TheBrownBottle

Yep, modern football turns fans into accountants.

Wigan won the big one. I’d give my right bollock for an FA Cup win. It’s worth remember that NUFC literally played reserves and chucked in the towel in their league title tilt in order to win the cup in 1951. For most of the history of football in England the FA Cup was THE trophy to win. I’ll be honest, I know what the league means and therefore it’s the one to win - but winning the FA Cup at Wembley will be more emotional. Losing the FA Cup Final in 98 and 99 hurt more than blowing the title in 96 and coming close in 97.

I remember finishing second the first time - there wasn't much glory to it, tbh. Certainly no celebrations. The city would gan crackers for a week if we win a trophy - and that fucking hoodoo would be off our backs for good. We qualify for Europe with it, too.

Modern football is shite turning fans into budding accountants. 'The game is about glory' and all that

Seen us finish 2nd a couple of times. Meh. Trophy every day of the week. Sure, but that's not how the options work

Oh, I never said he is better - just that I wouldn't swap him I do think he's better than Fred, mind

He's got a 17% win rate vs teams ranked in the top ten when England played them. Yep, cracking job.

Nationalism is a far worse one Flip

A younger one, certainly

I'd much rather he was rested for Leicester than Bournemouth. Hoy Wood up top vs Leicester if Wilson can't manage the two games in a short period - Bournemouth is the most important of the two games. Howe knows better than me of course - so if he isn't ready, he isn't ready

The standard of the PL is comfortably higher than the WC. Morocco and Croatia were in the semi finals - it doesn't seem laughable to me that Joelinton had something to offer. He doesn't need to be a top three midfielder in the world - just a decent one. Joelinton is an excellent midfield destroyer - I wouldn't go as far as to suggest Brazil should play him, but then again they were playing Fred, Paqueta and Casemiro - and I wouldn't swap Joelinton for any of those three at present.

That would be the side for me - with ASM coming on early second half

Always makes me nauseous that stuff

Jesus wept

He's the greatest footballer of all time for me. The article is an interesting one - fun to see an American sports site acknowledging cricket's claim to be the world's second most popular sport, and therefore Don Bradman having a greater claim than Michael Jordan. It still feels like it should be an individual sport where the greatest athlete is given a nod - Muhammad Ali or Usain Bolt etc. Weren't decathletes seen as the truly greatest athletes? Or was that just because of Daley Thompson?

I'll go with both the game and the outcome being as pedestrian as this WC has been; 2-0 France for me assuming their defence recovers from illness, Hopefully this will be the last time proper football gets disrupted mid-season for this shite. I'm itching for the Bournemouth game mid-week; had England or Brazil got through to the final we would have been going into that game shorthanded. Keep WCs to the off-season please FIFA; you're going to accept bribes regardless, so if you're lining your pockets at least do it without directly impacting the rest of us.

Alexander Marcelino In all seriousness though, based on what we were all told Boxing Day always seemed an ambition rather than a fixed date. Yes, it’s disappointing that he’s been injured so quick into his NUFC career - but footballers get injured. We’ve no idea if he’s a permacrock or this is a case of bad luck - hopefully the latter, of course. No-one should be writing the lad off a couple of months after a thigh injury, that seems daft to me. Generally though - and I’m not saying this is the case for Isak, who looked really impressive to me for a young lad in a new league - some of these big money signings won’t come off. The best thing is knowing that talented young lads like Isak are not being bought for resale, but with a view that they’re going to be the club’s future. I’m still getting used to that being the case again - after 15 long years of ‘stepping stone’ signings, it takes some adjusting that NUFC are operating again like they did in the 15 years before that.

Some of those definitely have noncey old men vibes

I vividly remember coming back from a win at Highbury in May 1997, a week where we still had an outside chance of winning the title - we had three games left (what was it with NUFC playing four league games in the final week of the season when we could win it?), knowing that if we won all three (including at OT) and Man Utd lost to West Ham final day we could win it. I had a (drunk) conversation with a couple of mates on the bus back, where we eventually aligned on wanting to wait to win it ‘properly’, given that to win it that year having looked to be out of the race for so long would be weirdly anticlimactic. Next year would be a non-stop tilt for the title replete with a victory lap in the last few fixtures. So while totally getting your point, having enjoyed the next barren quarter of a century, I think we hope we win anything we can whenever the opportunity presents

This is literally the funniest thing they’ve done. The pro-free speech brigade fucking terrified of what the rest of the world will think of their comments - both us laughing at the daft cunts, and ‘in peace’ strangers noticing that their ‘human rights’ agenda is laughably shallow.

Not that playing Al-Ahly, Pachuca and Penarol in Japan isn’t really exciting like.

Christ, not this shite again. Hopefully no-one bales out of the FA Cup like ManUre did. FIFA has long been desperate to get some of that sweet, sweet club football cash. The problem is no-one in Europe has ever, nor will ever, give a shite about these tournaments. Intercontinental Cup / that Toyota giant key cup / FIFA Club World Cup etc. Load of crap.

I’m willing to bet that Ross Stewart’s family aren’t even lobbying to see more of him

I’m watching this like I do with FA Cup matches between non league sides and a top flight club. I want the underdog to win, but as soon as it’s apparent that they won’t, I kind of want the big side to absolutely smash them 8-0

Yep, this all feels like classic English scapegoating to me re the referee. We created very little from open play despite France really not being on their game. The Kane foul wasn't a pen, so couldn't be brought back. It didn't especially feel like a football robbery to me - England huffed and puffed and created nowt, and fell asleep for the two French goals.