Jackie Broon

Fair enough if that's your personal experience, but I suppose if you're telling people you are a Newcastle fan they're much more likely to discuss it in relation to Newcastle. I just find the 'no one raises human rights in relation to F1, golf...' craic a bit grim, mackemesque even.

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/saudi-arabia-f1-grand-prix-must-not-be-allowed-cover-kingdoms-brutal-human-rights# https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/12/02/saudi-arabia-f1-events-risk-whitewashing-abuses https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/sportwashing-saudi-to-host-f1-race-amid-human-rights-concerns/ https://talksport.com/sport/motorsport/1072340/lewis-hamilton-human-rights-saudi-arabia-formula-1/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/lewis-hamilton-ap-saudi-arabia-bahrain-sebastian-vettel-b2044179.html https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/mar/24/f1-saudi-arabia-lewis-hamilton-abdullah-al-howaiti-human-rights#:~:text=The human rights group Reprieve,behalf before this weekend's race. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/01/f1-under-pressure-to-speak-out-against-saudi-human-right-abuses

I think Pope probably is too, he looked ready to just walk himself without waiting for the inevitable red, that somehow never came.

With Burn at left back we've had one of the meanest defences in the league, our defensive record with Manquillo on the pitch is shocking. Burn is critical to our defensive setup because he enables it to essentially become a three and gives Trippier more freedom to attack. Maybe that has become a bit predictable and we need a different option, but Manquillo isn't that. He's shown time and time again he's not good enough to be anything but an emergency backup.

Probably not a discussion for this part of the forum but... If that were the case then the government's current position would be absolutely no deterrent to those people as they would not be likely to have a valid asylum claim anyway. The only people possibly discouraged would be genuine refugees, most of whom would have no other way to claim asylum in this country.

It's our best chance against them. Our issue recently has been that teams have realised we struggle to break down teams that sit back and hit us on the counter, even Man U did that to us, Man City won't. But, they're used to teams sitting back against them, they tend to struggle more with teams that take the game to them (although that can also result in those teams getting hammered).

I don't think Yasir Al Rumayyan's appointment to the board was ever a specific issue. The PL's issue (confirmed in the letter published in the High Court case) was with PIF itself and requiring the Saudi state to go through the owners and directors test because of the state control of PIF. It seems that in the end the PL accepted assurances that the Saudi state would not interfere in the running of the club, not that they were separate, which they clearly are not. Al Rumayyan and this new director's position in the government makes no difference to that.

Otherwise known as the Schrödinger's CAT argument.

Match of the Dorsia

Unforgivable the way he spoiled the Wor Flags moment in the Spurs match after the takeover by talking all over Big River right at the point of the lyrics being quoted

A think there would need to have been criminally fraudulent behaviour for that, I don't think that is being alleged.

Not exactly, it's always been in the FFP rules that the PL could adjust related party transactions to fair market value in the FFP calculation when that is submitted each year, the new rules just require all sponsorship deals etc. over a certain value to be reported to and agreed by the PL so they can make that assessment before they are entered into.

Looks class, amazing ability to fire off an accurate pass at pace with no backlift.

Other than Wood, our recruitment team has had an incredible hit rate. If they think that risk is worth it I'd trust their judgement.

Eddie has at least brought him on from the bench in nearly every match so far this season. I can't see Eddie agreeing to him leaving now if he's not confident that we have another forward lined up.

He's just looked overwhelmed since he arrived, he knew he isn't a £25m player and was signed out of desperation, I think that's weighed on him. He did the job he was brought in to do in contributing to us staying up and good luck to him, it's not his fault he's not good enough for the level we now play at.

He really shouldn't have been allowed to play on, I thought that as soon as I saw his ankle turn like that, it just wasn't worth the risk of potentially turning a minor sprain into a serious injury. He was never going to be able to run it off.

1:19 for the angle the ref was shown

I don't think they showed the angle where it's clear that he stood on Trippier on the monitor iirc.

The angle he was shown did look like a (soft) pen tbf.

And they took about 5 minutes looking at it, just absolute incompetence.

Whereas they totally didn't make any fuss about their pizza cup finals at all.

I could forgive the miss, it was his all round play and seeming lack of effort that's unforgivable. I'm sure he's really trying, but it just doesn't look like it. The very least that can be expected of him is to physically impose himself on defenders and he's not even doing that.

Defended him in the past, indefensible now, he's not even League One standard, we just need to cut our losses.

It depends what the actual circumstances are. Are we actually going to be looking for independent main sponsors at actual market value or will we be getting sponsors connected to PIF as a way to pump as much money as the PL will allow as fair market value into the club? No one outside of the club really knows that, although most assume it's the latter. If it's the latter qualifying for the CL is likely to allow us a sudden huge jump in revenue because we'll be able to make a strong case that our fair market value is the same as the other PL clubs in the CL; Whereas if we're relying on 'real' sponsorships that real market value will probably rise more gradually.