leffe186

Not a fan of r/premierleague, but found this thread rather sweet: https://www.reddit.com/r/PremierLeague/s/RY3yDWkp6R

That’s famously always been the case. Think it’s a classic “You Are The Ref” staple. Which, incidentally, could really use a reboot to help us all out tbh. I’m a bit concerned about reffing in general after last night’s match. Going to watch it again to check, and maybe it’s just a case of “small” club at home getting kind reffing (saw that for years in Scotland), but there are some concerning patterns. I think they’re really running scared. The time taken to check the offside was insane. I sort of get why he didn’t give Bissouma a red immediately but giving those tackles a yellow still feels a bit like you’re waiting for VAR to help you out. But they completely ignored persistent fouling…again…and my personal pet hate, asking for yellow cards. That Yates didn’t get booked at all (and just two Forest bookings in total) is faintly bonkers. You don’t need fucking VAR to just immediately book people for that shit. It’s OK. It’s fucking mandatory. I feel like VAR and this season so far have left refs walking on thin ice (although tbf they do occasionally jump up and down to break it). The Arteta decision just adds insult to injury, literally.

His personality and attitude have been such a godsend.

Us getting to the Quarter finals our first year back (after getting through an additional playoff round before the group) was a hell of an achievement.

Sorry, should have clarified, I’m Spurs. There’s something of a connection in that we’re both clearly heading in the right direction and I think we’re both happy with our management (more or less). As a result, I don’t feel like missing out on one more year of the CL at this point is disastrous. The missing revenue sucks, but our squad isn’t ready yet and could stand another year of development. But just imagine winning a trophy. The togetherness that fosters, the monkey off the back, the “winning”. It won’t put off Arsenal or Liverpool supporters, they’ll just move the goalposts. Just speaking personally, this is the first year in ages where I’ve started the season thinking that winning a trophy is far more important.

Talking about this on a couple of podcasts - would we take an FA Cup win or CL football this year. I think most would take the FA Cup for the first time in a while.

You managed to turn it against you in one sentence It’s OK to just enjoy the schadenfreude. Don’t qualify it, man. Just relish in Man U being a bin fire . Don’t show your weakness.

They’re unbelievably awful. It’s fair to say though - we all wonder how Matty Cash stays on the pitch pretty much every game

Yeah makes sense, didn’t see the podcast or what Wilson said after the game, just the clip and the funny face

For making a funny face at him?

Has the smoke cleared? Hope the below isn’t too cunty, apologies if it is. It’s what most people were saying. You got into the CL arguably a year too early and are paying the price. Don’t think it’s fair to blame Eddie Howe, beyond maybe recognizing that your style of play is going to take its toll anyway. Maybe getting the subs wrong but even then who knows how fit the guys coming back actually are, or if you are now down to guys on the bench he really doesn’t trust to do a job? I feel like he knows that better than anyone. I think now you’re seeing what we saw with Trippier. He was always terrific on dead balls and general delivery going forward, but at the top level would get found wanting defensively against the best. Now he’s a few years on and playing more games than he should, and it’s the same thing. I feel like Howe relies on Trippier a lot in general play and that’s why he was played more than he should have been even when you had cover. Now you don’t have cover, and an unfit Son is able to take the piss. There was some of this in the thread - although some people did push back. We’re good. We really are. Sure, we leave ourselves open at times but that’s the way we play. Genuine question here - if you have a full squad what changes? Pope obviously, Botman at the back, any other defensive changes? Burn for Schar? Bruno starts, Gordon too, then what? Tonali for Miley and Barnes or Willock for Almirón? Maybe four or five changes? Genuine question. Then we get a full squad as well. Our two best players from the unbeaten team (Van Der Ven and Maddison) and then Bentancur replaces Sarr. Both of us have good benches. I don’t think you roll us over. It would be closer of course. Which brings me to… There was a lot of this in the thread, and some push back as well. Even Stifler put his hands up. You had a couple of really good chances you didn’t score, absolutely. You get those. Then we get all ours too. Seems fair. So, 9-3? 4-1 seems entirely fair. xG agrees, for what that’s worth. Vicario made a funny face at Wilson. He said afterwards he deserved respect. I think the root of this may have been Wilson taking the piss out of Richarlison on his podcast or whatever he does. I stand to be corrected but on the face of it that doesn’t reflect well on Wilson. Don’t really know much about it though so happy for someone to tell me different.

As long as it’s not Arsenal or Villa I no longer give a shit

We broke them.

Anyone in the Pizza Express outside the British Library btw?

You can go back and see my posts on our game v Palace. If we’d had the same officiating they’d have been down to 9 men by half time. And yes, Jordan Ayew would have been the first to go.

Yeah I was just busting your balls This season was supposed to be transitional - everything else is gravy.

Son famously ignores xG. We could not play him if that would help.

It’s awful. Our other two kits are mint, which makes it all the more bizarre.

Literally one game ago it was Spurs 1 (2.34) Aston Villa 2 (1.86). You do you though. FYI @geordie_b.

Not sure I’ve ever posted about Bruno tbh.

Definitely not. No idea where you got that from. I just searched to see if I was imagining things and I’ve never posted about Fernandez.

Yeah, that classy CB/sweeper in the final I was talking about played for Orient as a kid IIRC but smoked like a chimney at an early age and liked his drugs and rock’n’roll (probably the sex too but I’d hate to assume). Without that who knows what he’d have been. The guy who missed most of the chances in that game was a case in point too. Lovely guy, decent player, nothing special but could run and run - was a marathon runner and pretty quick. Chatting to him in the pub once and found out he’d been playing semi-pro. He said he was RM and was essentially just asked to do very simple things on the pitch, but because he listened, worked hard and was fit as fuck he was pretty effective. Played in some good Sunday morning teams but I’ll always remember when I worked for Homebase as a teenager. We were challenged by another store to a game and it was only then that we realized we had me and another guy who played for Middlesex, three semi-pros and some very useful other guys. We went 28-0 up at one point (11-a-side, Astro) and the ref called it - I think we’d just started the second half. Only game we ever played - everyone else refused to play us after that.

Don’t know if you’ve actually read any of the posts in here, but that’s not mediocre I remember playing in a 5-a-side tournament once against a guy who had supposedly played for PSG (don’t know what level). Was quite a sobering experience. He just did everything at a completely different speed from a normal human being.

When I was in 5th form at school I was CB with Greg Heald, who was in the Upper 6th. One or two older guys might just remember him - played for England Schoolboys then Peterborough and Barnet.

My Dad came to watch a lot of my games but I don’t remember him ever praising me or screaming at me. He certainly had a go at a ref or two. Dad was a really good old-school eccentric goalkeeper. I feel incredibly lucky that I actually got to play with him in his “Old Boys” team - he was a 40-year-old keeper, I was a 12-13 year old sweeper in front of him. Getting a tear in my eye just thinking about it Maybe my favourite memory of playing football was in a local team that he had played for briefly in the 1960s. We got to a Cup Final - played at a local stadium with hundreds watching. At the time we played 3-5-2 with me at LWB. Our classy little CB/sweeper got injured, tried to play on and cost us a goal. I moved to CB and held us together. We got to 2-1 but kept missing chances to kill it off. Last second they get a corner, somebody gets to it and heads it down but I’d moved to the goal-line, chested it down like a cocky cunt and volleyed it off the line. Whistle blows. I can still feel the whole thing. Don’t know if my Dad was ever prouder. Think I’ve got something in my eye…