pas5898

They are the most extreme example - Spurs suffered with it for a bit - and as we grow I hope we don't fall into the trap. Basically, the "elite of the elite", plug and play A+ players go to Man City, Bayern, Madrid, Liverpool etc. Then Man U, Spurs etc are fighting for the B+ players. Clearly are good, but there's reasons why the elite clubs don't want them (attitude, injuries, age etc). To compound it, neither club are a huge draw anymore so they end up overpaying massively as it's not a "no brainer" for the club to see him to them. For example - If Man U wanted Matty Cash we'd absolutely rinse them for every single penny, and put up quite a fight to sell him. The fee would have to be massive to "sell it" to the fans. If Real Madrid wanted him, we'd kind of understand, the fee would be lower and he'd go with the blessing of the club and fans.

Whilst is awesome to laugh at Man United, they will always be near the top 5 come the end of the season. We really need this disastrous run to go on as long as possible. IMO Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal will be top 3., Spurs looks decent for 4th or above. Then its between us, Man U, Chelsea (if they pick up) and Newcastle for fifth and maybe the Champions League

If Hamas had the firepower Israel has, there wouldn't have been an Israel many years ago. It's literally in their manifesto to destroy the Jews. 18% percent of those living in Israel are Palestinians / Muslim. Obviously it's not blissful tranquillity, but it's a lot better than any Jew walking through any predominantly Muslim country on earth. <1% in Gaza are Christians / Jews. Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Iraq all had Jewish settlements effectively removed, as let's be honest you just cannot be Jewish in many predominantly Muslim countries. There is a deep almost DNA level hatred. If the shoe was on the other foot, Israel itself would have failed to exist a long time ago.

Always been decent. I remember being about 17/18 going Spurs away. Got chatting on the tube to some Spurs fans who recognised our accent as Villa fans. They were very insistent we went to their local - tentatively we went thinking we was going to get beaten up / robbed. We ended up in one of their hardcore pubs just outside the ground. Had an amazing time, such great hospitality and banter which never crossed the mark.

As a shock to absolutely nobody, and by sheer coincidence. Newcastle are being linked with a loan move for Ruben Neves!

Hamas are utterly determined to completely eradicate Israel, and if they had to means to do so they would. It's literally in their manifesto! Fortunately they don't. There will never be a peace deal until Hamas are completely destroyed or they change their ideology.

If the military capabilities were swapped - Israel would have ceased to exist a long time ago.

America has a new way to feed their money machine (middle east security). Ukraine will quickly go onto the backburner - watch the rhetoric change in the coming months.

Egypt has enough problems with terrorists / terrorism. It's already half destroyed their tourism industry. Last thing they want is to import a few million people who were daft enough to vote for Hamas + however many Hamas insurgents are left.

No one on earth would care if Hamas annilhated some military checkpoints, buildings, killed a few hundred soldiers, destroyed all Israels barracks etc. It wouldn't even be news. War is war. However they went and slaughtered hundreds of "innocent" women and children. They took tourists from a rave, tortured murdered and paraded them around naked. There's videos of children being executed "isis" style in front of their families. The plight of Palestinian is terrible, I agree - but Hamas is a terrorist organisation and is definitely not the answer. They are absolutely no better than Isis.

I've personally sat in a Villa away end in small heath where at least 1,000 people were singing the Tracey Andrews song (serial killer) + something awful about CIsse's family (drowned in a boat accident). The guys deserve to lose their jobs and the "social justice" that's come to them. However i'm a little uneasy about criminal convictions and feel it's a slightly worrying path. If this is deemed criminal then where does the line draw? Criticising the government? Anti vaccine? Anti war?

Difference is, they didn't break the rules to catch up, they smashed them to dominate. -Breaking the rules, allowed them to buy one of our best ever players when they didn't need him. -It allowed them to buy Leeds' best player and captain as effectively a reserve player! He could have easily been the difference between them staying up or going down. -Take Bournemouths best centre back as a reserve player -It allows them to spend 10mill+ on speculative players from abroad (Douglas Luiz), then sell them on for a profit, whilst holding the buying club to ransom just in case he turns out to be world class. -They've just took Wolves best midfielder, despite having 5/6 in that position right at the end of the window. - Because of their cheating they can take ANY player from ANY club from 4th down and pay them 250k a week to sit on the bench. Kamara? If they wanted him they'd get him this summer and pay him 250k a week to sit on the bench, just in case Rodri got injuired. Martinez? they'd pay him 200k a week as Edersons boot polisher. Meanwhile, we're stuck with Olsen as a backup - because of FFP. As a result in all of the above, we're in a position where Man City are now the most popular club with kids in the country, and will truly dominate for a decade or so.... all because they cheated. Go to a kids football and literally half of them are now wearing Man City merch. And ironically, because of FFP the likes of us, Newcastle, Brighton, even Spurs (if they get a new owner) will not be able to catch them.

Don't we have to buy Archer back if/when they're relegated (I could be making that up).

The only reason he is still alive is because they are worried about what could come after him.

Went to Sutton United last night to watch the youth team in the EFL cup. The EFL cup has a rule where if it's a draw then it's 1 point each, with a penalty shootout for 1 extra point.

Thank you @OutByEaster? for taking the time to write this up. On the Price of Football podcast a few months, Keiran Maguire was detailing how much Liverpool make from those fans who only go to 1 or 2 games a season - and its massive. Ideally, they want to reduce the number of Season Ticket holders to accommodate more of the 1/2 games a season tourist fans as they spend a lot more per game. Average season ticket holder (me): I haven't ordered this years kit, haven't eaten at the ground yet, and only had 1 drink in the 3 games at home this season. Tourist 1/2 game a season fan: Spends £150+ in the club shop, buys food or hospitality package, plenty of food and drink. Take's a photo holding his scarf in front of the Holte. Now the ground is almost guaranteed to be full it's only natural that Heck and co's mentality will switch to extracting as much money per seas as possible. Champions League qualification or success would bring in a whole new level of prawn sandwich brigade and it's clear they want to already be a in position to extract every single penny.

Probably can't control his players "asthma" medication correctly when they're on international duty. Takes a few days for them to get medicated and up to speed.

As sad as this sounds - some councillor would happily sanction the 20million of the publics money, so long as him and his daughter can get a selfie with Deadpool.

This is the season to have a reset. Sheff + Luton guaranteed to go down. You just need to be better than Burnley or Everton and you'll be safe. They'll be fine.

Mcginn was hopeless under Gerrard. I'd have been really upset if he left, because we all know how good he can be in the right circumstances.

The Premier League is a multi billion pound business. Businesses want to make money, that's the point. The Premier League makes a lot more money from abroad when Man U, Liverpool etc are towards the top of the league. Taking "worldwide brands" and replacing them with the like of Newcastle, Villa, Brighton, Wolves is extremely bad for business. Expect a HELL of a lot more of these decisions and apologies.

Managed to catch the end of the game. He stayed squarely in between the 2 centre backs and didn't drop at all. He's not an "on the shoulder" striker, so will be interesting to see how they use him.

I think you can give the player a long contract but can only amortise (spread the financial cost) over 4/5 years on the books.

Indeed, and quite a few of them will be misses rather than hits. Not because they are bad players, but because Brighton scout specifically for players whose attributed fit their system.

Watching Maddison and his set piece deliveries yesterday, its a good job for us Kane left. He'd score an absolute hatful if he stayed.