South Manchester.

Thanks. I'd heard snippets that it's a complicated issue. I can see both sides of it. Kids need to enjoy playing, only playing for an academy turns it into a win or bust scenario. Clubs want to develop players their way and don't want distractions. Clubs are selfish though, and will not hesitate to get rid quickly. My nephew is being courted by a whole host of clubs. He's 8. It's daft. He has been to City a few times. He says that he won't go again as it's boring. Unfortunately his team is now finished. Most of the players will be playing at academies come September. According to his dad, none of the lads who have gone are good enough, but their parents have gone starry eyed.

I have no idea how youth football development is done now. Can lads play for both a pro club and their school/district/county?

Agreed. Harford was a great coach but like many before and since he wasn't a manager. Dalglish had done his job and wanted out, Jack Walker could hardly say no. As you said, some terrible decision making. Was the only close season signing Matty Holmes? When did Graham Fenton sign? Man U were able to call upon Beckham, Scholes, Butt, and the Neville's that summer. Rovers did not have such an opportunity. I went to the Spartak game at Ewood. It was eerily silent. Rovers fans didn't know what to think of it. There were extra advertising boards, ball boys wearing CL logo bibs, special music. All very corporate. The Champions League was still new in 1995. The format was only a couple of seasons old. That too played a part. I suspect Batty leaving had more to do with his televised punch up with Le Saux rather than his lack of enthusiasm for the Ewood crowd size.

Absolutely right. Aside from blind loyalty why would anyone pay to watch this game online? I can understand why people would go if Ewood allowed supporters but I have no idea why someone would sit at home and watch what will be a glorified park friendly.

That makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately there are all sorts of stakeholders involved so moving it looks impossible. If if was to happen it wouldn't be at Wembley as it's play off final weekend. Cardiff or Hampden Park maybe?

An all English Champ League final awaits. The second in 3 years. Chelsea should have won by 4 or 5. Mount, Kante, and Werner all missed sitters. Real hardly got a sniff of goal either. Hazard was anonymous. He is getting pelters from the Madrid press for his post game smiling and chatting to Chelsea players. I was impressed with Havertz. He started his Chelsea career quietly, got Covid, and disappeared for a few months. He returned looking 3 inches taller with a lot more muscle.

City were the better team over 2 legs and deserve to be in the final. PSG were a bit of a disgrace, especially before and immediately after Di Maria's sending off. I thought that City would have taken their foot off the pedal after that but they still went for it. It looked like they were trying to score more to rub it in. Jim Beglin, commentating on US TV, may have got himself in trouble. He decried Di Maria's "Latino temperament" when discussing the red card. He apologised for saying it about 5 minutes later. Foden is a real talent. One quibble I have with him is that he needs to be a little more composed in front of goal but I'm sure that will develop.

I don't know the Rovers Telegraph journo from Adam but if he does have to toe the line to get access then that is troubling. He has a job and if keeping Mowbray sweet is the only thing stopping him from getting the boot he should start looking elsewhere. Continual puff pieces isn't journalism. I would also think if he did start asking the hard questions and did get a ban it would create more media scrutiny rather than less. Journalists stick up for each other. A ban would get others inquiring into why.

I thought that this Kyle Walker article was pretty decent; Manchester City’s Kyle Walker makes his case for greatness against PSG | Manchester City | The Guardian I think Southgate has him and Stones in his back 4 along with Maguire and Chilwell. All 4 are still in Europe. Maybe all of them will play in finals too.

On blancce I think that City deserved their win. PSG started well but really lost their way after halftime, culminating in Gueye's sending off. Both their goals were lucky. De Bruyne from a cross, and Mahrez's free kick going straight through the wall. Mbappe was quiet. Neymar was Neymar. A real talent but highly annoying with his antics. De Bruyne got booked. If you were Guardiola would you consider leaving him out knowing that a booking will see him miss the final? I would. Any number of City players can fill his spot, although not as well. Sterling wide, and Bernardo Sliva in there? Jesus or Aguero, with Foden dropping in?

It's no wonder that Barcelona were gung ho for the super league. Their latest accounts are out and they are over €1 billion in debt. Barcelona seeking new finance streams for €350m hole after Super League collapse - sources (espn.co.uk) A good portion of it is due in the next few months. I'm sure that they will get their money from somewhere, but the club bigwigs must be worried. Messi doesn't have long left. He has been carrying them for a few seasons now. Their last mass spending spree was a complete waste.

I had Rob Green as the co commentator. He said similar but would start Giroud as he has a bit more savvy than Abraham.

Real 1-1 Chelsea last night. Chelsea should have won. They ran all over Madrid for the first 30 minutes. Werner missed an absolute sitter before Pulisic scored. Benzema levelled it up soon after with a nifty finish and then that was it. The second half was utterly boring. Real played like they did against Liverpool at Anfield; tidy, no mistakes, yet never looking like scoring. Although it's advantage Chelsea it's still finely balanced. Madrid need to score, and if they do expect more of Kroos and Modric playing keep away for as long as they want to.

Certainly not major news in the context of last week's super league uproar but Bayern have appointed Julian Nagelsmann as their next boss. Paying RB Leipzig oodles for the privilege. Spurs were allegedly in for him. Back to Brendan Rodgers for them then. Bayern appoint Nagelsmann as manager to replace Treble-winning Flick (espn.co.uk) The Bundesliga gets plaudits for many things but having Bayern hoover up the best talent from other teams yearly must get a bit long in the tooth for other teams.

Not one soul on here knows what Venkys are thinking. We can speculate all we'd like but it won't do anything. Clueless Coyle got potted after 30 points from 31 games. Mowbray currently has 11 from 17. How will he magically turn it around next season given that half his team are teenage loanees and a good portion of the rest are out of contract? I'm with Gav though. Venkys have ultimate responsibility. Paying the bills or not they bought the best run team in the Premier League for peanuts and have spent 10 years and now £200m turning Rovers into a struggling Championship outfit managed by a man who is seemingly past his sell by date at the club. Backed up by a coach (Venus) who can't set up a team, and a Chief Exec who attempted to sell off the training ground cloak and dagger style and was outed forcing him to backtrack. It's far far too late now but I do wonder if Venkys ever think what could have been had they left everything in place when they were handed the keys and used £20m per season to buy a quality player. Their outlay would have been the same however that £200m debt would not exist, and the club would be worth north of that figure too.

The moral argument that top level footballers earn too much money is strong. Yet from an economic point of view they are paid on the principle of scarcity therefore the market decides. Are they "demanding" it? Maybe, maybe not. Are they greedy? Some probably are, but all of them will take what is offered after negotiating. The club has info, the player has info, the agent has info. That all comes together and a price is set. I've no idea how true it is but I do like the old Seth Johnson transfer story. He was going to Leeds from Derby. He and his agent were going to ask for £20K per week. In walks Ridsdale and says; "How about £30K per week Seth?" He was hardly going to say no was he? Clubs are in it to win trophies, therefore they need the best players who cost more. The sheer amount of money washing around the game due to billionaire owners, massive TV deals, merchandising and the like is allowing this to happen. If the money is contributing to cheaper tickets, better facilities, nicer grounds then great, but it doesn't seem to be.

I read a snippet earlier that the clubs may have broken Premier League rules by signing on. However, the trickiness comes in deciding what to do if proven. The Prem needs the "big clubs" and all sides know that. Docking points punishes the players - although the argument for it is that they play for that club so are tarred with the same brush. If your workplace makes a bad investment and as a result has to lay people off it's not an employee's fault if they get made redundant but they suffer with the consequences of management decisions. Any goodwill and trust amongst between the 6 ESL wannabe's and the rest of the Prem executives has been lost. This in itself will hurt the rebel 6. They will have no leverage at all for any revenue deals. The rest may decide to split the TV money pie differently giving less to the top 6. They won't have any standing to vote against it. Financial incentives are the only incentive to them. Hit them there will serve them right for trying. Salary caps, foreign ownership limits, fan involvement, government oversight and regulation, players paying agents, a % of revenue into a grass roots pot, can all help the game. A rich get richer super league will not.

I'm glad it died, and died quickly. I think that the rebel owners really thought that their fans would line up behind them becoming super clubs, and as a result the rest would fall in line. They could not have been more wrong. Football is for fans. They'll keep trying but am happy that this one is kaput. Now that it's all over it's back to reading about abominable Rovers and their inability to fire a manager who is clearly past it.

James Corden - now a big US TV star - opened his show last night with a rant at the super league; James Corden Is Against the Super League Proposal - YouTube He has an audience that has no idea about football nor do they care but fair paly to him for doing it.

The Times has picked this up; 1 Big Six club thinking about backing out - subscription required for non savvy types City would be a logical choice given that they weren't listed on early reports, Guardiola's statement earlier, and the fact that Abu Dhabi got into football to aid their political legitimacy. They don't need the money, and siding with fans won't hurt that premise.

I am not at all in favour of "letting them go". The goal should be the cancellation of the super league. If it goes ahead it will ruin football forever. I think that the super league boffins are banking on fan feelings of apathy and resignation to get it through. If the English clubs stay in the Prem the best other clubs can hope for is to finish 7th every season. I read yesterday that the ESL are offering 4 times the money than what current Champs League teams get. There's no way that the rest can compete against that level of spending capabilities. The sheer arrogance on show from the rebel clubs is astounding. Here's an extract from an ESPN article; Man United, Man City players voice Super League concerns to clubs - sources (espn.co.uk) Sources have told ESPN the club plan to present evidence that early rounds of existing European football are "stale and predictable," backed up with stadium attendances and TV viewing figures. There is a belief that the only way forward is to allow the biggest teams to play each other more regularly rather than just during the final weeks of the season. What is more predictable than the same teams playing each other all the time without fear of missing out? It beggars belief that club hierarchies think like that. Anyone associated with Spurs and Arsenal should be embarrassed to go outside. There is nothing super about those two teams. City and Chelsea are only in this position due to billionaire owners who trapped up less than 20 years ago. The Glazers have been waiting for this since 2005, and Liverpool's owners know how to make money so are rubbing their hands with glee. The match going fan is the one who will get royally screwed if the super league goes ahead. That's why the UK government needs to make it clear that it won't be worth it for the rebel clubs to go.

I like UEFA's committee member Ceferin's stance. He is advocating a scorched earth policy towards the 12 clubs. Ban them from this season's European competition. Although they've not done anything wrong he wants to ban their players for the Euro's too. He wasn't shy in his disgust for Ed Woodward and Andrea Agnelli either. Klopp is in an awful position, put their by money men living unconcerned in Boston USA. Fair play for him to come out and say what he did. We'll have to see what GUardiola says on Wednesday. Arteta will no doubt look sheepish when asked. His team are 9th in the Prem and don't look anywhere near close to being a top side any time soon.

Letting teams leave and saying that the ESL is no different than the current situation in the Prem and CL is wrong. Clubs with more money do win trophies but at present there is nothing stopping teams from cracking into the top band. City and Chelsea have done it through mega money owners. It may not be everybody's cup of tea but it happened. A closed shop makes an absolute mockery of sporting principles. FIFA, UEFA, and the FA need to come down hard and quickly on the rebel clubs. Ban the teams, ban the players, remove their registrations. Football is a global game, but local structure needs to stay in place. Can local authorities intervene too? Manchester city council rescinding Old Trafford's safety certificate? Refuse to police games?

Reports are out that a European super league could be happening; Man United, Liverpool among clubs in $6 billion European Super League talks - sources (espn.com) Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Spurs are English teams to have purportedly signed on. It's been talked about for years. It's no surprise that of the 5 clubs 3 are owned by Americans, and that JP Morgan are backing it. I'm completely against it, but I have no money or power to do anything about it.