Daniel Banjaqui is one of those young fullbacks worth keeping an eye on.
18 years old. Benfica. Portugal youth international.
The hype is there, but his profile is more interesting than the hype itself.
Here’s what stands out 🧵
Six days ago: "I will do whatever the coach asks: play or not play. The team is above anything".
Gets benched for one game, skips group training, retreats to the hotel gym, and the FA president has to hold crisis talks.
Humility lasts until the tactics actually demand it.
Everton overspent PSR by £19.5m and got a 6-point deduction.
City were just found guilty of systematic concealment and sham deals affecting £900m+ across nine full seasons.
Forget linear math. On what legal principle does a club survive after a decade of fabricated books?
Spending £458m while under investigation for 115 breaches is either pure arrogance or the most calculated pre emptive bunker in sports history.
Stockpile world class depth in August, take the guilty verdict in September.
When the transfer freeze comes, look back at this window.
La Liga produces coaches that conquer Europe. Serie A produces tactical masters.
England produces 60-year-old mid-table survival merchants who get sacked by Christmas. The 'best league in the world' can't even trust its own coaches to touch a title. Brutal.
🚨 𝗡𝗘𝗪: Number of times a manager has won their OWN country’s league in Europe’s top 5 leagues:
🏴 Premier League: 0
🇪🇸 La Liga: 45
🇩🇪 Bundesliga: 45
🇫🇷 Ligue 1: 67
🇮🇹 Serie A: 76
The Premier League has never been won by an English manager.
Every single international break follows the exact same script.
Clubs protect them, nurture them, build momentum. Then national federations run them into the ground for TV revenue and hand back damaged goods.
If this thigh issue is serious, our season just took a bullet.
The craziest part isn't the numbers.
It's that Messi made a 24-season career at an absurd level look so normal that people still need comparisons to understand how ridiculous it was.
🚨 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗭𝗬 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗧: If a player produced 56 goal G/A every season for 24 consecutive seasons, he’d have 1,344 goal contributions.
Lionel Messi has 1,355.
If a player won 2 trophies every season for 24 consecutive years, he’d have 48 trophies.
Lionel Messi has 49.
He scores, then comes off at half-time with muscle discomfort.
As a Barça fan, this is the last thing I wanted to see during the international break.
Please let this be nothing serious, Raphinha. We need our captain fit. 🙏
Sergio Busquets was already managing Barcelona from the pitch for fifteen years. Del Bosque said watching him is watching the whole game.
The natural successor to the Pep and Cruyff tactical lineage.
This transition was written in stone from day one.
Pochettino playing the victim card years later is embarrassing.
In 2016 Spurs finished 3rd in a two horse race behind Leicester and Arsenal.
In 2017 Conte beat him fair on the pitch. You cannot blame financial rules for your own bottlejobs.
🚨 Mauricio Pochettino on Man City charges: “I said at the time regarding Chelsea's situation when we fought for the title with them while I was at Tottenham, that they were better because they got more points, but by breaking rules”.
“How do you repair that?”.
Ramos in 2017, Van Gaal in 2022, and now MLS hecklers.
People never learn that provoking Messi only wakes up the god inside him. He never shouts or starts brawls. He just scores an impossible goal right in front of your eyes and stares into your soul. Coldest player ever.
This is wild, before Messi made that free kick, some fans talked shit to him, and he told them to watch this, scored, turned around and celebrated right in front of them. 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Olise has a good game in the Bundesliga and your first instinct is to tweet about Lamine Yamal.
Rivals did this to Messi with every hot winger for 15 years.
Thank you for confirming who the measuring stick of world football is at just 19 years old.
Profiles matter more than names tonight.
Da Cunha gives Como press resistance in build up. Akliouche receives on the half turn for Monaco. Lepaul triggers the press and attacks the box for Rennes.
Zidane picked tactical hunger and work rate over coasting reputations.
Transfer reality check for January.
Calafiori and Bastoni are completely untouchable. Pavlovic and Natan lack the passing range Flick needs for his high line. Unless you are signing an 18 year old like Nijstad for the future, Flick will rely on internal solutions.
Which of these defenders would you sign for Barcelona in January?
1. Riccardo Calafiori – Arsenal
2. Bastoni – Inter
3. Nathaniel – Betis
4. Ruud Nijstad – Fc Twente
5. Pavlovic – Ac Milan
6. Lukeba – Rb Leipzig
7. I believe in Gerard Martin
8. I have a hidden gem no one is talking about.
Voting closed and the narrative spin started immediately.
Yamal isn't beating Kane because Kane 'isn't that guy'. Yamal is beating him because a World Cup + La Liga double with generational clutch gravity beats 73 domestic goals every single day.
Only 2013 belongs here reopening voting after a playoff was shameless.
Modric carried Croatia, Messi ended a 28-year drought, and Rodri lost one game all season.
Messi is on 76 free-kicks 1 away from tying Juninho (77), 2 from passing him.
Funny how the timeline never brought up Marcelinho Carioca (78) or Jair (74) until Messi closed in.
The second he hits 79, expect obscure 1950s regional folklore to surface.
Giggs has unrivaled longevity and 13 PL titles, but he was a cog in Ferguson’s winning machine.
Bale was a ceiling raiser. He carried Spurs, decided multiple UCL finals for Madrid, and dragged Wales to major tournaments. Peak Bale is a tier above. Even Giggs admits it.
Gareth Bale vs Ryan Giggs… Let’s Debate!
How important is being a ‘Talisman’ vs being more of a support act or part of a collective?
For me Bale was more talismanic for Tottenham and Wales, but Giggs arguably more gifted across his Manchester United career - also how big of a factor is longevity?
#mufc #thfc #wales
City didn't clear their name against UEFA CAS overturned the ban because critical charges were time-barred under a 5-year limit. The Premier League has NO statute of limitations, and CAS has zero jurisdiction here. Bragging about UEFA while facing PL rules is pure delusion.
Why I’m so confident that we’ll get through this case:
1. The Premier League are too scared. As it stands, they haven’t even released a statement, because they know what we could do to them if we’re eventually found innocent.
2. We’ve been through a similar case with UEFA before. If we were able to defeat UEFA, then who is the Premier League that we can’t defeat?
Scoring direct free kicks from impossible angles where 99% of players float a hopeful cross. Lionel Messi treating set pieces from the touchline like penalties. At this point, conceding a free kick anywhere in the final third is an automatic goal.
Liam Gallagher claiming 'someone in a high position' promised City only get a fine and transfer ban is generational cope. You were found guilty on 114 charges. CAS isn't walking through that door to save you on time barring this time. Enjoy the appeal circus.
Just been told by someone in a very very high position if we lose our appeal which we won’t we’ll be getting a FINE and TRANSFER BAN and that’s it so all you desperate neurotic SPUNKBUBBLES hush it up to ras MCFC LG x