Yep. Everton and Forest are my two picks now to stay up, Southampton, Leeds and Leicester down.
Everton staying up is frustrating, but might be strategically beneficial. They’re still going to be financially fucked next season, and could also be receiving a 15-point deduction for their financial malfeasance, leaving them needing to get twice as many points as they got this season in order to stay up.
So how many teams are there in London? I mean, the whole of England is about the size of Mississippi, is there a team every few blocks? Would it be like having 30 NFL teams in Harris County?
Man, I’d love to have 1 NFL team in Harris County.
Pretty much. Some stadiums in some cities are within pissing distance of each other (because opposing fans have proved the theory).
Here are the 17 teams with a London post code:
These are just the teams in the “professional” leagues. There are a gadgillion smaller clubs in the football pyramid who, theoretically, can win promotion systematically all the way to the Premier League.
Same with cities like Manchester and Liverpool, who have 7 or 8 professional teams each, and many, many clubs below them in the pyramid. And these cities are only 50 miles apart, which is basically city limit to city limit, east to west across Houston.
This is one of the main reasons why the support is so territorial and tribal. You always save the greatest animosity for your local rival.
ETA: Southwest on the above map, where Hampton & Richmond Borough FC reside, is where the fictional AFC Richmond would be located.
Looking at that map, I am reminded of the Wealdstone Raider who had his 15 minutes of fame following a viral video clip. This might give you some idea as to the difference in the match day experience between the Premier League and the National League (5th tier from which Wrexham has just been promoted).
Fulham and Chelsea are so close that when Willian played for Chelsea he lived across the street from Craven Cottage because it was walking distance to Stamford Bridge
So Palace pretty much owns south of the river?
We should, but we’ve been a struggling team forever, so we lost fans to big clubs in London and elsewhere. But that’s not the worst of it.
If you’ve watched “When Eagles Dare” (and if not, why not?) you’ll know that our training facilities used to be horrific. Chelsea’s training facilities are just south of Crystal Palace, and so they basically had unfettered access to the talent in the vibrant talent pool of Croydon’s “Concrete Catalonia”. Other clubs could spirit away the local talent too; Roy Kent is from south London but was picked up by Sunderland, for example.
That is changing now that the club has built a state of the art youth training facility. We can now challenge Chelsea and anyone else for the signatures of future stars from our catchment area, offering them first class facilities and training without them having to leave home. We also have a long history of bringing our youth players into the senior team, which is a leg up on the likes of Chelsea who will send them on loan to Dogshite Rovers in the Outer Hebrides. We were also the first Premier League club to have a program to follow players who wash out of the program, instead of just telling them to pack their boots and go, never to be thought of again.
Our youth teams at all levels are kicking all kinds of arse now. And this is wonderful for the club long term, because even if they don’t make it to the senior team with Palace, we can always trade them for cash. For example, we developed Aaron Wan Bissaka and blooded him in the Premium League, only for Man Utd to swoop in and offer ￡50 million for him. The club said “ta very much” and trousered a vast sum that is virtually pure profit.
A bull got loose at a mungo aka Rugby League match in France:
https://twitter.com/SkySportsRL/status/1654557386621812737?cxt=HHwWgoC8oanLlfYtAAAA
Man, things are really bad when you’re losing fictional characters to other clubs.
I am no Jomboy but I think a read a guy’s lips saying “Bad day to wear the red kit”.
Good man.
The Real Madrid counterattack is really something. It seems like every match they’re just scrambling around trying to deal with the other side’s possession, and then, boom! There’s a counter and a goal.
Falco advising the rest of us
This Milan-Inter match is definitely full-contact soccer.
This game has so many layers of animosity to it. Wonderful stuff.
I am assuming he meant this.
https://twitter.com/cpfcacademy/status/1657101510394740736?s=46&t=p9jpyANXi-DPhPuBEwh3Sw
Oh, and remember when I posted that the Crystal Palace academy was kicking arse at every level?
Brighton dropped the soup bone on Arsenal. Their attacking left side seemed very clever.
