Premier League 2025/26 Thread

[Torquay Gunner]

37 minutes ago, Lionator said:

Honestly martinelli should be sent off for that. You get players sent off for honest 50/50 challenges then you have a player pushing a player knowing he has a potential serious leg injury. 

Out of order, he should be apologising for that.

[foxfanazer]

The annoying thing is he won't be able to be retrospectively banned as he picked up a yellow for it. All to get some brownie points from the home fans because he's doggo 

[StanSP]

Martinelli has always been a bit of a dickhead. 

 

But now he's gone up a level thanks to being managed by Arteta. 

[Tuna]

Martinelli deserves a long retrospective ban for his shameful actions tonight.

[PhillippaT]

I need to ask the wife is really have to support Arsenal...  :-/  

[Nalis]

Cant believe some of Arsenal fans online are defending Martinelli, absolute rat.

[Finnegan]

1 hour ago, Nalis said:

Cant believe some of Arsenal fans online are defending Martinelli, absolute rat.

 

I'll defend Martinelli. In fact, I think the opposition manager defending Martinelli said it better than I could. 

 

He obviously thought Bradley was time wasting which is a pretty reasonable assumption. 

 

As soon as he actually calmed down and realised, he was mortified and went and apologised and by all accounts was very sweet about it. 

 

Slot is right, the wider problem is the time wasting and play acting of footballers in general. The fact it was such a reasonable assumption for him to think Bradley was time wasting is the bigger problem. 

 

[goose2010]

7 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I'll defend Martinelli. In fact, I think the opposition manager defending Martinelli said it better than I could. 

 

He obviously thought Bradley was time wasting which is a pretty reasonable assumption. 

 

As soon as he actually calmed down and realised, he was mortified and went and apologised and by all accounts was very sweet about it. 

 

Slot is right, the wider problem is the time wasting and play acting of footballers in general. The fact it was such a reasonable assumption for him to think Bradley was time wasting is the bigger problem. 

 

tend to agree. IF you watch Bradley he does shuffle back onto the pitch (as that is what they are told to do) so it was obviously going to look like you are time wasting. 

 

They need to do something as it will kick off in a bad way at some point. 

Edited 9 January by goose2010

[Fox92]

I didn't watch the game, just seen the highlights. People acting as if Martinelli nearly killed him  He tried to shove him off the pitch, lots of players have done that before, unfortunately Bradley was/is injured and not faking like usual players.

 

Can't have it both ways. We moan about players laying down and wasting time then we moan when players take action. People calling for a red card, give over  

 

I'm fed up of seeing players waste time, happens every single game. Players get down and pretend they are injured. I'm only surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

Edited 9 January by Fox92

[goose2010]

11 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

I didn't watch the game, just seen the highlights. People acting as if Martinelli nearly killed him  He tried to shove him off the pitch, lots of players have done that before, unfortunately Bradley was/is injured and not faking like usual players.

 

Can't have it both ways. We moan about players laying down and wasting time then we moan when players take action. People calling for a red card, give over  

 

I'm fed up of seeing players waste time, happens every single game. Players get down and pretend they are injured. I'm only surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

creeping in even more now too with clubs getting their goalkeepers to go down. They should say that if the keeper goes down injured then no player is allowed to interact with the bench / managers. The ball is hardly in play currently and now it just seems to be getting worse. 

[Torquay Gunner]

Some over the top comments here based I suspect purely on dislike of Arsenal/Arteta.  Martinelli made a mistake in the heat of the moment and promptly apologised for it.  Nothing more to see. Gary Neville is an utter imbecile btw for these comments 

"Honestly, I don't know how the Liverpool players didn't go over there and whack him, to be honest with you, and take a red card. Absolutely disgraceful, that."

Edited 9 January by Torquay Gunner

[Foxdiamond]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

I didn't watch the game, just seen the highlights. People acting as if Martinelli nearly killed him  He tried to shove him off the pitch, lots of players have done that before, unfortunately Bradley was/is injured and not faking like usual players.

 

Can't have it both ways. We moan about players laying down and wasting time then we moan when players take action. People calling for a red card, give over  

 

I'm fed up of seeing players waste time, happens every single game. Players get down and pretend they are injured. I'm only surprised this kind of thing doesn't happen more often.

It is not for players to decide who is time wasting and taking action. The clock should be stopped and time keeping be more like Rugby League

[goose2010]

8 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

It is not for players to decide who is time wasting and taking action. The clock should be stopped and time keeping be more like Rugby League

would love them to at least trial it, with the ball in play for 90 minutes. I imagine it would end up going on for 4-5 hours though! 

[Fox92]

27 minutes ago, Foxdiamond said:

It is not for players to decide who is time wasting and taking action. The clock should be stopped and time keeping be more like Rugby League

Doesn't work like that though does it. Players continue to waste time with no action against them. So when someone truly is injured nobody knows if it's real. Most times a player goes down near the side of the pitch, fans are screaming for the player to be moved off of the pitch.

 

Not saying it's up to the player to decide but he's hardly done anything. The reactions are over the top.

[Nalis]

I have to disagree. Time wasting and faking injury is an obvious issue in football but I dont see how giving one player the green light to potentially cause further injury to a player not faking an injury is justified because different players fake injuries and time waste. But thats just me. 

[kenny]

2 hours ago, Finnegan said:

 

I'll defend Martinelli. In fact, I think the opposition manager defending Martinelli said it better than I could. 

 

He obviously thought Bradley was time wasting which is a pretty reasonable assumption. 

 

As soon as he actually calmed down and realised, he was mortified and went and apologised and by all accounts was very sweet about it. 

 

Slot is right, the wider problem is the time wasting and play acting of footballers in general. The fact it was such a reasonable assumption for him to think Bradley was time wasting is the bigger problem. 

 

I remember Nils Eric Johanson offering to help an opposition player stretch their hamstring and instead rolled them off the pitch.

 

He jumped to remonstrate with the ref.

 

I recall it was a real highlight of the Levein years.

[Foxdiamond]

50 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Doesn't work like that though does it. Players continue to waste time with no action against them. So when someone truly is injured nobody knows if it's real. Most times a player goes down near the side of the pitch, fans are screaming for the player to be moved off of the pitch.

 

Not saying it's up to the player to decide but he's hardly done anything. The reactions are over the top.

I agree the lack of action against time wasting is an issue. In this instance the player had no need to get involved and was a snide thing to do bouncing the ball off the injured player and then pushing him. Not crime of the century but not a good look

[Number 6]

Switching to two 30 min halves of ball in play time solves a lot of these issues.

[pkonline]

Interesting to read that even now Brighton are posting large losses

 

Brighton news: 2024-25 accounts - Tony Bloom reaction - BBC Sport https://share.google/Uw60cqzyAMhe2LK0g

 

A good reflection on how even "well run clubs" struggle and the bubble bursts.

 

Genuinely don't think the current system in English football works - the money is ridiculous. 

 

[Super_horns]

40 minutes ago, pkonline said:

Interesting to read that even now Brighton are posting large losses

 

Brighton news: 2024-25 accounts - Tony Bloom reaction - BBC Sport https://share.google/Uw60cqzyAMhe2LK0g

 

A good reflection on how even "well run clubs" struggle and the bubble bursts.

 

Genuinely don't think the current system in English football works - the money is ridiculous. 

 

He probably keeps them going along .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[slymunn]

58 minutes ago, pkonline said:

Interesting to read that even now Brighton are posting large losses

 

Brighton news: 2024-25 accounts - Tony Bloom reaction - BBC Sport https://share.google/Uw60cqzyAMhe2LK0g

 

A good reflection on how even "well run clubs" struggle and the bubble bursts.

 

Genuinely don't think the current system in English football works - the money is ridiculous. 

 

Its nothing to do with a struggle. They have a lot of money they can use in the three year cycle, so have chosen to spend the money. When it gets to the summer they will sell one or two players for big money, as it takes three bad years to be in a bad place.

 

As of reports from mid-2025, Brighton has an estimated PSR headroom of around £295m (or even up to £448m by some calculations), which is believed to be the largest in the Premier League. This means they can afford substantial losses over the three-year monitoring period without facing penalties.

 

They are up around 50 million on fees from the summer of 2025, and they will sell Baleba for 100m or something in the summer too.

Edited 9 January by slymunn

[Corky]

Surely the fact Bradley stayed down after the ball was thrown at him was a clue it was more than just wasting time?

 

Martinelli went over the top.

[Super_horns]

Ole at the wheel again ?

Having talks tomorrow.

[Fear Of The Fox]

1 hour ago, Corky said:

Surely the fact Bradley stated down after the ball was thrown at him was a clue it was more than just wasting time?

 

Martinelli went over the top.

You don't need to be a medical expert to realise right away that Bradley did some kind of damage to his ACL. Martinelli was there and the video shows exactly that he looked how Bradley damaged his ligaments. 

The excuses from Slot are pathetic. "He didn't realise". Yeah sure. 

The problem nowadays is that the majority of all these managers, players etc are like politicians. Liars who think we're idiots. 

I really hope this modern football bubble blows up soon. 

[CosbehFox]

Rosensior is going to be incredibly cringe in his media stuff isn’t he?