Wullie

The personal abuse Ole is getting is totally unacceptable like. For shame.

This is so so so fucking funny.

This is so funny.

He claimed he'd needed a police escort home towards the end at Sunderland, and that they threw coins at him. It just wasn't as newsworthy so his blatant lies weren't as well reported.

Was just reminded of this display from Ajax when they played Man City.

In 30 years of watching football I can't remember once having seen a game suspended for a medical emergency in the crowd until last week, then today WBA vs Bristol City was suspended twice for two separate incidents.

The main point of a protest/demonstration is to be visible. A Premier League game against Newcastle with a worldwide television audience seems like a decent place for a protest against the Premier League and Newcastle's owners to me. I have to say, it's the one I'd choose if I were going to do it, vs the alternative of taking a day off and heading down to Premier League HQ with my phone, a Twitter account and a couple of mates, hoping Sky Sports will happen to wander past with a camera crew. At least that's still a better idea than "sending a stronger message" by putting a charity tin on the corner of the concourse bar.

"A collection for human rights"? How does that work then?

The 'booking for the player up against Sarr' comes in for about the fifth time this season at a massive 11/2. I need Kucka for £140.

Not bothering with cards at Chelsea, various combos on the Cardiff and Valencia games. Boro pick up cards at a ridiculous rate for an EFL team.

You've been done there, fully expected the card to come out.

I remember saying when Villa signed Ings that I wasn't sure it was the right move for them because they'd have to play both him and Watkins and therefore play a new system. It's not working for them at all with wing backs and two up top.

Betfair still offering 4/1 on Lacazette getting booked. 365 have him evens.

Obtained via loyalty points but yes, there is no legal way to watch the game anywhere.

No it's country-wide, between 14:45 and 17:15 on a Saturday. It's actually a UEFA rule that any country can enforce but only, I believe England, Scotland and Montenegro actually do it. This is basically because they're the only countries whose top divisions play at the same time as the lower divisions.

Other than their habit of conceding with the last kick of the game, they've really impressed me. I thought they were completely fucked this season with all the players they were losing, I don't think Vieira's getting enough credit for what he's done so far.

I don't think it was delayed as we got in late because it was so busy and missed the first goal.

Yeah that's absolutely spot on, can't believe that quote didn't occur to me. Jonathan Liew was on Second Captains last week, and he said something that really resonated with me: The really cynical view that Mike Ashley had of football fans as this pliant consumer base, he's been totally vindicated. He's gone and the Newcastle fans, who you'd like to think were vaguely engaged with the idea of Newcastle United as this local community club with values and a morality, independent of winning games or signing players, that's all been exposed as a bit of a sham.

I would absolutely still oppose it, and I would feel even worse about my fellow supporters than I do at the moment, which isn't great tbh. Their dogged financial support for Ashley is one of the things that made me so disconnected in the first place. Stop supporting the club? No, probably not based on that alone but I'd have to start again properly before I make that decision.

And that's a really shit decision they took. They got a load of money that they wasted every penny of, and for what? Everyone used to think "Mes que un club" was actually genuine, absolutely nobody thinks that now, it's a joke. Depends if that sort of thing, your club's identity as something more than just a business that funnels money to footballers, is important to you, for me it is.

Man United and Liverpool would never rename their ground. It's too precious to the supporters. Those clubs monetize fucking EVERYTHING but they won't touch the grounds. They'd have a riot on their hands (as they did with the Super League proposals). For us it seems like "yeah it's precious, but not as precious as £20m a year that could buy half a good midfielder" This attitude I'm seeing of money being the only thing that matters in any decisions the club makes is a bit grubby and it makes me uneasy. I've come to think some people would change the colours to Saudi Green if they thought it would get the club into the Champions League.

It's grim isn't it? I really hope we can win something quite quickly because I really don't like the way we're exposing ourselves as a fanbase who will really welcome absolutely anything in pursuit of a decent full back. Maybe getting a trophy in the cabinet will allow some people to reset their thinking a little bit (or maybe that's very naive). At least there is a sense at Man United and Liverpool amongst their fans that "We'll always be relatively successful so we don't necessarily have to love every shitty thing our owners are doing" What I've seen recently makes me think we'd have been the one group of fans absolutely buzzing about being invited into a Super League.

That's like paying to be the shirt sponsor but we'll only have the name of the company around the collar in tiny letters. Nobody pays serious money to have their name tagged onto the end so that TV presenters can easily still call it St James' Park. They want it there in a way that means it has to be said out loud as the primary name of the ground.

The idea that "everyone will still call it St James' Park" is completely deluded imo. Yes you will, and I will and people in Newcastle will, but the wider public won't. Kids in ten years time won't even know the name. These things stick really easily. If you put into Twitter the phrase "Call it Eastlands" you will see Man City fans from 2011 who were absolutely adamant that nobody would ever actually refer to it as The Etihad. Nobody ever believes that advertising actually works. Newsflash: it works.