midds

I also think that in situations like today VAR have to take into account the way the referee has officiated the game from first whistle until they're called upon. The ref today was great imo, he looked like he was going to let the game flow and he would never have given the Burn challenge as a foul in the centre circle if they were contesting a goal kick, it would have been play on. For VAR to analyse it once it's gone in, lower the ref's bar for that particular incident and give a free kick (even though it wasn't in keeping with the ref's overall decisions for the first 70 minutes) is a massive flaw. I also think that more refs need to dig their heels in and disagree with the VAR more. If they think they've made a huge mistake then fine, change it. But if they look at it 13 times and are even thinking "nah, I think I got that right tbh" then they need to have the bottle to say so. they just look like subservient little wankers when they just robotically do as VAR suggest 100% of the time

6th is about as good as we can possibly even go for now, comes down to a little mini-league with us, Man U and West Ham. We've got the easiest run-in and the best goal difference, looking at West Ham - I genuinely think they'll fade, they've played a game more and still have Liverpool and City to play (plus another 3 London derbies plus European games) so I think we'll edge them. Man U still have Liverpool and Arsenal and 3 potentially tricky aways. Suppose Chelsea too but they're still flaky as fuck and still have 5 of the top 9 still to play - they do have games in hand though. To even have a chance at 6th or 7th given everything we've been through this season is great though. I often tend to dwell on the negatives at times but looking at what's left, rather than what's already gone, and European football is still very, very much on for us

Can't imagine that's one's going on Gordon's tinder profile

Classic case of VAR actively looking for something/anything in order to rule out what the ref thought was a non-foul. Maybe a little bit of paranoia on my behalf but any goals we score from here on in are going to be double checked for the slightest thing. Given the ref didn't give it at the time and was only forced to change his mind by VAR I think he did really well today actually

Raised the levels in the second and probably just about edged it overall. Rode our luck a little bit Dubravka didn't have too much to do in all honesty. I'll take a gritty, shit house, dirty and scrappy April win all day long though. No one will give a fuck how we got it but it wasn't exactly a classic

Reminds me of Brentford away last season. Ridiculously insipid and poor for the first half then we came out a different team after the break. We definitely need a bit of a reaction after that shit though, looked really really poor in terms of quality, inspiration and enthusiasm tbh

I need to see his reaction to the winner after that clip now

Teams eventually regress to the mean. Sometimes takes weeks, sometimes months but generally speaking they get found out and it levels out. They've been outperforming their stats for ages now and it might be time they fell back towards their norm

Potter would be perfect for them

Exactly. If they relax the sponsorship rules then there is no need to move stadium in order to raise revenue into the club. We've all been kicking the new stadium idea around thinking we had to do it in order to bring in the cash in order to allow us to compete but once that need goes then the idea of a new stadium doesn't seem quite so appealing

There are different teams for different needs

Find it mad that a referee ca just just decide 'yeah, I'm going to let things go tonight, I'll keep my card in my pocket unless it's ridiculously bad or whatever' on a Wednesday night then the very same bloke says 'I'll need to nip this in the bud early and book a few early here or it's going to kick off' a few days later. There's no consistency at all from the same referees ffs. Forget about different refs in different games, the same blokes just arbitrarily decide how strict they're going to be on the hoof depending on who's playing and how they're feeling on the day.

Totally agree. Even relaxing the rules on how much can be invested via sponsorship should be enough to allow us to essentially buy the players we want in order to challenge the top teams. Let's not forget that they too would be able to spend as much as they wanted, it's not like they're only investing pennies themselves either. If Arsenal's owners wanted to lash out £400m in a single window on 6 players then there would be nothing stopping them from doing so, the relaxation of the rules would apply to everyone. Bet players and their agents are rubbing their hands at the news

The PL have made a complete horse's arse of things recently. They've effectively painted themselves into a corner with regards to City's charges and the delays it's causing, points deductions for 2 clubs, successful appeals and the threat of further legal action from Forest. They're in an utter mess and this may be the only way they manage to keep a semblance of face when deciding who gets relegated and how many pints they need to take from City if it even gets that far. This is basically an amnesty and possibly the only exit they've got as a way out of things. They've totally fucked it

It's sad that it's taken the Everton/Forest/Leicester farces to wake up the neutrals as to how ridiculous the PSR rules are. The criticisms made by Newcastle fans and many others have been valid and ignored by many until the shit has actually hit the fan. It's been laid bare just how unfit for purpose these restrictions have been and how they've been specifically geared towards preventing any challenge. It's now clear the rules need to be completely re-written in order to allow ambition AND support clubs from dodgy owners. It's not just about stamping our feet and wanting to spend billions immediately, it's got to protect clubs from shit owners using clubs as a cashpoint, there has to be that balance

Main problems I see with the East Stand are that it doesn't hold that many people and there's no corporate in there. Coming at this from a purely maximising income perspective btw. If we're all about money in the bank then it makes sense to completely rebuild the East stand to have boxes running along the entire length of it, that's the best view but we currently only have that in the Milburn which is a blocker. Middle tier running from goal-line to goal-line on both sides would be better financially surely? Nothing to say you couldn't raise the height a little maybe, rake it up as much as possible so you have a tier of normals at the bottom but squeeze in a couple of rows of boxes at prime viewing level. Read that back to myself and it makes no sense but I know what I mean

Showing your age there Not many will get that one!

Foden is becoming one of those players you build a team around. He's not just part of it, he's the centre of it now.

Shame. Would sell like hot cakes

Adidas trefoil and California style would sell every shirt made tbh. I'd probably even try to get one myself. If it's real obviously.

Are Opta aware the training ground is basically the RVI atm?

There's plenty of things to have a pop at Spurs/Levy for but they raised a huge amount of money from shifting Berbatov, Modric and Bale. Sure it stung Spurs' fans at the time as much as us buying and subsequently selling Isak, Bruno and Gordon would for us. I don't know enough about their stadium finances and commercial stuff to get into in too deep but from a player trading pov they definitely bought and sold reasonably well

I think he falls into the same basket as Almiron. I appreciate the fact they work hard and are good lads but neither are even remotely good enough to be playing for a team that has ambitions of playing European football every year. I understand that we'll need a squad but offering nothing other than hard work just isn't good enough any longer. I don't hate them, I'll reserve hate for the likes of Owen, but they're just not good enough and need to be moved on asap. They're just largely ineffective bodies in the squad and not a million miles above Hendrick, Hayden, Fraser etc if I'm being brutally honest. Trying really hard just isn't enough, we've moved on

You ok mate?