Burning Gold

Sure, but me popping down to the polling station doesn't make them any more likely to do so. I can only control whether or not I vote. And it's not guaranteed it would've made a difference. That would only happen if those extra voters would've voted differently to the rest of the country as a whole, which is possible, but I see no reason to believe it would be the case. This referedum is a rare case though. In a general election, it's even more unlikely that non-voters could've made a difference as they're likely to be distributed across various constituencies - mostly safe seats.

I don't think Karius could've caught that (don't know if it's significant, but it did take a slight deflection off Klavan on the way in), but he literally palmed it across the face of goal. Definitely an error in my book.

I don't necessarily agree with Cannabis, but I definitely sympathise with his point of view. I've voted in every general election since I turned 18, but did my vote make the slightest difference? No. I live in a very safe seat and I assume he's the same. My vote literally does not matter. Even in the EU referendum, for which there were no constituencies and the result was very close, the margin of victory was over a million votes. My vote sure as shit didn't make a difference, and even if it had, so what? Leave won and we're essentially remaining anyway. I hate this "if you don't vote you can't complain" shit as well. If you don't attempt to help into power the least bad of a bunch of shitty options, even though it won't make a difference, you're not allowed to point out how shit the victorious shitty option is? Fuck off

I don't think being dropped for friendlies will do his confidence any good. Friendlies ffs I agree with @RandoEFC that a loan spell would be good for him. He needs game time to get past his current difficulties and he's not going to get that at Liverpool. Even if he did, the media circus would do him no good at all and there would be fingers pointed at him every time we concede a goal, whether he's at fault or not. In fact, as much as I like Karius and think he's a decent keeper, I wonder if he has the mental strength to be one at the highest level, so maybe a permanent move would be in everyone's best interests. I think the plan at the moment is for Karius to be backup to Alisson as Mignolet's insisting he wants to leave, but I think we're going to seriously struggle to find a buyer for the Belgian. It may be best to keep him as backup and move Karius instead.

I generally agree, although I do think it's unfair to put most of those transfers in the same category as Pogba. That deal for me was blatantly far more about his marketability than his football ability which, while substantial, is not and never will be worth what they paid. That wasn't really the case with the other deals. The worst accusation that could be leveled at United for them is that they were opportunistic rather than carefully considered, but that's with a perspective skewed by hindsight. Outside of that, I don't begrudge United the money they spend and I won't criticse them for it because they've built their club through legitimate means; earning success on the pitch, using that to turn the club into something of a brand a la the New York Yankees, thereby the financial success which gives them the money to spend back on the pitch. This differs from the likes of Chelsea, Man City, and PSG, whose money comes from unfathomably wealthy individuals/groups with... ahem... questionable morality and with wealth tied to that. It's the United model we've tried to emulate under FSG, both by raising a lot of money through player sales and by greatly improving the commercial side of the club (although Henry and co. do come under the unfathomably wealthy category) and it's a key difference because their sources of income make Chelsea, Man City, PSG , etc. playthings and PR tools of their respective financers (to various extents) and I think that's a very ugly thing to happen to any football club.

I was hoping to reel in one of the Everton lads, but you'll do

Try being passionate instead mate

The joke will be if Chelsea think Pickford is an adequate alternative to Alisson

"Will Everton rue that miss?"

Whatever, mate, you see it your way, I see it mine. But honestly if I thought the club lied as frequently and as egregiously as you do, I don't know how I'd be able to continue supporting them.

It isn't nonsense, but no surprise to see you being as cynical as possible about the club as usual. Roma want big money if they're to sell Allison mate and he simply isn't worth that. I think the stories we're now seeing about Ward are a pretty strong indicator we're unlikely to sign another keeper.

So Mignolet's been shite and making mistakes left, right, and centre for six years, but all of a sudden Karius does it and the club decides to "cover it up" by asking a doctor to jeopardise his career and invent a concussion? To what end?

As if people believe diagnoses from medical professionals

The mistakes in the Champions League final stick in the memory because of the stage and because they were such howlers, but that's not a true reflection of Karius's level as a goalkeeper. He was pretty good for almost all of last season until that night, and we all know the circumstances surrounding those errors. If we can't get a genuine top quality goalkeeper, I'm fine with him as our number 1 next season. There's an argument that the fan's attitude towards Karius has become so toxic after what happened in Kiev that his position has become untenable, but christ we put up with Mignolet for long enough, and he's far worse. We do need a top quality goalkeeper, but I don't want to see us pay good money for a slight upgrade. That wouldn't solve the problem, but it would cause more inconsistency in the composition of the back five, and potentially leave us with yet another goalkeeper we'll struggle to get rid of next summer.

No mate, I'm pretty sure being vegan isn't the same thing as being gay

Have they thought about playing entertaining football?

Why don't you post it mate?

As Rab said, you don't pay tax on gambling winnings, but also, you only pay tax on the portion of your income that's above that band, so you wouldn't be paying a load more tax anyway. I admire your optimism though

I've watched a few games that only have one commentator and it's really weird. Can't imagine how uncomfortable it must be to be the one doing it I think it's fair to say you're quite opinionated - do you tone it down for the commentary and journalism, or do you always call it exactly how you see it?

Aye, forgot that Mo Salah has played for us since 2008.

Absolutely top class from Andy Robertson @Inverted's about to jizz his pants

You say this as if there aren't people for whom playing the race card is instinctive. I'm not saying Holgate is that type of person, but the fact that those people exist means it's not as much of a leap as you think it is to think he made it up. The clip's all over the internet and at no point does Firmino say anything that could possibly be misinterpreted as the n word, which Holgate very clearly said Firmino used. For that reason, and the fact that no one else around him reacted, I do think he made it up, but there's no conclusive evidence for that because ultimately only he knows what he heard or thought he heard, so I don't think he should be punished. I like to think I'm pretty objective when it comes to football and I'm literally just going off the visual evidence, so I don't see how I could be being biased here.

as if we're still discussing a topic when someone else has given an opinion I agree with

Fair enough mate, I disagree. I think some good would be done by punishing false accusers, but I think more harm would be done by setting the precedent that you will be punished if your allegation isn't proven. Even for Holgate, who I think it's blindingly obvious made it up, there isn't concrete evidence that he did, so he should go unpunished, as unjust as it seems. What definitely needs to happen is people waiting for the investigation to conclude instead of treating allegations as convictions. We're too willing to condemn the accused (I'm not just talking about racist abuse in football here) and it can ruin lives. That hasn't happened to Firmino because everyone could see how ludicrous the accusation was from day one and because we tend to forgive footballers their indiscretions, but it could've done if circumstances were different. If we did that, there would be no power in the false allegation and there'd be no need to punish the accuser as you've suggested.

This sets a very dangerous precedent. Obviously you should be sure if you're going to make an allegation, but what if you're 100% sure in your mind but misheard or misunderstood? What if you're sure but there's insufficient evidence to prove it? We don't want false allegations going around and ruining careers, but what we definitely want is people not reporting things because they're scared of being punished themselves because of a technicality or an honest mistake they made. If it can be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that an individual has deliberately made a false allegation, they should be punished, but the cases in which that's possible are vanishingly rare.