Topic: UEFA Champions League 2024/25 Season - page 234. (Read 37168 times)

I don't think Pep Guardiola is willing to leave Manchester City for now. What he may have said in the media seems to be for some personal reasons. Perhaps he wanted the hype and the fame, bragging about the EPL title he had won since he came to Manchester City and that there is no other team in the EPL that matches his strength. Such things are rumors that he is willing to leave, and I know he is a little scared because he knows Arsenal is rising so fast which will be the next one that will take the league from his hands. He doesn't want to be the Manchester City when Arsenal wins the league, he is too scared to see his downfall. Let him remain if he feels he is the boss. I am certain that the next season won't be taken lightly.

IMO, at that time PSG seemed to have an instant desire and it happened very briefly when they brought in star players in succession but didn't pay attention to the coaches they brought in at that time and on the one hand, for me the composition of PSG players was very irregular so even though they had players star but the performance is still the same as having only 1 star player.
The conflict is actually just a matter of player composition as I said before and it's not perfect, using star players but not being able to rotate players well, which creates problems that the players may not reveal.

Well, from this discussion we know that competing for the UCL title must have high quality performance and quality performance cannot be built instantly, whereas the PSG president wants it instantly by bringing in star players but the coach is not very good at managing the players well.
So that these star players will continue to leave PSG who cannot accept the long process of being able to create high quality performance and now PSG is just realizing that building a strong team to compete in all existing competitions, all of this takes a very long time and requires very high consistency.

Several clubs and players have complained about the busy schedule with this new format so that each team will certainly not be able to perform optimally. They must often rotate their players if they want to get the best results from all the competitions they play. UEFA seems to only care about personal matters and does not give freedom to the players and in my opinion this is more like exploitation which is quite regrettable.

Other advantages, such as the small teams you mentioned, will certainly increase competition in the Champions League, but of course it won't change who will advance to the higher rounds. Maybe small teams are very happy to be in a competition as big as the Champions League and when that time comes they have to make good use of it because it can be something they can be proud of.

Another problem arose when Paris Saint Germain had 3 star players on the front line, and instead of being able to improve the team's performance they were busy with their own problems. In my opinion, this also happened because perhaps their coach at that time was unable to build good relationships between the players, which resulted in a conflict that could be said to have been prolonged until finally the 3 players actually left Paris Saint Germain.

Another fact, as you said, is that they also couldn't do much in the Champions League. They are the same as clubs that we have often seen before, where they cannot compete closely, especially when they face clubs that have the same strength as them. In the end they had to taste failure even though they had a star-studded squad in the composition of players.
Paris Saint Grmain must be able to get rid of that habit, because in my opinion they are also capable of competing even without star players, as long as their squad is even and they can work as a team well.

Messi, Mbappe and Neymar were all there in PSG and they could not manage the players at that time to win UCL. It will be a difficult task for them. Having all the best players is one thing and using them to achieve success is another thing. When you don't have a good coach and there are some undisciplined players, poor result will be achieved.

When Messi was in PSG, there was no unity and game bond between the players which is always making Mpabbe to disrespect Messi and only him wants to score all the goals. Mbappe was always stingy with the ball whenever he has it.

City is considered a club that is almost equal in strength to Madrid, and the two teams deserve to be placed on equal footing in the list of favorite teams to win next season. After them there are Bayern, Arsenal, Inter, Dortmund, PSG and several other teams, as usual the competition for trophies will get fiercer every season, where the new rules can also be a challenge for some contestants.

The addition of Mbappe will make Madrid front line sharper, this is a clear signal that Ancelotti fleet is very ambitious to defend the title. If they fail then Mbappe is out of luck, and reminds me of Kane at Bayern. Apart from that, Pep Guardiola looks like he will retain most of his players next season, and that indicates their strength will not be much different from last season.

On the other hand, if Madrid meets City again next season, either in the quarter finals, semifinals or final, it will be the third time in a row. The meeting between the two teams feels quite ideal, regardless of which round they will face each other in.

Did Messi badly performed or was he the problem they never won as much title. Personally, Messi performance was outstanding and him alone can't give them those titles, you don't specifically point out one player out of the team as to why they failed to win trophies. Messi was as of much threat to opponents compared to anyone in the team, he did the best he could but seems the team as a whole were unable make better records as expected

Even though it is unlikely that Real Madrid will experience a decline in performance, there are still other teams that have the same strong performance that might be able to match Real Madrid. To be honest, I hope there is another team that is able to match Real Madrid next season, such as perhaps Manchester City which is indeed can be said to be able to match Real Madrid's performance. I can't imagine if Manchester City loses Haalan and other star players, as well as their coach, who if they change will either make Manchester City still have a strong performance or experience a decline.

I was a little surprised by Pep Guardiola, who yesterday won the title in the EPL, saying he was bored and wanted to look for a new challenge, so there were rumors that he would leave Manchester City and could be followed by Haaland, who would indeed take part in the news, of course. If that happens, there is a possibility, in my opinion, that Manchester City will experience difficulties which might affect their performance. I hope Manchester City can win the Champions title next season, even though it seems difficult because the competition in the Champions League is tough competition, but if Manchester City is confident, maybe they can win the Champions League title next season.

Planning for the future and the long term is something a lot of teams out there seem not to have except for a few who sees it as important enough and they eventually put in plans for it, like you have sighted, Barcelona happens to be a team who exhaustively enjoyed their glory days without plans for the future, probably thinking there wouldn't be a time they will struggle this much because already they had the top and best players in their team and as at this times, it felt like this players were never going to leave the team because players like Messi do renewed his contract often and it was almost looking like he was going to have a life deal with Barcelona and so Barcelona didn't really feel the need to plan ahead pretty soon until now they have to suffer their fate.

One team amongst all the team in Europe and Spain that seem to have all this in place is Madrid and it can be seen in how they already have a substitute team that performs almost like the main team, this shows that in the nearest future they will still be as good as they have been and may not be having the need to carry out too many signings except if the players decides to leave of which I don't see that really happening as these players are willing to be part of the success they all enjoy at Madrid which is a plus to their careers. Barcelona when they eventually get pas this stage of their problem may probably want to plan for the future that's if they have learnt enough from their mistakes in the past.

Well, well, well, the circus is back in town! The new Champions League structure, the best entertainment on Earth (or so UEFA wants us to think).

More games? Oh, how generous of them. They obviously give the players' welfare great importance, not only of their own finances. They seem to be pushing players toward their most profitable limits. The secondary squads already line up, eager to make UCL as fascinating as seeing paint dry. Thank you, Ceferin, for your outstanding development not asked for by anyone.

49 pages already before even the qualification rounds starts? That's just huge. 

There are tons of teams to compete in 1/8-finals phase in qualification but I will be following quarter finals part closer as there are more decent teams to watch.

Here is qualification quarter finals:



I don't think we would see a surprise in this phase. Dynamo Kyiv and Fenerbahçe both have comfortable matchups ahead. These teams are going to play 3 matchups before reaching the group stage right? It is going to be quite tough for them to make it considering potential opponents later.

There are four teams I am tipping to get to the semi finals of the champions league next season.The first team I know they will get to the semi final is Real Madrid.They are fully prepared for next season,and with the acquisition of Mbape,they have planned to retain that champions league tittle.Another team that I cannot exempt from my list is Mancity.Pep Guardiola is looking at the possibility of making a move to somewhere else next season,so his altimate target is to win the Champions league,the premier league and any other trophy before leaving,which will serve as a record he has kept at the team.,then Arsenal is another team which will be looking forward to improving next season because they have a complete squad that can win anything for them,and lastly is Leverkusen is another team that will be a threat in the Champions league next season,with Xabi Alonso coaching there,he will really prove himself to get to a greater stage in the tournament.

It's true, even narratives about Messi only playing well when he was at Barcelona or only playing well for one team were heard when Messi was at Paris Saint Germain, so I question it when someone says that Messi is the greatest signing that Paris Saint Germain has made. Maybe saying one of the most expensive signings is still acceptable, but if it has to do with his game with Paris Saint Germain, I don't think so.
Because he could almost be said to have failed in his first season with Paris Saint Germain, I don't mean to doubt his ability as one of the best players in the world. Because there may be reasons why players cannot adapt quickly to a team and that may be what Messi experienced when he was at Paris Saint Germain. Also maybe because here the relationship between the players is not very good, because almost every time we hear about problems between them. that might also be one of the causes.

Why do you consider Messi the best acquisition for PSG? Messi in PSG was remembered by the fact that he could not adapt to the team for a very long time, scored not many goals and received a huge salary. PSG is trying different tactics, they thought that they could collect all the best players in the same team and this would allow them to win, it is now clear that they abandoned this idea, and Enrique showed them that without all super players he almost reached the final, and if only a little more luck could have played in the finale, because PSG looked better than Dortmund.

I think Pep Guardiola had to pay a heavy price for the previous failure. Manchester City's problem is that they always meet a strong team like Madrid before the UCL final, even though everyone expects these two teams to meet in the final but they always meet before the final. Pep Guardiola knows that Madrid has new strengths. namely the arrival of Mbappe in their main squad and filling in a striker in their front line, of course it will also be a threat to Manchester City's defense, because in Manchester City's defense sometimes communication errors and blunders often occur, hopefully Pep Guardiola will fix this in the next season only later.

I don't know who Pep Guardiola will recruit because of course what I think is that their back line is not good, so it's important to strengthen their back line because it's important to keep the defense from conceding goals, I also think that Pep Guardiola should be able to focus more on the UCL because I think that's an important match too, even though maybe the EPL is also quite important for Manchester City to pursue, at least they should be able to focus more on playing in the UCL so they can win their second trophy next season.

UEFA will be benefited mostly from this new format of Champions League. They will milk money from televisions, clubs and players in next seasons. A next season, 2024 - 2025 will not be too controversial but one season after that, 2025 - 2026, will potentially cause more problems and controversy. In a year with World Cup 2026, players will face with high risk of exhaustion and injuries because of new format in Champions League.

National teams will have more reasons to complain about that format because many star players will not be ready with best fitness for World Cup 2026. This new format will make that issue worse than previous World Cups.

The new structure delivers more matches, but UEFA is also milking the players into playing longer than the previous version. The new format of UCL is going to be even more taxing for club players because they will be playing more matches, and this system has already been applied in football management. I was also pretty confused about how to rotate my players in this format because of the very busy schedules on my football manager team.

My impression after playing the new format on Football Manager is that if the previous format is still better than this new one; the new format is far too complicated and tiresome. Alexandre Caferrin sees football players as a money machine, and I strongly disagree with this new format. And last, UCL may not be so attractive because clubs often use their secondary squad. 

I am also a fan of Manchester City and what you say is true that the Champions League is difficult to dominate and if we remember again how Haaland is also favored as a reliable player who is a very great scorer and last season Manchester City also managed to win the Champion League title which can be proof that other clubs can also become strong clubs even though Real Madrid has Mbappe but that is not a guarantee.
If we remember again how Manchester City performed in the quarter-finals yesterday, there was only a very narrow difference in score, but Real Madrid could be superior by 1 score and that is also proof that Manchester City is still the strongest opponent for Real Madrid as long as Manchester still has Haaland, everything will just fine.

Until now there has been no confirmation that Pep Guardiola will replace his main players and it is possible that there will only be slight changes to several main players but not to the attack line which is already neatly arranged.
Pep Guardiola is still very enthusiastic about winning the champions league title again after having gained experience at that time, making this coach have great enthusiasm even though he has failed but will not reduce Pep Guardiola's confidence.

A new format of Champions League will bring more matches that are opportunities for UEFA to get more money and strongest clubs will have more income. There will be chance for small clubs to join Champions League but I don't see potential to reduce wealth gap between biggest clubs and small clubs. This new format will increase gaps in wealth among rich and poor clubs, not make it better.

After some seasons with this new format, we will recognize this impact with real data, not only prediction like now.

Leo Messi was one of the greatest signing for Paris Saint-Germain but they've failed and missed out on golden opportunities,  we just have to see the present scene of the system. PSG had everything to win major titles but they failed woefully because the management failed also, bringing them together to achieve a common goal straight out seems challenging. Real Madrid is executive the best team in the world of football and we unfortunately the principles they've been operating on. They will lift more elite titles infront.