Your most Controversial Soccer opinions

ShoulderChip wrote: »

no one said it was
that post is irelevant,
we understand that concept yes, why are you deflecting though?

Deflecting ?

ShoulderChip wrote: »

from what dude?

Ok brother I am lost. What are you saying ?

ditpoker wrote: »

... sigh...

ok, can yourself and lloyd please relalize that managers of today predominantly were either not successful mainstream footballers or were at their peak in the early 90's or late 80's or before that. The demographic of footballers was very much very much more white than black (i dont have figures not do i pretent to, you seem to make it out that you know thats its 50/50 now or something and therefore there should be 50/50 black/white managers).

equally, cultural demographics suggest that black males live in less well off areas (again, this is an educated guess, if you wanna do a census check, be my guess), as such, the playing population of black footballers, in my opinion, as a general guess are less educated and less career driven that some white footballers. Alot of footballers (black and white) get thrown into youth acadamees in their teens and dont get a full education, and plan to be a "pro footballer" and retire in their thirties. My guess, and if im wrong im wrong, but my guess is that the majority of modern managers are well educated or come from educated backgrounds and are likely to be more career minded, be likely to be more willing to do coaching badges, training, etc, and as such, i would suggest that of the white/black players from the mid 80's to modern day, that the ratio of career minded white players with a drive to further their career and pursue management : career minded black players with a drive to further their career and pursue management is about equal to there only being 3 black managers thus far.

1) don't be hyperbolic. Neither of us suggested it is anywhere near 50 / 50 or that it should be 50 / 50;

2) Maybe black players amounted to less of a total percentage of the playing base in the 80's and early to mid nineties. But even if we accepted that such a timeframe is more relevant to managerial positions now than the current breakdown in the playing demographic; are you suggesting that only 0 - 5% of players in the old first division were black? Because up until last week we had one out of twenty managerial posts in the premiership occupied by a black manager (5%). And for a long time before Ince was appointed (since Tigana left Fulham in 2003) and now in the aftermath of his departure the number of minority filled managerial slots is zero of twenty or 0%;

3) The key point is that a significant majority of professional players (black or white) mostly enter academies and begin focusing on football between the ages of 14 - 16. And, as such, given that most footballers (black and white) don't finish school in the traditional sense or pursue third level courses - education levels in footbal as a whole (irrespective of race) are relatively lower than national averages.

Secondly, a general analysis that black people are more likely to come from a socially deprived area than white people will not be as relevant to football - given that white people who make it as professional footballers will likely come from unprivileged backgrounds relative to the white population as a whole.

Again, you have to analyze the professional playing base as distinct from the general population. Professional footballers of all creeds and colors live in a bubble from adolescence up until their retirement. This should serve to fudge default levels of educational opportunity and career ambition - certainly to some extent at least. So it therefore is perplexing as to why there is such a chasm between white and black players in terms of who leave the bubble and pursue and achieve managerial careers and those who don't bother.

shane86 wrote: »

Please. 3 odd weeks of Euro 2008 were infinitely more important and more exciting than 3 years of EPL. I honestly fail to see how any football fan could rate foreign domestic football above games like the Dutch demolishing Italy, or the Turks 3 in a row comebacks. In terms of edge of the seat tension and excitement domestic leagues are a country mile behind the CL, let alone international tournaments.

Yup. Agree with all of this.

I never understood the hype over Paul Scholes.

anonymous_joe wrote: »

I didn't say Irish managers, I said English managers of Irish descent.

O'Neill is from Norn Iron, Keane and Kinnear are from the Republic. So that'd be 2 out of 9 (?) English managers. Which is actually pretty impressive. Take that Anglo-Carribea! :P But seriously, you'd wonder why they're not more prevalent in management...

Well half of Manchester and Liverpool would be of Irish descent. I didn't mention Carragher because he left the English team. We're pretty well represented really.

No it would not, there are 9 English Managers in the league, then you have 1 French, 1 Spanish, 2 Irish, 1 Italian, 1 Brazilian, 2 Welsh and 3 Scots.

There should be different scoring zones on the pitch and the game split into numerous 10 minute segments and games should last 3 hours with teams allowed to use upto 45 players per game.