Heartland

This time last week was all calm and normal... We now have one less Mourinho, which has made me quite hopeful again. Unusually, though, other events managed to thrust him into the shadows. The owners of 6 clubs disgraced themselves and damaged the reputations of their clubs with fans, sponsors, governing bodies, politicians, other clubs, and THEIR OWN players and managers. That's some going. Why not one of them saw the universal condemnation coming is beyond me - the lure of money and other sport business models is possible to understand as a motive for trying it on. However, the complete lack of regard for the human element of football was crass in the extreme. Our game is ours to love and live - it is not the financiers' plaything. Had the clubs not pulled out on Tuesday we could feasibly have had player strikes by now - there was a club captains' meeting already scheduled but in the end it wasn't needed.
Hearts were broken by these rich men's actions. Liverpool's owners commemmorated the fans who died watching their club last Thursday, then announced the ESL move within days, showing a staggering lack of empathy. All six owners and boards woefully underestimated the strength of feeling their current base holds on the subject. A business model only caters for docile and tractable consumers, you see, not for passionate supporters with dreams and hopes. They are all so damned lucky that there are no fans allowed in stadiums right now, but that won't stop gatherings outside.
I can go back to watching Spurs now, at least, but the sour taste is doubled. I did wonder if they would get a new decent manager with ESL going on...

Anyway, this week's fixtures:

Friday 23 April 2021

Arsenal 20:00 Everton Protests. On the pitch and off. Everton will win.
UK - Sky Sports

Saturday 24 April 2021

Liverpool 12:30 Newcastle More protests. I suspect Newcastle won't go down easily.
UK - BT Sport
Queens Park Rangers 15:00 Norwich City Oh come ON Norwich... the title is just over this goal line just here
Not On The Blumming Telly
West Ham 17:30 Chelsea Hmm hard to call. Chelsea have had an emotional battering.
UK - Sky Sports
Sheffield Utd 20:00 Brighton That's the Blades done and dusted. Brighton not looking bad.
UK - Sky Sports

Sunday 25 April 2021

Wolves 12:00 Burnley I'll be having my lunch, so it'll probably be a scorcher
UK - BBC
Leeds 14:00 Man Utd Ooer. Given the rivalry, and Leeds not being smeared with ESL, I can see this one getting quite tasty. Fans in the stadium could have been well tricky given the circs. Leeds are going to win and probably be quite smug.
UK - Sky Sports
Aston Villa 19:00 West Brom Villa unlucky to lose against City - great 23 second goal! The Baggies playing tonight which might be more of a pointer.
UK - BT Sport

Monday 26 April 2021

Leicester 20:00 Crystal Palace Umm... well... draw?
UK - Sky Sports

No Spurs or City, as they're poncing about at Wembley on Sunday for a Cup that no one cares about except for a route into Eur... oh. Shhh.
Southampon and Fulham recharging batteries too.

Right then. Hey Ho, Let's Go! Teams at the ready!

What the hell Liverpool?

I am pleased to report that Norwich gained 3 points today. 2 more points needed..

Had to call some professionals to help with my FPL team

Do you have all Wolves players?

emilystrange wrote: ↑25 Apr 2021, 14:18 Do you have all Wolves players?

Thankfully not.
But my picks this week have not been optimal.
At all

it's a common trend this GW

Hello! I thought I'd give Pista and Mav conniptions by posting the tables on the day they're finalised and just before the next GW starts. It's been a funny old week at Strange Mansions, so I thought I'd keep going with that theme.
Let's see now... what did occur? It wasn't a high scoring week, with 4 teams not playing.


Arsenal 0-1 Everton There were protests and the Toffees did win. Leno's own goal could be MOTD's goal of the month. Superb effort. Pickford did well to, in the Bonus points.

Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle Toon didn't go down easily at all. Early goal from Salah looked promising but It was a facepalm moment when Toon equalised, after Dubravka had made 8 saves at the other end. Perhaps just forget about this season a bit, Reds?

Queens Park Rangers 1- 3 Norwich City Quintilla! Aarons! Buendia! McLean! You beauties! 2 more points, boys. And Dykes missed a penalty before he did score for QPR.

West Ham 0-1 Chelsea Chelsea piulled themselves together and wonder of miracles, Werner scored. Not sure where that came from. Balbuena's red card now rescinded but that did cause a discussion or too - mostly on his side. Fabianski did his best with 5 saves but all Bonus points to the Blues.

Sheffield Utd 1-0 Brighton Oooh, a Blades win and all the Bonus points.

Wolves 0-4 Burnley Loads of goals and a hat trick for Wood - good ones, too. Wolves really off the boil this season and rumours of manager problems have been seen.

Leeds 0-0 Man Utd Probably for the best. 5 yellows, mostly for Leeds. Meslier's save from Rashford should have got all the Bonuses. It wasn't goalless through lack of effort.

Aston Villa 2-2 West Brom 9 saves from WB's Johnstone! Own goal for Mings! Local Derby written all over it in a good old fashioned kind of way.

Leicester 2-1 Crystal Palace It was very nearly a draw but that Iheanacho goal really was something else. He's on fire!


Apart from that, Spurs still don't have a manager and it's not school holidays yet.

The tables! IGM still winning



The Yellow Jersey is still with Brian Munich



Ederson Volleys and Real SoSo Bad tie for the Bigh Shout Out this week with 59



Over on the H2H, it's getting quite tight in the run-in



And the Crown is crammed firmly on Bad Sasquatch's bonce. Has he had a lockdown haircut?



Right, off you go - SOULEI is on! Steve opened the Shed.