Random footie

[Durhamfootman]

turns out that Wednesday's game was 14 years to the day since Cheick Tiote scored that wonderful volley in the remarkable Toon comeback against Arsenal from 4-0 down at HT to a 4-4 final result. To commemorate it, his son was there as a match mascot, which was a nice touch, I think.

blimey, it's nearly 8 years since he died. Heart attack whilst training, aged just 30.... FFS

[Durhamfootman]

always worth watching again, gawd bless him

[andy]

Xabi Alonso has announced he is stepping down as Leverkusen manager...surely going to real Madrid

[sussexpob]

Xabi Alonso has announced he is stepping down as Leverkusen manager...surely going to real Madrid

Done a brilliant job at Leverkusen, and even allowed my little Union Saint Gilloise to take a draw against the odds when we went there in the Europa League.

Thanks for the great day out, Xabi!!

[andy]

Erik Ten Hag announced as new Leverkusen manager

[Durhamfootman]

presumably they weren't paying attention

[andy]

Man city dumped out of the pointless club world cup by al hilal

[Durhamfootman]

umpteen millions of pounds richer for PSR, though

[sussexpob]

Its amazing how when Liverpool buy or sell players, the AP and Reuters with news sources that dwarf other news agencies will report a fee from sources inside the deal, and then depending on who is doing the buying or sell, James Peace from the Athletic will then release a statement on Twitter with his own insider source saying the deal just so happens to be much more favourable to Liverpool, with this source then being used by everyone in the UK who don't do their own research as gospel.

Who would trust a neutral press-wire with world leading coverage and sheer amount of reach (and who are independently non-profit may I add) over a guy who has LFC on his twitter handle, who once had his former employers at the Liverpool Echo write apologies in their paper about how his match reports were so biased to Liverpool they became their own genre of sporting-fantasy, and who is know to regurgitate whatever propaganda line the club feeds him.

[Durhamfootman]

As far as I can tell from an absolute barrage of clickbait Liverpool stories, Isak has effectively had his Liverpool medical in all but name, bought a house in the Wirral and is only waiting for a new pen with some ink in it to sign for them

The rubbish that gets spouted at this time of the year in particular is mind boggling

not Liverpool this time, but a case in point...... the other day there was a clickbait headline of 'Isak set to turn down newcastle contract offer with number 9 departure imminent'

There are two separate stories at play here. Callum Wilson (no.9) was out of contract on 30th June and there has been no news about a contract extension despite Howe saying negotiations were taking place back in May. Isak was asked several months ago about the no.9 shirt should Wilson leave and he said that he wanted to keep the no.14 shirt, because it was the number of his hero Johan Cruyff. So in the absence of any actual Isak contract extension news, this is just a fabricated article designed solely to solicit clicks.... presumably to sell advertising or something on the premise that people actually read this stuff, rather than click, groan and move on to something else, when they realise that it's just sh1te

I find it best to keep my head down whilst non story after non story are circulated everywhere. I have a quick check to see if Newcastle have actually signed anyone, discover that they haven't and look again the next day, without reading any of the knackers

[Durhamfootman]

one day they will actually sign somebody..... won't they?

although Newcastle signings are a bit like net zero deadlines.......... they just keep getting pushed back by a few years, every year

[andy]

Horrendous news that Diego Jota and his cousin Andre Silva have passed away in a car crash!

RIP

[sussexpob]

I wonder if Harvey Elliott cut the brakes....

What, too soon?

[andy]

Wow....

[andy]

Anyone see the Bayern Leverkusen score last night? Ten hag first game in charge they lost 5-0 to flamengo under 20's