St. Maximin

Except those rules have seen smaller clubs get penalised, so would set a terrible precedent if Man City get away with it especially when they have multiple charges for not assisting the PL. That some of these rules are stupid doesn’t mean anyone should be above them. I also don’t really buy the idea some have that this is all about the ‘red cartel’ without more evidence. These charges date back to 2009 and FFP is not a new or solely PL thing. Comparing us to them is interesting too. They allegedly broke the rules and managed to win loads of trophies. Not sad at all we don’t seem to have done that.

Anyone else struggling with how unbearable it is that a team that hasn’t won the league for 22 years have finally won it again, rather than an soulless club that wins it nearly every year? Nope, me neither. See, it’s absolutely fine and we can all move on.

Something like that yeah. I mean they’re all ridiculous (not that I want us to spend unchecked either fwiw), but I’m pretty sure it’s just the associated party rules where you could argue the PL is trying to hamper Man City and us. I get the frustration over that of course, but I don’t have sympathy for City regarding the FFP charges.

FFP has existed for years and is a UEFA thing. Sure the red cartel have no doubt kicked up a fuss but it’s not some rules especially about them or City. They shouldn’t have our sympathy. You mentioned Everton and Forest, except they actually did get punished whereas to date nothing has happened to City and these charges date back years. So really so far it seems the big teams get away with it while smaller teams get punished. Not fair really. Maybe we can support action against the Premier League/UEFA for these dumb rules, but I have no support for a team getting away with it while all the other teams get held back.

It’s not really taboo if it’s against the rules though. Plus I understand this is FFP and not just that recent PSR crap, so rules that were in place for years. Man City got to spend millions for years and they still do, whereas we can’t. Shouldn’t have any sympathy for them or any of the ‘big 6’. None of them are the good guys here, but Arsenal haven’t done anything offensive to us.

About Arsenal winning? Genuinely don’t get why everyone is so desperate for Man City to win yet again when they’re under investigation for corruption on a pretty major scale over rules we always complain about? Plus it’s just so boring. Arsenal haven’t done anything particularly offensive to us and no one will actually care if they win. No one cared last year when Liverpool won. They were just irrelevant to us until the whole Isak saga. Arsenal are simply irrelevant.

Still fancy Arsenal to bottle it but a weekly reminder that City winning the league is not a victory for football if you hate corruption Arteta just did a few stupid interviews and is a bit of a whopper. It’s not that big a deal really and it won’t be unbearable if they were to not bottle it.

Ex-footballer invited on a podcast called ‘stick to cricket’ also. Bruce wouldn’t even be the worst bloke in the room mind. Still the only football manager I’ve bumped into at a cricket match. Loves his cricket that man.

Surprised people see £75m as low tbh. 12 goals and 7 assists in his last 60 league appearances, with plenty from the spot. Cracking CL record, but some weak opposition helped there. Obviously Elanga at £55m looks more and more laughable by the day, but we signed a guy with 17 league goals/assists that year. Also he wants away and has seemingly downed tools. It’s a dick move that many footballers pull, but what can we do? There’s no point keeping him for our own pride as that didn’t help with Isak. Just get shot asap and accept the lesser of two evils.

I’d say so yeah, but like I said it might just be my confirmation bias. I lived 12 years of my life (I’m 36) in Newcastle, so have probably spent more time with them than any other particular team. I thought that about Man Utd rivalry too, but it was quite a while ago now. We’ve unfortunately not competed with them much since and same with the other ‘red cartel’ teams. Growing up in Kent I imagine played its part, but also meant I was surrounded by those fans also. Admittedly without really caring I have a soft spot for Arsenal - mentioned before here but it’s probably clear now . However, that does stem from the Wenger era. I find Arteta pretty unlikeable and same with a lot of the fans, but that’s the same for any massive fanbase full of whoppers online. People don’t dislike City fans much because they’ve had nothing to complain about in recent years, whereas Arsenal constantly bottle it having previously won plenty of trophies, so not surprising things are a bit toxic. They at least seem like a ‘real’ team to me and therefore it would be refreshing if they stopped Man City in the same way it was with Liverpool last year. FWIW I don’t care what people think of these teams. Mainly I find it a shame we’re happy for a team that has (potentially) significantly broken rules over many years that we all complain about hampering us and also leading to harsh penalties on poorer clubs. Lots to dislike about these other red cartel clubs, but I don’t think we can accuse them of screwing other clubs over - at least nowhere near the same extent. They’re just a bit annoying.

Good post and I do appreciate your thoughts. I thought Liverpool have always been annoying to be fair, along with the other ‘red cartel’ teams. I just found them pretty inoffensive to me overall and not that relevant. If they’re winning by being annoying rather than corrupt I can live with that. The Isak thing did change that a fair amount though. I grew up in Kent mainly so was naturally surrounded by red cartel fans too… however in amongst the frustration I can appreciate these clubs are successful with impressive history and didn’t need unlimited oil money to help get them to where they are. If they’re winning win and square so be it. I agree everyone are our rivals, but in my experience Newcastle fans seem to despise them disproportionately more than other fans for teams we’ve rarely competed with in the league in recent years and most of these teams couldn’t care less about us. Liverpool fans I met in London were very nice when we beat them and seemed to like Geordies etc. Maybe that’s my confirmation bias though.

True it does say that; it’s still a fantastic achievement from the guy given where we were when he took over. More it doesn’t tell us the full story. It shows we’ve been more consistent than the other teams (for the most part). Villa have had a lot of similarities to us without as much money, while Spurs, Chelsea and Man Utd have been at times awful during that period. Brighton have overachieved too. Then more importantly you factor in recent form, which should be used to judge a manager’s future over 3-4 years ago. Still don’t want my favourite ever manager to go mind, but it’s becoming more and more concerning.

I don’t know if that’s supposed to be points since Jan 2022, but that doesn’t say much. You can easily look a bit deeper than just the position. The gap between 3rd and 4th is bigger than the gap between 4th and 9th, so been little between us really. One of those teams finished 17th last year and are on course for relegation. Then you factor in recent form is what matters most, which this clearly doesn’t show.

I can understand this and aside from the whole corruption thing I find City pretty inoffensive, but tbh I think it’s pretty hard to get past . We can’t complain about these rules (crap as they are) hampering us and leading to harsh penalties for poorer clubs, but then be ok with the richest and most powerful getting away with it. Each to their own, but I personally struggle with the concept of a non-entity winning the league nearly every year because it’s better than a team I hate, as I find it quite a disappointing way to look at the league. Arsenal and Man Utd have also been pretty inoffensive to us in recent years and Liverpool only got really annoying over the whole Isak thing. These teams aren’t our rivals. It’s also a good thing to see things mixed up for the good of the game, while it’s also no harm to any of us if Arsenal were to win (they won’t). I mean everyone hates Liverpool and I often hear how ‘unbearable’ it would be if they won ‘because of their fans’. They won last year and nobody cared!

Shame to see the team that may have persistently broken the rules we all complain about will win the league again. However at lest they didn’t commit the sins of getting annoyed a few times like Arteta did. Can’t be having that now.

An interesting take I can’t see any evidence to support. Regardless, the guy many said was our worst ever manager got us to finish twice higher than where we are now and are on course to finish. Let that sink in. I don’t want to sound like some nasty Bruce apologist, but it’s only fair to point out how we comfortably stayed up with an awful team and star players often injured and I don’t really get challenged on this. We always have to jump through hoops to show why Rafa was better (which he clearly was btw), saying he always had a plan and so on, but ultimately it didn’t make much difference given it’s a results-based business (appreciate we’d have gone down if Bruce wasn’t sacked mind). I think this is relevant because we’re talking about who is at fault here. I don’t like the ownership/board for many reasons, but we despised Ashley yet that was rarely a reason to not want a manager sacked. Also unfortunately the board can’t sack themselves, harsh as that sounds to managers. In this case I think there are very fair reasons to say Howe was hard done-by last year. But still, with the players he’s had this has been a shambles and as has been pointed out, they weren’t nobodies. Other clubs have had to deal with losing star players and managed to adapt very well, most notably Bournemouth and Brentford - latter people thought would be in a relegation battle. I really want Howe to turn it around still, but it’s worryingly looking more and more like the end is coming.

I went a few years ago when we drew 0-0. Was quietly in the home fans as my mate supports them, but was near the away fans. Blended in nicely being from Kent. There was a pillar right in the middle of my view. Everyone was standing up and I’m 6ft3 so the roof was in the way too when I stood, meaning I could only see up to Burn’s knees when he was on the opposite wing. Dive of a stadium and area (I live near… but thankfully not too near), but to be fair they make an atmosphere in there, so I appreciated that. The complete opposite to West Ham, which looks nice enough but you can barely hear the crowd if you’re far back.

Knockout from the start wouldn’t work. We can’t expect teams and fans to all travel to one country just for potentially one match. The group stages are always exciting and become a real occasion for the team and fans, plus they remove the luck of the draw element to some extent. Ultimately you expect the ‘World’ Cup to provide an indicator of the best teams in the world so it makes sense they can’t eliminate each other too early. The previous format was ideal imo. It’s a real shame they have changed it, but if there’s money to be gained then it was inevitable. As it is the ‘World’ Cup in a sport that is globally very popular, I’m also not opposed to it being expanded, but 48 teams dilutes it and the third place rule removes the jeopardy. I would have been happy with 8 groups of 5 and then a round of 16. Means not everyone plays the last group game simultaneously, but there’s always the luck of the draw element still and it’s not like that in all other sports competitions. I know FIFA and Trump are an abomination in addition to the format issues, but it’s the WC and I’ll probably still be hooked. Very few I can remember have been snoozefests - the last one was weird being in winter here and held in Qatar, but was still a great tournament. These competitions also bring people together, which we really need right now. Also there’s the clear human rights issues, but we’re owned by Saudi Arabia and the last ones were in Qatar and Russia, so that combined with the fact I like watching it… means I’m not interested in boycotting.

To be fair he doesn’t live there so not like he’s become homeless. He lives in Thailand now like a lot of the patriots. Fair play to him enjoying all his trips but he’s one of the most boring people around who does indeed love the attention. Also surely being that much of a super fan of England must get a bit depressing.

Never wanted him after this. Thought it was crazy we were going to splash out £55m on him when surely £30m could have got us some reasonable back up from a weaker league and someone who isn’t a whopper. Not saying the guy’s situation was the same as Isak’s, but they both went on strike and acted unprofessionally. Wissa even probably used AI on Isak’s Insta statement to make it longer and look a bit more reasonable. But surely if you’re that pissed off with one of your strikers, don’t then go and sign another with a similar tendency.

Hope Howe gets a good summer and chance to turn it around. He will rightly be under pressure and needs to work well with the staff to get a good transfer window. If it means star players going so be it, but let’s get it sorted early doors and some good replacements. Even if they’re not as good he might benefit from more competent players than a few really good players combined with too many players that are poor/well past their best that he has now. On the subject of the last summer, clearly some things were beyond his control but I’m not fully convinced he’s simply been let down by his signings. He didn’t sign a bunch of nobodies. The following were included: - A highly rated young Germany international raved about in Germany. - A prolific midtable Premier League striker, with a very impressive 19 goals last season. - One of the most productive wingers in the league last season. They have all been largely rubbish. Some factors have clearly been beyond Howe’s control - injuries and players maybe suiting other systems/leagues better. That they have all been this bad and can’t seem to gel with their team though hardly reflects well on Howe, whether he wanted them or not.

We were always going to lose against that insanely good side, even at 2-2 on the stroke of HT. Don’t blame Howe at all for going for it and I’m proud of how well we did for 3/4 of the tie. It’s not really an issue people getting annoyed at how it fell apart though. There was some dreadful defending for the goals and ultimately despite being so good for most of the tie, a thrashing is a thrashing and people naturally get pissed off watching capitulations like that. It’s just how emotions work. We move on though.

Played some brilliant stuff for 3/4 of the tie and then capitulated massively. Nothing to get particularly worked up by and plenty of positives there, but also how are some people not pissed off at how we lost? We didn’t just lose to a much better team, we shipped some terrible goals. Yes it’s Barca away and they’re bloody brilliant, but they hardly score 7 every home match against the strong La Liga teams. We aren’t a bunch of amateurs here. We’re a team competing for the CL quarters against a team that also didn’t qualify automatically for the second round. Not the end of the world though… if we act like it, that’s just how people react watching sport! We’ll get over it, especially when we thrash the Mackems.

Chelsea have more respect for the ball than for transfer financial rules.

Not impressed by how he went about that game, but there’s not a lot he could do. I want to just accept we’re an injury-ridden team who were outclassed by a much better team who can seemingly spend insane amounts that we can’t. However… I find it far harder to think like that when we keep losing terribly recently and keep shipping three goals at home. We have in theory excellent defenders, but still leak goals for fun. We’re experts at conceding just before HT/just after scoring too. I’m pretty much over this season, but hope Eddie gets a good rest in the summer and is well supported. Then hope he gets a good while next season too, but can’t argue with him being under pressure.