Little bit on Getafe, where Alderete learned a few tricks https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cvgqvlpwezgo
We could have had loads more titles too as we fielded weakened teams in a lot of league games in our pursuit of winning the FA cup which was considered more prestigious then.
Former Liverpool manager Beard dies aged 47 - https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c0r00qx5llko Very sad he was no age either
What am I missing about the recent increase in support from Mexicans on Twitter? I just don't see the link. Some fantastic graphics mind.
Enjoyed this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cd9ykn45xz2o Has modern football adopted the Allardyce playbook? We asked him Five minutes are on the clock. The goalkeeper has the ball at his feet. Rather than pass it to a defender, he hits it long. The big striker gets a flick-on. A fellow forward chases it down to go through on goal. It sounds like football from a bygone era. But no - this is Manchester United versus Chelsea in the Premier League, 20th September, 2025. With modern coaches placing increased emphasis on set-pieces and 'going long', foregoing a possession-based game in favour of a more direct brand of football, it is beginning to feel like we have been here before. Sam Allardyce guided Bolton Wanderers from the second tier to Europe, before managing a host of other clubs including newcastle, Blackburn and West Ham, and he did it with a style of football that is becoming a regular sight in the Premier League again... In 2015, Allardyce took over a Sunderland side sitting 19th in October with no wins in eight games, and guided them to Premier League safety. Admittedly, having a striker like Jermain Defoe scoring 15 goals helped, but the Black Cats' unlikely weapon was set-pieces. "Corners and free-kicks are extremely important. Long throws must be used. If a player's not comfortable, you don't use it, but if they are you do," says Allardyce. Excluding penalties, no team scored more than Sunderland's 14 goals from dead-ball situations that season. They avoided relegation by two points. "In my time, the overall targets with our players would be trying to be greater than what the average stats in the Premier League were," Allardyce explains. "Defensively we had to be better than the rest of the bottom eight and scoring more, if not in open play do it with set-pieces." So far this season, 27.7% of non-penalty goals in the Premier League have come from set-pieces, more than any campaign in the past 15 years....
Easy to forget he’s still that young. Slow start at Dortmund but he’ll be sound, too good of a player not to be
