2025/26 Premier League & General Football Discussion

  • Thread starter Thread starter Liquid
  • 173 comments
  • 12,011 views
Swansea has sacked Alan Sheehan, it was deserved as we have been in a poor run of form with just 4 wins in 15 games in all comps and we are down in 18th place in the Championship, he had a successful interim spell in charge last season which led to him getting the job permanently over the summer but there is new investment and interest in the club with Luka Modric and rapper Snoop Dogg minority investors (yeah, its still weird!) and we spent £15 million over the summer which was very unlike the club, it was the right decision to make and to move forward.
 
This is gold:



Again, I've never seen anything like this, with a club's administrators doing this sort of communication with the fans. It also shows exactly how ineptly run it was previously. Shorts, beer, chicken, and IT :lol:

Also Wigfield now says 11 parties have gone through the process and proven the £50m funding necessary as well. That doesn't mean 11 offers of £50m plus - offers may be lower - but 11 have made all these steps to get that far.

Apparently the EFL has said we can sign two free agents within a wage cap (an unstated one) so... yay for that. In most games we haven't been hopelessly outclassed at any point particularly (Coventry being the exception) but we're not a Championship squad right now - maybe a Championship XI, but not the bench - so to even have the results we've had is relatively impressive.

Crazy times.
 
Absolute scenes in Scotland tonight...

The Office Party Hard GIF


-

I'm not even much of a football follower, but that was the most emotional reaction I've had to a sporting event since Lewis won his 1st World Championship in 2008... incredible.
 
Last edited:
'Reporting Scotland' was specially extended by half an hour last night 😅

Just to put that in perspective, the news is typically only extended if the monarch dies, or if there has been a major international incident like 9/11 or a tsunami.

There's no doubt Scotland has been markedly better in recent years, and that's now 3 major tournaments that Steve Clarke has got us to - but the World Cup is the big one, and winning the group is a big bonus.

Granted, the result - Scotland 4 Denmark 2 - certainly doesn't tell the whole story... it was painful to watch for the most part, and even at 3-2, the nerves were properly jangling. But - we also scored arguably 3 of the most remarkable goals since Archie Gemmill's classic in the 1978 Word Cup finals... McTominay's opening goal was absolutely amazing, and yet it next 74 minutes were a masterclass in painful viewing; and conceding a second goal so soon after taking the lead at 2-1 was almost too much.

But when the ball hit the back of the net for the amazing last goal, it was an amazing moment - for once, Scotland didn't fall at the last hurdle, and we finally got a result that we deserved. Roll on next summer!
 
Last edited:
Touring Mars
'Reporting Scotland' was specially extended by half an hour last night 😅

Just to put that in perspective, the news is typically only extended if the monarch dies, or if there has been a major international incident like 9/11 or a tsunami.

There's no doubt Scotland has been markedly better in recent years, and that's now 3 major tournaments that Steve Clarke has got us to - but the World Cup is the big one, and winning the group is a big bonus.

Granted, the result - Scotland 4 Denmark 2 - certainly doesn't tell the whole story... it was painful to watch for the most part, and even at 3-2, the nerves were properly jangling. But - we also scored arguably 3 of the most remarkable goals since Archie Gemmill's classic in the 1978 Word Cup finals... McTominay's opening goal was absolutely amazing, and yet it next 74 minutes were a masterclass in painful viewing; and conceding a second goal so soon after taking the lead at 2-1 was almost too much.

But when the ball hit the back of the net for the amazing last goal, it was an amazing moment - for once, Scotland didn't fall at the last hurdle, and we finally got a result that we deserved. Roll on next summer!
Click to expand...
Never mind tsunamis or Toon Armys. Watch out US, here comes the Troon Army...
 
European World Cup Play Offs Draw.

Semi Finals
Italy v Northern Ireland
Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine v Sweden
Poland v Albania
Turkey v Romania
Slovakia v Kosovo
Denmark v North Macedonia
Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland

Finals.
Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy or Northern Ireland
Ukraine or Sweden v Poland or Albania
Slovakia or Kosovo v Turkey or Romania
Czech Republic or Republic of Ireland v Denmark or North Macedonia

The semis will take place on March 26th 2026 with the finals on 31st March. All matches are one-legged.

The draw for the World Cup itself takes place on 5th December in Washington.
 
MUSC4EVER
European World Cup Play Offs Draw.

Semi Finals
Italy v Northern Ireland
Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine v Sweden
Poland v Albania
Turkey v Romania
Slovakia v Kosovo
Denmark v North Macedonia
Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland

Finals.
Wales or Bosnia-Herzegovina v Italy or Northern Ireland
Ukraine or Sweden v Poland or Albania
Slovakia or Kosovo v Turkey or Romania
Czech Republic or Republic of Ireland v Denmark or North Macedonia

The semis will take place on March 26th 2026 with the finals on 31st March. All matches are one-legged.

The draw for the World Cup itself takes place on 5th December in Washington.
Click to expand...
All matches are one-legged, you say?
Will the right leg do?
 
Famine
www.skysports.com

Sheffield Wednesday receive extraordinary 'enquiry' from owners of rivals Sheffield Utd about potential merger of two clubs

Sheffield Wednesday is currently up for sale after being put into administration last month, with an asking price in excess of £30m; the club received email enquiry claiming to be from owners of Sheffield United, COH Sports; the EFL and football regulator would not allow a merger
www.skysports.com www.skysports.com

View attachment 1494802
Click to expand...
"We'll buy out our rivals now that they're struggling and corner the market" doesn't ever work out well in business, I can't understand why they think it'd work in football.
 
Sheffield Wednesday have had another 6 points deducted for regulation breaches, they are now on -10 and are 27 points from safety at the bottom of the Championship.

Former owner Dejphon Chansiri has been banned for three years from being a director at any EFL club.
 
Swansea are in a bit of trouble as well, nowhere near as bad as Wednesday but we have had a pretty shocking start to the season and we are down in 21st and that led to Sheehan getting sacked which was deserved, however the chap who the club has hired is a complete unknown who has only managed 12 games in his career and they were in the Portuguese second division.

Its been bad considering the new investment in the club and the exposure from having Modric and Snoop Dogg on the board, the club spent £15 million in the summer.
 
100 goals in 111 games in the Premier League, beating Shearer's record by 13 games...:

www.bbc.co.uk

Fulham 4-5 Man City: Erling Haaland breaks 100 goals record in nine-goal thriller

Erling Haaland becomes the quickest player to reach 100 goals in Premier League history before Manchester City fend off an impressive comeback from Fulham to secure a win that ups the pressure on leaders Arsenal.Follow live text commentary, score updates and match stats from Fulham vs Manchester...
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Weird result, but still.
 
EngieDiesel
"We'll buy out our rivals now that they're struggling and corner the market" doesn't ever work out well in business, I can't understand why they think it'd work in football.
Click to expand...
I for one am looking forward to the red, white and blue stripes of the newly formed Sheffield Wednesday United. :sly:
 
Last edited:
The World Cup draw is on today...

For people in the UK, the draw is live on BBC2 from 5pm.

I hope Scotland avoid England, though a host nation (esp. Canada) would be good. I also hope we avoid a second UEFA team in Pot 4 - if my sums are right, we have a 1/3 chance of a UEFA play-off winner, which would not be good - we have a 50/50 chance of a 'proper' Pot 4 team, so to get one of those would be a good outcome.

I kind of hope we get one big team - maybe not Brazil again, but that would at least be in-keeping with tradition!

--

Looking at the WC draw format, it's mind-boggling that the UEFA play-off winners go into Pot 4 - that means that 4 groups could effectively have an extra Pot 1 or Pot 2 team... it seems a bit unfair that the UEFA play-off teams are so much stronger than the rest of the pot...
 
Last edited:
The football 'home nations' fate is now known.

England get a tough draw and will face, Croatia (again), Panama and Ghana.

Scotland face, Brazil (again), Haiti and Morocco. A challenging group but one Scotland will be somewhat confident of getting a result in.

If ROI qualify they will face, Mexico, South Africa and South Korea.

Wales or Northern Ireland would face, Canada, Qatar and Switzerland, again, should they qualify.

Host nations, Mexico take on South Korea and South Africa along with UEFA play-off D (ROI, Denmark, Czech Republic or North Macedonia).

Canada face Qatar, Switzerland and UEFA play-off A (Wales, Northern Ireland, Bosnia & Herzegovina or Italy).

USA face Paraguay, Australia and UEFA play-off C (Slovakia, Kosovo, Romania or Turkey).

World cup groups in full:
be112eab-29eb-48eb-908b-978ba128d772.jpg.webp


The opening game on June 11th 2026 will be Mexico Vs South Africa.
 
Last edited:
Scotland get Brazil yet again - that's the 5th time in 8 tournaments I think, and a repeat of our last WC in France '98.

We also got Morocco again, having also been drawn against them in France '98 - they hammered us last time, so hopefully we can do better this time.

Avoiding a UEFA play-off team is huge for us, and Haiti are the 2nd lowest ranked team currently confirmed in the tournament.

I thought England's group was relatively easy, though Croatia are never easy - they also got a bit lucky in avoiding a UEFA play-off team, and I'm also glad that there's no chance of Home Nations teams meeting each other in the Group Stage.
 
The biggest problem of such an expanded World Cup is that there isn't really a "Group of Death". Genuinely, France vs Norway, England vs Croatia and Netherlands vs Japan feel like the only big hitter games from the groups, whereas all the rest seems to be pretty much a formality ignoring tournament randomness. The Round of 32 better start to make up for that.
 
Closest we've got to a group of death is France, Senegal, Norway.

Canada, Switzerland and Qatar is a nice group for anyone in that play off path, it gives an extra incentive for Wales and Northern Ireland.
 
Scotland World Cup fixture locations and times - opening match is a Saturday and happens to be my best mate's birthday; we watched Germany v Scotland on his 50th birthday last year...

edit: Just realised that the time difference will make our KO times suck big time 😢 Opening match will KO at 2am UK time... that's such a shame...

IMG_6152.webp


England will be in Dallas, Boston and New Jersey

IMG_6153.webp


Scotland have got a horrible set of time slots for local fans - 2am, 11pm and 11pm - no two ways about it, that's going to ruin it for a lot of people 😢 I reckon venues will be given special dispensation to be open, and at least the opener is on a Saturday, but still...

England have a far better deal - 9pm and 10pm KOs... that should at least make the games watchable in the pub too.
 
Last edited:

Latest Posts

Back