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There's more to life than the EPL, fitba is back, 2025/26 season.

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Alonso sacked at Madrid, I know it was in the offing, but I still think its insane. I don't think they will continue to have success if they don't back a manager to implement a system rather than just having someone to massage the egos of the superstars.

They have looked at man united and said "hold my San Miquel"


 
Posted : 12/01/2026 6:46 pm
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Ratcliffe’s mistake is that for some misplaced reason he thinks a football club can be run like a business, putting up prices and cutting costs to make a profit each year whereas football is, and always has been, about rich owners indulging lots of money over many years and convincing another rich owner to pay quite a bit more for the club.


 
Posted : 12/01/2026 8:05 pm
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I didn't realise that the Rosenoir appointment by Chelsea from Strasbourg was essentially from their feeder club. 

Multi Club Ownership is properly rotten & should be banned. 


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 10:51 am
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Posted by: MSP

Alonso sacked at Madrid, I know it was in the offing, but I still think its insane. I don't think they will continue to have success if they don't back a manager to implement a system rather than just having someone to massage the egos of the superstars.

They have looked at man united and said "hold my San Miquel"

I read that Mbeppe and his team mates refused the guard of honour for Barca on Sunday's cup in sportswash land that Alonso requested and ignored him which meant that the team was in charge.  

 


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 10:57 am
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In Spain and I think also Germany and Italy, they have had multi club ownership for a long time, go down a couple if divisions and quite a few of the clubs are owned by the big clubs and are just feeder/training clubs for the main squad. The only real difefrence is that it has now become international.

Not that I like the way it is being done, but I am also wary of those casting the biggest acustations (the spanish league) being just as corrupt, it is just someone else has done something they haven't (but absolutely would have done if they had thought of it first) and gained an advantage from it.

It reminds me of a few years ago, when it was suggested that the premier league could play a game in another country, who wailed the loudest, the ones who are now doing exactly that once the heat had died down.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 11:06 am
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Carrick has been appointed as interim manager to replace the interim/interim manager, Fletcher

Nothing else changes with the shambles above him and so the same depressingly familiar cycle of failure begins yet again.

It’s like Groundhog Day.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 2:21 pm
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You're within 3 points of Europe, I understand the issues and the anger but I'm struggling to find even a medium sized violin.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 2:52 pm
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I see Steve Holland is being brought in as assistant - Southgate’s long term assistant. He’ll take stock of the situation before Sir Gareth arrives in the summer. 


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 3:18 pm
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So, when will Phil "Duncan Edwards" Jones get his go as ManU manager? He knows the dugout.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 5:59 pm
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I see Rooney volunteered himself, and was ignored! 


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 7:41 pm
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More examples where commentators don't know the laws. Thiaw was last defender but Pope was in front of him so there were clearly not 2 opponents between Haaland and the goal line. Clear offside, the only issue is whether Haaland interfered with Thiaw and on that it took too long.


 


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 10:28 pm
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More ridiculous VAR in the semi final. 

 

If it takes that long give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking team.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 10:28 pm
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Thought it was one of the easiest decisions for var, keepers advanced of Haarland and he’s got his arms round the defender, should of taken 5 seconds max


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 10:59 pm
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I think it'd help if they had a time limit of 3 monies to make a decision and if they can't decide on that time the benefit of the doubt is given to the attacking team.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 11:22 pm
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Its Man City - they weren't looking for a reason to disallow it, they were looking for reasons why they shouldn't disallow it but exhausted them all to had to can it.

Would have been a more even game if they'd left Wissa on instead of bringing the daddy long legs Woltemade on. He reminds me of Carlton Palmer.


 
Posted : 13/01/2026 11:52 pm
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If they were looking to allow the goal, they wouldn't have even bothered with the VAR review, no one would have blinked an eye, nobody saw any offside in real time.

That said once the lines were drawn, then it is offside, there is absolutely no reason to send the ref to the screen.


 
Posted : 14/01/2026 8:06 am
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I've read some stuff today that says the semi-automated VAR system went down, and a chunk of the review was in essence waiting for a reboot that never happened so they switched to manual line draw having wasted a couple of mins at least of twiddling thumbs. So yes, VAR at fault but the actual officials need some slack here.

The offside itself was obvious although I'm still pissed off that Sam Matterface who makes a living commenting on this sport doesn't know that it isn't where the last defender is (he was definitively saying Thiaw's orange boot was the backmark), it's where the second last defending player is. Now, 99% of the time the goalkeeper is back man so they are essentially the same, but when Nick Pope's on another false foray to not get a corner or long throw in, that isn't always true.

Then it becomes a matter of opinion - yes he was in an offside position, but was he interfering...that's why he was sent to the screen and more time wasted.

Right decision made to look bad by a technical failure and a commentator's inability to actually explain the situation.


 
Posted : 14/01/2026 3:12 pm
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Sam Matterface who makes a living commenting on this sport doesn't know that it isn't where the last defender is

I thought the same watching it last night,  both commentators seemed completely oblivious to the fact Haaland and Thiaw were behind Nick Pope when Semenyo made contact with the ball so he was clearly offside. Newcastle had a similar one disallowed in the Carabao cup final when Bruno Guimares was in an offside position but made no contact with the ball or any Liverpool players as Isak scored but personally I think both goals should have been allowed and I say this as a lifelong Toon fan


 
Posted : 14/01/2026 7:50 pm
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Good to Ben White's goal that stood tonight was in no way similar to the goal that was disallowed last night.


 
Posted : 14/01/2026 11:10 pm
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Feel a bit sorry for Palace fans - looks like Glasner is off, along with Guehi. 

I wonder if he'll be next to fail at Utd or if they are waiting for Tuchel.


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 3:24 pm
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I’ve a horrible feeling that Southgate is probably already a done deal but he doesn’t want to take over mid-season. Though god only knows why anyone would come to Old Trafford under the present utterly chaotic and dysfunctional ownership. Other than for the inevitable payoff when you’re sacked after 18 months, obviously 

Since Fergie, United have spent £120+ million paying off sacked managers 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 3:33 pm
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Posted by: PrinceJohn

Feel a bit sorry for Palace fans - looks like Glasner is off, along with Guehi

As a Brighton supporter I'm very happy to see how miserable they are today, but it is what happens to smaller clubs, tbf it happens to all but 2 or 3 clubs in Europe. Your best players and coaches will move on for better (paid) things. The one thing they have over most of the equally sized clubs in the league (and some bigger ones too) is that in their best period they managed to win a trophy. Hats off to them for that (I feel dirty saying that and not in a good way).


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 3:55 pm
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But £20m for Guehi – that's a bargain (I assume because he is so close to becoming a free agent)?

Let's just bung Man C, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc in a different league where they can all compete to be the biggest spenders, and the rest of the teams can just concentrate on playing football.


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 4:00 pm
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But £20m for Guehi – that's a bargain (I assume because he is so close to becoming a free agent)?

20 mil now or he walks for nowt in the summer. That’s quite a big wedge for a player with only a few months left on his contract. A cracking buy though. I’m sure it’ll quickly look like an absolute bargain. It’s one of the few positions where Citeh could do with strengthening and he’s world class

Let's just bung Man C, Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea etc in a different league where they can all compete to be the biggest spenders, and the rest of the teams can just concentrate on playing football.

It’s all about the shirt sales in Singapore and donut partners in Wisconsin 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 4:11 pm
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^ Yep. Crap, innit?


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 4:45 pm
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Well add Spurs into that group as they’ve spent more than Arsenal since 2020 according to an article on the BBC sport site today. And West Ham have a higher net spend than Man City over the past five seasons 😳

City are good at transfers though aren’t they? They get rid of players at the right time and buy quality. Every premier league club coukd have afforded Cherki. 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 4:51 pm
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^ Yep. Crap, innit?

Yep! Its truly awful! United are farther down the 'commercial' road than anyone else - due to 20 years of the parasitic Glazers - in that what happens on the pitch seems to no longer be of any real consequence. Its certainly nowhere near the top of the list of priorities.

The Guardian sports writer summed it up best a couple of seasons ago, in a scathing article about modern football and particularly United. He said Manchester United is no longer a football club, its a theme park. 

Pretty much bang on, that!

In other 'what will our clueless owners do next?' news, apparently Bayern are after Bruno and United are inclined to sell him. 

*sigh*

I'll be watching tomorrows derby through my fingers. We're going to get an absolute shoeing!


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 5:05 pm
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Nah - it's City, Utd will somehow keep them out & rob 96th minute winner.


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 5:21 pm
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If DaveyBoyWonder's claim were true about VAR favouring City then surely they would have disallowed Arsenal's very similar goal against City? City are not the beneficiaries of PGMOL trotting out obscure regulations like the "5cm tolerance" which was cited to allow Wirtz's goal a couple of weeks ago.

The also suffered from the most ridiculous VAR decision ever in the cup final last year.

Anyway looking forward to Guehi joining City - and £80M player for £20M!

 
 
 
 

 
Posted : 16/01/2026 5:56 pm
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City are good at transfers though aren’t they? They get rid of players at the right time and buy quality. Every premier league club coukd have afforded Cherki. 

 

We didn't last year, it was clear we kept a few players too long. In fixing that we have had a big outlay in just over 12 months, but in premier league terms I think we have just edged ahead of Liverpool in the net spend over 5 years into 5th place on the list compared to the other expected competitors for the league.

I think we can get the likes of Cherki, because we have Pep, when he leaves things will probably change, thankfully for us he looks refreshed and happy this year again, so he might not be leaving anytime soon hopefully.

 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 6:40 pm
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You would think the likes of Guehi and Semenyo must have been told Pep was staying? Bit of a risk otherwise as he’s pretty irreplaceable if he is leaving in the summer? 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 8:27 pm
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apparently Bayern are after Bruno and United are inclined to sell him. 

I've found myself feeling a bit sorry for Bruno recently. He was 25 when he signed for Man U, he'll be 32 this year, and he's good enough to have spent the last 6 years at a club in contention for the Champions League.

But he spent those years with the circus. He can be mercurial but even so, he still often appears to be the only player in red who actually gives a crap. Without him, god knows where they'd have ended up! A quick scan of Wiki suggests he's scored more league goals than any other Man U player over the last 3/4 seasons.  And what did it get him? A 15th place finish and Tuesday nights watching TNT sports in Alderley Edge. 

 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 8:44 pm
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Bit of a risk otherwise as he’s pretty irreplaceable if he is leaving in the summer? 

 

Hardly a risk, when Pep leaves they are likely to get another top manager, of course Pep is one of the all time greats so there is likely to be a drop off, but it is unlikely we become a basket case overnight, unless there is a bit of an exodus of the whole management team after the Pep project.

Although it is a reoccurring theme in football, when good managers leave a club, the fans think their club is special, they give their managers time, they don't make kneejerk reactions etc, and time and time again we find out that any club can completely **** it up.

 

 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 10:09 pm
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He still often appears to be the only player in red who actually gives a crap

Very much so. And he’s surrounded by journeymen on more money than he is who barely trouble themselves to turn up. He’s carried a shit, disinterested squad for years. The last player that did that was Dave and just look how he was treated in the end. It was an absolute disgrace. An embarrassment! 

They were trying to cash in during the summer by offering him to Saudi teams. That’s what commitment and loyalty get you at Old Trafford.  We don’t want any of that nonsense here! 


 
Posted : 16/01/2026 11:25 pm
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Stonking big game today. The Betwright stadium has not been a happy hunting ground for Reading in recent years.


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 10:30 am
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Oh I thought you meant Dunfermline Hibs in the cup?


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 11:25 am
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Roy Keane is presently absolutely eviscerating the whole United set up on Sky. I think it’s fair to say he’s not expecting the appointment of Michael Carrick to provide any improvement in form 😂


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 12:43 pm
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I'm sure Carrick will be phoning Roy to learn from his successful management career.


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 12:52 pm
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He wasn’t having a pop at Carrick. His point is that the whole set up at Old Trafford is such a total shambles that who they bring in as manager is pretty much irrelevant 


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 12:59 pm
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He wasn’t having a pop at Carrick.

 

True. He had a pop at Carrick's wife though. 


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 1:35 pm
 dazh
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How predictable is this? Carrick 'turns around' a poor team which wasn't actually doing that badly, then gets the job permanently but not the money to replace the shite players, then gets sacked next year when he doesn't win the PL and CL. 


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 3:13 pm
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Anyone know where this United squad have come from? 


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 3:31 pm
 dazh
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Hyperbole is off the scale already. 'The rebirth of Manchester United' according to the bloke on Sky. Do we start the betting on when Carrick gets sacked now or wait til he gets the job proper?


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 3:40 pm
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Oh dear. The pubs in Ireland and Surrey will be insufferable this evening.


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 3:47 pm
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North London too. Surely Arsenal can't **** it up again


 
Posted : 17/01/2026 3:58 pm
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