RandoEFC

This is exactly what I've been saying all season. Everton have spent 4 months not knowing how many points we actually had because basically everyone in the world knew that the 10 points couldn't be allowed to stand. Now we have closure to some extent but you can't deny the 4 point difference that was incorrectly allowed to stand has impacted on the integrity of the competition this season. You could argue any number of things about Luton getting a huge boost from our penalty, the 10 point weight on the players impacting our form over the past few months, the impact on Luton, Brentford and Forest now that the league table has been rewritten in our favour. The most scandalous thing of all is that if Everton and/or Forest decide to appeal the upcoming judgements on this season's breaches then the appeals won't be heard until after the final weekend of the season, so Luton could finish 17th, 1 point ahead of Nottingham Forest, and then an appeals panel is going to decide whether or not they've actually stayed up. It's an absolute disgrace yet nobody in the media is even giving lip service to it. Who cares about the sporting integrity of the bottom half of the Premiership or the rest of the English football pyramid when we can spend an hour of Sky Sports News analysing how much Phil Foden's xGA has increased over the last 12 monhts, the average age of Liverpool's bench, what Jim Ratcliffe's investment means for the Old Trafford roof and how many records Arsenal have broken this month by beating most of the bottom half of the league 5 or 6 nil each who aren't allowed to spend money on improving themselves? The PSR breaches have dominated our season. You're absolutely correct. Supporting Everton this season has been taking a short course in football finances to try and understand how many points we might get back, waiting around while the Premier League piss around for 5 months over whether or not the shambolic cowboys that are 777 will be allowed to buy the football club off the Iranian lunatic who has already absolutely ruined it, with the potential threat of administration looming if they don't allow it, and watching our shoestring squad try to overcome their glaring limitations by anti-footballing and set piece-ing their way to the 40 point mark, all for the privilege of starting the whole thing again in August. Football is absolutely on its arse.

This is exactly how I felt several months ago when people were sneering at us for calling the Premier League corrupt and asking why we don't blame the club and ownership. These rules were either brought in to stop the likes of Newcastle "doing a Man City", or to stop rogue owners from mismanaging their clubs to the point of "doing a Leeds", depending on the agenda of the person trying to explain and defend them. All they're doing is turning that mid-lower tier of the Premier League into a circus and it won't get as much attention, but the Reading situation is scandalous as well. Constantly getting hit with points penalties because their owner is fucking mental. Hitting them with more and more points penalties when the guy who owns them clearly doesn't give a fuck is just driving them further into the ground. Worst of both worlds is exactly right. Clubs having to make competitive sacrifices to offset the poor spending of an incompetent owner and then getting a competitive penalty to hold them account for the actions of an owner that have already harmed the club.

This is the thing. Poor ownership is almost incidental now. Leicester used to be held up as the "Brighton" of the league not more than 5 years ago. Look at their scouting, look at how they've challenged the status quo, etc. A few poor transfer windows and bad decisions and you can find yourself relegated and irrelevant. It was Southampton before Leicester and the cycle will come for Brighton as well. Leicester have made plenty of mistakes over the past 3 years or so but compare that to how Chelsea or Man Utd have been run and your club looks like a model of sustainability. A handful of clubs are competing in a sport where they can afford to make mistakes and take risks. The rest of the pyramid is in constant damage limitation mode, trying to tread water to keep above the relegation line and below the PSR loss limit line.

FFP genuinely needs to be scrapped. Clubs genuinely guilty of financial doping don't fall foul of it and it hasn't prevented owners like the bloke at Reading from running clubs into the ground. All it's achieving right now is locking in advantages for clubs based on their long-term revenue and causing league tables to be rewritten multiple times a season, affecting the sporting integrity of relegation fights and promotion battles up and down the football league. Then because of the grey areas in the rules, the different mitigations, obfuscation and creative accounting put forward by football clubs, competitive results are being thrashed out in court rooms by lawyers and accountants. Nobody liked it when Chelsea and City bought their place at the top table but at least you knew the league table was actually the league table. They need to rip up the current rules and implement some sort of live accounting so that clubs know what they can and can't afford to do and any breaches can be as close to black and white as possible. The current system is being shown up as an absolute shitshow.

It'll be based off the championship standings. If Magnussen and Sargeant score 0 points all season then they'll get sorted in the F1 championship by their best race finish. If Magnussen has a pair of 12th places as his best result and Sargeant only has one then Magnussen will finish higher in the Drivers' standings so he will win the match-up.

Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3? Max Verstappen Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS? 1. Sergio Perez 2. Charles Leclerc 3. Lando Norris Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Charles Leclerc. 3rd Bonus Question - Which team will have the highest finishing position out of Williams, VCARB, Haas, Sauber and Alpine? VCARB Extra Season Prediction - A more interesting set of match-up predictions to replace the team-mate battles where so many people have predicted almost the same combination. This is a question of who will finish higher in the Championship and not linked to the Saudi race specifically! Which driver will finish higher in the Drivers' standings of each of these combinations? Verstappen vs Perez Hamilton vs Leclerc Norris vs Alonso Sainz vs Russell Piastri vs Stroll Gasly vs Ocon Albon vs Tsunoda Bottas vs Hulkenberg Ricciardo vs Zhou Magnussen vs Sargeant

Predictions - Saudi Arabia Grand Prix Should have got this done earlier in the week. Qualifying on Friday and race on Saturday again this weekend! Please note the changes to the Podium predictions (top three without Verstappen) and fill in the new match-ups which will replace the largely predictable team-mate match-ups in our season predictions! All other predictions remain as they were. @RandoEFC @Stan @MUFC @Tommy @nudge @Whiskey @The Palace Fan @Coma @DeadLinesman @OrangeKhrush Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3? [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, Charles Leclerc. [INSERT POSITION] Bonus Question - Which team will have the highest finishing position out of Williams, VCARB, Haas, Sauber and Alpine? [INSERT DRIVER] Extra Season Prediction - A more interesting set of match-up predictions to replace the team-mate battles where so many people have predicted almost the same combination. This is a question of who will finish higher in the Championship and not linked to the Saudi race specifically! Which driver will finish higher in the Drivers' standings of each of these combinations? Verstappen vs Perez Hamilton vs Leclerc Norris vs Alonso Sainz vs Russell Piastri vs Stroll Gasly vs Ocon Albon vs Tsunoda Bottas vs Hulkenberg Ricciardo vs Zhou Magnussen vs Sargeant

They're changing the limit to almost double from this summer I believe.

Jesus christ.

Now Verstappen Sr and Marko making noises about Max going to Mercedes, presumably to put pressure on the powers that be to get rid of Horner. He's never been likeable and I wouldn't miss him but to be honest my only interest in this is a Red Bull team meltdown that would make the sport interesting again because it's the only way any other teams are getting near them before at least 2026.

Results - Bahrain Grand Prix Here we go then for the first race of the season, and it's a familiar story to start off as everyone correctly predicted a pole-win combo for Max Verstappen. With this looking likely going forward, please see my earlier post about how we'll change the top three predictions to a "top three without Verstappen" to make the predictions a bit more interesting. Pole position will be left alone for now. Unfortunately for @Stan, @nudge, @Whiskey and @Coma, this was where the scoring stopped as various combinations of Leclerc, Russell and Norris let them down. @MUFC managed to secure some further points as the only person to predict a Red Bull 1-2, while @RandoEFC and @The Palace Fan also bagged an extra 2 points for predicting Perez on the podium, albeit in the wrong place. @DeadLinesman and @OrangeKhrush join @MUFC on 10 points for getting 2 of the top three exactly correct, both placing Carlos Sainz correctly in 3rd. @Tommy scores 7 in total for the podium having predicted Sainz in 2nd. Onto the final two predictions and all of the points were hogged by @Tommy. He was the only one to nail Lewis Hamilton's finishing position of 7th with the rest of the field going too optimistic for the Mercedes driver. A better performance than expected for Haas scuppered a lot of people's prediction for 20th on the grid, and Logan Sargeant teased his backers by qualifying off the back row. Only @Tommy believed in the reports that Alpine could, unthinkably, have the worst car, so he hoovers up another 5 points for predicting 20th in qualifying for Pierre Gasly. The table looks like this after the first round: @Tommy takes an impressive early lead, with his gap ahead of 2nd place larger than the gap between @MUFC in 2nd and the four players in joint last place. Unsurprisingly, Red Bull therefore set the early pace in the Constructors' standings, while Ferrari start the season propping up the table as the only team with both drivers amongst the 10-pointers this weekend.

Also, I'm changing the race predictions already. I'll leave pole position the way it is because I don't yet think that Verstappen winning every qualifying session is a write-off, but the top three prediction will be a top three without Verstappen for the foreseeable future. We're going to need this prediction league to be interesting to make this F1 season any fun at all .

Looking through the team-mate battle predictions, there are 7 cases out of 10 where everyone, or everyone except one person, has put the same person down. I'm thinking of making a last minute change to this by changing the match-ups to make them a bit more of a 50-50, basing the pairings (mostly) off last season's championship. I think it would make it more interesting. I wish I'd thought to do so before I posted the season predictions but I think doing it after one race is reasonably harmless. Unless anyone objects, I'd like to replace the "team-mate battles" from the season predictions with these match-ups. I'll post them with the Saudi predictions so that you can do them at the same time and not need to be tagged any more times. Verstappen vs Perez Hamilton vs Leclerc Norris vs Alonso Sainz vs Russell Piastri vs Stroll Gasly vs Ocon Albon vs Tsunoda Bottas vs Hulkenberg Ricciardo vs Zhou Magnussen vs Sargeant Let me know if you object but it makes the match-ups a bit more interesting in my opinion. If people don't want it I won't but if I don't hear anything back I'm going for it. @nudge @Whiskey @DeadLinesman @Coma @OrangeKhrush @The Palace Fan @Tommy @MUFC @Stan Results for Bahrain will be up tonight or tomorrow.

Results - Gameweek Three Casualties (2) A relatively strong weekend on the whole sees just two players fall by the wayside. Getafe squandered a 3-1 half-time lead at home to Las Palmas, leading to an elimination for @6666 which certainly has to go down as pretty hard to swallow. @Pyfish is also taken out this weekend as Barcelona were only able to muster a goalless draw from their visit to Athletic Club. Unlucky, folks, you leave this round with 2 points with the outside chance of a bonus point for joint 3rd depending on how the remaining players get on. Survivors (5) We are down to the final five, and @Storts is the first to successfully bet against bottom club Almeria, with Celta Vigo grinding out a 1-0 win through Mingueza's 73rd minute goal on Friday night. The rest of this week's survivors took a similar approach, picking on another La Liga whipping boy in Granada. @Tommy, @Michael, @Lucas and @Stan were duly rewarded with progress to the fourth Gameweek as Villarreal handed out a 5-1 pasting on Sunday lunchtime. Congratulations on progressing, see below for the Gameweek 4 fixtures. Preview - Gameweek Four Remember to double check that you aren't using a team for a second time! Barcelona vs Mallorca Valencia vs Getafe Cadiz vs Atletico Madrid Granada vs Real Sociedad Girona vs Osasuna Deportivo Alaves vs Rayo Vallecano Las Palmas vs Athletic Club Real Madrid vs Celta Vigo Real Betis vs Villarreal Almeria vs Sevilla Good luck!

I had a bet builder with a first half goal, some City corners, some City shots and 11+ City free kicks. All were roughly even odds. First three legs came in before City had their second free kick of the game . It won with a minute and a half to spare at least.

I think Liverpool may well fancy their chances next weekend. Personally hoping for a draw with 5 red cards and 5 injuries each.

DRS and the almost perfect reliability that comes with the sustainability measures that have been introduced have robbed us of probably more than half of the unpredictable results we used to get. That stuff used to be enough to restrict even a Michael Schumacher in 2004's winning probability to about 85% tops. Another unique thing is this particular combination of car and driver. We've seen the best driver in the best car plenty of times but this Red Bull simply doesn't have an achilles heel and just romps 0.5s faster at any track. And Max simply does not have a day off whereas Vettel and Hamilton occasionally did when they dominated. My expectations are probably skewed by the era I got into F1 after Schumacher's era and before Vettel's. 2005 and 2006 both had decent title fights through the year. 2007-8 were two of the most dramatic championships of all time even if the pre-DRS racing was poor at some races (not as many or as poor as some people would have you think). Then 2009 saw a total reset of the competitive order and 2010 had a five way title fight between Webber, Vettel, Alonso, Hamilton and Button. 2011 was the first "dominance" season I'd seen and even 2012 was pretty wild so I could be forgiven for thinking it wasn't the norm for both championships to be a foregone conclusion after pre-season testing.

There we go. Literally incredible.

Times are hard . Lucas Digne, Everton legend.

Here's an idea, how about keeping your big fat mouth shut next time mate? Cheers.

I don't think it's just wishful thinking to say the tide seems to be turning on Luton now. They've been comfortably dealt with by Aston Villa so far. Got Palace away next which is going to be a struggle now that they've been rejuvenated by a new manager. These reports have been coming out that Edwards has had two league tables on the dressing room wall to show the table with an without our points deduction. By focusing on us instead of just accruing as many points as possible, you can't help but feel Everton getting 4 points back is going to come as a bit of a body blow for them psychologically. Cue second half comeback and 3-2 win.

One of the worst things is the pundits and media talking up how much closer the field has got. You can fuck off. That was a carbon copy of practically every race from last year. You can show me as many graphs about the percentage change of qualifying times all you like. Ferrari might nick half a dozen pole positions but Verstappen will easily win nearly, if not all of the ordinary races this season.

xG of 2.7 for us today and 1 goal. xG of 1.73 for them and 3 goals. That's pissed me off the most of any game this season I think. Missed penalty, McNeil find the goalkeeper from 6 yards out. We had half a dozen balls fall to players on the edge of the box ballooned high and wide. Soucek's goal wasn't that much of a better chance and he finds the top corner. Areola played out of his skin but it's beyond a joke now. Our xG underperformance must be hitting all-time records this season, especially at home. We shouldn't need too many more points to survive still but we look more likely to get them on the road than at home even with Burnley and Sheffield United still to come to Goodison.

I had it on the tv and watched the football on my laptop and to be honest a couple of times I forgot the race was even on.

1-3 on the break. Joke of a defeat against one of the worst teams that have come to Goodison all season.