Yorkie

We don't want Brentford to win, lads

Raya with one of the saves of the season there

The Conference League is only a six-game group stage (because it's aimed at teams without the resources of those in the PL); and would pit us against the likes of Hamrun Spartans and Shkendija, with theoretically tougher ties against the likes of AEK Athens and Sparta Prague. I'm not sure there's any experience to be gleaned from featuring in that tournament that could be applied to a Champions League campaign.

That first clip was about ten minutes into my first ever SJP experience.

The lad's an absolute scruff on the pitch and off it. souness.jpg

Well firstly, the 'best options from overseas' isn't a market which is available to us either, certainly not in terms of strikers (hence Woltemade instead of Ekitike). You're saying there's two categories of players we could target: A; 'best of the rest' PL players, who have already proven themselves in this league, and B; 'best of the rest' overseas players, who haven't proved a thing in this league. I don't know how category A is the worst strategic option there. It's a bit of a moot point anyway because we shopped in both markets last summer; which seems to get forgotten about when folks have got tunnel vision re their PrEmIeR lEaGuE pRoVeN jibe.

It's obvious. It's what those clubs do - they go and get the best PL players on the market. We tried to behave like that but it's impossible because PSR funnels those players to the chosen few. So we got the 'next best' PL players on the market; i.e. Wissa, Elanga, Ramsey as opposed to Pedro, Mbeumo, Eze. It's a pity the players haven't performed but anyone knocking the strategy isn't cutting the club though slack imo.

Hopefully they stay up but beneath WHU, and Brighton or Spurs drop.

Can't remember the Viduka aspect but it was definitely the one where we halted the Milner switch. He signed for them two years later and we did fuck all with the funds, sending KK ballistic. 2006 was the summer we were continuously linked with Kuyt.

We'll just score for them.

Hartlepool equalise against York in the 97th minute to make it 2-2, only for York to seal it with a 103rd minute penalty. Oof. For the second season running it looks like the Minstermen are going to finish second, comfortably away from 1st but miles ahead of 3rd. 81 goals so far, still the highest of anyone in the top five divisions; Coventry are next with 63. Absolute goal machines.

If there's a version where it's so instantaneous that you don't have the frustration of watching a player go on and score, only for it to be chalked off for a non-offence, I could probably stomach it. Ultimately the most frustrating thing about it all is how it neuters goal celebrations, so if that was eradicated I could live with it.

I agree with you. They're trying to be as accurate as humanly possible. But I'm saying that - due to the limitations of the human eye - we can only reasonably expect linesmen to spot offsides where the attacker is clearly beyond the defender. Ergo, giving the job to a linesman is the best way to ensure that only the truly unfairly advantages offsides are flagged. Giving it to VAR ensures that every single 'offside' is flagged - whether they're impacting the game or not.

Interesting. Widening the cushion for stricken established PL teams, or widening the door for ambitious established EFL teams?

The thing is, the first bullet point on a linesman's job description isn't to 'spot unfair advantages.' The first bullet point is to spot incidents where an attacker is ahead of the last defender. And if they - with a human eye, 30 yards away - have spotted such an incident, the chances are it's because the attacker is far enough ahead for it to A; be visible to the naked eye and B; be considered an unfair advantage. There's an acceptable margin for error there, imo. But applying the rule at the atomic scale unnecessarily removes that margin for error and, in turn, applies too draconian a stance on how an attacker can behave. At the cost of all the things listed numerous times.

That's where we differ because personally I don't really accept that and believe it's only true - in that most binary sense - in a VAR world. And video games. I won't use last night's as an example because it's so contentious, but the one I always go back to is Schär vs Brighton in the cup last season. Offside in the VAR world but not the real one imo. If the lino calls it on his own, you begrudgingly accept it because technically he isn't wrong, but in all likelihood he doesn't spot it because it's so fine and so inconsequential, and no one complains.

Relieved to see someone else say this. There's fewer people in life I have less time for than the "there's got to be a line somewhere" offside pervs.

Murphy has got dogmeat for brains, like. Watch Allardyce on any of the podcasts he appears on now and you can see the bloke belongs in slippers in front of daytime TV.

Totally. If we weren't so few points off the European places I'd be saying that the season is all about damage limitation from here tbh, because all of our issues remain despite winning last night: a dysfunctional squad which is mentally fragile; and an unrelenting schedule which is impacting our ability to perform and stay fit. Not doom-mongering, because I don't feel either result will be the end of the world given the context, but I think we probably will lose our next two (especially if Bruno is missing). But after that it's the Champions League knockouts and enticing home games against Everton and Man Utd. You'd expect the pressure valve to be released again among those fixtures. As you say, it's going to be up-and-down, and I think - if we're being honest - the season was always destined to be given the summer and the early injuries. Just got to hope people hold their nerve when it feels dicey again, and accept we're probably going to limp our way to ~50 points.

I could live happily in a world where VAR was limited to the following incidents: -- upgrading/downgrading red card offences based on 'serious foul play' -- reversing unjust penalty calls And absolutely nothing else.

VAR is humans

Looks and sounds absolutely buggered. Had a dose of what the rest of us have had by the looks of it.

What, independently of VAR? The offside rule is absolutely perfect the way it is. Like almost everything in football, it wasn't designed to be applied with atomic precision. Two utterly abhorrent disallowed goals tonight in our game and the WHU/MU one. Absolutely beyond me how people think this is good for the game.

I love the Conference League as a neutral and would like to keep it that way. For a Premier League team not to win that tournament - especially now, without even the Europa dropouts - would be shameful frankly. There's no magic in winning something like that. Garang Kuol's team finished 4th in that league phase.