Yeah, they are very up and down. I went on a couple of school exchange trips to Hamburg as a teen and my hosts were HSV fans. That said I saw the St Pauli stadium first and I've always been one for the underdog. I also own a centenary shirt. I used to stand with the Rookery End Rockers at the back and a few of the guys made bi-annual trips to St Pauli, at least one mate still goes though much less often. I also watched Mainz snatch a draw from the jaws of victory in a very Watfordesque style we all know so well, missing several opportunities then sitting too deep. Neither match was of the greatest quality, though I thought the Köln goal by Andersson was a superb finish.
We lived in Hamburg for nearly 20 years Fez - in Ottensen about 5 minutes walk from the Elbe. Where we lived we could hear the crowd from Millerntor Stadium (5km away) and also from the Volksparkstadion (HSV) which was about the same distance. I had many friends of both tribes (and of neither) - apparently the most supported clubs in Hamburg are HSV, Pauli, Galatasary,Besiktas, Dinamo Zagreb and Benfica (make of that what you will - some loon of a sociologist found that out). Pauli have a fan relationship with Celtic and HSV have one with Rangers which makes it all a bit interesting !
I have a good friend here who is, for his sins, a Real Madrid fan. He is from mero Madrid too. Madrid are making hard work of getting the title mind,. I am in a bar with Raúl now, he is not happy.
It's funny - Zidane has a very good record albeit with fine players but you never really feel he will be a top coach elsewhere. Barca will be delighted to win the league after the mess they have got themselves into off the pitch.
I was in Meiendorf each time I went, out in the suburbs. One of the guys I became friends with (more so than either family I stayed with) works at CERN now. He designed and built his own synthesizer for his mates band when he was 14 so no surprise he ended up at the LHC. And this was cutting-edge stuff at the time. The Turkish connection is understandable, we went to a couple of Turkish cafes and restaurants during my stays. Good times.
The accursed Celtic and Rangers!! I live in a small village - population around 1600 - and every weekend (during normal times), two bus loads of each set off for Glasgow or wherever else their teams are playing. Sad really - grassroots football suffers.
That's Fulham back down to the Championship - wasn't impressed by any of their players, so I hope we won't be doing any poaching there.
The much-vaunted Mitrovic highlights the problem for promoted teams - 26 goals in the Championship last season, just the 3 this season. I guess there's a lesson there for our recruitment team.
Congratulations to Leicester! Great win . And I did think that Chelsea goal at the end was offside tbh but tight one .
Don’t think had it been given there would have been too many complaints but VAR does cause more debate that it should really and there is the problem. And was probably more offside than a lot of toe nail ones we have seen. We still discuss and debate decisions made but now often by 2 officials whilst standing around waiting. And the goal in theory would have been ruled out 3 months ago but nice to see a bit of common sense used. The handball was deflected and hardly deliberate.