I’d argue the 35m they’ve spent on players is the difference. Pretty sure we’d have won the league if we had spent so much down there.
Arsene Wenger has proposed a change to the offside rule that would mean attackers are onside if any part of their body is in line with the last outfield defender. Wenger, head of global development at world governing body Fifa, says it would restore an advantage to the attacker that many feel was eroded by the introduction of the video assistant referee (VAR). Players are currently ruled offside if any part of the body, apart from hands and arms, is beyond the last defender. Former Arsenal manager Wenger compared the suggested change to a similar move taken after the 1990 World Cup. At Italia 90 and prior to that tournament, a player was considered offside if he was level with the last defender before the goalkeeper, which resulted in the lowest average goals per game in World Cup history. "It was in 1990 after the World Cup in Italy when there were no goals scored," Wenger told Bein Sports, recalling the rule change. "We decided that there is no offside any more when you are on the same line of the defender. "In case of doubt, the doubt benefits the striker. That means when there's a fraction - the striker did get the advantage. "With VAR this advantage disappeared and for many people it's frustrating." Trials of the system have already taken place in Italian youth football, and Wenger says further trials will happen before a final decision, which could come in 2026. Any change to the offside rule rests with the sport's law-makers, the International Football Association Board (Ifab). Ifab agreed to further trials, conducted by Fifa, at its annual general meeting in March. It says the aim of the trials is to see whether they "foster attacking football and encouraging goalscoring opportunities while maintaining the game's attractiveness". Any potential rule change would only come after consultation with football stakeholders and advice from Ifab's football and technical advisory panels. Those panels include experienced members from the football world such as former players and referees.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/63...derland-interview/?source=user_shared_article “My intention was to stay in Sochaux,” Mayenda says. “I’d played one season and I wanted to play a second season there. It was complicated. The club president told me: ‘Eli, we don’t have a choice, you have to go if we receive a good offer’. Sochaux were waiting for some clubs like Lyon, Marseille, Paris Saint-Germain, then I remember the Sunderland president Kyril, he called. “When I saw the name Sunderland, I said to my dad that I didn’t want to go to the French First Division, I want to go to Sunderland.” Why? “It was just my feeling, I can’t tell you why exactly, it was just a natural connection. Sunderland was special. I knew it was historic in England, it had been in the Premier League and everyone has seen the documentary on Netflix. When Kyril called Sochaux, my dad agreed with me.”
If any proof were needed that football fans don’t understand the game, here it is. This bloke reckoned we would finish in 23rd spot in the league all because he had never heard of RLB. He also thought Luton would be champions and Millwall runners up.
As anybody else seen that Stoke have released Lynden Gooch, Hopefully some team in our neck of the woods picks him up for next season.
Just bought a pair of kevlar jeans off vinted and have picked them up today, a very nice message on the back of it from the sender lol
Not wanting to push the Coventry thread up again so posting here. I hadn’t seen this particular, cracking video
