ponsaelius

I agree with him. Watched this in the pub and it felt very weird watching people revel in both the decision and the goal. An absolute embarrassment of a performance saved by a frankly disgraceful decision. The type of scenario that you of course milk if you're in the away end. Otherwise, nah.

With VAR analysing to this degree, I don't think there is an easy solution. The interpretation of this rule always relied on referees applying common sense. Three years ago, players would have appealed for two seconds, the ref would wave play on, and no one would care about the incident because handballs like this are innocuous for the most part. No fan or player of the game wanted to see more of these decisions given as handball. The crux of the problem now is that the consequence of handballs in the box is far too severe. This has always been the case, but the game was protected from it by the common sense that used to govern football. Now that the sport is governed by VAR, it would make sense to alter the rules to limit the consequences a bit. I would favour making deliberate hand ball stopping a direct shot on goal=penalty + red card, non-deliberate handball stopping a direct shot on goal=penalty, all other handballs in the box=indirect freekick. If we cannot fix VAR, maybe we can lower the stakes. The handball rule is abysmal but it is the natural progression from using VAR to govern every little thing. Common sense and the natural pace of the game ensured that we didn't have this nonsense taking place. Now the sport is being manipulated to service VAR. Trying to use video in a game like football was always going to be a terrible idea. It's an imperfect game, with as many grey areas as there are black and white. The more you push for perfection, the more you're destroying the very fabric of the sport.

9 out of 11 Dunne and Long are not British.

Dunno about anybody else but I couldn't have cared less whether we scored the pen at the end or not. The terrible hand-ball rule is the natural progression of VAR and re-watching every incident over and over. Just completely killing the game.

In most cases they at least haven't been handing out long contracts, though. Young only got 6 months plus option for a further year, Kolarov is a 1 year plus an option too. Giving 3 years to Vidal and Sanchez is where I think they've gone a year too long. The kind of signings he's made makes you think he's massively just in it for a short term project, but then he's also been pretty committed to playing both Barella and Bastoni over more experienced players.

Absolutely no chance under Conte. They already can't find a space for Eriksen.

We'd have probably got double figures there if we hadn't brought Carroll on

Yeah there is literally zero chance he is any good.

Probably makes more sense to price low when you have a market of 1.3 billion people to sell to, and a market to try and capture, rather than having a much smaller market of loyal fans who will pay through the nose (like the domestic TV situation).

He's an absolute joke mind and it's an absolute joke that he is starting games in the PL in 2020.

Aye. It's absolutely embarrassing to be quite honest.

Yup on but restricted to 150 supporters at Northern League level. Not sure about other leagues.

From what I can see most NL teams are still just advertising the games to be going ahead as normal (probably restricted to 300 still).

Proper throwback to Brucey's Wigan days where he used to sign random South/Central Americans from thin air.

21 years old, 250k, no international caps at any level. Unless he's got an EU passport there is no way he's getting a Visa

Agree tbf. Just another thing to encourage stockpiling youngsters at a younger age as you can't really lose out long term.

Real Madrid seem to have pioneered that in recent years (Carvajal, Morata, Casemiro, Diaz - now Reguillon).

Just imagine being good enough to get into that French team, but being slated while at this tragic club man I see the latest old trope about Joelinton is that he can't kick a ball now, just like Luuk De Jong supposedly couldn't. Only at Newcastle these players suddenly can't kick a ball Just send Joelinton out to someone that knows what the hell they are doing and go and get Troy Deeney in, which is what the fans here really want. He'll cherish every hoof at his noggin, charge around like a Buffalo and smash into people to their heart's delight. You're saying this like Luuk de Jong hasn't been shite every time he's played in a decent league (Germany, England, Spain). He was dreadful for Sevilla for most of this season and would be dreadful if he lumbered back into the Premier League.

I used to think Manquillo was awful but I don't think he was helped by being played at left back a lot. He does look more competent at right back these days.

Tenner is a scandalous price

I'm keen to participate

numbers as bad your craic

aye

https://www.nufc.co.uk/news/latest-news/newcastle-united-confirm-202021-squad-numbers/ rubbish numbers

Pretty sure that rumour was started as a joke by some guy on Twitter about his inevitable career path, which then got lost in translation as a genuine rumour by the Turkish press, and has now made its way back here.