timeEd32

I imagine the PL wants to avoid that scenario at all costs. Relegating someone after the fact would be a disaster. Now that the appeal is done I'd think they'll use that as a benchmark to quickly announce Everton's 2nd and Forest's punishments.

I like the idea of a young, versatile forward but if that is one of three top priorities I hope it's more like a 'a RW with the ability to play across the front three.'

So presumably they end up with something similar again (ie another 6 points)? That would currently put them 18th on 19 points, one behind Luton. But if Forest get similar then they'd be 18th. Going to be messy at the bottom.

My god, the prices for this. Arsenal v Liverpool in Philly $325 lower level midfield $150 behind the goals $115-$145 upper level midfield $85 cheapest in the door price That's before fees add another $30-$50 per ticket.

I think you’re partially right. We wouldn’t have fallen off a cliff if Pope had gotten injured in the first game of the season. First it was no Pope + no rotation options + increasingly tired legs. Then it was no Pope + no midfield rotation + no midfield athleticism. But I do think he’s the singular most important player that we’ve missed at any point this season because his absence makes other problems so much worse.

At minimum we need a backup GK that profiles like Pope.

I agree it’s not down to one thing and I think Howe would be the first to admit he bears ultimate responsibility. However, there is one player whose absence coincides perfectly with the collapse of our defensive form beginning at Everton. I think losing Pope at the exact same time the fixtures became too much with our injury situation was the killer one-two punch. And then energy levels pick up a bit, but we lose all athleticism in the midfield.

It was an interview in tandem with the release of our financial accounts. Makes perfect sense it was the CEO. My impression is the only person in the building who may be a bigger fan of Eddie than Eales is Staveley. There’s only one place a change in manager this summer would be coming from.

This feels like an extreme version of the common view that we control our own destiny in every match. We’ve been bad with the ball because they’ve pressed relentlessly, and then we’ve made bad decisions to make it worse.

I think we’ve been overrun more than not trying. Certainly haven’t been good though.

Honestly not sure the team or formation or anything else was going to matter much tonight. This is the aggrieved Arsenal I feared would show up.

I find him much more likable than Dubravka. Would be happy if he shocks us all.

Going to be fun on here when we concede two from set pieces. “Why did Eddie bench Burn here?!?!?!?!”

This isn’t Pardew. There’s no conspiracy here.

This event is being run by an Aussie company.

Arsenal, Liverpool, and Man United doing a "Rivals in Red" US preseason tour and I just gagged: "Arsenal, Liverpool F.C. and Manchester United are the three most successful clubs in English soccer history, boasting over 180 trophies between them. The Rivals in Red Series will be the first time these three clubs have competed together in the U.S."

The biggest thing in our favor is the overlap in the venn diagram of clubs who want/need him, clubs who can afford him, and clubs we'd sell him to is very, very tiny.

Games that could have gone either way mostly falling in our direction was my point. The opposite has happened this season.

The more I dig into the nuances of all FFP related things, the CL expansion and the implications of it, etc. the more annoyed I get at football journalists. There's an opportunity to answer some legitimate questions, shed light on things, almost certainly find gaps and loopholes in the systems, and yet 80% of them would prefer to write fantastical transfer stories and The Athletic is just waxing poetic about how the sky is now a bit bluer at Benton because the parking lot's been resurfaced.

They'll never do this because less games = less money, but scrapping the Conference League and combining all its teams with the EL into one big knockout only tournament would be a far more interesting alternative to the CL.

I've been wondering this. Less so about Hall, but someone like Harrison. Does his fee count against our spend? Or is it excluded because he's an academy player? And, if that's the case, does that also mean we can actually add it to our academy costs and use his fee to increase what we're able to deduct from PSR calculations?

Isn't there some new language in the rules that means you can't use a loan to buy method to push out the transfer fee if the clause is too easy to achieve? Basically you can't take the piss with something like "becomes permanent upon one appearance." A clause based solely on a team that finished 4th the previous season not getting relegated seems like it'd be taking the piss.

The answer is we have to do everything we can to sell Targett (assuming he's not our starting LB). His wages are crazy.

He's going to be awesome next season.

I've seen lots of things that say European places will go down an extra spot, but haven't seen anyone explicitly say 7th would be EL (with the right cup winner). It makes logical sense since getting a 5th CL spot wouldn't, presumably, take away a EL spot. Either way it definitely increases our odds of European football and it most likely makes the EL a much more realistic target.