Taylor Swift

I agree with this to an extent. I can see the argument that if Barca play Madrid ten times a year that it would dilute the importance of each match and dilute the product. It’s the only argument that makes sense, but it’s an argument against the super league concept, it’s not an argument against limiting non-competitive matches in the champions league group stages.

Is it unfair today that England gets 4 teams and Denmark gets 1? From what everyone is saying, it’s grossly unfair. We should reduce English teams to 1 or 2, and give more places to teams from Denmark, Ukraine and Romania. Teams from those countries should be allowed to compete. No? We should let the champions of Finland, Moldova and Albania automatic entry into the group stages. Because they deserve to compete. Never mind that they have no chance of qualification.

UEFA already limit things through the coefficients system and multiple rounds of qualification which the biggest teams are exempted from. This idea is just furthering something that they’re already doing.

For who? Ratings are always highest when it’s the biggest teams playing each other. Ratings are highest in any sport, any competition when the best teams play each other. Football is competing against other sports for TV time and thus for money.

Because the average fan doesn’t tune in to these matches. These clubs are gifted money that they’re not earning. It’s like if the NBA decided to include European teams who regularly get crushed. What’s the point? People tune in when things get competitive. Smaller clubs that don’t have any money are not competitive. It’s reality. Why deny it? Reduce the teams so matches are more competitive. More people will watch because the product is better.

The source of the problem is that the CL has too many teams and the group stages are mostly a foregone conclusion. It would be better if the best teams played each other more often, I think all fans would agree. It would also be better if we didn’t have a bunch of one-sided matches between Real/Barca/PSG and some Eastern European team. The logical solution is to reduce teams, particularly Eastern European teams that are never competitive. And then fill the gap with more matches between the best teams. UEFA need to accept this compromise. Why risk the entire system just to include teams from Romania and Ukraine?

Pep pep pep why oh why pep

How does Bartomeu still have a job?

How is the PIF more toxic than Ashley? The PIF is not owned by the Saudi royal family. It's nominally owned by all Saudis. No one would be crying if Temasek bought us.

I bet Rafa could get out from his contract without too much trouble. There’s no chance the Chinese will allow football to be played any time soon and the team paying him what, £1m a month, won’t be too sad about him leaving.

Saudi PIF are nominally a publicly-owned institution since it functions as a sovereign-wealth fund. Don't see what this has anything to do with MBS since MBS doesn't own the PIF. They'll be nominating someone else to sit on the board, anyway.

The only party that benefits from these perpetual leaks is Ashley. The fans get excited, people stop focusing on the shit that's on the field, and it entices anyone remotely interested to get involved in the bidding. These reports of him being angry about the leaks is laughable as Bishop is the one who's been leaking it for him.

Longstaff's set pieces are atrocious. Does he even practice them?

Yeah, City ripped them open on so many occasions. Liverpool were lucky to concede only 1. They've been lucky in many matches this year, but 9 points is a huge gap. It would suck so much if they won.

Mitrovic is better. Joelinton would have been a good partner for Rondon. He has a good touch, moves well. Leading the line is not his game right now.

The best part about how thin our squad is right now is that there's really nobody he can sell for a profit. Maybe Almiron. No one is paying 40m for Joelinton. If ASM is injured all season, we'll be lucky to recoup what was spent. Longstaff might go, but in his current form he's not a premierleague player. Our good CBs like Fernandes and Schar will have 0 and 1 year left on their deals at the end of this season, Yedlin will have 1 year to go. This relegation will cost Ashley real money.

We made 30m on transfers last time we went down, but the club still lost money because of high wages. This time even if we make the same amount on transfers, it'll cost much more in wages. And if we don't come up the first season, he's going to have to pump in something like 100m to keep the same players. Either way, if we go down this time, it's going to cost him much more than it did last time. And if we don't come back up, it's going to cost him a shit load of money. Sincerely hoping this happens because I think this will be the only way he'll sell.

He's about to risk 50m for us to come straight back up. Hope he fails. This relegation might cost him 150-200m.

That was one of the clearest pens I've seen. It's crazy that VAR didn't give it. Kane's natural motion is to lean in, because as a striker you lean in to push the defender away and create space for a shot. If you see every striker in the penalty area, they lean in to their defender before pulling back for a shot.

That was a clear pen, jesus.

Finish, son

Suarez has gained too much weight though, so the age factor is being amplified by his slowness. I thought Sanchez would last longer as he wasn't only about pace.

The last time we got relegated, I was sad. This time I’m going to enjoy it. This will finally kill off Ashley’s investment as we aren’t going to come straight up.

Hazard is not really good enough to replace Ronaldo. If Hazard dedicated time towards getting his body right, he would be up there with Ronaldo and Messi. Another case of potential wasted, but obviously he's still achieved a lot.

Longstaff was terrible too; aimless passes, lack of awareness, no urgency in his play.