Segun Oluwaniyi

Football's disciplinary system is completely useless and illogical. Mitrovic commits an unnecessary foul late after the ball has left. This is indisputable, but he hasn't attempted to injure Lanzini, used excessive force, or performed an action unrelated to football (the criteria I consider for red cards). Still, the foul needs to be punished. Why are the only options for this a yellow card during the match, no punishment at all, or a full three match ban after the fact? There is so little room for discretion and common sense. Why are a post match yellow card added to his tally or a lesser suspension not options available as punishment. Why are players absolved from any guilt if the referee "sees the incident"? They should be punished more if the referee is daft enough to miss blatant fouls a metre from the ball?

Has there been any solid information about this? Has he even arrived back in England for a diagnosis? I doubt NUFC have doctors in Kinshasa or that the club will be taking their information from national team officials.

The World Cup qualifier between Senegal and South Africa (that Bafana Bafana won 2-1) from November last year will be replayed after the official was convicted of manipulating the match and banned for life after giving a ridiculous handball penalty decision. South Africa lose their three points and the chance of a better result boosts Senegal who were/are in a precarious spot.

NUFC's Chancel Mbemba scores with a header to give DRC a 1-0 lead against Tunisia! Very big moment for him, this is a massive, must-win match for his country.

Iran has scored twice, and as of now, Syria are eliminated from the World Cup entirely unless there is a goal for them or South Korea. Elsewhere, Ghana have gone to Brazzaville and put a beating on Congo Republic. 5-1. They are still in a lot of trouble and will be hoping for a draw between Uganda and Egypt.

Two managers willfully leaving NUFC to manage West Ham and Crystal Palace within the space of four years would be genuinely disgraceful. I don't want to even contemplate it.

CONCACAF has such a forgiving qualification format. USA has 8 points from 7 matches and are still favourites to qualify. In any other confederation that point total would have a team on the brink of elimination. For them, the likely worst case scenario is a playoff against a weak Asian country. Anyway, it is quite a big week in Africa. Against all of my expectations, Nigeria completely rubbished Cameroon 4-0, played brilliant football, and have nine points from nine in the group of death. I am ecstatic with, but our history I will never be too confident. I don't know know what Conte has done to fix Moses, but he has reached levels I'd not have imagined even a year ago. Ghana are rapidly heading towards missing Russia 2018. They salvaged a draw against Congo Republic at home, but 2 points from 3 matches is not good enough. I was able to see some of DRC-Tunisia as well. Chancel was alright in midfield, but they lost 2-1. The return leg in Kinshasa is vital if we want to qualify.

There was something different in the ball that season. Nearly every single goal in that video is a powerful long range strike. Oba also randomly smashed the ball into the Spurs net at something near the speed of sound that year.

Well, if business has truly concluded, the standard has been set for this season. The goal being nothing more than basic survival to keep the funds coming in. I believe there is enough between the players and the manager currently at the club to achieve that. Of course, the task has been made more difficult than it needed to be. One would think that a season back in the top flight would guarantee legitimate spending, with the ludicrous sums of money clubs in this league are given. If I was sure this was the case, the realities of this window would be to some degree, acceptable. As always, the issue is that nothing is certain at this NUFC, and the previous history here does not lend itself towards optimism.

I have a feeling that that this signing will go very poorly.

It is completely mad that the second most expensive player in the history of football is a forward that has scored ~20 goals in his entire professional career. I rate the boy highly from what I have seen, though. Barcelona will be a massive adjustment for him so early in his career.

It would not surprise me in the slightest if the loser of this has a new manager by the next match. The international break directly after makes it a convenient time for a sacking or resignation.

This was fairly obvious when Man City strangely bought 24-year old Olarewanju Kayode just to send him on loan to Girona. Unless he replicates his feat from Austria and is near the leaders of La Liga in goals, he will obviously never play in Manchester.

Regardless of the rule, I doubt the FA would have any interest involving itself in rescinding yellow cards that have been issued to the correct player by a referee. There is a lot more subjectivity involved in the issuance of a yellow card than a straight red. Any foul can be given as a yellow card at the referee's discretion.

I mean, we never know with these things, but barring any (un)pleasant revelations in the coming weeks, I don't believe she is. Anyway, the 2014-15 pregnant version of my wife was still much more useful than 2017 Diame. This guy has declined to the point of complete inadequacy as a top level player. There is no point in wasting a seat on the subs bench for him. I understand that measures had to be taken to guarantee promotion last season, but it is astounding that 5-6 of the players purchased within the last 14 months are already of no use to the club.

Diame runs as though he is some man's fat, pregnant wife.

The commentator on my stream is relegating NUFC already This has been a rubbish way to spend two hours of my life.

Nope. He's been our best player, shown some decent touches and looked to do things with the ball. He's different to anything else we've got. He hasn't been. I actually think he has been quite poor, but it is his first ever start and he has easily outperformed Hayden and Diame's corpse.

Mbemba has been one of the few players to come out of today with a creditable performance. The ball sticks to Joselu well. Things look a lot more dangerous with pace running in behind him.

Clearly onside. The quality of this match has been poor from all aspects, starting with the officiating.

I've seen Krul perform adequately in this league on many occasions, yet Rafa disposed of him without a second thought. This is still entirely unjustifiable with the other options available. Merino has been complete rubbish. It is early and difficult to blame him for it, but his performance is hurting the team currently.

It has been 143 minutes + stoppage time and the first choice attacking four players have provided absolutely nothing.

Agreed. He's turned his back on that completely and been done. Shocking tbh. By a simple one-two. Absolutely horrific.

How Rafa didn't come to that conclusion after last season. Three of the four attacking players have no physical impact whatsoever. It is a serious problem. This team team needs Joselu and Mitrovic to play and play well. Perez needs to be dropped.

Brazil and South Africa are both poor and corrupt (more so than Russia) countries with long histories of racism and other transgressions that held fantastic World Cups. I don't understand why moral outrage has suddenly come to forefront for this tournament in particular. I have spent time in Russia and enjoyed myself and plan to be there again in June of next year with my wife to see the preeminent sporting competition in the world. Nigeria and DRC are both top of their groups, and I am desperately hoping both qualify, so we can see our boys in action.