charlierc

Can see that argument too tbf. It's difficult to speculate on how it would've played out had Roman not brought Chelsea (or indeed not brough another club, given he was also linked with Arsenal and Spurs), but as it is, Manchester United did see that and go "challenge accepted".

Hmmmm... 5 draws in 6 and a couple of injuries from a stuttering one at Bournemouth. I mean, it's still been a good season so far but it's yet to really catch fire in 2023 save for the ol' Carabao Cup Final run. Missed opportunity as well imo given Spurs crashed at the King Power Stadium.

I'd say Roman's arrival at Chelsea was a horizon expander, turning a club that usually got top 6 finishes and had won FA Cup trophies in 1996 and 2000 and turning them into the challenger of Man U and Arsenal's dominance at that point. Or as it turned out, an Arsenal replacer given they had a lull thanks to the financial burden of the Emirates in its first few years.

I mean, they were released as advance singles. I'm less sure of Mirrorball, which is quite a slow song, but Body Paint does have a decent build-up and extended outro that made me think it might go down well. The Car does have a lack of moshpit-friendly rockers though, to the point where I feel like this more an album for grand playing in theatres with an orchestra rather than stadium and festival headlining.

Well, so far so defiant. I was surprised to see Newcastle get a mention as Guardiola was claiming our Ashley-era selves, Leicester, Burnley, Wolves and the rest of the big six signed a letter calling for UEFA to stick the landing and ban Man City when the case was brought in 2019/20. News to me as I don't recall us doing that.

Nature of the beast I guess. I thought they had a good crowd at Mad Cool 2018, but there was certainly a noticeable difference in energy and engagement from the TBHC stuff to the rest of it. If not quite as odd as a friend who saw them at London O2 a few months later and reported some in his section of the crowd booing that stuff. Lowlands was before they started premiering things from The Car. Generally looks like they do 3-5 from that one. I think Body Paint should go down with a festival crowd and maybe also Mirrorball. Whether the rest do, another matter. Certainly I'm not sure anything's going down with aplomb like Do I Wanna Know? or Dancefloor.

Supporting Arctic Monkeys in the UK and Italy, so around in some form, and at present have nothing over Werchter weekend. So might not be impossible.

Fascinating, thanks. I didn't realise ticket sales weren't due to start for a few days yet. Chances that TK/FATM/Foals day sells out on the dot when put on sale? (Although presumably Billie Eilish might sell out first such is the hype train)

That could well be it - as a trio, it sounds like Muse, Oscar & The Wolf and Fred Again is enough to bring in various groups en masse in a way the other 3 may not. Did they go down that badly in 2018? They seem to be a sellout in most places of this upcoming tour, as evident by my inability to get tix for their UK shows, Dublin, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Amsterdam (plus I think they sold Madrid out but haven't checked).

Hmmmm... Killers, Florence and Foals on the same day one after the other you say? ... the likelihood is Killers and Florence as one-after-the-other right? I'd have thought the crossover between the two meant it was unlikely they'd try and put them on at the same time as each other.

Impressive. Best I've managed in the past is £30 off a big expensive stadium ticket. If I'd held out with My Chemical Romance in Milton Keynes last year, I might have got a ticket sub-£30. Think my Twickets one was about £50-odd in the end.

Unless they've found some kind of loophole, I feel like UEFA might interject about the relationship between PSG and Man United if they wind up being owned by the same mutual entity. Saying that, they let RB Leipzig and RB Salzburg both compete in the Europa League against one another, so maybe their rules on this are less strict that previously thought.

This new format just basically looks like the clubs trying to kick UEFA out of the Champions League and Europa League combined, and it's hard to make the case that this will happen. Even moreso given a preliminary ruling by a justice working at the European Court of Justice had legal advice in favour of UEFA's position.

Well it's quite the interesting story: New commuter trains for northern Spain too big for tunnels | The Corner Plus it reads like a harder thing to resolve than when the French rail operator ordered trains in 2014 that didn't fit into many regional stations due to being too wide and had to go on a diet (or be modified at great expense) to fit. Tbf if that happened here we'd probably end up getting a whopping fare increase to cover the costs of incorrect train design.

Says a lot about how much this has escalated in recent years that this is cheap, but we are where we are. Saying that, the Hella Mega show w/ Green Day & Weezer that FOB did was about that price for standing at London Stadium. But then announced in 2019, so inflation is probably kicking in for the new announcements.

Championship finances in general are messy tbf - QPR and Bournemouth also got done for FFP antics around the same time as Leicester's, Derby's financial shenanigans were a club that really pushed the limit until it could break no more, and there seem to be rumours all the time of clubs being on the limit of financial capabilities. It's kind of a surprise it hasn't all gone too far at that level in all honesty.

One rumour suggests this... Almost like the stuff of a crazy Football Manager experiment. At the very least, such a move would certainly even more aggressive than Juventus' dip into Serie B in 2006 in the wake of Calciopoli.

I mean, given that Trump was quoted on the record this year as saying he still trusted Putin over certain elements of the US intelligence services, it's not hard to imagine that if this happened while Trump was still President, the US may well have been less assertive. Indeed, if a Republican wins the Presidency in 2024 and this war is still going on, the same scenario might yet be in play, given how much certain GOP-friendly media personalities seem happy to parrot Kremlin talking points.

Since the takeover? Not that I'm aware of - when the thing was signed off, it was mentioned Mike Ashley's frugal nature meant we had a lot of FFP wriggle room for signing players, but that the signings made in the first 2 windows with Saudi cash meant that we didn't have as much in Jan. I know that we may be limited in what we can do with commercial deals with companies tied in with our owners thanks to a 2021 rule change, as noted here: Premier League lifts temporary ban on owner-related sponsorship deals | Football News | Sky Sports. Not to say that there aren't any links - main one being the presence of a Saudi-based retailer called Noon as our sleeve sponsor - but I think the controls brought in because Man City's owners were running up substantial losses (£200m or so in 2010/11 at its most extreme) may stop us from going truly wild. Or at least a smidge more wild than the already overheated PL transfer market. It's certainly more modest than, say, the PiF's attempts to create its own golf super league, or rumours they had a $20bn bid to buy F1 from its current American owners rejected.

Honestly, if you've already got tickets for the Iggy Pop and Blondie date at Crystal Palace and wanted to see Pulp, I'd recommend going elsewhere to London due to the simultaneous dates. Dog Day Afternoon to me just sounds like a brand name rather than it being a sign that they'll be done by half five.

Presumably given Jamie T's supports have been announced, there's schedule space for one (maybe even two) extra acts and any such additional acts for Pulp might well be announced as coming along soon enough. How many, I'm less sure of. It does seem like it's not quite at the level of being a full-on 10 hour fest in the mould of when QOTSA did Finsbury in 2018. Much as I'm mainly just hoping for extra tickets or failing that striking lucky on Twickets.

On a sort-of riff of that, the Premier League power is such that rumours abound that in the January window, Bournemouth were offering more in wages to Roma attacker Nicolo Zaniolo than AC Milan, the literal Italian champions and a side still in the Champions League. Which, I doubt in 2007 when Milan won what remains the most recent of their Champions League titles, I would have expected to be writing that. There is a very valid argument that the Premier League is now a European Super League - hell, I know a lot of people have concerns Newcastle and the new deep pockets we have will try to blow everyone out the water, but if anything, Chelsea have gone crazy on that front, while we also got out-spent by West Ham and spent about the same as Nottingham Forest. So, pfft, I dunno - you then start to stray away into the broader argument on whether the Premier League as a whole is bad for football rather than just the outrageous spending of some clubs, or indeed this new case.

I mean we're re-litigating the past with this Man City case stretching back to 2009 but the call to re-litigate Wrexham's ascension to the English leagues in 1921 (to say nothing of Cardiff, Swansea and Newport also being in the English leagues) is another matter.

Worse with him in charge is an odd predisposition imo - in the last season before Bielsa took the Leeds job, they finished in the Championship's bottom half, but MB got them 3rd, 1st, and then on the first try, a top half spot in the Premier League. I think he'd run out of road at the point when Bielsa sacked him, but that Leeds team under him last season would likely have won any hypothetical game against their 2017/18 side.

As I said in my first reply, I was planning to see them support Frank Turner in Northampton, and that gig was last night. Wasn't sure what to expect but they did look like they were having a lot of fun, did make me laugh a few times and had some decent tunes. So, good booking. Frank was good too. Did note his rhythm section seemed beefed up - new drummer seems to hit the things harder and bass was higher in the mix than previous times, given I've seen him quite a few times. Still got the tunes though.