And I doubt Le Monde ran a front page the next morning stating ‘la vérité!’
Prime the Police for violence, and they shall deliver.
Nothing new under The Sun.
Know it's old, but...
Well Mrs Binners didn't seem overly impressed with my Valentines Day declaration that I love her even more than I love Marcus Rashford 😂
Back to the soccer ball and it's the return of champions soccer league tonight. Spurs are at the san siro. No bale this time. In fact no hojberg, bentancur or Loris. This could be tough. I'll just cheer myself up with...
Taxi for Macon!
Its quite interesting for the rest of us to guess which Spurs will turn up? The one that beat Citeh or the one who got absolutely walloped by Leicester less than a week later.
We've now accepted out place in the world of late and that our European football is now played on Thursday nights, but you generally assume you'll be playing in Kazakstan, not up against Barca
It's almost as much fun for us spurs fans, 😂 in a perverse sort of way!
AC Milan are in horrific form, lost 4 of their last 5, got humped 5-2 at home to Sassuolo and before that beat 4-0 by Lazio, they've certainly not enjoyed the WC break!
Well watching the Spurs game and feeling a little regret and wished I'd watched Midsomer Murders on ITV 4.
I opted to watch Ted Lasso. The real one, not the one who’s about to be appointed Southampton manager in a Suella Braverman paced return
Anyway, my evaluation of which spurs would likely turn up tonight appears to be (literally) on the money as far as my betting was concerned 😀
Just discovered Apple TV due to a 3 month trial and there's some absolute stonkers on there.
Only got to listen to a few snippets of 5 live commentary. Seems we had no quality in the final 3rd but a different ref would have given loads of free kicks and a penalty. Milan showed little to scare. Got a fair chance of winning at home so all to play for... Let's hope the other team turns up for that game!
Where was Kane playing tonight? He was ineffective as left back against Leicester and his midfield games haven’t been that good of late
Kane was busy auditioning for the popular BBC documentary Ambulance.
I’m amazed he can still walk, he’s had his legs broken and been shot by snipers so many times
He’ll be starring in the opening scene of Casualty before long, stood next to a big drop into a quarry or a combine harvester that’s just had a safety guard removed. Jack Grealish has apparently already been signed up for a scene involving some badly constructed scaffolding above a swimming pool and a killer whale
On a tangent… Ted Lasso is absolutely bloody brilliant and infinitely preferable to watching Spurs
Absolutely cracking first half! That was some finish by De Bruyne
I hate to say it but these two are so far clear of everyone else, it’s a definite 2 horse race. It’s certainly going to be an interesting contest to watch. Can’t see either dropping many points
City have just moved up another gear..not just this game but for the season. All down to superb conditioning.
Looks like Arsenal are done, don't think they're a match for this City side when it comes to the big games, they miss Partey in the middle and Jesus up front of course, reality is Nketiah is not a top 4 front man, Haaland has been a handful and kept the Arsenal back four and midfielders occupied, Arsenal count more on their wingers.
I thought Arsenal had their chances,just didn't take them. Pretty even game except for about five minutes of defensive cock ups.
Not a lot in it, some poor errors for City’s goals, which they took advantage of ruthlessly. May well knock the stuffing out of Arsenal, they did look a bit leggy as they haven’t the same level of squad as City so far less rotation.
More Potterball from Chelsea as well. Neat and tidy, no goals. Love it!
Arsenal have a game in hand, so still theoretically control their destiny. Makes the title race more interesting.
Arsenal have a game in hand, so still theoretically control their destiny. Makes the title race more interesting.
They still have to go to Man City, so you could say they also have control of their own destiny.
Reality is, it was a close game in terms of possession and movement, City just have players who can take their chances when they come, or do a job when it's not, Arsenal just looked like they weren't getting through tonight, Nketiah missed two open headers in front of goal, Haaland wouldn't have done the same.
I still think it will be very close as long as Arsenal don't crumble or suffer squad injuries. They cut through City very nicely at points tonight, just didn't finish. With a fit Gabriel Jesus, I think they would have been in a pretty dominant position by now.
Just like the cup game, City went up a gear in the second half. Like all great teams, the skill is built upon a high work rate.
Well that was fine fare for an early Thursday night. Is that Manu's normal away kit or were they teasing Barca?
so 15 years after the whaling from the red side of Manchester about Abu Dhabi money killing the game, we are here?
It’s only one bidder, I’m sure others will be after them too and Ratcliffe has already said he’ll bid.
After the years of the Glazers clueless parasitic ownership, bleeding the club dry, we’d welcome Fred West as a new owner as it’d represent a considerable improvement
Is Ratcliffe any better, he is a western Oligarch who's contribution to politics is perhaps more subtle but part of a group who has caused more damage in spreading an economic message of neoliberalism and greed that serves just a few to damage billions of lives. The american billionaire bidders will be just the same.
I agree MSP. Depressing that these are the only types now who seem to have the means and power to take over the bigger clubs.
The Glazers valuation of the club - they’re typically money-grubbing and self-serving parting gift - is £6.5 billion
Which is an insane sum of money given that the club is still saddled with nearly a billion pounds of the debt they piled on to it in their how-can-this-possibly-be-legal leveraged buyout
So that’s pretty much everyone out of the bidding other than petrodollars and ego-crazed tech billionaires
There are no ideal outcomes, just least worst options
All we know - and we’ve known it from day one - is that the Glazers only interest in buying the club was to asset strip it and milk the ‘brand’ for every last cent they could wring from it. They’re leeches
So they can take their billions and * off! And when they’ve done that they can * off some more!
Whoever comes next would have to do something pretty damn spectacular to be worse than them
It's all about prestige with buying ManU, i know it's all going off about Qatar and human rights, but we're on about an investment group that is the 10th largest UK landowner, that is the majority shareholder in Heathrow, owns many exclusive London businesses and properties and sponsors a lot more.
The real worry is that if they buy ManU, they'll bring back David Beckham in some role, that alone should bar them from bidding!
To be honest with you, I think all this is still in the realms of speculation and everything is still in the hands of the Glazers, who just can’t be trusted
And there lies the problem. They could stop this whole process at any point and will do if they think they can wring a few more quid for themselves. They genuinely couldn’t give a shiny shit about the club and only care about the money
I don’t hold out any hope until any sale has officially all been completed.
How many times did Mike Ashley do this with Newcastle? Announce the club was being sold, then pull the plug on it all? I can see the same greedy self-serving farce playing out at Old Trafford
To be fair, Ashley did lose a bit with Newcastle by all accounts, the Glazers have just got that look of wanting to get out of the game and make as much as they can. As for the future, can you imagine ManU owned by Qatari investment, you know how much they love the UAE and Saudi's, i could see some spicy off-field battles going on to see who is the top dog!
With, it seems, an Iranian American billionaire who has financial interests in multiple large sports teams, preparing a significant bid for spurs I share your confliction. On the one hand enic/Joe Louis have done great great things for spurs but on the other they fail to spend on the pitch in the way the other big clubs do. Obviously spending and success are linked and all fans are frustrated with no success. However I agree with levy who has been consistent and resolute with only spending what is sustainable. FFS, ffp is basically there to ensure just that! It irks when citeh and Chelsea flout that.
Better the devil you know?
Here’s an interesting little read for all of you fed up with big money football. Disenchanted Arse fans have started their own club Dial Square FC Maybe it’s the future?
In other United news, Ten Hag and his wife are regularly spotted cycling around Cheshire
There was an article in todays guardian speculating on what ant new United owner would do
Top of the list was keep Ten Hag happy. I don’t think you’d get an argument against that
spending what is sustainable. FFS, ffp is basically there to ensure just that!
FFP's stated aims and actual aims are very different, it was originally introduced to prevent another Leeds united, to stop asset stripping debt being loaded onto a club. It morphed into protecting the established "European royalty" under the guise of a level playing field, while united, barca, Juventas and madrid have no penalties for financial mismanagement (Juventas broke the law, the football penalties were only given when the league looked weak afterwards)
I wish some corrupt, suitcase dismemberer, insanely rich mad person would buy Reading.
They have, several times (cavet, I don't think Sir John has actually dismembered anyone)
Trouble is they largely kept their money in their pockets and remained insanely rich.
Perhaps that’s the problem? A few half-time beheadings to appease the football gods might do the trick?
They have, several times (cavet, I don’t think Sir John has actually dismembered anyone)
Well there was the son of the only penniless oligarch.
To be honest I'm sitting on the fence over beheadings at half time as I'd need a beer by then.
Agreed, it does protect the status quo. Look at the American sports and their draft system helps to keep a level ish playing field, they recognise the strength in a decent competitive league. Football in Europe needs a complete restructure, but the money and interests it drives make the European super League a when, not if, unfortunately.
I don’t know about using American sport as a comparison. Nobody gets relegated or promoted do they? Aren’t the leagues all closed shops?
Which is what the likes of the Glazers wanted for the Superleague
Sod that. Imagine no relegation battles or Championship playoffs? No Brentford’s and Burnley’s causing chaos against ‘bigger’ teams.
I can’t see that happening given the enormous backlash to it last time
Look at the American sports and their draft system helps to keep a level ish playing field, they recognise the strength in a decent competitive league.
It's a completely closed shop. As Binners said there is no promotion or relegation.
Also, you can just buy a "franchise" and move it lock stock to wherever you want.
Couldn't be further from a level playing field.