Turkish Delight

Totally agree.

I've had an about turn on England in recent times. I laughed my head off when Uruguay and Iceland knocked them out but was surprised by how engaged and ultimately disappointed I was last night. Not since France 98 have I felt like that. My dislike of the England team had grown over time for the same reasons as everyone else. Mainly due to my views of being anti-establishment, anti-Brexit and anti-right wing and knowing the away fans who sing their bile at Anfield would be hurting when they lose (knowing that last bit is still satisfying). I've spent time overseas in recent times though and realised everywhere I've been has an unhealthy amount of right wing gobshites and while the people I dislike are hurting here the French coppers and officials who made Paris a hell hole in the summer and all those people voting for Marine Le Pen in France are celebrating. I can't feel made up about that second part. The knobheads over here are vocal and there are too many of them but plenty of people are decent and the players in the current team are mainly decent lads too. I felt at peace cheering this team on last night. I of course may change my mind when a new generation of Terrys, Lampards and Beckhams come round but that's how I felt last night. Not telling anyone else how to feel by the way as I totally get it why those who wanted England to lose did. Just putting my thoughts down really.

Seem to think wd had that chant for Firmino way before Arsenal but it didn't massively take off. I defo heard it some time around Kyiv but then Si Senor came along and was much better so it disappeared.

I only know I don't want sportswashing cunts or someone like Boehly who thinks he doesn't need to employ actual football experts. My gut feeling is we'd be more likely to get one of those options than decent owners who could take the club forward.

There are lots of causes of our problems this season but Matip's and Konate's lack of availability is right up there because they're both miles ahead of Joe. He has lots of good attributes but that doesn't matter when he's making basic concentration errors nearly every game he plays.

You're right on that. I mis-read the rules the first time. Very strange they kept that in when getting rid of them for the knockouts.

Away goals don't count. If we lose by one they'll need to overturn a goal difference of 8 in the last game with us losing and them winning.

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/titus-bramble-talentspotter Titus Bramble might have ended up a laughing stock but he was once considered a big prospect who was unlucky with injuries. Joe needs to step up now as he isn't a kid anymore. I've often thought his recovery pace and playing with Virgil masked his poor positional play and concentration lapses. That's not happening now and he's costing us goals regularly. Even in games like the derby where he was mainly very good he was presenting sitters to Everton. He has lots of great attributes but he's an accident waiting to happen too often and we desperately need Matip and Konate back.

It was a terrible career move for him. Not sure what success for him ever would have been there. Can't really see where his next career move would be now too.

I'm still in touch with the girl whose Airbnb I stayed at in 2018. We spoke about Russia when I was there. She was descended from Russians and spoke Russian. I'm as certain as I could be she'd have voted for a pro-Russian party. She left Ukraine as the war started and is doing a lot to raise for money for charity for Ukrainians back home. Her social media is as anti-Russian and pro-Ukrainian as you could possibly imagine and she currently has family in eastern Ukraine taking shelter while their neighbourhood is bombarded by the Russians. A previously pro-Russian view doesn't mean people want their liberty taken or to be part of Russia now.

On that free kick before half time a simple ball down the wing could easily have got Jota behind on the left side as he had acres of space. Absolute stupidity to play that ball across the pitch. Had a look up on Darren England too. He has a history of not giving us pens on VAR. He hasn't reffed too many games in the Prem and was the fella who disallowed Palace's third against City earlier in the season.

There was a woman on tv last night saying how her Mum had passed away at the start of the week so she'd now lost both of her mother figures in a few days. The human mind baffles me and I can't even begin to imagine how someone could equate the two events in their life. It reminds me of when I flicked on the radio years ago to hear Michael Jackson had died. Pete Price brought Cilla Black on as a special guest over the phone to discuss him. "Cilla, you never met Michael but what type of a person was he?" Followed by a glowing tribute. People genuinely think they know these people based on the media vision of them. They don't.

Bournemouth said something about needing a manager who agrees the club should be run sustainably. Basically, they're spending fuck all and want someone who won't complain about it.

He got bullied by Andersen all game and wasn't good enough in the game with the football to get the better of him so he butted him. I'd rather our players were focused on winning games than trying to be hardmen. Someone said to me last night it reminded them of something Balotelli would have done and I couldn't disagree. Absolutely fucking brainless.

Nunez had three sitters and failed to hit any of them properly before getting sent off through fucking stupidity. He looks clumsy on the ball and miles off the other players for all his decent movement. That and Nat Phillips struggling for the pace of the game after a year in the Championship were the two deciding factors for me.

The kid looks like he's being dragged along. There should be a child protection hotline number at the bottom of it.

Everton, United, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal all away before the World Cup. We need to be on it from this start this season.

It'll be 30 years since the Premier League launched at the start of the season so guaranteed we'll be off to Forest first.

Not sure if Nunez is the right man or not but he's no Andy Carroll. I read somewhere that only Alphonso Davies ran faster than him in the Champions League last year and it was only a tiny margin. Andy Carroll barely ever broke out of a trot.

I think we were just exceptionally lucky to have got there at the point we did. If we hadn't been staying where we were then we'd have definitely followed the route everyone else did from line D. I know the gate was shut not long after we arrived. We were worried about our mate as we couldn't reach him on the phone and heard what was happening from other fans. I went to the concourse and could see the chaos below.

The signage piece is an important one to highlight in terms of planning failure. I got off train line D at around 7 but had to check into my hotel at the other side of the stadium so went straight on as everyone went left. After checking in I have a video on my phone at 7:37 of the team bus as it went past us about 200 metres from the ground as we were walking towards it and a photo at my seat at 7:46. We entered by gate A which was virtually empty at that point. My only real observation at the time was how quiet it was as I was completely oblivious of the problems elsewhere. A mate who went to the stadium ahead of us only made it in around 90 minutes after us after following the route everyone else did. Some simple directions highlighting routes to different gates could have split the load across the entry points.

Their manager was kicking off about Klopp calling AFCON 'little' when the tournament was on. I'd guess that's part of it even if it is fucking ridiculous. It would be a shame if he decided to start acting like a cunt on the way out. Can understand if he wants a new challenge or even more money but there's no need to start coming out with anything disrespectful.

Time to make a final offer and sell if he doesn't accept. We don't need next season to have the Mo Salah to City sideshow running right through it.

We did in the main. We only went strong in the League Cup and FA Cup in the late rounds.

He has tons of potential but I think his performances to date have been overstated a bit. He can be a little predictable with his efforts to get on his right and his finishing lacks finesse with more focus on power than accuracy. With Mane leaving there'll be a lot of pressure on him to score more next season and we'll need him to deliver more than he has so far.