Country: Iceland
Alexander Arnold faces the world champion, Magnus Carlsen in chess!
"On the Sunday, I settled down at home in Theydon Bois, Epping, to watch Arsenal, my team to be, in the Community Shield against Manchester United. I saw that a kid, Cesc Fàbregas, only 17, started in Vieira’s place. Fàbregas played a blinder but I didn’t think too much about the significance. I sat at home on Sunday night waiting for the call to arrange details of the next day. Arsenal! I couldn’t wait.
But I waited, and waited, and that call never came. The next day, I had to go into training at West Ham instead and, on the way, David phoned to say he’d had a call from Dein. David relayed the gist of his message, like, “I’m sorry, the manager says we don’t need Michael. Fàbregas is coming through like he is. Sorry, the deal’s off.” Fàbregas’s performance changed Wenger’s mind about needing me.
I was totally devastated as I had my heart set on Arsenal and playing with all that talent. My head was gone. Arsenal had swayed me and I didn’t have a clue what I’d do now."
Bring your mother next time. I'll hit her better than the ball.
Got to love an over competitive Dad, not! Also take note, Neville Southall made a comment
Love that. Almost heartwarming in comparison to what goes on at the sidelines in youth football. Got me out of the game.
What. Noone was ever offside in any of the offside traps? what the fawk.Stumbled upon some interesting stuff today. Read about a German coach who half invented/half introduced "ball oriented spacial defending" in the 80s in the lower, lower leagues in southern Germany: Helmut Gross. It's based on Michels' and Happel's pressing and a precursor of modern gegenpressing. Gross went on to work for Stuttgart's youth system, where he became mentor to Ralf Rangnick, who himself was another tactical developer on the way to modern pressing and gegenpressing tactics in the early 2000s, and acted as mentorly figure and adviser to managers like Tuchel and Klopp. His inventions were pretty close to what Arrigo Sacchi did at the same time with AC Milan, which is what I ended up with. The aggressive and extreme compression of space and time in Sacchi's defence is really something to behold.
What. Noone was ever offside in any of the offside traps? what the fawk.
Ah, shiet. Brilliant then!Up until a rule change in the late 80s or 90s, there was no such thing as passive offside. Any player, no matter if he was involved in a play as passer or receiver or not involved, was offside. They only had to get one random opposition player offside. Today you have to get the right player offside.
Not really surprised, which sucks