The Soccer Thread (Version 13) — Winter World Cup Edition

But the American coach was the real problem.

 

Well come back and enjoy Millwall away (you c***s) and two trips to Wales a year in the Championship with the 'Orns. I think Wrexham will be in the Premier League before Watford makes it back. The club isn't even enjoyable to follow anymore. Zero identity. Players who don't want to be there. A new coach every three months. Shit ownership. It's a fucking joyless existence.

 

Millwall are sixth in the Championship at present, and in fact would meet Luton Town in what I'm sure would be a family-friendly playoff two-legger.

Luton and Boro are locked into third and fourth, but the rest of the Championship table looks like this going into their finale on Monday:

5. Coventry City — 69 pts, +12 GD
6. Millwall — 68 pts, +8 GD
----
7. Sunderland — 66 pts, +10 GD
8. West Brom — 66 pts, +7 GD
9. Blackburn Rovers — 66 pts, -3 GD

The pertinent fixtures:
Millwall vs. Blackburn
Boro vs. Coventry
Preston North End vs. Sunderland
Swansea vs. West Brom

So Coventry is in with a point, Millwall is in with a win, while Sunderland, West Brom and Blackburn need a win and help.

Meanwhile, Reading, Blackpool and Wigan, all Premiership alumni, are probably going down (Reading would need Huddersfield to lose a game in hand they are playing midweek, then beat them heads-up on Monday).

Coming up from League 1 are Plymouth Argyle and Ipswich Town (plus the playoff winner).

 

He was definitely a big part of it. Pray he never gets his mitts on the USMNT.

 

Dang, PSG suspends Messi for two weeks for an unauthorized trip to Saudi Arabia.

 

Messi should say he only visited because he's thinking about converting to Islam. Then he could sue PSG in the EU Court of Human Rights for religious discrimination.

 

Coventry being fifth is remarkable considering the season started with them having a bunch of home games postponed because their pitch was unplayable.

If it's Millwall-Luton I'll root for a terrorist event.

 

Millwall getting promoted while West Ham are relegated would be the ultimate LOL. If you have no soul, that is.

 

There was kind of a reason beyond neglect for that -- Birmingham hosted the Commonwealth Games last summer nearby, and the rugby sevens was held on that pitch right around the same time the season started. I saw they actually just reupped to play there for another couple of years, which had been a major point of contention because they don't own their stadium and were owned by a hedge fund that refused to play ball on rent.

It looks like the Sky Blues have been on a nice run of form. W8, D7, L1 since early February.

I'm not honestly sure if Millwall are quite as Millwall as they used to be, but if either they or Luton win the playoffs, there might be some pretty serious reckoning as it relates to the bad old days or to whether they'd let Kenilworth Road host Premier League matches at all. Hell, you have to walk past people's decks to get to the stands, if I recall correctly.

 

Would love to see Coventry go up after all the shit they've been through in the last 20 years. I'm no different than anyone else. The clubs I consider "Premier League worthy" are the ones from the first decade you follow. Coventry was one of those clubs, even though they almost annually fended off relegation.

 

Also ... new doc to look forward to!

 

Same thing at Portsmouth, where you walk through houses, etc., to get to the park and Fratton Park was never an issue. A lot of old school English stadia are hemmed in.

Also, if Bournemouth can host Premier League at their toy stadium? Kenilworth Road can likely host so long as it can handle the Premier League's media requiretments, etc.