Russell Havens

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@Czarface_Eso Yes - Czartoons on Saturday morning is needed!

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@Wrexham_AFC @RMcElhenney @VancityReynolds @vardy7
Wrexham - please bring Vardy in ASAP! Prolific goal scorer and entertaining footballer

[SuperiorUSMNT @EinSchwarzwelt]

If you care about the state of the USMNT going forward not just for 2030 cycle but for the decades to come, now is the time to start barking at US Soccer and MLS to unfuck this dysfunctional American soccer pyramid. Because our humiliating exit, our "golden generation" mentality in this Belgium game, our hard-capped ceiling against the Netherlands/Belgiums/Argentinas/Englands, the lack of proper depth to truly push the Pulisics/McKennies/Reams etc., all of it is a trickle down effect from US Soccer and MLS's decision making.

Time to drop your MLS pom poms, stop putting your heads in sands, stop pretending that we have world class player development just because Union's academy beat La Masia Juvenil 5-0 in a scrimmage and seeing Kevin Paredes move to Wolfsburg do fuck all, or one or two MLS players moving to Westerlo or PSV and pretending that the league has done its duty developing proper talent for the national team. "Oh but Adams came through Red Bulls/Weah played one season in New York/McKennie spent two seasons at FC Dallas", yeah none of that shit is enough. You need 1000 Adams/McKennie/Weahs/Pulisics formed in a fire pit before your country even sees a Lamine Yamal come through.

Start asking where are the upcoming American players born and bred in pressure cooker environments who have to prove themselves to rise out of poverty or out of desperation to become pros as teenagers; where are these thousands of American players in MLS or in the youth leagues across the country? Fundamentally, you need a competitive environment and a pyramid of divisions (local, regional, state, college, national) within an open ecosystem to replicate this sporting pressure. An open ecosystem means a club's or academy's survival hinges on scouting good players and selling them for profit. These good players in turn are forced to compete against other good players to keep their spots or progress in their careers. As a result said youth players have more hunger, much stronger resilient mentalities as a result. You see this clearly in France where their amateur leagues have so many French youth ballers fighting it out, being hurled insults, fouls, in tiny little village/city courts, all desperate for a French scout/academy/club to notice them and give them a chance to change their lives and these French clubs and scouts likewise take advantage of these players by platforming them and profiting from their transfer fees. It's not perfect (nothing is), the French have their own corrupt clubs/scouts/agents as well, but it somehow works. An open ecosystem means all of these things slowly fall into place.

And if many American clubs go bankrupt in an open ecosystem, so fucking what? American lower division clubs already routinely go out of business and existence today under the closed ecosystem, why pretend this is preferable to an open market where possibilities for improvement and for a proper soccer culture is much more possible? Why should I give a single fuck about the poor MLS billionaire who might lose his franchise if he's forced to invest more resources into keeping it alive? I don't own Class A shares in those investments and neither do you, so fuck them.

You can't make excuses about "lack of American athletes" (Lebron playing soccer nonsense) or not enough participation (this country has one of the largest registered soccer-playing populations in the world given its population size). You can't regurgitate propaganda about MLS being the one gleaming beacon of hope for American soccer when all they've done is the contrary (destroy everyone in their way). You can't protect your poor little billionaires who own these MLS franchises who refuse to take any financial risk for their sports franchises (fuck them). If you want an actual soccer culture, this is what it takes. American exceptionalism ("We'll do it the American way") cannot usurp how other countries approach this sport. France and Argentina know what they're doing because they all have these pressure cooker environments from the moment a child can stand on two legs, walk and kick a ball.

American soccer has allowed profit and passivity to take center stage in every single decision they take when it comes to deciding the course of the sport's future here. We've allowed this federation to team up with Soccer NFL and treat the sport as "entertainment" instead of life, death and war like other top countries do. Ultimately we cannot continue to go down this path of one league cutting off every single avenue for soccer culture and youth development like what MLS is doing at this very moment (planning 500 million dollar MLS franchises just to kill a USL team in a large metro area that MLS wants to be in; creating MLS Next ecosystem that forces kids to stay in a youth league and that doesnt have to compete with other youth leagues). You can't go down this path and pretend that eventually in some not-too-far-off future that somehow it'll finally click and MLS will be this super duper strong wealthy world league. You can have the financial might of Saudi Arabia pouring billions into your league, not gonna change a single thing aside from more retirement league pensioners.

You think I'm exaggerating, "how can you say all of this out of one bad result vs Belgium in a home world cup?" Because this is not the first time that this generation of American players were mentally unable to stand up against adversity, it's been happening for many years starting with Berhalter Sr but ultimately this stems from their own career journeys. Many of these current American players had to struggle in European academies but there never was a deep desperation to their frankly middle class struggles as upcoming players. You cannot mold a man with extreme mental resilience unless they've been pushed to the limit in their journeys. No world class coach can 100% fix these mentality issues, it's up to the players themselves to have built that mental fortitude. That's why an open ecosystem matters.

We cannot rely on external leagues and countries with American expats to consistently give us world class players, ultimately you need to have your own pressure cooker environment to reliably create these top tier players. And until this starts happening, until this country starts taking this sport seriously we're going to see world cup exits like these. Maybe you can scalp a win off a Euro or Copa America champion but you're never ever going to truly compete as favorites.

I'm done with defending these players. I'm done with pretending that maybe it was one bad day, one bad goalkeeper decision, one bad defensive mistake when I've seen 20 cumulative bad days against this level of competition across the years. A national team is a reflection of the sporting culture of its respective country and American soccer is fundamentally broken. You either demand better or you stay quiet and let these people take the sport from you and feed you slop. So open your fucking mouths and start demanding more from US Soccer.

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

Would love to see a United States Soccer Cup created. Annual or bi-annual competition. Rosters formed with the best players selected in each state. Compete regionally - advance to a World Cup style tournament nationally to crown the best soccer state in the country.

[Futebol Nostálgico! @futnostalgico]

Flamengo vs Santos em 2011.

Um duelo particular entre Neymar e Ronaldinho 💀🤯

Edição: Nerdatleta BR

[Stretford Paddock @StretfordPaddck]

Full time scenes at OT 🗣️🤩

#MUFC

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@FunMovieTVFan The Best of Times

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@80sBank Passin’ Me By

[PrimePhase @PrimePhaseX]

That Neymar was the Ultimate Brazilian

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@sampilger And I would also argue that having a goal scored right after on the counter makes it an even bigger decision to disallow the goal and go back and award the pen to United. Poor decision for sure. Two hand shove in the box knocks Amad to the ground. Clear pen.

[Man United Media @ManUnitedMedia]

The brilliant letter Sir Alex Ferguson wrote to Eric Cantona after his retirement:

"Dear Eric,

Some months have passed since we last spoke, and I felt I should write to you as a mark of the respect and esteem in which I hold you.

When we restarted training, I kept waiting for you to turn up as normal, but I think that was hope rather than realism. I knew in your eyes, when we met at Mottram, that your time at Manchester United was over. Although I still feel you should have taken my advice – and your father’s – and taken a holiday before making such a major decision.

One thing I would like you to remember is to remain active and fit. I always remember when I finished at 32 and started management, I was more concerned about organising training and coaching players than about my own fitness. When I realised what was happening, I started training again to recapture it, and it was murder. So you need to keep your fitness level up.

I am sure you have been keeping an eye on our results, and as you can see, we are doing quite well. As you know, we have signed Teddy Sheringham to replace you, but at the moment he is finding it difficult to find the space he got at Tottenham and obviously has some adjusting to do. Players sometimes don’t realise how difficult it is to play at our level, as every game is a Cup Final for our opponents, so I just hope he can do it for us.

Our pre-season tour wasn’t too bad. The Far East tour was better than expected, and our game against Inter Milan was very good. The Charity Shield wasn’t a great performance, but we were better than Chelsea and deserved to win, even though penalties decided it.

I still feel, as we discussed at the end of the season, that a top-class striker is what is needed. That is always going to be the problem at our club, and it has been proved many times in my time here by not getting the best because of that situation. It is a pity because when you are at the top, you should buy the best to stop others getting you. If I was younger, I suppose I would look at it differently, but from the position I am in, I have to accept it – and it always gets to me at times. However, I just have to get on with it. My enthusiasm, natural temper and the belief and trust I have always had in my players continue. I keep hoping that I will discover a young Cantona! It is in the heart to continue.

As I close this letter, I would like to hope that we will have a chat, a drink or a meal together soon. I know the club has written to you about tickets for this season, and I hope you will manage it, but that is not the most important thing. The most important thing for me is what you were for Manchester United and how grateful I am for the service you gave me. I will never forget that, and I hope you won’t either.

You are always welcome here, and if you just pop in unexpectedly for a cup of tea – no fanfare, just for a chat as friends – that would mean more to me than anything. You know where I am if you need me, and now that you are no longer one of my players, I hope you know you have a friend.

Good luck and God bless.

Yours sincerely,

(signed)
Alex Ferguson CBE
MANAGER"

[Jon Katz @JonKatz79]

The reason people long for the 90s, aside from the obvious nostalgia about how everything really was better, is that our existence was just so much calmer before all these crazy gadgets sped everything up. Our brains are not naturally meant to engage in such ways.

[Vyber(fan) @_Mac_lfc]

Throwback to when the Goal of the Month nominations for December 2006 were absolutely insane 😳.

[El Club del Arte 🎨📷📚🖼🕍🎼 @Arteymas_]

La gente que nació entre 1975 y 1999 pertenece a una generación verdaderamente irrepetible.

No por moda, no por ego… sino por historia vivida.

Nacimos justo entre dos mundos.
Antes de que el internet dominara todo, pero lo suficientemente a tiempo para adaptarnos cuando llegó.
Crecimos sin pantallas táctiles, pero aprendimos a usarlas.
Jugamos en la calle hasta que oscurecía… y luego vimos cómo el mundo se volvía digital.

La generación anterior nos enseñó el valor del esfuerzo, la disciplina, la constancia, el respeto y la palabra.
La siguiente nos mostró el trabajo inteligente, la rapidez, la innovación y la tecnología.
Y nosotros… aprendimos de ambas.

Vimos pasar la historia frente a nuestros ojos:
📻 la radio
📺 la televisión
🎮 Mario Bros
📼 cassettes y VHS
📀 DVD
�� Nokia
🕹️ Nintendo y PlayStation
🏬 los videoclubs
📲 Netflix, Snapchat
🤖 y ahora la realidad virtual

Somos la generación que recuerda y razona.
Que respeta la tradición, pero no tiene miedo de cuestionarla.
Que piensa antes de creer y analiza antes de seguir.
Los de antes no preguntaban.
Los de después muchas veces no recuerdan de dónde viene todo.

Somos el puente entre la era industrial y la era del internet.
Entendemos ambos lados porque los vivimos, no porque nos los contaron.

Por eso esta generación debería estar moviendo el mundo.
Porque los de antes ya no ven lo que está pasando…
y los que vienen no siempre saben de dónde salió lo que hoy tienen.

Somos la generación que conecta el pasado con el futuro.
Y eso… no se aprende, se vive…

[Drew-Jit-Su @HipHopSince76_]

Children's Story
#SlickRick

[NBC Sports Soccer @NBCSportsSoccer]

OLD TRAFFORD HAS A NEW HERO.

BENJAMIN SESKO WINS IT FOR MAN UNITED IN A BARNSTORMING FINISH. 🤯

[utdreport @utdreport]

The protesting #mufc fans on Sir Matt Busby Way [@AndyMitten]

[Stretford Paddock @StretfordPaddck]

GLAZERS OUT 🔰

#MUFC

[Russell Havens @HavensRussell]

@DresBlacksheep @DresBlacksheep that would be dope! My son and I were just in London for the first time and got Black Sheep coffee every day. The best!!!