Rayvin

Some form of move back to the EU has to be on the manifesto next time out. I just hope the rise of Farage doesn't scare Labour into shying away from it.

It's following on from a Guardian one last week which was less bleak but still bad: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/12/one-in-five-britons-aged-18-45-prefer-unelected-leaders-to-democracy-poll-finds But yes, one or two data points isn't the end of the world anyway. It does 'feel' right though.

Yes social media is a huge part of it but it's also how fucking worthless our societal offering to Gen Z is. They have no wealth, no prospects, and a country that feels like it's decaying around them - thanks to things like Brexit, but still. That's exactly the breeding ground the Nazi party relied on to win power in the 1930s. Widespread disillusionment, despair and hopelessness. For my view there's nothing we can do now, the actual answers involve actions which would be too radical. They're going to change the scene to suit themselves and in the image of their heroes. The pendulum has fully swung back their way. We just have to hope we live long enough to see it start returning to our side. The online right has defeated the left in all arenas.

And this goes from bad to worse... https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/gen-z-doubts-about-democracy-laid-bare-in-worrying-survey-vsxx509n3 52% prefer authoritarianism, a third want rule by the army, and 47% believe we need some sort of revolution.

I love this claim that he's only sent him off so that he misses the second leg of the semi final against us, since Oliver is an NUFC fan Arsenal fans starting to challenge Liverpool for the lifetime tinfoil hat award.

I think what at least I'm saying here is that I'm struggling to think who we are gonna bring in that will be as effective in the short term as Murphy is right now, and that as TP says, his partnership/understanding with Isak is a key part of that. Maybe if you stick him in any other team he goes back to being bang average, but with Isak on form he's looking very good indeed.

Yeah truth be told I'm having a hard time imagining that I'd be complaining about that if it was one of our players being sent off...

I think/hope it's this. His passing is superb in the final third, I don't see how he could be purple patching that. He has more confidence now sure, but nothing stops that from continuing while he's getting games.

Good luck to the lad. Tried his best at all times - limited player, sure, but one who really encapsulated the effort and intensity of Howe's team.

Fulham looked decent at shuttling the ball upfield but otherwise fairly toothless against Man Utd. We need to win this one.

Even last year tbh - Spurs are suffering through a Europe induced injury crisis same as we were. Howe had us finishing 7th despite that. Spurs are currently 15th.

I stuck this one to see if you were being uncharitable. You were not It's like watching Sunday League.

The article was open for me when I linked it, guess they've worked out how to freely advertise

Fair, given the FT has also run with this about how much Trump likes Starmer https://www.ft.com/content/ed30f4b2-65db-4b0f-aa75-af345c1de6d0 I'm mostly just amusing myself at this point tbh, I really think we fell into a hell dimension some years back, none of this can possibly be real

Reeves planning to cut sickness benefits in weeks, having identified that they're being used by "people who are too lazy to work" and it's not her/the state's problem. This is presumably a sickness benefit situation that survived 14 years of the Tories because cutting it would be too extreme even for them. Maybe I'm being uncharitable with that though?

Trump administration calling for regime change in the UK now, Starmer the new pet hate figure Apparently discussing the viability of crashing our economy to force it. https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/news-analysis/trump-starmer-regime-change-special-relationship-b2685927.html It's a good thing we're still part of EU or we'd really be in trouble We're fucked

Congrats mate, that is great news. Really happy for you both!

Fostered some lively debate

Howe of course did manage to take us from the brink of relegation from the PL to top 4 in the following season with largely the same group of players - and I'll plead ignorance to the 80s as I wasn't alive for half of it. I'm not really saying Howe is a club legend or anything here mind, so I'm not comparing him to Keegan on that front. But as a manager, I (and others) have actually said this a few times and general sentiment has been supportive, hence my comment. Fair enough though, doesn't speak for everyone I loved Keegan too btw, I'm not really laying waste to him with the statement - just observing that Howe has genuinely been that good for us that I think he warrants inclusion in the same breath personally in terms of his actual abilities as a manager. Not what he has achieved, per se.

Both good points and I agree, but just want to add that the reason people think he's being led astray here is because when he first came into the public consciousness he wasn't like this. He did for instance sign up for his daughter's surgery in transitioning. For someone as gaffe prone as he seems to be, he had never previously made the sort of insane right wing comments that we've been seeing from him in the past 4-5 years. So while yes, all of the above is true and is good evidence that he is exactly what we see him as - I don't think it had to be this way. I think his childlike emotional intelligence has been fully led astray by the same online right wing bullshit that perverts the minds of young men. The difference being that with his wealth, he can view himself as a hero in all of this - which he seems to find intoxicating. For all his wealth, he had no sense of purpose or belonging before this. Now, he is a champion of the common man (in his own head at least). He is a fascist. But he's not, for my money, a man with a plan. He's just being used.

Has Bannon been jettisoned? He seems very much back in the mix to me, albeit in an unofficial capacity.

He is this. But if the people he wants approval from are soft fascists/fascist leaning, then by serving their whims he becomes a fascist by default.

The general sentiment is that Howe is the best manager we've had in the PL era. I don't think we could go and replace him very easily at all. He's a hands on coach who brings the best out of his players, and is smart enough to tweak and develop tactical systems to suit our abilities. He understands the city and fanbase well, speaks eloquently and doesn't get drawn into any of the petty bullshit that other managers seem to. In my view, Howe is more or less carrying the club on his own at the moment. Lemme put it this way, I wouldn't swap him for Pep. And I think Pep is the better manager from a footballing standpoint.

I supported the ban on r/NUFC actually, but I think here people can do their own thing That's an @Andrew call rather than mine.

This is true, felt like someone at the club woke up and thought "fuck me, we're not compliant" 2 days before the deadline.