Yorkie

That'll look mint imo. Basically an improved version of the last Castore away which had that rubbish pattern that looked different on every shirt.

The badge and the Noon latch look stupid but that's always gonna be the way now. I'm just a sucker for a green and white kit. Palmeiras. Assume it's white shorts/green socks @Shadow Puppets?

Class.

I'm not sure we're even disagreeing here.

Go on, Boca. Header assisted by a header is an underrated goal type.

Hard Boc Stadium more like!

Boca kicking Benfica off the park.

He can't bin off the smaller confederation teams for various reasons but mainly political ones. They'll get more bigger teams by just expanding it to 48 I imagine.

They could not give tens of millions to our competitors... Like I say, I'm relaxed about it. And I don't think we're necessarily a low priority. Just not the top one. To me it appears we're just one part of an overreaching vision to invest heavily in football at a global scale.

Suggesting NUFC isn't PIF's top priority doesn't mean I'm not happy with how they're running the club; it's just an observation. I don't think it's mad to suggest they're not wearing black and white goggles when they're bankrolling a £1billion tournament that we're not competing in. I'm quite comfortable with it, tbh. Rightly or wrongly, Saudi money being everywhere makes their involvement with us easier to stomach. Do wonder how things would've played out had they not hit the jackpot with Eddie Howe, but that's a concern for another day really.

If he has a great summer at this tournament I wouldn't be astonished to see him sold tbh.

Even the most pernicious and hollow version of this tournament (i.e. the one we're getting) is at the very least intriguing. It's a shame it has to be like this because if it was done the right way - surrounded by sensible decisions regarding the calendar and governance and allocation of prize money and everything else - it could be a fantastic thing to have. Palmeiras vs Porto? Yes fucking please.

to say the least. Feels like half the teams we want to compete with have more access to Saudi money than we do. Not that I give a shite. It's an Eddie Howe operation more than any other one imo.

Looked like quite an entertaining game TBF, as I'm sure many of them will be. Incredible performance from the Al-Ahly goalie.

Well they keep fucking beating us for one.

Starting to feel like there's a few feeder clubs within the PL these days.

Absolutely. He's totally flawed as a squad player because he takes a few 90 minutes to get up to speed and doesn't have the guile to impact a game off the bench. He'd be a brilliant signing for Leeds as he should start 38 games for them.

You could argue even longer when you consider the impact of Tonali et al in this most recent season. I don't think there's much of an argument in favour for last summer mind you; recruitment was objectively a failure but we got away with it. Selling Anderson/Minteh instead of Bruno or any other prized asset is in the positives column, but it wasn't good. But still you couldn't make that judgement until after the fact.

I'd say it's become a recurring theme since Saudi Arabia started investing in football to such an extent that it's happy to bail-out the global governing body to the tune of £1billion. Any pelters being directed at the Club World Cup are absolutely fair enough. It's the ultimate demonstration of football being used as a geopolitical tool to further the interests of those with existing wealth and power. I find it quite sad tbh because in theory I actually love the idea of a Club World Cup as a showcase event that's purely in the interests of football. It shouldn't be beyond the game to accommodate a version which is built on good intentions and is motivated by traditional sporting glory. It's just not possible with the way it's governed though, it would take too much collaboration between the various leaders. What we've got is a million miles from that; it's a Saudi-funded, Trump-endorsed Infantino vanity project, crammed into an already-overspilling calendar, where clubs are only competing due to financial fomo. Even for the smaller clubs, for whom the payday is incredible, the implications on their domestic leagues are incredibly uncertain.

how is judging a window after it's closed not the only sensible thing to do?

Not to mention soldiers!

I'm definitely making a conscious effort to not buy off DHGate etc for the simple reason that I've absolutely no idea what I'm funding. I've no proof of anything, but I'm uncomfortable enough to never do it (again). However, the prices for the real things are utterly scandalous (certainly at the time of release, anyway) and I theoretically would say power to anyone using the fake markets... if there weren't those troubling unknowns. It's a nightmare for consumers really. You're a mug if you're paying full whack but you're potentially funding criminality if you buy from cheaper sources. I don't really blame anyone for choosing to do either; however, if armies of people continue happily stumping up for the initial releases, nothing will change. I refrained from making an unsympathetic comment the other day when that CL badge peeled off whoever's shirt it was.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKzmaZjqInS/?igsh=YTc5ZTlyYWw3anZ5

Just got hitched to some smokeshow. What a year, son.

It's still on the edge of the city centre. The northern English cities just don't have meaningful green spaces in their urban centres in my experience. Leeds and Manchester in particular are God awful concrete jungles imo.