You started the point referring directly to the 37-point gap.
No it was @horsebox who pointed out that Man U were trailing Liverpool by 37 points. I then said that was embarrassing for lapsed poster and Man U super fan @anon32894817 who predicted Man U to win the league this season.
Iâm struggling to see the relevance of the point that you put to me about Liverpool this season making up a 25 point deficit to Manchester City from two seasons ago to the prediction of lapsed poster @anon32894817 for this season.
Iâd say you struggle to see a lot of things.
Dear Andrea
I stumbled across an old interview with you the other day. In it, you talked about your lifelong love of Juventus. Halfway through the interview you went to a shelf in your office in Turin and picked out a childâs drawing of a player scoring a goal.
The player in the picture, your hero at the time, was Michel Platini and the goal in question was the match-winning penalty he scored in the 1985 European Cup final. It was the night of the Heysel Stadium disaster, the darkest night in the history of European club competition, when 39 spectators were killed in a crush caused by rioting. But at nine years old, you were too innocent to comprehend the true horror of what unfolded before the game. You felt your teamâs triumph more than the tragedy.
Your recollection, as you clutched that picture, resonated with me. I was ten years old at the time â just as wide-eyed, just as innocent â and Iâm ashamed to recall that I felt bewildered, rather than shocked, by what happened that night in Brussels. I remember being annoyed when the kick-off was delayed for over an hour. The appalling scenes in the stands were something I could not equate with the game I loved.
There is, to me, something pure about the way you speak about your love for Juventus. There have been some dark moments over almost a century since your family first took ownership of the club, but when I look around Europe (particularly here in England) and see so many other leading clubs being taken over and in some cases dragged down by individuals who have no feeling for and even less knowledge of football, it strikes me that Juventus are lucky to have you.
And then you go and spoil it by all by saying something stupid like⌠well, where do we even start?
In a world where football is being taken over by sheikhs and oligarchs and the type of businessmen who will always prioritise their own interests â be they personal, financial or geopolitical â it should be reassuring that the European Club Association (ECA), representing 246 clubs across the continent, is headed by someone who is there because of what the sport means to them and their family rather than being drawn to the myriad opportunities the industry offers.
But ⌠you worry me, Andrea. Every time you open your mouth, I worry. Because, rather than protecting the values and the structure that have underpinned the game for even longer than your family has owned Juventus, you appear hellbent on leading a revolution of the type that would change the game forever.
You keep suggesting that change is essential â that domestic football is dying, viewing habits are changing and the only way forward is to embrace the possibilities presented by moving towards some expanded pan-European competition that brings more and more matches between the biggest clubs. You want Juventus to be playing Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool on a regular basis, rather than having your existence revolve around Serie A, where you have to play against the likes of Brescia, Sassuolo and Atalanta.
By the way, Atalanta, eh? What about those boys from Bergamo?! Third in Serie A last season, scoring even more goals than Juventus and Napoli, and flying high again this term under Gian Piero Gasperini. They made through to the Champions League knock-out stage and they smashed Valencia 4-1 in the first leg of their Round-of-16 tie. I guess it just shows that, even in the âsuper clubâ era, there is still scope for clubs to scale new heights if they build slowly and do things right and âŚ
Oh, but of course! You donât want Atalanta there, do you? At the Financial Times Business of Football Summit in London last week, you questioned whether it was ârightâ that a club such as Atalanta should have had âdirect access into the primary European club competitionâ. You suggested that AS Roma would have been more worthy entrants on account of their performance over the previous five seasons.
âIs it right or not?â you asked. Well, Andrea, I guess that comes down to whether you think it is right for any league â but in this case Serie A, which, despite Juventusâ best efforts, has not produced a European champion since Internazionale in 2010 â to have four teams in the Champions League. Many people preferred it when it was a champions-only competition. Personally I feel it is much stronger and much more compelling for having more teams from the best leagues, but four feels excessive to me. (Yes the fourth-best team in the Premier League or La Liga or even Serie A might be better than the champions of Scotland, Holland, Serbia, Greece or wherever, but that is largely because the whole game has been rigged in favour of the biggest club from the biggest leagues. Weâll get to that.)
But you donât appear to question Italyâs right to four Champions League places. You only questioned Atalantaâs right to claim one of them. Specifically you asked whether it was ârightâ that a club âwithout international history â and thanks to just one great seasonâ was able to proceed straight to the knock-out stages. And by doing so, you left me wondering just how few of the ECAâs 246 member clubs you can really claim to represent.
MUFC conspicuously absent in this 
Context?
This.
Oliver Kay article in The Athletic today.
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No Barcelona either, or Chelsea or Ajax or Man City or Burton Albion.
Exactly mate. Only European royalty.
Bizarre mate, just bizarre.
Take it up with sportswriter of the year mate. No point seething on here.
If he included Man United he would have had to include Notts Forest.
Whatâs Man U 1998/99 and Liverpool 2019/20 got to with Man U 2019/20?
Yes, it was massively flukey alright
Idiots like you were comparing this Liverpool side to the man united team off 99. Last week you proclaimed Liverpool as unbeatable and all conquering. in the last seven days or so since theyâve been humiliated twice.
I think the difference is that that Manchester United side had genuine world class players like Beckham and Stam whereas Liverpool donât have any. Their relative success has been based on high intensity running and hard pressing (assisted in all probability by systemic doping that will be revealed in due course). Despite that, theyâve ran themselves into the ground and didnât have the reservoir of class Manchester United could call upon in 1998/99. Liverpool are absolutely murder to watch and, coincidentally enough, their supporters are murderers too.
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No you were making the comparisons. I merely pulled you up on your incorrect facts, the untruths that you were pedaling to the forum, when comparing the number of defeats of Man U 1998/99 and Liverpool 2019/20. You omitted to include the defeat Man U suffered in the 1998 Charity Shield for their tally of defeats during season 1998/99 but included the Charity Shield in the tally of Liverpool defeats for 2019/20.
Manchester United supporters all live in the past. Though sadly for them that wonât prevent them getting Coronavirus.
I had the foresight to predict Liverpool would lose two of their next three games.
Glasgow Celtic 1966/67 are the benchmark though. European Cup, domestic league, cup and league Cup. The Quadruple. The Man U class of 1998/99 were denied the Quadruple, when they were dumped out of the League Cup by eventual winners, George Grahamâs Tottenham Hotspur.
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