leffe186

I can’t wait until loans and multi-team ownership are banned completely tbh Partly because it will never happen, sadly.

And more importantly, if they DO finish fifth and win the Europa then Man U would have to finish above one of us or Villa as well as the chasing pack.

There’s just so much luck involved though. We sent Dane Scarlett (good player, just scored three or four in two games for England U20s or some such) to Ipswich this season because they had a young manager who used to manage our kids and needed a centre-forward. They promptly bought another one, started the season better than expected and Scarlett barely got a kick. Alfie Devine is a lovely midfielder who we loaned to Port Vale. Forced his way into the team and looked great. Plymouth wanted him and have another loan player of ours and a manager who used to coach them both for England. We thought it would be a better test for him in a solid mid-table team. Couple of months later they’re fighting relegation and the manager’s out. There are tons more examples, even this year. I suspect it’s the same for everyone, we just don’t hear about other clubs. It feels like Chelsea and Arsenal have a lot of successful loans, but it’s probably just that they send a billion players out so law of averages says one or two will hit pay dirt.

It is. I think that if there were BM players really putting them under pressure there then the ref would give it as it would be a pretty transparent cheat to deny a goal scoring opportunity. It just seemed from the vid that they were in the general vicinity but not pressing, and that there was at least a significant chance that Gabriel was just making an honest mistake - and I think the ref got both penalty decisions right. I really think that we need to be more careful when giving penalties in general, although obviously it’s stupid when different refs apply different rules. There was a Forest player on Sunday who did one of those tackles where you make the tackle but follow through and catch the guy on the knee. Looks awful on VAR. He got booked and not sent off. I think it was the right decision - I think it’s too difficult to ascertain intent and you need to be absolutely sure with red cards - but we’ve also had two separate players sent off this season for identical tackles. Exactly the same. Do one or the other. It’s the inconsistencies that really drive people nuts.

It really did look like he was going to go past him then realized he’s supposed to dive and just sort of jumped a bit. Got caught between two stools as it were. The pretending to be injured was the icing on the cake

Plymouth are making an absolute arse of it.

…and Leeds immediately nearly score.

Sunderland doing Ok here. Starting to think nobody wants to go up.

To add to this, I genuinely find it really hard to watch Real Madrid. They wind me up so much with their bullshit I worry about my heart

Tbf that particular team is the cheatiest fucker out of all the cheaty fuckers.

Two handball penalties given to England in the space of 10 minutes. First one def, second one soft and it felt like justice that she missed.

Fuck me, that first half-sentence was a tricky one to negotiate.

Crossed with James Acaster?

Ireland Women’s coach is an extraordinary-looking person.

Just picking nits, really.

I was just questioning the “whole thing” phrase - just seemed like over-egging the pudding. The authorities have been trying to shut the stable door for years and years, and clearly it’s been unworkable/failed as shown by Man City’s rise.

Why do you say that? FFP was agreed in 2009 by UEFA and implemented two years later. It was obviously set up - at least in part - to try to stop somebody coming in, buying any club and then throwing money at the wall. For many reasons, some nefarious, some not. Of course 13 years later it was you that got bought by a country and so you’re in their sights now.

That game already has the makings of utter chaos.

Tbf we were pissing all over them before the red cards and the injuries, and nearly got a result with 9 men. They’re not very good, although Palmer and all the penalties might continue to bail them out. I keep expecting them to go on a run but they keep being a bit shite.

Spread your wings and fly, my parrot friend.

Are Bundesliga sides interested in making a summer move for Tottenham's 22-year-old Republic of Ireland forward Troy Parrott, who has been on loan with Dutch side Excelsior this season?

It’s funny that someone has to go in and “fix” that data too. Do they go through it systematically and objectively or just think “that looks a bit off, let’s massage it a bit”? Rhetorical question, it’s too late for this nonsense

Fair enough. For the record I’d hit it two out of ten . Seems a pity those own goals can’t get an xG either.

It’s actually bizarre that it wasn’t. I guess at least it’s an argument for general incompetence rather than directed bias.

I definitely see him scoring that chance more than once out of ten. I see me scoring that chance more than once out of ten (I’m a lefty), and I’m not even kidding. There’s actually a decent area of goal to aim for. No biggie. I never really look at xG in any detail but have used it in the past in discussions. I’ll probably going to use it less in future tbh