Chris_R

Book every footballer, every time, for each instance of dissent, starting today. Are you seriously telling me that won't completely stamp out dissent by the end of the month? It's a behaviour, a choice. Rugby players aren't done special breed of human.

Any dissent, instant yellow card. If that's 5 players surrounding the ref, book them all. You'd only have to do that for 1 or 2 weekends before everyone behaved. It's an easily solvable problem, if there's the will to do it. There's no cultural barrier out anything to do with the popularity of the sport preventing it being changed. I'm not suggesting we *should* stamp out dissent entirely, as entirely sanitising the game might change the nature of the sport at a fundamental level in a negative way, but we certainly could. And very easily, and very quickly.

Unless I'm missing your point, I think that's nonsense. There's rugby towns in the UK where rugby is as popular and the fans as passionate as in most footballing towns. India, Pakistan, and Australia get massive, fanatical cricket crowds. Yet you still don't see this. It happens in football simply because it's allowed to happen in football. And it could be stopped in football very easily, starting tomorrow, if we wanted to stop it.

But I think that respect is for the position of the referee in general, not for the particular ref in the particular match. Ie it's not respect the referee has earned, it's just how rugby players are taught and expected to behave.

It's not 'blatantly extreme' though. What would you expect if someone started verbally abusing and then pushed the referee in a snooker match? Or cricket? Darts? Why is it more acceptable in football? It's not 'the passion' or 'the heat of the moment', because rugby players somehow manage to not do it. Ever. They call the ref 'sir' and never backchat at all. It's more acceptable in football only because we've allowed it to be more acceptable. These incidents are a self-fulfilling consequence. They can be stopped if we want to stop them though, but it requires tough action to create a mindset change.

I'd go something like that, you want the best ball players in 5-a-side, Shearer was a fabulous 11-a-side player but he'd be nowhere near as effective on a smaller pitch where the ball needs to stay low and it's all about trickery, still and ball control. Pope Albert Ginola Gascoigne Beardsley For me. No need for a number 9. Beardsley was a great forward, Gascoigne and Ginola both had great shots on them too and would get way more shots off than Shearer as they could all create for themselves but he'd need service. Albert not the greatest defender we've ever had, but he was solid, a great passer and in there just for the thunderbastards he'd threaten to unleash from any single point on the pitch. Schar very similar in terms of skillset but gone for Albert even if just for nostalgia.

All our players are shit. The only reason the ball ever ends up in the opposition net is because of the sheer collective psychic determination of the nation's magedia, willing it into the net. Otherwise we'd be deservedly on 0 points.

The opposition keep not turning up against us, every single week for the last 18 months. Keep up.

I dunno, why did we struggle after finishing fifth? Why are West Ham struggling this season? Why are arsenal NOT struggling this season and doing better than expected? Went are we consistently punching above our weight? Just look through the history of the league, it's replete with examples of teams doing worse the season after qualifying for Europe, or conversely doing better when they can just focus on the league. Sure some teams are affected less if they can build a great and deep squad, and we might well do that in the summer, but it's no guarantee and if we still have some gaps in the squad next season and don't challenge for the top 4 again, people need to not shit the bed.

Tbf we might well struggle to repeat this season if we're playing in Europe next year too, and I think we need to accept and prepare for that and not overreact if we do drop off a bit next year. But I'd take that problem every single year. It's a fabulous one to have.

Get me some too for the MOTD highlights

Say no to drugs

And I'd still rather have him back than Bruce

As I've already said in this thread, I don't watch Man U in general or McTominay specifically so I'm not going to get hung up on what he does or doesn't do well. But my main problem with this alleged transfer would be pumping £XXm into Man U's transfer kitty whilst taking the same amount out of our own. Frankly, fuck them. Unless we can get a real bargain for a player from the former "top 6" (which we know we won't), they can get in the bin. There's plenty of other clubs we can deal with, without getting bent over on fees and without then boosting their warchest as we deplete our own. For me, that alone is reason enough to shop elsewhere.

Wasn't that average spend per fan, not just ticket price? So it included programmes, food and drink etc?

Since free tickets don't work, maybe they can charge a negative amount? Pay people to turn up?

Really? I thought it was from videos of him actually hiding from the ball. Like this: I'm no expert on Man U, and don't watch them in general or McTominay in particular, so maybe these videos (there are more) are not representative. But I also don't think it's just someone saying it and it mysteriously becoming a thing with absolutely no substance. Here he deliberately positions himself behind the attacker, quite literally hiding, so he cannot receive a pass.

It was just so baffling that Smith kept getting starts, there were rumours at the time that he had some kind of clause in his contract guaranteeing him starts and it really could have been possible because no manager could possibly watch him and then keep picking him unless he was compelled to.

He may be an ok player and add depth, but I'm not a fan of spending £40m or whatever is being quoted on him, and I'm especially not a fan of giving that amount to Man U for him so they can go buy someone better. Free transfer or small fee? Fair enough. But not for those numbers, and especially not to a direct rival.

Absolute nothing player. No thanks, and especially not for a sizeable fee.

Boro I just don't care about. Their hatred for us is one-sided, as far as I'm concerned there's only one derby and it's not them.

Just a quality footballer. Love watching him, he's one of those who seems to think quicker than everyone else.

Mind that's going to have to be a hell of a lunge to take him out from the wrong division.

I hated seeing him under Bruce (which counts for 95% of the squad, mind) and took a while to get going under Howe but he's really won me over these last few months.

They probably handed out enough extra tickets to make it 37k, or at least left them on a table somewhere in public, so that on some moral level they could justify saying 37k tickets had been "distributed". The footballing equivalent of when you used to do a paper round and you'd just yark all the papers in a bush and go home.