TheBrownBottle

Looks like we’re a minute behind here in Oz

60th min sub incoming

Poor first half, but it’s still evens and I would have taken that before the match. Got to improve second half though

Then they’re either deliberately watering the pitch like this, or the PL need to find out if their ground meets regs

Murphy fell asleep there

I don’t think Selhurst Park has proper pitch drainage - absolutely ridiculous this

BDB looks shaky as

Standard 23/24 away performance. Wake up lads.

That Tory cunt MP who was chairman at Luton was desperate to turn his on. Those things killed 97 people at Hillsborough - scary to imagine how that day could have been worse, but I reckon electrified fences would be one way it could have been.

Yeah, the Ibrox Tournament. That’s burned into my brain too - we beat Man Utd on pens, then I went with my dad to watch the final vs Samp in the local. Lombardo absolutely tortured us … edit: England’s status in Europe wasn’t great. When we blew the title, it isn’t often remarked upon how English sides faired in Europe. Man Utd were put out by Rotor Volgograd; Blackburn finished bottom of a CL group with Legia Warsaw, Rosenberg and Spartak Moscow; Leeds were hammered 8-3 by PSV; Forest knocked out by Auxerre after scraping past Malmo on away goals; Liverpool couldn’t get past Brondby; and Everton lost to Feyenoord. Hard to imagine that set of results today - I reckon there’d be a national enquiry

Yeah, it’s carved into an old quarry. Always thought it would be a great ground to visit

Hey, it could be a manager living with his sporting director’s recruitment strategy for all we know.

Haven’t played them; would be a cracking away game; outside of the ‘big three’, they’re as successful as any other Portuguese club

Count me in the ranks of the non-plussed. I think the man is an expert salesman, if nothing else. He’s a delegator and an administrator.

Got you. Yeah, I like your list - the only one I’d swap out would be Ferencvaros - though only because I’ve already been there to see NUFC play in the UEFA Cup (was also at the home game when Ginola scored a peach)

Tbf he could pay off the mortgage with his signing-on fee. Doesn’t mean that he’s going anywhere, but buying a house in the area is meaningless in terms of his staying or going. My two-penneth-worth would be that the only club in England Bruno leaves for is Man City. If they meet the asking price I think he’s likely to go. Hopefully not, though.

Isak’s gannin neewhere

You forgot to add that the physio and sports science depts are filled with his recruitment choices. And given our relatively injury-free season, you’d have to give Ashworth all the credit on that front

I’d rather break our duck with the Conference League than the League Cup, if I’m given the choice.

Ajax, Braga, Panathanikos would be my dream draw from that pot - in terms of my usual preferences (big names, preferably clubs we’ve never played in a competitive fixture).

‘You’ve got to be in a position to miss’ etc. Yep, absolutely true - but it’s still about shot conversion. As I said, in the early- to mid-90s English football was likely the weakest it’s ever been relative to other major European leagues post-war. You’ll hear lads of my generation constantly talking about the English striking talent of that generation - Shearer, Cole, Ferdinand, Sheringham, Fowler, Collymore, Wright etc. I don’t think any of them - other than Shearer - were genuinely elite-class players. Due to the ‘three foreigners’ rule in Europe (where Welsh and Scottish players were treated as ‘foreign’ too) most English sides had eight English players. So most of the goalscorers were English. It didn’t mean they were great - English football was in a nadir at that point. That Newcastle side played with five forwards - two wingers, a deep lying forward and an attacking midfielder who was effectively an inside-forward as well as Cole as a no 9. The chances that were created for him … you’d have to rewatch games from 93/94 to see it. Beardsley was a wizard; Lee was a superb attacking midfielder; Sellars a superb provider; Fox when he came in was a constant threat. Beresford and Venison were excellent attacking full backs who could provide balls into the area. Cole was provided chance after chance after chance. To his absolute credit, he buried 40-odd of them. But someone like an Isak would have scored close to a ton if he was playing in that side. Also, the idea of Haaland getting stick is a joke. The lad is a goal machine.

I really liked it when he sang ‘Fuck off Kevin Keegan’ and called us sad Geordie bastards after the ‘96 Cup Final. We should name a stand after him. In all seriousness, that’s only part of the reason why he hasn’t been as loved or respected as he might have been. His spell at NUFC was brief - he was a superstar when he was here, but both injuries and a reversion to the mean had caught up with him by the time he was leaving the club. He went nine games without a goal before he left - and by all accounts him and Paul Stretford had been hawking his services all over the shop. We all loved him when he was here, but I don’t remember hearing anyone pining for his return after he went. He won trophies after he left - but no-one would ever suggest that Man Utd wouldn’t have won those trophies without Andy Cole in the team. Ultimately, he wasn’t a top drawer centre forward - he got the right move at the right time, in an era when the standard of English top flight football was at its lowest ebb. Hoddle was (is) a nutter, but he was bang on re the number of chances he needed to score. It’s incredibly to think of what Man Utd might have won if Ferguson had ever signed a genuine top class centre forward in that period.

I like being able to hate Man Utd properly again. The Ashley years kept us well outside of their orbit

I think he had his tongue in cheek for a fair bit of that tbf - I didn’t read it that anything was meant as a slight