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Sorry Indy, this is a load of pony. Nobody is trying to airbrush the history of football violence through the 70s and 80s; it happened. However, it wasn't ALL clubs causing trouble all over Europe because ALL clubs didn't make it and even if what you're claiming WAS TRUE, none of the other 91 football league clubs were involved in a night of sustained violence that left 39 dead and 14 of their fans convicted of manslaughter. When people are berating the club for being too poor to compete in the Premier League and not attractive enough for foreign investment they might want to think about the opportunities denied to us in the immediate years prior to the formation of the Premier League; the one time we had the opportunity to build a lasting profile and future legacy. Why was it denied? Liverpool and Thatcher. So, yes, I do hold a grudge and yes, I am still bitter. Not just for me but for the players that dipped out too. For the record, I'm not exclusively anti-Liverpool, I still hate Thatcher too. Her sweeping action that punished ALL football fans, clubs and players because of the actions of a few were a disgrace and her caging of fans and commitment to fencing, innocent or not, was a direct contributory factor to what happened in April 1989. https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/worst-five-months-english-football-thatcher-fighting-and-fatalities-1985 So, while I can appreciate that Liverpool have been excellent this season and there can be no doubt about their eligibility to be labelled Champions, it still leaves a bitter taste. So **** Liverpool, **** Thatcher and **** the Premier League.

Evening all. Big thanks for the suggestions. I've split the tenner up into some stupidly positive, some positive and a couple less so. All from the Bet365 site. Here goes... £1 - City to win in 90mins 13/2 50p - Klose goal any time 20/1 £1 - 2-1 City 20/1 50p - Vrancic goal any time 7/1 50p - City win in extra time 28/1 50p - HT/FT Utd/City 50/1 £1 - Pukki 1st goal City 2-1 35/1 £1 - Both teams score, City win 12/1 £1 - A red card 9/2 50p - City win to Nil 12/1 50p - City to score a penalty 12/1 50p - An own goal to be scored 10/1 50p - United win in extra time 9/1 £1 - 3-0 United 17/2 Fingers crossed for something out of that little lot...

Well I for one am shocked it’s not Liverpool’s fault and other factors are at play. Usually they hold their hands up when they are in the wrong. Very unlike them as a club.

Maybe you had to have actually experienced the disappointment to understand it. Perhaps being detached and looking at it from these days it's all different. All I know is we'd never qualified for Europe before. We won what was called the friendly final against Sunderland. It was held up as a beacon in those violent times. Then Liverpool at Heysel happened and the next thing we knew was Thatcher's broad brush saw us banned from Europe. Because it was a couple of months? after that friendly final I expect it was forgotten. You could argue all football fans paid the penalty. I'd argue Norwich paid a higher penalty than Liverpool who caused it.

I feel more sorry for our fans who missed out on three European campaigns because of their moronic supporters behaviour at the Heysel Stadium. i also feel more sorry for fans of Oxford Utd, Wimbledon, Coventry City and others who all missed out on Europe too. F*ck ‘em......

There are no rules anymore. You know this.

We would have missed him in the last two rounds.

No. Very clearly there is no leadership.

............being completely incompetent and mismanaging the UK Covid 19 response so badly that we have had the worst outcome in Europe with many, many thousands of unnecessary deaths. Think that should probably be included in the list, just for balance and completeness - but as you say apart from that............

I am looking forward to it only if i can go to the games both home and away as this watching my team live on the tellybox is not for me by a long chalk.

First season was all about trying to instil the methods and get the right players on board. It was always designed to be a long-term plan rather than a quick fix. Second season was brilliant. Third season our squad was ruthlessly exposed for what it was: a group of overachieving underdogs with minimal PL experience and no budget. All the while, in the background we've bought some quality young players from across Europe, as well as nurturing and bringing through our own talent. It may not feel like it at the moment, but things are proceeding as planned. There's no margin for error next season, though; we have to get back up. And I believe we will.

Yeh but without a crowd it has to be dubbed!

We might actually get our Labour Party back soon.

Jesus christ the posts are getting more cringeworthy by the second. Rupp was decent yesterday. He's no standout but he's technically tidy, works hard and defensively solid. Also linked up play quite well a couple of times and set Hernandez away. This pathetic witch-hunt is showing some fans up.

OK, here's the final six for this week. I've gone for all the teams which were tipped more than once and I've prioritised more well-known games as they're easier to follow and the bookies give slightly better margins on the higher profile matches. Napoli to beat SPAL Atletico Madrid to beat Alaves Swansea to beat Luton Wolves to beat Aston Villa Man City to beat Newcastle Real Madrid to beat Espanyol. For housekeeping purposes, my pick is Napoli.

Love these thank you Sid. I've placed them to our best advantage and we have... City to win in 90mins £1 Pad Pow 7/1 £8.00 Klose goal any time £0.50 Bet 365 20/1 £10.50 2-1 Norwich win £1 Bet 365 20/1 £21.00 Vrancic goal any time £0.50 PadPow 14/1 £7.50 City win in extra time £0.50 Bet 365 28/1 £14.50 HT/FT Utd/City £0.50 Bet 365 50/1 £25.50 Pukki 1st goal City 2-1 £1 Bet 365 85/1 £86.00 Both teams score, City win £1 Bet 365 14/1 £15.00 A red card £1 Bill Hill 5/1 £6.00 City win to Nil £0.50 Bet 365 12/1 £6.50 City to score a penalty £0.50 Bet 365 12/1 £6.50 An own goal to be scored £0.50 Bet 365 10/1 £5.50 United win in extra time £0.50 Bet 365 9/1 £5.00 3-0 United £1 Bet 365 17/2 £9.50 Also thanks to Sid, nutty, Parma, Pockthorpe, Apples, Purple and Diane for the SarcomaUK bets.. Over 3.5 goals £5 Bet 365 7/4 £13.75 Over 2.5 goals £5 Bill Hill 4/5 £9.00 Norwich to qualify £5 Bet 365 7/2 £22.50 Man.Utd to miss a penalty £5 Bet 365 12/1 £65.00 Red Card £2.50 Bill Hill 5/1 £15.00 Own Goal £2.50 Bet 365 10/1 £27.50 Idah last goal £5 Bet 365 12/1 £65.00 Over 4:5 goals £2.50 Bet 365 9/2 £13.75 Pukki score anytime ManU win 1-3 £2.50 Bet 365 35/1 £90.00 Let's hope we can get some wins for the CSF and SarcomaUK in memory of much loved ChelleCity💕 Good luck to us all and of course our beloved Canaries 🤞🍀💛⚽💚

The Brexit domino effect.🤔😀 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/06/25/uk/uk-supports-eu-four-years-after-brexit-intl-gbr/index.html

I'm not sure if I've ever agreed more with a comment or a post! Bravo sir and well done! 👍✔👌👏🎯🏆🥇⭐⚡🌟💥✔

The ex Grenadier Guard tells us what happened that day, Billock.

https://media1.giphy.com/media/2nGfl4QfpCtW/giphy.gif?cid=6c09b95253a5d099c3a07b4b7141b41aa604e35821f88d74&rid=giphy.gif

I have no idea what the odds are and if they are even available, but Krul to save a penalty against Man Utd is my tip. For the final six, I'll make the selections before I go to bed, so you've got until the small hours to get them in (assuming that isn't too late for Eddie).

Hello Pups. I reckon Espanyol v Real Madrid , away win . For the Norwich bet , I’ll go for Man.Utd to miss a penalty . Keep em out Tim ! Nutty I’ll send you over a fiver to make that a SarcomaUK bet .

Not really. A few lads posting facts. You're welcome. What is it about the fat, lying, racist granny killer Johnson that you like Swindo?

Premier League survival is a gamble and the owners are not the gambling type. Villa spent a shed load and their best player came from their youth setup. I'd much rather continue with a sustainable setup and not watch some £40m wally (Joelinton/Wesley et al) run around mocking my season ticket fee and then disappear to Holland for half the price. Anyway, what could be more boring than being a fan of a club that are permanently mid table of any division? We'll hopefully always be either fighting for promotion from the champs, or against relegation from the premier league, keeps it interesting. Throw in a decent cup run and that's a proper entertaining season. It is for entertainment after all!

Where did I state I didn’t rate the player? You appear to have difficulty in comprehending what you read. Clearly he is one for the future otherwise he would have had game time for Sunderland this season.

You mean the billionaire who lived locally and picked up the club for far, far less than NCFC would cost?

Anybody who uses statistics a lot will reference context and sample size + will only draw conclusions with an acknowledgement of the margin of error that applies. Statistics provide a valuable insight but only if their limitations are understood. To deny any value because some "over-interpret" a relatively small sample, is to deny objective reality.

Frankly, I was ignoring a rather deparate piece of whataboutery. The UK has 65,000 dead, tens of thousands of these are Johnson's direct directly responsibility. The UK is also facing the deepest depression in the OECD. The neo-liberal economic model has completely failed to deal with this, so much so that even you are lauding £14 billion a month of extra benefits payment. Sunak is seen as the great saviour even though his bank lending scheme failed and more than 1 million people are not getting support. The Universal Credit uplift does not even restore Osbourne's cuts. On top of this Sunak has no plan that would allow him to phase out the furlough scheme without pushing unemployment above 4 million. The Conservatives are now seen to have failed to "mend the roof while the sun is shining" with a result that the economy is on its knees. Your response........what about them, what would they do, nothing to see here

The pictures I see of all the carp left on Bournemouth beach blow a hole in the lingering hopes I had that Blue Planet and other campaigns had had a positive Impact. I think you will find that Carp are freshwater fish VW🙃 I felt as angry as you when I saw the pictures. Do all these idiots think that because they leave their plastic bottles outside their house once a fortnight for someone to take away that the same thing happens on the beach? Its time the Government, Supermarkets, Manufacturers got together to sort out packaging. Why can't we go back to glass?

Meanwhile .... Fox News now says that Biden is leading by 1 in Texas.... yes in Texas.

The government, rightly or wrongly, (for the record I say wrongly) took the advice of Left-wing professor, Neil Ferguson -- Labour, obviously, would've done exactly the same -- With bells on... And by the way, if Labour had have been in power it would've been Magic Grandpa at the helm not Max Headroom 🙃 God forbid.

After lots of rage, public enemy and nwa due to the messed up politics I've gone back to more chilled stuff. I even tuned the guitar until i remembered im no better than when i got it over ten years ago... Anyway. These are all classics and deserve to be heard more!

It doesn't matter whether we've been preparing for the Premier League, the Championship or League One: I've never not looked forward to the new season.

No idea if you were around in the 70’s/80’s Indy but clubs like ours don’t get into Europe every day, Liverpool do. Yes, we do have long memories. The trouble at Heysel was caused by Liverpool fans plain and simple. They may whinge that the stadium wasn’t fit for purpose, not enough police there, etc, etc, but if they’re such fair minded supporters why did they look for trouble ? Always the victim. I may be disappointed they won it this season but had the satisfaction of seeing them miss out last year and in 1989 when Arsenal did them with that injury time goal. Shame the open top bus parade won’t happen anytime soon either 😢 😃

He has also only been with us in January and essentially played out wide every game since coming in, and in reality only got in the team because of injury and serious lack of form / lack of tactical discipline (Buendia) from others. So it's a bit harsh people judging him and in particular, listing him amongst our worst ever players. I think at prem level he will never be anything more than a versatile squad player but I think in the championship next season (presuming that's the case of course) he will be a good addition.

Best friend is a Liverpool fan... I can not stand them or their fans... Hangover from our European ban. Leaving the planet for a few weeks

A huge anti climax of a season that people will only remember because of COVID-19. No-one else cares.

Deservingly so, well done to Liverpool, great team, good manager. Congratulations to Liverpool and their fans.

Looking back a little further... Who would have thought we would have won the Championship last season? With a team built on youth and free/cheap transfers? Then moving forward sign a load of promising young talent before entering the tough world of the Premier League. Then, as so often happens, going down. But, going down having not 'done a Villa/Fulham' and spent way in excess of £100m. No, going down with a lot of that promotion money in the bank, an amount that could truly see us comfortable for a few years. Parachute payments. Young talent amongst our numbers. And exciting current 1st team youth that will either keep improving or fetch a pretty penny. The present looks saddening, but the future DOES look bright. And financially we could be in a position to come back and attack the Premier League stronger, more equipped, financially just that bit more secure. And quality wise, we may have a little more experience, I still believe we went up too early. Our talented players won't quite be so new and hopefully will be less naive. Stop listening to those 'fans' who want to attack our club. The way we do things seems as right as it can be for modern football. Sure it may take a little longer, but its what keeps me connected on a personal level. Looking back, who'd have thought. It's all about perspective.

Rub a dub dub

Transfer-wise we got this year badly wrong. Tettey said in the media he thought Amadou would be *the man* for that position and expected to be supplanted by the end of the season. Half a season as an emergency centre back and suddenly we're told he can't fit our style. Gone. Fahrmann I believe was brought in because Kruls recent record particularly at PL level was very shaky. We needed a better backup than McGovern but based on the supposed loan fee & full wages, I can't see that he wasnt brought in to play. Gone. Duda had a good first hour v Bournemouth but then has largely gone missing. Feels like a 'tourist signing'. Not actually sure we will see much of him again, Klose looked ready to rip his head off for letting Keane go yesterday. Here in body, gone in mind IMO. As for the permanents, I happen to think Byram is a shrewd signing for a club like us and is genuine PL quality. Rupp, as I've explained above- not every player is a match winner. I also think Drmic is a lot better than he tends to get credit for, but has been doing his best to keep that a secret in the last two games. Haven't bothered to pick apart Patrick Roberts loan, doesn't really seem worth the time to type. All in all you can't afford to make a mistake at this level if you're only spending a few million. Unfortunately we got it 90% wrong and you can only hope we learn from that.

I'm not writing Rupp off yet. He's probably not in his best position for a start, and Trybull and McLean are hardly world beaters so I'd like to see if he can nail a place. I think he may a little bit about him.

I agree, which is why I can't understand the calls to sack Farke. Of our summer window all our three loanees: Patrick Roberts, Amadou and Fahrmann have departed early, Drmic was a free transfer and the injury hit Byram cost £750k. January added Rupp and Duda but since we got promoted we haven't added a single player that's a genuine upgrade on our first eleven. Why people can even think of sacking Farke under those circumstances is beyond me.

Not all of us, though... some of us thought the top four was a realistic goal! 😛

These two , three if you include Drmic, reflect our transfer position . Everyone knew at the club we needed a centre half but we couldn’t persuade players to come with our wage and relegation- clause constraints The lad that was lined up went to Nice for 12m Euros but more importantly a fat contract without possible reductions on relegation . Those conversations would have been going on all over the pitch Getting players in of the sufficient standard in the summer was as expensive as it has ever been. The spectre of Naismith loomed large . We just wouldn’t/ couldn’t take the risk. What we did was to prioritise securing the existing squad which probably took longer than expected and used up the resources even further . If we hadn’t there would have been an outcry . I doubt that the three in question are even top half championship players but they were available and we had little choice .

Very well said, we need to look beyond this season, as I posted yesterday w have an abundance of young talent, something we’ve not had in years, we have a decent bank balance meaning we sell for the right price not to cover costs. We re-set and go again next year with changes no doubt, we will lose a few good players and we will no doubt see a few new players in too. Bring on Man U in the cup and bring on the championship next year. This is what football is all about.

Unfortunately you are right... In that, along will come the "no one out there" "why don't you do it" "nasty foreign owners" etc etc etc comments. 100% you need investment to have a chance of surviving in the top flight, 100% you go down if you spend nothing or next to nothing as we did... We were designed to fail this season because... Seemingly... It's too early for the 5 year plan...

The media, and most people, quite understandably don’t understand the concept of risk. Everyone wants binary answers and questions are often driven by journalists trying to achieve a gotcha moment rather than asking questions of genuine public interest inviting an open and not guarded reply. I think the professionals have carried themselves pretty well, anyone appointed to head up a government executive agency realises that they are moving into a political arena so maybe sympathy isn’t appropriate, having said that they have all been professional and maintained integrity imo. The biggest concern for me is whether Van Tam has been silenced for his implied criticism of Cummings, if that is the case then it’s appalling.

It is a serious question. If Farke had 100 days in which to plan how to try to improve results, then all the apparently thousands of fans who want a change of ownership, faced with what for them is the bonus rallying point of almost inevitable relegation, had the same time to get organised. With the internet to hand, more than three months is an eternity. It equates to years in old-style pre-cyberspace campaigning for a cause. This was the perfect period in which to build a mass movement to fight for the ousting of Smith and Jones. Yet evidently zilch. Just Big Vince being his own tribute band. Again...

* he runs to where the ball is then stops five metre away and waves his arms without engaging. The opposition basically can progress as if they're unmarked. * when he's five metres from play, the ball will be knocked to him by our player who has been holding off a couple of opposition players. He often passes it straight back to our marked player which results in us losing possession and our players scratching their heads. * he passes slightly behind where our players are running to. They have to stop and turn round to collect the ball and the move is gone. Etc Etc Etc You may see some good qualities such as taking a shot from 25 yards which sometimes skids through a group of players into the goal. It's just, I don't rate him because of what he does.