Newcastle United have apparently behaved appallingly by trying to keep hold of their best player; just give in to Liverpool, guys.<\/p>\n
Alexander Isak kicks off the Mailbox but there\u2019s plenty more. Read and then mail theeditor@football365.com with your thoughts<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Isak entirely exonerated by his own statement<\/strong> Take a bow Newcastle football club.<\/p>\n Take a bow Eddie Howe.<\/p>\n Take a bow Newcastle fans for jeering your player in public last weekend and all the emails on here.<\/p>\n Take a bow rival fans for criticising him based on your own personal allegiances.<\/p>\n Take a bow pundits who have criticised a player they don\u2019t know for their pay day all summer long.<\/p>\n Take a bow ex players like Nicky Butt for criticising a fellow professional<\/strong><\/a> without knowing her personal situation with his club.<\/p>\n Take a bow Football365 for leaving up the comment about Isak\u2019s \u201cdickish move\u201d all summer long in the transfers section like a steaming hot turd for all to see.<\/p>\n My mother used to say never judge another relationship because you never know what\u2019s going on behind closed doors.<\/p>\n She has more wisdom in her little finger than you all do combined.<\/p>\n None of us know what has been said between Isak and Newcastle but judging by his statement last night<\/strong><\/a> you all got it badly wrong.<\/p>\n Take a bow self appointed ladies and gentlemen of the jury you took out your character assassination on an innocent man. READ: Will Newcastle be blacklisted by agents in \u2018transfer backlash\u2019 after \u2018ludicrous\u2019 demands to Liverpool over Isak?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u2026Magpied? Get it? Anyhoo, it seems like Newcastle made some promises they never intended on keeping. Let\u2019s face it, they are not a big club, they just have oil money. They are not old money like the Bestest Team in the World\u2122. Now that Isak has found a better suitor, NUFC is tryna flex its muscle. It\u2019s pathetic how they\u2019re tryna hold on to their prized asset when they should have cut losses ASAP. In Africa we have a saying, \u201cdon\u2019t hunt what you can\u2019t catch\u201d, like the \u2018Merican who was sent to the afterlife by Black Death. PS-Bestest Team in the World\u2122=MUFC<\/p>\n READ:\u00a0Alexander Isak should be raging at Liverpool, not Newcastle United<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Long live the king<\/strong> But can we take a moment to focus on another inevitability \u2013 the one that is Mo Salah\u2019s brilliance? An historic third PFA player of the year award for a lad from a country that is not a traditional footballing powerhouse, who has broken record after record, and who has done it without massive controversy, without ego, and with a smile on his face. Aside from being an exceptional footballer, he is renowned as being a truly decent human being.<\/p>\n He is the Egyptian King. \u00a0<\/p>\n Why PSR is flawed<\/strong> Whilst I am glad that the issue of how unfair and corrupt the current system is is now receiving some interest beyond fan messages boards, the article doesn\u2019t seem to go beyond a vague reference to how this may be the case and focussed far too much on the Man City \u2018115\u2019.<\/p>\n Firstly, the current system is clearly not fulfilling the intention of preventing clubs from getting in to difficulties (see Sheff Wed etc) so requires change anyway. Secondly, the intentional(imo)\/unintentional secondary consequence of preventing anyone other than 6 English clubs from competing consistently domestically and in Europe does need to be addressed as it is clearly unfair to all of the remaining clubs in the country. It feels particularly unjust when at least 2 of those 6 are afforded their current position at the top table because of significant spending from owners in the past 20 years.<\/p>\n Is this likely to be changed and is anyone making a clear case for any alternative? I have seen very little on either point so I can only assume the answer to both is no, but would welcome any details, as I for one am becoming quite depressed about the future of football with the status quo being the case forever more.<\/p>\n For example, could owners not cover any potential outlay for future wages and transfer fees in a bond which would avoid any high spending putting clubs at risk? You could give everyone an even spending limit to promote sporting competition (heaven forbid) or apply a scale based on recent sporting merit if needed? I am not sure what the answer is, but I am sure that something does need to change for supporters of any clubs outside the top 6 like myself to continue to be able to dream. \u00a0<\/p>\n Coming in late on Man Utd<\/strong> First up the Arsenal goal, blaming the keeper for being fouled is a strange hill for some people to die on, Saliba backs into the keeper grabs his arm whilst simultaneously trying to swap shirts with Mason Mount, it should never have been given, Arsenal it seems are allowed to foul keepers with impunity.<\/p>\n The penalty decision, in what universe is a player going through the back of another nowhere near the ball not a penalty? Then we have so called professional referees like Gallagher insisting that it wasn\u2019t a penalty whilst an Arsenal supporting pundit is telling him it was stone wall, then you have Clattenburg telling everyone it was bang on a penalty, enough said about Mike Dean telling us all it was a foot to foot foul so not a penalty WTF?<\/p>\n Anyway what\u2019s done is done, I thought United looked good but still need a decent keeper, they also need to play Mainoo and not Ugarte, I\u2019m quietly confident we can have a decent season and build a good platform to kick on from. Lets see what happens against Fulham and Burnley then we can hopefully have a clearer picture going forward. \u00a0<\/p>\n Reffing obsessed<\/strong> Firstly, I know complaining about the VAR\u2019s is futile (until the EPL owners get off their backside\u2019s) but it still doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t. As usual, and it\u2019s only week 1, the BEST REFEREE in the league, Michael Oliver took centre stage, 15 minutes into the very first game of the season, he yet again comes up with a VAR decision which practically no one agreed with or understood, more on this later. then on Sunday he becomes the first official to, rightly, apply the new 8 second rule albeit it took the goalkeeper holding on to the ball for 12 seconds before he did, that\u2019s 50% more than permitted!<\/p>\n Elsewhere other officials made controversial decisions, some rightly, more incorrectly, some agreed with, some not, and it didn\u2019t end until the last game was played, nice consistency there. IMO, Tarkowski was correctly punished, he was a little unlucky in that had he leaned a little lower or perhaps forward, the ball would have hit him on the famous \u201cT shirt line\u201d or shoulder and been ok, he definitely was trying to get in the way of the ball and it didn\u2019t strike him, he was responsible for the contact.<\/p>\n Earlier in the day we had the must watch, the ultimately mind boggling \u201cRef watch\u201d. The mental gymnastics of Dermot Gallagher, whilst hilarious and maddening in equal measures, is a joy to behold, the most perfect example of \u201cthe old boys network\u201d, backside covering of his mates and examples of incompetence that is the PGMOL. The introduction of Jay Bothroyd is a stroke of genius, not the pally pally, jokey jokey relationship he shared with Warnock and Smith, Jay actually argued with and laughed at Gallagher\u2019s nonsense. Let\u2019s hope he\u2019s a regular and keeps it up.<\/p>\n For those who didn\u2019t watch, we kicked off with the Oliver decision at Anfield. Both Bothroyd and Gallagher agreed that the decision was wrong but excused the on field official due to the speed and his angle of view, neither however were able or tried to explain how it resulted in a free kick to Bournemouth? But then came Gallagher\u2019s explanation and reasoning behind why Oliver, the BEST REFEREE in the league missed it. Wait for it\u2026\u2026\u201dHE HASN\u2019T LOOKED AT IT, he\u2019s looked at the initial hand ball and decided it wasn\u2019t a foul but he\u2019s made his decision too quickly\u201d, the BEST REFEREE in the league has failed to watch an incident which happened milliseconds later. There was also no discussion of why Oliver\u2019s audio and the later explanation from the PGMOL differed?<\/p>\n We then had the obligatory Stevie Wonder moments, \u201clet\u2019s show a few examples of the VAR doing his job properly\u201d which included the Crystal Palace disallowed goal due to the correct application of rule 13 or something. What was strange was that they then showed an example of when the rule hadn\u2019t been correctly applied by the VAR and Gallagher dismissed this with \u201cwell he\u2019s missed it\u201d, FFS Dermot, that\u2019s what he\u2019s there for, another explanation could be that he did see it but wasn\u2019t aware of the correct application of rule 13, the irony of this was that Chelsea benefitted on both occasions.<\/p>\n The Burnley non penalty was discussed and Jay thought Porro had barged into the back of Anthony, Dermot however thought it was the correct decision as they had \u201cbumped into each other\u201d, why and how on earth would Anthony suddenly decide to run backwards was never explained. Just to clarify, he didn\u2019t. The referee who failed to award this or refer it to the VAR, no other than the BEST REFEREE in the league. Michael is now 2 for 2 as they say.<\/p>\n There was then the most hilarious exchange of the day, both agreed Bayinder was not fouled but then discussed Saliba\u2019s tackle on Cunha. Jay says penalty, he\u2019s made no contact with the ball and has made contact with Cunha affecting his ability to play the ball as intended. Dermot says no penalty as he didn\u2019t think it was a foul and the VAR must have decided there was contact with the ball (there wasn\u2019t).<\/p>\n Jay: Is that given on the halfway line? There is then a similar discussion on a non penalty at Brighton where a players foot is kicked and there is no contact with the ball, again Dermot explains this as \u201che must think there\u2019s enough contact with the ball\u201d. But this is followed by a bizarre diatribe by Gallagher who says that VAR is not there to judge the referee (no one says it is) but to judge right or wrong (NSS) and the \u201cthreshold\u201d of \u201cclear and obvious\u201d applies. He states that therein lies the problem, is the threshold wrong, this would be the threshold set by the PGMOL! Dermot says \u201cnot to judge\u201d on at least four more occasions and also says that the VAR is there to \u201chelp the game not the referee\u201d!!!!!<\/p>\n I accept that decisions are mainly subjective and there will be people falling on both sides of the coin but what I find frustrating is that Dermot and the PGMOL will support the referee\/VAR on probably 80% of the decisions whilst 80% of the people watching will differ, that doesn\u2019t stack up. It\u2019s probably 99% when it comes to the BEST REFEREE in the league. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Take a bow ladies and gentlemen of the court of social opinion.<\/p>\n
Dave LFC<\/strong><\/p>\n
Muthama Gitonga, Nairobi, Kenya<\/strong><\/p>\n
There will be a lot of commentary around Isak\u2019s statement yesterday evening. Straws will be clutched at, high-horses rode in on, and baseless arguments flung around the place. The summer\u2019s most tiresome transfer saga will roll on for another week before the inevitable conclusion.<\/p>\n
IJR (A cheese dip was made in the writing of this letter)<\/strong><\/p>\n
I would just like to respond to the article this morning on Newcastle and Villa\u2019s recent struggles with PSR<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n
Matt<\/strong><\/p>\n
Morning people, so I have left this for a couple of days so I don\u2019t go in all guns blazing but then I thought, why not.<\/p>\n
Paul Murphy, Manchester<\/strong><\/p>\n
If Stewie can send in his now daily missives on the Spanish Pulis and Ed send his weekly match report, tbf today\u2019s was much better, then I see no reason why I can\u2019t comment on my own personal hell, VAR, PGMOL and especially my no.1, Ref watch with Dermot Gallagher.<\/p>\n
Dermot: But it wasn\u2019t on the halfway line.
Jay: Is it given anywhere else on the pitch?
Dermot: I don\u2019t play that game!
Jay: Why not? This is why you need players in the VAR booth.
Dermot then reiterates that he wouldn\u2019t give it as he didn\u2019t think it was a foul.<\/p>\n
Howard (yes Dermot does live rent free) Jones<\/strong><\/p>\n