ponsaelius

Sanches looked like Edgar Davids, except his glaucoma has worsened to a complete loss of all vision

if you don't believe there's a massive, elaborate conspiracy against your club then you're not a real fan imo

Gamez playing in the PL. Last season's 3rd choice RB. What a cracking summer window we had.

Being able to constantly break up the flow of games in small incremental amounts by time wasting every time there is a break in play, but not being punished for it, would be a huge boon for negatively minded sides. Particularly teams who play a strong defensive cage who don't want the game to flow and be stretched. It'd become almost an art form in itself. At the moment if they do it they're at least having yellows dished out every time they take the piss.

Aye I made this point recently too. It's something Vickery will be all too well used to watching South American club football. What would it consist of? Passing around at the back? I don't see what could be done to slow the game down that the other team could not react to, if the ball is in play. The same as it does now. Players don't feign injury, kick the ball away etc to waste time. I mean they do, but it's hardly the only reason, considering that time is (usually) added on at the end anyway. It's done to interrupt the momentum and flow of the game. This problem is still there even if you stop the clock, and in fact becomes an even greater weapon if players aren't being punished for it anymore because 'time wasting' doesn't exist.

Hellas losing 0-3 at home to Fiorentina who have sold their entire team. Not surprising after seeing them at SJP.

Aye I made this point recently too. It's something Vickery will be all too well used to watching South American club football.

I actually rate Wood and think £15 million is about right for him, he'll do well for Burnley. That said I wouldn't have been sold on him here as he's not the kind of striker I wanted us to sign.

I still am convinced there is an inherent and unworkable contradiction to the entire concept when applied to a sport like football. At the moment in Serie A they are spending a huge amount of time on multiple decisions during a game. This last one was a free-kick given at the edge of the box that was reviewed by the ref under pressure from Inter players. 5 minutes was spent as the video ref reviewed a very close call. Obviously multiple angles needed to be watched as it was very marginal and difficult to tell. Eventually the decision was changed and given as a penalty instead. Perhaps - from watching it - the correct decision was made. However it was extremely close, and still could be debated. Then they added 2 minutes on at the end of the half, despite wasting at least 4 minutes on this decision. The argument is that these problems of time waste will be ironed out as the actors become more used to the system. I'm not convinced, but I will admit it's likely to improve. This is not my major issue though. My issue is that there is a continued unfairness to the choice of decisions that are being reviewed. If you only review certain decisions in a match then there is an unfairness in the decisions which don't get reviewed. You may correctly call a 'big' decision in favour of a team on review, but this counts for little if you don't review one for the other team. Or what is more likely is you correctly review a big decision in favour of one team, but then don't review numerous small decisions against the opposition. Small decisions which are not judged suitable for a review, but cumulatively are just as damaging to this team's efforts. Basically, there is an inherent problem whatever you try to do. Review too little and there is a risk of unfairness, review too much and you destroy the flow and momentum of a sport where the clock doesn't stop. I'm not sure this can ever be fixed sufficiently.

2 minutes added time

I've not hated anything in football more than I hate VAR. They've just spent 5 fucking minutes on one decision in this Inter game.

It's a completely new structure internally, they've just retained the facade and cover for architectural value. Brilliant effort.

I thought mid-table.

I thought they'd be fine this season and still leaning that way. However an injury to Grabban and they'd look seriously thin up top.

Red imo. Unfortunate for Mane but still a red.

Tbf, I reckon the vector diagram for people who regularly make YouTube football highlight reels Vs people who are into unbearably bad music is probably just a circle. This is more just because the vast majority of music is picked up as a copyright breach when uploaded to YouTube. If not immediately then soon after. Hence most of these videos use crappy soundcloud mixes and the like as it doesn't breach copyright.

Aurier is a worse player AND comes with a huge deal more baggage.

Believe the bottom one is only a thesis from the local architecture uni. Not actually being built (yet).

Was at Spennymoor vs York last neet as my mates a Spenny fan. Cracking game with York winning 2-4 and attendance of 1300. Some great football being played around the region for those wanting a break from the PL.

It's World Cup qualifying rather than Euros, so only 13 teams make it and not 24. If we slip to 2nd it's a playoff. Got so used to England qualifying relatively easily (then doing shite once there) that I've lost touch. I mean if we win it's all over. So should have been easy qualification this time too.

It's World Cup qualifying rather than Euros, so only 13 teams make it and not 24. If we slip to 2nd it's a playoff. Potentially against somebody good, looking at the current state of play.

Nope. UEFA qualifying is a very good system. The seeded nature of groups is perfect for international football, as it allows weaker teams the opportunity to play a number games against a variety of different quality nations. This is perfect for allowing smaller nations to gradually improve, build teams and progress. The alternative systems of pre-qualifying that exist in Asia and North America are terrible for the weaker countries. They are weeded out of qualifying almost immediately, and then don't play another game of note for 4 years. They have no chance to play games and improve, and it even discourages their best players from turning up to play, or switching if they are dual-nationals. Nahki Wells has been a Bermuda international for a decade and he has 9 caps. Unfortunately for Asia, CONCACAF and Oceania having a system like UEFA does is not practical because of the travelling costs for what are often tiny Football Associations with next to no funding. UEFA has no such problem as its geography is suitable, and its small nations are wealthy with well funded FAs. Hence you have a very competitive continent where even a country of 300,000 like Iceland can go from losing 6-0 to England in 2004 to dumping them out of a major tournament 12 years later. People get annoyed and bring this up every time San Marino or Gibraltar get pumped, as if these games are the most common results. It's not the case, and just because some games are boring for viewers it does not mean the whole thing needs ripping apart. Removing minnows would contribute nothing other than to remove 1 fixture a year for pampered top players to play - and potentially be embarrassed like France were yesterday. A fixture which would then probably be replaced by an even more pointless money-spinning friendly vs Brazil in Qatar or something.

We'll be there or there abouts, but with Rafa I'd fancy us to scrape by. If it's really in the balance come January, I genuinely think we'll see some spending to see us over the line.

Disagree. If anything it's the 95% of footballers (so those below the PL) that need the agents more than the top players.