Exiled in Texas

Hotel in Atlanta booked Holding off on flights until tickets go on sale. Could have stayed in Texas and seen the mIghty Mackems in San Antonio

This is the issue. Fernandes foot to the head of Schar is a penalty, and so is this. This doesn’t help the PL when it comes to criticism of favoring the big teams. (See also Spurs trip on Brighton forward who should have had penalty)

Can’t put Hands on the referee

After the West Ham game …. Cannot ever recommend white seats in a stadium ?

Hand on the referee- yes that’s physical abuse

The 8 game thing is misleading it’s 3 games for Red Card (standard) 3 games for physically manhandling referee (about right - could be more) And 2 games for verbal abuse (Seems fair) I don’t see anything excessive there … I can see why they are pushing for more games (probably for the physical abuse).

I, sort-of, understand the Chelsea sacking. I think it mirrors the Bayern Munich sacking of Nagelsman, where they are not sure that they want to do it, but they are afraid to let their target replacement get taken from them. While Tuchel was available (but not in demand) Bayern had options and the chance to see how things went, but as soon as Tottenham needed a new manager, suddenly Bayern had to act or risk loosing the chance to hire Tuchel. Same for Chelsea, sticking with Potter as nothing better out there, but once Nagelsman became available, they had to act on Potter or risk Nagelsman going to Spurs and leaving them without a choice.

And fans are completely biased to their team. consider how you feel about the referee when you win or lose, and then compare that to how you feel when watching a neutral game. Guaranteed that if fans rated the referee after a game - winning team would be positive, the losing team would be negative. And the neutrals would be in the middle. im convinced this is why we rate overseas referees highly but don’t like the domestic refs. (We have less connection to any specific team in overseas leagues)

The ban is important as it sends a message that this will not be tolerated. Agree that the Fernandez shove should also have been addressed. if you leave this unpunished then it will continue to filter down into grass roots football. Youth, Sunday league etc will copy as its “OK to do this”. I stopped refereeing (doing competitive youth games) because it wasn’t worth the verbal abuse any more.

Yeah, but no. But Six-in-a-Row.

Potter had to take the Chelsea job when it was offered. If he said no, then he’s tagged as being afraid of a big club and doesn’t get offered anything else big. But he’ll take his payoff and move on, with the Chelsea sacking as “Well, it’s Chelsea” and not much damage done to his rep.

That’s a YES from me purely for the Gallowgate doing a Bad Manners style Ansu Fati Lip Up Fatti pogo when he scores

I don't agree with requiring referees be available to explain their decisions to TV as it just opens them up to discussion (i.e. Abuse) from those who don't like the decisions. But I would love to see the PGMOL publish a response/Confirmation to all VAR decisions with the reason for the decision. Whether we agree with their decision (i.e. was the Forest defender making an intentional play or not) at least we know why the decided. This should be a "press release" type of publication that is send out with a formal reference to the LOTG and the interpretation of the situation and how it was applied to the laws. And perhaps this would encourage more "Yeah, we got it wrong, but can use this to educate for the future" opportunities. I'd like to think that this is happening behind the scenes, but not sure it is, and would love to see this encouraged. I would also love to see/hear the referee-to-VAR discussion broadcast to the TV. It works very well in Rugby and I think that knowing that the discussion, and the decision process, is being recorded and published makes the decision process more thorough. Would the Referee / VAR Ref have said (knowing it was going to the TV) that Forest defender was not making an intentional play during a process that is publicly aired? I think it would force a clearer decision process. I would also like the see the Referees ask "did you show me ALL the views" so that the VAR has to confirm that they didn't keep any back. Filtering out the "you didn't need to see that" views does not help the referee.

Still a niche sport in the US but Netflix’s Drive To Survive has introduced a lot more people to F1 and got them watching

Set the bar for all future final - that was amazjng. You could tell the TV producers were loving the display, and that they were desperate not to be one-sided but only finding a few Manx scarves twirling to show so back to the amazing Wor Flags

Loan him to Forrest - he scores winner against Man Utd in Semi and then sits out the final against Newcastle and we win !!

Grew up in Cornwall in a non-football family in 70/80s so no allegiance to any team. Went to college in Durham and then worked in Newcastle in late 80s for two awesome years. I lived on the Westgate Road and worked nights in Sergeant Peppers, so had to walk past the ground to get to the pub, and always heard the game playing on Saturday’s as I walked past. Didn’t get too many Newcastle games but , my best friend was a Sunderland fan so I went to all the away games at Roker Park with him and his mates ( incognito) including the Liam O’Brian Over The Wall game. Moved to London with pretty much only Ceefax available for Newcastle news then to Dallas TX where the internet had become a thing and I found this place. My dad called me excited to tell me that Newcastle had beaten Barcelona and I had to tell him that I already knew as had dialed up compuserve to check the score. I had become a Newcastle fan from living up there, but my love for the team really grew from NO and living vicariously through you all. THANK YOU for sharing the games and your Newcastle love with those of us in far away places.

BOL?? Help me out, I must have missed this one

Going out during the World Cup will give him such a great tribute. Really kinda fitting for him.

Understand your thinking Lion. Don’t disagree with your thoughts on the two incidents. But the Referee isn’t going to lock himself in to decisions that early. You say the players will change behavior but they won’t. So he is either inconsistent or awards a half dozen penalties and is thought to have “lost control” of the game. That’s why referees give the benefit on yellow cards in first 10 minutes. You’d like to have the utopia of “a foul in the 1st minute is the same as a foul in the 70th”. Or a foul in the center circle is a foul in the box, but we know that there is a different level of assessment at different times and different locations on the field. I think The referee should have given the Maguire incident a Penalty esp with video review to back it up. But I understand why he didn’t

Both were penalties. The problem with the Maguire rugby tackle was the timing… it was in the 3rd minute of the game and awarding a PK for that would have locked the referee into awarding more penalties for similar actions throughout the rest of the game. There was also enough player contact where the rugby tackle wasn’t the only thing that could have brought him down. it came back to bite him with the definite shirt pull that he couldn’t ignore. Had Maguires rugby tackle been in the second half of the game it would have been given

2 pts from last five games. Worst return of bottom 5 teams And you have to go up the table to 18-Bristol City/19-Blackpool to find worse form - and those teams are 4 points ahead 18 - Bristol City LLLDL 15pts 19 - Blackpool LLLDL 15pts 20 - Hull CIty LLLLW 14pts 21 - Middlesborough LDLWL 13pts ----------------------------------------- 22 - West Brom LDLLD 11pts 23 - Huddersfield LLWLD 8pts 24 - Coventry DDWDL 7pts What a fraud

Looks like a Top Gear challenge - driven from the 3rd deck

https://twitter.com/jonostrower/status/1565755461101502464?s=21&t=42WlYHzULRkhwcwqvwqRpg Possible new sponsor?? Edit - not sure how to get Twitter to directly link Saudi Arabia to launch new airline ‘RIA’ with $30bn war chest to rival Emirates

And from that day forth, not a single sugar puff was eaten on Drearyside. ?