Danny

But you can’t have the technology that allows you to categorically see what is wrong with a call on the pitch and then consistently have refs who fail to use it correctly. It is a mind blowing level of failure. At least in real time decisions can be difficult to see and that is why a lot of decisions are called wrong, yes there will be a lot of negligence, but at this point the refs do not know how to use VAR. That is bad, that is worse than getting a call wrong in real time, that they consistently do not know how to use the technology. And who suffers the most? Fans at the game, because the passion is sucked out of it so we can watch negligence on a microscopic scale. I think if we can get the semi-automated VAR offside calls through then use that, I think its been shown that the refs manually using VAR don’t have the correct frames to make correct decisions, decisions being made after a ball is hit and not as the ball is hit. That level of failure to be precise so we can sit there for 5 minutes waiting for a call just cannot happen.

Personally I would rather someone gets away with cheating than a referee looks at any number of the incompetent decisions we have seen this year and decide they are the opposite of what they see on screen. At least with cheating it's part of the game, it's part of getting one over on your opponent, a clattering foul, a dive, whatever, I would much rather that than watch referees go to a screen, see the answer is A and come away and award B. Not only are they getting decisions wrong that they have no excuse for getting wrong, but they are also ruining the match day experience. The flow of the game, the celebrations.

Honestly can't help but think people are living with a bit too much nostalgia. From a competition standpoint the Premier League was absolute dogshit through the 00's, it was strangled in the 90s and the feelings people have for almost not being able to escape Pep and City were the same for Fergie and United. The only difference really is that Fergie had to compete with a coach in Mourinho who redefined how clubs should defend and train in England and was backed to the hilt, Klopp came in and redefined how to press aggressively but has done it at a weaker club financially than Chelsea. But still, it was difficult to better Ferguson and really the only man who has completely outplayed him is now doing it for City. Personally I grew numb of this a long time ago, I would say when Chelsea first won the Champions League, that was a real turning point that showed that it didn't really matter if you had a historical pedigree in the competition (Liverpool, United) or no pedigree in it (Forest when they won, Villa when they won, Arsenal when they reached a final), what mattered is that you could bankroll your way to success regardless. It's very rare that you could see a team win the competition based purely on great coaching, scouting and academy intake. It's very telling that the only time in the league where a complete surprise occurred in my lifetime in Leicester winning it; Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City all sacked their managers that season. Not to discredit Leicester, but the facts are that the reason they had such a good run at the title whilst competing with Spurs of all teams was due to complete and utter mismanagement of 4 of the traditional top 6 in that season and the season before. We hadn't seen mismanagement like that from those powerfully rich clubs as a whole in decades before and we haven't seen it since. I've probably waffled on about this before, but what I would love is a global system in which all clubs regardless of where you are have to compete within the same type of wage/transfer restrictions. Then we would get to see a true Club World Cup, imagine if Brazilian clubs or Argentinian clubs could keep their best players, imagine how many opportunities there would be for young players knowing that the academy systems would be more important than ever as you have to supplement your big spends with great academy finds as everyone operates under similar transfer constraints. I realise it would lead to less quality in the league as a whole in England or Spain, and there would also still end up with concentrated levels of talent in certain areas, but at least it would be down to how well you operate as a club rather than how much money you can make from tv money, prize money, global sales or just a randomly rich benefactor. A yearly, proper, real McCoy Club World Cup would be phenomenal. Fuck the Champions League, Europa, Conference, just create a global version for each one, short group stage/knock out style.

Arsenal in December shot themselves in the foot, I think judging by the points tally they will likely win the league on, you can't blame them for being so good because they dropped enough points that they could be beaten. It's just that Arsenal dropped points too, except the bad thing for Arsenal is that they were just shit, whereas City just had injuries...wait until City are fully fit next season.

Prem has been like this for decades now. Wasn’t long ago we had the cemented top 4 and then everyone else, only reason that got broken was because of City’s oil money. European football as a whole needs to be revamped and its been needed for a long time, the European Super League is an example of how bad football is now because the only teams who have made the final in the last 16/17 years have been teams invited into it.

Tbh I get the complaints when City win the league by 100 points, 98 points, but in 20/21 they won it on 86 points, this year it will be 91, yes you have to be very good, but you don’t always have to be perfect to win it. If Arsenal hadn’t of fucked around in December losing to Fulham, West Ham and Villa they‘d probably have won the league. You can talk about how good they were from January onwards, but thats how good you have to be to win the league. That goes for pretty much every team that has won the league, they are all that good. The only time we have ever seen monstrous levels of performance were the 3 times Pep and Klopp pushed the 98/99/100 point mark. What makes Pep great is his ability to get City to do this every year, that is phenomenal. But their points tally this year? The only people Arsenal have to blame are themselves for dropping silly points early in a title race.

Thomas Frank being linked with the United job today. I feel like it's just a case of pick and choose a random coach on a random day to manage a random top 6 team for the media. Liverpool, United, Chelsea...whoever else. If not Frank then it's De Zerbi, or Alonso, or whoever lol. Think Frank would do a great job at United with the backing of the club, his record against the top 6 during our first 2 seasons is pretty incredible and even when we don't win, we've outplayed a lot of them whilst still drawing or losing. No doubt he'd be able to make them tough to beat whilst also implementing a fluid attacking game. But I don't think switching from ten Haag to Frank is worth it for United, still don't think he's had the chance to fully try to implement a style at United because of how much of a shitshow they've been behind the scenes. Whoever they employ it needs to be the right coach because there are a lot of contracts ending this Summer and next, and the last thing United want to do is replace those players with more players that don't fit a cohesive style.

I think it’s just the nature of how fickle narratives in football can be. It’s a long, gruelling 38 game season with 3 Cup competitions thrown in too. You were so good in 2023 and mostly because you had a strong starting eleven that was rarely injured. But then you accrue injuries to Salah, Jones, Trent, Allison, sure some others too, but your best players are suddenly out at different points, have to come back and build up form and confidence in the hardest part of the season. You’re then expecting players like Mac Allister, Szobslai and Endo to step up even though it’s the first season at the club, in a new aggressive style with 2/3 having never played in England before. I think you were always going to struggle if you suffered injuries to key players at key times because you don’t have the squad depth, and then on top of that last season City and Arsenal were competing for a title whilst you finished outside the top 4. It’s a massive jump to make. And I’ve not even mentioned the jeopardy of Klopp leaving.

That look Evans gave Casemiro, said it all. I’d like to give credit to Havertz and Trossard but honestly that was entirely down to Casemiro just not caring, just created an easy 1v1 for Havertz to slide across goal

He’s just not better than Rodri is he

Raya Trent - Saliba - Gabriel - Ake Palmer - Rodri- Odegaard - Foden Watkins - Haaland

Tbh my point was a bit reductive, but the negative about his charisma also extends to the fact that he is a twat and too much of a centrist.

Does make you think that if there maybe a hung parliament, it'll probably be Labour and the Lib Dems, assuming the Lib Dems can get their shit together enough to take advantage of Starmer's shit on a stick like charisma.

You dont want a bit of Lenny Henry popping up on Sky? Mrs. Johnson…welcome to my shop

They were always my preferred side to see up instead of Norwich, always enjoyed the story of Marcus and Darren Bent too.

I think I'd prefer West Brom out of everybody. No offense @Lucas but between our times in the Championship and the Premier League I'm a bit bored of you now lol. Southampton I just can't stomach anymore, too dull for too long. Norwich, even duller. I know West Brom were especially dull when they were in the Premier League all those years ago but I've always quite liked watching matches on TV when theyre at home and also, it's a funny part of the West Midlands that you'd only really know exists through watching football. Plus Lenny Henry supports them and thats always a fun little celebrity spotting from the camera man. Tenuous reasons for wanting and not wanting clubs to go up, I know, but I think it just speaks to how boring the promotion race actually is in terms of clubs in it. Essentially, West Brom aside, it has become a mini Premier League this season.

I mean Leicester are coming up and aren't too far away from them, also could have Leeds in the Prem next season too. Problem is teams in Yorkshire have been woefully mismanaged for years. Leeds, Wednesday, Sheffield United and Hull...can't say they've been unlucky, just poorly executed time and time again with the odd exception.

Takes me back to Thomas Frank's first full season, £30m spent, had an end of season collapse for the automatics and got beat in the play-off final by Fulham....can't imagine where we'd be now if we had owners like this.

Seems so fucking stupid, their highest points tally in 7 years, clear improvement in the playing staff, quality of football, points on the board. I remember the season we went up and what I noticed was the difference from the season we lost to Fulham was we drew more of the games we would have lost and won more of the games we would have drawn from the season before. I don’t see how that type of improvement isn’t something Rosenior could do.

It's a shame they're going to stay up

I think it’s just more of a a view on Palace than United, I expect Palace to beat Liverpool, don’t really expect them to best United lol.

Yeah but I’m saying it’s a bad example because it was the British that introduced the levels of homophobia that we see today. And ironically any push to stop them from being homophobic only encourages it more as a lot of Ugandans just see it as the coloniser trying to control them again, so homophobia becomes a response to what they see as Western intervention

Your natural instinct when you see United losing 3-0 to Palace is to think what the fuck, but I've just seen their back line. Wan Bissaka at left back with Evans and Casemiro at centre back...yeah I'm not surprised it's 3-0 Palace. United have been hit by a plethora of injuries but also 2 Summer's of pretty bad transfer planning (that goes beyond ten Haag) that leads to them playing with a bad defence and then Eriksen at the base with Mainoo....not to mention Antony started. Will be interesting to see how the Summer transfer window goes.

Michael fucking Olise

Uganda is not a great example seeing as the homophobic laws there are influenced directly by British Colonialism