Manchester United lost on Tuesday night to ensure that Michael Carrick gets some stick before the usual Man City opinions.

Send your own to theeditor@football365.com. Are you siding with Lisandro Martinez, Man Utd fans?

Carrick and referees both getting it wrong
I hope Carrick is gone, United deserve nothing etc etc, but at some point can we acknowledge that is yet another scandalous refereeing decision against this team?

Leny Yoro engages the forward in exactly the way he himself is engaged, they have hands on each other. The ball is actually on Yoro’s side, but the forward initiates the contact and falls down. It’s an absolutely nothing challenge that happens 10 times every 2 minutes on a pitch. Clear and obvious error? Honestly, the PGMOL had to apologise for the City VAR error, and this one could be worse.

Watching the last few minutes of the match, in every single engagement the Madrid players have as much or more contact. It’s a physical game. Until it’s not I guess.
Ryan, Bermuda (is it even worth watching football anymore?)

Carrick has to go; Man Utd fans aren’t engaged
He has to go….

I was in the bar last night watching the racing and met a mate and he was telling me that Man Utd were playing in the Champions League.

Hardly a Man Utd supporter in sight. The one I knew informed me he had backed Ath Madrid minus a goal.

How times have changed.

He has to go.
Ken Charlatan
(Man Utd’s supporters are the biggest snowflakes of them all)

Predicting Man Utd
So after the worst start in 40 years and another defeat in Madrid, here is what happens next.

November: Carrick is sacked. Jonny Evans or Darren Fletcher get the caretaker gig.

December: Eddie Howe is appointed. Gary Neville cums in his pants. English media, desperate for an English coach to succeed at a big club, are equally as excitable.

December to Feb: Howe gets the customary bounce from a squad addicted to the excitement of new manager bounces. Media hype train goes into overdrive. He’s the next England manager. United are back. They are going to win the league next season.

Feb – May: the bounce gradually starts to wear off, but at this point it’ll be the players’ fault. Or Brexit Jim. Obviously it can’t be Eddie. He’s great and can do no wrong.

Summer: United fail to ship out players who need shipping out because they’ve paid them too much money for anyone else with sanity to take on. They’ll spend a couple of hundred million on more sh*te to add to the sh*te already there. Their fans will pretend the signings are good.

August – October: the bounce hasn’t returned. Still not Eddie’s fault, it’s the price of fuel, it’s Russia, it’s Trump, but it’s not him. It can’t be him.

November: Howe sacked. Still not his fault. Fletcher’s asked to slop out for a bit again.

December: The club is taken over by City’s former owners who promise they’ve learnt their lesson and definitely won’t cheat this time. The club perishes, from spontaneous self-combustion.
Andy H, Swansea

(You forgot the bit where Bruno takes over – Ed)

Premier League is an absolute mess
Maybe John Nicholson was onto something in his recent leaving speech where he essentially said “f*** the Premier League, I’m done with it”

What exactly ARE we watching for?

For the dominant team of the modern era – City – to cheat their way towards that level of dominance?

To watch Arsenal torch everything about the Wenger legacy and become unquestionably the most unwatchable and unattractive champions in English football history?

To watch Chelsea basically sign every f***er under the age of 23 for years, then make an about turn and sign geriatrics, and yet still remain sh*te regardless?

To watch the two genuine behemoths – Liverpool and Manchester United – spaff hundreds of millions of pounds on their squad only to end up without basics like even moderately functioning fullbacks?

To watch Spurs go from a serious football team under Poch, to a team that also spends hundreds of millions on their team just to spend 3 years in a row battling relegation?

To watch Everton, once a wonderful football club, just become a nothing club, that goes nowhere under owners who haven’t even said hello to their manager in the two years they’ve been there?

To watch referees like Chris Kavanagh on Sunday, who trains with City on a regular basis, be appointed to games to go and alter the course of them like that?

It just feels like a league that has completely eaten itself and come out the other end burping, farting and popping Rennies like they’re going out of fashion.

It’s an almighty f***ing mess, anyone still claiming this is the best league in the world needs professional help.
Andy H, Swansea

Personally not watching Man City
Just writing to say I know City cheated, I know I can’t do anything about said cheating.

The only way I can show my displeasure is by not watching any games they are involved in.

I’m in Australia but I reckon they track pretty heavily who watches which games on the paid service I use. My theory is if every person refuses to watch them on these services and if all away fans refuse to go to City’s stadium, the league will get the understanding that their behaviour was unacceptable and may actually punish them properly.

Then again, they probably won’t but I will keep my personal crusade going.
Brendan, Melbourne, Gooner

Fans should get City games abandoned
Am I the only one who thinks fans should take it into their own hands and get games abandoned when playing Man City?

Throw tennis balls onto the pitch when they score? Or wads of fake money, show your contempt for them!

Watching all the games at the weekend was such a strange and hollowing experience.

If a couple of games get abandoned it will really have an effect on the league and maybe force them to make an earlier decision.

Otherwise what’s the point, if a runner is on steroids you don’t let them compete while they are investigated, why should the games continue with a financially doped squad that has an unfair advantage in a competitive environment.

Maybe broadcasters should show the games without commentary or pundits, or maybe they should choose not to show them at all.

Carrying on with the status quo as a footballing community is surely what City banked on, if one or more groups showed their disdain it might show that we can implement meaningful change.
TJ

Go all Extinction Rebellion on Man City
You’re all talking about it but no-one is saying it….

BLOCK THE F***ING ROADS AND DON’T ALLOW CITY’S BUS TO GET TO THE GROUND!!!!!

Extinction Rebellion can do it so why not football supporters? Because we’re actually made up of working people??

Mobilise and sort it out will you. Let us not forget that THERE WOULD BE NOTHING HAPPENING IF IT WASN’T FOR A HACKER!!!!!!

Sorry for getting all shouty but the f***ing Premier League are absolutely complicit here in not handing out a sentence immediately. They did for Everton and Forest “waaaa it’s so complicated” BOLLOCKS!!! It’s all been hidden and because it’s all been hidden, the punishment should be even bigger.

MOBILISE NOW!!!

Not me though, I couldn’t give a f***, but for those that do, block the f***ing roads!!!!
Fat Man

An alternative Man City draft
I had a very similar thought as Ronson did with his draft plan but now there is something to base it on. The BBC has just published a list of 35 teams that may have lost out financially during the Sham years ranked by how much they may have lost out on. Tottenham top the list with an estimated £120m of lost earnings whilst Reading are at the bottom, potentially having lost out on £750k.

This could be the basis of the draft order.

Spurs get first pick and would obviously pick up Erling Haaland to provide the goals to ease their relegation worries. Next up, surprisingly are Hull, who might think Fernandez will look good in black and gold stripes. Elliot Anderson looks like a man who’d end up playing for 3rd placed Everton at some point in the future anyway whilst Semenyo has played outside the premier league before so might not be too put out by having to join 4th placed Swansea.

As in the NFL, the clubs don’t necessarily have to keep the player they have picked and could sell them straight away to invest in other ways. Norwich, Wigan and Bolton are all in the top ten and could all pick up players who clearly wouldn’t want to play for them but could bring in tidy sell on fee.

City have 26 senior players listed on the website and have 10 more out on loan so even Reading will be picking someone up…my bet is Kalvin Phillips on being the player left at the end though.
Chris, Walthamstow

Stop with the point-scoring
RHT/TS – right, I know this will be alien to you given our colourful history, but…. I actually don’t disagree.

Football clubs supporters far too often turn a blind eye to the indiscretions of their own club and that which you reference is something which definitively does not get talked about respectfully enough by those fans OR the wider football world. A night which shaped the European game for decades and a night which still often gets described as a “disaster”, a word which absolutely undermines the culpability of the animals who caused it.

The problem is – it can be both things – from the massive support incidents and huge club rule breaking, down to individual incidents like players who have committed individual crimes, it is absolutely something we should be talking about collectively both as supporters and rivials alike, but it also shouldn’t be an exercise in points scoring.

No club “wins” at being the most well run, having the most upstanding members, fans, players – because whether we like it of not, football is a community, so if your neighbour has a criminal in his house, you have a criminal on your street and a community is only as strong as the collective treatment of it’s worst, just as much as it is, it’s lauding of it’s best.

I appreciate this may all sound a bit “come join the commune, friend” but the truth is that by very nature of football and the way in which it operates – if we don’t all strive for a better world where all clubs are behaving upstanding and forthright, then none of us want it, and often, whether it be the stick Liverpool supporters have got for “bottling” their banter of City, or those baying for Manc blood following the 114 of 115 charges – it really does seem that some ENJOY the crimes other clubs commit, because “victims-be-damned, I can win some pub banter here”.

Anyway – that’s my two pence on it
Harold Emporius Hooler
P.S: I was saying Boo-Urns

Only a game? Is it though?
It’s. Only. A. Game? Well, regarding tactics and the scoreboard indeed it is. However, for me and I’m sure others might agree and possibly relate to what I’m going to say, it’s the scaffolding of some of my closest friendships and family bond with my brother’s and my cousins. It’s the scheduled rhythm in our lives that makes sure we see each other, talk, and exchange our experiences. Matches are the anchor but the substance is the meeting up, the pre match drinks and the group chats I have regularly with the people I love. It’s a vehicle for the community.

When meeting people, in order to break the ice, I often ask somebody if they follow football and if so who do they follow? If I’m introduced to someone who doesn’t support a team I’m too familiar with, I make an effort to find out more about their team rather than hark on about my so-called ‘big club’. If they don’t follow the game than I ask what are they interested in and make an effort to listen to what they have to say. Last night, for example, I went into one of my locals and started talking to an old bloke I know but rarely speak to who follows Liverpool. He was talking to a couple of other chaps and after a couple of minutes they pulled a stool over and allowed me to become part of their group. It turned out his mates were an Everton fan and, dare I say, a Spud. We had a good laugh talking about football at first but than other things too.

At closing time I said goodbye to the group and went to the local wine bar that stays open until 12:30 and bought myself and the barmaid, a Gooner, a drink. She showed me some artwork she’s doing knowing that I’m also interested in that too. I then started reading various articles on my phone. I had mentioned to the group where I was heading and ten minutes later, the Spud turned up looking for me and we started having a chat about what he did for a living and what I used to do along with other things. Suddenly I have a new friend! I know so many people from different walks of life through what’s only a game. Football can be an extraordinary tool in relating to others no matter what their background is.

I’ve been following this site since it launched and I really haven’t come across anybody, if you’re for real (maybe there should be an AI added to that acronym you sign off with), so derogatory and condescending as yourself. You really are the perfect example of an “inverted snob!”

I really wanted to write in and take my hat off to Madueke for finally bringing something to the table in Arsenal’s victory over Leeds the other day but unfortunately you took centre stage again and diverted my attention. Well done. If you have nothing worthwhile to say, don’t bother.

Cheers.
Chris, Croydon