Football

We deserve penalties

The probability of Liverpool winning the quadruple is around 5.8% (if you take Google's predicted result probabilities for Liverpool and City's remaining games at face value).

Put another way, there is a slightly better than 1 in 20 chance that Liverpool fans will have eternal bragging rights in the near future. Prepare to take cover.

come on stevie g and villa

tonight is about forest.

I dream of Chelsea's demise because their recent success was funded by a kleptocrat with close connections to a murderous dictator. And also because I'm a bit jealous.

There's also too much money in football, or at least not enough of it filters down. It's beyond top heavy and I wouldn't mind if restrictions were slowly brought in to cap the insanity. (It helps that I support a League One club so I'm unlikely to ever have to apply such caps to my preferred financial entity.)

Of course, we're the only country that has 90+ professional teams. Most other countries have ~40 or so at most.

we're the only country that has 90+ professional teams. Most other countries have ~40 or so at most

And some of those half-hearted forrin dilletantes actually have the nerve to actually win things...

Good luck with that!

What a season its been, whatever happens in the final.

Boo fucking hoo...siege mentality is it? Err...yeah. Must have been Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool putting a word in the culture secretary's ear. Or you still gutted about that there 'scouse scum' always winning. Please enlighten us with your thoughts on Abramovich? @revenant is still waiting.

Congratulations! See you at Wembley! As a town fan I want Huddersfield to win but Forest to go up on some obscure technicality.

Every Liverpool fan I’ve ever met (most of whom are from the south of England) believes they have eternal bragging rights already.

This is a great run in to the title. Whoever wins from here, it's been great.

They really are a special breed.

Very much this. Cracking season at both ends of the table. Sunday will be epic

It just needs some Eastenders drums and it's the perfect soap opera.

Everton have the most racist fans in Britain - yes, grim, but not exactly news.

I suppose you're right on a technicality because Rangers are currently in Seville.

speaking of which, good thread on the culture of their opponents here
https://mobile.twitter.com/ftamsut/status/1526815094696464392

...and Scotland and NI are nicer places for a couple of days...

for all the sportswashers??

every arsenal fan I've ever met....

Been in pubs in North London on many occasions with Arsenal's fans chanting the 'greatest team' dirge. Is it ironic?

Excellent, even more reasons to back them tonight.

The game is on free to view on the BT Sport app etc, for any other plebs like me who've got used to just not watching European football or using fotyval.

On Luke Daniels coming out, I feel a bit worried for him.

Not the homophobia, which I think will probably happen but which I think most people at the club and in the public will rightly shout down.

But the pressure that will be on him now and the disproportionate focus on someone so young are going to be hard work. Can't help but think of other players who had a lot of attention when they were 16 or 17 - John Bostock, Michael Woods, Freddy Adu - and the pressure is going to be immense for carrying the burden as long as he is "the" gay footballer in professional football.

Best case scenario is either that he's fucking great and people start talking about his football instead, or that 4-5 other plays follow and dilute the focus a bit.

Every Liverpool fan I’ve ever met (most of whom are from the south of England) believes they have eternal bragging rights already.

I don't begrudge Liverpool their success, they're well run as a club, they play great football (especially for a team made up mostly of asthmatics) and Klopp seems like a broadly decent human being. But if you think those sorts of fan are bad now, winning the quaruple will make them utterly insufferable. I can't even bring myself to consider the horror.

Not the homophobia, which I think will probably happen

Will it though? Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think the world is (largely) over that. I haven't seen it reported that there's been any backlash to his coming out neither from opposing fans or any 'no poofs in our club' response from any unreconstructed Blackpool fans. I'm only at games a few times a season, but don't get the impression that there's much appetite for homophobic abuse anymore.

I'm hopeful that any feared targeting will be a non-event, but maybe that's just stupidly naive. Are homophobic chants still made at Brighton fans?

That aside, agree that he'll now be under a lot of pressure at a really young age. Would like to see a couple of others take his lead now that the genie's out of the bottle, so he won't be wearing the Only Gay in the League tag for long.