Man City are essentially getting kicked out of the Champions League because they spent £25m on Wilfried Bony. That is phenomenal
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Matthew Stanger
@MatthewStanger
Creative Director & . Previous: , , , , ,
United KingdomJoined January 2010
Matthew Stanger’s posts
When you and your brother-in-law have got each other the same FCUK gift set
Ben Brereton looks exactly like you’d expect a man born in Stoke-on-Trent to look playing in the Copa America
Chelsea loaning out Hudson-Odoi and bringing in Gordon for £60m has broken my head. Nothing in football has ever made less sense than this.
Won the league on FM with 36 goals in 38 matches. Is this really my idea of fun? Playing attritional football, grinding out 1-0 wins in a virtual game where I can implement literally any attacking style I want? Yes. Yes it is
Can’t believe Wallace from The Wire now owns Bournemouth. This is the ending I always wanted for that kid.
“Cancel Christmas? Nah, I’m not worried about that. I mean, yeah, cases are rising but they’ve said it’d be inhuman to cancel it haven’t they? Ain’t gonna happen.”
I signed this guy on FM and played him for 9 seasons thinking he was a regen. Blown my mind that he’s a real person.
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Chelsea are set to sign Cesare Casadei from Inter in a deal worth $20M, per @FabrizioRomano
The 19-year-old midfielder had 17 goals and 5 assists for Inter’s reserves last season 
Scott Parker’s cardigan cost him £4.58 for every minute he wore it on the touchline
Incredible time-wasting effort from Deyverson in the last minute of the Copa Libertadores final 😅
0:15
My sister went to a 40th birthday last night with a Blackburn Rovers cake… which was clearly made by a Burnley fan who put claret & blue icing in the middle. Regrettably have to respect it 😅
Lee Cattermole has been a great servant for Sunderland. He can leave with his shorts held high.
Three men marking Messi. Or 0.0009% of Iceland's population.
Everything about Mitchel Bakker screams regen with 4 star potential
According to Simon Jordan, when Palace sacked Trevor Francis on this day in 2003, "He just sat there quietly & said 'But it's my birthday'."
It’s 10 years since Venkys bought Blackburn Rovers
Here’s a thread on the absolute chaos of their first 2.5 years in charge:
Has Neil Warnock done enough to earn a place in the Judges’ House?
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BREAKING: Andrea Agnelli has reportedly resigned as President of Juventus.
If you’re wondering what happened to Dappy from N-Dubz, this is him now
🇨🇱 Hinchas Chilenos, bienvenidos a Blackburn 🇨🇱
Vamos Chile y vamos Ben Brereton Díaz 🔥
0:57
Why didn't Keys just buy Sky?
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Well said @rioferdy5 
. If Rafa loves Newcastle as he says - spend some of his own money. He’s got enough. Management is about teamwork - why should it always be Ashley? Buy it. It’s still for sale. They’re in the bottom 3 & Rafa is responsible. He picks the team.
. If Rafa loves Newcastle as he says - spend some of his own money. He’s got enough. Management is about teamwork - why should it always be Ashley? Buy it. It’s still for sale. They’re in the bottom 3 & Rafa is responsible. He picks the team.This genuinely makes me so happy. The lad’s having the time of his life
I can’t believe how low-key the Ronaldo announcement is. He looks like a youtuber revealing the next save he’s going to attempt on Football Manager
Tom Huddlestone has to be pretty close to the first XI at this stage
"I found Ben on FM at 5am. And then everything blew up."
Stoke-born striker Ben Brereton has been tearing it up at the Copa America -- but his adventure all started with 🇨🇱
3:40
From
Good thing for Barcelona is that Koeman has shown he can deal with club legends departing when Everton lost Tony Hibbert and Leon Osman in the same summer
Harsh of Fifa to ban Chelsea just because they spent 34 million actual pounds on Danny Drinkwater
When it’s 10am on Christmas Day and no one’s up yet twitter.com/AprilBreed/sta
If South Korea win and progress on fair play because Darwin Nuñez got a yellow card for scuffing up the penalty spot, it’ll be the most Darwin Nuñez thing to ever happen
As many have said, the One Love armband was a meek idea to begin with - but the threat of sanctions actually gave it some power. If England, Wales, the Netherlands etc had stood together and said they’d take the punishment, it would have put FIFA in an embarrassing position.
Suggestion for the fairest way to end the season: just take the form table for the past 3 matches.
Congrats to Crystal Palace on a first Premier League title 🏆
Looks like Quique Sánchez Flores told Watford to treat the game like a cup final
Just remembered the last Ajax manager to come to the Premier League
Wonder if Liverpool and Chelsea will try to split him in a year’s time
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We are pleased to confirm the signing of 18-year-old defender Noel Atom, who will join our under-21s squad. 
Divock
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to choose UNUSUAL name for baby that UNIFIES the US and UK
express.co.uk/news/uk/112313
Chelsea have spent more than £270m on forwards since losing Jamal Musiala to Bayern Munich for £200k
If you were managing Manchester United anyway, you’re doing FM wrong
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Football Manager players will no longer be able to manage 'Manchester United', following a settlement between the club and the games developer Sports Interactive.
Struggling to comprehend why grown men are working themselves into a rage about Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford enjoying their holiday
So many highlights to this commentary:
- Brereton being called “un crack”
- “Chi Chi Chi Ben Ben Ben”
- “Where does he play again?” “Blackburn Rovers” 😂
1:38
From
Jorge Molina
Just hope Adrian can live up to the heights he reached at West Ham
Going to start keeping a list of the real problems at Man United, as addressed on here. So far we’ve got:
1 - Lingard and Rashford enjoying their holiday
2 - Rashford, one of the best young players in the world, signing a new contract
3 - Ashley Young carrying a box of Uno cards
FM scouting be like
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Goal - TARGETT
Assist - YOUNG
Crystal Palace 0-1 Aston Villa (15 mins)
#FPL #CRYAVL
Ben Brereton-Díaz with a 25-minute hat-trick for Chile last night… he’s going to do a Forlán at Villarreal isn’t he
1:08
From
CHV Noticias
Has anyone had a worse week than that River Plate fan whose giant QR code tattoo now links to a video that has been taken down from YouTube
Ben Brereton Díaz just took Diego Godin to the cleaners to set up the opening goal for Chile. This story is incredible, just keeps getting better 😅
Emiliano Martinez says his dad has been calling him every 5 minutes to say “be relaxed”
What a great way to keep him calm
Ivanovic giving both David Luiz and Willian a West Brom shirt. Finally, a present worse than Lynx Africa
The only English-born striker to find the net tonight, 5,000 miles away from Wembley ✈️
It’s like Sean Dyche is playing civilization and new parts of the map keep appearing as playable territories
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Burnley have submitted a bid to sign Wolfsburg's Wout Weghorst 
and are confident of completing a deal for the Dutch striker – Negotiating personal terms. #BurnleyFC #Wolfsburg
(via @TheAthleticUK
)
0:08
From
BetVictor
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What’s your biggest 'I saw that goal live' flex? 
Can we get this commentator for Rovers matches next season?? twitter.com/FutbolChampag1
John Stones.
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First player you think of?
#UCL
Bournemouth have been searching for a permanent manager longer than Liz Truss was PM
Just Arturo Vidal, one of the greatest midfielders of all time, giving striker Ben Brereton Díaz a shout-out on his Instagram story. You love to see it 💙
When Grant Hanley was at Blackburn everyone raved about him being the next Phil Jones. They were right.
We all owe Birmingham an apology for laughing when they retired Bellingham’s number. They knew.
There are Rovers fans who lumped on Brereton Díaz to score 20+ goals at 1000/1 this season. He’s on 10 in 11 games…
Camavinga joining Real Madrid confirms that I’ll be able to loan him for 10 consecutive seasons before finally signing him on a free in FM22
While this chaos goes on at La Liga HQ, I'm picturing an old fax machine rebooting in the corner, finally printing out the De Gea agreement.
I’ve played Football Manager for 22 years and without fail I still wake up every morning throughout November thinking “I must restore Sporting Lisbon to their former glory”
Mad that Fulham spent £100m last summer and Ryan Babel is their best player
Today's just got a lot worse for Petr Cech, who's driven his car into a pillar on the car park. Looks a write-off.
There surely won’t be a worse signing this winter than Sheffield United paying £22m for a Genk reserve who’s scored 4 goals in 72 games in Belgium.
When they’ve got Madrí on draught but you’re obliged to tell the lads it’s just another standard lager
At Spurs where I've just seen a man drop his sunglasses in the urinal and put them straight back on his face. It's not even that sunny.