italian dave

Yes, sorry, you’re right. Won’t be ready for the start of the 24-25 season was what I should have said. Although changing grounds mid season is neither common nor easy.

Sacking Benítez alone cost them £10m according to yesterday’s Guardian article. I guess that counts as nothing by PL standards today?

On the plus side, it always helps to have other Championship teams with big points deductions! There’s a link in the article to another about the ground. It suggests that it’s already some way behind schedule, meaning that it won’t even be ready for the 24-25 season. I guess that in the event of them going broke it all depends on so many things: how they go broke, whether they get bailed out, how etc etc.

Midnight Train to Georgia……Gladys Knight and the Pips

I think Kalas re-signing might boost them more. Yours sincerely, A. Pedant.

Mona Lisa……Shakin’ Stevens.

Raindrops on Roses….An-Ten-Nae

Again though, isn’t it down to the nuances of each particular situation? If the kicker is trying to take a quick free kick then that’s a risk he takes. There were players <10 yards away in the video that begins Spudski’s thread on the Notts Co free kick. That’s a risk you take. But if the defending teams player has run a full 10 yards in order to stand in front of the ball then, for me, that’s a different situation completely and the kicker shouldn’t be penalised.

Went the same way as moving a free kick forward 10 yards if the opponents didn’t retreat quickly enough. In fairness, and to give credit where it’s due, the introduction of the ref’s white spray has been brilliant, and made a real difference.

Crikey…..there’d be no-one left on the pitch if you reffed some games!!! In principle, yes. But I think refs are right to show some common sense, turn a blind eye sometimes. There was a story I heard a long time back from a league ref (can’t recall the ref or a player) who made a decision that a player disagreed with. Said player made his feelings known with an angry “you must be f###ing blind ref”. The ref replied “I didn’t hear that”. To which the player responded “F###ing deaf as well” ?

I guess part of the up issue is that it’s also about intent, and that’s where it all gets much more difficult. Alex Scott picking the ball up might be a much more deliberate (and effective) way of holding up play than just knocking it away. But it might also be him being sporting and returning the ball! And players who get blown up for offside but still make that last kick to put the ball in the net? Is that not hearing the whistle? Is it just the instinct of a striker who can’t resist? Or is it a deliberate attempt to waste time.

It always feels entirely un-natural setting off for an away game heading south.

I get what you’re saying about shielding/protecting the ball. And nowadays there’s much more emphasis on body strength and being able to use provided you’ve gained control of the ball. But is there not still a requirement that you have to be making some effort to play the ball, and not simply to get in the way of an opponent who is trying to play the ball. I’m thinking of those scenarios where players shield it out for a goal kick, for example, but do so for 10 yards, and deliberately moving their body to stop their opponent getting round them. And the other ‘obstruction’ that never seems to get given is when, nowhere near the ball, one player deliberately moves in front of another to stop them making a run for the ball, for example to chase it down before it reaches the keeper.

I’m sure it’s not just you, but funny how we all see things. Personally, I hate the insistence of the offending team players standing in front of the ball. Sometimes running 10 yards to do so. They are supposed to retreat 10 yards. I’d kick it at them every time!

I imagine that the club will have a whole lot more knowledge than any of us on here about the nature of his injuries, their long term impact and a view on the likelihood of a recurrence. And that will play a big part in any decision.

Should it have stood? Absolutely. (Leaving aside the rolling ball and offside issues). I miss the art of the quick free kick. I hate the way that opposing players run towards the ball to stand over it and have to be told to get back 10 yards. A free kick is meant to be to the advantage of the team taking it. And I don’t buy the ‘ref has to blow’ argument: in areas of the pitch that are less of an attacking threat it’s quite common for free kicks to be taken with barely a touch of the had to stop the ball and certainly with no whistle to restart the game.

Yes: I wasn't being entirely serious about the Sound of Music comparison. Although I don't think the film is anything like as dark as many of the stage productions. I was lucky enough to see the production that's currently on in London early last year and the second part of that production is really very dark - hairs standing on end dark at some points.

And yet, The Sound of Music……???

I agree. And not only up there, but pretty much the only club within touching distance of FGR. There isn’t a lot of detail about how the scoring works, but in terms of the ‘points’ we are closer to FGR than the third placed team is to us. And only 5 of the 72 EFL clubs score 15 or more - and we’re on 22. That’s impressive. Far from it - and very unfair on the club and the efforts it’s making. The article (surprisingly) doesn’t mention air travel, but it does explain some of the (other) reasons why we perform so well. And, given the nature of many of the other 72 clubs, I would imagine that the opposite to what you’re suggesting is true, and that the fact that we use air travel at all probably reduces our standing against many of the other clubs.

Showing you age? You don’t know you’re born! Mine would be thinking that Alan Dicks would never get us promoted from Division 2 ? Mind you, I was quite young at the time and probably easily swayed by the ‘Dicks Out’ chants!

Yeah fair enough. Another question then....watching that replay back, do you honestly feel that if the ref had seen it at the time Sykes would have got a red card? Given the circumstances, I'd have been amazed if the ref saw the whole sequence of events, and gave a yellow for the original trip and a red for the reaction. Although its fair to say that refs never cease to amaze me!

The bit I still don’t understand isn’t that. It’s how Cunningham gets away without a 4 game ban. Three for violent conduct. And an additional game for being the biggest a###hole in football. (OK, a three game ban then).

Makes sense…l did wonder that as I was writing! My own experience was a bit weird. I went off to Brighton anticipating lots else to do at weekends too. And resigned to giving up watching football for a while. But the first two City home games I missed were 4-0 then 6-0 wins, in the season we got promoted to Div 1. So I quickly settled instead into a routine of travelling to City matches! And then, at the same time, Brighton decided to have one of their most successful times to date - Peter Ward scoring record numbers of goals, players like Mark Lawrenson, and successive promotions. So I ended up watching more football than ever!!

Iron Sky…….Paolo Nutini

Although we’re both University towns and you’d have thought that, at the right price, there’s a market there? No idea really! They must have their rationale. I don’t know when they put their STs on sale this time last year. If it was about now maybe they didn’t expect to go up and priced them accordingly. Certainly, if the prices for next season represent a big % increase, as suggested, then they’ve been bloody cheap for the PL. Maybe they’re just looking to recoup some of that.