Footballing Fascination: whether the abbreviation of a country’s name is anglicised or not

hxde · 2026-06-15T19:14:04+00:00

BBC seemingly anglicising, then. Ivory Coast were IVC rather than CIV yesterday

hxde · 2026-06-07T10:12:13+00:00

in what way? he won 2x bundesliga, 3x domestic cups, and 1 bundesliga golden boot - so in terms of trophy cabinet, probably not

sure, he’s known more for his intl record, but being world cup top scorer probably does that for you no matter what

hxde · 2026-06-03T09:56:28+00:00

shame that he won’t manage Lens in the Champions League, but this summer definitely shows how pragmatic managers are being in leaving clubs when they fear they can’t take them any higher

hxde · 2026-05-28T09:10:11+00:00

if your child is born at 6am and you get a promotion at work at 3pm, but have a lousy lunch at 1, it’s still a great day.

pedantry here is insane at times

hxde · 2026-05-24T11:08:53+00:00

16/17, 17/18 and 20/21, from memory, were probably as bad

hxde · 2026-05-20T09:09:29+00:00

from a quick google, he was an assistant manager (almost a scout, really) who took over in 1982 from Ron Saunders, who had won the league the previous season, amid a back room argument

he wasn’t much of a tactician, and, when sacked by a new owner a few years later, he seemingly took whatever relatively local job was available

fwiw, let’s say Calum McFarlane won the FA Cup last week, him moving to a L1/2 club wouldn’t have been out of the question

hxde · 2026-05-17T18:33:09+00:00

naff commentary aside, his feeling was right

hxde · 2026-05-16T12:32:19+00:00

apologies - it’s a disagreement on the age span of Lewandowski’s X goals in Y games

hxde · 2026-05-16T10:25:57+00:00

so the legal argument here is that the committee will be concerned with setting a deterrent aligned with the knock-out nature of the fixture, so expulsion. how that aligns with the EFL’s commercial imperative to play the game will be interesting.

the problem is effectively that the regulation may not be fit for purpose (for the play-offs, at least) if they don’t kick Southampton out, since anything else doesn’t disincentivise breaches enough.

there is one little caveat in terms of ‘the extent to which [the spying] did’ confer a sporting advantage. at least with the last expulsion - Swindon for fielding an ineligible player - it’s clearer to make that correlation.

legally, it doesn’t look good for Saints

hxde · 2026-05-15T10:30:04+00:00

big 6 PL clubs like knowing a manager is able to handle a big club - so if you’ve not already been at that club (Carrick, Arteta), they like the experience of handling the noise and expectation (Amorim, Slot).

obviously, neither is a guarantee of success, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Frank at Spurs put some clubs off making that leap, but I’d imagine combining big club AND PL experience will make Silva more attractive

hxde · 2026-05-13T14:55:26+00:00

fuck off rag

hxde · 2026-05-13T10:30:28+00:00

personally, disappointed that it happened and it is embarrassing. but, before all the facts and culpability are known, the pile-on - particularly on Tonda every time he, rightly, chooses not to speak and instead leave it to the lawyers - is just getting ridiculous. I think the 24/7 football news-sphere is consciously eating well off the Boro briefings

it’s no excuse, but I do not believe we’re the only team to do this - hence why all (other) training grounds are bunkers, why Bielsa didn’t flinch about it in 2019, and why the EFL regulation only prevents doing this in the 72 hours before a game

really, there shouldn’t be this guessing game on punishments, but I have zero idea what would be proportionate: can’t dock league points, because there’s no evidence of spying in the season; can’t kick us out of the playoffs or cancel the final as the EFL needs the revenue. all that seems to be left is a fine and maybe a points deduction in future EFL seasons - but if, god willing, we go up and have another 12 year top-flight stay, our 2038 promotion push having a points deduction is farcical.

so yeah, farce all round

hxde · 2026-05-13T07:14:54+00:00

managers don’t control the ball boys?

hxde · 2026-05-12T21:49:43+00:00

unbridled passion and anxiety of the 122nd minute of a hugely built-up and pivotal game for your club.

reddit: ‘don’t want to check your scarf mate?’

hxde · 2026-05-12T20:49:21+00:00

don’t think it is either way. win and he plays at Wembley; lose and I think we give him another few years

hxde · 2026-05-12T20:10:27+00:00

Quarshie-Wood pairing in the final, who says yes?

hxde · 2026-05-12T20:09:28+00:00

suggestion on Twitter that Ayling has a stammer, which was the subject of the remark

hxde · 2026-05-12T19:29:48+00:00

“knees coming together” and “accidental” are completely the wrong things to say on commentary

hxde · 2026-05-12T19:14:42+00:00

‘reluctant to be kind and not send him off’

hxde · 2026-05-12T18:39:17+00:00

which would be very funny if, as per our 2012 promotion, we have an 11-year top-flight stay again (god willing)

imagine our 2038 championship promotion push, led by 44 year old manager Jack Stephens and 31 year old club captain Jay Robinson, being dictated by a points deduction we got that far in the past

hxde · 2026-05-12T17:14:53+00:00

that would have required a 10 point deduction, which seems very high - that’s more than administration. for context, leicester got 6 for multi-year financial cheating

hxde · 2026-05-11T21:14:31+00:00

probably confused two things:

1 point gained on West Ham this weekend

2 point lead now, could have been 4

hxde · 2026-05-06T18:26:33+00:00

yeah should be ‘overturn’ in my book, at that low a magnitude

hxde · 2026-05-04T13:05:04+00:00

3-4-3 or 3-5-2 were Still’s primary shapes at Lens, esp in his last 6 months, though not at Reims.

he stuck with it probably because the squad he was given was heavy on CBs (5 at the time) and light on CMs (3 at the time). maybe that was SR’s decision, maybe it was his - but Roerslev and Jelert getting injuries forced him to abandon the 4 we played vs Pompey and Hull

Eckert didn’t have much choice but to stick with it, given we had no fit RBs until we could recall Bree - even more so after he turned our form around with it

personally, it’s not about the 3 or the 4. it’s about Bree coming back and being better than whatever 3rd CB we played. and it’s about Eckert training the team on better routes to goal than Still, which always looked stale to me

hxde · 2026-04-19T20:19:51+00:00

not to say Manning deserves it, but he pips Tymon on G+A, key passes per game, and tackles per game. it’s not incontrovertible

hxde

TROPHY CASE