I got trained in crisis situation management by emergency medical staff, and they freely admit they stole everything they know from airline safety measures.
Airlines are the safest thing in the world and are pioneers in communication skills during stress situations. They more or less invented the checklist and the ‘close the loop’ theory.
It’s not before time that something like the VAR staff, with millions of pounds at stake on every decision, was professionalised.
Interesting - that’s almost my list of the most talented players of the 21st century in exact order, except Mbappe is lower and where the hell is Thierry Henry
I got a Kyoto Purple Sanga shirt as a gift from a mate who did exchange there when I was 20, absolutely awesome. Worn with pride many times!
Quietly and immediately is brilliant. So Japanese!
Man City: stripped of every trophy since 2012, fined £1bn
Chelsea: dissolved, newco can begin again in the 15th tier only if they wear strips which say “JT is a racist, embarrassing wanker and so are all of our fans” and made to give Mudryk another 8 year £150k a week contract on top of the current one
Newcastle: literally pick up the entire city including football club & facilites and drop it in the fucking North Sea
I think that’s it for ETH to be honest
Easy one is 25 man squad, max 3 loans out per season. You can send players out on loan, but they’re coming from that squad. No exceptions for U18s, homegrown, feeder clubs etc etc. It’s not a first team squad, it’s your entire player list.
If you’re the 26th player in the Chelsea or City squad you’ve got the season off.
There will always be clubs with more money than other clubs and always has been. But hoarding talent is the biggest issue facing football nowadays.
Good players want to play, and there are plenty of good players to go around. Now, it’s financially better for them to be the 24th guy at City or go on 10 loans in 10 years at Chelsea. This rule would encourage great players - and young players - to stay at smaller clubs, because they would play.
Nah he’s too quick, too technically good to be old school and doesn’t play with his back to goal all that much, because City don’t need him to. If anything Haaland is most lethal as a counter attacking player because of his pace and power or just as a pure instinctive finisher in the box.
True old school long ball football has two strikers, a big man and little man in a 4-4-2. Big man plays back to goal, the team launches diagonal balls to him and he holds it up so everyone else can get forward. Little man, who is quick, plays off him and finishes off the chances. Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn are about as good an example of this as you’ll see.
I think what happened was that having two guys up top with little defensive responsibilities stopped working against teams with an extra man in the middle, so everyone evolved towards a 4-3-3. At the same time, everyone got technically loads better and much fitter and stronger, so suddenly you have a generation of strikers who can do both things - finish, play on the counter and also hold up and distribute the ball.
Your typical ‘forward’ of 2023 - quick, technical guy who isn’t an absolutely lethal finisher but can create and play anywhere across the front 3 - didn’t really exist as a prototype 20-30 and certainly 40 years ago, you were either a striker or a winger. Now everyone is a Marcus Rashford type.
I see a little bit of old school in Ivan Toney and before that, Jermaine Defoe. Wout Weghorst is definitely old school.