Originally posted by -Pr-that isn't gonna happen is it..
I'm a Man Utd guy, so obviously i'd prefer United to win it. But I'd take Leicester over any of the others in the top half, definitely.
Watching Manchester United these days is like seeing the school bully, later on in life, now working at mcdonalds..
not that theres any problem working at mcdonalds! but its little sad to see such a giant mainstay team fall so fast. it happened to liverpool after the success of the 80s too.
Originally posted by Omega Visioni only ever see clips of goals here and there. i mainly watch prem league, champions league, championship and real madrid/barca games sometimes. usually by live stream
Does anyone here watch MLS? It's getting much better.
Originally posted by Shadow_King
I watch TFC games once and a while, quite surprised giovanci is still with the team, if they can keep him for a while feels like they have a shot...
Mid term, MLS needs to reinvent itself from Europe's footballing retirement home to a development league where quality overlooked players like Giovinco can prove themselves outside of Europe in a decently high level setting in a country that's actually attractive to live in. (Sorry, China and Saudi Arabia). Long term, MLS needs to create an academy system that creates high level homegrown players. We don't want MLS to end up like EPL where the best players are all foreigners and the national team is nowhere near as good as the quality of the league.
Well to be fair to the Premier League it wasn't like the england national team was lighting the international scene on fire during the 70s/80s when there wasn't that many foreign players playing in England as it is today...It would be nice to see teams have an academy system for growing young talent but wouldn't that take away the draft system which is popular in North America??
Originally posted by Shadow_King
Well to be fair to the Premier League it wasn't like the england national team was lighting the international scene on fire during the 70s/80s when there wasn't that many foreign players playing in England as it is today...It would be nice to see teams have an academy system for growing young talent but wouldn't that take away the draft system which is popular in North America??
Originally posted by Omega Vision
The draft would still exist, what might happen is that college soccer would suffer as more kids joined youth teams rather than going through the college system, but I don't think that's a real loss as college soccer has never been that important.
Yeah that is what I would imagine as well, the draft would suffer a lot to the point it would be non existent because all the teams would try and lure all the top college players to there youth academy. As well maybe college players will think it is pointless to go through college to get to MLS.
The reason why the Dutch national team is doing so horrible right now is because the Dutch FA stopped listening to Cruyff. There's too many big egos there that think they know better and now that Cruyff is gone I fear we're never going to return to the same level. Meanwhile the Spanish FA respected Cruyff and followed his philosophy and they get two Euros and a World Cup for it...
Originally posted by Slayalthough you may be right, the Ajax academy is the biggest problem the Dutch have.
The reason why the Dutch national team is doing so horrible right now is because the Dutch FA stopped listening to Cruyff. There's too many big egos there that think they know better and now that Cruyff is gone I fear we're never going to return to the same level. Meanwhile the Spanish FA respected Cruyff and followed his philosophy and they get two Euros and a World Cup for it...
Constantly selling or loaning their star players instead of building a foundation. And I really don't know if other teams like utrecht and twente are winning because they're getting good or because Ajax is get getting shit.
Ajax is the same story. They stopped listening to Cruyff. In fact they rejected him rather bluntly around the turn of the decade, which prompted him to sever all ties with Ajax. Since then the board of directors has had some changes in personnel and the relationship with Cruyff was mended before his unfortunate passing, but the damage had already been done.
Besides, the importance of the Ajax academy has been overstated in recent years. Most of the players in the Dutch squad since the early '00s have not been educated at Ajax. In fact for the 2014 World Cup squad most players came from the Feyenoord academy.
Originally posted by Slayinteresting. I know sneijder is an Ajax product, and he is a very good player but I was surprised to find robben and van Persie were not.
Ajax is the same story. They stopped listening to Cruyff. In fact they rejected him rather bluntly around the turn of the decade, which prompted him to sever all ties with Ajax. Since then the board of directors has had some changes in personnel and the relationship with Cruyff was mended before his unfortunate passing, but the damage had already been done.Besides, the importance of the Ajax academy has been overstated in recent years. Most of the players in the Dutch squad since the early '00s have not been educated at Ajax. In fact for the 2014 World Cup squad most players came from the Feyenoord academy.
Perhaps a new era for the Dutch national team?
How bad did Ajax and Cruijf feel after they cut ties to each other?
For any American fans here: Google Christian Pulisic. He's only 17 and yet has already played six times for Borussia Dortmund, one of the best clubs in the world. American soccer fans have gotten their hopes up over nothing many times before, but unlike all the Freddy Adus and Jozy Altidores of the past, Pulisic is already showing he can compete with the best of Europe. He resembles a young Landon Donovan, only unlike Donovan who was never driven enough to hack it in Europe, Pulisic seems to be willing and able to fight for minutes.
I don't think the comparisons between Blackburn's title win in '95 and Leicester's surge toward the title this season are entirely justified. Blackburn had a pretty expensively assembled squad that had taken them a couple of years to put together, I think they had finished 2nd the year before too, so it wasn't as unexpected as Leicester have been this season. I guarantee you though, if they do win the title, a movie won't be too far away.