RandoEFC

Tories getting another hammering. I keep seeing people say Sunak isn't going to call an election until the latest time because why would he call one when his party is 20% behind in the polls? I find it a weird take. Unless it comes out that Starmer is a literal paedophile or something with photo evidence then the polls aren't going to get any better for the Tories over the next few months. People have made up their minds. It's in their own interests to get it over with and start to rebuild. But they're morons so they probably genuinely do think they can turn it around. All the while the country decays.

Like many, I have no great enthusiasm for Starmer but Labour will clearly be a hundred times better than the current shower. It has disappointed me how safe Starmer has gone on a few key issues. The immigration stuff, Gaza, the green stuff. I got it early days when he had to stave off the links to the toxic Corbyn brand but over the past 18 months or so since the Tories properly imploded, he's had a lot more headroom to be principled and risk upsetting some of the Daily Mail types without risking much but he still seems scared of doing so.

Poor and scrappy match last night. Thought we weathered the storm in the first five minutes. Took control of the game, got the lead. Then we conceded what I think was a poor goal. Good play from Adebayo but it's too easy from our perspective. Luton took the momentum from there and we never really reestablished ourselves. Still defended resolutely to see out the draw. A shame not to sustain our winning streak against a poor side but we didn't deserve more than a point.

@The Palace Fan @Whiskey @Coma deadline about this time tomorrow.

Anyone else can edit predictions up until the start of main qualifying.

£10 returns £52.50

The check for that goal . 

VAR .

PGMOL .

https://x.com/SkySportsNews/status/1785583082763940015

Should they just cancel all of the races for the rest of the year and do 90 minutes of silly season every other Sunday?

1 hour ago, The Palace Fan said:

Kieran Maguire has said previously that he knows of multiple people who would be interested in acquiring Everton if the club enter administration, so it may be one step backwards to go two steps forwards.

Administration is more than one step backwards in this context. You're looking at almost certainly becoming a Championship club and having to sell off the new stadium and rent it back. It's not easy to get back from there even to where we are now let alone kick on at all.

Moshiri has said publicly twice that he'll pay the bills if needs be, not that you can trust him. It's really stupid this. The stadium will be complete in December and at that point, the financial potential of the club and the business completely transforms. If the club can just survive that long then it actually becomes an appealing prospect because the issue at the moment is cash flow and the stadium will go some way to changing that. 

We wanted Moshiri to sell the club. It's typical of him that he found the one buyer who don't seem able to actually complete the purchase but have lent the club money in the interim which has ended up just saddling the club with more debt than we already had and making it harder for him to find an alternative buyer.

It would be funny if we went into administration, beat Luton and Sheffield United and still stayed up with another 9 points taken off us, but I'm pretty sure you aren't allowed to take a points deduction on your own terms like that anymore. Cambridge Utd did it years ago, took the 10 point penalty two games before the end of the season after they'd already had relegation confirmed.

Hopefully this is simply an enquiry and a case of the club having an idea of what all their options look like. Push has to come to shove here though. There's been a lot of rumours about other potential buyers waiting in the wings to swoop in when Moshiri gets desperate enough to reduce his price. The only worry is that those people are waiting for Everton to go into administration, clear the debt, and then purchase the club and the stadium with it debt-free and at a knock-down price. 

Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3 AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS?

Leclerc

Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS?

1. Perez

2. Leclerc

3. Norris

Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Lando Norris.

4th

Bonus Question - Which driver will be the biggest UNDER-performer this weekend? (This will be judged by the driver who finishes the race below their championship position by the most places).

Hulkenberg

Predictions - Miami Grand Prix

Apparently we have another Sprint this weekend - yay. I will again be sticking to the main Grand Prix for our predictions. Therefore, your deadline is Saturday qualifying as usual. Please note that this weekend onwards will see us make a Pole Position pick without Max Verstappen.

@RandoEFC @Stan @MUFC @Tommy @nudge @Whiskey @The Palace Fan @Coma @DeadLinesman @OrangeKhrush

Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3 AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS?

[INSERT DRIVER]

Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS?

1. [INSERT DRIVER]

2. [INSERT DRIVER]

3. [INSERT DRIVER]

Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Lando Norris.

[INSERT POSITION]

Bonus Question - Which driver will be the biggest UNDER-performer this weekend? (This will be judged by the driver who finishes the race below their championship position by the most places).

[INSERT DRIVER]

They need to be careful with a few things on this. The "lowest club's income" needs to be done as a rolling average so that if a "small" club enters the league with much lower revenues it doesn't screw up everyone's accounts.

A bigger deal though is how to limit the amount of spending that's needed to compete in the Premier League to allow the Championship and the rest of the pyramid to stay in touch. The existence of parachute payments is a sticking plaster and to be honest a bit of a stain on English football. And seeing the same three clubs go down that came up isn't good for the league either. The gulf between the top two divisions is something that needs fixing. Theoretically, it shouldn't be impossible for a club coming up from the Championship to compete at the top of the Premier League straight away if they do a bloody good job, just like Ipswich have done in the Championship this season. A pipe dream to see a hierarchy as fluid as that I know.

Always hesitate to be too optimistic about anything any football authorities do but this seems like a step in the right direction. 4.5x seems a bit high though. Only Man City and Chelsea would apparently have to reduce their spending. Which means that Man Utd's spending, for example, would still be legit and it still stops the rest of the pyramid ever seeing those teams remotely pulled back into the pack in terms of finances. Some cap is better than none though. 

Burnley have drawn their way back into contention. Fair play. I'd rather see Luton stay up now. Mostly because that's probably the weakest rival at the bottom of the table for next year.

9 hours ago, OrangeKhrush said:

Russia has however stepped up targeting cities and towns with the civilian death toll over 100 000 but no genocide or war crime here apparently. 

Oh I don't think anyone disputes that what Russia is doing falls into both of those categories. That's why nobody is talking about it, because it's an out and out imperialist invasion with no justification.

People have a range of opinions on Israel and Palestine which is why you hear more people accusing Israel of genocide and war crimes (I'm assuming this is what you're referring to). People mention this more because it's part of a debate.

You can't hand momentum over like that in a Derby like this with so much on the line.

6 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

Sheffield United's relegation from the Premier League might not be officially confirmed yet.

The top-flight's official X account shared a post that states the Blades' demotion to the Championship is dependent on Nottingham Forest and Everton's points-deduction appeals.

They deleted that tweet but it's still hilarious. Making out that Everton and or Forest could have a further double figure points deduction to put them below Sheffield United when appealing against a 2 and 4 point penalty respectively. 

7 hours ago, Danny said:

I think if any of your fans wanted him gone at any point they would be delusional. With little investment into the team, the difference he has made compared to how you have played the last two seasons versus this season is immense. To achieve what he has under points deductions, previous managers would have taken you down.

I hope he gets a chance long-term to build something with you. He consistently out performed Eddie Howe when they were at Burnley and Bournemouth when taking into account money spent and look what Howe has done at Newcastle. Not to say that Dyche would necessarily be better now, but I hope he gets s chance to spend some cash and build a team.

To be fair, he did lose his way with a 13 game winless run and the 6-0 to Chelsea shortly after. You can't have results like that at any level and not have serious questions asked. Thankfully we don't have an owner around to sack him and it's turned out for the best.

My second leg flew in as well. So frustrating!

Dyche really was on the precipice with our fans after the Chelsea drubbing but three consecutive wins has turned it into a decent season overall.

Without deductions, Everton would be joint 12th with Brighton on 44 points, closer to Spurs in 5th (16 points behind) than the relegation zone (19 points clear). Probably be looking at our current form and the next two against Luton and Sheffield United as an opportunity for six more points and a decent chance of sneaking into the top half. At this point, even if Everton had been deducted the 17 points that the Premier League submitted to the PSR commissions instead of 8, they still wouldn't be in the relegation zone.

Yes we've been a bit fortunate with the weakness of the competition at the bottom end of the table but regardless of that, we could easily hit 40 points now even after being deducted 8 and that's usually more than enough whoever else is in the relegation scrap.

Some of these facts are hard to believe for a side that survived on the last day last season, saw the squad weakened and thinned out over the summer and haven't had a board, owner or leader of any description all season. Credit must now go to Dyche and his team and they need full backing heading into next season.

As a neutral, watching this match, Chelsea taking the lead in the 95th minute after being 2-0 down at half time just makes you think, for all the rampant spending, state ownership and FFP controversy, the Premier League, on the pitch, is still a brilliant spectacle.

Then along comes VAR.

This Chelsea team are wild. 4+ goals in 11 of their last 12 league matches. Includes a 6-0 win and a 5-0 defeat in their last two. Absolutely dominated this match and yet it's 2-2 and I wouldn't be surprised if Villa just nicked it at the end. A decent manager turns Madueke and Jackson into really good players in my opinion. Mudryk, however, still looks hopeless.

Hahahaha imagine if Lille don't win either. I don't think we've ever had everyone knocked out in the first week. 

1 hour ago, Rick said:

Salah and Klopp arguing like that is embarrassing. This season really is ending on a low. 

What even happened? Any Liverpool journos have an inkling?

Terrible match, good result. Third team in and around us that we've done the double over this season.

Remarkable really to go from scraping safety on the last day last season, spending hardly anything in the summer, getting deducted 8 points to securing safety with 3 games to spare.