Men's Soccer (Football) Thread (Archived) Soccer • Page 662

Tbh, it wouldn’t surprise me if Iraola’s camp let it get out to pressure Bournemouth for a better deal.

Spurs reports coming out and saying Spurs “still want to make it work with Ange”.

 

Oh, absolutely. There's definitely some posturing by Iraola's camp to The Telegraph going on. Even so, it's The Telegraph I've got an issue with here, not Iraola.

 

I’ve been thinking all season about the PL and if it’s getting better quality down the table, or if the top teams have just dropped off and created a little more parity. I know there have been injuries to explain some of it. But in general, am I wrong to say the quality of play this season has been pretty poor across the league?

This is what makes me nervous with someone like Iraola. He’s done well at Bournemouth. But is some of it him overachieving while the usual suspects at the top of the table have taken a step back?

 

I think it was Ryan on the stadio podcast towards the end of 2024 that quipped that the only middle class that is growing in the world is the premier league mid table. I genuinely think that there’s a top 3-4, the 5-10 are honestly close enough that injuries can be the lone separator between the clubs. Imo I think that’s why the bottom 3 the last two years have been pretty dire (this year worse than last year). But I’m a newer fan so I’d default to the rest of yall who have watched for far longer.

 

Mad money

 

Statement: Dougie Freedman - News - Crystal Palace F.C.

Pretty big news for Palace. As far as I'm aware, a lot of the credit for the development of the club in recent years is given to Freedman, and he's been linked to a lot of the recent big Sporting Director roles. Be interesting what happens next for them.

 

I’d say this is fair.

Tbh, I think mid table teams are 100% better than they’ve ever been. They have the money to compete with big clubs across Europe for players now. And at the same time, when outside of 15/16 have we ever had a season where United & Spurs are this poor, where Chelsea are such a basket case, where Man City seemingly go over the edge, and where Arsenal play for half a season with no forwards?

Sort of a perfect storm for an unpredictable season, if only Salah wasn’t having a generational season.

 

“We just miss him”

 

MLS needs to start pausing the season for international breaks. Charlotte will be without 3 starters for the next couple games because of call-ups. We don’t have the depth to handle that, especially when opponents aren’t losing starters.

 

I have no connection to Newcastle or Dan Burn but man, this really got me.

 

Imagine how silly I feel criticizing(?) Burn recently in this thread! At least he's nailed on to go and be a success for England now.

 

This is so unbelievably embarrassing for Rangers.

 

I still have issues with the USL but I am hoping that this works because I want this type of system to work in this country and not the single entity system that gobbles up clubs with history and spits out generic bullshit clubs after.

 

Have to assume this is a push by USL to make MLS their first division league and also adopt the pro-rel model. I can’t imagine them introducing a first tier league that competes with or someday overtakes mls.

 

I think your first point is part of it and then I don't think they necessarily want to compete with MLS right now but I think there is a realization that the MLS can only expand so much and there is potential for USL to fill the space in cities where MLS is not there. This also gives them a pretty big difference to sell in comparison to MLS if they do not adopt it.

 

I don’t have a dog in the Rangers vs Celtic battle, but Rangers fans continually embarrass themselves time and again.

I thought their statement was great though. They just need to follow it with actions.

 

Is there a way those behind USL can simply "dismiss" MLS, view it as some glorified closed shop Champions League styled competition, and proceed with a promotion/relegation format of their own? Who knows, perhaps teams and fans (most importantly) will start to favour it over MLS?

 

I think the ultimate result is the two merging together and creating multiple levels. At least that makes the most sense.

 

That would be ideal, yeah, but I was thinking if MLS club owners don't entertain the idea. I've just got a hunch that certain owners would laugh at relegation in atypical US "franchise friendly" fashion. It's an alien concept to your general American, isn't it?

 

Good luck convincing MLS owners to do Pro/Rel lol I don’t see a merger anytime soon if at all

 

I think right now, it’s pretty unrealistic because of the reason mentioned above. The game simply isn’t big enough here. The USL teams will realistically struggle at the start. But, the game is still trending up, no doubt. If that momentum continues, I think one day in the not so near future, we could see some sort of merger happening.

The problem will be that the two leagues will basically be competitors at the start. And one side has a lot more money and power. However, there is a scenario where that competitive relationship grows both simultaneously.

 

And I get why people are like….against MLS in this whole ordeal. Or why they’re considered the corporate overlords so to speak. But I also think some of the talk around making it the same as how they do it in Europe is kind of a pipe dream. Going back to what I said before, it isn’t actually realistic at this point imo.

I know this goes opposite of me a couple posts above saying it could work but I guess I think that it would just take a lot of time imo.

I can see both sides of the argument really. Yes, the MLS owners are mostly greedy and don’t want a system like that where their money would be affected. But also, growing too fast and having a system like that could really wreck the league big picture-wise. Most of the clubs are still very new with brand new fan bases. I think for a promotion/relegation system to work you really need a strong, strong fanbase at these clubs. The diehards will be there. But there aren’t enough diehards right now. And on top of that, the American sports mind isn’t really programmed for that type of system. So most of the more casual fans would definitely lose interest if their club was relegated. It takes a lot of time for real support to develop and I get why MLS clubs are terrified of the whole idea right now.

I’m rambling. I’m sorry.

 

Them merging together would be a farther down the line project that in my mind would mean that MLS then incorporates some sort of Pro/Rel into their ecosystem. Then there is the whole expansion fee thing and I just don't see the current MLS owners taking a haircut in letting those teams in and I would expect that they would expect those merging teams to pay similar expansion fees that they did. Unless those merging teams either sold shares or outright sold out to wealthy owners who would pick up that fee