leffe186

Yeah, think that’s the best possible solution and I hope it survives the inevitable legal challenge. It seems like such a blatant violation of the rules.

The first shirt I’ve seen in years that looks shittier without the sponsor.

National Holiday please. We can celebrate cutting the US loose.

I have completely lost touch of the football timeline, partly being far less engaged than when I was younger and partly simply being in the US for 15 years I guess. I remember certain games because of where I was when I watched them but the ones in between just vanish from my memory

This isn’t just copium, but it genuinely makes things easier to take when they are just so transparently awful from manager to players to style to fans.

It’s also a very clear illustration of the fact that this is who Havertz is. Romero is a marked man for very good reason, but that does lead to him getting some incredibly soft bookings. Havertz should be a marked man too, but bewilderingly it’s the other way around.

I know you guys have been talking about the elbow on Burn - remember this one?

I went to look at ours (four) again and they are all softer than the Havertz one. On my wanders I came across our game against Liverpool from last December. I'd totally forgotten we actually had two sending offs in that one game. Just look at the video from YouTube (presume that means it's good to go here): It's a neat encapsulation of the problems. First the Simons red card. It's 0-0, we're in the 33rd minute, we're at home, nothing's happened yet. I thought it was soft because it wasn't malicious, but I get it...as long as you then send off Havertz last night. Then they score with the classic push in the back from the forward that - again - if you're going to just let them do that then fine, just don't blow when Kolo Muani does exactly the same thing to Gabriel. In exactly the same spot. Of course Romero got booked for the protest (he's the captain, so he's the one person who is allowed to protest), then gets a second booking for the retaliation after Konate cleans him out for the nth time that day. I mean, I know we're pissing into the wind and shouting at clouds to some extent, but part of the point of VAR is to remove or at least reduce these blatant inconsistencies. It's simply not happening. One of the red cards I looked at was Caicedo's last November against...Arsenal. Studs on ankle, ref says yellow, VAR says red, ref agrees red. Caicedo gets away with stuff week in and week out, but at 0-0 after just 38mins against Arsenal it's a red card. It's week in and week out, and it's boring now, but Christ is it infuriating.

PSG-Bayern was one of the best games ever tbf. Don’t let Arsenal ruin everything.

The “Unwatchables”.

What did the Burnley pundit say?

Havertz coming out of this season without a red card is itself a scandal. The trouble is, we all get that refs fuck up - they’re human, they have unconscious biases, the game is fast, it’s a tough job. But if VAR is incapable of sanding off the edges, then why have it at all? Almost every club (with at least one exception) can put together a compilation vid of them getting shafted. They’re boring at this point. Just…when you see a very straight forward direct comparison (Simons on VVD vs Havertz tonight, Jimenez on Dragusin vs Kolo Muani on Gabriel) it’s obvious that something’s going on that needs addressing. And if VAR can‘t do it, fuck it off.

This is the one. There are already posts online comparing the two, and it doesn’t matter if you see it live, slowed down or as a still - it‘s just blatant.

Scummy six absolutely works. Just…people really need to stop using it for refereeing decisions, because it undermines their argument

A Burnley equalizer right now and I think I’ll head into Islington to see the aftermath.

Then don’t say “the scummy six” . Who exactly benefitted from that ludicrous decision not to send Soucek off? The refs are pathetic, just not exactly in that way - you’re a ref yourself, you know it. The ref and VAR completely bottled sending Havertz off. They simply bottled it.

I mean, we are getting special treatment, just not the kind you mean. How many times is Havertz going to get away with this stuff?

Me or the team?

Don’t think he’ll actually come in and do anything, but you know the players will have been geed up a bit by the whole thing.

Thank you. I’m hoping we get a couple of players back. I fully expect West Ham to win on the last day and if we can’t get a point ok Tuesday I’ll be a fucking mess.

I know what I’m doing, but the gratitude is real.

Not gonna lie, lads, genuinely grateful as fuck for that. We can still fuck this up, but I truly am getting too old for this shit, and every little helps. Expecting Chelsea to get a new manager bounce on Tuesday, but praying we can squeak a draw to take the pressure off my coronary arteries.

It‘s the single consistent thing - it’s why talk of conspiracy or cartel misses the point. PSG or Real don’t get those pathetic penalties because they’ve bunged the ref a few Euros, they get it because it fits a narrative - whether that’s in a specific game or a bigger picture.

They referee to the narrative. Sending off a West Ham player there would be detrimental to the game. Or something. Same as that ludicrous decision to not give Everton a penalty against them.

I can only respond to the words that are placed before me. It would be rude to put words in people’s mouths. You’ve got to see next season as an opportunity, no?