S-Clarke

Decent in the Champ, but absolutely hopeless at this level.

There's a lot of weird stuff out there, as Manji said there's a lot of political gamesmanship being played as well - he's seen as a bad guy as he's trying to uncover the political bollocks of the countries government, so there's a lot flying around in that context.

'This lot' - bit vague. They've only just setup Sports Republic, December 9th to be exact - so I'm not sure what debt they've got themselves into already? If you're referring to Dragan and his telecoms/media company then this takeover is not interlinked with that company in any way, Sports Republic was funded and setup independently of any of his previous ventures and is funded from his own capital.

Both really good listens, two very intelligent and bright human beings. They do things the right way. There is so much more to football than just the black and white outcomes you see. I was never convinced Puel's season was any good, 8th was a freak. In any other season we'd have finished bottom half, the downturn in where we were was too large to ignore, that's what I had problems with and what a lot of other fans had problems with, we'd gone backwards at an alarming rate. Ultimately Les and co saw that and they made the decision, but they got the calls wrong after that and tried to be clever. I'd argue that appointing Puel in the first place was the wrong call as well, there were a few years between 16-19 where they just made wrong decision after wrong decision in both managerial and player moves. These guys (Especially Rasmus) seem to have a really good understanding of football in this country and what is required. If he has the right level of financial backing behind him then I'm very optimistic about what these guys can build.

£60m and Newcastle have a deal.

They're going down the route of $$$$$$$$$$$$$, and it will ultimately buy them a lot of success - albeit very manufactured. We'll probably go down the route of earning any success we get through clever buys and shrewd sales, which is ultimately more fun and more of a ride.

There's not enough info out there yet, but there has to be an improvement from this to a degree. The involvement of Rasmus shows that they're building a football vision, not just purchasing a club for reputation or $$$. That's in my eyes anyway. Interesting reading the Brentford forums who are very complementary of Rasmus, although some of their fans are already saying that 'Phil Giles' is the guy who masterminded their success, not Rasmus. That feels a little bit sour grapes to me though.

Rasmus Ankersen is very highly thought of by Brentford fans. Rasmus Ankersen Leaves BFC (and buys Southampton) | Page 2 | The Griffin Park Grapevine

The amount of stuff thrown Ralphs way for not playing him was ridiculous. He never looked cut out for it, and that was from the B Team games. I doubt he'll ever amount to anything.

I don't think any of that will change if i'm honest. I can see the likes of Steele, Martin and Matt all staying in place with the same structure. They've been driving the takeover talks (Martin in particular) so I don't see that he'd be driving himself out.

To be fair to everyone that was speaking about 29/30th announcement, I think they were pretty much spot on - out by a day or two, who cares! I'm glad that this awful 4 years is finally about to end. I do like the quietness of all this, it shows that they're not charlatans and aren't looking to get their name out there - looks like it was a very thorough bit of due diligence done by both sides. Reminds me of the ML deal if I'm honest, just comes out of no where and puts the likes of Da Grosa into the distance. £100m is crazy though. There must be some sort of deal struck there with regards to our substantial debt. Hopefully 2022 is the start of a bright new era and ownership who are engaged and invested in the club.

Really sad news, he was a breakthrough story from Puel's time at the club. He featured a lot that season and was threatening to jump ahead of Matt Targett. Certainly was a PL player in there, so it does feel like a waste. I hope he finds happiness elsewhere as I can imagine mentally it's a really tough period for him.

Look at the state of their fans: Southampton P-P Newcastle United - 2/1/22 @ 2pm (No UK TV) - Page 10 - Football - Newcastle-Online

Exactly, it stinks. As as said if ASM or Wilson hadn't been injured in their last game then this would be going ahead, without question - thus this postponement is nothing to do with COVID and is fully around injuries.

Looks like there was some chatter that we'd have an announcement on the 29th/30th, that slowly got muted down and there has already been the backtracking and ''things may have changed'' comments from the ones who broke it. It originated from posters on the TUI.

I was actually all for a suspension of football a few weeks ago, mainly to avoid these obvious games being played by clubs. It's no longer a doubt about the game being brought into disrepute, it has been brought into disrepute and the integrity of the league is on the floor. If Wilson and ASM hadn't been injured in their last game then they would not have asked for postponement, almost guaranteed. Neither of those players have COVID, so why has the game been postponed? They'll now go to January, buy Sven Botman, Trippier, Isak, get Wilson and ASM fit and lift their side up 2 or 3 levels above ours and Brentford's before they re-play those games. That's blatant cheating and the PL simply have no balls. Everyone can see it, even non-football fans.

It's something that is phasing in, but not everywhere yet. There is definitely a mandate pushed centrally to scrap that wait time so they can get as many numbers through as they want, maybe some centres are a little stronger and are resisting it. I hope that's is the case.

I actually have some first hand experience on the last point. I was treated for cardiac issues after my first jab. I raised the point many a time that I'd had my AZ 12 hrs prior to being in there. It wasn't acknowledged, just a passing glance or an 'oh ok'. That's not good enough really. It seems like they automatically saw me as some sort of antivaxxer, which is odd because I'd just had the jab. In my experience they weren't interested in linking it or even putting anything up the chain, and It's probably not beyond the realms to believe that has happened quite a lot. I just don't like the re-working of the rules to suit the numbers game. 6 month gap between jabs, within weeks they've decided a 3 month gap is fine. No 15 min wait, who decided that? It seems to be going more towards numbers ''getting jabs in the arms' than the actual wellbeing of the person, that's how I see it going anyway. I work in the NHS so I see a lot of this first hand. I see a lot of staff and nurses in tears because of the mandates they have to follow. Patient safety is no longer priority, it's all about the numbers and the medical professionals are also noticing that.

Just to take you up on your question - I want the government to be truthful and provide all of the information in it's true form, not manipulated and angled towards fear. To me they are playing the fear game. They are portraying the data in certain ways to make it look worse than it is, they are wording their statements to make it sound worse than it is. I'm not denying it's happening, I'm not denying it's there. But there needs to be clarification and more balance in order for everyone to see both sides - that's all I ask for. People in hospital - with covid or because of COVID? clear definition required there. People who have died - with COVID or because of COVID? clear definition required there. The definitions of those two points above per the current government guidelines are nonsense and are positioned to make it look worse than it actually is. ''Within 28 days''. I'd like them to investigate these cardiac issues which seem more frequent. I'm not saying they're due to the vaccination, but it needs either ruling in or out. I'd like them to explain why they have stopped the '15 min' sit down after your jab? I know of a particular vaccination centre which had to introduce the 'in and out' policy, and it has so far lead to two people fainting in the car park. The staff don't agree with it, but they are mandated to no longer give people that 15 min window. Why? Is this about wellbeing, or is it a numbers game?

Quite an interesting potential takeover going on here - a Crypto takeover. Bradford City: League Two club receive offer from US cryptocurrency investors WAGMI United - BBC Sport

They didn't, they said to make choices - which is fair. Make your own judgements on what you feel is right and wrong etc. The thing is the big corps etc feel pressured into showing the way, so they're binning all their do's. The general tone is to be sensible, but the problem is the media and the crying scientists trying to instil the mother of all fear into everyone - which is what's making them feel they've been told to avoid everything. It's about a judgement choice in terms of what you feel is right.

I guess they feel that they have to give notice, that's why there is always a gap from when it's announced to when it actually happens. It doesn't help it make any sense though, I agree. What also doesn't make any sense are the calls from Sturgeon for everyone to 'stay at home', yet she'll happily encourage hundreds and hundreds of people to queue round the block in the cold, in big crowds, not distanced, in order to get a jab. Don't go to B&M though.

That's the one I was thinking of then. But either way, the definitions are seriously skewed and are open to massive media manipulation. (and government manipulation).

They'll be setting their sights much much higher than Armstrong. Dembele for a start, maybe Ali.

That's the key point right there, we don't attack them well enough. They are usually put in the right areas and with good pace, but we don't have a huge presence. We had a much better set piece record last year because we had Vestergaaard in the side, he towered above everyone and we had a presence. Stick JWP in a team with Halland up top and I reckon he'd get loads of assists.