If I can recall, Mourinho had his most success at Inter and at Porto.....and of course first time Chelsea. Won all European trophies..... Time flies, already 62 years of age.
I'm hopeful given Grealish's start with Everton. They look like an entirely different team when he's playing.
Wasn't all serious, of course, but now that it actually happened, still think it's kind of funny. Transfer window closed in most countries. Not gonna comment further on what's happening in England. Hoped for Bayern to sign more than one player, Nicolas Jackson now has to cover multiple positions as an expensive backup. Maybe one of the young players will take his chance, keep an eye on Lennart Karl.
Cheers to all of you. Northern Ireland fans are fn impressive, best support I have seen in the few matches I watched the last months. More tomorrow.
Ok, let's see what I remember from yesterday. Was a warm September evening and we walked through a wide park area in Cologne to the stadium, so I might have had a beer or two more than usual. * Stadium in Cologne is quite nice, of course not as large and impressive as Dortmund or Munich, but you get a great view from everywhere. * We sat right next to the away section, as you can see in the picture above. Their supporters were awesome, way louder and more passionate than our common event home fans, but never aggressive or insulting. Met a visitor from Cardiff on the last few meters to the stadium, real nice guy, born in Northern Ireland, so of course he wore a green shirt. * Game was the worst German performance I have seen live. Starting to doubt Nagelsmann a little, can't understand his decisions lately. Our offense was dull and uninspired. On the defensive side I think Rüdiger might be done, lost a step or two and produced unforced errors on Thursday and yesterday, gotta hope for Schlotterbeck to be back in shape soon. * Will never get tired of singing "Major Tom" when Germany scores. Another great trip. Hope for the next one soon, but guess it will take until after the World Cup.
Leaving on Thursday for my trip. Will report back as much as I can. I'm so freakin stoked for it, I've barely slept in a week.
Well, damn... was thinking about watching the 2nd half of Juventus/Dortmund, but didn't and just checked the results.
Got back last night. It was truly an amazing trip. As far as football goes, 3 fantastic experiences. Saturday 9/13: Wrexham vs QPR at the Racecourse One of my goals of this trip was to go to an old stadium and see a lower league game. Both achieved here. We went to The Turf when we arrived on Friday and they naturally started our day back there on Saturday to pre-game. Crazy good experience and got to meet the owner. The game was everything I'd hoped. We were in the stands behind the goal, nearest to where the QPR supporters were...so that was fun. Not a great outcome for Wrexham but they're still adjusting to this level. It's such a jump from League 1. I think mid-table would be a very successful season and then they can build on top of that. Whether it will be with Phil Parkinson in charge or not is the question. Ryan Reynolds was there with Colin Hanks. They were apparently at a team store that was in town that day so we missed that. But it was still awesome. Sunday 9/14: Man City vs Man United at The Etihad This was interesting. The number of half and half scarves that were worn here (yes, including ours) kind of blew me away. Told me a lot about the game day experience. We had hospitality tickets which had us go to a very nice, but very quiet, Asian restaurant near the city pre-game. This also meant we had home tickets and meant we had to keep our mouths shut and hand gestures to a minimum. Being United fans that we are, that made it so incredibly stressful to not give away our team of choice. Luckily, United didn't give us much to cheer for. We only got accosted by one old curmudgeon who b****ed about the scarf. It wasn't quite the library like crowd that I've heard joked about City home games but it was nothing like... Saturday 9/20: Man United vs Chelsea at Old Trafford Absolutely brutal weather couldn't dampen my mood on this day. Again, we had hospitality tickets but this was at a place near the stadium that had unlimited drinks and food (as opposed to the 1 drink given to us at the City one). Started there 3 hrs prior to kickoff and then headed into OT. The chanting and excitement before you even get in to the grounds is like nothing that exists in the US. We had great seats, 7 rows up near the corner flag and even with the goal United was going towards in the first half. Being my 3rd United PL game, this was the first time I got to see them score...and then did it twice right in front of us. Playing well and getting the win was just icing on top. The only thing I can compare it to in my sports fandom life was being at Game 5 in 2017. In between all of this, we went to Dublin for a day (Guinness Storehouse, Teeling Distillery, and a pub from the 1600's), did a historic pub tour in London, did stadium tours at The Emirates (to take my best friend's ashes to the grounds and then watched their Champions League victory at a local Arsenal pub) and Old Trafford, went out to the English countryside, and drank so much beer I'm not sure I'll touch another one for a while. Not sure if or when I'll go back but it will definitely include more time in Dublin and maybe some Scotland this time. Only thing I didn't get accomplished was playing some golf, so there's that.
Thx for the report and happy 50th, sounds like it was totally worth it, and not just the matchdays. I checked the results to see if you had luck with the games you visited, guess the third one was the most fun. Also glad for you that the ashes thing worked out. Hope the beer wasn't warm. From what I've read I'm pretty sure you will be back. Maybe for 51
Many of my friends will be turning 50 over the next couple of years (and one 60), so I have a feeling we'll be back. The beer was flowing and never so warm that it wasn't drinkable. Just wish the food wasn't so terrible. Considering the amount of beer I drank, I figured I would've gained 5 lbs or more...but actually stayed the same because I just couldn't eat much of what I had available to me. This country conquered the world for their spices...BUT THEY DON'T USE ANY! I really can't describe the feelings from seeing a United win at Old Trafford...especially against Chelsea and especially considering what we are at the current moment in time.
