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Edited my previous post a bit, which partially answers your question. Couldn't go back to what? No VAR? We easily could. Alternatively a competitor association might come along one day, though a different game altogether feels more likely. Extrapolating things out over decades and decades, I can see association football becoming an increasingly niche, boutique sport which is increasingly dependent on old legacy customers spending ever larger amounts of their disposable income on it. Like modern professional wrestling. Think back to the Spurs-Chelsea match - what on earth would a 9 year old think of that? Over time they'll switch off.

I think that's his point. Something that didn't used to be the end of the world is now catastrophised in the stressed out pursuit of an unobtainable perfection. And yet before this, when it "didn't function well", football had spent 150 years rising from an intra-village bun fight into the most popular, financially valuable sport in the world. On the current trajectory, there will never be a moment where the game's major players say "that's enough accuracy thanks - big money's riding on this game but it doesn't really matter".

I think there's a possibility that some of the injuries will be down to him and the style he has the players play. Not all players will be physically up to it, maybe including top ones like Isak. BUT I'd say that's about cost-benefit analysis i.e. would players like Almiron have us anywhere near top 4 without it this approach? Uninjured and solid midtable isn't an improvement. So for the next couple of seasons it's about getting the most out of the players we have, and frequently that will involve having players who are not both incredibly talented and super athletes. You only get a full squad of those when you're at the tippy top level for a long period of time.

In my heart of hearts, I don't really take this talk too seriously. But it's why I think any sign of dissent is very significant and we need to be as overt and consistent in our support as possible. It's as though some people have no idea how quickly the wheels can come off.

That's the key, unfortunately. It's a cultural problem. People are actually asking for the game to be like this, whether they realise it or not.

I think that decision, in terms of accuracy, speed and conscientiousness is possibly the best VAR I've ever seen. You could not ask any more of the people involved. Which is a bad sign because it still made things a shit experience.

Yes, this is a fair point and one I should've mentioned. My worry is that the advice is about not incriminating himself regarding his contract with us. Given he's already admitted it and been sentenced for his Italian offences, I wouldn't have thought there'd be a major issue, but I could be wrong. If he his bound legally, the club could do him a favour and issue a statement to that effect, though.

Questions are certainly fair. Always knew this season was going to be a big ask and, presumably, a learning process for Eddie as well as the players. One of the big questions is whether we should, or even can, continue with our all action pressing approach for every single match. The advantage that certain other teams over us when taking this approach i.e. Liverpool is they have much greater quality in their depth - not only in terms of their B team, but their academy when shit really hits the fan as it has here. Being able to call up a player who A) is probably going to be Premier League quality eventually and B) has been schooled in your mentality since they were 8 is a big advantage over one who joined Mike Ashley's academy because he wasn't good enough for Sunderland and B) will probably finish his career at South Shields. Once we get ours up to speed, which will take years, that will help us be more adventurous.

He's properly fucked us. I'd be painfully embarrassed if I'd done something like this and would be wanting to say something to the people who, surprisingly, aren't calling for his blood and have instead offered support. I'm not a big one for apologies, but even the guy Trippier was rowing with put his head above the parapet. It suggests a lack of character on his part, unfortunately - either in terms of awareness or bravery.

I mean, to return to what caused all this, would it be good to ban all the people debating the merits of 'from the river to the sea' in the Israel/Palestine thread from the ground? Because suddenly that sounds like a plausible event. This is an NUFC relevant conversation.

By this token no men should be barred from women's toilets? Incidentally, a game is being played that they're hard to spot here. The idea that you just can't tell without a full anatomical examination is preposterous.

Just sounds like a daft lad trying to defend his club from gentrification. It didn't sound that bad to me.

He does. Let's hope he agrees.

If you don't see how this could turn out badly, and don't see the context around those actions, this is a you thing. It's astonishingly offensive to be giving the players, and Trippier out of all of them, shit about their first bad performance in arguably years when they're blatantly out on their feet BECAUSE they've worked so hard and keep winning games which keep us in all these competitions without anything like the squad to properly cope with it. If not, it sounds like they should've been savvy and thrown the Man City league cup match for a quiet life. Fuck the 'silverware dreaming' fans hopes, eh? I appreciate the guy coming out publicly afterwards and holding his hands up - a direct apology would be a good move - but at the time what he needed was a solid right hook.

Oh definitely, I detest VAR. But there are definitely some people who think that is the direction football should go in - accuracy ahead of fun. Postecoglou sounded like an out of touch dinosaur after the match, talking about getting on with life without complaining too much, and I loved him for it. (Note: I don't actually know the details of the Spurs match but I'm under the impression most of the interventions were correct, it was just the quantity that was shocking).

“I missed a meeting in a hotel, I came down, some of the players were tutting. Keegan said, ‘If you are ever late again, I will pull your gold tooth out and you are going to go sell that. You will never have a contract, I will fine you your wages — this is your last time’. I was like, ‘F***ing hell’. I was shitting it."

It would be a bit easier to think that if he didn't have a track record for it. There's probably been about 5 other wild red cards he's totally avoided somehow over the past year.

As someone who stepped away from football for 10 years, I can confirm it was never this bad in the past. Sometimes, yes, but it was the exception, not the norm. Now it feels weird when there isn't steaming controversy. Tempted to blame VAR but I think you have to factor in cultural, economic and technological (i.e. social media) changes as well.

He's done it before with him, which as you say is relatively unusual for Howe. Putting 2 and 2 together, he's wanting a bit more from him. V early days of course...

I was impressed by him overall to be fair. Need to see the Hall yellow replay again, but it looked like he got conned on that one, but the first time I saw it I thought it was a foul too. Can't expect perfection when people are out to trick you.

I see you've been studying at the feet of Ten Hag.

Last couple of minutes of that are a good laugh. Very professionally handled, Fabian

Was just about to say, I'm not gonna to rewrite history, but it even makes you wonder about players like Titus Bramble - a player who could look top class for 89 minutes and still give two goals away.

Yes, this is fair enough. I've argued previously that their wages should be massively bumped.

He literally skims it. Seems to drag Longstaff's shinpad and sock away as his first foot goes through. Maybe missed his skin due to the lack of blood but you're talking millimetres difference from slicing him open or worse.