Segun Oluwaniyi

Need to bring on a Longstaff for the last ten minutes here.

Neither of them have done anything. Shelvey has done the requisite in hard work in midfield to the best of his ability, but I agree Joelinton has been mostly rubbish.

I honestly thought he’d do well. Given his success in Spain and the Europa League and him being a more tactically defensive manager I thought that would provide the structure Arsenal needed to build on their usual style. I didn’t expect he’d somehow make the defensive side worse and their attacking players non existent. I didn't follow him enough at Sevilla, to rate his work there, outside of the Europa League dominance, but he was complete rubbish at PSG, had them playing bland football and oversaw the usual European collapse. It was a poor choice of manager. Vieira is not doing well at Nice. This is a club that was fighting for the Champions League under Favre, and he has them near the relegation zone with poor football. It would be an Ole type appointment at this time.

What's that in in today's football money? I believe there are a few different ways to calculate this, all incorrect. Using an inflation calculator found on Google, the 1.2 million from 1992 has essentially doubled and would be 2.4 million today. Using another method, the British transfer record at the time was 5.5 million for Gascoigne, and the 1.2 million paid for Cantona was 21.8% of this. Taken against the current British transfer record of 89 million for Pogba, the transfer is worth 19.42 million. The world transfer record at the time was 13 million for Lentini, and the 1.2 million paid for Cantona is 9.2% of this. Taken against the World transfer record of 198 million paid for Neymar, the transfer is worth 18.28 million. These numbers are from Wikipedia and likely falsified, but maybe it is a rough idea.

I just do not see the evidence of this or understand when people say it. His Man U team was average in terms of talent and he led them to decent results. It was a failure by his standard, but this will eventually happen when you manage at five different clubs over the course of 15+ years. How are you comparing him to men in their 70s and 80s who have not managed at club level in more than a decade?

I do not think football has changed this drastically in the four years since he last won the PL and domestic cup.

Mitrovic has 20 goals in the Premier League already, is in the best goal-scoring form of his life, and is just entering his prime years. It is pretty silly to write off his career in the league because Benitez did not want him in the team. I am confident he would score a decent number of goals (important in football) at the least.

The individual season that I most clearly forgot to include in my team was Carroll (2010-31/1/2011). Ba was great in 2011-2012, but Carroll was completely unstoppable for a short period of time at the turn of the decade, a dominant force. It is a shame how the rest of the decade went for him.

I think it is a fairly easy team to put together. The first half of the decade was far superior to the second. The hardest player to leave out was Ayoze (2019), but Cisse (2012) is possibly the best player of the decade and Perez is not at his best when played wide. Krul (2012) Debuchy (2014) Lascelles (2018) Coloccini (2012) Enrique (2011) Ben Arfa (2012) Tiote (2011) Cabaye (2012) Sissoko (2013) Ba(2012) Cisse (2012)

His hand was directly by his side. What is he meant to do?

Victor Oshimen looks like a star with his performances for Lille so far. Great athlete and deadly finisher. Ajax look just as good as the side from last season, despite the departures. I am stunned they managed to keep Ziyech, tbh.

Repeated scenario is that the team looks competent until Bruce has to tactically adjust.

How can the most popular and rich league in the world do VAR worse than anyone else. This is atrocious.

I do not know why Joelinton is on the pitch, still. He has been rubbish generally and you need pace around Carroll. If Almiron is tiring you can bring on Atsu, but why have two slow attackers when the team has 7 or 8 players sitting back.

For what it’s worth, I’m pretty sure Canada is in the top 10 countries with the most amount of registered players. Ok the country is massive, but it only has a population of 40m, which is smaller than both the UK and California. I understand that previously Canada have been shit and not really produced anyone of any real quality, however the interest in the sport is there and it’s growing. I think 5-10 years time, North American football will be dominated by Canada, Mexico, and the USA. You have to say though, the USA and Mexico are certainly on a downward spiral from where they used to be. I don't deny that the game is growing in Canada. I've been to Toronto, Quebec, and Alberta and I have seen some interest (especially in the first two places), and like the US, it will benefit from a large population of first and second generation immigrants coming from places where football is very popular. The MLS teams and the new Canadian football league will also help. However, it is still not a football nation, and I doubt they will take over CONCACAF anytime soon though. Costa Rica is tiny, but has a great football culture and will remain more competitive. From what I saw at Gold Cup, Jamaica, Haiti, and Curacao have the national resources to be serious teams in the current generation before Canada if we are talking in the next 5-10 years. I think America will be alright in the long run with the young players coming along, but they need to use the endless money that have to dump the current coach and hire a real manager right now. They will struggle out of the hexagonal again if he remains. The Nigerian FA has no money that they are willing to spend, and even we have a real manager.

It is bizarre how rubbish the United States are now. Honestly, the talent is just poor outside of Pulisic and even his progress has stalled for two years now. I saw the match yesterday and the Davies boy was a class above anything the US could purport to have. Not sure when America became so weak-minded on the pitch, either. From 2002 to 2014, I thought of them as a physical team that was extremely hard-working/defensively organised and could rely on their one or two good attacking players to create a few chances. There is not any of this now. They just play passively and let themselves be bullied when playing away to the Central American countries and now even Canada which has no use for football.

Atsu is a decent player to have, but no serious team can have him as a long time starter. The boy works hard and has moments, but he is so easy to defend against, not a physical challenge, never beats the man, and rarely plays a telling pass. Not dynamic at all. I thin Almiron is really suffering without a proven goalscorer like Rondon and Perez. Something that worries me about this side is that neither Saint-Maximin or Almiron are really natural goalscorers, but players that should be complementing natural goalscorers. Almiron has never scored a ton of goals if you look at his career. He was the dominant player in MLS, but only got 10 goals a season and has scored once for Paraguay. Someone earlier compared him to Sissoko, and I think that is apt in some way. He'll cause all manner of havoc and create a ton of chances with his intelligent runs, pace, ability to carry the ball up the pitch and defensive effort. I think he can be a big player for a competitive club, but I don't think he'll be prolific. Both he and ASM would benefit from the other wide player in the "Rafa" 5-2-3 being a player that is more like a forward and someone who floats into decent positions and scores like Ayoze.

Especially hilarious considering we have no alternative. That chance was shocking. He twice was more concerned where De Gea was then when he had the chance to take the shot on, took an unnecessary extra touch. Doesn't look like ever scoring. He is the classic example of a player in a crisis of confidence. His technique and sharpness in front of goal were better when he arrived, but it just didn't go in because he was unfortunate. Now, the boy is in his own head and his technique and sharpness with chances are suffering for it. The Longstaff family are a better are markedly superior to what Man U have in midfield, which is sad for the state of that club, but good for the state of Longstaff genetics. This is not new. I remember the same sort of fight over Anita, who was much more rubbish.

He's 28 tomorrow so you were basically right Until he's 28, he's 27 He's a lot nearer to 28 than he is to 27. That's a fact. This makes no sense. It is incredibly reckless for anyone with a profile to act this way in an era where young girls are recording everything from the moment they rise in the morning. Professionalism regarding drink will always be an issue, especially with the culture of it in England and other countries, but it is just as important to uphold the image of the club. Dummett is a senior player, who is one of the longest serving members of the squad and a local boy as well. This should not be the image he presents. There are ways to enjoy the female fruits of labour without exposing yourself to this.

Almiron is a bit like Sissoko, he'd be very useful with somentechinally gifted and forward thinking players around him. Playing in a side like emphasizes his deficiencies.

I think Newcastle will win now. Brighton have fully wasted their chance here, tbh.

It's not even worth mentioning Ibaka, tbh, basketball is completely dishonourable and lawless in this regard. There are all manner of born and bred Black Americans playing for European and Asian countries. Anthony Randolph plays for Slovenia because of his agent, despite never having been there, and Olajuwon was more Nigerian than Agege bread but played for US. FIFA should change the regualtion regarding citizenship and eligiblity anyway, specifically regarding childhood. If you live in a country ten years as a child, you should be able to play for the national team. Surely long-term residence would be as pertinent as a grandparent.

How about implementing a proper fit and proper persons test? How about instead of postponing games which would gain clubs like Bolton and Bury income, they let them play those games? How about as part of FFP, if your club is showing sings of financial difficulty then an administrator by the league is ordered to take control of the football club until the club is a better situation? How about there is a better trickle down of money to other clubs? How about instead of just sitting on the sidelines when their members go to the wall, they actually do something to prevent it. Both the FA and EFL have stood and watched what has happened at Bolton and Bury and let it happen. The EFL have actively taken action that would hinder both clubs from being rescued. How would that work though? On paper, Mike Ashley would have probably passed easily back in 2007. Mike Ashley would pass today. If you look at it, the club is in nominally the same position that it was when arrived. 13th in the league in 2007. 13th in the league in 2019. Likely in a better financial position with the amount of funds clubs now receive for making up the numbers in the Premier League. The harm in his ownership has been the details of how he runs the club day to day, year on year. It is hard to account for that in any meaningful way with a test before someone owns the club. If the person has liquid funds to show and is relatively free of corruption/criminal offenses, nothing will stop them really.

If they are going to have VAR, the referee needs to be the one looking at the "clear and obvious error" on the screen. I strongly dislike the idea of a third party making the actual call other than the pseudo-scientific offsides decisions.

They turned up with their slippers on. Thought they could just stroll to an easy win, and got turned over. They have done the same against us several times in this fixture, in recent seasons. They did the same in the first match of the season and got an extremely fortuitous draw last weekend. With Eriksen on the bench and the other absentees they have, the side have been struggling in general, tbh. The real surprise is Newcastle having enough to take advantage. Other than a few big performances, Spurs have been in poor form and playing rubbish since February/March of last season and have not markedly improved. I would not be surprised if Arsenal rubbish them in the next match.