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M@'s avatar

This is my favourite sort of post, regardless of author.

Later edit: I recently read Hal Johnson's book Impossible Histories, which reaffirms my view that alternate histories are the best sandbox for skilled writers - so much space for fun and style, but all within the scope of intelligent ideas about causality. Perhaps a fun variation on your world cup retrospectives would be alternate versions - What If 2008 Spain lose in the quarters and Russia win the whole thing? What if Monaco had won the 2003 UCL and humiliated Mourinho?

(There was an unusually bad example of this kind of thinking in the Graun letters page blaming Nick Clegg for Trump, which is the opposite of what I love)

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Alan Goldhammer's avatar

The only thing you got wrong in the fantasy retelling of history is that Ajax wins the Champions League in 2019. They dispense with Mourinho's Madrid the same way they did at the Bernebau that season. In the final against Barcelona, Frenkie de Jong gives a masterclass in MF management against his team to be, assisting on two goals and Barca are totally confused on defense, not knowing how to handle Dusan Tadic as the false 9.

To this day I think Ajax would have defeated Liverpool that year had it not been for Lucas Moura. Dreams die hard.

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