We all know that Sander Berge wouldnt get a place in the England squad if he was English.

[Snake]

It has to be a clear and obvious offence that can make VAR ask the ref to overturn his decision. If the ref awarded a penalty then the VAR would not ask the ref to overturn his decision

Agree, but to me it was clear and obvious! They guy had his forearm on the attackers shoulder while they both jumped at more or less the same time.

And come on... some of the penalties and other infringements where VAR has got involved! Let's at least have some consistency. Alas, ill take it..... come on England! And after 'the hand of god' incident, who can say we don't deserve a rub of the green in World Cups.

 

[Rodley]

Great to see he’s moved his career on a few levels.

Not sure as a fanbase we are particularly compatible with top level technical players. In some respects it’s better if we stay in our own lane (grafter, culture carrier, run around, etc).

 

[CT1889]

Aside from West Ham, Burnley, Wolves.
Leicester, Southampton.
Near misses for Spurs (380 million net spend in the last 2 years) and Forest.
Lets see how Sunderland manage season two after £140 million spend in the first year after promotion.

You could also include the likes of Norwich, Watford and others in the list, but no clubs are as badly run as we are?

Wilder spent £75 million in three windows so it's all his fault?

The clubs which may have a few seasons in the PL Sunderland,Forest spent £ 150 million in their first season, do you ever see United having owners with such deep pockets?
To attract the better players with this level of spending also means having a healthy (for the players) wage bill of £ 70 million+.

I think you are proving my point, these 5 teams aren’t in the Perm

Spurs were a very well run club, Champ League final top 4 finishes best ground in Europe. But that was not good enough so they push DL out and replaced him with a bunch of clowns that nearly got them relegated

Forest while being a little on the crazy side did have the balls the tell Spurs to do one, when they tried to buy MGW. And they stayed up as a result

We will see what sunderland do over the coming years, but they had a plan on promotion and it worked. Do you think we even had a plan

Wilder more than earned the right to spend every penny. But he was and still is a single point of failure at this club. Well run organization avoid SPOF

 

[Houston_Blade]

The problem with the Berge signing was that we paid £22m (club record at the time) and bought a ‘sitting midfielder’ who is perfectly good as a PL player with good players around him. Then we asked him to be a central midfielder, right winger, goal scorer, sprinter, great header of the ball, plus a tough tackler, who was able to glide past players every time he got the ball and play 70 yard passes.

Then when he couldn’t do all of the above we couldn’t believe that we’d paid £22m for him, because in Sheffield United Land you should get all that for £22m and probably more as well.

I still maintain that if we’d have been able to play him in the position he actually plays in, with good footballers around him, he’d have been excellent for us. But we didn’t, and he was enigmatic, sometimes excellent and other times ineffective.

We need to stick to the likes of Rothwell and Shackleton instead, that’s what us punters pay good money to see. None of this World Cup Quarter Finalist, tippy tappy bollocks.

 

[CT1889]

Let’s look at this from a different angle

Do you think Berge is happy with his decision to sign for us.

pure speculation

But a better path to the top, might have been to sign for a bigger team, knowing that they would loan him out to a Champ club to get him used to English football, then a season sitting on the bench and getting some minutes, but training with top quality players. Then start making starts in the Cups and early European rounds. Etc…..

It takes two tango

We signed a player that was not ready for the Perm even though we had a paper thin squad because we were out of our collective depth

Berge tied to take a short cut to the Top. Probably because of bad advice and pressure from agent and club that could not believe some club want to pay 20m for him and start him start straight away

But as I said pure speculation

 

[CT1889]

And just few points of reference and I know I’m cherry picking

Around this time

Leicester got Maddison for ~25m, Maguire for 15m and sold him 2 years later for 80m

West Ham got Bowen for 20m

Place got Ollie for 10m and Eze for 17m

Brighton were probably in the process of buying half Chelsea’s current squad for next to nothing

So silly me for expecting more value out of 20m than a player that took 3 years to displace Norwood out of his preferred spot. I should count myself lucky I got to see him play for united. Even though I lack the footballing sophistication to truly participate what he was doing

 

[CT1889]

Sorry everyone I think I’ve gone over the edge on this one

So in a moment of self reflection I’ve ask myself what is it that is so triggering about Berge

And I’ll tell you

He epitomizes everything that is wrong with modern football

I’ve watched him play for Norway a few time during the World Cup. And every time he gets the ball. Part of my brain say go on do the thing. You know. Were you start running with the ball and you look like your going slow but the players around can’t keep up, and they can’t get the ball off you and you just keep going until you get to the goal line and you cut it back and no one is ever on the end of it

But that’s ok it was FUN to watch

But he never does it and I think what a waste

He has a gift that could be seen around the world and put a smile on the faces of Billions. And he never does the thing, it been coached out of him.

Instead we are told that watching him making 50 10 yard passes is better football and if you don’t enjoy watching that you don’t really understand football

Well fuck that it’s boring as shit

I want to see crosses and diving headers

I want to see defenders shit themselves when the ball is passed to them

I want to see the goalkeeper kick it up the field and the ball get headed backwards and forwards for a minute

I want to see players kick it with their laces, proper twat it

I want to see strikers break the offside trap and go one and one with the keeper

I want Chaos not structure.

I want football to be Fun to watch not a Chore

 

[Rodley]

And just few points of reference and I know I’m cherry picking

Around this time

Leicester got Maddison for ~25m, Maguire for 15m and sold him 2 years later for 80m

West Ham got Bowen for 20m

Place got Ollie for 10m and Eze for 17m

Brighton were probably in the process of buying half Chelsea’s current squad for next to nothing

So silly me for expecting more value out of 20m than a player that took 3 years to displace Norwood out of his preferred spot. I should count myself lucky I got to see him play for united. Even though I lack the footballing sophistication to truly participate what he was doing

We pay comparatively shit wages so every big money signing is more of a gamble.

 

[Houston_Blade]

Sorry everyone I think I’ve gone over the edge on this one

So in a moment of self reflection I’ve ask myself what is it that is so triggering about Berge

And I’ll tell you

He epitomizes everything that is wrong with modern football

I’ve watched him play for Norway a few time during the World Cup. And every time he gets the ball. Part of my brain say go on do the thing. You know. Were you start running with the ball and you look like your going slow but the players around can’t keep up, and they can’t get the ball off you and you just keep going until you get to the goal line and you cut it back and no one is ever on the end of it

But that’s ok it was FUN to watch

But he never does it and I think what a waste

He has a gift that could be seen around the world and put a smile on the faces of Billions. And he never does the thing, it been coached out of him.

Instead we are told that watching him making 50 10 yard passes is better football and if you don’t enjoy watching that you don’t really understand football

Well fuck that it’s boring as shit

I want to see crosses and diving headers

I want to see defenders shit themselves when the ball is passed to them

I want to see the goalkeeper kick it up the field and the ball get headed backwards and forwards for a minute

I want to see players kick it with their laces, proper twat it

I want to see strikers break the offside trap and go one and one with the keeper

I want Chaos not structure.

I want football to be Fun to watch not a Chore

Do you think in a World Cup, against top defenders, he’d be able to just glide past people like he could in the Championship?

He doesn’t do that because he can’t do it at the level he’s playing at with Norway. If they were playing Andorra in a qualifier, he’d be more than capable of doing so.

Gordon’s just signed for Barcelona and he wasn’t even able to knock the ball down the outside of the Norwegian right back and get a cross in, how do you imagine Berge, a defensive midfielder for Fulham (previously of Burnley and Sheffield United), will be able to take on a player and whip in a cross every time?!

It would be great if every time someone got the ball, they ran forward with it and took 5 players on. But this is real life and not FIFA 98 on the PlayStation, so it doesn’t happen like that unfortunately.

 

[CT1889]

Able yes I think he is able

In fact I think Berge is the only player in the world able to do the Berge thing, which is why it’s so special

Is he willing that’s another question

No he is not willing to even think about doing it. It has been suppressed to a dark corner of his mind. Either through lack of self belief or sacrificed to the almighty possession stats.

 

[SouthportBlade]

Able yes I think he is able

In fact I think Berge is the only player in the world able to do the Berge thing, which is why it’s so special

Is he willing that’s another question

No he is not willing to even think about doing it. It has been suppressed to a dark corner of his mind. Either through lack of self belief or sacrificed to the almighty possession stats.

It’s almost like she’s doing the role the manager has told him to do. He should be careering down the right wing and getting chalk on his boots.

Coward.

 

[Edgar Allan Poo]

Able yes I think he is able

In fact I think Berge is the only player in the world able to do the Berge thing, which is why it’s so special

Is he willing that’s another question

No he is not willing to even think about doing it. It has been suppressed to a dark corner of his mind. Either through lack of self belief or sacrificed to the almighty possession stats.

I do what Berge does every week in walking football.

 

[puppet]

I dunno if it was the excitement of seeing a former Blade in a prestigious tournament but I thought Berge played quite well during this WC, not a sentiment I could extend to the current first teamer who appeared in the group stages.

 

[CT1889]

It’s almost like she’s doing the role the manager has told him to do. He should be careering down the right wing and getting chalk on his boots.

Coward.

It would be nice if Players were allowed some agency

One of the Greatest crimes in modern football is what Pep did to Grealish, broke a generational talent and tossed him aside.

If you like watching people do exactly what they are told to do, can I suggest Military Parades

 

[BerksBlade]

I don't think he was what we needed at the time and the money should have been utilised to cement our position with better squad cover and rotation options.

Didn't Wilder's whiteboard have him down as a replacement for Norwood? Trouble is, Norwood was the fulcrum of the team - virtually everything went via him. So Berge had to be shoehorned into Lundstram's position instead.
He did show flashes of his ability there - a few 10-15 minutes spells where the opposition couldn't stop him. Never looked happy in that role though. And when he did get a chance at CDM he never really grasped it.

 

[CT1889]

Didn't Wilder's whiteboard have him down as a replacement for Norwood? Trouble is, Norwood was the fulcrum of the team - virtually everything went via him. So Berge had to be shoehorned into Lundstram's position instead.
He did show flashes of his ability there - a few 10-15 minutes spells where the opposition couldn't stop him. Never looked happy in that role though. And when he did get a chance at CDM he never really grasped it.

Shows our brain trust in action

Let’s post our transfer strategy for the whole world to see

 

[CT1889]

We pay comparatively shit wages so every big money signing is more of a gamble.

Fair point

But English football does not make player contracts public so we are felt to guess and speculate

In America sports player contract are public knowledge and ever Fan knows their teams top earners, and they are constantly judged on if they are living up to them

I’m going to speculate that not only did we break our Transfer record on Berge but also made him our top earner, and did not write in the normal relegation clause.

I say this because clubs kept kicking the tiers on him, knowing he did not want to play in the Champ, but could not meet the wages he was on

But he could do no wrong in the eyes of some

While Lundstram was made the villain, because he got pissed off that the club didn’t reward him for what he had actually done and a “decent” player left for nothing

Again the club was out of its depth

 

[Gimli]

Fair point

But English football does not make player contracts public so we are felt to guess and speculate

In America sports player contract are public knowledge and ever Fan knows their teams top earners, and they are constantly judged on if they are living up to them

I’m going to speculate that not only did we break our Transfer record on Berge but also made him our top earner, and did not write in the normal relegation clause.

I say this because clubs kept kicking the tiers on him, knowing he did not want to play in the Champ, but could not meet the wages he was on

But he could do no wrong in the eyes of some

While Lundstram was made the villain, because he got pissed off that the club didn’t reward him for what he had actually done and a “decent” player left for nothing

Again the club was out of its depth

Lundstram was a mardy twat and threw his toys out of the pram.

Berge is a far better player, who for some reason has been maligned by some fans because he didn’t take on the whole team and bang one into the top corner at every available opportunity.

Even now, when he’s more than held his own at a World Cup playing against Brazil and England, do our fans still complain about his weaknesses and claim he’s not actually very good.

There are none so blind as those who will not see…