TheBrownBottle

Ructions

Sorry, did you just accuse me of being a racist because I’m not bothered about dictatorships plowing money into English football? Get fucked, you fucking prick

Yep. My other half stopped me playing Champ Man because the stress of completely fictional transfers was driving her crackers, and was clearly send me a bit loopy. Life lesson there for some others

I’m ok with that, tbf. I don’t follow Newcastle because of the players who play - it’s because I’m from Newcastle. I was there watching football in the old second division which was unimaginably poor compared to what you’ll see today. Football is tribal; it isn’t about quality.

You really think that the only people in the UK who’d have a problem with the govt buying a football club with £6bn of public money would be ‘other non Man U football fans’? It would be everyone - including a good chunk of Man Utd fans. It’s two-thirds of what the govt spends on housing, and there is a housing crisis. ‘British govt buys Man Utd - nothing to see here’ is unlikely to be the headline nor the reaction.

Except you can criticise because you’re a human being who cares about what happens to other human beings. Empathy and all that. The ignorance of many is truly fucking frightening to me. ‘KSA is no worse than anywhere else’. There’s an easy test for this - go out onto the streets of London and start a protest against the government. Then do the same in Riyadh. I’d say come back and let me know the results, but the second one would see you executed.

Yeah, that’s where my thoughts are too

Yeah, it’s not ideal. But there’s only a handful who might not be deemed PL quality anymore

The club is snookered by FFP. It’s going to be tricky for a couple of more years - the likelihood is that we’ll struggle at various points. I don’t think our squad is that terrible tbh.

It’ll be interesting to see if Tonali is the one ‘big’ signing and the rest of the budget is used for building a bit more quality in reserve, or if we’ll bring in another big money player. Can’t see it being both unless we sell.

We all know why it’s those colours, and it isn’t an aesthetic choice by Castore. It’ll be a red flag for the usual types in the press, which is all a bit daft really. I can’t say I get arsed by football kits at all - the only issue I have with green is the visibility element for players. Otherwise, it is what it is. Also, it does look like we now have permanent away colours.

Unlikely to boost revenue by much tbh.

The same media who all predicted we’d sign Tonali, too. Almost as if they don’t really know all that much …

I can empathise. I started throwing invective at a TV screen, like a mad old cunt getting angry at a news channel

No, some of us have been pretty consistent in ours views on this one. Maddison isn’t crap - he’s a good footballer - but it isn’t bonkers to think he doesn’t fit with how we play. Because he doesn’t.

That’s a good enough spine to not be floundering in trouble constantly.

I was on my way to work here in Sydney this morning when one of the huge contingent of antipodean Sunderland fans spotted a gravy stain on my tie and challenged me on Jamie Reuben basically just being a spoilt rich boy with inherited wealth. I had no response and was crestfallen, and he is now Top Dog in Sydney. True story.

Rice has a choice to make between Man City and Arsenal. We didn’t bid for Maddison other than last year.

Bruno is the ‘6’. We’ve signed an ‘8’. It would be astonishing if we signed another midfielder who wasn’t a wide man. The squad needs strengthened elsewhere. Maddison clearly doesn’t suit our style of play, and I’d much rather have Tonali as our RCM than Maddison

None whatsoever. Same in January. Just the desperate wishes of some of support.

That’s where my thinking is.

The obvious has happened, then I’m extremely dubious that we were genuinely after him after last summer. We made a bid, Leicester wanted a shitload more, that was that. Leicester would have happily watched a ‘bidding war’ if we’d even been remotely interested this summer. An awful lot of people have set their heart on a player who can’t get past Trent Alexander Arnold in England’s midfield …

He was already at a top club - and he's costing top dollar. There were no noises from any of last season's European-qualifying clubs saying that they wanted Maddison. You'd think they'd happily be trying to pick up a bargain from a freshly relegated club

The cunt actually made me want Man Utd to win the FA Cup