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SinéadB

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  1. I'm delighted about this - initially annoyed until it was moved from midday, not to midday.
  2. Lucy Bronze plays for a team that plays against Barcelona U19 boys frequently and they always win now (after losing when they started playing against them). And Chelsea beat the U18s in the summer, without some of Chelseas best players as they were coming back from the WWC). I'm not denying there is a physical advantage for men vs women, but I'm just stating that womens teams play against elite academies and start to win after they play them a few times. "My Sons former U15 development centre side beat a female WNL team, U15 males bullied adult females while holding back physically for fear of injuring their opponents." - I don't doubt this, but as women play more against men, they actually improve and then start to help the boys. This has been proven at clubs like Barcelona, Chelsea..
  3. This isn't actually true. Barcelona U19s played a few games years ago in pre season but and they lost, but now they beat them every season. Often by a few, I can't find some of these results but in 2020 they beat the U19s 7-0, and the women were missing a few key players. These games really help both teams, the women are much technically better, but the boys are faster and stronger so they both have to learn from their opponents in this regard. This has really helped Barca improve. Arsenal have started doing this, as do Manchester City. The problem is the bad publicity just allows men to tell us that it's not 'real football' (I'm aware this isn't what you're doing here) I don't know what level of mens football these teams would beat, but to say they have no chance of beating them is incorrect. It's a different skill and one that more womens teams are relishing in order to improve.
  4. Honestly no one really thinks there should be equal pay, but if you invest in the womens game, you can see how much it grows. People going on about how much the mens game makes is in some way valid, but City lose £10m a year? The women don't. How come people think women should break even but the men don't need to? Basically no clubs break even (which is obviously because football is run ridiculously). But there does need to be better access to pitches, healthcare, research etc. Lots of the womens team salary in the in Championship were the same as just one week of our higher earners in the mens team.
  5. Nigel Pearson: The message read: your brother was killed. I don’t recall much after that The Bristol City manager, who was 16 when his brother was killed in a car crash, talks about how that experience made him an angry young man Pearson makes the most of living in the Somerset countryside SWNS:SOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE Jonathan Northcroft , Football Correspondent Saturday August 19 2023, 6.00pm BST, The Sunday Times Day is gently giving way to evening and golden light blankets the riverbank where otters play. Nige likes to stroll here through fields, or park on the way from work, so he can watch them. “In that sluice,” he says, pointing to a river bend, “are freshwater oysters, would you believe.” We’re halfway between his home and Bristol City’s training ground. His love of this spot encapsulates a man only half-immersed in the world of football, who determinedly keeps the other half of himself rooted in what he considers the real world: the world of family, of genuine experiences and relationships, of nature, of reflection and thought. He is turning 60 tomorrow and the idea is an interview about how to age gracefully in a young man’s game. But being Nige — Nigel Pearson — he takes the conversation in unexpected directions. Like when he says that, despite enjoying being a manager as much as ever, he worries about carrying on too long to get through his bucket list, which includes competing in the Mongol Rally, a 10,000-mile motor odyssey in old bangers. As he speaks, in his bungalow backing on to a farmyard in the Somerset countryside, wind chimes chime and his campervan sits in the drive. A theme is loss. It’s been a strange summer. In quick succession four people he worked with, and felt close to, died: Trevor Francis, Gordon McQueen, Chris Bart-Williams and Dave Wilkes, his No 2 in his first management job, at Carlisle United. Losing Bart-Williams, ten years his junior, whom he captained in the Premier League with Sheffield Wednesday, was the biggest shock. “Watching old interviews he did reminded me what a fabulous lad he was,” Nige says. “Before away games he’d go to a West Indian fast food place in Wicker Arches and bring back chicken, rice and peas for me. Pearson, 60 on Monday, fears staying in management for too long would stop him completing his bucket list SWNS:SOUTH WEST NEWS SERVICE “When people die who are about your age or younger, it’s very sobering and reminds me I need to invest time in myself as well. Because who knows how long we’ve got.” Many of us only begin experiencing loss profoundly in middle age but, sadly, not Nige. He tells me about Marc, his brother, who died in an accident when Nige was 16. He hasn’t spoken about this to many people and certainly never publicly. A long-time friend who joined us for dinner in Clevedon was unaware. Nige is the youngest of three brothers. The eldest is Simon, and Marc was the middle one, a year older than Nige, and looked very like their grandfather, Percy Mills, a legendary player for Notts County: tall, strapping, ginger-haired. “Marc was a good footballer,” Nige says. “He turned down an apprenticeship with Mansfield to work at Rolls-Royce in Derby. I used to enjoy beating him at tennis because he had a ruthless streak in him, in sport, so when I won it would irritate him. You don’t always get on with your siblings.” Nige was in the sixth form in Nottingham and touring the United States with his college team when Marc died. “He was killed in a car crash,” he says. “Somebody he went to school with picked him up. Unfortunately they weren’t wearing seatbelts. Pearson in the dugout Matches Win % Carlisle United Dec 1998 to May 1999 30 16.67% Southampton Feb 2008 to May 2008 14 21.43% Leicester City Jun 2008 to June 2010 107 51.4% Hull City Jun 2010 to Nov 2011 64 35.94% Leicester City Nov 2011 to Jun 2015 182 46.7% Derby County May 2016 to Oct 2016 14 21.43% OH Leuven Sep 2017 to Feb 2019 56 32.14% Watford Dec 2019 to Jul 2020 22 31.82% Bristol City Since Feb 2021 118 32.2% Chart: The Times and The Sunday Times “We were travelling around. We started in California, played games in Arizona, went down to New Mexico. The girls’ tennis team was on the tour as well. All good fun. We’d been out — to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. A group of teenagers on the lash and the problem was nobody [back home] knew where we were staying. “You’ve got to remember back then there were no mobile phones and my parents had to track me down. It must have been terrible for them.” Eventually he was passed a stark message: your brother has been killed. “I said, ‘Which one?’ I got a flight home the next day or two days later. I don’t remember too much after that. The whole experience was very damaging in some ways. I was just coming up to 17. Yeah, tough. Really tough. “It’s difficult to know what was in my head, and I probably wasn’t aware of a lot of stuff I was going through just because, like a lot of people do, you internalise it, and who knows how long that stuff stays with you? “There’s a lot in your life where it is difficult to quantify what it does to you. We’re all good at giving advice to other people: ‘Oh yeah, you have to talk about things.’ But most of us are guilty of not doing that thing we tell other people they should do.” His parents, especially his mother, never truly recovered and he remembers the jolting experience of seeing the driver of the car — who was unscathed, but whom he doesn’t blame — around town shortly after Marc’s funeral. Pearson celebrates Leicester’s promotion to the Championship in 2014 with his family AMA/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES A year later Nige entered professional football, joining Shrewsbury Town from non-League Heanor Town, and describes himself as “probably quite difficult” back then. “I remember having a real go at [the first-team goalkeeper] Bob Wardle. I was in the reserves. I think the senior players thought, ‘What the hell is this?’ but I found the professional world difficult to start with. Dressing rooms were not easy environments, especially when you go in as a college boy. And there was a lot of anger in me about my brother.” However, things would settle inside him and Shrewsbury became a golden place. He wouldn’t swap his grounding. Pre-seasons when the squad ran up the Shropshire hills then went to the Crown pub opposite Gay Meadow for pints with the manager and directors, before trying to run it all off again the following day. Pay of 80 quid a week and holidays where he youth- hostelled in the Lake District. Being taught tricks of the centre-half trade by the gnarly Colin Griffin. Like what? “Well . . . he was very good at elbowing people in the face for a start.” After scaling higher playing heights with Wednesday and Middlesbrough — both of whom he captained to promotions and cup finals — he started in management back in humble surrounds, at Carlisle. There Wilkes and his other assistant, John Halpin, were always having to ring round to find a practice field because the River Petteril had flooded the grass behind the stadium where they were expected to train. “We’d arrive at some pitches and go round picking the dog shit up with our little training cones. That was every day.” Michael Knighton was chairman and sold Carlisle’s only fit goalkeeper on deadline day. Nige signed an out-of-favour Swindon goalkeeper, Jimmy Glass, who kept Carlisle in the league by scoring at a corner in stoppage time of their final game. “I think, ‘If we’d gone down . . .’ The effect it would have had on my career. “And you have to remind yourself you are not always in control. The line between success and failure is so fragile and you can’t control everything. The managers who want total control damage themselves and damage people around them. One thing I’ve learnt is sometimes you’ve got to run with things and let them go their own way and have a subtle touch. It’s like steering a big bloody boat.” You accrue such management insights over time. His others involve the importance of authenticity, of having “diversity of characters” in a coaching staff, and that culture and craft knowledge are passed on almost better by good senior players than coaches. “My view of management is it’s an overview of the whole operation, whereas I think a lot of modern managers are specifically just football, which is OK, but what I’m saying is you’ve got to understand what you are yourself — and it’s important clubs understand what they’re looking for.” He chuckles about the self-styled “super-coaches” who “like to talk about themselves a lot, and tactics”. Agents? “Never get involved with them. Because it’s really crucial my relationship with players is based on football and not finance or the bullshit that goes with the modern game, if you like.” Some of this is old school, yet, for a man on the cusp of his seventh decade, he seems in appearance and outlook remarkably youthful. He loves “childish” humour and being around young people and his 2½ years at Bristol City have involved radically lowering the age profile of the squad while slashing the wage bill to keep the club FFP compliant. Suffusing the team with academy products such as Tommy Conway, Sam Bell, Ephraim Yeboah and Alex Scott (sold to Bournemouth this summer for £25 million), he has made about £30 million on transfers, improved league finishes year on year and introduced a playing style that combines possession, pressing and athleticism. This season’s aim? The play-off places, minimum. “I think it’s really important we have a successful season. I’m in the last year of my contract, so I need that myself.” The birthday will be a quiet celebration with his wife, Nicky, their children, James and Hannah, their partners and his grandchildren. He won’t be thinking much about football. One foot in, one foot out — out in the real world. That’s the way. When I ask for the best and worst football experiences of his 60 years they both involve Leicester City, where his knack for bringing people together, doing things differently, creating culture and promoting talent laid the groundwork for a miracle but the bitter personal disappointment of leaving the club just before the 2015-16 title season. “My favourite moment in management was winning League One with Leicester. Getting to the Premier League was all right but League One was brilliant. We had so much fun. For our last game, Crewe away, the fans came in fancy dress and we [the Leicester staff] ended up in a bar with some Norwegians — one had a guitar — singing Bohemian Rhapsody. “So it’s not necessarily the football, it’s the camaraderie and building something. That’s where people sometimes miss what it is about. People like to be part of something.” And by “it” he could mean football or could mean life, but is probably speaking about both.
  6. WSL fixtures out tomorrow (and Championship) and National League was out today.
  7. Enjoyed this - thanks for sharing. Glad we've converted her from the dark side.
  8. Agree, I absolutely hate the word ladies, it's city women. Up the city.
  9. As I live in London I decided to go and it was great.. Arsenal very unlucky to lose in the 119th min. Shame but does make me a bit nervous for next season!
  10. I think maybe his form has dropped off as he won't want to be injured for the u20 wc either. Playing for your country in a WC is a dream so I'm sure he's got his eyes on that
  11. I went to Wimbledon vs Walsall last night in the away end and asked a friend about Joe Low. He was on the bench as he was away with the Wales U21 squad. My friend said he wasn't convinced he'd make it at championship level and he couldn't see much to be excited about, however although mid table, the table flatters Walsall quite a bit and they don't play very exciting or attacking football.
  12. https://theathletic.com/4302224/2023/03/16/alex-scott-bristol-city-wolves-leeds-tottenham/ Bristol City’s Alex Scott – Everything Everywhere All At Once By Nancy Frostick and Thom Harris 4h ago 6 If Bristol City midfielder Alex Scott ever writes his autobiography, he needs to look no further than last weekend’s Best Picture winner at the Oscars for a title. Because ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is what the Guernsey-born England youth international has been doing for Nigel Pearson’s Championship side this season, to the extent it is little surprise that Ashton Gate’s leading man is being linked with a string of Premier League clubs. ADVERTISEMENT Cautious estimates suggest the 19-year-old will cost £25million, and Pearson is adamant it will take more than that to prise Scott away. He drew praise from his idol Jack Grealish after they went head to head in an FA Cup loss to Manchester City in February, and Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United are rumoured to be among those chasing his signature. What makes Scott so good, apart from the fact he has already made 85 senior appearances at such a young age, is his ability to progress play, get around the pitch and recover the ball. It is just about everything a manager could want from a central midfielder, with Scott having completed the second-most passes of any City player (989 in total, at a rate of 30.5 per 90 minutes), had the second-most touches (1684, 52 per 90), the most tackles (75, 2.3 per 90) and the most key passes (36, 1.1 per 90) while winning the most fouls (78, 2.4 per 90) in the first 36 games of the season. But another part of what makes the former Southampton and Bournemouth academy kid an exciting prospect is his versatility, having featured as a right wing-back under Pearson last season before coming inside to feature as a No 10 or in a deeper role to great effect (as shown by his share of minutes per position below). In any of those central roles, Scott’s desire to be on the ball and progress play is crucial to City’s attacks. When he plays as a central or defensive midfielder that role often involves him hitting defence-splitting passes and when he is operating as a No 10, often in front of Joe Williams and Matty James, he drifts into pockets of space in more advanced positions. The still below from Saturday’s 2-0 home win over Blackpool shows Scott playing in a midfield two with 34-year-old Andy King, a 50-cap Wales international and Premier League title winner with Leicester City seven years ago. ADVERTISEMENT Scott’s movement out to the right provided an essential outlet for full-back George Tanner, as the youngster slipped a ball first time into the channel for Mark Sykes to run onto and trigger an attack. In the same game, Scott’s movement to the byline with the ball after carrying it from the edge of the box created another chance as City recycled possession back to Jay Dasilva. Scott’s key strength is keeping possession ticking over with short passes, and his combination play in the final third is crucial to how they attack. As play progressed he received the ball back from King (No 10) and delivered a cross into the penalty area with his left foot, which resulted in City winning a corner. The freedom Scott, voted the Championship’s Young Player of the Month for February, is given in central midfield under Pearson allows him to roam anywhere, which makes him more difficult for opponents to pick up. The graphic below shows Scott’s forward carries of 10-plus yards distance in the league this season, where he is averaging 3.2 carries of over 10 yards per 90 minutes as well as carrying the ball into the final third 1.6 times per game. Defensively he is just as strong, with only 13 Championship players having made more tackles than Scott at an average of 2.3 per game as of the weekend’s fixtures. He ranks in the 95th percentile for tackles in the defensive, middle and attacking thirds, again showing how active he is all across the pitch. His ability with the ball at his feet has led to him being nicknamed the ‘Guernsey Grealish’, with the England international labelling Scott a “top, top talent” following that recent meeting in the FA Cup. Scott identified Grealish as his favourite player as a youngster, at a time when training with the academies at Southampton and Bournemouth required flights from his home in the Channel Islands to the mainland every weekend. His release by Southampton as a 12-year-old led to him signing for hometown club Guernsey FC in the Isthmian League’s South Central Division (the eighth tier of English football), where he became their youngest-ever player aged 16, before signing for Bristol City on a pre-contract agreement in 2020. ADVERTISEMENT “Guernsey is very unique; it’s a small island so we generally know every player and you see them grow up,” says Guernsey FC manager Tony Vance. “I’ve known Alex since he was probably four or five; you tend to know the ones that look really promising at a very early age. “He was at Southampton for a few years and they’re probably frustrated now that they released him and he came back to Guernsey. When he was back over here he was a little bit disillusioned with football at around 15. “In terms of playing for your island, there is definitely a sense of pride and ownership because we all care so much about it. What’s been interesting about his journey is while he wasn’t at a club as an academy player from very early, he never had a proper sort of apprenticeship. He got his apprenticeship by flying over and playing in men’s football in non-League (with Guernsey). That can have a real positive impact on players over being in an academy where everything is safe and results don’t matter as much. “It’s no surprise that his statistical information is backing up what people are seeing, because his numbers were always good for us. There are things he does that can’t be measured at our level, like the way he can drive through players and break lines. The other thing he’s exceptionally good at is winning fouls — the way he puts his body between players to gain the advantage for such a young age, it’s very impressive.” Scott playing for Guernsey in the eighth tier of English football (Photo: Guernsey FC) Nic Legg, one of Guernsey’s directors, says: “I remember the first training session he (Scott) came along to because Tony actually said to me that it might be worth getting some footage done of the session and do some media around it, because he thought Alex could be that good, and a friend of mine came along and filmed the training session. “And some of our senior players were kind of looking at Alex and they knew how good he was. We knew he was different, we knew he was really special. “Obviously the challenge as a 16-year-old was it’s OK to be good in training but when you go into a physical league like we play in, it’s a completely different environment. And then Alex had an opportunity to travel away with us, he was on the bench and he came on to make his first appearance away from home. He didn’t score but he hit the crossbar with what must have been his second touch. He did a few bits of skill and there were probably about 100 people at that game but you could see people saying, ‘Who is this?!’ ADVERTISEMENT “The fans loved watching him. It was really exciting and it became apparent very quickly that if we could give him an opportunity to move on, that’s exactly what we needed to do. The first thing that struck me about Alex and also his family when he came to us was, as a 16-year-old, how polite, humble and grounded he was. I always knew when he went to Bristol City, however well he did, he’d settle in and make a really good impression. For the football club in terms of losing his talent it was obviously disappointing for the fans, but incredibly pleasing to show the platform that the football club can give.” Guernsey are an amateur side so won’t receive any development fee or sell-on clause should Scott land that big-money move to the Premier League — the club are a registered charity who have to pay for the flights and accommodation for every team who travel south from the mainland to their island around 50km (30 miles) off the French coast for games at the 5,000-capacity Footes Lane stadium. But Bristol City are increasingly taking note of what they are doing. Scott’s fellow teenagers Ben Acey and Tim Ap-Sion have also signed for them from Guernsey FC and City sent now-first-team full-back Cameron Pring on loan in the other direction when he was coming through their academy. As things stand, Scott remains an integral part of Pearson’s side as they look to improve on a 17th-place finish last season. Should his future lie in the Premier League — and any length of time watching him play suggests such a move is inevitable — then the data based on this season is encouraging. The smarterscout pizza chart below, which employs advanced analytics to break down elements of a footballer’s game into different performance, skill and style metrics, shows Scott’s strengths (carry and dribble volume, defending intensity, disrupting opposition moves) when adjusted to Premier League standard. Scores are generated to show how often a player completes a specific action and how effective they are at them compared to peers in the same position, which is encouraging for Scott given his age. Premier League interest in Scott, who has 16 England caps from under-18s to under-20s, is justified given his progress but teams need to be prepared to pay big money for one of the EFL’s brightest young talents. ADVERTISEMENT “It wouldn’t surprise me that clubs are interested in him, but there have been no bids,” Pearson said after the Blackpool game. “Whoever makes a proper bid at some point will have to put in a really big bid. He has to be more than £25million, he shouldn’t go for less than that. Since he made his debut, he’s played upmost of 80 games for us. Some people talk about playing in a second season you can get a drop-off, but I don’t think we have seen that at all. “I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about it, I’m aware of speculation but that’s all it is. There’s no doubt in my mind we’ll have to deal with bids this summer.”
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