That is the stuff of nightmares, it really is. If that is now all gone, and he feels " free" here, he might just go nuts for us.
I often think back to that moment when we all thought we were 2-0 down at Wembley then think of everything that's happened since and just think thank christ for VAR. It's something 4 months ago I hated but by God it's helped us not only at at a Wembley but on Saturday as well.
Very true mate. It did make me laugh, on MOTD, when the commentator said, about the Brentford disallowed goal, "It was just about offside." No, it was offside They keep using that phrase, 'The keeper just about kept that ball from going for a corner' etc.
I've never had the Boro " hate". They have some arshole fans, as do we all. But , though I don't live there which would make it different, I've spent plenty of time there and never had a minute's bother. Great move for Boro and Browne that.
The conversation about handballs has been annoying me in a similar way. It started out with really minute taps on the arm causing penalties so they changed the rules to make it a bit less ambiguous but now any handball at all seems to be up for discussion. You could catch the ball out of the air and deposit at your feet and you'd still have MOTD calling it 'contentious'. There are still some silly calls but its every single one now that gets disputed as 'where could he put his arm' - Maybe not between ball and goal!
Of course offside is offside and that's probably the only thing VAR is currently good for. I don't particularly like the ones where someone is offside by a big toe but when they go for you obviously there fine. I also can't think of a better way to do it so for me it stays as it is for now. The one thing it's poor for is being in the stadium at the time. It was obvious Wilsons goal was being checked as the ref stood in the penalty box for ages before finally pointing to the centre spot. We had no idea if it was for offside or a foul in the build up etc. I have no ideas for how to improve thay either as showing it on the scoreboards would be difficult to see from the other end. Finally we just need a few more refs to have the balls to stick to there guns when sent to the monitor. The Fulham goal highlighted that as not one other person I've heard or spoken to agreed that was a foul. The only person in my opinion that did was the VAR official but the ref was too **** scared to go against it.
People grow into certain elements of jobs I think. KS was very quickly into his stride with player and staff recruitment, but perhaps his interviews came over a little jargon based. Probably because this was a new thing he was required to do. Now he is clearly comfortable. Articulate, informative and interesting. What a bloody signing by KLD! Unbelievable Jeff!
I hate Boro equally as i do Newcastle for obvious reasons so im disappointed Brownes decided to choose them
It's an age old theme - when we're doing well he's articulate and has toned down the lingo and jargon and is being more straight talking. It is weird how he always reverted to it when we were doing ****. Was the same with Lee Johnson. For clarity, I think they are both consistent in the way they speak and it's just our fans perception that changes based on whether we are viewing them favourably at that particular time.
Lived there as a student and went to a few games. They were mostly okay. There were some knuckle dragging racist arseholes but sadly they exist everywhere and recently seem emboldened to be visible again rather than lurking in the shadows. I actually have a bit of a soft spot for Boro other than when we are playing them.
I wonder what VAR would make of Eric Gates chest controls? Where it nearly always looked like he caught the ball first.
I'm not sure whether or not it's been mentioned (I've probably missed it somewhere) but Brobbey was heavily linked in the press and media with a potential move to Arsenal throughout last summer, reportedly as one of their top targets alongside Isak. If not for his problems over the past 12 months and understandable drop off in form he might well have been out of our reach this summer. Hopefully he's got his head right and he proves to be a top signing for us.
Every transfer is a risk and while I value other fans opinions ultimately it has no baring on how this signing will go. In recent years you could have read a Birmingham forum where they didn't rate Jobe QPR and Stokes fans absolutely hated Jack Clarke Same for several clubs and Patrick Roberts. I even remember Rangers fans saying Amad was terrible. Even recently one of the podcasts had an expert on talking about Roefs saying he wouldn't expect him to be a starter, and look how he's doing. Equally remember reading Hibs fans of Dylan McGeough and thinking we've pulled off a masterstroke getting him in league one.... He starts with a clean slate here and no harm in fans having optimism or what's the point.
That's the understatement of the year tbh, some of the posts on social media were absolutely vile. There was an image cultivated that Speakman was hated in the club and players wanted out of Sunderland because of him. Almost all of it was based on virtually nothing. He was supposed to be simultaneously colluding with KLD, while robbing him at the same time, and being held to ransom by the Bellingham family ... ... not to mention burning out some players and causing injuries to others. Thankfully it all seems to have vanished along with KLD being skint and sponging off his mam
