The Premier League - 2021-2022

That 'bread and circuses' description of how to control the masses really is still a thing, isn't it?

 

Newcastle could dominate the Premier League once the big six clear off to join the European superLeague. Cant see them wanting to see the Tooniban muscling in on the action.

 

Loads of us go to the games so we're a massive club and deserve something in return. We don't care what you've done, we're just glad you're going to give us our club back by spending loads of money on players who previously wouldn't have given Newcastle a second glance.

Howay the lads.

 

Egypt is far more liberal than Saudi. The only similarity is that they are Muslim countries, though Egypt also has a sizable Coptic Christian minority.

 

Okay so only strict Muslim countries are fair game. Is there a list of countries we can “banter” about?

 

I didn't say that. I don't like totalitarian regimes. I don't give a stuff about what religion (or not) that they follow. I don't think that the systematic suppression of people in a country is acceptable.
I still feel uncomfortable about GT and SEJ's apparent support of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

 

What?! How have I never heard of this?! Was it outright support, or just merely turning a blind eye to everything that was going on there at the time?

 

It was visiting South Africa for work purposes in spite of the international boycott of South Africa . To be fair to GT he was coaching in black communities but this was still in contravention of world sporting bodies regulations on links with South Africa. I think that he got away with it because he went as a private citizen. SEJ just went o make money with a concert at Sun City in one of the Bantustans set up by the South African government.
They were both probably just politically na*ve.

 

That letter honestly sounds like a parody, I actually thought you'd made that up to take the p*ss before I googled a bit from it to confirm it was real.

 

To the tune of "Liverpool, Liverpool":
"Murderers, murderers"

 

For the sake of debate I'm not sure you can really detach religion from the regime in countries like Saudi Arabia. Not going to lie, I cringed when I read your first post. Seemed like pretty lazy Islamophobic stereotypes to me. I think there are better ways to criticise what goes in regimes like that than that sort of thing.

[/high horse]

 

It's unlikely now I guess but I don't think I've ever wanted a club to be relegated as much I do Newcastle now.

I just hope it demoralises the current manager and players who must know their future at the club is under threat.

And the signings in January, that they will undoubtedly make, fail miserably.

One can dream.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Investment_Fund_of_Saudi_Arabia They dont disclose all investments, basically though they rule the world I would imagine. Never forget all 19 9/11 hijackers were Saudi, Khashoggi and the famine in Yemen caused by military blockades since 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_bin_Salman_Al_Saud Mike Ashley bad this guy good apparently..........

 

But, but… but don’t you use Twitter and Uber?

 

Sorry about that. In retrospect I can see how that may seem. I hate that sort of cliched thinking. Having read the Quran I know that there is some wonderfully enlightened thinking in it. There are also things I don't like in in. To my mind the regime in Saudi emphasizes the bits in the Quran I don't like to the detriment of the bits that I do like. Fundamentalist Christians do the same as do fundamentalists in most religions. The Quran argues that women should be respected but they should dress modestly, as should men. It is only later interpretations of the Prophet's words that have resulted in covering women up and keeping them out of sight. Saudi and the Taliban are the worst culprits for that.
The important bit is that many Saudis do not like their government. I have taught both Saudi men and women and they have told me that they find ways around the restrictions, particularly the women. My problem with the new Newcastle owners is that they are prominent in the government and therefore responsible for the repression in Saudi. What I described is what they think is acceptable. The vast majority of Muslims do not thing that that is acceptable.

I accept that I did it in a clumsy way and I apologise for that.

 

Yes.
Saudi Arabia.
Scotland.
End.

 

North Korea and USA surely?

 

They've actually managed to get past the last 16 of a major tournament so nah

 

Sounds like GT's heart was in the right place at least even if he probably shouldn't have even gone there in the first place, although it was a **** move from Elton

 

I think we could add the symbiosis of this extreme interpretation of his words with pre-existing social norms in certain areas where Islam took hold in an era when women were generally treated as significantly less than equal pretty well everywhere. The requirement for women to be extensively covered up in public pre-dates the arrival of Islam in many regions.

 

The levels of sophistry amongst some of the Geordies has been a joy to behold but they're quite upset by these two pieces (especially as they both came from 'one of their own'):

https://twitter.com/shaunjlawson/status/1446457605350625302

https://www.football365.com/news/mailbox-newcastle-takeover-saudi-pif-man-city

 

Tell a lie. I saw another whopper with a Newcastle fan responding to human rights and treatment of women criticisms.

“Maybe owning the club and seeing the amazing fans can have a positive effect on the country and culture and help improve quality of life for some people that struggle there.”

To be fair, I guarantee someone on here would have come out with that one had it been us.

 

I don't think this is going to be anywhere near as good as the Geordies think it is. When I saw the wild eyed Amanda talking to the press last night it rang alarm bells, and I don't even support them. I get the feeling they might look back at the Mike Ashley era one day and wish he were back.

 

I’d like to think you’re right, but unfortunately I’m not so sure. The PIF is worth 20x what Sheikh Mansour is worth. I guess it all depends what they’ve bought Newcastle for, if it’s as a business then maybe, just maybe, it won’t be as good as they think it will. If it’s for sports washing purposes, and to engage in a **** waving contest with the UAE etc. Then they’ll blow everyone out of the water in time.

 

I hope supporters of all other Premier League clubs take signs and banners of Jamal Khashoggi to every away Newcastle match.

 

They've not bought Newcastle as an investment I'm pretty sure, they'll spend spend spend as much as FFP will allow. That might put the breaks on them a little bit, I don't think they'll necessarily find it easy to match what City have done, but just like City, I'm fairly sure if they really wanted to, they could find their way around FFP

 

City got round FFP easy enough with fake sponsorship deals (how hard would it be to get sponsorship from some of PIF’s other investments?)It might take a decade, but Newcastle will be up there eventually.

 

Up there of course, but City aren't going away any time soon, and the comparative paupers who run Chelsea, United and Liverpool, are still capable of getting their teams to challenge if they play their cards right

 

Now we're well into the Season and we have a boring International Break, this is what I'm think so far:

Strange start so far, even by Watford's usual standards.

• Sacking Xisco was the right call. As a person, it hurt as much as sacking Gracia, but unlike Gracia's sacking this time it was absolutely the right call and brining in Ranieri is a huge step forward in the right direction.

• Bachmann has yet to get a true hold of his 6 yard box, but otherwise hasn't done a lot wrong and think it was harsh to drop him for Foster who is much better at that, but is far more erratic and is making costly errors too. Of the two I'd keep with Bachmann in goal and let him continue gaining meaningful experience and if nothing else we stand to gain value with him in goal than Foster who's head is clearly not fully with it. Elliot is what he is; a competent 3rd choice. Really, we need a new GK I think. Dahlberg is not ready yet for at least another Season but I'd like him to be given his shot eventually. His kicking is getting slightly better, but his handling is not great. Not awful, but does have a flap in him and could be punished at a higher level. Has an air of Meslier where most young GK's seem to have that issue until they grow into their role more. Good positioning, rarely seems poorly positioned when making saves and doesn't mind sweeping when needed.

• Centre back has been quite odd. WTE's out-and-out defending has been good overall, but his passing under pressure is awful. Sierralta has not started the Season well, compounded by injury, but thankfully isn't as serious as initially feared. Cathcart is not a PL standard centre back, but is of a good Championship standard still and fine as a 4th / 5th choice. Kabasele is out with a hamstring injury for a longer period of time which was unexpected. Very happy with the N'koulou signing, exactly what we need and should be pushing to start already. Really he should have been signed before the start of the Season.

• Our full backs are of decent quality and depth, with Rose being one of our standout players so far, since he's got some match fitness. Masina is a noticeable step below in quality, but a serviceable 2nd choice. Femenia is being pushed by Ngakia and both are decent options who both deserve a starting spot should the other dip even slightly in form.

• Midfield is hard to judge, but needs works. Kucka has yet to match his fantastic debut v Aston Villa while Sissoko does a similar job, but better at breaking up and carrying the ball forward. Etebo was a huge loss for us as he was our only natural CDM than a B2B type player and was in good form too. Louza has been strangely absent and looks off the pace, but you can see the technique is there. Think he'll feature a lot more under Ranieri who will get him going properly. Tufan v Stoke looked an excellent passer and everyone was awful v Leeds so not going to judge him on that game alone. Cleverley is only useful in a central, high pressing role where he only needs to focus on harrying the opposition into mistakes. Gosling frankly looks awful, and I'm surprised has not been loaned out. I think we'll see Tufan, Louza and Sissoko as our midfielders under Ranieri with Cleverley and Kucka being rotation options.

• Our attack actually looks pretty good on paper, though King is the only player we've seen this Season who can link up play well and use his movement to good effect. Pedro can do this too, but yet to see it this Season as he's been injured up until now. Fletcher I think deserves to be on the bench as a good alternative option if we go more direct as I've seen enough in the cup games to see there is a decent player in there. Sarr has really frustrated me this Season. He doesn't press as hard as the others and drifts in and out of games too often and sulks when it doesn't go his way. When he's on it though he's unstoppable but unlike Deulofeu he hasn't improved his work rate off the ball. Dennis has been our biggest surprise with some really strong pressing and some well taken goals, huge fan of him. Sema is steady if not too inspiring, but the type of player every team needs who will work his socks off, doesn't complain and is a solid character. Cucho has been desperately unlucky not to feature more this Season. Can't judge Baah, but he did do well for Germany U21's recently so there's that.

Overall, I feel as though we're taking the rights steps to try and keep ourselves up without over extending ourselves either. It's clear we didn't have a big budget to work with before the start of the Season, and remodelling the squad / removing the deadwood has been a boon for us, allowing us to put in a number of viable attacking options where before we only Sarr and Pedro.

 

Norwich he wasn't overly tested and did what he needed to well enough in fairness to him. The goal was more on Cathcart's suicidal backpass than Foster's indecision to then either come challenge or stay further back, doing neither and then going down early for Pukki's goal. Was poor technique.

Newcastle he was very nearly poached by ASM in the same vein last Season as he was at Huddersfield but the ball luckily bounced off him and that time back to his foot. Although it wasn't a bad shot, a PL standard keeper should be saving the shot he conceded. But as you say, he produced some excellent high pressure saves to keep us in that game too.

Leeds, his indecision led to Sierralta over extending himself and getting injured and then being out of position multiple times which wasn't capitalised such as the shot that was cleared off the line and the follow up off the bar. He was also poor at commanding his box like Bachmann is that game while his poor distribution was once again exposed.

It's not that I rate Bachmann as a much better keeper than Foster, but he's a much more stable option who has more of an upside to playing than Foster does. He's not too rash, can pass the ball decently and save the shots you expect. Financially, Bachmann is worth more playing than not, too. We need to upgrade GK I think now but of the two, Bachmann is for me the better immediate option.

 

I know you’re not the first to say it but I’m really not sure I buy this one. Foster isn’t responsible for the physical conditioning of his team mates. Sierralta wasn’t exactly forced into some ridiculous acrobatic feat. He just had tor sprint for a bit in a straight line.

 

'He just had to sprint for a bit in a straight line.'

(Edited slightly for you)

This line is my personal favourite quote/part of any quote thus far in 2021.

Gawd Bless Ya UEA!!! It's made my week!!!

 

I love Watford, but my interest in football is rapidly deteriorating. Too many oil merchants from overseas throwing ridiculous money about and paying players an absurd amount, whilst traditional old English clubs go out of business. The same teams will always win everything except for Leicester City, but that was a complete one-off, and we will be lucky to see anything like that again in our lifetime. I think my biggest disappointment is that the community and localness of the game have seemingly disappeared with the introduction of Sky Sports to English football. There are too many armchair fans supporting the big clubs.