hangonasecond

Yeah I pretty much agree with you on principle. The FA can't force the EFL to scrap the cup though. At the end of the day, an action needs to be taken. Agree with the other reply to my comment that it'd all be a moot point if there was transparency over where the "development money" goes.

This is true. The real answer is, he just needs to be better. He will be.

If his corners are being affected by his fitness, he should be taken off them until he is better. Maybe one of the fullbacks has a secret talent, lol?

NB: this reply really wasn't meant to be this long. It's predicated on some pretty bold assumptions, but boils down to - if the changes are only being made so the FA can make more money then I completely agree with you.

Removing first round replays eliminates so much fixture congestion for so many teams. Not just the teams that have to play the replay, but also their opponents in any league matches which are rescheduled.

If I'm reading correctly, it seems that getting rid of midweek fixtures will only increase the profile and viewership of the competition, which is great from a preservation standpoint and makes sense economically.

Moving the final to prior to the last day also means the teams in the final don't lose a week from their offseason. The winner, then getting to play in the community shield, is effectively losing 2+ weeks of rest for players who are being asked to play more games than ever across all competitions.

I don't think change should be made to such a historic competition for it's own sake, but if the above is how they've landed on this decision I think it's only positive. Put simply, I don't think the FA can continue to allow the situation where any club in the top ten of the premier league is playing 3 games a week for 3 months of the season. The solutions that can be controlled from within England are pretty limited.

• you can't control the international game, short of all clubs taking the extreme measure of not allowing players to travel for international friendlies, or games at all, which would guarantee the transfer market plummets in England
• You can't control the decisions of UEFA around their various competitions, which do seem to be getting obnoxiously bloated. Maybe one day it'll reach a tipping point where PL teams pull out but at the moment it is THE competition to win, even the conference league is incredibly meaningful for the clubs participating.
• Aside from sanctions, the FA can't directly make changes to the premier league itself (or the EFL tiers for that matter, or the EFL cup). Potential solutions would include changes to the EFL cup, or at the extreme end reducing the number of teams in the premier league/all top 4 leagues by creating another tier. This would shorten the season significantly but I would argue it's a worse outcome than changing the cup competitions.
• You're left with changes to the FA cup, which I would argue if it has been done for the reasons I've assumed above, is a positive thing.

Ngl kinda need us to win this game, I've got a lot of shit to get done today and it'll be easier if it starts off well 🤣

Omg what happened I can't watch/listen

People moving away from Microsoft is literally how Microsoft will be held accountable though

Can I interview with you lol - this sounds great!

Yep. I contend that if the crowd weren't absolute babies at the first sniff of of stumbling in all of 2024, we could've come back. Having the fans, who have otherwise been so good the past two years, walking out like that would've been quite demoralising

You're not incorrect but we have nothing if not hopeless optimism (after sleeping on it)

After sleeping on it I feel a lot better. Okay, we really screwed the pooch and this game may have lost us the title. But it was against 4th placed villa, not 14th placed palace. We should have won, it doesn't excuse that piss poor second half performance. What the fuck did Arteta say at half time? But we can still make it happen. We've got a crucial champions league game, and we have 6 games left in the premier league.

This is the guys chance to show their mentality. Do we crumble, like last season after the loss to Brighton? Or do we push the race to the final day, and show that we have continued to improve against the yard stick that is the best team in the world.

The stage of the season we're in now is where we need individual brilliance. We have built our challenge on the strongest defensive core in the league and shared goals. This is a golden opportunity for one of our young players to take the next 6 games by the horns, and find a way to score the goals we need to go all the way.

Yep. The positive is that there are 6 games left to play. In saying that, I'm off the opinion that we always needed to be perfect to win the league. I think expecting city to drop points in the run in is a fools errand. All we can do is hope.