number37

In Trading Places, Don Ameche was incredibly uncomfortable with having to swear so only agreed to do it once. Maybe Amazon needed something a bit juicy from Eddie, not quite Jacob Murphy juicy, but something for the trailer to give it a bit of edge. I think the special features will have the ten minute apology to each member of staff. 

I really can't wait for this! 

Aye, can't be messing with the history and heritage of a fuckin' JD logo. 

Yeah, I appreciate design trends and all that - designers have to justify themselves somehow - but I'd rather things look right than look good because if it's right then it's good. Should just make the stripes on the badge red and white because stripes are stripes and colours don't matter. 

I know I'm stuck in the past and should embrace the future but I don't want to just yet, still got a few more years of whinging. I reckon I'll be copying and pasting these replies this time next year! 

I just want the regular chuffing badge, man. The club plays in black and white stripes not yellow and blue stripes, these things are important to me. 

I heard Nick Pope praising the font in the church. 

I suppose if you take away his Player of the Tournament, what's he even won? 

Maybe she finally realised what that stuff does to kids. 

If they're going to persist with the practice of a monochrome badge on the away/third kits then I think the old NUFC badge from the 80s would do the job perfectly rather than butchering our existing one. 

Captaining at 23 - must be shit. 

Not that it necessarily means much in the context of the club but red, black and white are the civic colours of Newcastle upon Tyne. 

1 minute ago, AyeDubbleYoo said:

 

Yeah, love long sleeve too but they seem to have died a death. 

 

Easier for factories to just make one version I guess :/

I know, it's a sad state of affairs. I think base layers are minging and even more minging (classic English, there) when worn under a striped shirt. 

I can't remember who it was but there were a couple of Sheffield United players last season who had long sleeved shirts and it just looked class. There are few finer sights in football than a long sleeved striped shirt. 

I'd pay silly money* for a long sleeved version of that beauty. 

*also known as the RRP. 

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

You mean it has zero prestige to a dozen or so clubs (of all the millions of clubs in Europe) whose target - realistically or otherwise - is to reach the latter stages of the Champions League. 

 

Like I was saying last night, defining the Conference League by how it compares with a far more prestigious competition is such a grim way to view it, imo. Not everything is about the tedium of the Champions League's annual rinse and repeat.

 

A competition should be defined by its own competitors.

 

I swear most of the derision is subconsciously borne out of that fucking awful name which is deliberately pitched to sound subservient to UEFA's cash cow tournies. 

You're right and I think it's also important to note that the 'big' clubs aren't in the Conference League so obviously they're not going to think it has any prestige. It's not like Arsenal or whoever not caring about the League Cup and so they just field their kids and reserves, they're not prioritising their Champions League campaign over Conference League because they're not in the latter. 

Maybe prestige isn't the way to look at it - perhaps it's the old "you can only beat what's in front of you" approach. No one will say the FA Vase is more prestigious than the FA Cup but try telling Whitley Bay their achievements are meaningless because Manchester United has low regard for that particular tournament, not that they're eligible anyway. I'm sure Whitley Bay would love a crack at the Champions League but I'm also sure they rather enjoyed their glory at Wembley despite the fact it's a lesser competition and not worth the time of the Sky teams. 

14 minutes ago, Paullow said:

Ludogorets win their 12th straight Bulgarian title, 1 point ahead of CSKA Sofia, to take the final CL qualifying spot.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023–24_UEFA_Champions_League_qualifying_phase_and_play-off_round

 

Preliminary draw on Tuesday, which sounds crazy early - obviously that's the absolute minnows, the champs of San Marino, Andorra, Iceland, and Montenegro, one of which will make it through to the first qualifying rounds. I don't know anything about the Montenegrin league, but I thought it might have been considered better than the Gibraltar, Faroe, Malta, or Luxembourg leagues. Iceland too, to a lesser extent.

 

 

 

I like your dedication to the cause! For Montenegro, maybe it's just a coefficient thing as they're still a relatively fresh independent country on the scene (Serbia & Montenegro only separated in the early 2000s if my memory serves me well) so the Serbian league would most likely have inherited the points so Montenegro would have started from scratch. You're right though, I'd have thought they'd be better placed but maybe they will in time. Could be similar for Kosovo too, albeit in slightly less smooth circumstances. 

Just now, Optimistic Nut said:

 

I'm pleased Villa got in. The club and fans will love it. A bit different for Spurs when they've been used to going pretty deep in the CL for 10 years. 

Yeah, that's a good point. I think if you're used to Champions League then you're going to regard it as a bit of a drop off - with a fair degree of justification but it'll be a cracking adventure if you're not as used to (or jaded by) European football. 

I think you'll get a good bit of variety with the Conference League over the coming years because it'll be the usual suspects qualifying for the Champions League and Europa League and so giving more teams, most importantly different teams, access to European competition can only be healthy. 

#prayforprague

Looks amazing! Can't wait for the striped sleeves to be ruined by a needless base layer. 

Pep has actually won two awards here - LMA Manager of the Year and also Premier League Manager of the Year. 

It's not unreasonable he's won the LMA award with the expectation (but no guarantee) that the treble is on the cards, he's made the finals at the very least. I don't know/care if the LMA award is voted for by fellow managers so perhaps that's taken into consideration. 

The Premier League award has to go to Eddie - has to. I'm not going to repeat the mass of evidence that we've all put together but even objectively, even to the Brains Trust that hand out that multicoloured monstrosity, in the Premier League there has been no other manager that has performed better than Eddie Howe over the last year. 

As petty a man as I am, I couldn't help but be tickled that BT Sport referred to devout Catalan nationalist Pep Guardiola as a Spaniard. I hope it annoys him. 

Eddie doesn't seem one for personal awards anyway so I hope he's alright knowing he has our unwavering love, support and admiration to fall back on and our city is his. 

1 minute ago, Ben said:

How did he get a work permit for us with no international caps ? 

I think the caps criteria only kicks in if the country is relatively lower ranked. 

I know it's me being needlessly picky but there are three Sheffield clubs (four if Hallam is included) - Sheffield, Wednesday and United. 

Obviously it matters little in this particular debate but Sheffield are arguably one of the most important teams in the history of organised association football so the "United" situation isn't really for them. 

12 minutes ago, joeyt said:

Mourinho getting heavily linked with PSG in the French press

I'm not sure if he'll take the plunge but he's a robusta character. 

7 minutes ago, NE27 said:

Casimeiros face is hilariously round and pudgey.

 

I always get Captain Mauser vibes from Casemiro. Maybe that makes Scott McTominay Proctor. 

I don't like base layers and I really don't like base layers under striped shirts. 

Seeing Sheffield United with long sleeves is a thing of beauty, which should be a common, not a rare, thing.