Come on West Ham pull off a shock result tonight!

United are going to win the EL and get into the CL that way.
 
Jose knows he needs to get top four or his plans are down in flames.

If he wins the EL he won't need top 4 to qualify, so how does that make sense?

Who cares if they do let's concentrate on ourselves and not be bitter towards other clubs that aren't even effecting our season.

Yeah sorry let's not talk about our rivals in the rivals thread.
Stupid mistake.

Terrible commentary in that EL match. It was so boring. BT sports is such a snoozefest.

@Bobbywoodhogan @Scott Harris I see that both of you are vehemently against any change in football. You do realise that the rules in football have evolved significantly over the years, don't you? I don't like the concept of sin bins, etc. myself but to imagine that rules which were created in a technologically impoverished era are as good as they can be is quite irrational. 

http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/the-laws/

The stakes in football are higher than ever before. There was a time (as the article states) that rising stakes inspired the concept of a referee. We are at a time now when we can greatly improve the refereeing process with technology that wasn't available during the formulation of the game. 

I have some questions for you...

Are you against goal line technology?

Are you against not handling back passes?

Are you against the current offside rule? Do you believe that any of the previous formulations of the offside rule were better for the game?

Do you feel aggrieved when matches are settled not by footballing quality, but by referees? If you (and others) do, do you think the best way forward is to remain entrenched in regulations from another era and refuse to acknowledge the potential for improvements?

What about changes in the ball itself, changes in how the football pitch is maintained, changes in training regimes and diets? 

No offence intended, but I feel that this categorical denial of the concept is rooted not in rational thought, but in whimsical romance.

As I said, no offence intended so please do not take any.

48 minutes ago, ashwin said:

@Bobbywoodhogan @Scott Harris I see that both of you are vehemently against any change in football. You do realise that the rules in football have evolved significantly over the years, don't you? I don't like the concept of sin bins, etc. myself but to imagine that rules which were created in a technologically impoverished era are as good as they can be is quite irrational. 

http://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/the-laws/

The stakes in football are higher than ever before. There was a time (as the article states) that rising stakes inspired the concept of a referee. We are at a time now when we can greatly improve the refereeing process with technology that wasn't available during the formulation of the game. 

I have some questions for you...

Are you against goal line technology?

Are you against not handling back passes?

Are you against the current offside rule? Do you believe that any of the previous formulations of the offside rule were better for the game?

Do you feel aggrieved when matches are settled not by footballing quality, but by referees? If you (and others) do, do you think the best way forward is to remain entrenched in regulations from another era and refuse to acknowledge the potential for improvements?

What about changes in the ball itself, changes in how the football pitch is maintained, changes in training regimes and diets? 

No offence intended, but I feel that this categorical denial of the concept is rooted not in rational thought, but in whimsical romance.

As I said, no offence intended so please do not take any.

Screw you! I kid 

Im not against any change in football, I was all for goal line technology and that's been a great addition to the game.

What I am against though is things like:

- Sin bins, it's something used in Rugby and Ice Hockey to great effect but we have the yellow and red cards for punishment. I personally feel that refereees are the ones who make a rod for there own back with this one. They start dishing out reds for certain things and people will stop doing it. 

- Widening the goal posts, sure that's not been mentioned for a while but they only want to widen them to have more goals. I feel widening them will make goals less legit in some respects as shots that previously weren't goals now would be.

- Viseo referees, I've seen it done in other sports. Most notably Rugby league and it makes the whole thing into a side show imo. Although it is more suited to that as there are more stops in play etc. Football isn't a stop start game in the same way. I see it slowing the game down. Also I am a fan of a bit of controversy. It's part of the game, it adds to the excitement. I feel video refereeing decision after decision is gonna make the game robotic and take away that excitement.

- the ABBA penalty system is ridiculous, penalties has never been a problem. Infact I remember Platini not having an issue with it until we beat Bayern on them in 2012. 

- Winter World Cup, just why? Isn't it unfair that it's going to interfere with the leagues? So the league take a break and teams forms change. Why not look at the way International friendlies already disrupt the season? They could effectively end the season a few weeks early and all internationals could be played in the final weeks of May either readying players for holidays or their upcoming international tournaments.

- you mention changing the ball and I constantly have issues where they keep trying to make the ball lighter. End of the day it's not like the ball is the same as back in the day when they were basically kicking and heading medicine balls.

Again as I said above I'm not against changes to the game. I'm merely against certain changes like the ones I listed which I feel are either pointless or determental to what the game is. 

Edited May 5, 20179 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

49 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

They start dishing out reds for certain things and people will stop doing it.

For me that's why we need video refs, refs can't dish out reds if they can't prove a player made a genuine attempt to deceive. With video evidence a ref can dish out reds knowing he has conclusive evidence to justify the decision. Further if for example Rashford knows a decision will go to the video ref he may think twice about trying to deceive the ref in the first place. Even with video refs I still think there'll be contentious decisions, but if video refs at very least reduce the possibility for error it's worth trialling in the Premier League imho

Edited May 5, 20179 yr by the special one

I'm surprised there is so much opposition to the idea of sin bins here. Yellow cards alone are pretty toothless on their own and nothing ruins a game like a red card (which ideally would only be issued for the most serious of offences, unfortunately this is far from the case), so a sin bin could be a useful intermediate between the two. There are also plenty of situations in football where players will deliberately commit yellow card offences in order to gain their side an advantage or to stop an opponent's attack; if this would meant their side would also be a man down for a period of time then maybe those players would think twice. I can't really think of a good argument against sin bins other than "CHANGE IS BAD!".

Edited May 5, 20179 yr by bluedave

42 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

Screw you! I kid 

Im not against any change in football, I was all for goal line technology and that's been a great addition to the game.

What I am against though is things like:

- Sin bins, it's something used in Rugby and Ice Hockey to great effect but we have the yellow and red cards for punishment. I personally feel that refereees are the ones who make a rod for there own back with this one. They start dishing out reds for certain things and people will stop doing it. 

- Widening the goal posts, sure that's not been mentioned for a while but they only want to widen them to have more goals. I feel widening them will make goals less legit in some respects as shots that previously weren't goals now would be.

- Viseo referees, I've seen it done in other sports. Most notably Rugby league and it makes the whole thing into a side show imo. Although it is more suited to that as there are more stops in play etc. Football isn't a stop start game in the same way. I see it slowing the game down. Also I am a fan of a bit of controversy. It's part of the game, it adds to the excitement. I feel video refereeing decision after decision is gonna make the game robotic and take away that excitement.

- the ABBA penalty system is ridiculous, penalties has never been a problem. Infact I remember Platini not having an issue with it until we beat Bayern on them in 2012. 

- Winter World Cup, just why? Isn't it unfair that it's going to interfere with the leagues? So the league take a break and teams forms change. Why not look at the way International friendlies already disrupt the season? They could effectively end the season a few weeks early and all internationals could be played in the final weeks of May either readying players for holidays or their upcoming international tournaments.

- you mention changing the ball and I constantly have issues where they keep trying to make the ball lighter. End of the day it's not like the ball is the same as back in the day when they were basically kicking and heading medicine balls.

Again as I said above I'm not against changes to the game. I'm merely against certain changes like the ones I listed which I feel are either pointless or determental to what the game is. 

Fair enough

I think there are many ways in which video referees can adjudicate without stoppages, especially with offsides and the like. But we can only understand how best to integrate video refereeing with several trials. I have no doubt that controversy will remain though but will be reduced to more manageable levels.

The ABBA penalty system also has some plus points. Luck already plays a huge role in football and that is exciting. Luck plays too much of a role in a penalty shootout at the moment and this can reduce the burden on the team that's chasing. As an aside, I hate how the toss plays such an important role in the outcome of cricket matches. I wouldn't be against some penalty to the team that wins the toss in cricket.

@bluedave True I guess. It is certainly worth thinking about.

Concerning the racial abuse Robbie received, I'm seeing a lot of "just a bunch of minority idiots"

 

Whereas the incident in Paris marked all Chelsea fans racists.

 

Funny that.

 

2 hours ago, the special one said:

For me that's why we need video refs, refs can't dish out reds if they can't prove a player made a genuine attempt to deceive. With video evidence a ref can dish out reds knowing he has conclusive evidence to justify the decision. Further if for example Rashford knows a decision will go to the video ref he may think twice about trying to deceive the ref in the first place. Even with video refs I still think there'll be contentious decisions, but if video refs at very least reduce the possibility for error it's worth trialling in the Premier League imho

I'm talking about things like dissent or when a player mouths off. Do that and it will soon stop. Captains should be the only ones who can talk to referees about decisions.

Pochettino moaning about his players been linked elsewhere. Deal with it! I honestly think when it comes down to it this guy can't handle the pressure.

Edited May 5, 20179 yr by Bobbywoodhogan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39820993

Manchester City have been banned from signing academy players for two years and fined £300,000 after breaching Premier League transfer rules.

Part of the ban - from 30 June 2018 - will only come into effect if the club reoffends in the next three years.

City were found to have approached the family of two young players who were registered with other clubs.

The ban applies to any player who has been registered with a Premier League or EFL club in the previous 18 months.

It follows a similar sanction for Liverpool, who in April were punished over a separate illegal approach.

Liverpool's punishment related to their approach to a 12-year-old academy player at Stoke City in September last year.

An investigation by the Premier League found the Reds spoke to the youngster and his family before they should have, and also paid for him and some of his family to attend a game at Anfield.

Liverpool also offered to pay the player's school fees, which were being paid by Stoke at the time, and this was a breach of newly introduced regulations which state a benefit can only be offered if it is applicable to all youngsters across the club's academy, which was not the case.

It was reported in April that the Premier League was examining three signings by City's academy, including an 11-year-old Everton midfielder and a 15-year-old from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Premier League rules ban inducements from clubs to encourage a move.

It seems to me City have been guilty of some pretty serious stuff (breach of Fair Play guidelines, some missed drugs tests, now this), but their negative media image is a fraction of what ours is. It's not that they are getting away with stuff - they keep getting caught, after all - it's just that we are always painted as a nasty, dodgy club in a way that they are not.

Whatever the result tonight, we will still be top of the league. That is nice at least when Spurs have a real gimmie in a couple of hours.

 

I know we'll still be top regardless of tonight's result but come on West Ham just bloody try & don't roll over like a lot have been doing. 

Still fuming we've got to have this gap reduced for the whole weekend. 

6 minutes ago, Zero said:

Whatever the result tonight, we will still be top of the league. That is nice at least when Spurs have a real gimmie in a couple of hours.

 

I think many of us will be Pikeys for the night. Even a draw would be good. I'm forever blowing bubbles.

 

Great video to this Hammers supporting group.

 

6 hours ago, bluedave said:

I'm surprised there is so much opposition to the idea of sin bins here. Yellow cards alone are pretty toothless on their own and nothing ruins a game like a red card (which ideally would only be issued for the most serious of offences, unfortunately this is far from the case), so a sin bin could be a useful intermediate between the two. There are also plenty of situations in football where players will deliberately commit yellow card offences in order to gain their side an advantage or to stop an opponent's attack; if this would meant their side would also be a man down for a period of time then maybe those players would think twice. I can't really think of a good argument against sin bins other than "CHANGE IS BAD!".

That's actually a very good point. How many times have we said that a player will miss the next match because of a challenge without the sinned about team gaining any kind of advantage. It would be interesting to see how it worked. 

 

Like any changes there are good and bad. Many we now take totally for granted as having always been there. Who would have thought football would take close on 100 yrs to introduce substitutions? The back pass rule is now taken totally for granted though at the time it seemed strange, in 20 yrs goal-line technology will be viewed as having always been there. Video technology will be interesting to see how it would work, will it slow down play to much/ Until its tried we honestly don't know and just surmise. Personally the one rule that has been changed to the detriment of the game is the offside law, it was so much more straight forward when a player in an offside position was offside. As Brian Clough used to say if a player isn't interfering with play, what is he doing on the pitch? 

Spurs can't afford to drop a single point in this run in. If West Ham get anything tonight (which I have to admit I'm doubtful about) the title race is over.

who else will be singing this song today?

I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high, nearly reach the sky
Then like my dreams they fade and die

Fortune's always hiding
I've looked everywhere
I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air

I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air
They fly so high, nearly reach the sky
Then in my dreams they fade and die

Fortune's always hiding
I've looked everywhere
I'm forever blowing bubbles
Pretty bubbles in the air

Just looking at the teams it's night and day. I just can't see West Ham getting anything.

3 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

Just looking at the teams it's night and day. I just can't see West Ham getting anything.

Nor me :-).  That said, I don't want to tempt fate.  We are chasing well (better than last season) but are wholly reliant on you dropping points, which seems unlikely.

Just now, Spudulike said:

Nor me :-).  That said, I don't want to tempt fate.  We are chasing well (better than last season) but are wholly reliant on you dropping points, which seems unlikely.

Welcome back Spud