By LabouredPatriot Go To PostSpread your wings and fly m8
By FligureSkatingFlan Go To PostUEFA should punish them by handing their Champions League spots to Real Sociedad, Real Betis, and Napoli.That would be incredible
By LabouredPatriot Go To PostLol, good way to put pressure on them tbh.
By Frustrated_me Go To PostIf anything is worse than the transfer ITKs it's the super league/uefa ITKs
Suuurreee..
Speaking as a UEFA ITK, J Brand is out, and Napoli is in.
Speaking as a transfer ITK, Messi has agreed to join Napoli on a free. He’ll be a player-manager.
Speaking as a transfer ITK, Messi has agreed to join Napoli on a free. He’ll be a player-manager.
River plate 1 fluminense 3 Hasss FUCK river fluminense 2 Brasil team tô win boca river in libertadores in theirs stadium Fred am a monster but martins
https://youtu.be/ICHACuDfjow FUCK River plate
Stunning Zlatan piece in the Athletic:
Like any tall tale, Benny Feilhaber only ever heard this story second-hand. He was playing for the Galaxy’s crosstown rival, LAFC, when Ibrahimovic first arrived in the city, and word got out that Zlatan had made quite the impression on his new teammates.
“Honestly I can’t even remember who told me this story,” Feilhaber says, “but I heard that one of the first things he said in his first training — and would have been the day before we played them with LAFC — he told everybody that, ‘All you guys might have an idea of why I’m here, but I have over 100 million dollars in my bank account. I’m not here for money. I want to win.’ I think that’s a pretty cool thing to say. That definitely gets the attention of the players and lets them know that he is a competitive motherfucker.”
The amount grew just a couple of months later when Zlatan launched into one of his usual halftime rants.
“He stands up and yells, ‘Are we going to start playing for real?” says Kitchen. “Or are we just going to be on vacation? Because if we’re just going to be on vacation, no problem. I have $200 million in the bank. I can relax. That’s not a big deal to me.’ It was… a little hard for us to relate.”
Finally, former Galaxy assistant Dom Kinnear recalls an exchange with Ibrahimovic after he scored a brace against RSL later that same summer.
“He does his press, and we’re walking off the field,” Kinnear says. “He’s walking behind me and he goes, ‘Hey Dom. Hey Dom. Not bad tonight, huh?’ I turned around and I said, ‘Yeah, big man. You were on it. It was good to watch.’”
Relishing the moment, Zlatan offered up a further bit of analysis:
“Not bad for a 37-year-old with $300 million in the bank.”
In early May of 2018, the Galaxy were facing off against the Houston Dynamo on the road. As Pontius tells it, LA looked gutless in the game’s early goings and, at halftime, Zlatan made his frustrations known.
“We need more guys to get stuck in on tackles,” Ibrahimovic bellowed. “Like Kevin.”
Ibrahimovic’s teammates were intimidated by the giant, ferocious Swede, who was prowling around the locker room, unloading on each and every one of them. But mostly they were confused. You see, there was no Kevin on the team. Zlatan, at this point, had been with them for weeks.
“Finally someone musters up the courage to ask him,” says Pontius, “who is Kevin?”
Ibrahimovic motioned toward defensive midfielder Perry Kitchen, who was seated at his locker. “Him,” said Ibrahimovic. “Kevin.”
Like any good mythology, the Kevin story has different versions. We’re first introduced to Kevin by Toronto FC defender Eriq Zavaleta.
“The game (in 2019) that we won 5-3 — where Zlatan scored his 500th (career) goal — I heard Zlatan screaming at his teammates,” Zavaleta says. “He was yelling, ‘KEVIN! KEVIN! PLAY FORWARD.’ Perry Kitchen had the ball at that point so I thought to myself, ‘Who the hell is Kevin?’ There was no Kevin on that team, to my knowledge.”
“You know about Kevin, right?” Nashville SC defender Walker Zimmerman asks us weeks later.
Kitchen himself, now with the Columbus Crew, has his own version of events.
“Chris is wrong,” Kitchen says. “That was a different time. The Kevin thing started immediately.”
The day after the Galaxy’s stunning, come-from-behind 4-3 victory over LAFC — a game in which Zlatan scored arguably the most memorable goal in MLS history within his first 36 hours of arriving in the United States — Schmid gathered his team for a post-game tape session. While going through the film, the veteran MLS coach asked his charges if they had any observations.
“Zlatan spoke up and said something along the lines of: ‘In games like these we need to have more bite, we need to be nastier. Like Kevin,’” says Kevin Kitchen. “And he pointed to me, over in my direction. I was like, looking around, to my left, to my right, making sure there wasn’t a Kevin on the team. I said, ‘Are you pointing to me? My name is Perry. It’s right above my locker.’”
“Yes,” replied Ibrahimovic. “You are Kevin.”
“The guy was so confident that he stood there and just tried to tell me I didn’t know my own name, man.”
“He called Perry ‘Kevin’ every day for the next year and a half,” Pontius says, still laughing. “I swear, to this very day, if he saw Perry again he would just say, ‘What’s up, Kevin?’”
Pontius, who retired last year, had a distinguished run in MLS. Though injuries derailed him for long stretches, he remained a productive player throughout his decade in the league. So in late 2018, when Pontius notched his 50th career MLS goal, teammates current and former offered their congratulations. But Zlatan? Not so much. The following year, Ibrahimovic took the shit-talking to another level.
“Chris, 50 goals? It’s nothing,” Pontius remembers Ibrahimovic saying. “By the time I leave the Galaxy, I will have as many goals as you do in your entire career.”
Zlatan was coming off an abbreviated 2018 campaign in which he scored 22 goals in 27 matches. He was also injured, and some suspected he might need surgery. Pontius liked his odds, so he pushed back.
“Everyone else starts goading me on like, ‘Man, put money on it!’,” says Pontius. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, fuck you.’ I’m looking at him, he’s on the table getting his Achilles worked on; people are talking about him needing surgery. I was like, ‘Put your money where your mouth is. I’ll bet you $1,000.’”
The two agreed on terms — Pontius threw in $500, and if he emerged victorious, he’d take home $1,000. Zlatan’s $1,000 investment would earn him an even return. For the remainder of the season, Pontius — who had fallen out of the starting lineup — watched Ibrahimovic’s goal tally climb. Eventually, in the last few weeks of the season, Zlatan notched his 51st, equaling Pontius’ total at the time. The following week, Pontius struck back, scoring the final goal of his MLS career, a late one after entering as a sub against Vancouver.
“Zlatan has been keeping track, obviously,” says Pontius. “And in the final game of the season, against Houston, he scores an absolute banger. I had no chance of coming back. He laughed and he looked over at me after the game. I knew I had to pay up.”
The next day, Pontius brought in the $500. Ibrahimovic was seated next to his son Max in a room at Dignity Health Sports Park, and the two were playing Fortnite. “The guy had an entire room in his house where he’d play Fortnite with his kid,” Pontius remembers.
“So I give Zlatan the money and he turns to Max, hands it to him and says, ‘Do you know how many Fortnite tokens we can buy with this?’”
Pontius was surprised. He didn’t think Ibrahimovic, one of the wealthiest players in the history of the game, would actually take his money. ‘I said, OK, well at least give it to charity or something. Fortnite? No.”
Ibrahimovic offered his response, which was about what you’d expect.
“Chris,” he said. “I’ll spend your fucking money however I want.”
Gotta say I agree with that final line in the final story tbh.
Great stuff though, Zlatan is a cartoon character. Amazing striker but a massive tit, Brent-eqsue.
Great stuff though, Zlatan is a cartoon character. Amazing striker but a massive tit, Brent-eqsue.
By n8 dogg Go To PostStunning Zlatan piece in the Athletic:
Absolutely sensational
Agree with this, seems like it's all been a show, including the very public training session last night.
By Cleff Go To PostWhat a gargantuan kick in the balls.
I’ve met this lad in real life a couple of times, he’s a good egg. Another one Tottenham looked at signing for £20m, turned their noses up and now he’d cost £50m.
Murmurs around Conte to Tottenham are intensifying today. No doubt one of the best managers in the world but as always it comes down to Levy. Is he going to give him the money to rebuild the team properly? If not there is no point giving him a contract.
Conte hasn't been happy with the spending at clubs that are much more willing to splash the cash than we are, so I can see that only going one very bad way
By Cleff Go To PostWhat a gargantuan kick in the balls.Shame. We could have used Eze on a Sunday morning.
By Cleff Go To PostBuying the lad that beats us in the final...
By n8 dogg Go To PostStunning Zlatan piece in the Athletic:Kevin got zlatan'd
By FortuneFaded Go To PostShame. We could have used Eze on a Sunday morning.
WE ARE ALL VILLAREAL SUBMARINE YELLOW LETS SING YELLOW SUBMARINE YELLOW SUBMARINE FUCK Doicare FUCK SCUM fuck papangus
YELLOW SUBMARINE YELLOW SUBMARINE FUCK Manchester FUCK Doicare FUCK SCUM i am villareal FUCK these 2 BLACK SHEEPS THESE GUYS Are mine
Reirom m8 lfmartins said you can get banned for personal insults and attacks. So I'd say edit your posts and remove the scum and doicare insults.
Remove the Manchester Club insults too. No one is allowed to insult the Manchester Club apart from Willkiller.
By FortuneFaded Go To PostWould never have thought it
By FortuneFaded Go To PostShame. We could have used Eze on a Sunday morning.
If you're not buying your third choice pick at double the price at the end of the window, can you even consider yourself to be an elite club?
By n8 dogg Go To PostStunning Zlatan piece in the Athletic:
Fuck. This made my day
By Wahabipapangus Go To Postspoiler: euros championsThis is so Denmark.
Tomori should’ve been included in the England squad.
It will be a tasty enough game tonight if Maguire is actually injured. Still massive favourites without him mind.
Try and imagine Adrian Chiles saying this, I'm trying to manifest something: "Twenty years ago Jordi Cruyff, the former United man playing for a Spanish side scored against Liverpool in the Europa final. This time Alberto Moreno is the former Liverpool man playing for a Spanish side scoring against United in the Europa final."
Try and imagine Adrian Chiles saying this, I'm trying to manifest something: "Twenty years ago Jordi Cruyff, the former United man playing for a Spanish side scored against Liverpool in the Europa final. This time Alberto Moreno is the former Liverpool man playing for a Spanish side scoring against United in the Europa final."
By n8 dogg Go To PostStunning Zlatan piece in the Athletic:Wow great read, thanks for this Kevin.
By Doicare Go To PostIt's nice that special needs schools allow their kids to have internet access.Come on m8 that's no better
By rossonero Go To PostWe are being linked to Bellerin. Have no idea how to react to that.Aroused?