North London Red

It’s probably too early for alarm bells to be ringing particularly loudly, but so far we’ve played one of the four teams in this season’s Championship who finished below us in last season’s Championship, and the team who finished fifth in league one, and taken zero points with five goals conceded. The odds on us being relegated have shortened to 5-2 with some bookmakers. That said, the last time we lost both of our first two games was 2015-16 (Sheffield Wednesday away, Brentford at home) and we ended that season 18th.

Bynoe-Gittens looked lively for the time he was on the pitch. Had no idea there was another young English player at Dortmund - he’s already made 4 appearances for them.

BBC website, and I think iplayer too.

For flights take a look at Qatar Airways from Sofia, Bucharest or Belgrade, which seem to be coming up as some of the cheaper options from what I've found. You can get from London to Sofia or Bucharest one-way for under £50 on various dates in the second half of November (Belgrade is slightly trickier). You might need to spend a night there on the way out, but it should save quite a bit compared to flying direct from the UK to Doha. If you don't mind an even more circuitous route, London > Istanbul > Beirut > Doha was (I think) the cheapest I've found so far. Accommodation is a challenge, especially when you factor in the minimum stay requirements. There was decent availability when I last checked but some of the options were eye-wateringly expensive, especially if travelling solo.

Lost 1-0 in Dortmund in 2017 in Podolski’s last game.

I liked the stat that the 2022 world champion has played the 1948 world champion (and 1940 runner up, and brother of the 1927 world champion) in a competitive match - Ronnie O'Sullivan vs Fred Davis in a qualifier in 1992.

He played 23 games that season and won a medal - check the career statistics or honours sections here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Balotelli

Balotelli won the PL with Manchester City.

Not City related, but Timothy Weah, son of former Milan striker (and later president of Liberia) George Weah, wears number 22 for Lille, and his 22nd birthday is today, on 22/2/22.

Looks like it was an under 21 game on the 12th of May 1992, with Cole scoring for the under 21s in a 2-2 draw: http://www.englandfootballonline.com/matchrsl/MatchRslTmU21pg2.html

Hungary away is also behind closed doors, so having waited over 20 years for a game in Budapest (since the game Sebok played in in 1999) we will have had two there in the space of 10 months, with English fans unable to attend either. Hungary at Wolves should be decent. I might finally get to see the team I support win a game at Molineux. Munich in June should also be a good trip, although I'm not a fan of the Allianz Arena.

Accommodation is going to be a nightmare to arrange when it eventually goes on sale (which is meant to be around March or April, I think). I've seen estimates ranging from there being 90,000 available rooms in Qatar to 180,000, which would fall way short of the number needed. I remember reading that in Russia, around 500,000 unique fan IDs were issued to visitors from other countries, and that was without the USA qualifying (they took one of the largest numbers of fans to the 2010 and 2014 tournaments). Some may be put off attending this time but if Scotland or Wales come through the play-offs, and if the USA qualify, the demand for accommodation could outstrip the number of available rooms several times over. FIFA's sponsors and delegates will have first dibs on whatever is available, so travelling fans will be left to fight over the scraps. Staying in Dubai or Abu Dhabi and driving to / from Doha isn't really a viable option either, as it would necessitate a multi-entry visa to Saudi Arabia, and I gather hire car companies in the region are none too keen on their cars being taken across borders. Prices for flights for November / December between Doha and the other Gulf hubs are already through the roof, although not all routes have been put on sale yet. Hopefully I'm being unduly pessimistic with the above and it turns out to be easier to arrange than I'm fearing, but right now it's looking like open wallet surgery.

The 6-7 weeks’ worth of season ticket sales for 2021-22 which were made before 31 May will only be recognised as P&L revenue in the accounts for the year ended 31 May 2022. None of it will be recognised in the P&L in the year to 31 May 2021. The accounting entries for these sales in the 2021 accounts will be debit cash, credit deferred revenue (as Ole noted in a later post). Then in the 2022 accounts the accounting entries will be debit deferred revenue, credit P&L revenue, to match the ticket revenue to the period which it relates to.

Cambridge played Crystal Palace in the next round: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989–90_FA_Cup Charlton played Man Utd in the next round after knocking us out in the last 16 in 93-94.

I saw England play Brazil in Doha in November 2009. The weather wasn’t too oppressive at all. It was far hotter and more humid in Volgograd and Samara at the last World Cup than it was in Doha in November.

I read an interesting stat recently about Newcastle under Ashley. On his watch their average position among the 92 was 14th. In the 70 seasons before his takeover their average position was 17th, so compared to their historical average over a fairly long period he actually improved their position. Newcastle fans would argue the 15 or so seasons prior to Ashley’s takeover (during which they qualified for the Champions League and came close to winning the premier league a couple of times) is a more apt benchmark. Going back more than 70 years would also bring in some of the seasons when they did win the league (and would improve their average from 17th), but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Not sure if this was mentioned in the match day thread but whoever the City fan is who successfully hit the crossbar from 18 yards three times out of three during the half time challenge, kudos to them! Even some of the Millwall fans were applauding. Probably the most entertaining part of an otherwise fairly dour evening.

https://www.rebellionresearch.com/blog/northern-italy-wuhan-partners-for-better-or-worse Quite an interesting article here about the Italian situation. It might already have been covered, but I never realised the extent to which northern Italy’s textile and garment industry was reliant on Chinese labour and that it had such close links with Wuhan.

Fair points. The issue of the virus resurfacing once the restrictions are lifted will also dictate how long these measures last. Is it beyond the realms of possibility that lockdowns will last in Europe until a vaccine is widely available (which the experts are saying is likely to be at least a year away)? The length of time to develop, manufacture and distribute bulk quantities of a vaccine is another reason why these restrictions might be in place for the long haul.

The China situation is one I can't quite work out, since it seems to contradict the doomsday scenarios which are implicit in the Imperial College paper and which have been reported in various places. If China's latest numbers are right, it could be the one ray of light here, and the situation may not be quite as bad as feared.

Entirely agree. A couple of things in recent days have made me think this is going to last for much longer than some people think. Firstly, Chris Whitty was asked the other day how long these measures could be in place. His answer was 'weeks or months', and I got the sense he was being deliberately vague because he already knows the answer but doesn't dare reveal it to the public as the answer won't be a popular one. Secondly, if the government are offering assistance to businesses for the next 12 months, what does that tell you? Thirdly, I come back to the point about 60% of the population becoming infected. If this is being considered as a likely outcome in the modelling, and if such a scenario were to occur within 12 months, it would mean an average of 100,000 new cases every single day. That's a rate of infection that's way, way beyond where we currently stand right now.

On the point about herd immunity, for 60% of the UK population to get COVID-19 within one year, you’d need 100,000 new cases every day. If that’s the scenario the government are planning for and which they consider realistic, then it makes you wonder how bad the alternatives (all of which they’ve presumably modelled) would be. If there are 100,000 new cases every day, even if 98% of those cases are only mild or moderate, the other 2% would very quickly put an intolerable strain on all healthcare providers in the country. Very worrying times ahead.

Watched some of this last night and had to do a double take. Dillian Whyte seemed to be fighting against an enormously fat man wearing a skirt. And I'd like some of what the judge who thought Burns won 118-110 was smoking.

Agree with most of that although most of the play we had was 40 yards from Norwich's goal. I'm not sure we seriously threatened them at any point tonight. Whenever we got into a reasonable attacking position, the final ball in towards the box just wasn't good enough. I thought Abraham was too isolated upfront and I was disappointed not to see Wilbraham come on for the last 20 minutes, as I think he'd have given the Norwich defence a different challenge (and may have freed up some space for Abraham). It was good to see Kodjia put that shift in although he needs to learn not to try to dribble round 2 opposition players when near the edge of his own penalty area, and he again got caught needlessly offside during a promising break in the second half.

Can't argue with the result tonight - Norwich hit the woodwork twice and O'Donnell made a couple of excellent saves. And I don't think McGovern will have an easier game all season in Norwich's goal. Decent numbers from us tonight, especially for a Tuesday night and such a long trip - Norwich is a pain to get home from for a midweek game (there aren't even any post match trains back to London until Wednesday morning).