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Loved the nostalgia, and particularly the comparisons made by Paul between the match in the 80s and today. I started going the match very young - from the late 70s. I have the full set of programmes from the 78/79 season. I was very fortunate. I started going without my dad and with my mates instead about the same time - mid-80s. Like yourself, Paul, I remember vividly those games when the crowd were chanting 20 minutes before kick off. That feeling of anticipation was so exciting. We were so good back then, the connection between the players and crowd was an unbreakable bond. They made our lives better and we loved them for it. In turn, they loved us for our unwavering support. Yes, EVERY player had a song. We'd sing it, and they'd acknowledge us. I always remember players like Lawro being gutted if we didn't get to his before we had to kick off. He seemed to be the player I recall being "missed out" having a clear chant. But if he'd managed to score a crucial goal away on the Wednesday or whatever, we'd have a go at a chant on the Saturday. Even if it was a quiet chant, the players would seemingly listen out for it and couldn't wait to acknowledge it! Nowadays, a lot of the players acknowledge their families who are in the hospitality parts of the Main Stand. I remember Phil Thompson used to wave to his brother in the Kop! Every match. But yes, there were downsides. The smell was awful, the fact that your socks were always wet when you got home, and the violence outside the ground. But these were all just seen as part of the deal of supporting Liverpool. I do envy you lads who get to see them every week nowadays, as the football is brilliant. But I also wouldn't swap seeing Kenny, Emlyn, Souey, and my favourite player Stevie Heighway for the world. These are impossible comparisons, of course. But yeah, life, eh. It's just the way it is.

I really can't stress enough how much I fucking hate international football, and in particular this season-wrecking farce of a biannual competition. Put it all in a fucking big bin. Nationalist rubbish.

Quite a few ‘Inside Jordan Henderson’s reputational binfire’ pieces doing the rounds the last few days. Allow me to summarise.

It's just possible that Remmie is talking a bunch of arse.

The reason I ask is that I dont really dislike any of the players in our core group, I dont understand how its possible? Usually I have a strong dislike for a few of the players in our first team squad, but not at the moment. Sometimes its almost strong hate, because I think they are fuckin useless. But not now, now its almost boring because I like everyone, but I have convinced myself its a sign and that we will achieve great things this season. Most likely win a triple at least.

Fuck off stronts.

Egyptian manager saying not serious. Problem is they'll inevitably throw him straight in next game, they'll qualify unless they get beat and then it's more games after that and potentially through to the final. We know how cautious we are with injuries. These won't give a shite and risk ruining his season. If he can walk, he'll play.

The owl faced cunt wanted to "test his resolve" if I remember correctly.

“Yer da sells Avon” was a cracker

Can’t remember where I saw it, but one of the greatest insults I ever did saw was ‘You mam shared posts of missing dogs on facebook’ Don’t know why but that one hit me reet in the funnies.

Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods summed the 2019 election up best when he posted “Gammon Mad Max” on Twitter. My seat is moving from extremely marginal to almost certainly safe Labour seat due to the new boundary changes. I’ll probably still vote Labour just to be sure. I plan on booking the Friday after the election off so I can sit up all night and see the likes of Rees-Mogg, and all those red wall Tories like Anderson and Clarke-Smith, lose their seats.

I presume some of you have kids that watch YouTube? Fucking hell. I’ve told my daughter multiple times to stop saying “bruh” and “brah” ”First things first, I’m your dad, pack it in. And secondly you’re a ten year old girl from Suffolk. That’s not how you talk. Enough” And the stuff that they watch… What a load of shite. When I was 10 I was playing GTA on the PS1. Robbing cars, shooting guns, killing people. Proper hearty kids entertainment. Now they’re watching other kids play Roblox or messing around with slime.

It why states should be banned from owning football clubs.

In our sport we have some precedent with failure to comply with testing. When Rio Ferdinand dodged his drug tests, he was banned from football for 8 months. It was seen that avoiding testing is the equivalent of a failure. I don't see what the issue is with city. If they have failed to cooperate, they should be punished to the maximum extent of the PL powers. The rest is just a smokescreen. Of course we also have some precedent with a balding cheat failing his drug test who then lawyered up and kept going and going until he could have his guilt removed on a technicality. This is what we're facing here. City are trying to find the avenue to get off without having to be innocent, just try and find some loophole to escape.

Not to be dramatic but we should all probs kill ourselves.

Referring to a bunch of anything but flowers. I just saw a YouTube clip where the guy said "a bunch of air". Fucking cunt ruined my day.

Traitors. Brilliant. Compulsive viewing, made better this year by Charlotte's tits.

In my opinion Jonathan Paintsil was a better player.

Surprising isn't it. I would have thought if anyone was going to suffer that it would be Thiago considering the amount of time he's been sat on it.

There was some cunt on question time last night. "I feel lied to, we voted for Brexit to control our own borders and it seems we can't". That's the first lie he's picked up on on brexit! You fucking thick cunt.

' Your ma vapes outside Central ' was a personal favourite.

Laura Mennell

Flicking around the tv and happened on the final of Junior Bake Off. My initial reaction to it being a 'Royal theme was FFS, but I was pleasantly surprised as it went very subversive for the Beeb, with a 10 year old contestant pointing out to Harry Hill that nobody should be treated differently because of who their ancestors were and then saying she would welcome a revolution, and was lauded as the first left-wing firebrand on Bake-Off.. Harry also turned his guns on Camilla and the mysteriously disappeared 'Consort' in her title., while two of the presenters chided the other one for picking Charles as her favourite royal and one took the piss by choosing Lady Di and pointing to the sky.

Depending how far over the threshold you are means you pay a penalty on the amount over the tax you are which increases further if you're over the tax in multiple years (The Mets paid out 100million in penalties for the 2023 season for example). The penalties for UEFA's FFP will be a combination of sporting and financial penalties based on the 'three pillars' (Solvency, Stability and Cost Control). Solvency - a club must have no overdue payables to other football clubs, to social/tax authorities, in respect of employees and UEFA, as a result of obligations arising from transfers due to be paid by 30 June, 30 September and 31 December respectively. Stability - Football earnings are the difference between relevant income and relevant expenses. A licensee is not in compliance with the football earnings rule if the licensee has an aggregate football earnings deficit that exceeds the acceptable deviation. Cost Control - limits spending on player and coach wages, transfers, and agent fees to 70% of club revenue – the gradual implementation will see the percentage at 90% in 2023/2024, 80% in 2024/2025, and 70% as from 2025/2026. This requirement provides a direct measure between squad costs and income to encourage more performance-related costs. Assessments will be performed on a timely basis and breaches will result in pre-defined financial penalties as well as sporting measures. The proposed penalties for cost control are There was talk that any 'luxury tax' applied by UEFA would be included in the following years calculation to try and prevent bigger clubs from just carrying that extra cost and could be expanded into sporting breaches as well as financial breaches for consistent rule breaking.

I'd only just started with my new company in '97 and wasn't entitled to holidays for another month or so. The following day was a painful one, my mate (who started at the same time) and I wandering to work still pissed and buzzing with about an hour's sleep between us.

How dirty must the latest set of books really be, 700 million in revenue for a club that can't fill their ground. And still putting Haaland down for 375k per week. He has his pick of clubs and a low transfer fee and he settles for that in a club with unlimited money. Its no wonder they stopped cooperating. They are up to their necks in it. Best thing that happened was Everton and Forest going rogue and getting punished. They are going to have to come down hard on them now.

I was walking my dogs, and saw a young man stop, stare at his phone, dribble coming out of his mouth. I asked if he was okay. "It's Kate, she's got her twat out" Everyone in earshot rummaged in pockets to find phones, and to stop and stare.

They can't leave things well alone can they, they're like magpies with poor attention spans. They constantly need something new to keep them watching. I know City are owned by Abu Dhabi rather than Saudi Arabia, but it reminds me of what Frankie Boyle said on Mock the Week when City were taken over by their current owners: In two years time, Manchester City will be 3-0 up in the Champions League Final, and this guy will just turn to his assistant and go (in a deep voice) "I am bored now, build me a robot spaniel"

Marion Cotillard

fantastic post.

I’ve long held the conviction that he was a dribbling moron who offered nothing on the pitch , so his reputation hasn’t changed as far as I’m concerned - I do believe that Ajax will, in the cold light of objectivity, find this out pretty much tout suite

David Olusoga for gravitas, or perhaps Harry Hill doing it like an episode of You've Been Framed. "Bad Guardiola, dirty Guardiola, in your bed!"

Cunt can’t even pronounce resolve never mind test it.

That Stefan Borson fella who was on talksport yesterday saying he thinks they'll clear their name is a right defensive little cunt. Goes under the name of sblsn on twitter. Posts on blue moon. Also used to work for city between 01 and 07. Finance expert and all the city wetwipes hang their hat on him. He told me to fuck off once, I'd snap the cunt in two. If the PL don't punish them heavily it's basically Abu Dhabi running this league and then it's time for a breakaway.

The fine looks based on exceeding wages/agent fees to turnover. These are random numbers say Everton had 500 million revenue and spent 490 million on wages and Uefa guidance was don't exceed 90% on wages. The outcome was Everton went over by 40 million and ending up having a 98% wages to turnover. The fine would be based on the excess amount the 40 million/8% excess. So a first time offender would pay 10 -25% of 40 million. It highlights how big PSG wage bill was to get such a fine but they had been fined previously. Not sure about cycles but all the clubs agreed 3 or 4 year deals with Uefa. The way I read it is the biggest fine and maximum were given to PSG and the most they would have to pay in that 3 year period was £56million but if they met the steps they could only end up paying £10 million.

Muireann Bradley - fuckin hell - this is on

Get him home ASAP.

This is where our medics need to step in - our employee who we paid massive money for and who we pay massive money to could see his season ended because Egypt want to push him to play for them when injured. We surely have to be able to be involved in this to be sure that no unnecessary risks are being taken and no longer term damage can be caused.

One of the first rules of the PL is open book policy on a clubs accounting. As soon as a club refuses to hand the books over they should be in breach of the PL rules and kicked out of the league. As someone said, if your refusing to hand over it's as good as admitting that you've got something to hide.

https://novaramedia.com/2024/01/15/mehdi-hasans-exit-from-msnbc-is-an-embarrassment-to-us-journalism/ Nobody is better at interviewing America’s most powerful public figures than Mehdi Hasan. To watch the MSNBC host interrogate people like John Bolton, Erik Prince and Vivek Ramaswamywas to witness a masterclass in political accountability. Hasan typically comes armed with documents, meaning that if an interviewee contradicts a claim they made previously or offers an evasive non-answer, they can expect to be called out on it. This style of adversarial journalism, more common in Hasan’s native Britain than in the US, is crucial for a functional democratic society because it ensures politicians’ lies are actually exposed. Precisely because it is effective, confrontational journalism is intolerable to the political establishment, which tries to eliminate it at all costs – hence Hasan’s departure from MSNBC, announced on Tuesday. To the extent that MSNBC aspires to be a serious journalistic organisation, then, Hasan was a major asset to the network. But on his MSNBC show, Hasan applied his critical style to the government of Israel as it continues its assault on Gaza. His viral interview with former Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev included a jaw-dropping moment in which Regev refused to accept that Israel had killed any children in Gaza (Doctors Without Borders estimates that over 100 children a day are being killed). Hasan’s scepticism of Israel, and the Biden administration’s support for Israeli policies, was apparently too much for the network, which cancelled Hasan’s show in early December (Hasan was initially announced to be staying on as a contributor, but ultimately quit the network entirely, in circumstances that have not been made fully clear). Media suppression of dissident voices in times of war is not new. During the Iraq war in 2003, MSNBC fired Phil Donahue, who was thought to be too much of an anti-war voice. The US media failed spectacularly in that war to interrogate US government claims, resulting in the public supporting an invasion based on flimsy falsehoods. The Iraq episode demonstrated conclusively why journalism needs to antagonise governments, and why having journalists like Hasan who ask tough questions is necessary to protect the population from being deceived. Critics of Israel in particular are often censored or marginalised within US political discourse. Since the 7 October attacks, and Israel’s much deadlier retaliatory attack on Gaza, Palestinian cultural events have been cancelled and the country’s only Palestinian American congresswoman has been formally censured. Human Rights Watch reports that Meta has “been silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook in a wave of heightened censorship of social media.” Threats to pro-Palestinian speech are escalating; recently, a Wall Street Journal op-ed called for pro-ceasefire protests to be labelled “domestic terrorists” for blocking traffic. Even liberal outlets are often skittish when it comes to criticism of Israel. I know this from personal experience, having been fired as a columnist for a liberal newspaper after a single tweet critical of US military aid to Israel. Marc Lamont Hill was similarly ditched by CNN after calling for a free Palestine (in the bizarre world of pro-Israel discourse, calling for a free Palestine is treated as a coded “call for genocide”). Hill has co-authored a useful book on how many US liberals are “progressive except for Palestine”. Nobody has argued that Mehdi Hasan got anything wrong factually, or did bad work. In fact, he was probably one of the more scrupulous researchers in American journalism. But the heads of giant corporations don’t have to give justifications for their decisions. Hasan was controversial, and so his show was ended. Hasan’s final show poignantly “featured an interview with Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian photographer who talked about the danger of working in Gaza during Israeli military operations”. Hasan paid tribute to the large number of his fellow journalists killed in the Israeli assault. This kind of solidarity among journalists has been notably absent from the response to Hasan’s ousting. The Washington Post’s Perry Bacon Jr penned a column accusing the MSNBC brass of “pushing the network in the direction of being the television arm of the Democratic Party leadership”, while representatives Ilhan Omar and Ro Khanna criticised the network’s decision to cancel Hasan’s show. But for the most part, Hasan’s departure has been met with silence. This is shameful. American journalists should be united in defending one of their own and in protecting dissident voices. Otherwise, they risk reinforcing the perception that the media is little more than an elite propaganda apparatus designed to manufacture consent. It’s worth reflecting on what we lose by the departure of Hasan from MSNBC. Think of the interviews that won’t be done, the questions that won’t be asked, the lies that will go unchallenged. Hasan’s work was important. It needed to be done. He’s also not the only one being punished. By effectively hounding him out, MSNBC has put everyone else at the network on notice that they too need to watch themselves if they want a career there. Journalists will inevitably be more likely to self-censor, to ask themselves before saying anything about Israel or Palestine whether it’s likely to get them into trouble. That is an Orwellian environment in which independent critical thought cannot possibly flourish. Hasan’s exit from MSNBC is no small incident. It is an embarrassing chapter in the history of US journalism, and everyone who believes in the importance of a free press should unite opposing it. Nathan J Robinson is the editor-in-chief of Current Affairs.

Was hoping for some unexpected introspection.... Disappointed.

The Nick Harris thread in full (if like me you dont have X account). Depressing and insightful at the same time. Lots of commentary in past 36hrs about why PL charges under PSR rules against EFC and NFFC appear to be being expedited, while Man City's 115 charges (from an investigation dating back to 2018) linger, TBD on a now-agreed but not public timetable 1/n Everton (for a second time) and Forest have been charged for "simple" failures to balance their books around the "acceptable" losses of £105m over a 3-year ruling period. 2/n Whereas Man City's 115 charges effectively amount to accusations they were conducting financial fraud on a grand scale over a long period, and hoodwinking not just the PL but UEFA, and not co-operating. 3/n We know from Football Leaks and other sources that the City hierarchy's view has long been they'd “rather spend £30m on the 50 best lawyers” and sue Uefa “for the next ten years” than accept a punishment. THIS is plutocracy. 4/n They HAVE spent millions on lawyers. The've used every legal avenue possible to stall the process. When I was an MoS reporter in 2021 we used an external QC to gain access to "open justice" and attend court as City tried to stymie the PL's investigation. 5/n If Man City's supposed mountain of irrefutable evidence of their innocence is ready to go, then bring it on and get it sorted. For the benefit of everyone. 6/n They could have cooperated almost SIX years ago when the PL first started investigating them, and they didn't. That's their prerogative. It's not great on the optics but they don't care about optics. 7/n There is also a massive (MASSIVE) political element to this case. Sheikh Mansour is the deputy PM of a significant political ally of the United Kingdom. Imagine if he and his club were shamed by multiple guilty verdicts. Unprecedented and unpalatable. 8/n I'll be submitting further FOIs to try to establish the extent of British government involvement in the PL vs City case, but others so far have been fruitless. The stakes are SO much higher than whether a football club broke some football rules. 9/n Some (some) City fans go to extremes to convince themselves there's no case against City. Despite having been fined 90m euros (later reduced to "only" 30m) for major breaches of financial rules, and dishonesty, and non-cooperation. Before 115 PL charges. 10/n I've reported on City my whole working life. I knew, and know, people inside the club at all levels. I've been Khaldoon's guest in their directors' suite (albeit before I called them out). I have multiple sources who told me what really happened. 11/n Man City's hierarchy realised around 2010 that they needed "accelerated investment' before UEFA's FFP came into force. Their solution was cooking the books. That was evident from their 2014 punishment onwards. It's all been in plain sight. 12/12