God the commentators keep going on about the winning and losing streaks of these clubs. Is this part of the 4 season nature of football now? There is no sense that we're at the beginning of a new season is there? It's just one continuous story. Everything in context
All hail Emperor Mourinho's unstoppable attacking force. Brutal, city-levelling barbarians. Destroying your shit team from your shit town. Pogba. Lukaku. Rashford. Matic. Martial. The King Fellaini. Come friendly trophies, fall on Old Trafford. Anti-football, shit-on-a-sticking their way to a 38 consecutive 4-0 wins season.
I really can't stand this expression. Every time someone uses it I have to ask what it's supposed to mean; it's utterly nondescriptive. Shit on a stick isn't a thing. It's not even clear whether 'shit' is supposed to be a verb or a noun.
I mean does it refer to the players running around like they have shitty sticks up their arses? Or trying to squeeze the ball into a small space?
Writing in Spain's best-selling football newspaper, Marca, the Argentine who scored in the 1986 World Cup final and has a respected reputation as a football intellectual said: "Football is made up of subjective feeling, of suggestion and, in that, Anfield is unbeatable. Put a shit hanging from a stick in the middle of this passionate, crazy stadium and there are people who will tell you it's a work of art. It's not: it's a shit hanging from a stick. Chelsea and Liverpool are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct, he added. But, a short pass? Noooo. A feint? Noooo. A change of pace? Noooo. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don't be ridiculous. None of that. The extreme control and seriousness with which both teams played the semi-final neutralised any creative licence, any moments of exquisite skill."
"Oxford and Bradford lose ground to the leaders" says Jason Mohammed over the League One table. There's no wonder the BBC have given him a show alongside Savage with idiocy like that.
That doesn't work at all. He could equally have said a shit sandwich or a mouldy chicken. Those would convey a similar amount of visceral unpleasantness without being at all specific to football, just like a shit hanging from a stick.
And Hazard plays for Chelsea, and in recent years Liverpool have had Suarez and Coutinho. Of course there are feints and nutmegs. He's right about the pace though.
The former Real Madrid coach and World Cup winner Jorge Valdano has attacked Rafael Benítez and Jose Mourinho, insisting that they are ushering in a bleak future for football and likening the Champions League semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea to "a shit hanging from a stick".
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