ponsaelius

It's dramatic but I'm just about done with this season, mind. Can't look at our squad and the fixtures we've got coming up and see anything other than that we're going to suffer badly. We get one player back and two more are fucked again.

Rumoured to be inj again

You're not the only one though, Twitter is going wild on hearing Fodenmania

He said 'Foden making an angle' or 'making a yard' I'm pretty sure

Pretty shite, but I didn't start playing football at all until I was 11/12ish. Always felt I was playing catch up because of that.

Yes Luxembourg are in the Iceland/Latvia category where with a bit of luck and a good generation have enough population to possibly qualify for a tournament - unlike other countries traditionally classed as minnows. They've arguably been underperforming for a long time. They've massively improved last two cycles (9 points last time, 17 this time). A lot of their players in recent years have been moving across into French and German academies at a young age which seems to have helped.

Mbeumo is quality IMO. He's not quite the profile I'd go for, but easily good enough for top 7. His age blew my mind as well, he must have signed for Brentford as a teenager as I swear he was tearing up the Champo years ago. He's tied down long term though and Brentford aren't daft. Would be big money rather than a bargain fee.

They haven't even completed their feasibility studies yet nevermind deciding on an option, putting together a detailed design and planning application to be submitted, and then it being fully considered publicly for approval. There's no chance whatsoever of anything commencing in under 12 months. They haven't even started on the temporary fan park yet.

It would just mean a load of pointless friendlies instead as you'd still have the international breaks in the calendar. WCQ covers a lengthy four year period as you don't have qualifying for the Copa whereas in UEFA you have two qualifying cycles in that same time. South American qualifying is great anyway. Admittedly a lot less interesting now the WC has been expanded and most of them qualify.

South Shields vs Blyth will be good on boxing day. 3pm kick off after Toon Vs Forest at 12:30 so would be difficult to get across to although not impossible. Monument to Bede Metro about 20 mins. Gateshead Vs York at same time would be marginally easier to get to although I think a worse non league matchday experience and more expensive ticket. If you're still here for the 30th then the return fixture Blyth Vs Shields is equally worth going to. Blyth is a great non league experience. In terms of other games I'd normally say go to any Northern League game but to be honest there isn't a lot. Most of them are Saturday 3pms which will clash with NUFC on the 16th. However since you wouldn't be able to watch Luton away as a 3pm anyway on the 23rd then you could do any game that day in theory. I'd recommend Heaton Stan who are at home that day if you did or Blyth Spartans again. Similarly if you are here that long you could do a day trip up to Edinburgh - and Hearts are also at home on 23rd. Not a lot of midweek games currently scheduled although this can change closer to the time. Whitley Bay Vs Sunderland RCA on Friday 15th could be done alongside a trip to the coast. If you did I'd go as well and buy you a pint or alternative non alcoholic drink ?

Yup this would be another potential fix if they wanted to limit touting. In Turkey you have Passolig cards which you need to get into any football matches (it's hooliganism related). You get a physical card and then load the tickets on when buying them. Still massively cuts down on postage and paper usage but also makes touting much more difficult.

Totally agree by the way that there's absolutely no reason for season tickets to be digital. Keeping them as physical cards sent out at the start of the season would have solved a significant percentage of the queueing issues. You can still allow people to transfer it as a digital ticket for a game if they pass it on. It would then render the season ticket card to not work for that matchday. I don't like digital tickets (plus I collect them as souvenirs) so for Dortmund I told the box office I didn't have a smart phone and they gave me a paper one. It immediately invalidated the digital download so you couldn't put it in the wallet (I tried out of interest).

Don't see why not to be honest. It worked absolutely fine for home games for years. Like LFEE says paper tickets cuts down massively on the ability to tout tickets because you more likely need to be local to sell them on in person. Plus it becomes more difficult to have multiple accounts because you can't just name ghost addresses. E-ticketing and unlimited memberships opens up touting to the whole world. The fact is that the club, despite what they say, couldn't give a fuck about touting and so have no issues with a system that facilitates it while increasing profits.

Hear me out

The one thing I certainly do not care about is that we no longer have Chris Wood. He was extremely poor to the point of uselessness. Getting good money back for him and off the wage bill freed us up to make other signings that we otherwise would not have had the room to do so. Putting a third choice striker on the books is difficult and not something most clubs are able to do in a world where you play a single striker. I also don't think signing a subpar player just to fill a gap is productive use of resources. The solution is a wide player who can also play through the middle and/or or a young striker to develop as Wilson declines. We will definitely do it - it's just the club prioritized other positions first.

You been on the pop, lad?

Forgot he's loan tied for the next game ffs. We've got three left backs and they're all fucking unavailable.

Man City as good as they are actually have a pretty small squad pool. 16-17 top level players who are positionally flexible and then some high quality youngsters. If they had 11 players out the way we do they would undoubtedly be stretched. One thing I would say though is that the way City play allows them to manage players' fitness a lot easier. Dominating the ball to such a degree is a lot less energy intensive. Yes they still press out of possession but they do it a lot less by design, and can slow games right down to give everybody a breather. I am sure Eddie and the club are reviewing the 'intensity is our identity' thing and how sustainable it is in its current guise. We definitely need more players who can put their foot on the ball and slow a game down now and again. That being said - you simply can't account for some of the stuff we have picked up. The inevitable muscle injuries are being compounded by broken toes, knackered backs and gambling bans ffs.

I kind of hope that with the injuries we've got, and their need to start getting wins, they will see it as an opportunity and actually come onto us.

Exactly, if I was a cunt, I could have a touting racket set up in about 24 hours making me piss easy pocket money every month and also guaranteeing myself a ticket every week at no cost.

Actually think that's pretty deserved for Wolves. They hadn't had rub of the green most of the game despite playing well and being the better side.

It's broadly easy to solve too. You just have limited membership sale during the summer and this is linked to a form of ID. This prevents multiple accounts and also means if you're caught touting then you're banned for good. It's not nice that it needs to be tied to a formal ID but it's an instant solution. The club won't do it, though, because the unlimited memberships is a money maker. Plus tourists who can afford/justify to pay £200 for a ticket will be more likely to spend on merch than your regular matchgoer.

But the £30 is nowt for a membership if one ticket success gets you a profit of 100-200 quid. That ticket will potentially win 5-6 tickets a season even if you're only mildly successful on it. Then if you have 10-20 memberships the multiplier effect goes up each time. Every single of those memberships will be profitable over the course of the season, and even if some of them aren't the more you have the more you are de-risking the overall process because of the profit margins for each success. The current system of unlimited untrackable memberships, ballots, digital tickets and demand exceeding supply is a ticket touts dream. For some people ticket touting is a full-time job, not just a side hustle. They will have hundreds of accounts applying for football and gig tickets, bots and macros doing the work. I have absolutely no doubt there will be professional touts with 10-20 accounts, each with fake addresses, running off hidden IP addresses. It's why it's so difficult to get a ticket compared to last year because the total pool of accounts applying will be much higher.

Gambia qualified for the AFCON (thanks to his goal) so good chance he'll be there in January if fit anyway.