ohmelads

That's a dive.

I thought VAR might make the game fairer and that surely they couldn't just disregard the 'clear and obvious error' concept. But if the World Cup final was anything to go by, it'll just be another corrupt tool to manipulate games as you see fit if the little side is going against the script. I think the game is becoming increasingly corrupt and this only hands more power to influence results. In theory it should be good news but it ruined the world cup final.

It'll eventually blow up in his face and he'll cut his losses. Who knows how far we have to fall before that happens, or what kind of vulture will take over in that scenario. I reckon 2 or 3 seasons in the Championship ought to do it. I think people are clinging onto the hope that if the club can scrape survival year on year, a huge bid will twist his arm to sell. For the price he wants, it's unlikely, because he knows he's rinsing the club. The relegation and failed promotion bid looks the most likely scenario. I honestly feel conflicted because finishing 17th only benefits one person.

The attendance should be 0 for the rest of the season and finish on 2pts. Ashley has never gave a fuck so why should anyone else. And it should stay like that until we fall low enough for him to fuck off Only that or a silly offer from some oil billionaire will get rid of him. It's about the only crumb of comfort we can take from these results, because a disaster is by far the most likely way the club can start again post-Ashley.

Don't think we'll have an easier chance for 3 points. Brighton have defended crosses well but any half-decent play has opened them up and we look hopeless to take advantage. They've offered nothing in return but a deflected corner and have taken 3 points. If we're going down, I'd rather we go down early than a usual last-week battle. That way there will be no reason not to go after Ashley.

I've loved watching a lot of footballers over the years, but Ronaldo is always my one true love. His time at PSV, Barca and Inter (before it all went wrong) stands next to any footballer, ever. (I say that having started watching football when Maradona was a fat man waddling in a WC qualifier ) Messi has done it for longer, and I have some completely irrational disregard for Cristiano Ronaldo's achievements. I can't explain it. But the rest can go whistle after those three (again - since the nineties) I used to be firmly in the Messi camp, but I've swung completely the opposite way to CRonaldo in the past few years. To do what he does, at his age, in his position is unmatched. His CL goals record is absolutely insane. How he dragged Portugal to success in the Euros, he's pretty much carried his nation on his back whereas Messi always seems to cut a frustrated figure and can't seem to replicate what he does for Barca on the international stage. Certainly in purely measurable terms, on paper he's going to go down alongside Pele with the crazy goals per game. And, he's done it at 2 of the biggest clubs in the world. I loved the anecdote, can't recall from which Man Utd player, that he would stay late from training sessions and practice step-overs for an hour with heavy sandbags on each of his feet so he could do them much faster in a game. To do that, at 18 or 19 years old in a foreign country with the rest of the senior squad, people like Roy Keane, ripping the absolute piss out of him - absurd dedication today, let alone 15 years ago. It'll be interesting to see how he adopts to the rigidity of Juve over time as he's never had to play in a team like that before. Don't get me wrong, Messi is arguably the most gifted player of all time, but CRonaldo, like the best players in the world before him, seems to be easily adapting his game to his age and still doing the business year in, year out. Oh and to compare Shearer and Ronaldo is laughable. Shearer would be lucky to be in my top 10 of all time, let alone first (/tinhat). Wouldn't say he dragged Portugal to success. He basically missed the final. Came off after 25 mins, and they were better after he went off. They scraped through game after game that tournament. That Ronaldo narrative in British press came after he shined against Wales. Not saying he isn't a great player, but his record doesn't need embellishing.

That's the biggest thing it takes away from the game, unfortunately. With regards to teams having X amount of appeals, could this not be abused to give a team a breather when they're on the ropes? Say we're winning 1-0 and the opposition are all over us in the dying minutes but we have two appeals left. Could we not just appeal any two decisions to force a stoppage and allow us to regroup? It seems open to abuse.

I don't think it's a grand conspiracy. It's just self-preservation from referees. If you get it wrong and unfairly screw over a Newcastle or a Southampton or a Crystal Palace, no one cares when the manager goes mental about it. It's never gonna be the top story. But get it wrong against Man Utd or Liverpool and it's headline news, the spotlight is on you. If in doubt, they'll always err on the side of caution when giving reds or pens against the biggest teams. Other sides don't get that benefit of the doubt. That red card stat the Chronicle mentioned is insane: we haven't had a red against us in the PL for 5 years now? Had 17 reds against us in that time. I'm sure we're not the only ones.

And the players never miss a tackle, never misplace a pass, never fail to make a save, fans never see it incorrectly... Great comparison. That’s part of football. Happens every game. Refereeing decisions like that have no part. They have a part. Atleast in the world we live and have lived so far. If you want every decision to be 100% correct the whole game of football will be something completely different. The referee’s job isn’t to have a bearing on the outcome of a match. It’s to call what happens between the two teams. You can have all the misplaced passes, poor shots, bad quality football you like, the referee had a fairly simple call there to give a penalty. Yes and he made a mistake, that happens and has always happened. If you want to take human error out of it completely then you need VAR. I'm not sure what your point is. I was answering to Stifler who said VAR wont change anything and referees make mistakes just because they are horribly trained or something. VAR won't take human error out of it, as we saw with the world cup and particularly the final. It's just another human ref making decisions but with a video. It might reduce the error frequency though and catch a few of the most shocking decisions.

Busy but ineffective as would’ve been predicted. Workrate put others to shame though. Yeah that's a fair analysis. Hopefully just rusty. I fear another Joselu situation where he has no outstanding attribute but at least he has a turn of pace and is a willing runner.

Bit surprised at how suddenly gutted people are. We never try in the cups under Ashley, and successive managers know they don't have the squad to give it a go. We're always on the cusp of relegation or promotion. A couple of key injuries would relegate us.

Only one team looked interested. Rafa's a pragmatist and while I'm sure he wanted a first win of the season, he knows we don't have the squad to fight on two or three fronts. Kenedy though was another level. Couldn't even go through the motions. Considering Rafa's history with players like Mbemba and Mitrovic, I wouldn't be surprised to see him dropped from the squad.

Yedlin's average but class in comparison to Manquillo. Teams will target him.

Little bit more than what? Sounds like he'd had a few.

Who says he’s doing this? The club allegedly owe him 140+ million, all we know (allegedly) is what’s disclosed in the end of year accounts, we have no idea what happens in real time between NUFC and Mash holdings. He could quite easily be withdrawing club funds as he needs them, everyone but Justin Barnes, Keith Bishop and Lee Charnley of course are left scratching their heads. Both the club and his holding company are privately owned so it’s not held to the same scrutiny as a PLC. He can take money out in dividends if the club is making a profit. He has never done this. He can repay his loan but from my understanding he hasn't done this either. I hate Ashley as much as the next man but all this bullshit about people saying he is pulling money out of the club is utter bollocks. He might not be pulling it out, but fuck knows where it's going, because there's no way it's been spent on the squad. Presumably it's just disappearing.

Suspect it's just negotiation tactics. They know we need the cash (well we wouldn't, but with Ashley pocketing club money then we do), and they know he fits their system.

Spot on. A lot of the 'deluded jawdees' shite spun by London journos came out at the same time as the 'fat cockney bastard' banners and chants.

If Rafa does leave then a boycott would make more sense but I think the time for that was 5 or 10 years ago, before TV revenue rendered matchday ticket revenue less important to owners. I'm not sure how much impact it would have now. I agree with others that somehow directly affecting Sports Direct would be the only way. He's using the club for free advertising and doesn't care about long-term damage to the club but if the relationship somehow became damaging to his main business interests, he might consider it more trouble than it's worth and lower his asking price. As it stands I don't believe he's actively trying to sell. We know the club is officially "for sale" if he gets a silly offer but most things are for sale in that sense. With each passing window of under-investment (or no investment), his asking price represents a bigger rip-off to potential buyers because of the growing investment required in the team. If he was really pushing for a sale, he'd price the club appropriately.

If it did, it only ruined the final for you due to your pre-existing ideas about the concept of VAR - as it did nothing bad tonight. The first goal was from a free kick awarded from a clear dive. It's not in VAR's remit currently but it seems so wrong, considering we all (including VAR refs) saw it on replays within 5 seconds It's tough cause if VAR call that, they're basically becoming the ref and will have to call out all dives or wrong free kick decisions. A goal came directly from it though, so it'd be good if something could be done about that type of situation in future. Fuck knas what, like edit: maybe they could be given power to inform the ref of any clear dive (if he wrongly gave a free kick).. anywhere on the pitch Don't see how it's not within VAR's remit. It's a clear infringement (simulation) leading to a goal. Should have been flagged up and disallowed. Had it not led to a goal then it wouldn't fall within their remit but it surely does in this case as it's specifically designed for errors leading to goals, red cards, mistaken identity and pens. If an unfair free kick doesn't lead to a goal then they couldn't do anything about it so I see your second point. I guess they will have to wait and see if it goes in or not, or change how they use it. But then you have issues of how far back in play you go. What if a team gets a throw in but the ball skimmed off the defending team and it should have gone the other way. Then like 30 seconds after the throw is taken they score. If the throw was given correctly the goal wouldn't have happened. After the celebrations, the ref's like "oh hold on, we're checking a throw in from 2 mins ago" You need to leave the refs on the pitch to make some decisions That's a fair point and I agree it needs to be cleared up. In this instance though, the goal was scored literally two touches of a ball after Griezmann's dive. He puts a cross in and it's in the back of the net. Whatever time frame or wording they eventually agree on, this surely qualifies for a VAR review. Keith Hackett, an ex Premier League ref, wrote an interesting piece discussing this. He's criticised both the decisions and feels VAR should have been used for the Griezmann incident: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/2018/07/15/decisions-world-cup-final-showed-vars-fatal-flaw-on-field-referee/

If it did, it only ruined the final for you due to your pre-existing ideas about the concept of VAR - as it did nothing bad tonight. The first goal was from a free kick awarded from a clear dive. It's not in VAR's remit currently but it seems so wrong, considering we all (including VAR refs) saw it on replays within 5 seconds It's tough cause if VAR call that, they're basically becoming the ref and will have to call out all dives or wrong free kick decisions. A goal came directly from it though, so it'd be good if something could be done about that type of situation in future. Fuck knas what, like edit: maybe they could be given power to inform the ref of any clear dive (if he wrongly gave a free kick).. anywhere on the pitch Don't see how it's not within VAR's remit. It's a clear infringement (simulation) leading to a goal. Should have been flagged up and disallowed. Had it not led to a goal then it wouldn't fall within their remit but it surely does in this case as it's specifically designed for errors leading to goals, red cards, mistaken identity and pens. If an unfair free kick doesn't lead to a goal then they couldn't do anything about it so I see your second point. I guess they will have to wait and see if it goes in or not, or change how they use it.

Rio Ferdinand doesn't think so. I agree those past failings have been mainly down to awful management, hence why I gave Southgate credit. However, the obvious truth is, your opposition or obstacles are the teams/players contesting you; not the past. I still think the jury is out on this current crop of players (Southgate too). Out of interest, which international teams do you think the jury is not out on?

Great goals by Pogba and Mbappe and they certainly know how to close games out but the ref has ultimately been the difference and both decisions look dodgy to me on the replays. It's sort of spoiled the final to be honest and what has been a class tournament. I'm all for VAR once it's ready but it's been a mixed bag and had a decisive and controversial say in the final.

Ref could be man of the match here.

Embarrassing from Neymar.

Looked good a few years back but seems to have lost all form. If Rafa can get him back to his best (a la Diame) then he could be an inspired signing. Looks like he'd be more suited to a midfield 3 - not sure I'd want him in a 2 with Shelvey because he's pretty slow. He has talent, bags of PL experience to bring to a young squad and has been a captain for Korea. A small risk and could be shrewd business considering our usual pathetic transfer budget.