Rayvin

Fair, I do get this.

Chelsea have had to do it by selling hotels though. How many more of those do they have to shift? It's not sustainable. Man Utd fair enough but then imagine the same situation without PSR - they'd still be spending into a recovery. Spurs fair. I think in the end though, that if the pattern we're seeing this season holds up into future seasons, it's hard to argue that it isn't PSR. You could look at this season as merely transitional I suppose, but those transitions are coming around more often and taking a lot longer. The dominance of the top 6 doesn't seem as assured as it once did.

I think my counter to this would be that if no one in the PL can afford Isak because of PSR, it's not helping the big boys hoover up the best players in the way they used to. It's also seemingly producing teams like Bournemouth and Forest who can challenge far higher up than they would have been able to previously, because mismanagement from the big clubs prevents them from spending their way out of trouble. Whatever it was intended to do, it does not seem to be doing. The big 6 seem to be on shakier ground than ever before...

Can you paraphrase then because it doesn't seem to match up with what we're seeing atm?

I think as a general thing, a case could be made for PSR having made the league far more competitive. Man Utd apparently have 200m in the bank but they're not allowed to spend any of it, for instance. They now have to work, develop a team, and compete properly - they can't just buy success. Eventually this will be true of all PL teams - and at that point we'll really start to see which clubs are being run well. But if it was signed into creation by the big 6, it's also going to make their lives a lot harder.

From what I saw of what was said (screenshots on reddit) it read to me like the guy had been following Willock's career beyond just NUFC. Makes mention to how he's caused problems wherever he's gone, i.e. awareness of Willock's career beyond us. So that at least would suggest it's a more focused hater than just a random, or even possibly just an NUFC fan - also suggests it isn't an international fan though. Either way, it's incredibly depressing.

I'm somewhere between both views. If we go out and strengthen properly this summer, I think the good players stay for one more season. If we stand still, I think Isak/Tonali at least will be off.

Just for that miss? Seriously? Thought that was how Arsenal fans went on, not ours..

Agree with all of this. I don't think this iteration of the team is the one that finally brings us consistent league dominance. The one after it probably does. But this group are absolutely capable of winning a cup competition...

I think we're doing this on purpose. We've done it in a lot of games this season, even the ones where we consider that we've played well. Conserving energy by relying on our defensive organisation. Except it doesn't work when we're just all over the place. But in essence, we did it against Spurs, Man Utd, Arsenal too.

Have just watched this. I don't think I've ever cringed so hard at a football interview. What planet is she on man ffs, why on earth would Howe particularly want to get into any discussion around that sort of thing? I fucking bet it comes up in her match report after the game too. "Eddie perhaps should have considered using drones to watch Fulham train and waffle waffle blah blah two paragraphs later ... and then Isak scored a tap in from 30 yards to steal the 3 points from Fulham at the end of a close 5-0 victory."

Would definitely take Trafford now if we can get him, on the Pope replacement front. Burnley have conceded what, 9 goals all season?

I agree, Musk hasn't helped them at all. His millions might, but his personal interventions haven't. Although it does seem to be fueling a lot of drama on the other side of the pond with the UK now being used as a warning to Americans of the dangers of not following the dictates of Musk's first term as President. But still though, I think the public could break against Labour and back into all of this shit again if they're not really, really careful.

I like a lot of it but I'm not sure where he's getting this idea that the culture war has ended in the UK. Things have settled because Labour are in power and not actively pushing such things, but they're still responding/reacting to the themes. Think we need to still be vigilant on that. Everything else, I totally agree with him though.

You have a gift

You know, I read some of the start of it, which seemed to be by his standards, a genuine attempt to address the tragedy appropriately. But then he veers off into this shit and reminds everyone why he's such a worthless man, let alone leader.

If you ask me, nation states are an increasingly redundant political consideration in a world that now lives online and without borders as much as it lives offline and with them. As to your first point though, who is complaining about Trump deporting illegal immigrants in those specific terms? I read the other day that for all the fanfare he's making about it, he's doing very little different to what Biden was doing. So I think most of the noise on that is coming from Trump himself trying to stir the pot and get a reaction. If he just came out and said "I'm continuing with the immigration policies of the last administration" then it wouldn't be drawing anywhere near as much attention. But he doesn't do that, he makes it sound like he's the first person to ever have tackled this issue, and turns up the drama which the media then feast on. I'm more concerned about the threats to invade Greenland and to generally weaken Western civilisation by ramping up hostilities between allied countries, eventually leading to a breakdown in international order and a power vacuum that gives opportunistic rogue states the ability to cause considerable harm.

Talking about this stuff with like minded people is, for me at least, important. It reminds me that for all my frustrations and fears about the world, I'm not alone. As someone with an anxious disposition I do often feel better just running things past you guys. Like for instance I posted the other day about Trump and Starmer, and KCG made a counter point and I felt better. Sometimes of course things are as bad as I think they are, and no one has anything reassuring to say, but at least we're all in it together. I do try to avoid being constantly in politics chat these days but I think dabbling is ok for the sake of sanity. If we don't do that, then speaking for myself at least, I feel even more powerless and isolated in the storm. EDIT - I'm gonna add as well that I also appreciate (and I think Renton knows/values this too ) that Gemmill's suggestion here is an attempt at kindness and care because he can see the anxiety in what is being said. Sometimes switching it all off is indeed the right thing.

City look toothless. Brugge just hitting them on the counter every time they catch a misplaced pass. It's nice to see Brugge do well but I think it's better for us in a few different ways if City don't bomb out here.

What was the previous iteration of it like? I don't really have conscious memory of it.

Some form of move back to the EU has to be on the manifesto next time out. I just hope the rise of Farage doesn't scare Labour into shying away from it.

It's following on from a Guardian one last week which was less bleak but still bad: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/12/one-in-five-britons-aged-18-45-prefer-unelected-leaders-to-democracy-poll-finds But yes, one or two data points isn't the end of the world anyway. It does 'feel' right though.

Yes social media is a huge part of it but it's also how fucking worthless our societal offering to Gen Z is. They have no wealth, no prospects, and a country that feels like it's decaying around them - thanks to things like Brexit, but still. That's exactly the breeding ground the Nazi party relied on to win power in the 1930s. Widespread disillusionment, despair and hopelessness. For my view there's nothing we can do now, the actual answers involve actions which would be too radical. They're going to change the scene to suit themselves and in the image of their heroes. The pendulum has fully swung back their way. We just have to hope we live long enough to see it start returning to our side. The online right has defeated the left in all arenas.

And this goes from bad to worse... https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/gen-z-doubts-about-democracy-laid-bare-in-worrying-survey-vsxx509n3 52% prefer authoritarianism, a third want rule by the army, and 47% believe we need some sort of revolution.

I love this claim that he's only sent him off so that he misses the second leg of the semi final against us, since Oliver is an NUFC fan Arsenal fans starting to challenge Liverpool for the lifetime tinfoil hat award.