Grapeviney

OK, it's time to preserve what's left of this once-great thread and resurrect the good vibes that permeated it at the beginning. All contract talk should go in the Jesse Hogan Panic Room, a new thread where you can convince yourself and others that's he's staying or going based on facial expressions, astrology & tarot card readings, conversations with taxi drivers and media beat-ups. Please leave this thread for footy talk and all non-contract-related discussion.

^^^ Thanks for the link, Macca, hadn't seen that. The dollars involved are just staggering, and it's easy to see how players in other top European leagues will be lured to the EPL if salaries jump commensurately to the value of the broadcast deal. Not sure what UEFA can do about it though..?

I'm partly to blame. For the 3rd time this season, I've tuned in late during a Spurs game only to see them concede a goal and either lose or draw. Woke at about 6.30am today, checked the score on my mobile, and debated whether I should watch the closing stages - sure enough, Hazard scored about 30 seconds after I turned on the telly. I only saw the end of the game but Spurs were playing feral football and there was a dust-up in the tunnel as the teams left the pitch. Well done to the Foxes - they are deserving winners after a very consistent season. City host Arsenal next weekend as the fight for Champions League spots continues, bearing in mind they also play Real on Thursday in the return match at the Bernabeu.

Some good news for soccer supporters with Foxtel set to launch 3 new channels from BeIN Sports in the next few weeks as part of the sports pack. That means we get Euro 2016, Champions, Europa, some Brazilian football and all the best European leagues aside from the EPL. Given that BeIN has previously only been available as an ad-on that costs extra, this would suggest a lot of people were threatening to cancel Foxtel after they lost the rights to the Premier League.

Tottenham continue to keep the pressure on Leicester, thrashing Stoke 4-0 overnight, with Harry Kane kicking a ripping goal similar to the one he scored against Arsenal a couple of months ago. But with Spurs scheduled to play on Monday nights in all but the last of their remaining games, the Foxes have the psychological advantage of playing first and being masters of their own destiny.

As in the other Jesse thread, I've edited some posts to remove personal / family information. Please respect the sensitivities around this. Thanks

And win they did, Macca. Still a nervous few weeks ahead in the East Midlands but the Foxes are almost over the line now, needing no more than 12 points from their remaining six matches: @ Sunderland; Hammers; Swansea; @ United; Everton; @ Chelsea. Gunners have a game in hand but like Spurs, they can't afford to drop a point going forward and even that might not be enough to spoil Ranieri's party. A Leicester premiership really would be the stuff of dreams, and the best thing about it - for us as MFC supporters anyway - is that it shows sporting miracles can happen!

Tottenham's first half - admittedly against weak opposition - was as good as I've seen them play, the type of football you expect from champion teams, and Harry Kane is in white-hot form. The Manchester derby was underwhelming, and neither City nor United seem capable of catching the Foxes, although both (along with Arsenal and West Ham) have an extra game in hand. It will all be academic if Leicester can keep winning.

Had a wedding in Sydney last night so only just caught up with the action now, after avoiding the scores all day. Given the circumstances, Arsenal will be relieved while Spurs will see it as a golden opportunity that got away. Kane's goal was a beauty, and with momentum on their side, Tottenham really should have gone on with it from there. Looks like it was a cracking finish from your boys at Goodison Park, Macca.

Massive week coming up, with Leicester in the box seat to maintain top spot and even increase their lead over their challengers. City (@Liverpool) and Tottenham (@West Ham) both have tough midweek matches, with Spurs then hosting Arsenal on the weekend, while the Foxes would be expecting to win against both West Bromwich and Watford. City took out the first piece of silverware for the year, beating Liverpool on penalties in the League Cup final.

He won't just start in the centre square, he'll get the first clearance.

Incidentally, the Herald Sun follow-up story to the Age article quotes the Melbourne-based rep from his management agency and has a more pro-MFC spin to it, for those reading the tea leaves.

I'm tempted to open up a separate thread - a Jesse Hogan panic room - where those who have misunderstood this latest development can gather and stress each other out, leaving this thread for its intended purpose, which is to celebrate the great man and marvel at his feats.

I noticed that the soccer team I support is playing the soccer team you support at my team's home ground in a couple of weeks. Do you think Arsene will field his strongest side or are you guys just concentrating on the FA Cup again this year? On a serious note, Macca's point about the diminished status of that competition was on display over the weekend, with City sending out a bunch of kids to be thrashed by Chelsea, and Arsenal (who play Barca in the CL tomorrow morning) and Hull (focussed on promotion) also both fielding weakened teams.

A number of years ago, SBS put together a great 4-part series called Height of Passion which focussed on four rivalries - AC vs Inter, Real v Barca, River Plate v Boca and Vasco da Gama vs Flamengo. Was a bit odd they didn't include any of the English derbies, although at that time I think Serie A was still considered the best league in Europe. Anyway, it's a good doco hosted by Les Murray with plenty of highlights but also a lot of background and cultural info on how the rivalries developed and how they play out. You can watch it through YouTube. I've always had a fascination with big stadiums, large crowds and great atmosphere, and one day hope to travel through Europe and / or South America and go to the big games. Edit: I've been to Camp Nou, but it was just a stadium tour (still amazing). Even the lesser-light leagues have their great grudge matches, such as Olympiakos-Panathinaikos in Greece and Galatasaray-Fenerbahce in Turkey. Would be great to catch some Bundesliga action, too, as virtually all their games are sell-outs. These kinds of images give me goosebumps. River Plate stadium in Buenos Aires: 'La Bombonera' in Beunos Aires, home to Boca: Borussia Dortmund: This Youtube channel has lots of great 'atmosphere' clips from around the world under the 'stadium atmosphere' sub-heading: https://www.youtube.com/user/Partofthegametv/featured

Yep, I think they said last night that they've lined up with the same team and bench for the past 7 league games; the combination of a rested and stable team could be telling in the end. I know we're still a long way off, but Leicester play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the final round. Putting my allegiances to the side, wouldn't it be a fairytale ending to an already amazing story if they had to beat the reigning champions away on the last day of the season to win the title?

Cracking night of football, with both games delivering in spades and plenty of controversy surrounding the penalties in each match. Leicester have only themselves to blame, not just with Simpson's send-off but also the final, crude challenge which led to the winning goal. But for that, they would have had 3 away wins against their 3 challengers in the 7 weeks since Christmas, when they knocked off Spurs at WHL. It's hard to see the top 4 changing at this stage, even though United are only 2 wins behind City with 12 weeks to play, and one wonders what's going to happen to LVG, and when.

Only downside to that idea Macca is that you're effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul, as it then becomes harder to qualify through the League (4th spot becomes Europa). Then again, the top EPL spots are usually occupied by the same clubs year after year, whereas the battlers tend to have more of a chance of making it through to the FA Cup final, so it would be a nice carrot for the lower-ranked EPL teams, a backdoor into Europe. But as you've pointed out on the previous page, the top clubs have such busy schedules that something has to give somewhere, in one of the comps. Spurs probably care little for their current Europa campaign, but City and Arsenal would definitely be prioritising Champions League ahead of FA Cup.

I've never understood why some supporters leave when they're down 1-0 with 5 minutes and stoppage time still to play. The game's not over! You can still score! Sure, if you're down 4-0 then you might want to get ahead of traffic or catch the early train, but some fans even leave when their side is up, and I don't understand this either. Relative to AFL, there are so few goals - wouldn't you want to see, and celebrate, every one of them? I never leave the footy early. The English are weird.

Sorry Doc, we're too busy chasing the title to be distracted by some petty north London rivalry with your second-rate side.

The home side never really got going, Macca, enabling Leicester to consolidate top spot with another convincing (and entertaining) win, and relegating City to third place behind a Spurs side that continues to make every post a winner. Chelsea host ManU tonight in what should be a good game, but it's next week that offers a tantalising top-of-the-table double-header with Leicester at Arsenal and Spurs visiting City.

So Arsenal were the only real losers overnight, being held to a scoreless draw at home against Southampton. The Foxes, Spurs and City all won as expected, with Jamie Vardy kicking an absolute gem to continue his and Leicester's fairytale season.

And many of them are easy shots. Jones, in contrast, has become very good at kicking clutch goals.

Barnstorming finish to a ripping game at Carrow Road, with Norwich levelling in the 92nd minute only to see Liverpool kick the winner in the 95th for a 5-4 victory. Dele Alli scored one of the goals of the year in Spurs 3-1 win against Palace.

Just finished Hack Attack, by Nick Davies. This is a cracking read about the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert's London Sun and News of the World newspapers, written by the Guardian journalist who first exposed the practice, and then continued to pursue it, despite the best efforts of NewsCorp, Scotland Yard, the prosecutor's office, Parliament, and the rest of the Fleet Street press to make it go away. The behaviour of NewsCorp is not surprising if you're familiar with the British tabloids, although I was astonished to learn that as the noose tightened around its neck and the cops were finally closing in, they deleted 300 million emails (!!) from their servers, of which only 90 million were able to be recovered by investigators. No, the shocking thing here is the way the other institutions - especially the cops and the prosecutors - boldly lied at every stage of the affair until, finally, they were forced kicking and screaming to bring News to account. It's a fascinating and worrying expose of corruption at the highest levels of British society, and the cynical ties that exist between powerful elites - police commissioners, newspaper editors, government ministers etc - who thought they were above the law. It reads like a detective novel at times, and even if you know the ending and how it all panned out, you can't help but secretly barack along the way that News will ultimately gets its comeuppance. It does, but as the author notes at the end, you have to wonder just how much of a difference it all made in the wash-up. Yes, the News of the World was forced to close, and a number of journalists and newspapers executives were convicted and even jailed, but the NOTW was quickly replaced by the Sun on Sunday, and Rebekah Brooks, Rupert's number 1 editorial gun in the UK, was restored to her position as CEO of the company's British operations after she was acquitted (luckily, in my opinion) of phone-hacking charges. If nothing else, Hack Attack is proof that good investigative journalism still exists, and it is possible, although difficult, to still hold powerful institutions to account. Very highly recommended. Edit: Just saw on Twitter that Andy Coulson, the former Murdoch editor jailed for hacking, has set up a new PR company. In response, former UK Deputy PM John Prescott, a phone-hacking victim, tweeted: "I left him a good luck message on my mobile." Haha!