Chris_R

Neither side of an argument can have any evidence about any future outcome of any topic without building a time machine. Everything is, by necessity, speculation.

That's not really what I was saying though. I wasn't talking about him turning Reading into what we were, more turning them into an upper Championship club who might have a pop at promotion occasionally, maybe even successfully. They'd go down again, for all the reasons you stated, but he could get them into a position to occasionally challenge promotion in the Championship, I'm sure of that. And for Reading fans, right now that's a dream scenario. Not every club's barometer of success or failure is the same. Suggesting Ashley would make Reading worse than they currently are is hubris and wishful thinking on our part, when he could sort out many of their problems with what is to him effectively pocket money. We were nothing but a cash cow for him. Reading could never be that in their current state, so he won't be buying them as such.

I've said before and stand by that Ashley won't make every team worse. He could take a team heading down from L1 and get them to the Championship easily just by throwing a bit of spare change at them, and he'd probably be willing to do that because he wants what's best for Mike Ashley and that would clearly tie in with keeping them up which could be done for what amounts to pocket change for him. The problem is he cannot improve a club the size of ours or indeed any established PL side, so he again does what's best for Mike Ashley and just drains all the money into his account whilst using us as an advertising hoarding. That won't work with Reading because in L1 there's nobody to advertise to. I despise him as much as anyone for what he did to us, but I think this notion that he'll automatically be terrible for whoever he owns is possibly a bit misconstrued/hopeful. He can basically at will turn any team he takes over into a lower PL / upper Championship side, you've just got to factor in that team's starting point to decide if that's a good thing or not. For some it'll be a dream and they'd rightly let him rename the stadium and plaster his tat all over the place if he provided that for them. If he ever took over a side like Everton or Villa I'd not stop lauging for a week mind.

I've thought about this a lot, and I actually think it's the opposite. He's been so desperate for an edge, he's been willing to gamble on his own team, presumably using inside information like knowing when players are fit etc despite knowing the consequences of this are massively greater than being found to have stuck £10 on the 3:30 at Goodwood. That's not the actions of a casual gambler, that's the actions of an addict or a desperate man. IMO, at least.

Yeah if someone was looking to treble my salary and give me a multi-million pound signing on fee, that's exactly what I'd have done. I'm sure you would have too.

I've had a similar argument on Twitter where someone said something to me along the lines of "How can you say you hate intolerance if you don't like racists or homophobes? HA!". Some things it's right to not tolerate.

"And considering gambling is banned in Saudi, along with being homosexual and women being allowed to drive" Not defending the Saudi state here, but Women have been able to drive there for a few years. So this isn't even accurate. Really is basic journalism to at least get the facts right that are widely known and available. I'd be embarrassed if I turned in such shoddy work to my employer.

Possession is meaningless on its own, it's what you do with it that counts. We had 27% Vs PSG. First half they did far more with the ball and most of our possession was in meaningless areas.

Ok I've not seen that as a general consensus. If it's individuals, maybe quote them because a generic post like yours seemed like it was aimed at the forum as a whole. Personally I think they've been excellent, but I wouldn't describe us as crap. Just outplayed so far by a team that's been better than us.

We've had a couple of chances but they've played us off the park at our own ground. We've been second best in every department. If you disagree and think we've been better anywhere, fair enough. But I think the stats will support that we haven't. BBC have us with 4 shots, 2 on target. They've had 10 with 5 on target. They've had more corners too. They've thoroughly outplayed us. There's no shame in saying that either, they're an excellent team, but we've been second best everywhere.

What the fuck is this? Nobody's complaining. We're just analysing the first half and trying to work out where w can be better.

They've schooled us first half. Hopefully we adapt second half because otherwise we get nothing from this. They've been so tight to everyone who has received the ball, given us no space to turn or time to play. Have faith in Eddie to sort it at half time though and see how we do playing downhill in the next 45 but that was a tough first half.

It shouldn't be. All religion is nonsense to me, and we should be comfortable saying that if we feel that way. However attacking specific religions is a bit different. As is mentioning specific nationalities as a whole group, ie Saudis as one people in a negative way. That shouldn't stop people criticising the actions of specific Saudi people though. That should be ok. You're attacking the individual, not the nationality. For me it's just about not discriminating unfairly.

When Bon Accord played Arbroath in 1885, nobody can deny they 'gave them a game'. The records show the match was played. Got beat 36-0 mind.

Yeah he can't be banned before his ban, that's just silly.

Even Man U fans were 90% in favour of it and at the time of that poll they'd just come off 27 years of almost continuous success. If PIF came along and promised Sunderland untold millions, CL football and more importantly a chance to permanently leave the mags for dust in their wake, they'd have wanked their nobs clean off in delight.

Singling you out a bit unfairly perhaps, but I find this and many other takes on the potential punishment to be really odd. Loads of people having an opinion on what should happen, what's reasonable etc when we know absolutely NOTHING about what he's actually done. I've chosen your post out of loads because I found the "victimless" bit really odd, as if he's been betting on his own team to lose (again, we have absolutely no idea what he's done) it's far from victimless as he can influence those matches and that affects the integrity of the sport and directly affects other people's winnings if he's underperformed to cause a loss or whatever. We have absolutely no idea what he's done yet, so any claims of punishments being too harsh, about right, victimless, whatever, is all a load of bollocks at this stage.

You can't punish the player without punishing the club, though.

You got a choice? I didn't. When the club ownership changed, nobody asked me.

I mean I've literally just gone off league finishes there, I don't think I could've possibly made my post less sentimental/nostalgic

Yeah I noticed that, him bossing the captain about. I'm sure Lascelles won't have minded because he's a top bloke, but I'll admit it amused me slightly.

Keegan still well ahead for me. There's other factors of course, but just in terms of performance he saved us from relegation (and probable oblivion), won the First Division title, then finished 3rd in his first PL season, then 6th and 2nd with a genuine title challenge. Howe's got one save from relegation and one 4th place. It's not yet close, but I do adore him. I'd probably have Howe above SBR though, and definitely ahead of Benitez who I'll also always love and appreciate.

We're fucking mint.

Surely Jordan Henderson is the only correct answer here - The only one none of us would question being put in a combined top 10 modern day midfielders. After that, their list is just a bit sad really.

What exactly would you have them "answer"? There's nothing public. Nobody (probably including the owners) knows the facts until the facts are established at an investigation. And even if they did speak now, the owners speaking now would prejudice any such investigation. I get that you want news, we all do, but there's just none to give. Howe only spoke about it because he was forced to at the press conference, and even then he's just said Tonali will get lots of love and support. We still know nothing more, and nor should we.