people still idolise them. Christ look at Maradona arguably the greatest of all time. One of his most iconic celebrations shows him clearly off his face!!

Ok that’s ok then.
Yes he did , anyone else that didn’t have the odd 250.000 Euro hanging around would be in jail.!
.so did Ronaldo for a very similar offence ,he only got a 23 month jail sentence but bought his way out on appeal with a spare 19 million Euros.
Both have criminal records.
Gives our youngsters something to aspire to.

 

[Papas1982]

Ok that’s ok then.
Yes he did , anyone else that didn’t have the odd 250.000 Euro hanging around would be in jail.!
.so did Ronaldo for a very similar offence ,he only got a 23 month jail sentence but bought his way out on appeal with a spare 19 million Euros.
Both have criminal records.
Gives our youngsters something to aspire to.

The fines that keep people put of jail are proportionate to the crime. So I'd imagine anyone who dodged the amount of tax that messi did would obviously have the financial capital to pay the fine.

It's not 250000 euro if you've lied about 10k...

But do you really think kids when watching the champions league either know or care about it?
Anyways this has gone massively off track, becuase a players character certainly has zero relevance when wining ab award based on their ability.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Great article in The Times today by Henry Winter about how he voted for VVD and how the strikers seem to always get the glory. Well worth checking out

 

[Pin-seeker]

Does anyone have a link for a petition for VVD not winning it?
Cheers

 

[clubchamp98]

The fines that keep people put of jail are proportionate to the crime. So I'd imagine anyone who dodged the amount of tax that messi did would obviously have the financial capital to pay the fine.

It's not 250000 euro if you've lied about 10k...

But do you really think kids when watching the champions league either know or care about it?
Anyways this has gone massively off track, becuase a players character certainly has zero relevance when wining ab award based on their ability.

There lies the problem for me any other walk of life a convicted criminal would not be getting the top awards in their jobs, if they still had a job.
But football that’s ok.
We will just have to differ.