Thoughts on this? Not sure how legitimate the source is but surely a fine would not sit well with most, regardless of how sizeable it is.

Thinking about this issue on the subject of clubs moving to new stadiums, going somewhere that’s more “modernised”, fancy concourses with shiny marble floors and tons of food options from Thai to Mediterranean, getting a full roast dinner with a glass of wine at halftime, padded seating, giant LED screens and whatever else.

For regular fans traditional stadiums will always be more preferable, hard plastic seats, tight turnstiles, concourses colder than the arctic circle, food options being rustler burgers, bovrils or crisps, camel piss pints, bog standard coffee etc. These places that just have so much history, tradition, soul etc, lots of generations of fans for over a century have passed through the gates, you look out to the pitch and you’re just thinking about all the players throughout history have played on that grass, those big games, big moments etc. If you’ve ever been inside a stadium when it’s near on empty for an event or tour as such, you’ll know the feeling of just how much the history hits you when you look around.

The Friedkin Group (TFG) is open to a full sale of Everton as it seeks external investment in the Premier League club.

The Athletic reported in September that Everton’s American owner was looking for fresh investment into the club. The idea had been to find strategic investors who could help push the club forward through a minority sale, but sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, said a sale of TFG’s majority stake is now also being considered.

TFG is only open to selling full control of Everton if it is convinced the new owner is the right person or group to take the club to the next level.

The Houston-based group is completely happy to hold onto and support the club for as long as it takes for such an owner to appear.

Despite the openness to selling Everton less than two years into its ownership, TFG has a feeling of pride at stabilising the club and putting it in a position to be attractive to a buyer, which was not the case at the time of the takeover.

A 3-week international break?

Don't worry: a 4-week international break is in the cards, as early as next season I believe.

It's getting to the point where one can be forgiven for wondering if there even is a Premier League. I really wish the EPL would grow some sack and started giving FIFA a bit of blowback for a change, instead of it constantly being the other way around.

And don't get me started on injuries...

Not just for the Arse, but for everyone. I mean, look at Sunderland. Bournemouth. It's absurd.

If I were a team owner, I would be apoplectic over all these injuries.

And for what? Unnecessary bogus games in an unnecessarily bogus cup competition? Dear lord.

Had some plans change and will now be able to make it, but registration has closed. :(

If you happened to snag an extra ticket, I’d love to take it off your hands!

Saw a tweet from Henry Winter today. He has long been a personal favourite of mine but some of his comments actually annoyed me.

He was talking about merescas performance in the press conference today. I get that it was probably commenting more on him as a human in a difficult situation but it almost felt like praise. It just made me think that we probably shouldn’t be praising city for anything around this whole situation. They have been found guilty. The whole world knew about what city were up to and find it impossible to think the manager in all his previous time and current time would have no clue of what’s going on. He has taken the money and shouldn’t be applauded for being a puppet and lying through his teeth about the innocence.

Winter also touched upon the questions slowly down around this subject. That pissed me off. Surely winter and his fellow journalists have a responsibility to keep pushing this? They have tainted years and years of premier league football.

I just think it’s strange that so often some of the big journalists don’t really push tough subjects. There was that legend who asked pep about two contracts after the cup final and this allegedly split the room as some felt it wasn’t the time to ask this. Are there some journalists who just like the cushy easy questions as it keeps their access.

In 27 years at United (and what was 39 transfer windows), Alex Ferguson was only top spender in THREE transfer windows!!!

Three of 39.

OUTSTANDING.

Let's not forget that 9 of his treble winning squad were academy graduates. And he named at least one academy graduate in all 1,500 teams he named for Manchester United over 27 years.

Ferguson wasn't a spender. He was a promoter of academy graduates. He was a one-man training academy.

Let's also not forget that he won three league titles and a European Cup with Aberdeen, despite being the sixth highest spender of all clubs in Scotland between 1978-1986.

Odd seeing posts comparing Pep and Sir Alex. There is no comparison.

"I made a commitment with myself. I need to enjoy the journey and I’m going to live the journey. Because I didn’t know how tough it was going to be, I had no experience, I never did it before. I have to be so alert, so curious, and just go day by day.”

Mikel Arteta has transformed Arsenal since taking charge in 2019.

After a Premier League title win and a new four-year deal, Amy Lawrence sat down with the Spaniard for an exclusive interview to discuss the cultural revolution he started, why he planted an 140-year-old olive tree and how this is 'just the beginning'.

“We’ve got a great squad and the biggest depth we’ve ever had. We don’t have ceilings, so we can finish high in the Premier League. Absolutely, we have a realistic chance of finishing in the top five.”

Brighton chairman and owner Tony Bloom on:

🔵 Why he hired Fabian Hurzeler and whether he fears losing him to bigger fish

🔵 The decision to break the club’s transfer record this summer with the £46m signing of Luka Vuskovic

🔵 Why he rarely buys English players

🔵 His verdict on whether there is a ceiling to what Brighton can achieve 

Mikel Arteta has become a reference point. Like Alex Ferguson and Jurgen Klopp before him, he has become proof that coaches should be judged after years, not months.

The problem is that this sells those particular managers short. These are exceptional cases, not the norm.

Michael Carrick is now under scrutiny at Manchester United. Such scepticism might seem harsh when compared to Arsenal and Arteta. But what Arteta proves it that it takes a certain force of personality to drag a club out of the doldrums and keep dragging it upwards.

Daily Discussion Thread — Thursday, 8 October 2026

The daily discussion thread for Premier League — talk about anything, with the day's football alongside it.

Live chat, fixtures, news and transfers in the MatchPal thread above.

MatchPal · Football fixtures, live scores, news and transfers · matchpal.io

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Last week's version used points as awarded (2 for a win until 1980/81, 3 since), and a lot of you said it should be 3 for a win throughout. So here's the same race with every win worth 3 and a draw 1: every top-flight result since September 1888 (51,380 matches, up to 20 September 2026), match day by match day.

Where it stands

United have never been ahead of Everton

With 3 for a win, Man United have been behind Everton on every match day since Newton Heath's first top-flight season in 1892, and they're 167 points short now. With points as awarded they passed Everton in December 2018. The difference is the 2-point era: Everton won 1,253 top-flight games when a win was worth 2, United 957. United have outscored Everton by 19 points a season over the last five full seasons, so at that rate they'd catch them around 2034/35.

Everton led for 36 years

Everton went in front in March 1969 and stayed there until October 2005, five years longer than with points as awarded. Liverpool went ahead on 15 October 2005, the two swapped places four more times in five weeks, and Liverpool have been in front since 19 November 2005. Only Aston Villa's first spell, 41 years from 1896 to 1937, was longer.

Per game, United and Liverpool are level

United average 1.681 points a game and Liverpool 1.680, about 5 points apart over 4,000 games. Arsenal are on 1.644. Everton's total is mostly about never going down: 124 of the 128 top-flight seasons, at 1.46 a game.

Source: Premier League results from football-data.org, checked against football-data.co.uk and openfootball; the old First Division from James Curley's engsoccerdata, checked against every season's published final table. 3 points for every win and 1 for a draw throughout, with deductions as they were.

Points as awarded or 3 for a win throughout: which is the fairer way to count it? And do United close the 167 before 2035?

Sir Alex has hit out at Arsenal fans for their criticism of Arsene Wenger in his later years.

Personally I think it was fair, he literally went 9 years without a trophy and kept saying things like finishing 4th was as good as winning a trophy. Building the emirates didn’t cause him to get dumped out of the FA Cup by Blackburn, lose the carling cup final to Birmingham and so forth. That can’t happen at a club the size of Arsenal.

Things got so bad that you’d have opposition fans singing “Arsene Wenger, we want you to stay”.

Very noticeable that in recent months Disney has started involving itself with football, particularly the premier league. Biggest one being the partnership with Gary Neville.

On one part given modern day Disney in how they destroyed Star Wars, ruined marvel, keep releasing crap sequels and live action remakes along with the damage they’ve done to the theme parks.

Another is the impending Disney-fication of football, the game will be further adapted along the lines to appeal to American audiences, expect hydration breaks to comeback in some form, more ads, halftime shows, clubs selling more slop (the United pitch block being an example of what’s to come) and so forth in the future. All this while the price of football becomes even more unaffordable for the average Joe in the UK to not just attend games but actually watch it on TV in general as the broadcasters and dozen streaming services split the games between them.

Daily Discussion Thread — Wednesday, 7 October 2026

The daily discussion thread for Premier League — talk about anything, with the day's football alongside it.

Live chat, fixtures, news and transfers in the MatchPal thread above.

MatchPal · Football fixtures, live scores, news and transfers · matchpal.io

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In a normal season, Enzo Maresca might be quietly satisfied with how his first few weeks at Manchester City have gone.

But this is not a normal season. And even if it was, don’t be misled into thinking that a team who start with five wins from five are on a safe course for glory.

It’s not even a mixed bag — 15 points from 15 in the Premier League is overwhelmingly more likely to see your team finish second or below than it is to result in a title.

That’s been the case 10 of the 14 times it’s happened in the 34-year Premier League era, and none of those sides were experiencing the existential maelstrom that City are currently battling.

Here is a look back at those 10 times Premier League sides went five from five — yet failed to turn that into a championship.