Paullow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Newcastle_United_F.C._seasons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Tottenham_Hotspur_F.C._seasons 2004/05 us 14th, them 9th 2005/06 us 7th (crazy Roeder run after sacking Souey), them 5th 2006/07 us 13th, them 5th 2007/08 us 12th, them 11th 2008/09 us 18th, them 8th It probably wasn't until 2009/10 and Redknapp when they fully pushed on and became a club regularly competing for CL places, but they did finish 5th twice under Jol the first of which being that food poisoning incident when Arsenal pipped them on the final day to take the final CL spot, which was significantly better than anything in the previous 12 years, and were starting to look like they were pushing on from the lower midtable side they constantly were during my childhood and all my teen years. And I wasn't seriously saying that singing Carr was the catalyst for both clubs respective forthcoming fortunes, just that ironically he had just missed the boat in terms of both ours and Spurs' good spell, and as a result, he basically had an entire career of bottom half / lower midtable football and frustrated fanbases.

Galatasaray vs Bayern at 5.45pm and then probably the CL Goals Show tonight. A few good games at 8pm, but not a particular one I would be heavily invested in (expecting Man U to win comfortably, so that puts me off that), so getting the best of both worlds. Benfica vs Sociedad looks interesting, fairly close at the bookies (6/5 vs 9/4) and pretty much must win for Benfica having lost their first 2 games, but probably not a match I would want to watch for 90 mins. Leicester vs Sunderland is probably the match I'd be most invested in individually, and a match you'd think Sunderland would lose (which helps), but with it being our first time in the CL in 20 years, and with it being so competitive to get there again in coming seasons, I want to enjoy this campaign as much as I can, so I won't be following the Championship at all tonight.

It was kind of the opposite when I was growing up in the mid 90s - we finished 3rd, 6th, 2nd, 2nd, 13th, 13th, 11th, 11th, 4th, 3rd, 5th so an average finish of 6.6 over that 11 year period, plus back to back FA Cup finals against the league champions of that year in two of the lower midtable years, which meant European qualification pretty much every season, 18 CL group matches, UEFA Cup SF, 7 top 6 finishes, breaking world transfer records, signing some of the best young players around, massive crowds, whereas in that same period, they finished 15th, 7th, 8th, 10th, 14th, 11th, 10th, 12th, 9th, 10th, 14th, an average position of 10.9. They did win the League Cup in that time which earned them a very rare season in Europe in that period, where they lost in R2 of the UEFA Cup, and they also exited the Intertoto Cup early after that 7th place finish, but it was generally an unhappy time for their fans, their managers including Gross and Santini. I'd say we were generally similar in stature, but from like 8 years old to 18, growing up (and being less aware of previous years to 1993/4) I would have definitely considered us the bigger, higher profile club, but the past 20 years have been absolute night and day stuff, up until last year. Constantly in the top 4/6, Champions League regulars, new stadium, world class players, high profile managers, high media profile presence with the 'big 6', global brand, whereas we've had Ashley for 14 of them as you say, and they have massively differentiated themselves in terms of stature from the likes of us, Everton and Aston Villa, and any neutral under 30 would laugh if you compared the two, certainly before last season. So basically we were pretty good from 1993 to 2004, they were pretty poor in that same period, but polar opposites after that, and we signed Stephen Carr from them in August 2004, who ironically had been at Spurs since 1993 - it's like the clubs respective fortunes dramatically shifted straight after that one signing .

And yeah, Carlisle are pretty poor unfortunately. Definitely lack a half decent striker who will get like 15+ goals. 11 goals in 14 games simply isn't good enough (albeit a lot better than Cheltenham). Still amazed they beat Bolton 1-3 the other day - my dad said it was the only one to ruin his bet that day

Sounds class WM, although the Dutch match possibly not as intriguing as it usually would be given the current state of Ajax and they are 11/2 at some places - should still be a cracking experience though. I'm going to the Manchester derby on Sunday and can't wait.

Spent the past 5-10 mins trawling through pages and pages trying to find the general Champions League thread . Didn't realise it got renamed to this and thought this one was just created after the groups were drawn. I'm off for the rest of the week so looking forward to binging as much CL content as I can in the coming days. Galatasaray vs Bayern and Inter vs Salzburg at 5.45pm tomorrow, so will watch the former, and then the Goals Show in the evening, and then Feyenoord vs Lazio at 5.45pm on Wednesday which looks finely poised and hopefully a Minteh sighting, (there's also Barca vs Shakhtar at that time). Galatasaray getting a result against Bayern would be a big blow to Man Utd.

Deportivo in the Intertoto. 26 unbeaten in the Champions League or UEFA Cup/Europa (pretty much all the latter competition ) stretching back to that infamous Partizan night.

I guess when you consider this is our first season in Europe for about 10 years, and bar the LC last year, we're often out of cups early, plus a few injuries, it's perhaps not actually as surprising, but I did initially find it amazing that all 43 of those goals have been in the PL and not one cup goal so far in his 3 and a half years here.

I wonder if we get any Dortmund fans sign up before Wednesday? Had a look on their forum earlier and thought there might have been more pre match discussion, especially with them playing on Friday. The forum is a bit of a mess though and all over the place so I've possibly missed it

Used to like Bayer Leverkusen for some reason as a young'un, probably a combo of the name and black and red stripes - I got a shirt at Penrith Market and was buzzing , but the affirmation had gone by the time we played them in the CL, and yeah, probably respect Dortmund the most since then.

1-0 Juve, Locatelli. Certainly not holding back his celebrations against a former side

https://www.owlstalk.co.uk/forums/topic/325730-jacob-murphy/#comment-10951271

Crazy to think this time 3 and a half years ago, having turned 25 (which isn't young), he was still on loan at Sheff Wed, and at that age, probably more trying to get wages off the bill rather than for development purposes, and he was probably on a trajectory like his twin Josh, yet here he is, playing the best football of his life and an important squad member of the resurgent club he supported as a boy. Great story.

Milan down to 10, VAR permitting, vs Juvenus just before half time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023–24_2._Bundesliga Crazy to see Schalke currently doing so badly. Had a fair few runs in the Champions League not long ago, but have started to yo-yo a bit, but worse this year, they are currently 3rd bottom in the second tier and starting to get cut adrift a bit from the non relegation type spots, lost 3-0 today their 4th defeat in a row. They have still got over 60,000 in all 4 league matches this season, which is impressive. Obviously a rival to Dortmund, and Gelsenkirchen is a twin city of Newcastle.

Wow, so many loan players. I had never even heard of Thompson or the Peruvian lad. Obviously, bar one or two, mainly just a mix of deadwood, and young-ish players who were here before the takeover and unlikely to do anything here, but would still be good some of them do well to either get a nominal fee for them, or get them off the wage bill permanently. The (calibre of) loan list should look a lot different in 2 or 3 years time...

Spurs will likely beat Fulham at home tomorrow to go clear at the top, but as it stands, there's only 6 points separating the two Manchester clubs in 1st and 8th. Obviously chuffed we're part of that convo now, but it's really good for the league in general that's there's like 9 or so competitive teams now, and some of the more established sides could easily finish 8th or 9th, or wherever Chelsea were last season, if they aren't totally on it.

He's a lot older than I thought, 28 at the end of the year. With not much between him and Wilson, I was thinking it would make more sense to pick Watkins going forward, if like for like, because he's like 7 years younger. Thought he was nearer 24.

Fuck sake, I forgot I was like 2 or 3 mins behind and watching from Sky Q. West Ham had another corner for where I am.

Turning into a proper game now. Match definitely needed that Hammer's goal from a more neutral POV.

Fannying around at the back.

Game on!