TomYam

...and that's what we did most of the time under Bruce (and Rafa too). Desperately poor teams devoid of all confidence tend to. It's frustrating to play against such defensively-minded teams, but we need to coach our way around it. The boots on the other foot.

Not sure either, but the great music scene explosion of the mid 1960s coincided with Liverpool's rise to the very top under Shankly. Prior to that Liverpool had been regarded as a big club, but had just been promoted after about 9 years in the Second Division and there was a renaissance with the club spending unheard of amounts of money to achieve promotion (the new owner was the Financial Director of Littlewoods Pools). Everton had been the bigger and the more established and prestigious of the two neighbours, but perhaps no longer. It was almost a clean slate for Liverpool so I guess they adopted modern totems (such as that song) and have continued with mythologies, marketed by the media, to this day.

Yes. In this country it dates back to Arsenal slipping money to get promotion in 1919 and then buying their way to success in the '30s. Since the tv deals set up by the Big 3 in the late '80s, money and politics have consumed the professional game ever increasingly. As you say, Man City are just the latest of moneybags teams - and, boy, do Liverpool and the others not like it.

I thought David Gower played cricket, nit golf?

Unfortunately Everton play Bonmuff at home for their final game - who have been on the beach for the passed couple of weeks (hardly surprising when it's a short stroll away and fine weather has finally arrived).

A family member has worked at BBC Sport for 35 years. The corridors of power there have always been packed with ManU, Arsenal and Liverpool fans - especially Liverpool.

Whateve, the great majority of fans of those clubs were dead set against the ESL. Perhaps their opinions would change if, say, Us, Aston, Brighton and Wolves squeezed them all out of CL qualification for a couple of seasons?

I remember seeing a report of a survey conducted on how the fans of ESL invitees felt about it. ManCity were least enthusuastic and Liverpool the most.

What a game! Truly spectacular! Nothing against Posh at all, but glad Wednesday won; good club and hope they get back to the PL in coming years.

Really like De Zerbi. If we were to lose Eddie tomorrow, he would be my second choice after Pep. Wonderful feeling this evening. Will be some atmosphere against Leicester.

Coventry's future is still insecure with regard to having a home. I believe Ashley finally agreed to a 5 year tenancy at the Ricoh. Who knows after that? They've had a new (American) owner for only about 4 months, having finally rid themselves of the vampiric SISU that have preyed on them for 25 years or so. It'd be truly astonishing if they make it back to the PL. Heartwarming stuff. It would seem an impossible task to stay a second season if they do get promoted. However, those parachute payments would be transformative. The club's very future has been in doubt for a long time and now they have a real chance to normalise and prosper off the pitch as well as on it. Mark Robbins has been heroic to the Sky Blues's cause.

The PL, UEFA, the media and commercial entities will always want ManU, Arsenal and Liverpool to qualify for the CL and compete for the biggest trophies. The odds are stacked in their favour. I don't believe there's an agenda against other clubs. In fact I suspect the majority of the aforementioned groups would rather we competed at the top than Brighton because our club garners more interest and is more newsworthy.

Surely it takes a lot longer to travel from Blyth to Gloucester than to Bishop's Stortford? More frightening too with the ghost of Fred West lurking on some roadside. The geographical centre of England is Fenny Drayton, near Tamworth. In theory, any club south of there should play in NLS. Sadly there's more wealth in the south and south east and therefore more investment in clubs located there. The north-south divide is very evident outside the upper reaches of league football. Hardly surprising BStortford are unhappy; they're having to drive great distances (that clubs like Blyth always do as a matter of course) when the majority of clubs in NLS are less than 100 miles away.

...and Cov won the FA Cup in 1987, of course. I had backed Cov that year as I felt the team was developing excitingly after a decade of final day relegation scraps (Ogrizovic, Kilkline, Gynn, Magrath, Regis, Bennett). A manificent day when they won their first major trophy. Sadly, just a few years later they returned to final day relegation scraps. Really hope they beat Luton (despite the Ashley link).

Luton have had a hard time, for sure, but Coventry have had it equally hard and, in my opinion, a much better club too.

In short, it's a big deal for Espanyol and for Barcelona...not so much. There isn't really an equivalent here in the UK. Barcelona are one of the biggest clubs in Europe (possibly the biggest on a local level) while Espanyol and Espanyol have basically always been in their shadow. Although the two clubs were formed ay much the same time, their histories and culture are very different. Barcelona were leftist, anti-authoritarian, separatist. Espanyol were broadly compliant to the central authoritarian government. Of course Real Madrid have been Barcelona's real rivals for the last century because they are the only club of similar size in Spain but also because it was Franco's club (the oppressor of Bcn) and the club of the establishment.

They did. I lived in Barcelona at the time.

Manchester United Women F.C was only formed in 2018 and were immediately invited into the newly formed Championship, which they won in that first year and so got promoted to the PL after one year. They were Johnny-come-latelys but got their act together in the nick of time. Ashley didn't care one iota and so by 2018 we were the only one of the top 16 clubs in the country to show no interest in having a women's team (let alone a competitive one). If it hadn't been for Chris Hughton and Rafa Benitez, the senior men's team might have been as uncompetitive as our (non-affiliated) ladies and youth and u-21s. The man was poison.

Sadly, Everton are certain to stay up now; there have been too many bad teams to sink them. Leicester's situation reminds me so much much of our 2008-09 relegation; a rudderless ship with too many queasy passengers. They're doomed. Forest have more battle and that should see them to safety.

To be fair, Sunderland have had a really good season. Mowbray, nice but dull, has done very well. I hope they beat Luton in the play-offs and are then the ghost of Jimmy Hill inspires Cov to a 10-0 destruction of the hapless mackems at Wembley.

Durham Cestria winning 2-0 at HT. The lasses will need to keep calm and hopefully put the game to bed with a second goal.

Just a little tweak imparting geographical reality.

Groundbreaking top 4 right there. Let's hope we finish 3rd and Brighton 4th.

Three cheers for Big Sam: ? Hip, hip, hippo heed ?

Deeply depressing, but hippos for courses if their team stays up.