TheBrownBottle

I do think he’s less scattergun than the tabloid hack, but completely agree that he’s a bit of a cunt

All European comps were straight knockouts until 1992 when the European Cup changed to ‘Champions League’ and added a group stage - though weirdly the groups decided the finalists. The group stages are only about two things: more money from more games, and ensuring the ‘big boys’ can recover from losses against ‘lesser clubs’. It’s sporting cowardice, but Berlusconi and co in the mid-90s were terrified of the AC Milans and Barcelonas of the world losing too early.

They all have to start somewhere History means a lot too - but it’s UEFA’s third competition. I’m really glad they’ve started it up - and that Roma won the first iteration, which raises the profile. I personally hate what the ‘Champions League’ has become - the nadir was the Liverpool vs Spurs final - two clubs which hadn’t won a domestic title in a combined total of c.90 years vying to become champions of Europe. Fucking ludicrous. There’s no fixing that now, but a third tournament means more clubs have a chance to compete, and it presents a chance for some of the nations which used to be competitive to be so in Europe again. No, it’s absolutely correct that all European nations have entries. I detest the smug elitism of the ‘big five’ European leagues. As if fucking PSG or RB Leipzig have better pedigree than Dynamo Kiev, Steaua Bucharest or Red Star Belgrade.

I’m glad Europe has three tournaments again. I get why the Cup Winner’s Cup was scrapped - most European nations don’t give a shite about their domestic cups. But there was a massive hole caused by its absence and a bloated revised European Cup. Personally, I’d happily see the European Cup to return to being what it was, which would help restore Eastern European football. No chance that’s happening now though.

It would sit above a League Cup straight away for me.

Even though he’s a tiresome Bruce-loving troll with no ability to forecast a club budget, Edwards has in the past been spot-on re transfer rumours. Given the journal he writes for, he also doesn’t sit in the ‘need transfer news to flog papers’ world of tabloid hackery, so he doesn’t need to stick his neck out every single day.

Having said that, having someone who can take a genuinely dangerous corner wouldn’t be a bad thing

Even if we’re after him, there’s zero chance we’re smashing the wage structure and paying him £200k/pw base. It strikes me as more horseshit put out by agents trying to get a better deal.

Haha yep, the fixture list is fun like that sometimes. Thirty-odd thousand collectively thinking ‘narrow miss that’ when Daveeed first picked up the ball.

I always found it both irritating and funny to watch PFMs doing European football punditry. They’re paid exorbitant sums to watch football and talk shite about it for literally minutes every so often - yet their knowledge of anything outside of England is minimal. And if we were talking about the Maltese third division, I’d think ‘fair enough’. But I know they’ll watch an all-Milanese CL semi and still be unsure about many of the players on the pitch. They’re paid to watch football and talk about it - and even watching football is apparently just too great a burden.

They definitely were Zenden was a good footballer tbf - though not in Robert’s class for me. Franny Jeffers … not so much There’s a couple of those moments in our history. What happens if Keegan signs John Salako as planned in summer ‘95 - and isn’t forced to turn PSG’s left sided forward when he heads to Coventry instead? https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-salako-dismisses-newcastle-as-a-move-too-far-1587765.html

Given, Dyer, Solano, Speed, Shearer were all already at the club and first teamers when Robson arrived. The transformational signings were Robert and Bellamy - they completely changed how we played, suddenly we could stretch teams on the flanks, and Bellamy and Dyer supplied pace almost as inside forwards, freeing up room from a massively slowed-down Shearer. With Speed in there too, we often had six players capable of scoring goals in attack - we steamrolled a lot of teams. We did though spend an awful lot of money on mediocre players, or at least players who were unlucky with injuries. Woodgate made our very average back line look temporarily good - he was an unbelievable centre half, still unmatched in B&W for me.

This is definitely a better side - Robson’s centre halves weren’t great. Remember when he paid ten times as much for Bramble as Arsenal did for Toure in 2002? I do.

Robson took quite a lot longer to turn the team round than Howe has - and if Howe qualified for the CL for me he’s surpassed him immediately. Robson had a squad of (in relative terms) better players, and took two seasons - and a fair bit of cash - to get them above mid table. NUFC were already one of the richest clubs in world football when he took over, and there wasn’t a gamut of rich and powerful clubs to get past at that time. Robson was clearly more charismatic than Howe, but that isn’t too important for me. I enjoyed Robson’s time here, but unlike Keegan - who truly did perform something of a miracle - he just did a very good job for most of it. I still find the presence of his statue a bit puzzling tbh.

The quality of Italian football has taken a serious dip over the last decade or so … but the spectacle and atmosphere is still mint

1+8 lads and lasses … 1+8. All because the real Ronaldo took the 9 shirt off him Also, don’t know if it’s been mentioned - how nice does that Inter top look without a sponsor ruining it?

Did a quick check - PL-era only: West Ham were the last team to go down with 40+ points - 42 points in 02/03 - which is also a record for a PL 38 game season The mackems (96-97) and Bolton (97-98) both went down with 40 points in 38 game seasons. The record points tally (PL only) for relegation is 49 - Palace in 92/93

I think they might have went down with the highest points tally for a 38-game season - but I'm sure the mackems went down with 40 points in a season. There probably were others - though relegation with 40 points is a rarity

I was just thinking of that - but the problem is that Johnson, Cole, Carrick, Defore etc were talented kids; this Leicester side aren't that; Barnes, Maddison and Tielemans are 25, 26 and 26 respectively. Mind you that West Ham side might be one of the best sides relegated - from memory their points tally wasn't atrocious either.

I'll second that one. I reckon the lad can handle the rough stuff.

Great stuff. And (almost) all the comments below the tweet aren't depressing ... which feels like a bonus

Longstaff's absence has illustrated two things: first, how vital he is to the way we play (as a player he's obviously not in Bruno's class - few are - but his tidiness on the ball and engine are first class); and second, why the McTominay links were so strong for so long. I can 100% see why Howe would be interested in a player like McTominay to provide direct competition for Longstaff - we're going to need two players for each position who can play Howe-ball. And I'm also aware that some will be reading that last sentence and somewhat disagree

Great news. The women's game was treated criminally for the majority of footballing history - and of course Mike Ashley's NUFC kept that inglorious tradition going far too long into the 21st century.

I was at the 4-1 away and the O'Brien FK 2-1 to complete 11 in a row - and they don't for me

That’s fair enough - that’s your experience and I’m not going to knock it. Don’t get me wrong, every goal I’ve seen at Joker / SOS scored by NUFC resulted in going crackers. But for me, I can’t be arsed with the anxiety and stress - nothing is truly gained from it. And their continued failure is so much funnier than a derby success twice a year - you know it’s eating them up every day being stuck down there when NUFC goes from strength to strength. I’d be perfectly happy to draw the in a cup at some point and watch them given a good old thrashing though.