Barcelona won far less CLs, and at least two were fair, IMO. Real Madrid has won 6 CL titles, and I don't remember many knockout ties or finals that they won by outplaying opponent.
What’s Real Madrid’s secret?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Not every decision gies in their favour, that would be too much. And that was correct decision, VAR reviewed it. That last attack the ref didn't even allow to go to VAR blewing thw whistle and stopping the game when he shouldn't.
Have you actually watched Real Madrid games in CL?
Where did I say that?
I rarely see United kits on youngsters outside of Manchester these days. Take it back 10-15 years, and anywhere I went, here or abroad, there'd be a dead certainty of United tops in the sea of people.
City, PSG, Messi/Miami and Ronaldo kits are more prevalent amongst the young and 'neutral' ground abroad these days, from what I see, with smatterings of Real, Barca, Munich and the odd United thrown in.
PSG look to have gobbled up a massive portion of the market through their collaborative efforts with Jordan and Nike; easily the 'coolest' items among the young football wise, I think.
We're not anymore. I have loads of friends and family that are teachers, and Liverpool and Man City are the most popular clubs for young people in this country now.
I'm a product of Beckham and later SAF. I surely wont become fans if i started watching 10 years ago.
These things goes in cycle. In Asia now we can see lots of Chelsea supporter starts popping up post Roman. Real Madrid will always have their own fans for their continued success
Yup - the last few years especially have turned us into a massive meme (7-0, 5-0, 6-3, 6-1). That's not what a lot of young people want to be associated with in the current age.
That's worse than being irrelevant - being the butt of all jokes.
I didn't say you used the term 'disallowed goal', I said you were classing it as that by bigging up a huge controversy. It didn't look like an inevitable goalscoring chance, so had the Bayern player not carried on and 'scored' after the whiste had gone and everyone else had stopped playing, then it wouldn't be a big thing.
The reason it's being portrayed by some as a 'huge controversy' is because it falsely has the appearance of a last gasp disallowed goal, rather than just 'official stopping an attack before it has time to develop into a potential goalscoring chance'. The former is a big controversy, the latter far less so. What actually happened was the latter, but the Bayern player carrying on to 'score' when the game had been stopped is wrongly being made out like it was the former.
I would say their '15 win was fair and square. 09 and 11 they shouldn't have been in the final and needed ridiculous refereeing to get them there. 06 I don't remember perfectly but I don't recall any bad refereeing getting them there.
Yep, I would say the same.
This is true and surely there's much less United kits you see on the kids outside of Manchester than 10-15 years ago, but from my own experience in Spain, if you see a child in an English team shirt, it will still most likely be United, even if in Catalunya City is unusually popular. I'm grateful to our Asian fanbase for staying loyal, because in my own experience it's mainly the Far East lads and lasses that proudly wear their United kits outside England.
Combination of having/owning a duopoly of power in Spain (with Barca’s current woes, it might turn into a monopoly). Meaning they can always strengthen domestically - an advantage we sort of had in the 90’s, early 2000’s under SAF. Then they have the favourable super club history, plus the favourable climate/culture for majority of the Latin American market (players). Meaning most world class players “dream” of playing for them (or Barca). Even talented youngsters (Tchouameni, Camavinga, Endrick etc.) would rather go to Madrid, sit bench for a couple of years, then head to another huge European team where they’d most likely be starters.
Then their current president isn’t incompetent. It takes a special kind of incompetence to break a club down to where we find ourselves or Barca find themselves (thanks Bartomeu/Glazers!). It’s all just too big an advantage in the European footballing landscape which they’re capitalising on. Even looking at the UCL, barring the odd fairytale run (Dortmund this year), it’s usually the same 5-6 teams realistically competing for the title every year - almost for the last decade or more. Exceptions aside.
Not to take anything away from them….they just know what it takes to win this competition and their fans don’t accept an inch of mediocrity.
Then their current president isn’t incompetent. It takes a special kind of incompetence to break a club down to where we find ourselves or Barca find themselves (thanks Bartomeu/Glazers!). It’s all just too big an advantage in the European footballing landscape which they’re capitalising on. Even looking at the UCL, barring the odd fairytale run (Dortmund this year), it’s usually the same 5-6 teams realistically competing for the title every year - almost for the last decade or more. Exceptions aside.
Not to take anything away from them….they just know what it takes to win this competition and their fans don’t accept an inch of mediocrity.
I was recently on holiday and by far the most [non-local team] shirts I saw in this country were Real Madrid and Barca, then followed by Utd. I also visit Denmark quite often and I almost always see United shirts in the gym and local supermarkets, its probably the most frequent PL shirt I see. Small anecdotal evidence true but if it's like that in two European countries, then it's probably similar in others.
If I'm not mistaken 2015 had a pogba penalty call ignored and the ensuing counter attack resulted in a Barcelona goal.
2006 had one of the most ridiculously disallowed goals from Shevchenko in their tie against Milan.
2015 much more open to interpretation but 2006 was absolutely bewildering.
Fair, didn't remember either of these. We're all agreed then - UEFA try their hardest to get Barca and Madrid to win the CL for the sake of the football global product.
EDIT: wait barca didn't play Juventus in 2015
The top players, young and old, want to play for them. That helps.
You know this got me thinking and nope. Every single one comes with at least one major refereeing decision going their way. 14/15 is probably the least controversial with the Pogba penalty shout in the final. It's also the one where they got to face opponents at half strenght at every round until the final
Otherwise, '06 you have Eto'o offside goal in the final, '09 Ovrebo, '11 the Van Persie red card and Pepe red card
Buy every other club’s best players. Pretty simple formula.
You yourselves are not without your share of controversies either, for example wasn't your first cl in the new format achived through an offside goal in 97?
Getting ridiculous calls in their favour year after year has to help too.
They've got it all.
A city with good weather all year, a club with bags and bags of history, a modern stadium with a huge capacity, a lot of money and a owner who actually cares about the club and is brilliant in the transfer market.
Add to all that, they maintain standards constantly and if you fall short, youre gone. No messing around.
Massively jealous of them.
A city with good weather all year, a club with bags and bags of history, a modern stadium with a huge capacity, a lot of money and a owner who actually cares about the club and is brilliant in the transfer market.
Add to all that, they maintain standards constantly and if you fall short, youre gone. No messing around.
Massively jealous of them.
The funny thing is that at the same time they don't shy away from taking a gamble. They're the biggest club in the world, yet they have no problem offering the manager position to unproven managers. They promoted Zidane (who himself was unproven at that level), and when he stepped down 2018 offered the job to Julian Nagelsmann (at that time still managing Hoffenheim!).
You have to take your chance, but they actually give you one.
For comparison, look at how they dealt with Hazard, their record signing. It's all about standards. Players go to Real Madrid being shit-scared of not performing. For every Madrid player, being in the first team is a privilege. Here, our players are allowed to coast, sign new contracts and then coast again. Then you have a civil war among supporters about how we are not supporting a player enough. At Madrid, it doesn't even get there.
Yep. Would be interesting to check each CL title won with some refereeing controversy, I think there'd be a pretty high correlation between CL wins and major ref mistakes during the run
They certainly wouldn't tolerate performances like we've seen at United this season. They wouldn't come out with lame excuses to absolve underperformers of accountability. They wouldn't blindly trust a manager to come good. They don't say daft things like "we've sacked too many managers, maybe we should keep this one". They wouldn't lose sleep about binning "star players" like Rashford and Bruno. Their fans aren't insecure and don't prattle on about being "better fans" than everyone else, just because they clap and cheer inept managers like Moyes and Ten Hag, as if cheering failure is a badge of honour.
They instill a winning mentality and ambition throughout the club and enforce standards on those who are employed to deliver success.
It's not rocket science. Obviously consistently getting it right and maintaining success isn't easy, it's not like they dominate every season. But they at least maintain the basic principles to continue building successful teams without ever dropping off a cliff like United.
They instill a winning mentality and ambition throughout the club and enforce standards on those who are employed to deliver success.
It's not rocket science. Obviously consistently getting it right and maintaining success isn't easy, it's not like they dominate every season. But they at least maintain the basic principles to continue building successful teams without ever dropping off a cliff like United.
No, we don't pay for it. The refs are madridista. We do thank them afterward for a job well done, but that's differentHey, we paid good money for that! It’s just an investment
On top of that accountability there stops at the absolute top, as they don't have owners, but are a true club. A president that doesn't deliver success can just be voted against by the fans. There is no owner demanding financial success and trying to make a profit from owning the club, everything is about being successful on the pitch.
They are driven by a pure and unabated desire to win everything. They don't settle, they don't accept decent, they must be the best.
That has been instilled into that club, and the fans, yes to even toxic levels, but the proof is in the pudding.
That has been instilled into that club, and the fans, yes to even toxic levels, but the proof is in the pudding.
It doesn’t hurt that so many South American, Spanish and Portuguese players see it as the absolute pinnacle to play for them. Imagine if Ronaldo didn’t have that idea in his head. We’d probably have another CL or two.
Real have been a strange club this century. There was a time when they couldn't buy a Round of 16 win.
They've only won 7 La Liga titles since 2003, which is quite low for a club of their size. But they've dominated The CL since 2014 to make up for it.
They've only won 7 La Liga titles since 2003, which is quite low for a club of their size. But they've dominated The CL since 2014 to make up for it.
Hated, adored, n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶o̶r̶e̶d̶ easy target for memelords?
Yes absolutely, that as well.
That was the 2014/2015 Champions League Final, Barça-Juve in Berlin.
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Football heritage. They have the mentality of winners from ownership, coaches, players and the fans.
We could learn a thing or two about that instead of worshipping managers and any player that does well for a couple of months.
We could learn a thing or two about that instead of worshipping managers and any player that does well for a couple of months.
Hard to keep up. Was it the goalkeepers we paid off?
Yeah a study on the subject would be nice to see.
Overall your record is much less tarnished than Barcelona but still probably much more controversial than others.
They buy players that are extremely comfortable on the ball for every position
They always keep a good blend of youth and experience within the team.
They buy a mix of world class players, potentially world class players and occasionally, decent, functional players as a back up option.
They normally always have a good, or very good manager.
These managers (Ancelotti in particular) are not afraid to make changes when the game needs something different. It normally works out as well because they have different options available within the squad. For example, it wasn't happening for Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo last night, so he brings on an out and out striker who pops up with two poacher's goals.
Then there's the mentality and belief that's instilled on top of all that. I don't know if that comes from playing for them, the manager, or they are great at identifying the right personalities, but they always believe they can win which is why they turn a game on it's head so often.
They are also ruthless, if you're not performing well or unable to perform at a high level anymore, you're sold or game time drops, no room for sentimentality.
They basically do the opposite of everything we do.
They always keep a good blend of youth and experience within the team.
They buy a mix of world class players, potentially world class players and occasionally, decent, functional players as a back up option.
They normally always have a good, or very good manager.
These managers (Ancelotti in particular) are not afraid to make changes when the game needs something different. It normally works out as well because they have different options available within the squad. For example, it wasn't happening for Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo last night, so he brings on an out and out striker who pops up with two poacher's goals.
Then there's the mentality and belief that's instilled on top of all that. I don't know if that comes from playing for them, the manager, or they are great at identifying the right personalities, but they always believe they can win which is why they turn a game on it's head so often.
They are also ruthless, if you're not performing well or unable to perform at a high level anymore, you're sold or game time drops, no room for sentimentality.
They basically do the opposite of everything we do.
they exist to win and they make sure players learn that very quickly. otherwise they're at the wrong club.
Vini at times looked almost insulted because someone had to nerve to take the ball from him and it's obvious that some of their players take losses almost personal.
at United for example, half of the players don't really care. they obviously want to win if that's possible, but if it doesn't happen, oh well. they'll just tweet something about courage or bouncing back on twitter or wherever.
imagine utter nobodies as Anderson or Jones lasting 10 years at Madrid, or Madrid fans tolerating Rashford or similar players for so long.
Vini at times looked almost insulted because someone had to nerve to take the ball from him and it's obvious that some of their players take losses almost personal.
at United for example, half of the players don't really care. they obviously want to win if that's possible, but if it doesn't happen, oh well. they'll just tweet something about courage or bouncing back on twitter or wherever.
imagine utter nobodies as Anderson or Jones lasting 10 years at Madrid, or Madrid fans tolerating Rashford or similar players for so long.
I remember they getting battered in a final vs Athletico Madrid, Ramos was a hero keeping them in it.