Turkish Delight

The fact the most senior ref in the country is telling the VAR to delay the game tells you he could have. He just chose not to.

Not usually one for coming up with songs but always think it sounds decent when the Germans sing It's a Heartache by Bonnie Tyler. "He's Szoboszlai, Dominic Szoboszlai, The Hungarian maestro, The Redmen's fucking he-e-ro" Repeat. Might just sound decent in my head but surely it's better than Whitney Houston.

1. Mario Balotelli - I never even bought the argument he was especially talented. He was just a fucking lunatic and stood out for that reason. He didn't give a shit and lacked ability. 2. Loris Karius - Constantly making mistakes and also gave an impression of not giving a fuck. Cost us a European Cup final after his mistakes threatened to get us knocked out earlier in the competition. Only keeper I've ever seen give a corner away off a goal kick. 3. Joe Cole - totally unfit when he signed for us and also didn't give a shit which showed in his performances. 4. Lazar Markovic - Slow plodder with no positive attributes. 5. Christian Poulsen - slow, ponderous and a perfect embodiment of the Hodgson team he played in.

They're low in quality but they put a proper shift in. They were first to every second ball tonight and pressed Brentford's defence into loads of mistakes. They'll be upper mid-table after their next 2 games sadly.

I expect that too. I think we'll want to get wins to wrap up winning the group early and will go a little stronger away from home initially with players properly rested in the later part of the group. If we were to lose a couple by going too weak and finished second we'd get an extra knockout round in February against a team dropping out the Champions League.

I absolutely love that they made him captain. He represents everything they are these days. An individual who's more interested in himself than his team and who gives up at the first sign of adversity. Yet his manager thinks the way to go is appointing him a leader and paying a fortune for average players to surround him just because they did ok in a Dutch league with no depth of quality. It's great to see.

I watched that. The keepers knew where he was going on most and dived the right way but couldn't get near them.

He was happy to bask in all the praise that standing up for LGBTQ rights brought him and to take the MBE that came for doing it but it's clear that was just all about his image than any cause and this interview shows that. It was nothing more than PR. I'm convinced the timing of this car crash interview is because Southgate was made to feel so uncomfortable for picking him in the squad last week. He won't be going to those Euros next year as there's nothing the FA likes less than a bit of bad press themselves.

Russo had a 5 to 10 yard headstart on the goalscorer for the Spanish goal and couldn't be arsed sprinting with her. She wouldn't have much right to complain.

The way they pay and how it's accounted for on the books is different. He's on an 8 year contract so his transfer fee will appear on their books at an eighth of the overall fee in each of those years.

They aren't. They're amortising deals over long terms and have sold players too. They've basically took a 140 odd million a year commitment over the next 7 or 8 years on their balance sheet but have took in transfer fees that appear on there in full right now. On their p+l for this year they'll actually show a positive balance for this year as transfers out will show in full and they'll only take 1/8th of transfer fees out. That will pass Premier League FFP (maybe not UEFA's). It's a gamble on the future. If they all turned out shite they'd be in a hole. If not, then it will sustain.

Haha It was more a tenuous wrestling reference. Turns out he is though!

The lad's a giant.

That pen wasn't 50/50 by the rules it was 100%. It wasn't struck from close by, didn't deflect, he moved his hand to the ball and wasn't in a natural position. If the rules are applied that's given. It's not subjective. Compare that to the one given to Luton yesterday and it's a million times more a pen.

Thought we were second best after the opening period but would have won with competent refereeing. Under the rules of the game we had a definite pen not given. Had the lines been drawn right for Salah's offside I suspect he'd have still just been off but they might have overlapped slightly which would have put him on. The lines drawn tried to go from his hand to make sure of no overlap but went even further up the pitch than that. It was no surprise to see Darren England was VAR.

You're probably right and hard to see us being so stupid to allow that. Brighton re-negotiating with other parties could have a penalty where they pay us something though if we refuse to walk away as their approach was geared around getting highest possible prices by using that approach (which is what they'll get). Unlikely but I can't see any good reason why we've yet to walk away if he doesn't want to play here.

I wonder if this weird time-bound auction thing Brighton did had any legal terms behind it that would penalise the winner if they pulled out or Brighton if they then negotiated with another bidder. Might not do of course but would explain our position if it did.

1. City 2. Arsenal 3. Liverpool 4. Man Utd 5. Newcastle 6. Chelsea 18. Sheff Utd 19. Luton 20. Bournemouth Top scorer: Haaland LIverpool goals for: 79 Against: 38 CL: Bayern League Cup: Newcastle FA Cup: Arsenal Europa League: Liverpool Dark horse predictions: Spurs to finish bottom half Everton to progress to mid table mediocrity England to win the Euros and Harry Kane to win the 2024 Ballon d'Or Pep to leave City at the end of the season

Why did only 24,000 people turn up in a 60,000 seater stadium from a population of over 7 million in Riyadh for the derby I watched? https://youtu.be/gENEMFq1vpA I'm not saying people don't care as you can see many at the ground do but there is an obviously choreographed and artificial element to parts of those you've quoted that is planted on top of that as well.

Out of curiosity to educate myself I've just watched highlights of one of the recent Al Nassr and Al Hilal games on YouTube. It might be that the rivalry may seem fierce in the city but it certainly didn't translate to the atmosphere at the game for something where they're 'more emotionally invested than anywhere else in the world'. Players who've played in the best South American or European atmospheres aren't turning up there and getting that vibe no matter how much money is thrown at them.

Every club in the top 5 divisions of English football has either won a trophy or promotion since Everton last did.

There's one example in my mind when a ball was played further in front of him than he wanted. It was still his ball but he refused to run after it and instead stopped and had a strop. Absolutely toxic behaviour.

The PR job that was done around that poor kid was a disgrace as was the regime he was being put through by his parents based on the online videos. Can only hope it doesn't harm him too much in the long run. He played against my son a few times. He was good but I didn't think he was stand out against other academy lads his age.

Agree on most of them and I might be in the minority but I reckon Kane scores more than Haaland in that team and is a better all round player too. He only scored 4 less from open play than Haaland in the league last season playing in a shocking Spurs team.

They'll still claim having the first one is more important though!