94 Comments

Johnny on the pod was correct - clear daylight between Declan, Big Bill and the rest. But isn't it great that so many had good seasons.

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I watched Argentina so many years going to tournaments with World class players and never a world class team. But the time when nobody expects much from them again, they started winning things. Why? They now have Messi playing in the natural 10 position. Play Messi where he plays this days behind the likes to tevez, arguero and Messi himself, see what they could have done. Just throw odegaard into the French team last world Cup, and they would have beaten Argentina. I'm not even saying that odegaard is a world class 10. But all the same, he is natural in the position.

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"At an unspecified location in central London this week, the latest stage in the Premier League’s civil war will begin to unfold. “

What legally binding proceedings on the up and up take place at “ unspecified locations” ?

And people wonder why I’m a cynic.

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Overthinking it Tom, it just means that the person writing the article didn’t have the location at time of writing.

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“The case will be heard in private and there will be no public acknowledgment of any outcome, nor the reasons behind it. “

Am I?

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Not to argue about the picks...but though Saka didn't have the best of season,yet he had the most goal/assist contribution me reckons...😎

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When was this open for vote because I wonder if voting overlapped with Saka dry spell when he was injured and so gooners chose someone else.

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Jun 8
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Im surprised by this Rich I expected Saka to POTY and he didn't even make top 3.

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Sid making a mockery of the double standards used in judging MA and GS. Incase no one figured yet...

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The TW dilemma is that the best deals will be had by the end of the month, due to the need of so many clubs to avoid PSR sanctions. And yet so few have any capacity to make those deals as they have insufficient income to offset to stay within PSR

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I am slightly torn with this city Arbitration

It’s not a court of law but what it is is a challenge to the rules.

Let’s be clear it’s a bit rich from City in making the claims about the voting requirements that’s down to them to firstly put a resolution to the member clubs and argue their case in a democratic manner

Where I do sort of think they are right is questioning/ challenging a rule because quite simply if that rule is contrary to UK Law then it must be removed from the rules or re written to fit in wit( statute

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The Premier League, FIFA, UEFA and the beautiful game has been infiltrated by owners from the mega-criminal element. With stadiums full of expensive seats and concessions they are perfect for money laundering as well as sportswashing. The on-field product is incredible but the players are just helping criminals move their assets around. Of course these criminals would even follow their own rules - ones made to protect the rich criminals at the expense of the poorer legit run clubs. The many legit know better than to take on the criminal element ruining the competitive nature of the game.

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Kane lit up Bundesliga breaking half a dozen or more scoring records, Bellingham lit up La liga, Foden lit up the EPL with Saka and Palmer in close pursuit. Rice had a stormer of a season, Walker makes opposing left sided attackers wanna cry, Stones was terrific for City at CB and in the Mid…………..

Stacked doesn’t begin to describe this England side.

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Thankfully the weakest link Maguire has been sent packing. If France had another attacking midfield option other than aging Griezmann who can't be excellent in the large number of games played in short succession then they'd be shoe-ins. This could be England's best chance.

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The main issue for England is getting the team to gel together. I’d like to see Foden and Bellingham as no8s (with Rice at 6). Hoping that Palmer can play as well at 11 so we can use him and Saka.

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Thorough article about mancheaty case against the epl, they are going to argue that league is breaking UK competition laws with some of their rules that limit spending.

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"At an unspecified location in central London this week, the latest stage in the Premier League’s civil war will begin to unfold. Expected to last two weeks, the arbitration case brought by Manchester City against the competition of which they are champions will be dry, its verdict technical. The consequences, however, will probably be anything but."

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jun/08/manchester-city-premier-league-legal-case

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The irony of City complaining that they are being unfairly treated financially at a time when they have numerous financial charges against them and a system that has enabled them to have won 6 out of the last 7 titles.

I know it’s a legal argument but PL should go hard against them.

I reckon City are going to get serious pelters from opposition supporters next season and they’ll 100% deserve it.

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You assume the FA have morals and scruples other than self-interest. Battling ManCity in court costs mega-money and the FA may just be content enough to keep their money to spend on their own self-agrandisement and pleasure. Millions on lawyers or spend it on their trips, match attendance, free food, junkets, h00kers. No doubt anyone coming in conflict with the FA probably has enough dirt about their acceptance of bribery and corruption that they could leak it to the press. Man City will go the legal route to allow the FA to save face.

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I assume city have been told that they are getting punished and this case is way to muddy the waters and drag out the process.

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Trumpian shit!

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It should not be overlooked that a prerequisite for winning major international tournaments is to be complete shite at the beginning.

England have successfully negotiated the first hurdle

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Totally off topic. Steve (Spice Boy) McManamam writing (allegedly) in the Daily Heil says Chelsea is a bigger club than Arsenal due to it winning the Champions League and we haven't. By that logic, Nottingfham Forest and Aston Villa are bigger clubs than Arsenal. Muppet.

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Winning the national league is more important than winning any continental competition, period.

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I see it as more Chelsea have a better European pedigree than us, which is fair considering it was financial doping that built Chelsea’s European trophy warchest. They are certainly not a bigger club than Arsenal in terms of support and reverence in the footballing community.

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Chelsea pre Abrahamovic were pretty much a nothing club with very few cups (1 EPL and a couple of FA Cups no name some). The majority of their major cups are post 2003.

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Judging the 'size' of a club has to include historical titles which of course includes CL/European cups, League Titles, FA cups and other European trophies, as well as comparative fan bases, both domestically and globally.

On all metrics Arsenal come out on top against Chelsea, Forest and Villa apart from CL/European titles. It's not scientific but if you were to ask a neutral football fan, I'm pretty sure we'd come out on top if you were to compare us with those three clubs.

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My longstuff has lots of domestic wins, large fan base but struggles in Europe due to less financial muscle.

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It’s not an unreasonable perspective and one that pains me

I hate that we have never won it and our awful record in Europe

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Santi on what he doing next -

"Of course, I was fortunate to share a dressing room with Mikel Arteta and now he is the manager. We had conversations about that but right now I am not focused on anything other than contributing to this club, Oviedo, and continuing to enjoy football as a player.

"After that, we will see what the future holds for me. It is clear that Arsenal is a club that has always left the door open to me to return. But right now, I have enough on my mind with the play-offs and trying to enjoy the last days of my playing career."

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/13149663/santi-cazorla-admits-mikel-arteta-has-left-door-open-to-him-at-arsenal-as-he-eyes-fairytale-ending-with-real-oviedo

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Southgate for United please.

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I really hope this talented England team carry Southgate to a Euro’s win, thereby giving him his knighthood and sending him to old Trafford. He’s not good enough but that’s not stopped inadequate managers in the past winning major trophies due to exceptional players. This is what I see with England, all it takes is the players to step up and Southgate not to get cowardly and they should bring this home.

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Southgate and the media talking about injuries for England is so cheap

Iceland as a country have a population smaller than Bristol. Apparently 400m worth of our talent wasn’t enough for us because we have a few players injured?

Better to just say we had a bad day and will learn from it. Don’t wanna hear a mentions of injuries because they were irrelevant. You don’t need saka to play 90 mins to beat Iceland. A bad day happens, let’s not talk about mitigating circumstances because there were none. England are a really good team but played poorly. It happens. No need to blame injuries

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England is going to Euro without a single natural attacking midfielder. We'll see how it pans out

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What are you sniffing?

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Foden and Bellingham - Players of the Season in their respective leagues, both are AMs!

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Foden is a winger. That he played in a city with World class passer of the ball make some of you think he is a 10. Wait till you get to Euro. As for Bellingham, he is no 8 at best. Like I said we'll find out as usual.

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No he isn’t wtf

Neither is grealish or Bellingham

They are all attacking mids

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Very simplistic take Ola. Foden is a fantastic technical talent who can receive the ball in tight areas, combine with others and has a real goal threat. Bellingham’s retired number from Birmingham is 22 which represents his ability to play 4, 8 and 10. Very intelligent footballer who can excel as an AM. Just because these two are versatile, doesn’t mean they can’t play successfully as AMs.

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We are about to find out.

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This generation of England players are mostly world class but they need the right players to play in the right position for them to achieve their potential. Against weak teams they may get away with it but against strong teams, we'll be back here saying Kane should have scored the only clear cut chance he had in the whole 90min.

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?? Grealish, Bellingham, Palmer. Even Saka is a midfielder and a winger rolled

Into one

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They are all wingers apart from Bellingham who is a central midfielder. Why did you think France has only won just one major trophy in recent years despite the avalanche of attacking talents. No natural 10. I'm talking players like Zidane, modric, debrune, ozil odegaard. It doesn't have to be world class but natural in the position.

But never mind, we have been here before.

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Foden

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I totally agree with that. There is no need for excuses. We could all see that this had nothing to do with injuries. The players were for some reason not at the races last night.

In fact, I am glad that England lost this game as this will give everyone a massive kick up the arse, including Southgate's. I'd rather we lose this game than lose our first group game vs Serbia and make it difficult for ourselves to finish top of our group.

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I'M GLAD WE LOST. How many times have I seen this expression after a loss. Only to later realize that winning is an habit and never has anything good come out of defeat in sports. We shall see. Never has England been this overrated despite going into a tournament with the most clueless manager in their history

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I can only agree with you. But with England, we always have a bad habit of messing up one group game and finding ourselves in a situation where we have to count on others to finish first of the group and then still end up 2nd anyway. I don't like the "easy" games that England get to warm up because it breeds a sense of complacency. With that loss, England now should have their heads fully screwed on and focused on winning all our group games.

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In my opinion Oligaurd needs some competition. Frankly Smith Row and Viera are clearly not trusted. If god forbid he gets injured there is big problems

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Whoever Oligaurd is

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