oldtype

The miserable, overworked junior lawyers he pays to do the paperwork will be British, so no problem.

I quit this sport in its entirety because of Ashley and literally the only thing that could ever make me come back is the club being sold, so excuse me if I entertain some optimism for either a) however long it takes for the deal to fall through; or b) however long it takes for us to find out that this guy is even worse of a shit.

No, our luck would be a new owner replacing the terrible owner and turning out to be ten times worse. You know, just like the last time.

Huh. Maybe it’s time for me to start watching football again?

I have not been paying any attention to football for the past three years or so, so I'm going to assume that something dramatic has happened in the interim that makes this opinion not completely freaking insane, such as Pardew winning the World Cup with Scotland or developing a cure for cancer.

That’s part of the reason he wants Rafa gone imo. Giving fans ideas above their station. Attendance doesn’t really matter in terms of club finances, so he doesn’t care.

It’s not baffling at all. He clearly can’t stand Rafa and wants him to walk, and is trying to make his position completely untenable to force the issue. He’s acting rationally and efficiently in pursuit of that preference. It's baffling as he's accidentally appointed someone enormously competent to run one of his major businesses and seems determined to fuck up that person's chances of succeeding, which would make him richer and his business grow. Aside from my partisan feelings towards Newcastle, on a purely business front it's just incredulous. Newcastle makes him richer by staying in the Premier League with minimal investment, not by achieving genuine success. I assume appointing Rafa was a bit of a panic move on his part because he was afraid we'd get relegated and never come back up unless he got somebody competent. He thought he could put up with the manager having a mind of their own as long as they could keep the club in the Premiership. Probably just changed his mind and decided it's more trouble than its worth, not having a yes-man.

It’s not baffling at all. He clearly can’t stand Rafa and wants him to walk, and is trying to make his position completely untenable to force the issue. He’s acting rationally and efficiently in pursuit of that preference.

Made this point half-jokingly a few years ago, but it’s well past the point where a FC United-style splinter club should be considered imo.

They are like the Olympics, so can only bring 3 players over 23 (or something like that), so don't think either of them will be going. Neither have been called up. Even if they were, we can refuse yo let them go. We will likely lose both to the Asian Cup for one month early next year though. Which is why we cannot afford to let Hayden leave. Suspect Ki will announce his international retirement soonish

NUFC signs Korean player NUFC signs Japanese player

Agree with this. NUFC could have an attendance of zero for the entire season and it would still wouldn't be a losing enterprise for Ashley, the way everything centers around broadcast rights these days. Not totally true. Sky Sports want it to look like full stadiums. It's something mentioned many many times by Sky. They don't want empty stadiums and the numbers of matches shown would be down because of it. I guess, but even if that costs the club 10m pounds a year that's still peanuts compared to the sort of money he would need to pay for transfers to build a competitive team that the fans would be pleased with.

Agree with this. NUFC could have an attendance of zero for the entire season and it would still wouldn't be a losing enterprise for Ashley, the way everything centers around broadcast rights these days.

The 3rd-place game is always ace unless your team is actually forced to play in it. Hated it in 2002

If you're in the semis of course you're not going to be happy with anything less than winning the whole thing, no matter how unlikely it is that you got there in the first place.

South Korean speaking from experience Our credit line with FIFA ran out eventually. Putin’s is unlimited.

Sorry to break the news but if Russia beat Croatia they will 100% cheat the fuck out of you.

I think this is my third World Cup on this board. I’m used to everyone being jaded and acting like they don’t give a toss about England. It’s good to see people finally having fun

He was extremely good, lot of really good aspects to his game. Looks like a child, could see him getting bullied People were saying the same about De Gea. He'll be fine De Gea did get bullied tbf Not sure a South Korean bloke will get the same leeway He had a good tournament but he's been playing for one of the worst teams in the Korean league and was third-choice for the national team even up to the pre-tournament friendlies. Liverpool seems like a bit of a stretch. Also, has military service issues.

What an odd set of quarterfinals teams. Would like Uruguay and Belgium to win so we can get all the traditional favorites out of the bracket. England so all you nice gentlemen can catch a break for once. Croatia because Russia is horrible and obnoxious.

I've been wanting to post for ages about this world cup and how it's highlighted how certain teams and styles can properly fuck up so called better ones. Japan and South Korea are two good examples, but there's also Croatia struggling against Scandos. Point being I will be very surprised if Sweden is anything but a massive struggle. England don't do well against organised teams they can't dominate physically. Sweden will be a challenge. Will crush you with their physicality and work rate in midfield, try to steal a goal with long balls up to their two jumbo-sized strikers, and then park the fuck out of the bus for however much time is left. But they're not an obviously "better team" than England, and I think you have to take that at this stage.

Fuck off man

Stop trying to make this rational. Japan could be the best, most beautiful team in the world and I’d still want them to lose every match 5-0.

y tho Just an unpopular personal preference to see big teams reach the big matches. The occasional underdog win is fine but the line-up is getting a bit weak. Japan have played more entertaining football throughout the tournament though. From a pure spectator point, they'd be nicer. And since when are Belgium really a big team on the International stage? One semi (1986) and one QF (2014 - having not been at the two WCs prior). Japan, whilst not having reached a QF, have gotten out of the group stages on 3 of 6 occasions and have been at every WC since 1988. Belgium have been at more WCs (12), and made it out of the groups 5 times. Arguably, these two sides are on somewhat equal footing when going through their WC history. Belgium have great players this generation, but in no way would I class them as a "big" International team. Shush Kaiz. Japan sucks, howay Belgium. Off to buy a case of Belgian beer.

Expected to announce his national team retirement within the next couple of weeks.