Rooney

You can’t win every game, these results happen. Is it even that bad a result? Teams should be losing games and dropping points at times, it’s only this Guardioa robot revolution. Still think the biggest problem at Man Utd is the club structure. Even though there’s a “proper football” structure in place now, the signings made in the summer look like a club who don’t really know what they want to achieve. Ten Haag is still a problem but who do they get when he goes? Part of the problem at the club is dealing with the pressure/expectation. It’s a bit like the England job really where I think you’re doomed to fail most of the time.

A lot of this is down to TikTok though, yeah there's the odd exception, but TikTok creates buzzy songs and not artists. In this current climate it's difficult for any form of groups to stick out be it pop groups or a band (maybe K pop being the expception), infact I'd say if you looked over the last 10 years you'd really struggle to see a non solo artist or duo in the Top 3 in the charts. Not sure we'll see a successful group for a while yet. The problem I feel in the current music sphere is labels/artists chase hits that will go viral on TikTok, rather than it organically happening. Means you end up having a load of music which could be associated with tens of generic artists.

They’re still favourites but playing Gundogan/Lewis/Kovacic is completely different there. Jay means if a team can get to 90 points it makes it more likely it will be a close race imo. Suspect they’ll end up buying someone in Jan, but I think this will have a huge impact, he’s their best player imo.

Saturday 28th September Newcastle United 1-3 Manchester City (12:30) Arsenal 2-0 Leicester City Brentford 1-1 West Ham United Chelsea 1-2 Brighton & Hove Albion Everton 2-1 Crystal Palace Nottingham Forest 3-3 Fulham Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-3 Liverpool (17:30) Sunday 29th September Ipswich Town 1-2 Aston Villa (14:00) Manchester United 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur (16:30) Monday 30th September AFC Bournemouth 3-0 Southampton (20:00)

Looks like Rodri has done his ACL. That's a huge loss for City, could be a real pendulum swinger in the title race if Arsenal can get to 90 points.

Had a feeling that would be 0-0 .. how wrong was I :lol: Loads of talking points from the game. Rodri's injury looked bad.. and the game completely changed after the went off. It went from being all City to a much more even game. Interetsing game, was a bit shocked Arsenal completely surrended all attacking threat and tried to grind the game out for 45 minutes. They'd definitely have got a chance or two if they left Saka on. That said, City were really toothless without the patterns, so I imagine that was Arteta's thinking.

I think it's only this week it's on a Thursday, something to do with exclusivity for all the different teams (which allows teams to also play in the domestic cups).

Saturday 21st September West Ham United 2-1 Chelsea (12:30) Aston Villa 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers Fulham 1-1 Newcastle United Leicester City 1-2 Everton Liverpool 2-1 AFC Bournemouth Southampton 3-2 Ipswich Town Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Brentford Crystal Palace 2-3 Manchester United (17:30) Sunday 22nd September Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 Nottingham Forest (14:00) Manchester City 0-0 Arsenal (16:30)

The new Labour Government has floated the idea of the right to flexible working e.g. condensed hours. This seems to be an alternative to the mooted 4 day week. However, the really interesting trend is what is likely to happen in 2025 with big corporate businesses. Amazon have recently made it mandatory for 5 day office based work across their business and there are other big companies considering this too, or a form of this. One may suggest this is a way to cut the workforce via attrition to a tough econimic climate, or it could also be the beginning of a new trend? Suspect most people here are in favour of flexible working and home based working (as am I in principle). But my view is over the next 12-18 months we're going to see some changes back to pre-pandemic.

It’s pretty standard sentencing for the crimes committed. Low level risk and certainly not jail worthy.

I think that would be a bad idea, but don't think they will do it if as Sudey sayd the source is The Express. That sounds a lot like fear mongering. Could see something that they raise the age to 65/68 for lots of traditional pensioner benefits though. Actually sensible longer term decisions if you think most people are not retiring until later.

Yeah we’re stuck in a hole at the moment where people want everything, but nobody wants to pay for it themselves. Tough spot really. I have a theory that Reeves has fully costed out the budget so hence why I don’t think they’re changing anything despite the bad polling or backlash. They’re clearly banking on making the tough decisions now and hoping they’ll pay dividends in 3-5 years time.

Agree with this, the Trump of 2024 is noticeably different. He'd have trounced Biden this time around, but none of his quotes or claims are sticking and some of the ones out of the latest debate are laughably memeable. Be interesting if those long standing older Republicans vote Democrat this time around (or don't vote at all) - doubt it will have too much effect on the election.

Saturday 14th September Southampton 1-3 Manchester United (12:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 Ipswich Town Crystal Palace 2-1 Leicester City Fulham 1-1 West Ham United Liverpool 3-0 Nottingham Forest Manchester City 2-1 Brentford Aston Villa 2-0 Everton (17:30) AFC Bournemouth 2-1 Chelsea (20:00) Sunday 15th September Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Arsenal (14:00) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Newcastle United (16:30)

He’s got potential though I’d say. Is crazy when you look at that Ajax side though and none of the key players really took off and became one of, if not the best in the world in their positions. Gravenberch was also disappointing last season, but he looks more comfortable so far.

Heard this back in July when the album came out and was blown away! The riff is something else. Like most songs these days, it's way too short but such a song! Easily their best imo, or certainly the most catchy.

Can't believe we're back talking about Southgate again :D :lol: England played well in the 1st half, but lost control in the 2nd. Now whether that was fatigue or tactical I'm not sure. Personally, I just thought on the whole the team looked far more balanced. Shouln't be overlooked that these games against the Home Nations and Ireland, as much as England are the better team, the away legs are very difficult with the atmosphere.

The problem is we obviously have a massive defecit. Any decisions to stop this are going to be unpopular so not really sure what they can do. I think a tax increase across would be the easiest thing to do, but that's not going to be happen and would be wholly unpopular and play right in to Tories/Reform's hand. Think the strategic play here is give Reeve's a load of unpopular policies, and if that gamble doesn't pay off in 2 years Starmer will get rid of her.

It should be means tested, but that's also going to cost money to implement. I think they'll backtrack on the policy to some degree, but clearly they're going to get all the hard policies out of the way to start with.

Sinner looks in way better share physically so far, probably just shows the level Draper needs to go up to be at this level on a consistent basis, loads of double faults and it tells at this level.

Interestingly they're all pretty much running on a right-wing manifesto, even the most liberal candidate seems to want to take us out of the ECHR. Suspect this is what's inevitable that is going to happen at some point. People are going to end up voting to take their human rights away just so we can send people on small boats away. Absolutely bonkers.

Two more London dates for September 2025!

Man Utd haven't challenged for the title in over 10 years - they're fully in the same cycle Liverpool were in their era post domination. Surely the immediate aim would be to have some sort of a plan or playing stucture the club want to operate. Ineos are making a lot of the same decisions that FSG made in the early days, some good and some bad. Personally i think Hojlund had the tools to become a good striker. It's not all doom and gloom, I thought Man Utd have played well in patches in the games I've seen. The only thing I think that is a bit bonkers is I genuinely do not expect Ten Haag to last too long unless the form picks up quickly, as I suspect no CL football next season will not be sustainable financially under the current model. Which then seems bonkers as he's been allowed to buy the entire Ajax defence.

De Ligt did OK, he's certainly better than Maguire, he's quite slow but can definitely read the game well. Probably better with the ball at his feet than Maguire. But the issues today were all with how Utd set up really, he is a good player but jeez Mainoo is hit and miss in this system, he's a proper MOTD player. He was completely vacant in the midfield and not sure the 442 structure really helps that much without one of Bruno/Zirkzee falling back when out of posession. Feel sorry for Ugarte as there's absolutely no way he's going to be able to come in and solve everything!

Pleased with that today, although feel there's an obvious weakness in our midfield in terms of depth.