Elma

If it were truly that I'd agree. There's no way Ashley or any buyer should be holding up negotiations based on needing one point from five games, one of which is at home to WBA. Anyone with 37 is definitely staying up and 35 should have enough.

Although a Southampton loss would officially make us safe, the relegation ship has sailed and there's no chance we're going down. If Ashley is hanging on for absolute certainty before selling the club then he's got a screw loose (actually we know that). Southampton win please (although I still want them down with Stoke and WBA to make it, on paper at least, an easier league to navigate next year). Shocking to think that the three most likely to drop finished in 8th, 10th and 13th last year on 46, 45 and 44 points respectively.

I take your point, but the numbers of goals it would actually rule out would be tiny, around 2-3%. Once you got used to it goals would still be celebrated. Another option is of course to give each team one or two VAR challenges a game and not allow the VAR ref to intercede unless a challenge is raised. That would cover the real injustices, although on the flip side you could see teams using them tactically like substitutions to disrupt play. Maybe one each would be sufficient?

I'd only call handball when it's a hand that puts it in the net and missed by the ref, so that only leaves offsides. For me it would be any pass in the phase of play leading up to the goal, bearing in mind I'd only call obvious offsides. Anything where it is a foot here or a knee there then it goes with the onfield decision. However, in saying that, if the powers that be declared it to be the final ball only and the goalscorer themselves has to be obviously off to recall it, I'd go with that. As long as it is consistent. What they are trying to do is remove every mistake which isn't feasible.

Am up for VAR, but it is being applied in the wrong way. It should only be used on goals and when penalties are given, or for cases of mistaken identity on red cards. If a penalty isn't given on the field then tough. That's the ref's call and he shouldn't be allowed to go to VAR to help him. When a goal is scored, the VAR ref should immediately it review it for obvious offsides, handballs etc, and communicate back if there is any reason to disallow it. If the offside is tight then let it go. The rule even allows for that. I would expect Aguero's header against us a couple of years ago to be disallowed for example as it was clearly off. Watford's equaliser against Southampton this year would have been cancelled out too (for handball). You'll get fans celebrating goals which are overturned but it will be a couple a season and I think it's more important to get the decision right where a significant error has occurred. Each review would therefore take place in a natural break in play, but they do need to rethink the speed of review and comms with the fans during the review.

https://www.footballgroundmap.com/n16bdgr The Nou Camp has recently taken me to 55. Some gaps in my UK grounds, particularly the new ones. Been to Filbert Street but not the King Power. Been to Plough Lane, but not Kingsmeadow. Been to Gay Meadow, but not New Meadow. Been to Roker Park but not the SoL. Should really get some more Spanish and Turkish ones on the board.

bolton to beat barnsley. then only need a birmingham win, and a mackem loss to take to goal difference at best. Whatever the Barnsley v Bolton result fourth bottom will be on at least 40 points. A mackem loss to Reading will mean a gap of seven points and I really don't see them getting anything at Fulham while Fulham need points for automatic promotion.

The way they do business they would have to spend at least £150m before they would have £75m worth of players to sell.

£4m squad bonus to stay up, £1m per position above 17th. That still blows my fucking mind considering each place is only worth £1.5m or less as it is Think it's more like 2 million a place this year. So effectively for every place above 17th it's a million to the players pot, a million to the club. With 16 TV games 10th should bank us £125 million total pot, with £18 million going to the players. https://www.totalsportek.com/money/premier-league-prize-money/ 50% just seems high to me but I guess it's par for the course. £18m is a lot of money to split between what ~25 players on top of their wages. Good luck to them mind. Hopefully agreeing to that deal should see the back of Charnley! I guess he didn't expect such a high finishing position to be possible. At least this bunch have earned a bonus I guess.

£4m squad bonus to stay up, £1m per position above 17th. That still blows my fucking mind considering each place is only worth £1.5m or less as it is Think it's more like 2 million a place this year. So effectively for every place above 17th it's a million to the players pot, a million to the club. With 16 TV games 10th should bank us £125 million total pot, with £18 million going to the players. https://www.totalsportek.com/money/premier-league-prize-money/

We're flying. Fancy at least a draw against Arsenal (although wish they had to put out a competitive side in Moscow on Thursday) and we should give Watford a game. No reason we can't get to the mid-40's at least. Went 7.

I'm prepared to take a chance on them. They come across as professional and if the rumours of them bidding £1 billion for Liverpool are correct, then they have access to funds. In ten years, Ashley has shown that he doesn't understand the football business. For a gambler his unwillingness to speculate to accumulate has been surprising. I'm hoping to see the end of business decisions such as; failing to understand the importance of a good manager (present incumbent excluded), failure to fully capitalise on potential revenue streams, hiring unqualified 'yes men' into key positions, failure to invest even modest amounts at key points in time (which could have significantly improved performance and associated prize money). Make no mistake, PCP are in it to make money. However, that means staying in the Prem and who knows, they may just feel they can get into the further riches of the Champions League? Simply put, I'm hoping for a well run business, with qualified people in the correct positions, and a sensible amount of investment to allow the club to maximise it's potential, whilst not over-committing. That's an improvement over Ashley and anything more than that is a bonus.

Oh my giddy aunt. Didn't think this could get any better after Murphy scoring against them.

Looking at the 3pm kick offs we look to be the most attractive game next week. The last 3pm one I had was West Ham.

Yeah, I just thought that there was a preferred/primary game. I guess it's just up to the individual overseas broadcaster as to which they choose? I know other countries broadcast more than one and here in Turkey they occasionally use additional channels to broadcast a second or third live game. Man City are always live here if they are playing at 3pm so it'll make a nice change for me anyway!

Watching Bournemouth v Chelsea on S Sport in Turkey and they are advertising Newcastle v Bournemouth as being live next week. Suggests it's the 3pm Saturday Live International broadcast.

Think I looked it up the other day. Although after only nine games, off the top of my head we had the 4th best defence (behind Man U, Man C and Spurs), and the 9th best attack. So not as bad as you would think. Agree though, can't see a Benitez side shipping four or five goals - there's me put the kybosh on it!

P19 W7 D6 L6. Averages out to 54 points. Upper mid-table at least. Three of those six defeats were in the first four games with someone else's demoralised team. Will be interesting to see how the stats stack up after we hit the more difficult fixtures in a couple of games time. We're currently 1-3-1 under Rafa against the top six.

In Prem games alone it's 20 goals in 19 games. That's half a season - projected to 40 goals conceded across a whole season. Bear in mind however that over half of the goals conceded (12) were with someone else's team and eight of those were in the first four games. In the subsequent 15 prem games we've only conceded 12 including Spurs (twice), Liverpool (twice) and Man City.

Agree with all that. I'd certainly be looking to dispose of any UK-based assets and get rid of sterling at the moment, that's for sure. I think he may feel he's lost control of the club to Rafa and that Rafa (backed properly) represents the best chance of success....plus of course, it's probably the perfect time to sell with the new TV deal coming up further inflating the price.

Didn't Fox pay $200 million to pip ESPN to the rights for Russia 2018?

Absolutely no blame from me for the goal. Perhaps a keeper with an excellent reach like Forster might have got a hand on it but I can't blame Elliot for that. Like most of the current squad he's limited in ability but is trying 110% and has come on leaps and bounds (probably not the best metaphor where he is concerned) since he first arrived. No complaints here. Very few mistakes (which all keepers make over a season) and he does the basics right. Would prefer Reina for the fact that Rafa wants him and knows him well, but failing that, it's telling that Rafa trusts Elliot.

The main reason I (now) think we'll stay up this season is Rafa's coaching and organisation. We don't have a vastly different squad now to that which was relegated, but the reason we went down was McClaren and the time it took to replace him. Rafa's main attributes are his organisation and tactical ability, schooling players so they all know what their job is. He isn't likely to throw tea cups around and bully performance out of players. With that in mind, he was arguably the wrong manager to give ten critical games to, although I don't regret that for one moment. The only regret is that the muppets in charge didn't give him at least two more games to at least give him more of a chance. The only possible criticism of Rafa from me would be too much negativity in the way we set up away at Villa. After facing three away games (we had no idea how to handle away games at the time) and one home game in the first four (that was a derby), he then sorted them out and took 12 points from 6 games, scoring 12 and conceding 4, remaining unbeaten. The current team isn't vastly different from that which finished that season, and most of them have now had 18 months playing in Rafa's system. Less games also means more time for preparation this season and hopefully, seeing as our squad isn't too deep in some areas, less injuries. Going out of the league cup may help, especially since we would have been away at Chelsea next round anyway. I just hope we now give the FA Cup a good go as there is no reason not to. I'm not suggesting we're going to average two points a game, but 1.2-1.25 per game would appear within reach, a total that would have brought a top half finish last season.

One of the great things about Merino is that he's keeping Shelvey out of the team. I was furious that Shelvey cost us at least a point in the important opening game and hopefully Merino's form is giving him further cause to reconsider his actions. We need players like Merino and Hayden who display controlled agression, and who can follow Rafa's instructions without being a liability. Same goes for Mitro as for Shelvey.

Am a big fan of Eddie Howe but Bournemouth look to have gone backwards. That goal was coming.