Michael*

To put it cynically but honestly, I've a feeling, as would probably be the case with some of his peers as well, that Kaufman has a better reputation now than if he'd been alive and still working today.

I can already hear Big Al's weekly soundbites on Match of the Day, each one starting with "no disrespect to Steve, but...", although I'd imagine Bruce will be given roughly about as much time as Steve McClaren was, perhaps even more. Dave Whelan appointed him twice too of course, maybe he's just catnip to downmarket sporting retailers. Hardly surprising though that so many thoroughly average managers keep getting such decent gigs when the best thing some pundits can manage on the subject is "I thought Moyes might have been a better fit." The lack of insight borders on painful sometimes.

March 2020: Newcastle part company with manager Steve Bruce following a home defeat to Norwich. Bruce blames it on Newcastle fans being unwilling to accept his past as manager of Sunderland.

It promises to be a bit of a web of intrigue, really. We'll likely see a natural progression of the game where it becomes more difficult to establish lasting dominance, although it's possible that sides like Germany, Norway and Sweden could begin to feel the effects of that as well. Those nations have benefited quite a bit from being around since the early nineties, albeit not as much as the USA has. Not to say that American players couldn't improve, adapt or even benefit from a stronger Europe too, of course.

Some of the European nations have enjoyed such a meteoric rise as of late that it seems to have highlighted a few of the others perhaps resting on their laurels a little. USA though were in a class of their own from the outset this year, and while we as fans do tend to love an underdog, I've always regarded it as important that the best team at a World Cup wins it. There can be no doubt at this point that they were exactly that. Still, perhaps in the future, with increased investment and presumably more young girls taking up the game, we'll see the gap continue to close. It should be interesting to see where we stand in four years' time.

Absolutely sensational, Fred.

Yeah, I'd go along with that. I even caught myself craving just a straight-up road movie with Samuel L. Jackson and Brie Larson at one point.

Yeah, it certainly retained all the good things about Homecoming, even improving upon some of them. The cast is great, particularly Zendaya, and of course Holland embodies everything an actor should to play the role of Parker. I liked that the real visual highlights were almost all built around Beck. One sequence in particular had some of the most imaginative set pieces that I've seen in a Marvel story.

The opening segment of S3's first episode may have been the show's strangest scene yet. And considering the show, that's really saying something. Overall though, I'd say as an episode this was superior to most of S2. Surprisingly forthright in its structure and pacing, and seems to be playing a little fairer with its audience by giving up fun payoffs a bit faster, while still leaving room for future stuff.

Thought it was a major leap forward for Marvel and the MCU as we push into the next phase of movies. Performances that were very heartfelt, surprisingly dark themes, thrilling and funny in all the right places and sets an overarching tone and perspective for the stories that are going to be told in the future. Can't say fairer than that.

Noice.

There's a chance, I suppose, that the Falcon/Bucky show could at least partially tackle the aftermath, but I really feel like a standalone Leftovers-style show retooled into a Marvel product could be an amazing thing. It's possible too, although it probably won't happen for a while, that one of the newer heroes might have an origin story set during the five-year gap.

Perhaps a grand for Avram would be out of reach to the somewhat depleted ranks in our football thread these days, but we could easily crowdfund a Bellazon shout-out from Jesper Blomqvist or Adnan Januzaj, surely. Mark Lawrenson would be the dream for me, I think. You just know he'd be dying to end all the greetings with "not" in order to contradict his previous statement, a la Wayne's World in 1992. Which Lawro no doubt still considers cutting edge humour.

I think you're right, it just feels like we're at a point now where Marvel could be sitting on an opportunity to do something really incredible with their TV shows. Having, in canon, a five-year period where the world is recovering from something so devastating would be such fertile ground for their street-level heroes to explore. But, unfortunately, it probably won't be happening.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which rather sadly, given that it was intended to wrap up such a long-running and relatively successful franchise, wasnae very good.