GideonShandy

I was wrong. Ayoze

Demba Ba?

All right, but apart from his terrific engine, all-out effort, blazing speed and three months of genius - - - what has Miggy Almiron ever done for us?

"How do people think Mbeumo would work in a team that isn’t mainly about transitions?" "Probably doing Mbemuo a disservice, but I don’t see much between him and Barnes" "I'd certainly take Mbuemo or Semenyo over Dibling right now" I don't think we should sign him. His name is too confusing.

Should ban anyone who asks a question beginning with "How important is it . . .?"

Still love and respect Rafa.

It all started with such high hopes. This was Dan Ashworth's open letter to Manure fans from July 21. “This is one of my first opportunities to address Manchester United fans since joining the club as sporting director on 1 July, so I want to start by saying how delighted I am to be here. Although I grew up in Norfolk, I’ve always had a strong attachment with Manchester because my mum and dad were born in Middleton and my grandparents lived their whole lives there. When I visited as a boy, my dad would take me to games across Greater Manchester and I remember the thrill of my first visit to Old Trafford in the late 1970s, watching the likes of Lou Macari, Jimmy Nicholl and Arthur Albiston. I can’t claim to have been a partisan United fan – my dad enjoyed watching all the local teams – but I remember the special buzz that always seemed to surround games at Old Trafford, and it’s something I have experienced many times since during my career in football. So it’s going to be an incredibly proud moment entering the directors’ box on the home side for the first time when the Premier League season gets under way against Fulham on August 16. The close season is always a reset moment for every club, but the sense of renewal has been particularly strong at Manchester United this summer as our new leadership structure takes shape. Omar Berrada has started as chief executive, and Jason Wilcox as technical director, and I can assure you that we have lost no time in getting to work. Our first big decision of the summer was to extend Erik ten Hag’s contract as men’s first-team manager to June 2026, reflecting our strong belief in him as one of Europe’s top coaches, and the partner we want to continue working with to get the team back to the levels expected. We are all clear that last season fell below the required standards in the Premier League and Champions League but, by winning the FA Cup in such impressive fashion, our players and staff showed what they are capable of when everyone pulls together and performs to their potential. Our collective challenge is to reach those levels much more consistently. It’s my job, together with Jason, to create the right support structures and environment around Erik, the staff and players to make that possible. Already, I can feel a strong sense of energy and determination around the group, as the players and staff return fresh from their breaks, including some exciting new additions to the squad, and to the coaching team. There are also changes to the physical environment at Carrington as work commences on our season-long £50million redevelopment of the training ground – evidence of our commitment to improving the club’s infrastructure. This will require some adaptation this season, but all our teams – men’s, women’s and Academy – will maintain access to high-quality facilities, with the promise of a fully refreshed, world-class site once the project is completed. Delivering a successful women’s team and a thriving, productive Academy are both key objectives of my job, and I have a strong background in both areas. Women’s football was an important part of my remit in past roles with Newcastle United, Brighton & Hove Albion and the FA, and it will be the same at Manchester United. Women’s football is arguably the most exciting area of growth in the global game, and we want to be part of that. Last season’s FA Cup win was a fantastic landmark as our first major women’s trophy, and now we want to build on that with Marc, his staff and the players. Youth development has also been a huge part of my career and I see it as a crucial element of success for any football club – but especially for Manchester United where homegrown players have such a rich history. The success of our Under-18s during the 2023/24 campaign bodes well for the next generation of men’s talent coming through, and the same is true on the women’s side, with both our Under-21s and Under-16s finishing the season with trophies. Overall, my first impression is the scale of opportunity available to us at Manchester United as we review and refresh all areas of the club. This remains one of the biggest football clubs in the world, but that is not our measure of success; the focus is on getting back to being among the best on the pitch. It won’t happen overnight, but, together with Omar and his new leadership team, we will not rest until we have achieved it.” Fans were delighted with what they read and took to social media to show their support. One wrote: "Had goosebumps reading this." Another said: "He made us a serious club again, thank you." A third added: "Exciting times ahead for United fans! Can't wait to see Dan Ashworth's vision come to life." A fourth beamed: "It shows that he values the fans' input and wants to keep them informed about the direction the club is heading." A fifth posted: "I'm excited about the future."

Really seems as if the Triiffids are desperately spinning it that Ashcroft had to be fired because he was in favour of doing lots of things that the fans were against -- keeping Ten Hag, then replacing him with Southgate, Potter or Howe, signing Zirkzee, sacking half the club's employees etc -- when in fact the megalomaniac Ratcliffe just needed someone to lash out at after they lost at home to Forest. Comedy gold.

Yes. They might organize a boycoutt.

The gay-haters derby.

Unsuccessful (and therefore deleted) attempt to embed the video of Alf Garnett explaining that Jesus was actually English.

Nice interview on CBS

It's an honour to see him doing so well in an Arsenal shirt.

NICE???

After 8 games people are seriously thinking that "maybe it's time to move on" from Eddie or that this should be his "last season"? The chances that any replacement manager willing to take the gig, however carefully chosen, would do a better job than Eddie are way less than 50/50.

Hauled off.

And his heel is fully towed?

I'm still just delighted at how far we've come since the darkness and dross of the Ashley/Bruce relegation-struggling years, tbh.

Usually don't have much time for Martin Samuel -- the bloke who scoffed at us for "missing a trick" when we appointed Eddie Howe and not Stevie Gerrard -- but this is worth reading. Unlawful, unlawful, unlawful, unfair, unfair, unreasonable, unreasonable. The seven conclusions of the arbitration panel governing Manchester City’s case against the Premier League make for sobering reading. Yet, even sober, the hangover is going to last a very long time. It is not just Associated Party Transaction (APT) rulings that must now be revisited — this decision made them obsolete and unusable overnight. The whole concept of Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) is also in the bin, now that shareholder loans, too, are to be judged related-party deals. That is City’s big win, in many ways their payback. Their accusation was that the league and its members acted like a cartel by introducing rules specifically intended to curb the potential of a minority of clubs. They pointed out that many clubs benefited from interest-free shareholder loans. If that wasn’t a related-party transaction, they argued, what was? And because the arbitration was carried out by serious people, who listen to reason and logic, they agreed. Imagine if every loan given to a club by one of its owners was charged, as is standard, at between 8 and 10 per cent, if it could be obtained at all? We would be looking at PSR failings across the board. And now we are. Wrapped up in legalese is a seismic verdict for football. It doesn’t mean that clubs can do what they want — there will still be financial regulations, although there are precious few right now, however the Premier League may wish to spin it. What it does mean is that these cannot be tailored to negate the growth of Newcastle United, City or any specific club. On page seven, the panel deal with what is termed “the consultation with clubs which led to the adoption of the APT rules in December 2021” and hears from Jamie Herbert, the Premier League’s director of governance. “Mr Herbert gave evidence that the PL had been considering the need for amendments to the PSR over a period of years. This evidence was challenged by MCFC [Manchester City]. However, it is agreed that there was no evidence of any formal initiative before the Autumn of 2021 to amend the PSRs in the manner in which they were amended in December 2021. In other words, they cooked it up based on what most clubs wanted. There were no commissioned studies, no in-depth research of a type that would suggest change was always on the cards. Herbert talked of discussions about rule changes dating back to 2018. Maybe there were. But clubs talk all the time. The fact is, these talks suddenly escalated and only became formalised when Newcastle were bought by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia and it was feared they could receive huge investment, becoming more competitive. City argued from their own perspective but the desire to limit competition, the anxiety caused by Newcastle’s takeover, was very much at the heart of this. “The tyranny of the majority,” City argued, and everybody sneered. It’s called democracy, they chorused. Well, yes and no. First past the post is democracy too, yet the tyranny of the majority is why your vote will never count if you are a Labour voter in a safe Conservative seat, or vice versa. That’s what John Stuart Mill wrote about in On Liberty. The pursuit of majority interest at the expense of a minority faction. So when the PIF bought Newcastle in October 2021 and almost instantly the Premier League began adjusting its rulebook — an email on the subject to the league from a club official specifically mentioned “the Gulf region” and was dated October 12, five days after the takeover — that’s the tyranny of the majority in action. AKA: a carve-up. And we later read that the panel believed this official when, as a witness, he or she insisted Gulf-owned clubs were not the target. They believed the assertion that this intervention could just as easily have been discussing an “American consortium who had links to lots of American companies”. Except there are already quite a few American consortiums with links to lots of American companies in the Premier League, and the email didn’t mention them. It referenced the Gulf. “The takeover of Newcastle United heightened . . . concerns again and encouraged the clubs to seek action,” the witness admitted. Even so, the same email would have been sent had the worry related to Americans. It’s just that it wasn’t. It was sent five days after a Saudi takeover. It’s the ruination of football, the destruction of the English game, that will be the argument. No, it’s not. City’s dominance is still scheduled to end pretty much the year Pep Guardiola walks out the door. Once the rules are redrafted, as they surely will be, City won’t be able to just claim what they like in sponsorship revenue. No club will. There will still be fair market value standards that have to be met, unless the system is entirely abandoned, which seems unlikely. Yet the big change comes because the arbitration panel found that while APT regulations would be legal if applied in a non-discriminatory manner, Premier League rules excluded from the fair market value process some forms of financing by parties connected to a club. It means that in the future, the Premier League would have to regulate all forms of financing provided by shareholders and related parties, including sponsorship deals and loans, but also softer arrangements such as guarantees or equity investments. The calculation would be on the same terms available from a third party unconnected to the club and could even assess whether a club with a poor credit rating — one imagines Everton’s isn’t so hot right now — would be able to find a lender at all. Equally, who doesn’t love Brighton & Hove Albion? Everyone’s second favourite club. Personal opinion: the best-run in the country. Yet, as of 2023, Brighton held shareholder loans of £302.8million. Charging interest at between eight and ten per cent would put £66-84million on their PSR calculation and will now have to be factored in going forward. Brighton are a well-run club yet, as of 2023, had more than £300m in shareholder loans The clue is in the delay. This was a verdict delivered 14 days ago, one that City have been happy to publish since it arrived. The hold up has been at the Premier League’s end. Now they are trying to spin it out further. Clarifications, consultations, all the things a governing body does if it wants to fashion a tight rule book which, as Leicester City found much to their delight, isn’t the Premier League’s style at all. Why? There is another case ongoing involving Manchester City and 115 charges. So the APT decision likely impacts proceedings elsewhere. If the League can bog this down in legal process, they hope it won’t weaken their case against City yet further. The Premier League, its rulebook and executives are facing a firing squad but are now asking to inspect the guns to ensure they fit professional standards. What a shower they are. It is not so much a can of worms as one of those tins of exploding snakes. If shareholder loans should have been part of the PSR equation all along, Everton and Nottingham Forest may wonder how they, alone, suffered points deductions. The Premier League can’t even simply revert to a time before the APT update, because now calculations around shareholder loans are unavoidable. So there is no simple reset button, no back-to-factory-mode setting. The parameters around PSR will have to be rewritten, if the system is not to be scrapped. The drawing board does not have a mark on it. Everton, for instance, have £451million in shareholder loans, equating to as much as £104million on their PSR calculation. Arsenal have £258million, working out to a potential addition of £62.5million. At best it collapses the market around English football, at worst it puts some of the league in breach, or with vanishingly small sums to invest in player acquisition. There would be more asterisks attached to the league table than there are presently flying around boardrooms, as owners begin to study the 175-page adjudication and consider its implications. Although not all of them. The idea City are out on a limb is inaccurate too. The club believe they have the support of at least six others in their actions — Everton, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leicester City and Newcastle. Others may be recruited if the Premier League attempts to keep the rules as they are with the odd tweak and adjustment. Who will vote for a flawed system that might now impinge, and quite brutally, on finances? Adjust any PSR calculation by tens of millions and see how much is left for investment. And if the rules are unlawful, as stated, how far do we now rewind on PSR calculations involving shareholder loans? How many years must be recalculated? Will there be an amnesty? And what about going forward? At what rate is interest now calculated to alight on fair market value? Would Forest receive the same rate on their £23.4million as Everton would on £451million — if Everton could get such a deal at all? It’s a mess. Complex, perhaps incalculable. It always was. If Saudi Arabia are trying to get on the map with the Neom City project — estimated cost $1.5trillion — what is it worth to them to bring it to the world on the front of a football shirt or in a stadium naming-rights deal? And how can that investment be measured against Newcastle’s previous sponsors such as Fun88, Wonga or McEwan’s Lager? “This means more” used to be an advertising slogan around Anfield — but sponsorship does, to some companies. And fair market value was always a dubious, debatable concept, for that reason. Just as profitability and sustainability has always been a counterintuitive aim. Ever since it started, football — indeed all business — has worked on the basis of how much money can be attracted to enhance the chance of glory. It is why there is a National Lottery to fund British Olympic objectives; why Hampshire County Cricket Club have been sold to the owner of the IPL franchise Delhi Capitals. City’s owners are not the first to throw money at a project and, it is to be hoped, they won’t be the last. Yet PSR behaves as if investment is bad, as if that drive to squeeze every last drop to achieve is actually the problem. Every financial constraint further cements an established elite — and even that wasn’t enough. So new rules were drafted to ward off, and warn off, interlopers. Yet it was an overplayed hand. It was unlawful, it was unfair, it was unreasonable. And it was three judges, not City, who studied it and saw through it too.

Glad to hear he's still growing. Another 3 inches taller would be a big help.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13902673/andy-carroll-divorce-billi-mucklow-football-towie.html

Thought you meant Ketsbaia.

Just amputate the bad toe. He's got nine others.

Looked offside but no VAR.