robbo_11

Generally his distribution has been okay, actually looks like he aims his kicks towards one of our players rather than an aimless punt. He had no chance with the finish from Ings and a penalty is a lottery. He actually has made some decent saves and forced the forward into a decision through his positioning, however yet to see him leave his line or collect a cross convincingly within his 6 yard box. Ulitmately he is two games into the Premier League so quite harsh to judge write him off just yet.

I haven't said that, the majority have predicted we wouldn't have a good start based on last season and transfer business.

Generally our opening games have been boring from a performance point of view. It is only right to discuss the decision making from officials today. Arguably the Lascelles hand ball should have been given as I would have been disappointed had that been at the other end. However the issue last week was the West Ham penalty wasn't reviewed at all leading to the inconsistency. Martinez was not in control when he made the challenge on Wilson and although they had Mings covering ot was reckless and endangered the player, probably should have been a red card. He is slightly offside before it, but again the thickness of the lines from last season looks no different and therefore no advantage to the striker at all. It's a worrying start - not something anyone has predicted against and with arguably our strongest XI it is going to be a long season. There has been a marked change from the officials this season to let certain fouls happen that last season would have been pulled back.

Did the club not have a specific event last month with players getting jabbed at the training ground?

Whose Barry on here?

Welcome back to the 'Heart of Football' membership to the clubs that tried to takeover...https://thesuperleague.com/index.html they can save on the domain when the 'new Champions League' seems really familiar!

That is mind boggling. The referee has had a stinker in that case and the person reviewing the footage. Frustrating performance anyway nevermind with these little things on top!

The second half was abysmal, second to every ball and positioning across the team was poor leading to huge gaps West Ham just played around. I'm not sure if Lewis is going to be up to scratch, but against Villa you need to drop Ritchie who was poor today. It looks like ASM was given a free role, but it was at a detriment to the entire team as we lacked any balance from left to right. Positive play in the first half, but it is going to be a long season.

Fail to see how that penalty is awarded and not sure if it is the new VAR implementation, but surely the assistant referee can review the angles they've just shown?!

Very murky. Nice mention of fun88 in among the numerous companies involved. It isn't just the Premier League that are not upholding the values expected, but clubs need the money and not enough questions asked. Note about Burnley is really interesting given the value is almost all of the turnover, although not sure if that is post takeover from ALK Capital.

The length of a contract means nothing. Zero communication from the club leads to plane spotting, rumours and general malaise related to club business. If they fail to get this deal done they've shown their financial hand and the next player could probabaly ask for £60k+ a week due to desperate nature we've shown to get Willock in. There has clearly been no transfer plan at all and all decisions get ran past Ashley hence the hold up regarding personal terms.

Good post by @Yorkie above. I was just thinking the game has gone now from a financial point of view, but not just in the UK it seems to be across the European leagues too. It almost seems like the ESL is going to be inevitable within a year or so due to the vast spending specific clubs can achieve in comparison to the rest of their own domestic league. Inter Milan are facing serious financial problems and struggles over the next couples of years. Perhaps across Serie A some of the major clubs are close to drastic measures like Lazio, Roma and AC Milan just to keep up. Ligue 1 is facing a crisis and effectively will become a one club league due to PSG having vast amounts of money. There is 100% a nostalgic effect when looking back at the growth of the game from the 90's, but serious concerns moving forward if there will be any point/fun outside of 5-6 clubs within Europe. It will become a desire "to get a result" whether that is (a) not a hammering (b) a draw or (c) a shock win should the current effects of the pandemic continue.

It seems like the transfer market might be picking up pace, although Inter have denied the Martinez news - they're looking at Dzeko to replace Lukaku.

It is almost three weeks since he said this. Can one of the journalists pull him up on it? "Hi Mikel, Steve here..." if his job was to bang on the door to get signings in then he has failed before the season has even started.

January 2017 the last time both Gayle and Ritchie scored in the same game. The reprogression is unbelievable...

Crowd is 20,139.

Rennes have had another bid rejected for Jens Cajuste for £10m - would seem like if he was a target we would need to make a move rather than waiting on Willock. Mariano Diaz is one who is on the backburner too according to media in France. This transfer window makes no sense at all!

Tino Livramento to Southampton from Chelsea. They've sold off a few of their younger players after hoarding them on loans for a number of seasons!

To be fair to Muto - never thought he was that bad, but didn't strike me as someone that was going to fit into the team. Fair play to him taking a pay cut to go to Vissel, but I've got no faith that he will be replaced...more likely its the "fourth GK" slot required!

Poor table placement. Teetering on the edge.

Could the outcome related to Man City and the EPL have any impact. It would seem the EPL have had some busy lawyers over the last few years? They also reference the NUFC v EPL case in the judgement. Canny signings of Adam Lewis and Andrew Hunter QC's for the EPL!

Is it likely the Premier League have requested the information via arbitration that they wanted from the CAT case related to the confidential document?

Where did this come from? I have saw the tweet linked to PCP earlier, but they have clearly said that they were not part of the arbitration so NUFC would have had to have provided an update to infer the EPL have delayed this.

Most likely the club had sent the story to media and embargoed it for a certain time until it had been released by the club.

Has the u21 role been filled since Boothroyd left? I wonder if this was part of the pre-checks to see if he Graeme fit the bill around how the FA want the game to progress.