⚽️THE FOOTY THREAD: Leicester v City, Lyon v Brest, Troyes v PSG, Sandhausen v Leipzig, Wiesbaden v BVB

[mastamind89]

You can see a clear improvement in Willocks tactical awareness. Even though it's a limited sample, quality display. Looking like a proper B2B midfielder. Needs more PL minutes and needs to put on more quality performances like that.
Nelson passed on a opportunity to go on loan. I typically have mixed feelings about that because majority of the time it doesn't work out for the player all that well. For me, it seem that Nelson has been stagnant. After his loan in Germany, I thought he would have developed more by now. He's still pretty raw. Decision making needs to improve, especially in the final 3rd. Great to have another natural wide player.

 

[Thierry Henry]

Over to you Leicester and Gunners...

PSK rolling over in his grave

 

[sonoftony]

Big Bday shout to Don Diego

 

[jape]

rails on rails

 

[rolaholic]

Fitting that his birthday is a week after O Rei





Lewa's trophy haul this last year...

Sheesh , just missing the golden ball...

Interesting angle/read on Ozil fading into oblivion lately





That's the club that Rooney's currently a captain-coach at



About time the FA actually addressed this...

 

[jape]

i honestly don't know what's going with ozil
quick cliff notes?

 

[rolaholic]

i honestly don't know what's going with ozil
quick cliff notes?

It's a real weird and sad situation, basically seems he's been exiled on all fronts.

The NYT article draws attention to the fact that things have gone completely off the rails for him career wise since he spoke out publicly in defense of the Uighurs in China who've been mistreated and been second class citizens by the government there for years now.

Him being frozen out entirely since then doesn't seem all that coincidental now after the Chinese governments response cost the club and the league a lot of business

I initially thought he was being left out in the dark by the club for performance reasons but the fact that he's been fit and healthy for the first time in a long time and was straight left out of the league squad for this season makes you wonder.

That's despite him still being their highest earner makes me think there's a lot more to that decision behind the scenes than just simply form/performance reasons. Might still be ill will too from him refusing a pay cut when the club started furloughing employees but that should be on the club and not him

 

[mastamind89]

 

[flyeed]

Ozil article is worth going through. Basically cast aside for supporting Uighurs and his response to being told to take a paycut:

“He had asked Arsenal’s senior leadership for detailed answers on what the savings would be used for, whether the club’s owner would also be contributing, and whether the team could assure him it would use the money to protect its nonplaying staff.”

On the flip side he straight up said he’d pay gunnersaurus’s salary. Yet I remember arsenal fans all ripping him in the twitter comments. Also this isn’t unique to Arsenal, but to do this to Mesut while showing support for BLM shows how fake a lot of companies are in their support for human rights.

 

[noskey]

Theres a lot of two-sidedness going on with the Arsenal/Ozil saga. The club is in the wrong, 100%, for refusing to speak up on Chinas treatment of Uighurs while virtue signaling for other causes. I wish their support for equality, human rights, and very recently speaking to the problem in Nigeria werent more than optics, but the silence over the Uighur genocide and their treatment of Ozil show what it really is. And it's not only an Arsenal issue, it's all these clubs pretending to stand for something.

Ozil, though, cant stand for some and then support Erdogan in his hone country. It's the exact same situation as Magats supporting Trump stateside but calling out south American countries for having elections stolen. The cognitive dissonance is amazing if Ozil can identify and speak on massacres happening across the world but be complicit in his own govts attacks on human rights.

This isnt something Ozil should be forced out of his career for, though. He deserves to play, because he's an athlete, not a politician or even someone who's publically decried equality in any way. Arsenal as an organization needs to stand by their most visible employee and the frog-eyed face of the club, and decide if they actually want to be a leader in the fight for equality and human rights, or if they're fine being a vehicle for human right abuses if the money is in front of them (yes I know what Kroenke would, has, and always will, choose).

 

[mastamind89]

 

[champcruthik]

We BYKE! Diggin’ the colors.

 

[flyeed]

Why CR looking like a hybrid of himself and Wee man

 

[sonoftony]

Ronnie look like he lost weight

 

[thefreshlife]

 

[sonoftony]

 

[Coupé It]

So does this mean CR7 can play this weekend? Cause Juve need him

EDIT: He will play, that’s good news for Pirlo.

 

[Coupé It]

Let’s go WOLVES!!!

 

[mastamind89]

 

[sonoftony]

Tough break for CP

 

[Coupé It]

Wolves playing the best I’ve seen this season. Ait Nouri, our new LB of the future just scored.

 

[Coupé It]

LFG!!!! 2-0

 

[sonoftony]

Ooh ****, Neto almost had that top binz

 

[Canadian Destroyer]

Wasn’t Ozil also cast out of the German national team for speaking out too?
I can’t see him being left out of the squad this season for that reason alone. Maybe it’s part of it but for a club to throw that much money and one of their most skilled players for that reason alone would make no sense. They would be making more money by letting him play and winning silverware.
Could be they just want the other players to progress and not give up a spot to a player that they won’t be signing again next season

 

[MetalMario]

Adama “no additional training” Traore subbed in for wolves