I have no love for Leverkusen nor Alonso but just for the history of it, I hope they win it all and stay undefeated.
Xabi Alonso: Bayer Leverkusen manager
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I feel the same way. I couldn't care less about the Bundesliga, but if it's going to exist, we might as well be treated to seeing something historical happen.
Those two teams ended up at #7&8... But my initial quote was about the general level of teams behind United in the prem. Prem was pretty much Ligue 1 status today in the 90s.
7th and 8th....his point kind of stands
League form kind of goes out the window with sides like that in Europe. Zanetti, Bergomi, Ronaldo, Baggio, Simeone. Zamorano, Inzaghi, Ferrero, Conte, Deschamps, Zidane, Davids etc…
Beat all of them and lasted the pace in every competition, with a team built around our own class of academy graduates.
It’s number one for me for those reasons and for the punishing nature of the fixtures. It’s the magnum opus of the greatest manager of all time.
I wouldn’t go that far. They still had some great players and those fixtures were intense in their own right.
I am derailing the thread though, so I will stop there. Maybe a separate thread needed to compare achievements, this is potentially an incredible one too.
Not to forget that our "sponsorship" also means that Bayer decides whether or not respectively how much we can keep from (transfer) profits we generate.
According to a recent Spiegel article, the attention the club generates for Bayer is worth at east four times the amount of money they pay us annually.
Yeah they were still the 7th and 8th best teams in Italy. They were among the best italian teams in the same way United and Chelsea are among the best PL teams
Sure, if United and Chelsea had been CL finalists the previous year (in Juve’s case)
In no way a fair comparison. Juve were a top side then.
edit: just looked it up, they were also the reigning champions in Serie A. How the feck do you even make that comparable to the shit shows going on at United and Chelsea?
What kinda points are you even trying to make here?
We're talking about the 98/99 season, how are the previous seasons in any way relevant? In fairness it was a tongue in cheek comment, Juventus mostly had a poor season because of Lippi's situation and the devastating injury to Del Piero early on which basically broke them. They were actually one of the best teams around after they replaced Lippi with Ancelotti, even ended up playing a decisive part in the title race thanks to the only good performance by Henry, against Lazio. Milan though, they went to Turin and just took them apart, it was impressive how uncompetitive that game was(to the point some Lazio fans even claimed they'd thrown the game outright). Plus both Juventus and Inter finished 7th and 8th but in like a 5-way tie with the 5th, 6th and 9th placed teams or something
Agreed re the first paragraph. Europa vs UCL makes it a debate. But a maginificent achievement nonetheless.
What kinda points are you even trying to make here?
In fairness it was a tongue in cheek comment, Juventus mostly had a poor season because of Lippi's situation and the devastating injury to Del Piero early on which basically broke them. They were actually one of the best teams around after they replaced Lippi with Ancelotti, even ended up playing a decisive part in the title race thanks to the only good performance by Henry, against Lazio. Milan though, they went to Turin and just took them apart, it was impressive how uncompetitive that game was(to the point some Lazio fans even claimed they'd thrown the game outright). Plus both Juventus and Inter finished 7th and 8th but in like a 5-way tie with the 5th, 6th and 9th placed teams or something
You don’t go from being reigning champions and CL finalists to being a mid-table team in less than a season, is my point. Unless you appoint Moyes, I mean. And the games they gave us over a three year period made that very clear. To solely look at league position as representative of their qualities is overly simplistic IMO.
Nobody who was alive in that period would have said that Juve had as low a chance at the title as modern day Chelsea and United. Tongue in cheek, I get it, but feckin’ hell…
Eh. My club went from winning 3 CL in a row tp whatever that was with Lopatego and Solari, getting dicked by Ajax at home. It can in fact happen. In the case of juventus it was mostly a complete mental breakdown. They were 5 minutes away from going out to Olympiakos in the QF, and would have deserved to go out
Good for you guys, but you can’t make you guys the standard because nobody could live up to that in the CL. In the late 90’s nobody had yet retained the CL. I still think you’re underselling that team, but whatever.
I meant more that they were second from bottom, when he took the reins
5 - 1 today. What a team
given the relative strengths of both leagues, going unbeaten in the bundesliga is the same as beating west ham at home and away in the premier league.
Very commendable what the guy from Tolosa is doing. It seems that he has transferred the surgical precision of his long passes when he was a player to the world of football coaching. Extraordinary, he deserves all the praise.
Imagine them being down 0-1 with five minutes left against Roma, on their way to a European final with a one-goal aggregate lead, but their fans urging them to attack in order to maintain the invincible record. Would be a fun scenario.
They have the ultimate plot armour this season. They'll go for an unnecessary last minute equaliser and also get it. I mean, they played hungover the match after they won the title and still didn't lose.
Well if you had been able to do that, you´d be champions now, too.
Well if you had been able to do that, you´d be champions now, too.
exactly. proves my point.
It's kind of crazy that their top scorer in the league only has 12 goals.
How do people think they'd have faired in the CL this season?
Better than Dortmund and Bayern - make of that what you will
After alonso decided to rejected a move to Big clubs this summer, i got a feeling everything will end up lining up in a season or two for him to be the successor for pep at city.
No, he will go to Real when Carlo leaves.
If Michel has a good next season with Girona and maintains their current level he will be the strongest candidate to replace Guardiola at City.. Alonso is Madrid bound, even the CEO of Leverkusen recently admitted that..
People should really post the source when saying something like this.
Madman
Well done Xabi.
They can't keep doing this. So many late goals and how do you not loose a single game!
They keep it tight
Ineos has to be all over him? There isn't more of a sure thing in football right now
Up there with the drawvincibles.
The only manager worth pursuing.
Everyone is heaping on the praise but my first thought is, that's his job? That's their job
Looks a shoe-in to succeed Ancelotti, in my opinion. Whether it's 2025 or 2026, it depends if Carlo fancies one more season and of course results because, unlike us, they have standards.
Move over Fergie time, it is Xabi time. What a clutch team.
As we've seen with Mbappe, nothing is certain until they've signed the contract. Although not everyone is a piece of work like that guy..