Football – 2023/24 Season

My god. I’m trying, I really am, but women’s football is verging on the unwatchable.

So don’t watch it. Problem solved.

@binners Good news!

Looks like your favorite centre back is staying to “fight for his place”.

I know. Fantastic news! Apparently he was demanding a 7 million quid pay-off to just **** off!

So, just when we finally get shut of Phil Jones (never played for four years, still picked up 75 grand a week), we’ve now got a more expensive version on 170 grand a week to never play.

I can just imagine the abuse he’s going to get if he ever does make it onto the pitch after this latest farce.

I know. Fantastic news! Apparently he was demanding a 7 million quid pay-off to just **** off!

I could kind of see his point, all the same, I’m glad he’s not coming to West Ham. Too expensive and too slow.

Could be worse, you could of let him go on a free and then buy him back for £90 million a few years later, then let him go on a free……….

Did you not see the Sky Sport poll on the worst buys in Premier League history?

Number 1: Paul Pogba (back) to Man Yoo

Number 2: Harry Maguire to Man Yoo

It doesn’t really matter who the rest of the top ten were (though there were quite a few United players).Those two are in a league of their own.

Aaaaah… them we’re’t days. I miss watching my mates projectile vomitting on the halfway line after breaking into an ill-advised, hungover run

My main memories from my short Sunday league career are running away in fear of my life from a central defender who had recently retired from playing for Doncaster Rovers, and our leftwinger having a blackout 20 minutes into the first half after being up all night and doing a massive line of coke just before kick off. It’s a stupid sport really, but it’s what gives it the edge over more polite sports like cricket and rugby.

The mens game is brutal. for example my son is a striker and sometimes he comes home with his legs studded and chest etc bleeding/bruised from people trying to pull him down.

This. The most physically demanding and violent sport I’ve ever played, and that wasn’t even to a high level. I remember coming home covered in blood and bruises and narrowly avoided a broken leg a few times (others didn’t) and that was against a bunch of part time sunday leaguers. I can’t imagine how brutal it must be against honed athletes who are twice as fast and twice as strong.

It’s a stupid sport really, but it’s what gives it the edge over more polite sports like cricket and rugby.

I dunno. In the rugby team I played in the props used to warm up with a few pints before kick off. The only reason they didn’t throw up during the game was because they steadfastly refused to run anywhere.

I dunno.

TBF rugby is obviously very brutal. By polite I’m talking more about the general culture of the sport, the players, the crowd etc. I’m probably in a minority but I preferred football before it started to become gentrified. The drunkenness, aggression, hooliganism, calling the referee a **** etc. Obviously there were some things that were very bad, mainly the racism, but I still preferred it. Probably why I struggle to get into the women’s game, it’s just too damned nice. And what’s with all this calling the players by their first names like they do in the tennis?

The drunkenness, aggression, hooliganism, calling the referee a **** etc.

Ah football hooliganism – I for one am glad to see less of the knuckle dragging aggressive morons….

Played both to a good level. Rugby was pretty dirty too, as a hooker it was a regular occurrence for a punch, gouged etc in the scrum. In football the odd elbow at a corner woke people up.
Pity I cant do this in the office nowadays.

I for one am glad to see less of the knuckle dragging aggressive morons….

Football has always been a rough sport. A result of it’s working class roots. The hooliganism in the 70s and 80s obviously went way too far but then the other side of the spectrum where everyone sits politely in their seats in silence is equally destructive to the experience of going to a game. I think many forget in these consumerist times that going to the match on a saturday was pretty much the only form of escapism for many working class men from the drudgery of their everyday lives.

Playing against kids is the worst, they kick the hell out of you but can’t kick them back (well mostly can’t 😉 )

Anyone watching the Wafer Sooper Cup tonight?

Citeh vs Sevilla

I will watch it, as a city fan I still see it as a warm up match for the season hoping to see a bit more fluidity in possession from the weekend in preparation for Newcastle next weekend. I really wouldn’t count either this or the world club cup as proper trophies.

The latest on ManYoo’s pathetic stance on Greenwood

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66526043

It’s embarrassing but completely unsurprising

It shouldn’t even need thinking about for more than a millisecond. He should have been done and dusted as a United player when all this became public. The fact that this is still dragging on with no resolution tells you everything you need to know about the tin-eared morons presently running the club

Ferguson would have binned him straight away. Tommy Docherty too

As an aside: I think Chelsea’s shirt looks great without any sponsorship. It’s a shame that it is likely to change.

Ferguson would have binned him straight away

He’d have been gone by the next morning. Contract terminated, off you ****!

I can’t see any way he will ever play for United again, because other than some mouthy Neanderthal gobshites on Twitter, the supporters just won’t have it.

Anyone with anything between their ears would know this, but the clubs owners seem to be sadly lacking in that department. You’d think the protests on Monday would have made it pretty clear though. Apparently not.

Did they honestly think that if they just left it for a bit then he could just quietly return and nobody would really notice?

Would Ferguson have binned Greenwood immediately, he didn’t Cantona in spite of a similar outcry at the time. The problem is Greenwood’s a near 100 million asset.
Even nasty pieces of work like Barton and John Terry carried on playing.

Cantona was revered as near deity (still is) and the fans didn’t have an issue with him king fu kicking some horrible little racist gobshite, especially after him clearing everything up with his seagulls/trawler/sardines explanation 😃

That’s a whole world away from Greenwood (who’s achieved what exactly?) and his nasty, violent rapey shit!

Yeah, I wouldn’t compare the two. There always has been and always will be some fans who could probably do with being kung fu kicked. You don’t need to have the sound on to see the abuse players get just taking a corner or throw in, it’s pathetic.

Ferguson would have binned him straight away

Only because of the publicity it brought to the club, not because of his actual actions. United were more than happy to hush up players indiscretions during the fergie years. Giggs is almost synonymous with super injunctions while at united.

the only reason half of fergies teams from the 90’s/early 2000’s aren’t in jail or on the SOR is because of the lack of smartphones

He’d have been gone by the next morning. Contract terminated, off you ****!

but stood by Rio & his drugs ban?

I don’t think either of those things are comparable with the Mason Greenwood situation, really?

Have you listened to the audio footage? Seen the photos?

Anyway… thats all academic really. The fact is that the clubs owners clearly want to bring Greenwood back into playing for the first team as soon as possible. They were hoping to get him back for Mondays game, apparently

They’ve made a statement today saying that they are still ‘consulting’ and no decision has been reached, but this is clearly bollocks. How long do they need to ‘consult’?

The Athletic are reporting that what has actually happened is that they have already announced their decision to ‘stakeholders’ and they’ve been met with a huge backlash from the supporters, sponsors, other players and the women’s team in particular – somewhat unsurprisingly

We know from years of bitter experience that the owners couldn’t give a toss what the supporters think, but if theres a chance they’ll lose money with sponsors taking a stand and dumping them, that may actually make them think

I doubt it. Going off past experience, I expect them to plough on ahead, as they always do, and try and bring him back. This really, really won’t go down well at all with anyone but the clubs more meat-headed supporters. I haven’t spoken to a single United fan who thinks he should ever put on a United shirt again. The only support I’ve seen for it is from nobheads on Twitter

BOXT 1 – Ideal 1 in the boiler derby. Thank **** there’s no VAR in the Championship 😂

Yeah, back to the actual football, if we play against Spurs like we did on Monday, we’re going to get tonked!

It’s going to take a bit more than a new keeper to start playing it out from the back like like Pep-era Barcelona. If he leaves Casemiro marooned in midfield on his own while everyone else is up front waiting for passes that are never going to come then we are ****ed!

It took 2 games last season before he abandoned that nonsense. The second of which, when we got absolutely hammered by Brentford, being possibly the worst United performance I’ve ever seen. There was a lot of swearing went on. I’m kind of expecting that tomorrow

To top it all off, it looks like – shock, horror, who’d have thunk it? – the Glazers had no intention of selling the club after all.

Really? Who knew? Other than every United fan?

I’d just like to take the opportunity to point out Forest are joint top of the table, admittedly sat in 8th, but I’ll take that 😀

I see Rachel Riley is threatening to stop supporting Utd if Greenwood returns. Surely that’ll make them take notice! 😊

In isolation, Rachel Riley won’t change anything but her public statement may (hopefully) cause others to go public with their condemnation.
As binners has pointed out, the backlash from the women’s team will be forceful.
It’s only the world cup campaign which, IMO, has temporarily stopped female players from publicly expressing their views.
That is likely to change after Sunday and it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the MU women’s are considering transfer requests.
If england win, the team will have a massive public platform and it’s inconceivable they won’t use it.

I’m not an England fan but I really hope they win, then tell the Man Yoo board what to do with Greenwood

The vast majority of the public will support them

Trouble is he’ll probably end up playing in Saudi with like-minded misogynists earning millions.

In isolation, Rachel Riley won’t change anything but her public statement may (hopefully) cause others to go public with their condemnation.

I made the mistake of reading the comments section on a Manchester based news site. With one or two notable exceptions, most responses totally ignored what Greenwood had done and why Riley might find it offensive.

I’m fairly sure they weren’t a fair reflection of United fans views

If it’s anything like Twitter, it’ll be the randomly capitalised, badly spelt, angry ramblings of sad little man-baby’s sat in their room at their mum and dads house, watching Andrew Tate videos on YouTube and trying to work out why they’ve never had a girlfriend

Meanwhile, I’m fairly certain there will be plenty more protests like this at the game this afternoon, which is more what the vast majority of less shouty United supporters think

Getting back to the football itself, Citeh v Newcastle should be an absolute belter later. Us v Spurs probably less so.

Are 8pm kick off, Saturday night games going to be a thing this season then?

If England win tomorrow, Ella Toone, Katie Zelem and Mary Earps will now find their post-match interviews soiled with questions about this issue. They will effectively be in a position to veto his return to the team, but why should it fall to them to expose themselves to the kind of abuse it would inevitably generate? The announcement from Utd that it was canvassing the views of its female players (ie using them as a human shield) was a pretty disgusting abdication of responsibility.

I just don’t understand it. He’s a decent player, but not one you build a team around, and could have been offloaded to some far flung league without much fuss. Presumably Ten Hag must really want him.

Getting back to the football itself,

Yeah, should be good. Nice of the PL to schedule one of the toughest games of our season on the Saturday after a European final (of sorts).

Marina Hydes column in the Guardian today making the same point as yourself there Martin

My column on FIFA boss Gianni Infantino patronising women beyond belief, Prince William snubbing the Lionesses, Man United waiting to clear their Mason Greenwood decision with female players … not a great few days for some of football’s guys in suits https://t.co/jDmd9QZhKu

— Marina Hyde (@MarinaHyde) August 19, 2023

I think he’s better than you think martinhutch – way better. Genuinely two footed, quick, and a superb finisher. I believe it’s Ten Hag pushing his reintegration, ultimately he wants him in the side.

Nice of the PL to schedule one of the toughest games of our season on the Saturday after a European final (of sorts).

Of sorts is doing some lifting there. You have the deepest squad in the league, your reserves would challenge for Europe on their own. And despite that you used one sub on Wednesday and now Guardiola’s moaning about fatigue, in week 2 of the season. Just get on with it.

Don’t blame the PL, it’s not their fault! You can accuse them of lots of things, but this is nowt to do with them

Blame UEFA for bothering with a totally pointless game anyway (does anyone care about the outcome of it?), and then sticking it in the opening week of the domestic season. All they’re bothered about is the revenues, not whether it stuffs up domestic fixtures. This is on them, not the Premier League

I think it’s great that they’re having such a big game kick off at 8pm on a Saturday night. More of that please