CosbehFox

The overall quality will be worst. Particularly given NRL is on the edge of further expansion. They have to allow it to bed but they need something to keep the bottom interesting as without relegation, there's going to be some dead rubbers.

It's a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv isn't it? I'd question if we were talking about Hapoel Be'er Sheva qualifying it would happen. There's no ban on jewish football fans attending games at Villa Park or in this country. Clubs such as Tottenham will play at Villa Park without incident this season and someone like Ajax will be playing in England next week.

To be fair that's hard to get past given Nigel Woods reappearance and Bradford's IMG scores suddenly improving. But yeah I think it's a fair decision really. So much work to be done with London to get them in any position for SL.

Tbf Wednesday's issues started when Chansiri pissed a load of money up the wall and failed to get promoted. PSR didn't allow him to unsustainably spend and then he tried to be a t**t

Not a lot different from the late 80s really.

This weekend I had my whistlestop trip to Belgium. You'll be unsurprised to know my only delayed train was Leicester to London but at least I got half of the fare back before Sunday night. Eurostar a dream as ever Mechelen - city 80k - Anne Boleyn had a dalliance around there. Very pretty market in the centre of the city. Felt like Belgium without the tourists, more of a locals feel. Very noticeable just how much young people are out drinking and eating compared to the UK. And it looks like they feel safe too. Had an excellent food court. An extraordinary cathedral at the centre of the city. I cycled from Mechelen to pretty much Antwerp, some very pretty villages and scenery. Antwerp - After leaving the extraordinary station, I sort of walked through a lot of nothingness and thought this city was going to be dull. Then I took a single turn and it was a beautiful street. Borderline Parisian in parts - must have been the diamond business what did that. Visited a beautiful brown cafe, Oud Arsenaal. I''ll go into detail about the football side on the groundhopping thread. But a really enjoyable trip, just wish I'd allowed some gap for the constant travel.

Forgot about that!

Beautiful place if you don't sit in a pub all day before Leicester playing there. I suppose it depends what you are after HPF. A bit of a nature, a bit of history, indulging on food?

The banning of Maccabi Tel Aviv fans to Villa Park is a story being made too much of. It's common place right across Europe where police forces believe they may have overwhelmed. It's not particularly unprecedented in the UK either - ourselves back a few years ago were banned from visiting Millwall and vice versa. So we were Birmingham if memory services me correctly. Italian authorities are pulling Schegen rules for 48 hrs soon for the visit for Eintracht Frankfurt and the French authorities have on more than one occasion affectively banned away supporters from city centres (happened to Spurs in Rennes). Commonsense approach.

Storm in a tea cup Away fans being banned for European games due to a threat of violence is as common as anything. PSV are banned for Paris and Frankfurt are banned for Napoli in the coming weeks

Will have a hour to kill Sheffield before Self Esteem at the arena. What’s my best available option for my pint ?

FT's injury list at the moment stacking up. It's the part I ****ing hate about running etc. You work hard, get into some consistency. Body says no - injury or illness.

As if by magic I can feel my throat drying out today which after 439 trains at the weekend, 18k run and 18k bike ride was bound to happen

Nearly 3 years at it but very chuffed with how certain things look. I almost find it a bit weird that I was this big 19 year old who was overweight and underneath that actually quite muscle weak. Now have shape to my arms and shoulders. While the legs are cooking nicely

Common thing called Runners Flu. By stretching yourself hard in training, your immune system gets weaker. As it stands now I’d get the rest, shake off at the weekend. You’d be on a natural taper anyway.

A Westmalle Dubbel in Oud Arsenaal, Antwerp. Draught as well straight from the Monks Proper brown cafe. Tourist just got bollocked for going to the bar and had an old couple tell me they love Guinness

The Belgian training camp this morning had its issues. Decided to cycle to the outskirts of Antwerp. That took me nearly hour. But best long run in a long time. Legs went at 15k but I left the gel to late plus 12 miles on a bike.

Just had an Orval in De Goulden Vis, Mechelen. Pure vibes

Think some of the Greek ones which are tiny and you sit outside in the sun might take some beating. Off memory on Rennes away, Nantes Airport had a proper decent bar

Problem with Antwerp is I’m there on a Sunday and have till about 1pm. The one which scores really high on EBG is closed most of the week. I’ve just popped out for a quick beer and Mechelen is already really impressing.

You two get a room. Are you related? I’ll be coming in from the less light of Norfolk, Thetford. God bless it. Might as well be Essex

That's one my list as well.

Interested to see what Belgium has to offer on the next couple of days. Got a couple in Mechelen and one in Antwerp which look very promising

That list doesn't look extensive - and it's being distributed by Heineken, so I think there will be a few more places.

@Stuntman_Mike https://www.cavedirect.com/blog/post/beamish-comes-to-great-britain-with-cave-direct