Manure were clearly bribing the refs back then, nobody can convince me otherwise, so perhaps. But I doubt they would have been as blatant. It's much easier to say 'oh the ref and linesman missed it/saw it differently' than it is to say 'the ref, linesman and a whole panel of officials missed it/saw it differently after watching slow-motion replays from numerous angles, the same ones you saw, and after using line technology'. Of course we still get mistakes and controversies, but if one club was to consistently get far more of them in their favour than the others, for such a sustained period, with such oversight in place, I think there'd at least be serious investigations.

Whilst the true theft of the century from Maradona would never have stood and we'd have reached the semi final. Since Argentina won it, perhaps that would have been us and we wouldn't have been waiting since 66 for a trophy. No bullshit disallowing of Lampard's goal against Germany. Manure wouldn't have dominated the 90s as much, because the amount of decisions they got in their favour were an utter farce. We may have even won another title. No disgusting Tevez goal. We would have beat the Dingles yesterday. See, for everything we would have lost, we would have gained something else, and then some I'd argue, as we have had a lot more BS decisions against us than for us, for my money. And both categories would have been fairer.

Yep, in my junior playing days I think I only ever got 3 yellow cards (not sure how, since I was pretty full-on in the tackle, but I tended to win it when I went in, and I think they're a bit more lenient with cards at junior level and back then). Only one of them was for a foul. One was for making a 'wanker' sign as I walked away from a ref, and the other was for jokingly going 'whooooooaahhh' as a penalty taker ran up to shoot 😂 He missed, ref booked me and let him take it again, he scored.

Huh, really? In that case, Pears looks a lot more like Makhtar Gueye than I realised. He was also woefully out of position and wearing the wrong kit, and I'm not sure who that bloke wearing the goalie kit that punted it upfield to him is.

It was borderline impossible to get the ball to Weimann for the tap in, the angles were restricted by the time he reached the ball. Weimann's decision to have a pointless hissy fit about it instead of staying alert and potentially being able to nick a goal when the ball bounced back to his area was a far, far worse decision. The shot was weak though.

Our goal would have stood if there was VAR.

Yeh it was a good pass, just a little difficult to control any better than was done. I think the touch was good really, took the ball to the right spot for me. Just needed more oomph in the shot, but it wasn't an easy one to score. For me, the only way things could have gone better really in terms of the setup for the chance is if Dolan was quicker than he is. Gueye is a very handy player. Just need him to start getting on the scoresheet with more regularity, but he makes things happen.

That was my first thought, but on reflection I think the touch was about as good as could be expected. The only alternative was taking it wide with his left foot, where a cross under pressure becomes the only option. The pass was a bit close to his body too, so I think he did well considering. Agree a shot lashed up at the top left corner would have been best though, but the keeper was pretty well set to react up or down at that angle. What was needed was power whichever way he went, and tbf he was on his weak foot.

For me, the spirit of that rule is about not getting up in the officials' face to try force the issue. Gueye was miles away from them. The ref should have also been booking the lad, once you've sent Gueye off for asking for it it's pretty obvious you're booking the dingle cos he deserved to be booked and not cos you were coerced. That foul was far worse than the one Gueye got his first yellow for! Which was another joke of a decision. All wrong from this crap ref. Gueye needs to show more restraint with things like that though.

And Weimann was absolutely wrong to fume about it. Firstly the pass would have been harder to pull off than the shot due to players closing down the angle. Secondly, if he had instead stayed alert rather than fuming about it he might have had the chance to sneak a goal in when the ball came back down near that post a moment later.

Finneran wasn't playing. As far as I can see, his only appearance for them so far was in the PL Cup, and he was subbed off after 46 mins. Not sure if it's injuries or what.

How can he be released but be on loan?

He has gone further so far than Finneran, but if he leaves before the pro deal it won't be much different. I'd say there is one other chance he doesn't sign the longer term deal - if he doesn't quite fulfil his great potential and starts going backwards. Wouldn't be the first.

For our emotional and mental wellbeing, I think it's best we just all accept right now that he's going the way of Finneran or Phillips and we'll never see him on a full length pro deal that doesn't have a cheap clause.

Gambling the entire existence of their club on it potentially, yeh. I wish our asshat owners had shown far more ambition financially, but not to the ludicrous level Brum have. I really hope they don't do this double promotion people are mentioning on here, this type of recklessness shouldn't be rewarded. 15 million when you've already broken the League One transfer record twice is just obscene. In relative terms, it's orders of magnitude bigger than what even City did in the Prem!

That's not what I was saying. As has repeatedly been said, we announced Maguire and it fell through. So the poster being in a hurry to hear an announcement might find it's better to wait until the deal is truly truly done before hearing it is.

I think after the last window, they'd rightly think it's best to wait until they get confirmation from the league before announcing anything...

I refer you to last summer.

Are there though? Many accounts? Stating he definitively will be a dud? I must have missed that.

We should be able to pre-contract him right now if his contract is up in January. Except for the little matter of the ESC slots of course...think we need to get Siggy's permit done to have a space?

Wannabe ITK fud? You may not be aware, but Fabrizio Romano is hands down the most reliable transfer guy in the business. Not to say that everything he says pans out, but he's as close as it gets.

Last year our budget was even worse. The bulk of our recruitment team is probably still the same anyway, though two or three of the higher placed ones have changed, which has hopefully improved the filtering process. I don't think it's necessarily a Leo vs Balazs debate btw, more that they fit a similar profile that carries a large degree of risk in a position that is by far the most important this summer because our alternative there is quite frankly crap. And that one shiny highlight reel that isn't any better than the last lad's shiny highlight reel doesn't make him something to get excited about. It's very much a 'wait and see' with Balazs, which is fine if it works out, but I was hoping to be coming into the last day of the window feeling confident that we had a reliable number one for the season ahead.

Exactly. That reel isn't any worse than the new lad's was. I've no idea why you've got two downvotes there, it's a very fair point.

I don't actually consider any of those saves 'exceptional'. Most keepers would have some saves like that on their reel. Some of them are very good saves but there wasn't one that made me go 'wow'. The key will be how consistently he can make saves like that and minimise errors. Based on what we've heard from the guy Jackson spoke to in the LT, I'm also a bit concerned about him getting involved in that tippy tappy crap we like to play at the back. He said the Hungarian league is a lot slower with less pressing, so I expect he may struggle playing the ball around in defence (not that I like that aspect of the modern game anyway).

That's absolutely insane.