Premier League Gameweek 30: Overreaction Monday ft Atletico Madrid, Karren Brady and Tottenham
Overthinking and over-reacting to situations is the human way but when it comes to football something clicks in a person that makes things comical, ludicrous and rarely sensible. That being said after a packed weekend of hysterical fans in England, there were bound to be a few hare-brained ideas.
Atletico Madrid have never, ever, ever felt like that before
After Atletico Madrid’s superb performance against Liverpool, Michael Owen took to the mike and claimed that the Los Rojiblancos have never beaten a team as good as Liverpool in their past.
SC Take: It’s a ridiculous take because this is a La Liga winning team you’re talking about. One in transition but certainly amongst Spain’s top three and one that plays in a league that until a little under two years ago once had Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi play in. Not only that, this is the same side that beat Real Madrid and Barcelona and then did it again just for fun. They’ve done it for fun since and then went and did it again.
The same side that beat Juventus last season, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, that Chelsea side and so many others over the last decade. It’s simply ridiculous how many times Diego Simeone has willed out a performance that it’s become the norm now. So to say that Atletico Madrid have never beaten a side as good as Liverpool, it’s an overreaction.
People acting as if football will never ever be back again
In the week since football has been postponed, the internet has transformed into a battleground with Twitter playing FIFA, Connect Four and even Tic-Tac-Toe.
SC Take: Football has not gone away forever. It’s suspended for a while and while everything happening on various social media pages is hilarious and nice to watch, it’s essentially seen the world overreact to the entire situation. Few have even created fake news to help drive their brands, others are busy playing FIFA and live-streaming with over 50,000 watching the stream. For the greater good? It’s a brilliant thing and shows that football will never be stopped.
But it’s a startling reaction to a dystopian situation where the effort to fill the void that football and other sports have left behind is done like this. Maybe, this is an overreaction to what was nothing more than a weekend of fun on social media but one thing is abjectly clear, nothing can stop football. And in it's void, nothing apparently can replace it.
Rendering season null and void would be a travesty
While Karren Brady wanted to render this season null and void, Liverpool legend Sir Kenny Daglish has admitted that doing that would be a travesty.
SC Take: He goes on to write “Nobody can allow the hard work to count for nothing.” And he’s absolutely right especially since, rendering this season null and void would mean that everything Sheffield United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and Liverpool have done so far would mean absolutely nothing. It would, as Daglish says, allow clubs like West Ham, Bournemouth, Arsenal and even Tottenham to not suffer the consequences of a bad season.
It would see Nottingham Forest, Brentford, West Bromwich Albion and Leeds United not get their comeuppance for a great season in the Championship. It would see a fantastic League One season never come to a conclusion, with the same going for the League Two and even the National League. But maybe, we should listen to what West Ham’s vice-chair Karren Brady says and render the season null and void, cause that’s not an overreaction.
Tottenham were doomed because of the Champions League final
Premier League cult hero and Tottenham legend David Ginola has claimed that his former side are doomed because they reached the Champions League final.
SC Take: Ginola went on to add that it put the club on a stage that they were not ready for. Now that part is true and it shows exactly what Mauricio Pochettino can do with a team. It’s downright shocking what the Argentine did but then last summer happened. This Tottenham side needed a complete overhaul, they needed a new midfielder, defense, and definitely needed a new goalkeeper. But none of that happened and instead, Spurs walked in with an exhausted team who were now simply moving through the motions.
Ginola then went on to say that the fans shouldn’t be so harsh on Jose Mourinho. Now that is probably the only smart thing he says in the entire interview because Jose has inherited this dysfunctional side that simply doesn’t want to play football anymore. It needs a revamp but if Mourinho continues to struggle even after the summer window, the Spurs have problems.