The Rolling Football Thread (season 2022/23)

[DuncinToffee]

A brand new season is here, join in to share the joy, the heartache and VAR frustration

As in previous years, footy fans please sign in with

Which team you support.

How you are getting your kids to follow
the 'correct' team.

A thought on this season (Premiership/Championship/All other UK Leagues/Champions’ League/FA Cup/Any leagues world wide)

I wish I knew about this thread at the beginning of the season! I love football. Unfortunately I'm a long suffering tottenham supporter.

I didn't even know about Contes outburst until I just read the thread. When Tottenham fail - a lot of fans just switch off. We're so used to poor performance that we all have "sports news" fatigue.

The individual players are amazing when they play for their international teams

I also love it when Everton do well. 😊 no idea why. Just have a huge soft spot for them!

@Youaremysonshine

Welcome. I'm an Arsenal fan so I can understand how difficult it must be for you to see us top of the league and for Spurs to be in turmoil at the moment.

I remember when you were top of the league last season and we were bottom. It made it a hundred times worse!

Yes, I also want Everton to stay up. We lost to them a few weeks ago, so hopefully that will help keep them up. You are playing them next, so perhaps you could do the same (only joking!)

Love your username btw.

Arsenal women are playing Bayern this evening in the CL quarter finals.

thanks, i think it's on TV so I'll have a look.

I always think of Arsenal as having the best taste in music. I'm sure it's because of All or Nothing!

I hope Ryan Mason stands in for Conte when he inevitably leaves. He is so bloody brilliant. Each and every time!

Thanks for the Everton love 💙

Hodgson has been reappointed as Crystal Palace manager this morning.

I haven't really noticed the music, but I love it when they play Move on Up at the end of matches.

Yes, I think Conte was very unhappy in his personal life (he lost a few close friends in the last few months and his family aren't in the UK). Then having a major operation must have been the final straw.

I think he was just trying to protect his career by blaming everyone else. Calling the players selfish was ridiculous. As far as I can see, they always play as a team.

the Times is reporting that the players expect Conte to leave during the Intenational break. I wouldn't blame him.

I haven't really noticed the music, but I love it when they play Move on Up at the end of matches.

anyone want to hear a bit about German footy culture? (I'm going to tell you anyway). Most teams have a song, or piece of music they play during the announcement of the team. Lots here play the march to Aida (sp?) and we wave our scarves.
Then just before the players come out, and while they're still going onto the pitch there's the club song. If anyone is interested i can link to our lot. Ours is a 70s pub-rock type anthem about going to matches and so on. It's quite something to sing that with 50,000 other fans. Fortuna Düsseldorf come out to O Fortuna (but just that bit, it always leaves me disappointed), and St Pauli come out to Hells Bells (and the tunnel is black with neon-red skull & crossbones - must be daunting for the opposition)
Then most teams have a goal scoring thing. Cologne play some daft Karneval music. I think Bayern play the can-can music (someone does, anyway). Some play different clips in the same match. But my lot, Gladbach. Well, we have Scooter. (the Dop-dop-dop thing). So annoying but of course i love to hear it.

ah what the hell, I'll bore you all with it anyway
our anthem: Die Elf vom Niederrhein

and the goal thing

@Brefugee

I just googled Scooter and the first thing that come up was a video with Adolf Hitler and people doing the Nazi salute. Not sure what that is all about!

@Brefugee 😂 I went to a Bayern Munich game in the 00s and it was so fun!!

I just googled Scooter and the first thing that come up was a video with Adolf Hitler and people doing the Nazi salute. Not sure what that is all about!

blimey! tbh I'd never heard of him/them/her.

@Youaremysonshine most people who come to a Bundesliga match are impressed. One of the reasons is that it absolutely wants away fans (they have to reserve 5-10% of tickets for away fans). And they are allowed to bring flags and so on. (there was an inflatable penis at one of our matches recently. That's a one-off though, they don't generally go for inflatables here)

One thing people say to me is that they are surprised about so many home & away fans drinking together before and after the match. Even when it's (spit) Dortmund or Bayern. (but never Cologne)

@Brefugee

Do you have a problem with Ultras in Germany?

yes, it's a huge thing. But they do tend to keep the rest of us out of it (unless someone unwittingly - or provocatively - stands in their spot). They do arrange to meet up and beat each other up. And i know that a bus of our (normal) supporters was attacked and people injured by Cologne ultras a year or two back.

(ours aren't saints, i know they trashed the away end at Leipzig a few years ago) - the whole Leipzig thing is a very long and boring story unless you're really interested in German football, i think. All the ultras, and plenty of others too, loathe them.

At the weekend (i posted the away fan picture - lots of gren smoke and flares) the away fans started getting unruly - turned out that our lot had stolen some of their scarves/flags/banners and kind of paraded them at the home end at the start of the 2nd half. That's A Thing the ultras (at all clubs) do.

But they are the ones who start the singing and make the noise. So there is that.

I haven't heard of any Utras in English football so I hope it doesn't start here.

Hopefully if it did then they would be banned.

There is a group of arsenal supporters that dress in black, but I hope they are not violent.

Don't the German clubs trying ban the ultras?

@Youaremysonshine welcome 🙂I agree with you on Mason, the team were very entertaining to watch during his short reign as interim manager. What are your thoughts longer term, would you like to see Poch back or someone new?
@Brefugee there was an inflatable penis at one of our matches recently 😅I wasn't expecting that curve ball. Enjoyed reading your post about a typical German match day. Do many female supporters go to games? I go to a lot of Gillingham (L2) matches and am very much in the minority. Never had any trouble/derogatory remarks though.

@Brefugee

Just read this:

England fans in Naples urged caution after 'sinister' threats from Italian Ultras
The warnings come just days after violence broke out in the city ahead of Napoli's clash with Eintracht Frankfurt's

England fans in Naples for Thursday’s Euro 2024 qualifier are being urged to travel on official coaches as part of a security operation that has already forced the cancellation of a friendly match between fans.

Violence broke out in the city last week when Serie A leaders Napoli played Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League and a threatening email purporting to be from Italian Ultras warned the England supporters’ team not to go ahead with a match against their Italian counterparts.

The warning, which was described as “very sinister” by England supporters’ team manager Garford Beck, was forwarded to the Italian authorities, who ruled that the threat was credible.

The email said “be warned…we will be there, 60 ultra to get you” if England and Italy fans went ahead with the friendly, due to take place on Thursday afternoon ahead of the full senior international.

The Italian authorities have now also told fans not to independently make their way to the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, with coaches being laid on for the 2,500 ticket holders from the England Supporters’ Travel Club.

@WhiteHartLane I love poch... "in poch we trust" 😂

yeah, what happened in Napoli with the Eintracht fans was appalling.

I've just remembered making friends with a group of Luxembourgish fans at Bayern Munich and it was hilarious!!

But why don't the German clubs just ban the Ultras?

they do ban people who break the law. But being an Ultra isn't illegal. In that respect it's no different to England.

Ultras are basically just fan clubs like any other. Due to the ownership model of the Bundesliga clubs the Ultras, like other fans (myself included) are usually members of the club and we get to make decisions as stakeholder. The ultras (as fan clubs) are usually in dialogue with the club management, there are liaisons at all clubs for this, and it's usually fine. They don't always agree with what the club management do, and are usually pretty vocal about that, or have signs etc.

It's not just a matter of all Ultras are bad hooligans.

Well, I hope that it doesn't start in the UK and that the clubs just ban the Ultras if it does.

Fan engagement is very important and should be welcomed IMO.
It's probably that the word Ultra has negative connections.

Well, I hope that it doesn't start in the UK and that the clubs just ban the Ultras if it does.

you obviously don't really understand football culture, in Italy Germany, france or the other countries where the scene is so different to the UK.

Ultras are just fans - UltraFans which is where the name comes from. And for sure some of them are idiots. Just like some of the non-ultras are idiots. But ultras fight ultras only, and they have a code of conduct etc that people on the outside just wouldn't understand i think.

But the presence of ultras is why the atmosphere in certain stadia is way better than it has been in the English stadia in the recent past. Although if what i hear on TV is right, that is certainly changing for the better in the PL