Football

[justinafrika]

On 5/7/2025 at 3:54 PM, IceCreamMan said:

Think there are fundamental differences here. 

TAA is a 20 year product of Liverpool. The club made him. He also rejected numerous new contract deals. 
 

he wanted to be a free agent thus denying Liverpool a financial gain from selling him. He has also riled up the crowd. 
 

look, any racism is not cool but some of the accusations are pretty spot on. He has not conducted himself with dignity here. Bite the hand that feeds. 
 

 

 

I haven't seen it.  The guy actively negotiated with his club for well over a year to leave.  He avoided publicity, he minimised social media posts, he avoided interviews so as not to antagonise Liverpool fans, even inadvertently.  Unlike Salah, who used sm and interviews to pressurise the club.

And yet we heard a substantial part of Anfield booing the Liverpool born academy graduate's touches, the guy who helped them win two league titles and a champions league trophy.  No wonder club legends like Stevie Nicol are seething at those fans, classless was one of his milder words.

Edited May 12 by justinafrika

[RoddieJ]

7 minutes ago, justinafrika said:

I haven't seen it.  The guy actively negotiated with his club for well over a year to leave.  He avoided publicity, he minimised social media posts, he avoided interviews so as not to antagonise Liverpool fans, even inadvertently.  Unlike Salah, who used sm and interviews to pressurise the club.

That's the way I saw it.

I also think the club had the choice to sell him, if he was looking to leave on a free. They didn't take up the opportunity, so he walks... simple.

Edited May 12 by RoddieJ

[IceCreamMan]

19 minutes ago, justinafrika said:

I haven't seen it.  The guy actively negotiated with his club for well over a year to leave.  He avoided publicity, he minimised social media posts, he avoided interviews so as not to antagonise Liverpool fans, even inadvertently.  Unlike Salah, who used sm and interviews to pressurise the club.

And yet we heard a substantial part of Anfield booing the Liverpool born academy graduate's touches, the guy who helped them win two league titles and a champions league trophy.  No wonder club legends like Stevie Nicol are seething at those fans, classless was one of his milder words.

The sentiment ( seething) could be due to some of the crass insults by fans. No argument there. 
 

the club made him numerous offers which he turned down. They are of course subject to nda so can’t comment on their content. But he did turn them down. I think he was determined to leave on his terms and just run down the contract. A club that nurtured you for you r entire life ( pretty much) should get some loyalty in terms of financial benefit. But that’s my opinion. 
 

as a free agent he becomes instantly more marketable. (TTA that is). I reckon this was his intention. 
but yes. Some of the fans are ******. 
 

aside note: people don’t quite understand football mentality in this country. It’s not a matter of life and death to some, it’s way more important than that. The associations folks build with clubs and players is truly abnormal. 
 

 

[RoddieJ]

I still feel the club erred, and TAA is within his obligations. Especially given the fact that the sale of TAA as an academy product would be beneficial in terms of PSR. Richard Hughes should be answering the fans.

On the point of "understand football mentality..." I wholeheartedly agree!

I see it first hand with Spurs fans and their to-ing and fro-ing on the issue of the teams performances this season...

Of course, the Premier League position is nowhere near what it should be. But there's mitigating factors involved. And this has been clear for a long time. Squad depth has hardly been a strong point at Spurs. Quite frankly, just surviving relegation with a view to winning a European Cup Final, is a reasonable trade-off when considering the alternative would still not bring in silverware, and the added benefit of Champions League football next season.

Getting a Top10 or (17th) finish, and no Champions League should be considered a disaster- which of course, is still possible... But that's just my - glass half-full - view...

Then we have YouTubers trying to maintain their content....

Edited May 12 by RoddieJ

[IceCreamMan]

Wembley yesterday was a magnificent day, truly magnificent. Bucket list magnitude and it far surpassed my expectations.

wife dropped my lads and I off at Woking station ( cos rail replacement busses from Guildford so decided to go straight to Woking ) and we caught the 09:58. Train was jammed with Shots supporters. Singing , laughing, bantering and kuiering with Stella and Fosters. It was amazing. 
 

got off at Waterloo and got onto jubilee line to Wembley Park but my mate Rob, ( the big spurs fan) reckoned we should get off a little before and go to a Wetherspoons for “breakfast”. Couple of cheap pints and back onto jubilee to Wembley Park. 
 

got there early, out of station and one is greeted with the boulevard up to Wembley stadium. Got it and settled down to a quick pint. At this point Rob and co went to their seats on top tier and I went to my seats in lower tier. Whyteleafe were 1 up and all to play for. Football is a demon at times and leafe deserved the win but alas whitstable equalised and it went to extra time which suited us as otherwise it would be a 2 hour gap between games. Just before end of full time leafe hit the cross bar .. in extra time whitstable scored and won the game. Sad , but true. Dreams shattered and some realised. It’s football. For this game there were about 15 000 fans in the stadium. The noise generated was decibels in excess of 15000. Wembley is special. 
 

aldershot crowd started filling in , our section of stadium was chockablock for kickoff. About 19000 in total. Spennymoor brought about 8000 and there were a few fans from the other sides that stayed behind. Maybe 30 000 all in. First half uneventful with them having better chances. 
 

half time gaffer must have shouted them loud cos 3 minutes into second half we scored. The noise and celebration was off the charts. After that, they looked done. 71 minutes we scored again, more jubilant scenes. And then the 3rd goal which was magnificently taken. See the highlights if you can. Scorer looks more like a bar fly than a footballer but I have seen him score some beauties this season. Not a single shots  person left until after the presentation and champagne moments. &nbsp
 

My eldest lads left asap and made their way to south bank for an apres game pint. Youngest and I met them under the shadow of Big Ben, the eye, Houses of Parliament and reminisced about the great day. Was expecting the trains to be less full on way home. Caught the 21:00 to Woking. Jammed solid full of fans singing and being happy. My lads loved it, we had a superlative day. They will never forget this day, me neither. Still buzzing. 
Aldershot will be doing an open bus drive through Aldershot this evening. I’ll be going in a minute. 
 

to give folks an idea. All in costs for the 4 of us including tickets, trains costs, tube fees, beer, food etc collectively we spent about 400 pounds. It’s peanuts to what one could spend just buying a ticket to the FA cup final as an example. Non league football is where it’s at. And the standard of football is pretty good. Aldershot play in 5th tier league here , reckon they would beat kaizer chiefs and pirates. 

Edited May 12 by IceCreamMan

[RoddieJ]

6 minutes ago, IceCreamMan said:

Wembley yesterday was a magnificent day, truly magnificent. Bucket list magnitude and it far surpassed my expectations.

wife dropped my lads and I off at Woking station ( cos rail replacement busses from Guildford so decided to go straight to Woking ) and we caught the 09:58. Train was jammed with Shots supporters. Singing , laughing, bantering and kuiering with Stella and Fosters. It was amazing. 
 

got off at Waterloo and got onto jubilee line to Wembley Park but my mate Rob, ( the big spurs fan) reckoned we should get off a little before and go to a Wetherspoons for “breakfast”. Couple of cheap pints and back onto jubilee to Wembley Park. 
 

got there early, out of station and one is greeted with the boulevard up to Wembley stadium. Got it and settled down to a quick pint. At this point Rob and co went to their seats on top tier and I went to my seats in lower tier. Whyteleafe were 1 up and all to play for. Football is a demon at times and leafe deserved the win but alas whitstable equalised and it went to extra time which suited us as otherwise it would be a 2 hour gap between games. Just before end of full time leafe hit the cross bar .. in extra time whitstable scored and won the game. Sad , but true. Dreams shattered and some realised. It’s football. For this game there were about 15 000 fans in the stadium. The noise generated was decibels in excess of 15000. Wembley is special. 
 

aldershot crowd started filling in , our section of stadium was chockablock for kickoff. About 19000 in total. Spennymoor brought about 8000 and there were a few fans from the other sides that stayed behind. Maybe 30 000 all in. First half uneventful with them having better chances. 
 

half time gaffer must have shouted them loud cos 3 minutes into second half we scored. The noise and celebration was off the charts. After that, they looked done. 71 minutes we scored again, more jubilant scenes. And then the 3rd goal which was magnificently taken. See the highlights if you can. Scorer looks more like a bar fly than a footballer but I have seen him score some beauties this season. Not a single shots  person left until after the presentation and champagne moments. &nbsp
 

My eldest lads left asap and made their way to south bank for an apres game pint. Youngest and I met them under the shadow of Big Ben, the eye, Houses of Parliament and reminisced about the great day. Was expecting the trains to be less full on way home. Caught the 21:00 to Woking. Jammed solid full of fans singing and being happy. My lads loved it, we had a superlative day. They will never forget this day, me neither. Still buzzing. 
Aldershot will be doing an open bus drive through Aldershot this evening. I’ll be going in a minute. 
 

to give folks an idea. All in costs for the 4 of us including tickets, trains costs, tube fees, beer, food etc collectively we spent about 400 pounds. It’s peanuts to what one could spend just buying a ticket to the FA cup final as an example. Non league football is where it’s at. And the standard of football is pretty good. Aldershot play in 5th tier league here , reckon they would beat kaizer chiefs and pirates. 

Brilliant 👌🏽 

Was about to ask....

[IceCreamMan]

 

[IceCreamMan]

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19hc2GHqZy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[RoddieJ]

1 hour ago, IceCreamMan said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19hc2GHqZy/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Love it!!! Love it!! Love it!!

That's absolutely what supporting a football club should be about! I miss those days....

Being a Spurs since forever, I'll support my club whatever their standing is in the league, cup, kitchen, basement, whatever.... COYS 💪🏽

[RoddieJ]

How the mighty have fallen...

[RoddieJ]

Congratulations to Crystal Palace 🏆

And well done to Oliver Glasner and his team. 🏅 

[RoddieJ]

How Dean Henderson was not shown a red cards is beyond me!

He handles the ball - clearly outside the box - denying Haaland a goalscoring opportunity.

But for some reason, VAR did not rule on the "goalscoring opportunity". And yet, offsides are given if an attacking player forgot to cut his fingernails... 🤔

[IceCreamMan]

Never seen a team dominate so and lose the match. 

[RoddieJ]

Thought I'd just leave this on here...

[IceCreamMan]

13 hours ago, RoddieJ said:

How Dean Henderson was not shown a red cards is beyond me!

He handles the ball - clearly outside the box - denying Haaland a goalscoring opportunity.

But for some reason, VAR did not rule on the "goalscoring opportunity". And yet, offsides are given if an attacking player forgot to cut his fingernails... 🤔

I agree. Intent was there and let’s face it Haaland was in a good position to potentially score. 
 

VAR proven dubious many times this season. 
 

 

[justinafrika]

2 hours ago, IceCreamMan said:

VAR proven dubious many times this season. 

 

Former PGMOL head Keith Hackett wrote a Telegraph piece about the 7 occasions that Van Dijk should have been sent off in the league this season. 

Yeah, when even a ref boss draws attention to the illegitimacy of a trophy because of preferential treatment...

 

 

 

A whole PGMOL head?  

 

 

Edited Sunday at 10:20 AM by justinafrika