I’d argue that football is a sport where players reactions aren’t that limited in all honest. You wouldn’t see half the stuff players do with referees in sports like Rugby or Cricket.

When players go over the top then they might get fines - I think United and Arsenal have one for crowding the referee this season. Haaland probably won’t be punished for his tweet - players have done worse and it’s been fine so it’s just paper speculation.

First line

Recent reports from The Sun

Stop reading.

I think you’re 100% right that he was controlling but equally completely wrong about it always being about himself.

He was controlling because he cared - Beckham and other players were kids in an era where players were earning more and more than their counterparts and often away from home. Ferguson wanted them to not lose control, to have stable families to support them and be professional. He knew what could happen in his own playing career and the fall out from Rangers too.

In the documentary they said about how he contacted him directly after the red card and how he supported him. Would you not say that was love?

Fergie had his vices and he made mistakes with some players but by and large I think the way he handled players and the whole club was very positive and why so many players still think of him so highly.

You mean bigger clubs get more attention than others? Who’d have known.

But the Arsenal situation is still a topic to discuss - it’s not just a pop at Arsenal but rather than an interesting area. Ramsdale was generally praised last year so them getting another player of Raya’s ilk generally doesn’t happen all too often. Arteta then said he would rotate them much like he would rotate outfield players and said he’d thought about changing them in game - however that hasn’t happened and Raya has had a couple of iffy moments so people have questioned his choices.

These things happen to all the big clubs.

I think Stamford Bridge and Selhurst Park had uncovered stands in the 90s but not sure what’d be the latest.

Well maybe, but it’s a question that has been asked when reports have explained the whole situation with City’s charges and I was responding to the whole ‘no trusted jurno has said that this can happen’ when in fact a trusted journo has said it can.

Journalists have said that the punishment is basically unlimited and that revoking titles can happen (amongst any possible punishment) but you’re right that no one knows what will actually happen if anything.

Are infrastructure improvements like new stadiums not exempt from the FFP calculations? Pretty sure they were last I checked.

They are but the biggest debate in this case is whether interest of a loan they took out should be deductible or not. It was originally deducted last year but the PL changed their position as they assumed it was used for the stadium when it had not been.

Everton argue that they would never have taken out this loan if it weren’t for the stadium and that Moshiri would have paid of it anyway. The PL argue that the interest of the loans shouldn’t be deducted because the the stadium had been funded by interest free loans by Moshiri - it also noted that when taking out the loan the club had said it would not be used on the stadium or players but working capital and the independent panel sided with them.

Literally pretty much the same article the telegraph posted earlier but with a different headline.

I know you did say it ‘could’ but a lot of these are quite extreme hypotheticals.

Big players, from these clubs e.g. Haaland, De Bruyne, Guimaraes will leave and would likely join teams from abroad.

They could leave, some might stay, they could also stay within the country as they have their lives set up there.

• Likes of La Liga or Serie A chairman will be in UEFA’s ear about this, potentiall causing them to ban English Teams

Unlikely - UEFA need English teams as well. A whole ban wouldn’t happen.

The PL will be seen by many as a corrupt league like Serie A in mid 2000’s and will have a knock on affect in which players may choose to sign for clubs like AC Milan or Bayern Munich ahead of English teams like Man United or Liverpool

Maybe it would have it’s image damaged but players would still come to teams as they pay well. Players are always happy to play for the teams with big wages.

Honestly don’t think any of this would happen other than players leaving relegated clubs. Also Newcastle aren’t part of these discussions at all.

Guardian Football Weekly covers PL most of the time but also has European and EFL episodes. Also like dipping into the BBC Football Daily - the Monday Night Club edition is up there for me as well but good to catch up on their 5live coverage after games too.

It’s more that they have a core group of 16-18 or so players who don’t lower the quality of the XI which ever combination play + a few talented young players to supplement that group. Those core players still play a lot of football and because they’re so integral and so good they’re happy being rested for a game or two or worked hard.

For example last year 15 players played 30+ games. The senior players who didn’t were Laporte who played 24 times affected by injuries, Cancelo played 26 times before being shipped out and Phillips played 21 times because Pep hates Leeds scum. The squad has just been managed so well and when you have a great squad you can keep doing fine changes each year whereas a lot of clubs are doing massive changes year on year to try catch them.

I enjoy them - helps when Scotland are doing better obviously but there’s lot of great stories across the continent and world. Might not be the quality of the PL but has never bothered me as football is football.

Said it earlier this season but they don’t have enough to stay up for me. They arguably have a weaker squad overall than they did last year and whilst they have a bit about them it’s just not enough.

Have battled a lot going against them and financial difficulties so credit to them but there’s just a big difference in terms of quality to them and a lot of PL teams.

Sterling has been good this season

He’s been alright - had good and bad performances. Let’s be honest if he hadn’t played well yesterday would you have made this claim?

Rashford hasn’t been good at all but Southgate is well known to pick a core group of players who he trusts and performs well in the England team - he rarely changes the squad massively based on form. Rashford is one of those players but he has been left out on occasions as well.

For a while Sterling was one of those players who played in a certain position whether people liked it or not but now Southgate has other options and Sterling doesn’t fit as well into the team as he did before.

A significant percentage (majority) of premier league players are not white

I don’t know how entirely relevant it is given the league is represented by nations globally. I’d say it’s more wanting it to represent the country and the whole footballing pyramid rather than a small subsection of the top league as referees have to work up the leagues.

This has been asked though and reports have been written. There’s a lot of black referees in the non league and amateur football compared to the PL and EFL but there’s been accusations of observers being racist or having unconscious biases which limits their progression as one observer marking you down can make it extremely difficult to get through.

It seems like refereeing is definitely a bit of an old boys club - it was recent made even more aware by David Elleray being appointed head of the referees committee despite being investigated for making racial comments in which he apologised and sent on a equality and diversity training course. He stepped down in 2022 after being investigated again. Apparently he had said to an FA colleague ''You look rather tanned” and “have you been down a coal mine?”.

But being a referee is fucking difficult and you need to spend years reffing for £20-£30 a game whilst being abused every weekend. There’s no wonder why the overall referee numbers are falling.

Sky get to pick so I doubt they care about Saudi Arabia.

More likely that they have a big fan base in the country so they get picked more than others, games are quite entertaining, Europa League teams have to play Sunday so they have to play Saturdays more and sometimes ‘bigger’ games get played on Sunday as well.

There was an article on this recently which basically said there’s a combination of things.

Apparently he hasn’t had a chance created for him in the last 160 minutes of PL football so there is an argument he hasn’t gotten great service. Rashford and Antony have been incredibly poor this season meaning it has been left to Bruno to create for him but it just hasn’t worked clicked massively yet - the whole of United has been pretty rubbish. But despite that all according to PL date he’s missed six big chances whilst only having 11 shots all season with only four of those 11 being on target.

Not sure why he’s scoring in the CL compared to the PL - maybe because teams are setting out to try get a positive result with it being a group stage so there’s more space to get in behind? But he’s still massively raw and young so you’d assume he will score in the PL at some point.

I’ve seen more people saying he was absolutely fine in the game in the Championship. His game vs Wolves the mistake was more VAR than him as well so I don’t get why he’s criticised as the call he gave probably is fine for a split second decision in his poisition.

But at the end of the day who do you think replaces him? There’s no massive pool of brilliant referees and the ones coming up are often worse.