TheBrownBottle

I’ll go Given; Woodgate, Botman, Albert; Solano, Lee, Bruno, Cabaye, Robert; Shearer, Beardsley 3-5-2. Wouldn’t waste too many slots with defenders

You were around to see Beresford (a thoroughly average left back) et al yet no Beardsley? Sacrilege, sir

We don’t a choice, unfortunately

Yep. I remember full well what happened when Chelsea in particular, and later Man City’s unrestrained transfer spending was in flow. It completely wrecked the transfer market, causing wages and fees to spike disproportionately to what they were previously. Those two clubs hoyed stupid money at some mediocre players as well as good ones - it was massively disruptive. I also don’t want to see a ‘you can spend whatever you want environment’. Plenty on here are suddenly keen because they think we’d benefit, and the mid-tier clubs are just stupid and jealous. There will be some of that involved, but unrestrained spending by NUFC would be disruptive and destructive to other clubs’ wage structures etc. FFP needs reform, not removing.

Wonder how he’d perform against functioning goalkeepers

The shit levels aren’t comparable there like. Bruce’s team was shite in our terms, but they weren’t third tier

I mean, I’m sure the Mackems spending half of their seasons during my lifetime in the lower leagues is a canny way of keeping everything broadly equal. They have a habit of disappearing out of sight when we have a good side …

It’s also untrue. NUFC has the most derby wins.

To amend PL rules needs a two-thirds majority. So 14 clubs - minimum - needed to vote to change those rules. So it’s not just the Sky Six.

If he’d remained a domestic manager, then I’m willing to bet that his track record would absolutely the same as those two. Even Steve Bruce wouldn’t look at England’s forward and attacking midfield options and think ‘fuck that, I’m playing a full back at no 10 and two defensive midfielders’

Everton are hardly Rob Roy here. They knew full well what they were doing - if they wanted to challenge FFP legally, they had several years to do it. They tried to bullshit and lie their way around it. Fuck them.

Not the place for this one, though ‘said nothing wrong’ is stretching it. And given this is your first post, I’m so happy that Musk’s insertion into that has clearly provoked you to come on here from mums.net or Glinner’s blog site

They’ve been overspending for years. I’ve zero sympathy whatsoever. Other clubs followed the rules, Everton flouted them. Without their flouting of the rules, they’d likely have been relegated in the last couple of years. One of those relegated clubs would have stayed up instead. This has been a long time coming. 10 points is light, frankly.

Yep. He’s a middle-class PFM.

Doesn’t look harsh at all to me. They cheated in comparison to other clubs. They should be thankful they weren’t relegated.

Given the talent at his disposal, yet he chooses to play TAA as an attacking midfielder, it is an enduring mystery as to how Southgate’s managerial career highlights before England was breaking Middlesbrough’s transfer record with possibly the worst pound-for-pound signing in English football history before seeing them relegated. I love mediocre, conservative football, me. It’s the attitude that makes you shut up shop if you go 1-0 up in a cup final after two minutes. The man is a born winner.

Christ, I forgot just how barren the international break is for most football hacks. If Howe’s under pressure then I think I give up. Where exactly are we that we shouldn’t be - and how would the situation have been improved with someone else managing us? I can picture in the not-too-distant future the ownership (and I mean the actual owners - not Staveley and Reuben) becoming ruthless with Howe; once the squad is fully recycled and a lot of money is sunk, then winning trophies and qualifying for the CL will no doubt be a minimum expectation. But right now?

Wonder how much money he made from the corporate speaker gigs via mistaken identity. ‘70s footballer Kevin Keelan’ rocks up and you realise the spelling mistake, but he’s here now and Keegan isn’t …

I’m not sure it’s a name. Looks like a spelling mistake

The problem is that saying that trans women can’t enter women’s toilets requires policing of some sort - just say it is legislated against. Who is going to enforce it? Who is really going to approach a woman about to enter a toilet cubicle and say ‘hey, I think you might have a penis’? I assume the fear that some women have is that of sexual assault. But how many recorded examples of this are there? And raping someone in a public place seems pretty risky. Being fearful is not a good enough reason to hold a prejudice against an entire group of people.

Absolutely pathetic. The point was of course that lots of trans women ‘pass’, and lots of cis women have masculine features. So who is policing the toilets?

I take it you’ll be stood outside the women’s toilets inspecting genitalia then? Or will someone else be doing that?

What is happening with the academy & new training ground? They’ve been here over two years and I’ve seen nowt to date

It’s the toot more than anything else. Someone pissed out of their face doesn’t have that argument - or at least not in the same way. No slurring, no staggering. Cokey confidence.

Hang on, when did Sir Les suck Ashley off? I missed this