The9

I pretty much agree with him, but then he's on TalkShoite who thrive of controversy, so I doubt he actually thinks that.

The long-standing relationship of, erm, having some people from there play and manage in the League and absolutely nothing else any more significant that any other nation. So literally no "relationship" of note, and no justification. The bit about "an attack on football" is far more relevant, but given that the west "won" those bombings 3-1 (speaking of crass ) it's the other attacks which are actually the link with French solidarity and they have nothing to do with football at all. So, anyway it happened, and of course it was posturing. I was in the concourse washing my hands of it, as previously decided.

Fairly sure the complaints are about someone else feigning respect for political and financial gain, actually.

Aside from the penalty decision I don't think Mason had any impact on the result. Pelle's booking was completely deserved if it was for kicking the ball away, which it appeared to be.

Lambert "losing it" at Brighton was actually El Abd(?) kicking him and dragging him to the ground, then chucking himself on the floor as Lambert pushed off him to get up.

Mane has already learned, he got sent off multiple times for Salzburg and it's only happened once for us in a game when it mattered very little it was so late on.

A bunch of weird on here with the usuals busting out the whining and going overboard. We were poor, Stoke were slightly better overall and much more effective on the break. We missed Mane and when he came on he showed both how much we missed him AND why he hadn't started. Stoke going forward didn't have more skilful or luxury creative players than we do, but one of ours wasn't starting and that made a big difference. The defensive midfield did fine but we got caned on the break. If anything we needed to be MORE defensive so would have had more bodies between the goal and the breaking players, but that would have meant leaving Clasie out, and he had his best game so far. I'm still at a loss to the other penalty we're meant to have had - saw the Pelle hack when jumping, no idea what the other one was - it sure as hell wasn't for Long chucking himself over when Wollscheid was comfortably in front of him in the box. Lee Mason never gives anything so of course a more physical side would benefit from him reffing - though they were nowhere near as bad as they used to be. His bookings were uneven but penalty aside he had no effect on the result. As usual, Batman's talking cobblers about Pelle, who is both quick and mobile, but like many others didn't have his best game with everyone ponderous and waiting for things to happen. Not even sure what the heat map is meant to show other than that he's involved all over the area you'd expect for a striker and not immobile. Also, Shane Long wasn't the best, but if he scores 7 in a season he's doing alright, in the position he plays and not starting all the time that's a decent return. That many across the midfield when we have about 5 players rotating isn't too bad. JWP was ineffective, Davis was quiet, Bertrand penned back by the counter threat, Tadic didn't do the right things at key moments, Stekelenburg did well, and the defence looked like they needed to be less exposed on the break. Wanyama wasn't involved enough in the defending of Stoke's breaks but he was in the middle of the pitch, while Stoke were effective and threatening in execution up the wings and that was the difference in the two sides. Finally, Cedric needs a headband. That's what, five separate head injuries this season?

FWIW outside the Northam there was a steward with a handheld metal detector thing for body searches, but the rest of it was the same as usual. Queue about the same length too.

Like the one Red Bull Salzburg have got outside their ground, presumably.

It's perfectly sensible, I don't understand why anyone would think you could even take one in.

Interesting no-one is discussing Mitchell and the black box and only talking about the players in the team. I have no idea how long Alli and Mason were at the club (I know for Dier - and Yedlin who's on loan at Sunderland) but is it a coincidence that their younger players are coming through now they (presumably) have a joined up approach?

I was delighted to discover Carlisle's equaliser as I was walking down the steps out of the bowl and made a point of telling everyone I knew. Bit of a screamer as well, lovely job. Nice long trip home for them as well.

I'd have been pretty p155y about that too, having already done two of them - but at least it wouldn't seem as crass, just a little "too late" and superfluous. I don't recall any stirring renditions of God Save The Queen before Premier League games after the 7/7 bombings - I also don't recall any criticism of any of Europe's other major football leagues for not doing that either.

They want to appear as involved in the process as the FA were, or at best just don't want to be made to look bad in comparison. They're REALLY hoping that no-one finds a way to support France but criticises the Premier League at the same time. Booing the Premier League anthem in a Man City style might be a start, but a bunch of French flags with anti-Premier League messages might do it. Of course no-one in a public position will be critical of it as they don't want to be seen as callous (even though it's a perfectly valid point), and no-one in the media is going to be openly critical because they all need their access to the Premier League's stars and won't want to risk that.

I assume we've all seen this by now? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34873067

Koeman's English is fine and doesn't remotely bother me, occasionally it leaves us with ambiguity which sometimes is helpful in dodging clear answers and sometimes is just ambiguous.

And we were in France, and it was a Ligue 1 match being played.

I have it on pretty good authority from someone who accompanied the people who signed the deal, which I'd heard about from a completely different source.

The BBC for some reason has got the word "ankle" from absolutely nowhere, it even says "foot" in the quote: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34871712

If they do they're going through Charity Stars to sell them.

More likely to be Koeman misspeaking, "they did everything they could about his feet" is fairly generic and doesn't necessarily mean it's both of them.

If they didn't ask, how have the Echo got a quote saying "It is difficult for the player but for everybody because he is total back and no problems and now it is a different injury. It takes the boy down mentally and it is difficult because all we can do is give total support to the player."

Yeah, there's also that - but that's not even relevant really, it's still bandwagon-jacking irrelevant posturing by the Premier League for a match where half the players are French.

Don't give those f'ckwitts ideas!

Still bo11ocks.