Paullow

But in all seriousness, I was going to ask the same Q as the Frogster. I'd prefer Man U not to win their double, or Man C not to win the treble - had the CL been first and Inter somehow won then I'd have wanted Man C to win the FA Cup, but as that's not the case, I'd probably prefer Man U to win, but I mainly just want a good game. I hope Man U score first. If Man C go 2-0 up early then it's game over, but if Man U went 2-0 up early, then it's still probably near enough 50/50, ha.

Frankfurt, CSKA 1948, and Antwerp.

He's 34 later this year. If he's interested in playing for another couple of years, and wants to return to the region, then if he's willing to take a significant pay cut, he could do worse than Carlisle. Get a house in Matfen or Corbridge or somewhere, possibly start his coaching badges etc. He probably could still do a job at a lower Championship club, but Sunderland and Boro will be beyond him now. He did spend 2 years at Ipswich and they are newly promoted, but I think their ambitions will also be above wor Jackie's level.

FC Urartu win 1-0 with a goal in the 93rd minute to take the title and avoid final day drama, and secure their place in the CL early rounds. 8 yellow cards in the second half, most of them late on

Still 0-0 in the big Yerevan derby that could decide the Armenian Premier League title. 15 to go.

I love managing in really small leagues on FM, much prefer that than any of the big 5 Euro leagues, although unfortunately, bar the likes of Ireland, N Ireland and Wales, Iceland too I guess, you can't manage in the proper minnow leagues. It's also great having more reason to actually follow what's going on in these lesser leagues. I was aware of the CSKA Sofia and Steaua Bucharest situations and new clubs now kicking about, but it's mad looking at the Bulgarian table and seeing who is 2nd and 3rd in the league: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022–23_First_Professional_Football_League_(Bulgaria)#League_table Incidentally it's CSKA Sofia vs, er CSKA Sofia tomorrow

Yeah, was suspicious from the start. Just little things like no full stop after the second paragraph and 'Official Asian Betting Partner' didn't look right either. Edit - ah, just re-read that it actually was on the official site. Probably been hacked, or an intern up to no good

Where's this from? Are you sure it's not another Big Frank / Percy parody type?

Not too much of note, but some discussion from OB fans on their main forum https://forum.ob.dk/forum/club-ob-s-debatforum/odense-boldklub/315774-transfervinduet-sommeren-2023/page43#post319297

I've just realised that Viaplay Xtra is basically the old 'Freesports', so Leipzig vs Frankfurt German cup final on Saturday at 7pm will be widely available to most. Never knew that - Xtra is also showing Osasuna vs Girona on Sunday at 5.30pm and Betis vs Valencia at 8pm. The former could decide the final European place (Europa Conference) with Osasuna in poll position, and Valencia are obviously involved in that relegation madness, although unlikely to go down, so there is probably not as much need to buy a subscription, as I was mainly wanting to see the German cup final. I wonder what else I have missed on that channel these past few months when oblivious?

Tempted to sign up for a month. https://www.live-footballontv.com/live-football-on-viaplay-sports.html Not many matches on TV in June, and the very few that are seem to be on there - German cup final on Saturday evening, so a chance to see Szoboszlai (in possibly his final RBL match), La Liga final day on Sunday, a few other random playoffs, Nations League semi finals and finals, Euro 2024 qualifiers - by no means not must have, but probably just about worth the price when there's very little else on. I see you can get a year for £60, but can't really justify that, and if I did sign up and cancel they'd probably offer me deals anyway - can you watch it on multiple Sky boxes, can you just have it for a month, and would you need to cancel pretty much the same day like other services to give them a months notice?

Does anyone on here subscribe to Viaplay sports (or have previously had it)?

Yep, looking like a 6th successive season in the 2nd tier for them. Crazy. They surely need to score tonight.

Return leg at Hamburg on Sky on Monday with same KO time.

Possibly the English equivalent of Newcastle vs Aston Villa?

Two. Return leg Monday, although coverage has just confirmed that.

Stuttgart vs Hamburg coverage just started on Sky Sports Mix.

Looking like it could be Ange Postecoglu for Spurs.

I'm quite looking forward to the Stuttgart vs Hamburg relegation / promotion first leg on Sky tomorrow (or even today) at 7.45pm. It was discussed a few pages back about their plight, but if you look at Stuttgart's history from 1992/93 onwards, then it's pretty similar to us: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_VfB_Stuttgart_seasons They did win the league in that time, instead of us blowing that big lead, and they did win the German Cup, as opposed to us just making a couple of FA Cup finals, but their league history was fairly similar, 3 CL campaigns and a number of UEFA / Europa campaigns and being in some sort of European competition most seasons, but a grim last 10 years or so, including 2 relegations and then bouncing back at the first attempt (like us), and a number of other seasons just hanging about the bottom half barely doing anything, or just surviving - there definitely are a lot of similarities with us prior to our takeover. And then there's European Cup winning Hamburg, who have now had 5 successive seasons in the second tier, and facing the prospect of a 6th. These are the premier clubs in Germany's second (2m popn) and sixth (600k+) largest cities, yet they've both had a really poor time of things of late - Hamburg haven't been in Europe since 2009/10, and the longer they stay down, the lower their stock will continue to fall. The fact that they are such prominent cities and were pretty good in recent memory does IMO make the tie a lot more intriguing to the neutral than say Bochum / Augsburg vs Darmstadt / Heidenheim. I can't find any tie odds, but the match odds tomorrow are around Stuttgart 4/6, Hamburg 4/1, so I suspect the former will be favourites to stay up this season.

Aye, that does make sense especially as it is actually the 'tickets' section, although it would have nice if they could have specified the actual Newcastle KO time to avoid idiots like me being confused

https://www.nufc.co.uk/tickets/on-sale-dates/ Did the kick off times change, or have the official website just got it badly wrong? They have the Aston Villa match on Sun 23rd at 9pm UK (it's really midnight), then Chelsea on Wed 26th at 10.30pm (it's really 1.15am), and then Brighton on Friday 28th at 12.30am (Sat morning) which is correct, but while UK viewers are obviously not the target market, so it's not a big issue, there's a hell of a difference between the stated times on the first two matches. 9pm and 10.30pm would make for some unusual / interesting late night viewing, but a midnight and especially a 1.15am start on a work night would rule most out of watching live here. I saw those times a couple of weeks ago and thought they were pretty ideal with the one less good one being on a weekend allowing more flexibility, so a bit disappointing, although if they are on Sky / BT then I guess you can always record them. Hopefully they are not on a niche channel like Viaplay or Molar TV (whatever that is).

Me too. I'll even be gripped by an S4C showing of TNS vs whoever in the earliest stage.

Looks like a group where you could quite easily finish anywhere from 1st to last. I'd far rather have a lesser third tier side like a Belgrade or Zagreb, possibly Salzburg to make it as straightforward as possible to make sure our long awaited European adventure extends beyond the CL group stages.

It's strange. This time last season when we finished 11th and were strongly linked I was very keen as it would have come across as a massive coup for where we were at the time and a big statement of intent, and while he would no doubt still improve us, I'm now kind of thinking he's 27 a couple of months after the season starts, injured for the majority of the second half of the season, and would now fall more into the expected signing bracket rather than one well above our station. Even though I have watched Maddison a hell of a lot more, and know far more about him and his game, if it came down to either him or the Leipzig lad at 22, captaining his country (who are no mugs), supposed big dressing room leader, already multiple years of CL experience, and be more in line with the rest of our successful post takeover signings to date, then I'd go for big Dom every time, although it may be harder to actually get that one over the line.

https://www.live-footballontv.com/ Matches are few and far between at the moment, but still some interesting matches coming up on the mainstream channels. Europa League final on Weds, Stuttgart vs Hamburg in the Bundesliga playoff looks intriguing on Thursday, FA Cup final on Saturday, Scottish Cup too I guess, although can't see it being competitive. What's FIFA+ and UEFA.tv for some of the junior championships? Just free to watch online, or do you have to pay a subscription?