Rooney

Don't think the Premier League are investigating the Glazers, that just sounds like baseless rumours. They might be shitty owners, but pretty sure they played by the rules. Burnham's comments today are not helpful and just go to prove all about sportswashing as a project. The bigger picture here too is the rules need to be serve to keep the rules in place, otherwise you'll have everyone creating shame sponsorships.

I think they'll end up being relegated and probably the Red Cartel (and Spurs) claiming £100s of millions in damages, but probably settling. Can't see anything else, the sponsorship inflating while I've always suspected it, it's actually nuts when you look at it.

It is brave, but I think on reflection if you do it now, in 3 years time it doesn't become a discussion point. I was a big sceptic of Burnham when he entered office, but that's a bold move and one I applaud. Ending the triple lock (personally, I'm not quite sure it goes far enough.. but another debate) needs to happen. He's having a long term look in terms of loads of short termish. I'd guess the etam have learned from the winter fueld debacle. Guess ther Tories and Reform will push to keep the Triple Lock, or maybe they won't.

Here we go, all the lobbies for the triple lock have started 😂 Another sign of the general intelligence levels looking at the broader picture.

Interesting to see if something like this gets pushed in to the budget, likely effective from next April in any case in the event it did but Labour must be sensing people are going to feel the pinch at the pumps and over winter with energy prices.

Been injured hasn't he? I don't think he's a bad signing, but it is weird signing three midfielders all of a similar profile. I know a lot of fans clamour for a left back, but not sure that would do much. I think the bigger issue is being able to control a game and use Sesko. Hard thing to do really and get the striker fully involved, Arteta seems reluctant to do it and Slot struggled with Isak/Nunez too. Wonder how long until Carrick gets the chop.

Have read through the thread and there's a lot of good discussion and points from when I last waded in, but lots that absolutely miss the point spectacularly. Ed Sheeran is an utterly damned if you do, damned if you don't situation and you only need to read this thread to understand why. By some people's logic on here we should be asking every influential figure what their stance is on political matters, societial issues and elections at every available opportunity. People clinging on to social media and signalling as if it is LIFE. I don't think it's healthy for us a society to lean in this way, nor at any point had Ed Sheeran come out himself and made any donations public (this was done through a third party). I think blacksquare made some simialr points early about this whole debate seems to have waded in to what Ed Sheeran thinks and should or shouldn't do. The fact that people in this thread think Ed Sheeran is a Zionist etc. just wades in to exactly what he shared on his carefully crafted statement. The guy didn't want to become the face of a media spotlight and nor should he. Undoubtedly this week is likely to have been incredibly tough on him. Do people need to feel sorry for him? No. Again, so many recent examples (looking at Jason Arday) where there's been a complete pile on, when it's not fukken needed. Did Ed Sheeran and his team make a poor decision? Yes. Can he do better? Yes. Humans make mistakes and Ed Sheeran is not the baddie here. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but the beauty in all this is how people learn and make better decisions again in the event someone is lobbied to be taken off a music concert because of speech.

I'm going to be sick of seeing the pecked by the seagulls video over this double whammy international break 😂

Brentford 3-2 Chelsea Tottenham 1-1 Aston Villa Brighton 1-1 Arsenal Everton 2-0 Ipswich Newcastle 2-0 Hull Nottingham Forest 3-1 Coventry Bournemouth 2-4 Liverpool Leeds 3-0 Crystal Palace Man City 1-0 Sunderland Fulham 2-2 Man Utd

Easy win for Labour, can't see the Greens being anywhere near as I'd be shocked if Polanski isn't ousted as the leader by the end of the year. Can't see whhy Labour would call a general election by the end of the year. Would be an incredibly dumb thing to do imo, don't know why you'd purposely lose your massive majority in the midst of another bout of infltation incoming. Surely you just try and ride this one out and hope America stop the war.

Don't worry lads.. Carrick knows what he's doing. Get knocked out of the cups at the earliest opportunity to have one game a week 😜

Good post and this is why I feel the forcing people to take a political stance is weird. We all have conscious and unconscious biases and it affects how we percieve artists in a positive and negative light. It's the same for brands & companies too.

Loads of artists play private gigs for shady billionaires or states with disasterous human rights records. Ed Sheeran didn't throw Mackelmore off his tour, his promoters did because they were essentially blackmailed. I think it's an incredinly challenging situation to be put in when faced with we'll cancel the tour. These types of things can literally bankrupt artists depending on what's in contracts etc. Now a good PR team might have been able to see the risk of how this could play out, but they likely didn't factor in what has happened with other support acts deciding to quit buyoed by public pressure and seeing the wind of PR too. I'm of the view it was of good intentions and I'm not sure I agree with the pile-on here. Again, we're all very quick to judge people's actions and criticse someone. Fair enough, I think the statement Ed put out could have been a bit more in tune, but equally the hate or levels of criticism doesn't quite sit right. The criticism and anger is all being directed at the wrong person. An unfortunate consequense, which is going to end up with a cancelled tour. I guess I kind of agree about your political about being apolitical in 2026, but also part of a huge problem of social media. But a different topic. Not sure I agree with the whole wave of silsense means endorsement either, all this enocurages on a wider scale is herd and group think mentality (not on this point btw, just a wider stance). People can be influenced in the wrong ways too.

I dunno, I disagree with gooddelta that in 2026 you can't be apolitical. Rightly or wrongly there's a reason a lot of influential famous individuals and companies have a apolitical stance. I equally don't agree that it's for companies or figures to say which way they side like it has any baring on anything, it's all utterly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Only one country can influence things and they choose not to. My personal view is Ed Sheeran has been put in a very difficult position and I genuinely don't know what people expect. Mackelmore has been doinf this for ages and the only reason it's got to this stage is one of his shows supporting Ed went viral and ruffled a certain individual's feathers, who in turn has lobbied against Mackelmore. You can understand Ed himself, his management and his promoters trying to find a workable solution. I don't agree with the internet wanting to cancel Ed Sheeran either for something he's not really done either. I don't think him or his team thought the issue would blow up in this way. I feel his own personal statement comes from the right place, but ends up coming across with the wrong effect. It's crazy that someone has been able to lobby against this and at the end of all of this all that's going to happen is Ed Sheeran will likely postpone/cancel his tour. That's not going to stop the horrific acts that are happening.

Primal Scream and Ashcroft the support acts allegedly.

Haaland was onside, it was all about Enzo, Personally, I'd be fuming if that was given against Liverpool so I think you can find yourselves hard done by. That being said, my view of the Foden red was either both should have been off or neither. The game just proved what I think about this version of Man Utd, great when counter attacking, but struggle to build up play and dominate the ball. Actually think the red card was the worst thing to happen to Man Utd.

Cost as well, no doubt they spent a large part of the budget on Jeff. Fouracres is the show. Clearly the production and writing team can see it too, he's almost like a second host with his theatrics.

It's been a bad week for all last man standing competitions.. Palace, Chelsea and Liverpool!

The creators bought the rights back, so they must have some good ideas. Who cares what the plot is as long as it's funny - the plot of the first film is hardly groundbreaking but features a few few culturally iconic moments. Think the second film is good, but nowhere near as good as the first film but the splash planet sequence is exceptional. The fact they've got all the main players back is something (tho money talks I guess). My guess is they use the film as some sort of backdoor pilot for a spin-off show around some of the new characters they inevitably introduce.

Saturday 12th September Aston Villa 2-1 Nottingham Forest AFC Bournemouth 2-0 Brentford Chelsea 1-0 Hull City Crystal Palace 1-1 Ipswich Town Liverpool 4-2 Fulham Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Everton (17:30) Sunderland 2-1 Arsenal (20:00) Sunday 13th September Coventry City 3-2 Brighton & Hove Albion (14:00) Manchester United 3-2 Manchester City (16:30) Monday 14th September Leeds United 2-2 Newcastle United (20:00)

A very weird summer. I'm not actually sure any team is any better than they were and all of the Top 6 have holes in their squads that are quiteb literally gaping. I do wonder if this is the 70% SCR rules having an effect here. I also can't wait for everyone to hold Man City to same the standard for spending loads of money this summer (and January) that Liverpool got. Just another casual half a billion spent. And seemingly we've entered eseentially playing draft trading like NFL, only with balance and deal sheets. Some all round weird Premier League transfers all round between clubs.

Friday 4th September Ipswich Town 1-3 Liverpool (20:00) Saturday 5th September Newcastle United 2-2 AFC Bournemouth (12:30) Brentford 1-1 Sunderland Brighton & Hove Albion 3-1 Leeds United Fulham 2-0 Crystal Palace Manchester City 4-0 Coventry City Nottingham Forest 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur Hull City 0-1 Aston Villa (17:30) Sunday 6th September Everton 1-2 Manchester United (14:00) Arsenal 0-0 Chelsea (16:30)

Friday 28th August Crystal Palace 1-3 Manchester City (20:00) Saturday 29th August Liverpool 2-1 Nottingham Forest (12:30) Bournemouth 2-0 Everton Coventry City 1-0 Hull City Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Newcastle United (17:30) Sunday 30th August Chelsea 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion (14:00) Leeds United 2-2 Brentford (14:00) Sunderland 3-1 Fulham (14:00) Manchester United 3-0 Ipswich Town (16:30) Monday 31st August Aston Villa 1-2 Arsenal (20:00)

Never really bought in to the hype around Man Utd this season, one of those teams that look great with space but if you get crowded out they really struggle. Liverpool struggled a lot with this last season. Alwats difficult to go away to a newly promoted team. That being said, Tielemans and Santos looked absolutely dreadful.

Absolute nothing game, winning a game you have to win to win the league. They let Coventry have the ball for large periods and sat off - just don't think you can do that in this league, they got punished a lot last season doing this.