Man Utd’s loss to ‘Kavanagh FC’, Arsenal needing to snub Viktor Gyokeres, a call for a ‘wild’ rule change and more is covered in a bumper Mailbox…
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Man Utd lose to ‘Kavanagh FC’
In the money laundering cycle, I believe Chris Kavanagh tonight was what you’d call the washing part of the cycle. United 14 “fouls” and 6 yellows. Chelsea only 10 fouls (should have been plenty more) and 1 yellow for time wasting. Nothing for simulation, he did give Amad one despite a contact (never a penalty I’ll agree). But it’s not like the home fans are intimidating they only know how to sing their own name. He was given his orders. There were some positives for United to take in the first half but didn’t deserve to lose to Kavanagh FC.
Anthony
READ: Chelsea, Aston Villa made to sweat in Champions League race as Blues star proves Maresca wrong
Well done Chris Kavanagh. You got Chelsea there in the end. Even brought a friend on to the field dressed in full Chelsea kit (JT?) to disturb things.
State of officiating in this league. Embarrassing.
Garey Vance, MUFC
United/Chelsea combined XI…
I always enjoy the combined XI’s, so thought I would have a stab at United vs. Chelsea, as I don’t agree with the WhoScored selected team (as the article mentions, some of the ratings don’t pass the eye test). I’m also going to a 4 2 3 1 formation because it works for me on Football Manager and therefore is right.
GK: I’m going to give Onana the nod, mainly due to bias, but if I was being a prick and not admitting to my bias, I’d probably make some vague claims about his form for Ajax and Inter and a loose point about United’s defence being an absolute shower of clowns
RB: Mazraoui gets in because he has been an excellent addition, the sort of which we don’t make nearly enough of these days. A fully fit and in form James would obviously start, but as with Shaw at LB, this simply hasn’t been the case often enough
CB: I haven’t watched much of Chalobeh so will just assume that F365 are right in saying he has been strong since coming in to the side
CB: If I could stick VAR here I would as it seems to be the best hope of not conceding (certainly for United), but since we haven’t fully moved to AI yet, I’ll stick with Tosin
LC: Would love to say Shaw but Cucarella has clearly been better this season, so he starts
DM: I’m honestly quite pleased for Caicedo, purchased for crazy money and hounded for that, but has been strong for most of this season
CM: Bruno, can do everything. Also very likely the captain
AM: Palmer has had a difficult second half of the season, but is a certain starter in my team (also a Manc which gives him bonus points)
RW: Amad has really come on this season when given a chance, and I am firmly of the opinion that in a half decent side he would be even better
LW: Probably my bias again but I’m going with Garnacho (cannot understand why some United fans want him gone – frustrating sure, but capable of magic)
FW: Has to be Jackson, even if he was a d*ck the other week
This team could probably finish about mid-table…
Jack (Probably should have just stuck Bruno in Chelsea’s XI) Manchester
Disagree? Here’s our Chelsea-Manchester United combined XI….
Sesko vs Gyokeres
Sometimes you can tell a striker is special because of an unreal thing they do that you immediately think ‘holy shit’ and ‘that requires a special talent’.
I know Gyokeres has scored a few crackers, but the goal Sesko scored against Bayern a couple of weeks ago is the sort of ‘holy shit’ goal that should make prioritising him a no brainer.
There is no-one on our team currently who can do that; sign him up!
Tom, (looking forward to another Wembley playoff final, up the O’s!) Leyton
Should Man Utd have a parade? ‘Of course they f***ing should’…
I’ll just start by saying that I didn’t take offence to someone else being called Lee. Amusing as that would be, I wish I’d thought of that first to be honest. I read your mail and it did come across to me as someone trying to minimise how ineffectual Ratcliffe is. If I misread that then apologies.
Should Man U celebrate the Europa League with a parade? Of course they f***ing should. It’s a trophy! The whole point of the sport is to win trophies. Parades are also excellent for the city and businesses within it, the fact earthworm Jim doesn’t want to have one further exemplifies what a sh*t businessman he is that he doesn’t recognise it’s good for PR. Good for brand. Good for his business and local business and also brings some Levity to what has been a rough season for the Manchester tarts.
That shouldnt be even the slightest bit controversial. You can both celebrate a trophy while also addressing the failings in the league.
Second hot topic since United are in the final is whether it’s fair or not for a team finishing outside European qualifications to then get it for winning a trophy. Would Wenger et al also argue Palace shouldn’t get in Europe if they win the FA Cup? Or how about Seville when they won it and finished 12th that year? Or do these silly rules only apply to clubs we don’t like?
I actually think cup wins should be given better access to Europe. It’s silly that 4th place gets a place in the Champions League but the team who wins the FA Cup doesn’t. All trophy wins should be rewarded with European football.
FA Cup = CL
League cup = Europa
Europa = champs league
Conference league = Europa
Winning trophies should always be more valuable than finishing 2nd or below. It’s crazy we currently don’t think it is.
I genuinely think this change would be great as it would motivate absolutely everyone to take them seriously and stop moaning about fixture congestion. It also makes those trophies more prestigious again and provides the winners with a financial bonanza because the £2m that the FA cup currently rewards isn’t even a months gate receipts for a top 10 club. It would also mean that more actual champions are in the champions league.
If you think finishing 4th should be better rewarded than winning a trophy I think you miss the point of football. This season 5th place will get in..5TH! some of the other leagues in Europe don’t even get in if they win their league and we have 5th place getting in?
Wenger has a lot of ideas I agree with, but that isn’t one of them. I’ll take his keepers concede a corner when they time waste though, that’s an excellent rule.
Lee
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C, it’s not self imposed misery. If you’ve ever read the mailbox, you’ll know that I, and every United fan I’ve ever met, care more about and enjoy a cup final win over something accountants care about like the top 4 trophy. Something you can actually remember and celebrate.
Few reminisce 5 years down the line over that run to 4th if you don’t win the Champions League next year (only Liverpool have ever done that, maybe Chelsea too, no time to look) or if it is something you have done before and are reasonably expected to do. Winning a trophy is an amazing memory no matter how small – the day out, the one-off emotions of it all, the party afterwards, that’s what football is all about. That doesn’t always warrant an open bus top parade that shuts down a city though, and really it shouldn’t. Funnily enough, the hardest places to get permission are Manchester and London, go figure.
Also all teams and councils aren’t the same, it comes down to relativity. United basically won trophies every single year, you have to apply to the council to have a parade and that comes with implications. So in their pomp, United only have parades for major trophies (Prem and Champs), since then, they’ve maintained that. It doesn’t mean there aren’t major fan celebrations in other forms, just not a parade that shuts down a city, requires policing, logistics with local authorities, road closures, permissions from businesses that require access, safety concerns, ambulances assigned, etc. Hopefully you get the point.
Newcastle never win sh*t, Leeds and other teams likewise, so shutting down the city once every 25-100 years for a parade makes sense. In Manchester, there would be parades every single year with varying levels of interest/disinterest – look at City’s ‘turn-out’ for a treble lol.
West Ham had a parade for the Intertoto cup, Portsmouth had a parade and were roundly mocked for reaching the FA cup final, Cardiff for finishing 2nd…. mocked, mocked, mocked. I’m sure United headlines would be full of capitalised EMBARRASSMENT and SHAME if they had a parade.
I must repeat and emphasize without sounding rude, I’m guessing your fandom is online only – Many celebrations happen in the city for trophy wins, just not an open-top parade that shuts the city down…. no one is miserable after a win. Hope that clears things up.
Now, name the lamest reason for a parade that anyone can remember – it’s West Ham btw.
Moses
P.S. The top 4 trophy should be renamed the Accountants Cup, you generally never go further than the round of 16 at best and doesn’t often translate to long-term success without a Big Billy Billionaire to build on it.
READ: Big Weekend: FA Cup final, Goodison goodbye, Wood, Arteta, Ajax’s epic Eredivisie choke
Late offsides…
A few thoughts on the ‘late offsides’ debate. I find this gets an unwarranted amount of airtime so I’ll give it some more
It seems like the numerous proponents of this argument have been desperate for an injury in the few seconds of ‘meaningless play’ preceding a late flag that occur in most games to prove their point. It has now finally happened after a mere 5 years and nearly 2000 games of Premier League football demonstrating the likelihood of injury in this phase of play is extremely low.
During this time there have been multiple other serious injuries some of which could have no doubt been avoided through more consistent refereeing of dangerous tackles and violent conduct or a reduction in the fixture burden. These seem like much more pressing issues.
It would be very difficult to introduce a rule whereby the flag is raised for obvious offsides. In the Villa PSG game, Shearer was moaning about the flag going up late when Dembele went through, but went silent when the replays showed he was actually on. Even in the game in question, the offside looked more obviously than it was because elanga was almost at full pace and the defender was stepping up. If the ball was released a couple of milli-seconds earlier it would have been on.
It would also create an imbalance whereby VAR is able to correct situations when the flag should have gone up but not when the flag went up but shouldn’t have for the most obvious errors, leading to less goals.
Finally, the whole concept of a ‘meaningless period’ of play is a bit philosophical and hindsight driven. Most of the play in football is meaningless when you know what happens next. Towards the end of the season some entire games are meaningless and indeed some clubs have been meaningless throughout their entire history (Spurs). Why do people get so worked up by the max 5-10 seconds per game from late offside flags?
Will AFC
Time for a change…
Here’s a wild idea for a Thursday afternoon that will grow the English game to new heights – Champions League playoffs. Hear me out.
As someone who has never been comfortable with the idea of the Champions League containing teams who finished second, let alone fifth – these are not “Champions” people – I’ve always thought at least one of the additional spaced should be given to our domestic cup winners. That really would bring back the magic of the FA Cup and/or give the League Cup some relevance it’s never really had. Everyone always objects to this for perfectly good reasons, though often this boils down to “my team always finished in the top four so why should I vote for that?”. Arsenal fans basically.
However, with every additional spot, the Premier League gets for the Champions League, the whole thing is becoming more and more that European Super League that we all said we definitely didn’t want (big fan of the new format though). Even with United and Spurs threatening not to compete in any sort of European football next season, they’ve both blundered their way to a final chance to win Big Cup next year. We need to do something about this nonsense.
And then we have the everlasting spectre of playing meaningful games abroad. We don’t want it but the money men certainly do. Give them the Community Shield I used to say.
Until now.
What i propose, is that in the seasons where England gets a fifth Champions League spot, an end of season tournament is held to decide who gets it. Four teams vying for the same thing Arsenal win nearly every year without any actual hardware to show for it. In fact let’s lay a trophy on the line as well. (To be designed by the mailbox, naturally).
To qualify, you must win the FA Cup, the League Cup or finish 5th or 6th. If the FA Cup or League Cup winners are in the top four then it’s extended to 7th. If both are in the top four then 8th gets a go too.
As an example, if City win the FA Cup, this year’s playoffs would currently include Chelsea, Aston Villa, Forest and Brentford, Brentford beating Forest 4-0 in the final. Tell me that doesn’t sound like fun? This would give us 5 champions – Liverpool, Newcastle (league cup), City (FA Cup), Brentford (5th Place trophy) and Spurs (Europa League – United becoming #1 banter club in the process) – and Arsenal (trophyless but definitely “THE BEST TEAM” qualifying for the Champions League.
This also gives Palace more incentive to beat City in the Cup Final (cos they need more apparently) and replace Brentford in the Fifth place trophy playoffs. Imagine the live feed to Brian Mbeumo’s living room (he’s got the whole team round to watch obviously) as Palace score two last minute goals to get a come from behind win against City. Gutted. You’ve also got Fulham in 11th with a chance of grabbing that final spot off Brentford in the next two weeks. It’s magic.
And finally, we can do all this abroad to shut everyone up about the 39th game. It’s basically meaningless but also potentially transformative for a side that wins it so might just hit the sweet spot and be acceptable to English Fans.
It’s amazing. I’m surprised no one’s thought of it already!
I mean it’s definitely more interesting than what happens now though I suppose it provides another backdoor into the Champions League for underperforming clubs. It also adds games to an overcrowded football schedule. And it’s bad for the planet.
I guess what I really want is for UEFA to limit Champions League entry to League winners, reinstate the Cup Winners Cup and let everyone else fight it out in the Europa League. But somehow my other idea seems more likely. It’s probably not an original idea but if it is I want 10% of the revenue generated by it.
Ashmundo (UPTFR)
Goodbye Goodison…
Sad to see another of the great grounds depart. Between Highbury, WHL, Upton Park, The Dell and Maine Road…and Roker Park, the Baseball Ground…these stadia all had something so unique, and despite Spurs seemingly having done what many of the others failed, in retaining a sense of the old ground – just on steroids – the fans of all those teams I have spoken to, all miss the old ground, and would happily return to their old homes.
The reasons for moving are all sound, but there will always be something hollow in the new stadium.
Misty eyed nostalgia? Sure. I mean, I don’t miss being crammed into a toilet splashing around in piss, or the jostling queue for a warm plastic bottle of Carslberg, but the echoes of glory (and failure) can’t be recaptured.
So, to Evertonians, good luck in the new gaff but I promise you, you’ll never feel about it the way you do Goodison Park.
Dan
People do watch women’s football…
I saw ATG’s mail this morning asking whether any men watch the women’s game, and I wanted to chime in—because I absolutely do. I follow the Chelsea Women just as closely as the men’s team, and what a season it has been under Sonia Bompastor. An unbeaten WSL campaign, multiple records shattered, and now a shot at completing a domestic treble in this weekend’s FA Cup Final.
From what I’ve seen when attending matches, there’s a strong presence of male fans in the stands—but what really stands out is the number of families. The atmosphere is less hostile than the men’s games, making it a more welcoming and enjoyable experience for people of all ages. The ticket prices are also far more accessible, which certainly helps when bringing the whole family along.
Personally, I’ve seen the women’s game grow dramatically in both audience and quality in recent years. If you haven’t yet, I really encourage all football fans to watch their women’s team, support them, and if possible, attend a match in person.
The Admin @ At The Bridge Pod
