RandoEFC

Some bookies already have it odds-on they'll have another leadership contest before the end of 2025 because their final candidates are both so awful. Labour really need to sort themselves out. Some of this gift/donation scandal is actually scandalous but now the media are nit-picking over concert tickets that they've declared because in terms of declarations, Labour are doing things above board. Angela Rayner was invited into that DJ booth in Ibiza for a laugh but she still declared it as a gift of a few hundred quid because that's what a normal holiday-maker would have to pay that much to go into the booth. The next day the media report that "Rayner accepts £800 gift for Ibiza holiday". You can never defend corrupt or dishonest politicians but when the media act in such bad faith to generate clicks and drama, you can see why some politicians take their chances with not declaring things if they think they can get away with it. Starmer has made a poor start overall though. I don't actually have a problem with the pensioners' fuel allowance. It's means-tested, it isn't being taken away from those who need it, but retired pensioners living in £500,000 houses with gardens, spare rooms, etc. don't need £200 a year to pay for their heating bills, let's be honest. It's so frustrating though that when Labour have won such a big majority and have so much political capital to play with, they haven't tried to be more radical by increasing taxes on the richest people to start filling the huge black holes in the funding of public services. The state of the NHS, public transport, schools, policing in the UK are an absolute disgrace for a developed country.

This is pretty much true in much the Premier League and probably most of the elite clubs across Germany/Italy/Spain/PSG. I don't know if Germany has gotten quite as bad though outside of Bayern and Leipzig, so maybe this will go down a little bit worse. His role in German domestic football was the one of the genius manager who guided Dortmund to taking down big, bad, monopolising Bayern. When you look around though I think you're right that we all have to accept that football is heading in one direction only. Even since 10 years ago when we thought it was bad with all the oil money, we've had this epidemic of multi-club ownership, court battles and financial breaches that are almost impossible to understand as a normal fan. Elite English and European football is a great advert for grassroots and lower league football at the moment.

I mean it's easier to see it from the outside and I did/do believe he probably has left-leaning sensibilities overall but the bloke was the king of playing your fanbase like a fiddle while he was Liverpool manager and saying what you'd all want to get behind at every turn, so it's always hard to know how much of it was genuine and how much of it was slightly calculated.

Bad news for people who simultaneously think Red Bull are the root of all evil in football and Klopp's socialist, man of the people credentials are purer than the Pope's knickers.

I have no sympathy for the Premier League after last season they appointed their own CEO to an "Independent Commission" to make a judgement on our first PSR case and then dished out a punishment larger than what you'd get for administration. I have no problem for Man City either though. The rules were there. Teams that broken them should have received a punishment. Not as harsh as what Everton got originally last season. If Man City actually have a valid point in calling these rules "illegal" then they should have appealed against them and gone through all this when they were initially implemented. What needs to happen here is a sizeable punishment for Manchester City. What also needs to happen is that Richard Masters and everyone at the Premier League who has overseen the absolute shambles of these rules, from the politically-motivated heavy-handedness directed at Everton, the incredible technicality that let Leicester get off without any punishment, to this mess with Man City, all need to be removed and replaced with a new independent regulator as a matter of utmost urgency.

This is so boring now. City trying to get off with the charges regardless of their innocence as you'd expect. The Premier League trying to spin a narrative because their authority hits all-time lows every day. The rest of the clubs in the league lining up on one side or another depending on whether they want to undermine PSR or encourage it, none of them because it's what they actually believe in but all depending on what benefits them the most. Why other clubs are even getting involved in this is beyond me. They honestly just need to introduce some sort of cost cap without all the grey areas or scrap the domestic financial restrictions altogether. Genuinely think I'd rather see Newcastle buy an elite squad and start competing for the title than have to try to read any more tweets about third party sponsorship deals, interest on stadium loans or amortisation.

How many of the 115 charges does this relate to?

Wolves have picked up 5 points in 22 games I read. I haven't checked but Gary O'Neil is very lucky to still be in a job if that's even close to being accurate. They could be in trouble because I think Southampton are the only ones who have come up that are properly hopeless. I'm not taking Crystal Palace seriously as a relegation candidate yet. I think we should be fine but I'd feel more comfortable if the likes of Forest and Brentford hadn't racked up so many points already.

Saturday 12th October, 2024 Chesterfield 2-1 Notts County, 12.30 Arsenal Women 2-0 Chelsea Women, 13.45 Croatia 2-0 Scotland, 17.00 Cyprus 1-1 Romania, 19.45 Serbia 1-2 Switzerland, 19.45 Sunday 13th October, 2024 Columbus Crew 2-1 New England Revolution, 00.30 Liverpool Women 1-3 Man City Women Andorra 1-1 San Marino, 17.00 Austria 3-2 Norway, 19.45 Greece 1-1 Ireland, 19.45

No luck with Villa so -£5 for me this week.

Man Utd, Everton, Spurs and Leeds are the four horsemen of the "why does this always happen to us" apocalypse.

The Pogba transfer broke Man Utd in my opinion. You could see they paid in part for the brand and not all for the footballer. He's the signing that brought the celebrity culture to the dressing room and I don't think they've ever shaken it off. I remember thinking at the time that's not how Man Utd normally do business. I think they have many players who would be class at City, Liverpool or Arsenal but it's been so long since anyone at Man Utd knew how to guide talent that there's no expertise there anymore. You need more than just a good coach. You need a Guardiola or Klopp type character to come and reshape the entire culture but even if they employed one I don't think they'd be allowed to do what's necessary at that football club and any manager like that worth their salt wouldn't go there anyway. You could list all of the problems there all day but that's certainly one part of it.

Lacroix looked really good for you at Goodison as well I thought. My problem with this analysis is that players win fouls all the time where the defender tries to kick the ball or is just running along and the attacker gets themselves between the defender and the ball to buy a foul and it almost always gets given. Burn catches Calvert-Lewin's other ankle at the same time he gets kicked anyway. For me Burn prevents Calvert-Lewin from taking the shot by causing a collision and that's a foul. The fact that the initial contact comes in the form of Calvert-Lewin kicking Burn's leg is incidental. It's not the worst howler we've seen from VAR by any stretch of the imagination and it would have been robbery after the way we performed going forward yesterday but I do think we're unlucky not to get a penalty there.

Social media consensus seems to agree with me. Calvert-Lewin kicked Burn's leg but Burn put himself in the path to stop him from finishing the move. Really think Newcastle could have had no complaints if that was a penalty. Attackers initiate the contact all the time and get the foul because they've got on the wrong side of the defender.

Is he worse than Rangnick? Solskjaer? Moyes? There's quite a selection . Mourinho is the only one who's really done alright for a bit with them. Van Gaal was shite as well.