Malenko

I've actually seen the presets live in Brisbane and it was cool, but I can safely say I've never listened to any of their albums, ever. I like Bloc Party, but that song not so much. I like their first album a lot, and Four too. I also like them live. It feels like the 2000s are moving really slowly. They have loads of songs from that decade in the book.

Sorry, I forgot. Can I still bet on the last 2? Brighton 0-1 Leicester City Tottenham 0-0 Chelsea

Is this Damian Abraham Fucked up? I didn't know they had a new album.

It worked.

Brentford 2-1 Brighton (Sat 3pm)Leicester 0-1 Man City (Sat 3pm)Southampton 0-1 West Ham (Sat 3pm)Watford 1-1 Wolves (Sat 3pm)Leeds 2-2 Liverpool (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Mine are Turnstile - Glow On and The Armed - Ultrapop. I also like the new Descendents, but it's not really new material so I won't include it. Now, stuff I don't know so well, but liked: Black Country New Road, Parannoul, Squid and Shame. Black Country New Road, Parannoul and Squid were all bands I listened to a full album for the first time. I liked all 3. I heard Squid's album because someone else posted it on EWB, actually. I had listened to Shame previously but not a lot and liked the new album, so I'm including it in this list. About some of the albums mentioned in posts above, Foo Fighters new album has terrible reviews but I actually like it. More than anything they did apart from their first one, to be honest. On the poppier side of things, Halsey's is cool. I liked it. Billie's is a bit different but still, most who liked their previous album will like this one, I guess. Lorde is completely different. It's definitely not for me. It can be for you though.

True. As I said, some people see it that way. If he plays well, it will still be a great deal. In fact, they won a title while he was in Barcelona, so it could be said his absence didn't even affect them that much.

Griezmann's negotiations have been in the papers since may. It took a while. Some people actually say Atleti paid too much, given how much Barça wanted to get rid of his wages.

He was a legend of the genre indeed. I'm happy I saw him live when he was still a good performer. I don't listen to much radio but there was a radio show fully dedicated to him (2 hours of his songs and other songs he produced). It was cool. I don't listen to much reggae/rocksteady/dub these days but it was a nice throwback. Personally, I'm more of a fan of the Upsetters, his original band. They were more traditional reggae and a bit ska and rocksteady in their first albums, but his solo work, which as you say, helped pioneer dub music, is really good.

Yes, but with no disrespect to the Italian league, at the moment it's not as strong as the english or spanish leagues (at least while he played there). Ronaldo at his peak which I would say was between 2011/16 would score over a goal por game and some 50 goals a season while still playing a fake Left wing position. He's not able to do as much now - even though he plays more like an out and out striker these days - and it's easy to see when you watch him play. His last couple of years with Madrid were already a bit worse. Again, I didn't say he's just crap now. I did say he's still very good at what he does but at some point in his career he was arguably the number 2 in the world, and he's not at that level anymore. The name Ronaldo still carries weight and it comes with the memories of all the goals he scored the last decade. I think some (I would even say many) people would be expecting that and they're probably not getting that. As for Bruno, I think that'll mostly depend on the manager. As you can see, Ronaldo's NT goalscoring increased since the new manager arrived because he has the team play for him at all times. Even though there was a slight decline in goals at club level he started banging them in (if you just check the stats) for Portugal, as if he was actually improving and reaching his peak. When you actually watch those goals, it's not hard to see why he's scoring more now. I'm pretty sure if Bruno is allowed to play the way he did last season for Man Utd it wouldn't affect him THAT much.

Electropop is quite big in Europe so they're never really quickly forgotten in some places. Radios won't allow it. A bit like apart from ginormous names, most famous american hip hop acts barely get any airplay in Europe. It's a regional thing, I think. It was the first time I heard the last song in this group too. It's the first song I definitely never heard n the last 10 pages or so. This bunch isn't for me. I don't really care about any of them. I agree Christina Aguilera belongs in the book though but is this really her first song in the book? I don't remember.

I have no doubt Cristiano Ronaldo can still be useful, but, while still very good, he is no longer the ridiculous goal scorer he was in his peak years in Madrid. I know people know this but I just feel no matter what he does it will feel like a disappointment, because people may be expecting him to do things he hasn't done in a while. It seems very likely he'll end up at Man Utd now. City are out.

If Spurs don't get out of the group with any of the possible combinations...

I like the song too but thanks for the warning. I'm not watching the video.

I know it has been like that for a while but as someone who started watching football in the late 80s and early 90s, it's still weird to see AC Milan in the "you've done well to get this far" pot.

It's not confusing. I just didn't know what you were talking about. Sorry. I just read Barça and Spain just gave him 2 weeks off because he's an 18 year old who played about 10 games more than anyone else this season, but didn't know anything about it until now.

Uh?

Pedri is great but going to the olympics after the euros might have been a mistake. He seemed tired almost the whole match and the season just started.

Man City 2-0 Arsenal (Sat 12.30pm, BT)Newcastle 1-2 Southampton (Sat 3pm)Norwich 1-0 Leicester (Sat 3pm)West Ham 2-1 Crystal Palace (Sat 3pm)Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea (Sat 5.30pm, Sky)

It is!

Crystal Palace 3-1 Brentford (Sat 3pm)Leeds 1-1 Everton (Sat 3pm)Brighton 2-0 Watford (Sat 5.30pm, Sky)Wolves 0-1 Tottenham (Sun 2pm, Sky)Arsenal 2-0 Chelsea (Sun 4.30pm, Sky)

Oooh. Nice! I went to a couple, both seating and I didn't enjoy it half as much as I would have under those circumstances. Stopped going because of it. If things are changing, I'll definitely consider going to a few more.

Seated?

That's the thing. It doesn't necessarily increase every year, but the 2 massive clubs never had to worry with any of that because theirs did. Their revenues have assured them all their transfer market mistakes would never be too costly from a financial standpoint. I remember reading back in 2019 Barcelona topped all clubs in revenues but that was until the last couple of years where everything drastically changed.

The salary cap doesn't apply to signings. It applies to your full squad. They call it "Coste de Plantilla" (Squad value/cost). This includes all players registered to play for them in La Liga. The registration part is key and is also the reason why they have a few new players under contract for the new season which would still get them above the salary cap but those don't matter at the moment because they aren't registered yet. Basically when all those players you mentioned got contract extensions, the 2021/22 Coste de Plantilla still wasn't above what it needs to be because it didn't include Messi yet as he wasn't under contract for 2021/22. Besides, ter Stegen and de Jong (not sure about Lenglet) accepted paycuts so their "cost" will actually be below what it had been this season anyway. Had they signed Messi - even at 50% of his original salary - they wouldn't be able to register quite a few of their squad next year because as has been mentioned before, he's not the only one being paid a noticeable percentage of the cap. Why was he allowed to pay with such high wages last season then? La Liga's salary cap depends on how much you can get back. Barcelona's cap pre-Covid was higher than it is now, because they've had significantly lower revenue last season.