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A half-hearted defence of Fonseca
Seen the Fonseca news and was a bit taken aback at first but don’t think it’s as meh as being made out and if his name had been linked from the beginning people would probably be fine.
First lets be clear, this guy is way less impressive and interesting than Conte and in both sentimental and footballing reasons less exciting than Poch but if we go back to the start, the two front runners were Potter and Ten Hag and I don’t see how Fonseca is clearly worse than either of them.
Your own article by Dave Tickner complains that he isn’t a “young up and comer like Potter” but he is only two years older, so it’s a pretty weak dismissal.
Many others have said anyone could do what he could do what he done in Ukraine in Shaktar, which is probably harsh but not unreasonable. The same people though then talk up Ten Hag, a man who is dominating the Eredivisie with famous minnows Ajax. Another strange double standard and one that forgets that Ajax managers tend not to do so well away from the supportive structure of Ajax.
A quick look at his background and Porto is the only failure, Roma he was par with lots of mitigating circumstances and board room turmoil (in fairness this will likely be the biggest struggle at Spurs) everywhere else though he’s exceeded expectations and even picked up a few medals (if Roma are the Spurs of Serie A, are Braga Portuguese Spurs?) along the way.
On top of that, pundits and fans have for years complained that Levy does too much on the football side of things and now he has appointed a DoF to run that side and it’s still not good enough. It just seems like some people enjoy wallowing in permanent outrage.
Don’t get me wrong, if Conte or Poch are clearly a step above but if the choices are the likes of Fonseca, Ten Hag, Potter or Rodgers then I don’t think there’s much between them right now, they’re all roughly on the same level with the sane chances of success/failure and best of all not one of them is Roberto Martinez.
Sean (Everyone likes Rodgers now but imagine the outrage if we’d tried to appoint him from Celtic)
F365 Says: Paulo Fonseca as Tottenham manager reeks of meh
Jose won’t let it lie
I was recently listening to a podcast where the hosts were discussing what the very worst thing you can have said to you would be. They settled on “would you just leave”. Which brings me to José Mourinho, in the papers having sly digs for no reason other than pettiness.
There is just absolutely no need to be revisiting old ground when naming an England XI. Just say “Ben Chilwell has been excellent for Chelsea, and you can’t ignore a player who has played a key role in winning the Champions League”. Easy. Instead he sh*ts on Shaw, basically saying that he has a weak mentality, is unprofessional, is poor at set pieces and in the air, and can get dragged out of position during lengthy passing sequences from the opposition. Just give it a rest mate – here is a manager who will clearly never struggle for a job (despite his best efforts in recent times), doing his best to undermine the careers of his former players because of personal grudges. He has an unparalleled track record for publicly and permanently damaging certain players’ reputations, all in service to his own ego.
I can only imagine there are a number of Roma players dreading being the next ones on the receiving end of his schtick. Maybe we might see, oh I don’t know, a collective downing of the tools when things go badly, with an eagerness to have the manager take the blame and start flinging excrement in every direction in the hope that some of it might stick. Now that I’ve written it, it sounds almost formulaic..
On a brighter note – enjoy the Euros and the sunshine everyone! We’ve bloody earned a bit of fun.
Jamie
Euro 2020: F365 predictions on winners, England and more
Euros predictions
I cannot stress how much I LOVE F365 predictions – please do them as often as possible!
So, thought I’d embarrass myself with a few silly predictions as well:
Winner: I’d like to say Belgium but that defence looks a bit dodgy to me, so I’ll be boring and say France, although I wouldn’t be surprised if they go all 2010 and Benzema ends up fighting Macron in a Logan/Mayweather style PPV
Semi Finalists: I can’t be bothered figuring out if this is actually possible, but Italy, France, England and Turkey all look to be decent sides. Is this feasible?! I feel like England would have to beat at least one of the other teams to make it…
Group Stage Flunk: Germany make a lot of sense, despite about 5 of their players definitely getting in the England first XI. Pulis was right about Gnarby all along…
Golden Boot: Kane because we have an OK group and he is f*cking brilliant
POTT: Mbappe – he’s the favourite for a reason, and these things are basically awarded to whoever can get the most likes on Instagram. Will also likely be the best player at the tournament, which is a nice tie in
YPOTT: Is Mbappe still young? If Lingard was in the squad it would be him. But maybe Dejan Kulusevski can do something for Sweden? Top player and probably a bit less hyped than some other options, despite being a Juve player, so I’ll go him. Although Foden would be my bet if he wasn’t already a star (deservedly, I have to say through gritted teeth)
England: Semi Finals, glorious failure, Maguire will definitely have a head wound – with almost nobody understanding why, Joe Hart will front up to the media
Southgate Mistake: whichever players he picks/doesn’t pick for the wide forwards/support strikers. Personally I’d go for Sancho and Grealish, but I think Foden is a better player than either of them. Figure that one out
Also, does Dave Tickner have a bit of spare time on his hands?! Feel like he spent more time considering his answers than everyone else combined.
Jack (Time to be naively optimistic – it’s coming home lads!) Manchester
Swiss shirt
Just a note regarding the rankings article on the Euro 2020 away kits: it was written, “The Czechs come next because they don’t even get their name written in their own language, a fate the Swiss, Italians and Austrians at least avoid.”
I wanted to point out that as Switzerland has 3* official languages, and there is only 1 language used on the awful away kit, in some ways Switzerland’s linguistic situation is even worse than the Czech’s! (The shirt says “Suisse”, French for Switzerland, but does not say “Schweiz” or “Svizzera”). Mentioning this because I find it funny, rather than to pedantically correct the article. Especially funny because the German-speaking part of the country usually gets prioritized and for once its the French-speaking part which gets top billing. There is no French word for “schadenfreude” 🙂
Those 4 away shirts are truly awful, by the way, and I genuinely truly believed they actually were the training tops, rather than kits.
Oliver (* Romansch doesn’t count) Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
Ranking all 24 Euro 2020 away kits: Switzerland to Sweden
Racism in America?
Sorry, I’d love to let Oliver’s rebuttal go but that was so typical of the left, a rebuttal without facts but big on emotions and the feels:
1) Kapernick himself invalidates his protest movement. It’s clear you don’t know anything about his background by making that statement. It’s clear you know nothing about him, his family, where he grew up, but chose to use him to fit your narrative.
2) White people playing on an all-African team isn’t common as you suggest. In fact, it’s very uncommon. But feel free to keep making statements as if they are factual.
3) I supported Donald Trump because he was an infinitely better candidate than Hillary Clinton. You may “think” I’m being intellectually disingenuous but unfortunately for you, that doesn’t make it so. And you’ve hilariously proved my point in your comment. It’s clear you personally are unable to separate “goals” from “ideology.” The left, like you, clearly were intellectually unable to do so with Donald Trump. That says more about you than it does me comrade.
4) And I find it amazing actually that you think we’re a racist country simply because very few cops murdered very few black people. By your standards, all banks are corrupt (because some people in the bank made some poor choices), all Muslims are terrorists (because some terrorists were Muslim.) Do you catch my drift Oliver? And to say that “anecdotal stories” prove your point is simply laughable. I could point to “anecdotal stories” that show we aren’t. Stop with the generalizing as it does not help solve the real issues. And be very, very careful throwing the word “murder” around. I’m guessing that under your definition of murder, self-defense is also murder. Again, not on every street corner like you paint it out to be.
The one thing that stands out about your response is that you failed to address the facts that I made about Kapernick and Brown? What’s the matter, didn’t fit your narrative so you chose to gloss over them? Brown wasn’t “murdered.” That was purely self-defense and that’s a factual statement.
So no, people like me don’t exacerbate the problem or are the problem (again, another opinion based on generalizations, without factual evidence.) So do us all a favor and don’t comment on important subjects like racism with emotions only. It doesn’t help our cause against racism.
TX Bill, EFC.
…Being a 54 year old white man from Texas, there isn’t much doubt that you would be a Trump man. You say you supported many of Trump’s goals but you didn’t say you didn’t agree with his ideology. You were called a racist and homophobic because the person you support is both of those things and large parts of his crowds respond positively to his racist remarks. But he does love the YMCA and some Elton John.
I once played against and with the police force of the Maldives- all of color, and muslims too :O Bet that makes Trump fans head spin- Black, Muslim and a police officer. Confirmed- I have to say that so now you know I am no racist.
Just because the KKK aren’t on every corner lynching people doesn’t mean it is not there. Neo nazi’s marched on Charlotte saying ‘Jews will not replace us’ for F*cks sake. His admin pulled back many civil and human rights, all under the guise of the definitely not racist ‘Stephen Miller’ (Go check out his high School speeches- not a racist bone in his body). Calling war veterans ‘losers and suckers’, Slating John McCaine(even after his funeral), ignoring bounties on our soldiers in Afghanistan…this is all ok…BUT DON’T YOU DARE COLIN KAEPERNICK WEAR PIG SOCKS! That is crossing the line. But it was during the national anthem when he took the knee! Ah yes, disrespect to the soldiers there. Donald Trump waving his fingers like a conductor during the anthem is fine though and those soldier comments… Come on..He was only the president of the US, Colin plays QB!
Onto Kaepernick, he was better than half of the backup NFL quarterbacks statistically when he wasn’t hired. Maybe he wasn’t very good, but he was a lot better than some of those who had jobs, who just so happened not to protest. That’s not what OAN and Fox would make you believe or they wouldn’t get paid. It’s not that you just disagree with him taking a knee- you make a point to go out of your way with some extra put downs. Which if it makes you feel better, cool.
On top of all that, you and many others, not just in the US, but the world- like to justify murder because somebody commited a crime. George Floyd had a fake 20- his fault. That dude who was drunk, handcuffed and decided to run and got shot in the back- Don’t run. Murder is fine, just as long as there is any crime. “Not obeying the cops” is becoming a problem, not in fact police officers overstepping their power, not adhering to people’s constitutional riots and not overreacting to minor incidents, not police planting evidence, not discriminating against people of poverty/color.
You apply for jobs YOU want. If the paycheck is ‘very meager’ , then you don’t have to do it. You do it because you choose to. You don’t hear firefighters shooting up fires, leaving people to burn or abandoning fires because it’s risky and their pay is low. I am all for the police, but you get what you take.
Listing Black success stories doesn’t mean that America isn’t a racist country either. It’s like saying you got an answer right in school and that should make you a genius. Just because the rules have been changed to make things more equal does not mean that they are applied evenly. How was Tulsa taught to you in school? Oh, what’s that? It wasn’t? What about slavery, how did those lessons go? They didn’t either…Well what about the civil rights movement, that was all for nothing right?. LA riots? Rodney King deserved it.
There is a big ruckus at the moment in America about the 300 or so republican bills put in place to combat ‘Election fraud’ despite the republicans running the last election saying it was the most secure ever.
Who do these bills target? Black people? Of course not, that would be racist. Instead lets target people who like to vote on Sundays, or by Mail, Or early voting. Let’s also reduce the number of drop boxes in populous areas and no longer allow same day registration.
This does not mean the ‘American Dream’ is not possible for those of color, it just means there are a lot of roadblocks to it. Also, a lot of roadblocks that may leave you dead. And in Ahmaud Arbery’s case, just going for a jog may leave you dead.
You say there is hypocrisy because you supported Trump’s goals. I don’t know for sure, but all of those ‘goals’ except for the taxes were looking great under Obama, but something tells me you weren’t supporting him for them then.
You were right about the children though. Children are taught first at home. How do you think your kids are going to feel/think watching Trump? Joining a pretty much all white crowd, hearing things like :The ‘radical left’ , ‘Antifa(which stands for anti fascist-Not very Trumpy), Mexicans are ‘rapists’, ‘A total shut down of muslims coming to our country’, ‘I have a great relationship with the blacks’, ‘Kong Flu’ , ‘Grab her by the P*ssy’ , ‘They are coming for you!’, Driving around to wave at fans, while giving to secret service agents who protect you covid, and the previously mentioned soldier comments. Calling the nazi’s in Charlotte ”good people’, Telling the capitol rioters- ‘We love you’, Telling the entire country covid is not that serious and its like the flu and when he is on tape with Woodward saying its very dangerous and worse than the flu, Knowing that information for months and still holding rallies- putting his supporters at risk- even killing some!
How does he respond to criticism? Does he listen, accept and grow? Or get angry and try to burn you down? Yup, You are teaching your kid the good stuff there. But don’t they for a damn minute try to wear pig socks or stand up for what they constitutionally have a right to. Instead, just join a mob and break into the capitol to try to change the election you lost and turn the US into an autocracy.(love for police doesn’t count when it’s your cause that hurts them) And, when it all fails, you continue to petuate and stir the pot and further damage the US and its election integrity.
Good times, good lessons, good man.
That leaves 75 million people who voted for him, many of which surely have kids- Most are being educated first at home, and something tells me ‘not being racist’ isn’t high on the agenda! But Fair play to you Bill for actually showing your kids those points. That is where it starts and this is why I think folks like you deserve your piece.
Where America is more racially adequate compared to Europe is at sports games. I find you are way more likely to hear racist chants in European football games as opposed to any American sport.
To bring it back to football, anyone who has ever played/watched will have typically played/watched with people from all walks of life. Football is international, it has the rich and the poor, the big and the small, the black and the white, the latino and the asian. It is for everyone and nobody should be made to feel less just because they are different or you’re not as good as them. Everyone has something to make them feel happy and if you don’t, go out and get something. If that something turns out to be putting someone down, then you will never truly be happy.
Calvino (In the Maldives they play 5 a side with a keeper in goals, which is 2 feet at best wide. Each game we played ended 0-0 and went to penalties with half pitch shots. I knew you wanted to know.)
…Is ‘I’m probably the only white guy you know that played on an all-African soccer team’ the new ‘I’m not racist, I have black friends?’
Chris Stockdale, NUFC
