The Anglo-Saxon Social Model - EURO 2020

[Rattigan]

Welcome to the Euro 2020 simulator set in the universe of my TL, the Anglo-Saxon Social Model. I will be posting initial groups and squads and then simulating the results of every game over the next few weeks using a dice. I'm putting this on its own thread because I appreciate that sports TLs aren't to everyone's taste but I will be cross-posting the results to a certain extent. Here's a link to the main TL.

So, with all that out the way, here's a quick refresher on the universe that's relevant to this competition:

• Catalonia has been independent since the 19th century and so has a separate national team but its club teams currently play as part of an Iberian Superleague with clubs from Spain and Portugal.
• OTL Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland have been unified as a single country since 1986.
• OTL Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg were unified as a single country in 1954.
• The Soviet Union is still around.
• The OTL Eastern Bloc countries were unified as the Commonwealth of Independent States ("CIS") in 1969.
• The United Kingdom (which still includes all of Ireland) has had a single team since 1962.
• Austria is still a constitutional monarchy and includes Slovenia, South Tyrol and Friuli.
• Greece achieved the Megali Idea and so includes the European and western seaboard of Turkey, as well as OTL North Macedonia and southern Albania.
• After the World War (TTL's WW2 equivalent), Germany was divided up and something akin to the Morgenthau Plan was implemented. Aside from the bits which are in the CIS, the country was divided into Hanover (which includes Schleswig-Holstein), Baden-Wurttemberg, Bavaria and the Rhineland. France got the Saarland.
• Yugoslavia (which TTL includes all of Albania not in Greece but doesn't include OTL Slovenia and North Macedonia) was abolished as a country in 2009 and is currently a UN Trust Territory that doesn't have a national team. (If that sounds nuts then take a mosey at the original TL and I promise it makes, marginally, more sense.)

There is no qualification process for this, with teams competing in friendlies and a Nations League style tournament over the previous two years, with the top 18 FIFA-ranked teams qualifying for the finals. They are then organised into three groups of six, with the top two from each group plus the two best third-placed teams advancing to the quarter finals.

Groups and squads to come later today/over the course of next week

 

[Kurt_Steiner]

Popcorn ready.

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]

Our CBC pundits give their thoughts ahead of the tournament. Join them, along with presenter James Richardson, to review the day's action on Match of the Day, every day at 10:30pm BST, after the day's live games.

 

[Thomas1195]

As a avid Liverpool supporter, I am kinda pissed when seeing TAA - Shamrock Rovers and Jordan Henderson - Milan.

 

[Rattigan]

As a avid Liverpool supporter, I am kinda pissed when seeing TAA - Shamrock Rovers and Jordan Henderson - Milan.

Basically the difference is that they bungle the post Shankly/Paisley handover and enter a fallow period in the 1980s and 1990s. They've had a bit of a revival recently under Eddie Howe...

 

[Dr Dee]

Our CBC pundits give their thoughts ahead of the tournament. Join them, along with presenter James Richardson, to review the day's action on Match of the Day, every day at 10:30pm BST, after the day's live games.

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Typically ingenious stuff once again, Rattigan. Poor old Gareth Bale though. On the receiving end of Zidane ITTL and now Parlour is giving him a hard time at national level in ATL. Can't someone give the guy a break?

 

[Dr Dee]

Totally off topic but can't remember if this is referred to in your main TL: is Star Wars still a thing? I'm thinking of the reference to the Evil Empire and the rebels here. I was just thinking what a British (okay, Anglo-American) director like Christopher Nolan might have done with the Star Wars sequels ITTL.

 

[King_Arthur]

This is so cursed Iol

• Superclub Shamrock Rovers
• Brendan Rodgers managing Megali Greece
• Superclub Celtic
• Kevin Trapp playing for Motherwell
• Independent Catalonia
• Callum Wilson playing for Juventus
• That Eastern Bloc federation

I love it

 

[broken-arrow]

As a avid Liverpool supporter, I am kinda pissed when seeing TAA - Shamrock Rovers and Jordan Henderson - Milan.

As a united fan i echo this sentiment with Rashford at Celtic but we get Jadon Sancho so ya know.

 

[Rattigan]

Typically ingenious stuff once again, Rattigan. Poor old Gareth Bale though. On the receiving end of Zidane ITTL and now Parlour is giving him a hard time at national level in ATL. Can't someone give the guy a break?

He's still doing pretty well in his club career with Celtic...

Totally off topic but can't remember if this is referred to in your main TL: is Star Wars still a thing? I'm thinking of the reference to the Evil Empire and the rebels here. I was just thinking what a British (okay, Anglo-American) director like Christopher Nolan might have done with the Star Wars sequels ITTL.

A Star Wars update coming on the main TL very soon... No Nolan, I'm afraid, but...

This is so cursed Iol

• Superclub Shamrock Rovers
• Brendan Rodgers managing Megali Greece
• Superclub Celtic
• Kevin Trapp playing for Motherwell
• Independent Catalonia
• Callum Wilson playing for Juventus
• That Eastern Bloc federation

I love it

I wouldn't quite say that Shamrock are a superclub: Irish club football has always been a poorer cousin to the Scottish and English teams but in the past decade Guinness and a few other investors have put a lot of money into the team and this is their first title. I'd probably say the two biggest British clubs are Celtic and Arsenal (with Arsenal having more domestic success and Celtic more European), with Rangers and Man United behind them, although Arsenal are on a bit of a downward trend of late.

 

[King_Arthur]

I wouldn't quite say that Shamrock are a superclub: Irish club football has always been a poorer cousin to the Scottish and English teams but in the past decade Guinness and a few other investors have put a lot of money into the team and this is their first title. I'd probably say the two biggest British clubs are Celtic and Arsenal (with Arsenal having more domestic success and Celtic more European), with Rangers and Man United behind that, although Arsenal are on a bit of a downward trend of late.

Shamrock seem like Wolves on steroids or Man City in like 2011 to me. Would you say Celtic are Liverpool, Arsenal are Man Utd, Rangers are Arsenal and Man Utd are like Everton or Spurs then?

 

[Rattigan]

Shamrock seem like Wolves on steroids or Man City in like 2011 to me. Would you say Celtic are Liverpool, Arsenal are Man Utd, Rangers are Arsenal and Man Utd are like Everton or Spurs then?

I think those are interesting analogies and broadly correct but I'd say the following are a bit closer to what I imagined:

• TTL Celtic = OTL Real Madrid/Bayern Munich (iconic superclub who consider the domestic league basically beneath them (apart from games against Arsenal and Rangers) but are prone to completely imploding every five years or so)
• TTL Arsenal = OTL Barcelona (obsessed with a history of playing football the "right" way and have a real romantic conception of themselves, even if most other people roll their eyes a bit)
• TTL Shamrock Rovers = OTL RB Leipzig/PSG (not a particularly historic club but one which has a lot of money behind it to bludgeon its way to the top, even if its still a bit of a basket case behind the scenes and nobody apart from their fans really like them)
• TTL Rangers = OTL Valencia/Napoli (definitely a "big" club but notably never quite as big as their direct competitors)
• TTL Man Utd = OTL Arsenal (a bit like Rangers, a big, historic club that hasn't quite won as many trophies as you think they have)

 

[King_Arthur]

I think those are interesting analogies and broadly correct but I'd say the following are a bit closer to what I imagined:

• TTL Celtic = OTL Real Madrid/Bayern Munich (iconic superclub who consider the domestic league basically beneath them (apart from games against Arsenal and Rangers) but are prone to completely imploding every five years or so)
• TTL Arsenal = OTL Barcelona (obsessed with a history of playing football the "right" way and have a real romantic conception of themselves, even if most other people roll their eyes a bit)
• TTL Shamrock Rovers = OTL RB Leipzig/PSG (not a particularly historic club but one which has a lot of money behind it to bludgeon its way to the top, even if its still a bit of a basket case behind the scenes and nobody apart from their fans really like them)
• TTL Rangers = OTL Valencia/Napoli (definitely a "big" club but notably never quite as big as their direct competitors)
• TTL Man Utd = OTL Arsenal (a bit like Rangers, a big, historic club that hasn't quite won as many trophies as you think they have)

Pretty interesting. I can definitely see Arsenal going full Barca, but Vieira isn't quite a Guardiola lol. Have you put any thought into who their Cruyff and their Guardiola are? Where are Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday at?

 

[Rattigan]

Pretty interesting. I can definitely see Arsenal going full Barca, but Vieira isn't quite a Guardiola lol. Have you put any thought into who their Cruyff and their Guardiola are? Where are Swansea and Sheffield Wednesday at?

There's an update on Cruijff on the main TL. I might have to retcon a couple of details in the future but that's the basic idea. As for the Guardiola equivalent, I don't have quite a one-to-one match but the idea is that Paul Merson fulfils the same playing role for Arsenal in the late '80s and '90s and Tony Adams and David Rocastle have a kind of Guardiola-Villanova coaching partnership in the 00s and 10s.

Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea are both in the British second flight.

I have literally 100s of pages of detail on TTL's football universe (without letting too much light in behind the curtain, I suffer from pretty bad bouts of depression and find working on, say, what Matthias Sindelar's TTL career was like to be quite therapeutic) that I could go into way more detail about. I'll keep full updates on this to TTL's Euro 2020 but am very happy to answer any questions anyone has.

 

[King_Arthur]

There's an update on Cruijff on the main TL. I might have to retcon a couple of details in the future but that's the basic idea. As for the Guardiola equivalent, I don't have quite a one-to-one match but the idea is that Paul Merson fulfils the same playing role for Arsenal in the late '80s and '90s and Tony Adams and David Rocastle have a kind of Guardiola-Villanova coaching partnership in the 00s and 10s.

I'd say one problem with that is Merson failed at Walsall, while Adams failed repeatedly. I suppose playing under Cruyff could make them better coaches but then again the EPL is a very hard league to manage in, as people like Phillip Cocu, Frank de Boer and Ronald Koeman after he left the Saints who dominated the Eredivisie discovered.

 

[Rattigan]

 

[Rattigan]