leffe186

Was gonna say - it’s the FA Cup FFS.

I will say, I love watching derby games where I’m not that fussed about the result and can just enjoy the aggro. Hate our own derbies. Your team should be far too strong. Just need to hope that Bruno or Joelinton don’t go radge at some point.

Waddle’s coat looks too classy for him

Pritchard was with us as a kid and played for Brentford. Classy little player. “Jobe” is Jude Bellingham’s brother.

What Ledley achieved despite his physical limitations was mind-blowing. How good would he have been with even minor injuries? Stan Collymore.

Newcastle F-

Switch off your alerts/notifications. That’s caught me out in the past.

Good edit, did seem harsh.

Going to avoid the result?

On the subject of pundits, somebody pointed out that the ITV presenters for the game were an Arsenal fan and two ex-Arsenal players. And the co-commentator? Lee Dixon This used to be a Liverpool thing.

It’s a fascinating one from this perspective. I’ve not seen Sunderland play for a few weeks now so no idea what’s changed since Mowbray left. In the games I saw they were good but young. Played some nice football, got bullied a bit at times. Injuries or no, there’s a sizeable gulf between the divisions apart from Leicester. As long as you don’t lose your heads then you really should win. Clarke and Bellingham are dangerous, but I feel like these are the games where players like Almiron can take the piss a bit. Players with obvious flaws at the top level that just don’t matter as much lower down.

That’s terrific though. Get up, watch the game with coffee and breakfast, then go about your day.

Yeah we noticed that too Job done. Played some nice stuff early on, Burnley worked really hard to contain us then seemed to tire because of it. Our front three were very unconvincing and wasted some very good opportunities, back five were pretty good, middle three were up and down. Should really have put it away early or at least gone in ahead. We’re going to struggle this month unless a couple more players come back from injury. Only two more games in Jan though. Sarr and Son are huge losses. I’m a little less confident about Man U after watching that. Then February will be very tough.

First 20 mins was good, then it just fizzled out.

Coincidentally I just saw his Chelsea “tackle” for the first time on the highlights

Yeah although Google brings this up as the first article: https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/21/great-english-city-sold-abu-dhabis-elite-manchester

Liked this story: https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/fa-cup-third-round-marine-tottenham-mourinho-b2473334.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1704441193 Don’t remember if they redecorated the away end with “Come On You Spurs” though.

They did have a bit of an advantage in that the club was essentially gifted a new stadium in an area built for it. It’s not like they were moving into Maine Road.

Was five years ago so Villa makes sense. That’s why Arsenal have Stoke so high. Also why Villa’s rivals are more realistic.

Hang on, does that red mean he misses Villa? That’s a bit annoying

Dier to Bayern Munich looking distinctly possible

I mean, maybe they’re not wholly inadequate because we’ve not seen a Leeds or a Portsmouth for a while…and there are still issues further down the pyramid. But don’t get me wrong. I see the bullshit. It’s broken. I just have a simplistic wish/dream for parity

Absolutely. Despite all the attendant issues with exploitation of the NCAA players etc the parity in the NFL was so refreshing.

Our turnover was 103M and our operating profit was 32M the year he came in. I thought yours was comparable? We’d been working on it for a bit. Had just finished 5th three years in a row. I’d have been happy with it being in place before Abramovich if it would have prevented his splurge. Def happy with bringing it in when Ashley came in as that was the year before the UAE bought City.

…and on reflection that seems a bit like special pleading. You obviously have more in common with Man City than the rest of the “Big Six” because of your ownership. It’s absolutely true that FFP as it currently functions helps preserve teams in their current strata. It’s also absolutely true that without some form of FFP you are saying anyone can buy anyone and spend what they like. I didn’t like that when Abramovich came in, and when UAE came in, and I still don’t like it. If you do, then fair enough.