Football

He always was a good player. I remember his Goal of the Season for Palace @ City in 2018, I was right behind it and watched it fly in, stunning goal. He generally did alright for England too, but prob not picked enough as he played for an unfashionable club.

Townsend single handedly carried England to one of the tournaments back in his day. In a turgid England squad he was the only player willing to attack and run at people and impact the scoreline. Seem to remember he got badly injured and then Poch came to spurs and didn't fancy him for some reason. Never really the same player again.

“Only two Watford managers till Christmas” is a good joke

Also one of the best hair transplants ever.

Jeff Stelling was pretty pointed on soccer Saturday.

Suggested Watford should have a manager of the month award internally.

It’s true, Rooney must weep looking at it.

Just amazing

An entertainingly bitter West Ham fan
https://www.hammers.news/columnist/brentford-a-breath-of-fresh-air-they-stank-the-place-out-with-time-wasting-tactics-in-west-ham-win/

Derby fans don't despair, Mike Ashley has got 300 million quid in his back burner and he's gonna wax the lot, man!

Close to the Sports Direct compound too...

Mohammad bin Salman is a fit and proper owner for a PL club. What a world. Wonder if Steve Bruce can hear the buzzing of the bonesaws yet.

It’ll be an interesting transfer window this season that’s for sure.

Sceptical about anything Saudi, singling out football is ludicrous of course. It should start with global governments and from there down the hierarchy chain.

Is Saudi money all that much worse than football taking cash wrung from the pockets of gambling addicts?

Barney Ronay sums this all up pretty well https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/oct/07/premier-league-newcastle-saudi-arabia-takeover-morality-collapse

Also Newcastle fans can fuck off making out they’ve emerged from some sort of abusive relationship with Ashley. He’s kept them in the premier league and left the club being owed £107m. Unbelievable sense of entitlement which is going to be fulfilled (eventually).

Yep, anyone willing to spunk £40m on Joelinton clearly isn't that frugal.

Is Saudi money all that much worse than football taking cash wrung from the pockets of gambling addicts?

I think so. If I had to choose between a system that drains money from gambling addicts and a system that tortures and beheads people they deem "undesirable", for being guulty of the crime of being gay, a rape victim, leaving the house without a male chaperone, supporting the political opposition etc etc I think the choice is fairly clear cut.

But sure, its difficult to see a situation where the Saudis fail the fit and proper test when our government sells them so many weapons and buys so much oil from them.

Some parts of twitter are getting a bit 'public beheadings are bad but so are zero hour contracts....'.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/08/gareth-southgate-unvaccinated-players-conspiracy-theories

Southgate disappointingly ambivalent on vaccinations.

I seem to remember this being discussed here recently. I am happy to say Abramovich and the rulers of UAE, Qatar and Saudi are degrees of magnitude worse than Denise Coates.

I'm only back on this thread afters years of absence because I'm a Boro fan.

I've been arguing with a nufc fan I used to play football with on whatapp. He asked 'whats Steve Gibson's company do?'. Not castrate homosexuals, that's for certain.

What was my take on this?

Found it:
That investment from the hedge fund world/Chinese gambling (as a projection of government power) is as toxic (but with less visible problems) as sponsorship from a government which chops people's heads off.

.

I mean, they're not exactly wrong...

I'm quite comfortable with thinking both are shit.

As an Arsenal fan my biggest grievance (and I really mean that, over any football performance) is that the club don't pay match day staff the living wage. It should be a source of shame to the club. But at least our owner is just a cunt rather than a murderous cunt

It's not that they are wrong, it's that its a logical fallacy where something related but not relevant is used to minimise. It's part of the sportswashing the KSA are buying.

Conte to Newcastle, yea or nay?