Messages

[Man Utd]

I know it's fashionable to describe every season as the worst ever, but Arsenal are fitting champions for one of the worst football competitions in history. Truly dour, attritional football was the season summed up, and with Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle and Tottenham all downing tools for long periods, there was next no jeopardy or side stories.

It'll be interesting to see if Arteta changes things up in terms of playing style now the monkey is off his back.

If not, I'd expect the powers that be might have to intervene and find ways to encourage a more entertaining spectacle.

Horrible season. Revolting champions.

Wouldn't have United in that camp they made significant improvements coming from 15th position last year to 3rd this year.  The issue in the first part of the season was a Manager being stubborn with a system that clearly didn't suit the personnel at his disposal and ignoring a player (Mainoo) who was significantly better than some of the players he had playing in the team every week. 

Don't mind me. Delirious on Defense.

I think I've often run 89-90-91 together. 90-91 was the first real season I remember being attentive to, although remember key aspects of the former season.

What former non title winning Gunner somewhat deserves a piece of this win? 22 years of a lot of doldrums and fancy teams with no resolve.

Two for me Xhaka and Emile Smith Rowe.. Both set us on the right track in those early Arteta days

Did Xhaka not have a love hate relationship with fans and club? Was he not stripped of the captaincy? Seeing the impact he has had at Sunderland seems to be a leader and some of the characters at Arsenal at the time may not have been on same page. Was a great bit of business in summer past and had a big say in Sunderland staying up. 

Congratulations to Arsenal, been the most consistent team over the season.  The defence and keeper been top class. 

City had a number of games after Christmas that the Pep machine would normally win (Chelsea Home, Sunderland Away, Bournemouth Away, Everton Away, West Ham Away, Forest Home, Also dropped points against the worst Spurs team in living memory) and Arsenals fast start to the season give them the breathing space they required.   

Given the expected change at City, Liverpool in a bad spot currently and Man United having an extra 10 plus games minimum next year it is a real chance for Arteta to push on and win a couple of titles. 

No J Pedro in Brazil squad a surprise he has been one of the few positives for Chelsea this season and better than some of the lads on the plane. 

Clucky would imho be the man to tag Conaty

Putting the clampers on Conaty would go a long way to blunting their attack. Clucky a good option, Rogers may be a shout for that job as well.

Don't see Rogers being the man for job, would expect McCluskey to get the role.

And Alonso confirmed for Chelsea.

They're walking into an 2015 summer situation where they deludedly gave Rodgers a reprieve. Except this time, there is no elite, generational manager heading out on sabbatical whom they can persuade to come in around October and revolutionize the club.

Part of me is hoping they don't scrape top 5. They need some sort of kick up the arse to shake them into action.

Question is who though?

Would Areola be worth a shot? Yes, Liverpool is a different level of pressure and scrutiny and, it appears, a quite entitled dressing room, but he has coped admirably with an ever-changing squad and has Bournemouth playing a good and entertaining system. And he's a free agent next week.

Definitely feels like 2015 again. Liverpool have a reputation for not being knee jerk in relation to managers, however, losing 9 out of 12 games earlier in season and they stuck with Slot but the second half of season has been very underwhelming. I believe the intention was to keep Slot but if don't get a result against Brentford that narrative may change.

[acknowledging that this is an issue and bad look for the club which others on here try brush under carpet.]

The running onto the pitch is getting ridiculous. It's giving the Club a bad name and we are beginning to look unsporting.

It will only take one fool to cause an incident and the good name of the Fans of the Club will be tarnished.

Today's invasion ruined the conclusion of the game. It was like missing the last minute of a good movie.

Fair play to you acknowledging that this is an issue and bad look for the club which others on here try brush under carpet.

Great end of season and good for Scottish football to have three teams competing for the league going into final weeks rather than Celtic winning the league pulling up. Have to give it to Celtic, while not the most talented side ever had seriously dug in the last week and got two wins when up against it. Hearts be sick hopefully they can be challengers again next year.

No, just sick of wankers jumping from thread to thread to troll.

Lack of class Benny disappointed.

The running onto the pitch is getting ridiculous. It's giving the Club a bad name and we are beginning to look unsporting.

It will only take one fool to cause an incident and the good name of the Fans of the Club will be tarnished.

Today's invasion ruined the conclusion of the game. It was like missing the last minute of a good movie.

Fair play to you acknowledging that this is an issue and bad look for the club which others on here try brush under carpet.

Great end of season and good for Scottish football to have three teams competing for the league going into final weeks rather than Celtic winning the league pulling up. Have to give it to Celtic, while not the most talented side ever had seriously dug in the last week and got two wins when up against it. Hearts be sick hopefully they can be challengers again next year.

I've seen posts blaming the county board and posts blaming the clubs. Like most people, I don't know who's to blame at this stage, I just know who's suffering most from it — the ordinary club player, id say roughly 95% of all players.
Most clubs started pre-season around say December. By the time leagues eventually start on June 5th, that's basically a 6-month pre-season for a huge majority of lads who aren't county players and never were or will be. Yet still training 2/3 nights a week, gym work, challenge games, while not even knowing when the season is properly starting.
It's not just football either. People can't book holidays, weekends away, work trips or organise family stuff because everything is unknown.
I understand clubs wanting their U20s available, especially the likes of Loughmacrory, Cookstown, Fintona, because they'll play huge roles for them this year. Fair enough. But realistically they are the minority. Plenty of clubs have very few or no county U20s.
Then when it finally starts, everything gets crammed into a short window leading to fatigue, injuries and fixture overload. Every player will be burnt out, county or not.
The worst part is it nearly puts ordinary club players in a position where they don't want the U20s to keep winning because every extra week delays their own season and holds up the rest of their life too. I'm not intending to hammer the U20s or the county team, but at the end of the day, club players are people too, with lives and other commitments. Year on year being left hanging as to when they can finally commence the league that they too train and work very hard for. 

 

With the number of club players in Tyrone surely they could start the league without the u20s? As you say not convenient for the majority of club players. 

With a number of issues to be resolved across various positions in the summer would not be against bringing Nunez back on a free given Ekitike won't be available to 2027 and Isaks injury record.

Bowen could be a useful signing if could get him at a budget price if West Ham go down.

Plenty of players going in and out the door regardless of who manager is and lack of squad depth compared City and Arsenal.

Should I Marry A Murderer was a good watch on Netflix.

I was unfamiliar with the story: two Scottish brothers ran over a cyclist on a charity run, left him to die in their barn and buried him on the Highlands estate they worked on; then one of them meets and quickly gets engaged to a Glasgow doctor, tells her about it, and she's left with the psychological dilemma of whether to turn them in and give the cyclists family closure, and the aftermath of her decision and actions.

Does not paint a nice picture of the callousness of the police and justice system towards traumatized witnesses.

J70, BBC Iplayer also has a good two part documentary related to this from the police side and the deceased family which would be worth a watch should you have enjoyed the Netflix documentary- Murder Case, The Vanishing Cyclist. 

Thought was harsh originally but on watching the replay it's a foul. There would need be some type of directive coming from refs in advance of next season in relation to the continuous pulling and dragging at corners and maybe make an example of a few teams not complying in early weeks of season.

I understand the frustration of some , but £13 or £14 a game is  a lot less than what you'd pay to attend a match. It would take £100 minimum to bring the  average family to a match , and that's only the tickets and  fuel.

£14 wouldn't take the average Donegal  fan to Bundoran  in diesel never mind the whole cut to Killarney.

But the problem is previous free to air games are now behind a paywall and the GAA are joining sky in prosecution of dodgy boxes.

This seems to just be accepted.

There are alot more GAA games available to view than in years gone by and that is a positive thing for me. 

You get nothing for free these days and to pay a few quid to watch a game have no issues with it. If people don't want to do that there will be free to air highlights to view the game or can go to local pub which should have it. 

Gaa+ provide a good service and it works out at like £82 per year for 40 games which I would watch the majority.  It is a bit pricey for one off games and that is probably why they encourage subscribers to get the package deal. 

Armagh TV for example will charge you £5 for a one off game league game in (another good service)Armagh. 

Fair play to people making our games as accessible as possible.

If you are following successful teams and have a few young children taking them to every game can be quite costly especially with the condensed season.

Gyokeres unlocked that performance from Arsenal especially the last 20mins

Instead of retreating to the edge of the box and inviting a barrage to hang on, the level of pressing high up from the front 4 was awesome

Gyokeres was the first line of aggressive defence and a great out ball time and again, he must be full of confidence at the minute, was unlucky with a tough volley for 2-0, hopefully starts to find the net a bit more often now too

While not the biggest fan of Havertz I think he's potentially the better option vs Bayern/PSG, but you have to back Gyokeres after that performance as he'll run his balls off and Havertz won't

Havertz held up the ball up very well in the City league game. 

Gyokeres is a bit of a flat track bully who still has it all to prove in big games.  A few here getting a bit excited over a £60 million striker being able to hold the ball up and run around chasing a few lost causes.