Weird things about football that are true but don't sound it

2 man midfield

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I always thought that was Capello's decision.
I thought it was Hodgson? He knew that he couldn’t have Rio and Terry in the same squad, so was essentially tasked with picking one over the other while getting Martin Kelly to come in for the one that lost out.
 

horsechoker

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I thought it was Hodgson? He knew that he couldn’t have Rio and Terry in the same squad, so was essentially tasked with picking one over the other while getting Martin Kelly to come in for the one that lost out.
Oh yeah, I meant Capello began that process. I forgot he quit just prior to euro 2012
 

2 man midfield

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Harry Redknapp was West Ham's 8th manager.

They've had 10 since.
 

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The 2010 England World Cup squad might be the worst in living memory.

Glen Johnson, Michael Dawson, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock, Rob Green, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emile Heskey.

All of those players genuinely made the plane.
 

Maluco

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That is crazy. I had completely forgotten that injury ruled him out of the 2010 World Cup as well. I think he was our best player bar none at the 2002 World Cup, and was at worst one of our top 2 players along with Hargreaves at the 2006 World Cup. However Sol Campbell made the 2002 all-star team and he didn't, while Terry made the 2006 all-star team and he didn't. Don't get me wrong I think that Campbell had a very good tournament in 2002 and that Terry had a very good tournament in 2006, but that Ferdinand had even better respective tournaments than them both.





Yeah surely he could have put a 16 or 17 year old kid from the youth team on the bench if he was down to the bare bones, instead of a guy that he supposedly knew wasn't good enough immediately. He was definitely conned even though he tries to deny it.

Also didn't several other Premier League bosses, Harry Redknapp at West Ham being one of them, receive the exact same call from the same agent, but immediately realised that it was a wind up or trick and said that they weren't interested.
You would be surprised how easy it seemed to be back then and how basic negotiations were. Even more recently, I was shocked at a few stories I heard.

My brothers friend was a real chancer. He would constantly be doing stupid stuff like getting everyone’s milk on the whole street and putting it at one persons house and the like.

Anyway, he somehow lucked into getting Big Sam’s mobile number and phoned him pretending to be Brendan Rodgers. He had several ridiculous conversations with him, some of which were recorded, in which he made stupid offers for players.

He was offering two for one deals and finally went too far and Sam caught on. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I heard some of it myself.

Back when all of that happened, I would say it would have been pretty easy to get hold of managers and am sure there were more stories we never heard about.

I remember a few years back Joe Kinnear was sent out to watch a championship game and inquired about buying Shane Ferguson after the game, a player who already played for Newcastle.
 

Redcy

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Le Tissier spoke about Dia on a 90s podcast, basically he says Souness was phoned up by a friend of Dia, and pretended to be an agent. Souness agreed to let him have a trial, according to Le Tissier he was awful during training, and it was pretty clear he was nowhere near good enough. He then turned up on the Saturday unexpectedly on the bench. Le Tissier said he was surprised but when he got injured he knew it would be a disaster. Apparently Dia looked feared to death when he was asked to go on. So I think its possible that Souness did take him because the squad was thin, hoping he wouldn't come on, then he has to send him out. Surprised they didn't send out the other sub and push someone forward instead though, I think thats what Le Tissier said too.
 

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Man United are no longer capable of beating other teams to the signing of players.
 

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The 2010 England World Cup squad might be the worst in living memory.

Glen Johnson, Michael Dawson, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock, Rob Green, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emile Heskey.

All of those players genuinely made the plane.
Wow.
 

BalanceUnAutreJoint

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George Weah won a ballon d'or in 1995 for PSG scoring 7 league goals in 34 games playing striker and overall 18 goals in 53 games.
He only won the French Cup and League Cup while his team placed 3rd in the League and went out in the CL semifinals.

To this day I still believe he only won for two reasons it was the first year non-european players became eligible and they wanted to give it to one and secondly he had a hyped transfer to Milan late in that year that gave him momentum.
 

Demyanenko_square_jaw

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George Weah won a ballon d'or in 1995 for PSG scoring 7 league goals in 34 games playing striker and overall 18 goals in 53 games.
He only won the French Cup and League Cup while his team placed 3rd in the League and went out in the CL semifinals.

To this day I still believe he only won for two reasons it was the first year non-european players became eligible and they wanted to give it to one and secondly he had a hyped transfer to Milan late in that year that gave him momentum.
And him being one of the best in the CL that season. Not that i think he deserved the award, but without that semi-final run he's got no chance, hyped move or not.
 

pacifictheme

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Hm. I can't remember where I saw it but someone made a show of themselves in another topic saying that, so I put it in here. I can't find the original topic and probably should have linked to it in my original post. But yeah not my opinions, was just taking the piss out of someone else. So kindly rescind your comment.
 

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Yesterday Dries Merten's became Napoli's all time leading goal scorer.
 

2 man midfield

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Fernando Hierro once scored 26 goals in a season from centre back.
 

Offside

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The 2010 England World Cup squad might be the worst in living memory.

Glen Johnson, Michael Dawson, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock, Rob Green, Aaron Lennon, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Emile Heskey.

All of those players genuinely made the plane.
When looking back at that squad I’ve often reflected on why we were all so positive going into the 2010 World Cup and the simple reason that people have forgotten is that England spanked the qualifying group and there was the feeling Capello could work miracles. Certainly looking back at the squad now there was some real shite.
 

2 man midfield

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When looking back at that squad I’ve often reflected on why we were all so positive going into the 2010 World Cup and the simple reason that people have forgotten is that England spanked the qualifying group and there was the feeling Capello could work miracles. Certainly looking back at the squad now there was some real shite.
Yeah I remember an unusual amount of hype before that tournament. It was a dark time for English football, or as I call it - the Milner, Barry and Downing years. Just absolute dross all over the pitch, and proper shit on a stick football.
 

Cloud7

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Yeah I remember an unusual amount of hype before that tournament. It was a dark time for English football, or as I call it - the Milner, Barry and Downing years. Just absolute dross all over the pitch, and proper shit on a stick football.
That was also the season that Rooney became our leading man in the post Ronaldo era and was scoring goals for fun until the injury, so he was a reason for some degree of positivity I guess. That Capello saw fit to pair him with Heskey as a striking partner is a different story entirely.
 

2 man midfield

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Steve Bruce scored 19 one season for United as a centre back!
Yeah and that was always, in my mind, the benchmark for goals from centre back - until I learned what Hierro had been up to. Turns out he also has the most goals in La Liga history for a defender at 105.

Did Brucey take any pens either? Must have been a weird setup, didn't Pallister also take free kicks and Irwin penalties? That back 4 could win a game on it's own!
 

Bubz27

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De Gea has been at United longer than Handanovic has for Inter.

Shinji Kagawa now has a blonde skinhead and plays in Spain.
I'm not sure you know what skinhead means.
 

bri2013

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Yeah and that was always, in my mind, the benchmark for goals from centre back - until I learned what Hierro had been up to. Turns out he also has the most goals in La Liga history for a defender at 105.

Did Brucey take any pens either? Must have been a weird setup, didn't Pallister also take free kicks and Irwin penalties? That back 4 could win a game on it's own!
I think he did take a few pens but I remember him most for his goals against Sheffield Wednesday!
 

Number32

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Hakan Şükür has more UEFA silverware than Mesut Özil
Mesut Özil has 101 more assists than Zinédine Zidane and still counting
Zinédine Zidane took the play-maker position from Eric Cantona at France National Team after Cantona had a year-long suspension, it was a blessing for France because Zidane could played for Algeria
In their first 5 Premiere League seasons, Eric Cantona had more assists than Mesut Özil
Hakan Şükür is an Uber driver now.
 

chomsky89

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John Carew was already super fit, but his manager still felt he was a bit too heavy, so he lost some muscles and went down from 106 kg to 102kg.

Has to be the strongest footballer to start in a Champions League final. Maybe even the strongest player to reach the knockout stages.
 

horsechoker

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Juventus have played in 8 european cup/champions league finals, tied for 4th highest, and won only 2 of them

In the 62 years of the EC/CL existence, only 15 finals out of 61 did not involve one of real madrid, milan, bayern munich, barcelona and juventus
Also their first European Cup win was when the Heysel stadium disaster happened. They're probably the most cursed team in the Champions League.