2012/13 UEFA Champions League thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Gillingham is £20. I know what I'd rather pay to go and see.

Huzzah Dortmund. It'd be nice to see them in the final and Mourinho looking even more grumpy.

[Dan]

Could he be trusted though?

It's the Champions League Final ... seriously :/

2009. Man Utd lost 2-0 to Barcelona and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo was anonymous. Why? Because his dream move to Madrid had already been completed.

It was just a thought. Personally, I wouldn't play him.

You're joking about the whole Ronaldo thing, right?

[brenchill]

Could he be trusted though?

It's the Champions League Final ... seriously :/

2009. Man Utd lost 2-0 to Barcelona and a certain Cristiano Ronaldo was anonymous. Why? Because his dream move to Madrid had already been completed.

It was just a thought. Personally, I wouldn't play him.

You're joking about the whole Ronaldo thing, right?

A certain Manchester United were anonymous that night.

[Gazz]

Marc Bartra played a blinder for me in a Champions League final against Barcelona, the team I had him on loan from.

[brenchill]

I had him at Burnley!

[Dynamite]

I will never tire of seeing the atmosphere at the Dortmund stadium, it just looks incredible.

£18 a ticket apparently. Same as a League Two game.

Someone mentioning Howard Wilkinson got me thinking, is there any league in the world where a native manager hasn't won the top division title in twenty years?

Just thinking, are there even many other leagues with so few native managers? We only have four English managers in the Premier League and two are getting relegated. Admittedly in this country the Scots/Welsh/Irish managers aren't treated as foreign so that skews it a bit (brings us to either 10 or 11 British managers I think). Looking elsewhere in Europe, the Bundesliga has 18 German managers, the Italian and French leagues have 19 native managers each whilst La Liga has 13.

[Adam]

That's one of the (many) pitfalls of the Premier League turning into some kind of global superbrand division.

[The Future]

Ronaldo was the only one who looked like something slightly(emphasis on slightly) resembling a threat for us that night against Barca, the entire team failed to show up and were outclassed, It's going to be interesting to see what happens with Gotze.

[Herr Matzat]

Awesome game. I fucking love Dortmund, they represent just about everything good about football. It'll be a shame when two or three crucial players leave this summer, but at least they'll have the cash to replace them as best they can.

Keep in mind that they also have crazy amounts of money now. 40 Million for Reus (this is a gigantic amount of money for german football, martinez to munich this season was the highest price ever payed by a wide margine here - asides from these two these sums are unheared of here), who knows how much for playing the semi finaly/playing the finale/winning the competition. Maybe they can hold some of the players that seemed to be gone already, who knows who they can sign now with all that cash and reputation increase?

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Awesome game. I fucking love Dortmund, they represent just about everything good about football. It'll be a shame when two or three crucial players leave this summer, but at least they'll have the cash to replace them as best they can.

Keep in mind that they also have crazy amounts of money now. 40 Million for Reus (this is a gigantic amount of money for german football, martinez to munich this season was the highest price ever payed by a wide margine here - asides from these two these sums are unheared of here), who knows how much for playing the semi finaly/playing the finale/winning the competition. Maybe they can hold some of the players that seemed to be gone already, who knows who they can sign now with all that cash and reputation increase?

40 million? I thought Reus only cost about 17?

[Jimmy]

possibly mixed up with Martinez?

[Ant]

Its actually frightening how good Gotze is and he is only 22.

Lewandowski is a natural finisher too.

Actually, it's worse, Gotze is only 20.

What you're seeing here is Germany underachieving at ONE World Cup and collectively going 'What can we do about this? How about we invest heavily in youth team facilities and subsidise coaching qualifications so we have more and better quality coaches throughout all levels of the game'.

Twelve years later, you get teams like Bayern and Dortmund, full of German players developed by their youth academies, thrashing the biggest teams in the world.

I have been a critic of PLs policy at Villa but if he is modelling Villa on Dortmund then all the power to him.

[brenchill]

It's Randy Lerners policy not Paul Lamberts. And the policy is simply "I have no money left for you, so cut the wage bill and use the kids" not be like Dortmund. Nice thought, though.

[Gazz]

I think the only problem with Villa's youth policy is they chucked all the kids into the team at the same time. I mean, Gabby is considered one of the veterans of the squad and he's what, 11, 12 years old?

[Ant]

It's Randy Lerners policy not Paul Lamberts. And the policy is simply "I have no money left for you, so cut the wage bill and use the kids" not be like Dortmund. Nice thought, though.

PL has been quoted as saying Dortmund is who he is modelling the new policy on. Besides if you look at his transfers with his other teams he has always bought youth and inexperience.

I'll try and find a quote/source after work.

[brenchill]

It's Randy Lerners policy not Paul Lamberts. And the policy is simply "I have no money left for you, so cut the wage bill and use the kids" not be like Dortmund. Nice thought, though.

PL has been quoted as saying Dortmund is who he is modelling the new policy on. Besides if you look at his transfers with his other teams he has always bought youth and inexperience.

I'll try and find a quote/source after work.

He can dress it up all he wants. Facts are facts.

[Summers]

He probably does want to model that system here, but as stated, it's a decision from the top that we need to cut the wage bill and spending was to be reduced until the wages were at a reasonable level. We're almost there now, and will be losing some more big wages in the summer. That'll be when we see where Lerner is in terms of wanting success or just stability for awhile. I'd settle for moving up to midtable for a couple of seasons right now. Just steady the ship.

[brenchill]

I'd take 17th in the Premier League next season at this stage .

[Ant]

Ditto brench.

[Nerf]

Isn't "just look at Dortmund" the go-to argument for every manager with no money to spend? Rodgers has done the same.