THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 71

Author

Howard Hockin
November 14, 2025

Hello, and welcome to Issue 71 of the 93:20 Newsletter. It’s a newsletter which mostly focuses on a singular theme, caused by City being good again. I hope you enjoy it – I certainly did writing it! I’m going in octopus-footed on a certain football club.
Clue - it is not Grimsby Town.

As always, excuse the begging bowl, but these words are written every week because of the generosity of blues who have donated and supported me. Thank you as always, it keeps me hopeful about humanity after all, at least for a few minutes until I go on Twitter.

You can donate via this link, and help the content keep flowing, and it’s really needed right now.

Also – only 6 weeks until Christmas!  The tree may not be up, but I’m going for it, as some people actually plan ahead, so do check out my books on Amazon. Got plenty at home too if you’re ever passing through Sale. I’d sign them, but it would only lower their value. To be brutally honest – Twelfth Man and the book of Newsletter articles are the best content I’ve ever scribed, so do give them a go, and remember – the Newsletters book is not a season review, but a look at the world of football, so don’t be put off.

A quick moment to reflect on actual football. It's worth noting that the weekend match was the first time Liverpool have failed to score in 45 matches. That's some achievement from City. And City are running more than any other team, clear signs of a squad that has all its mojo back, in spades. I don't expect Arsenal to tail off, but don't of their fans must be looking at the table and thinking - oh, for f**k's sake. Not again.

Anyway, on with the newsletter. And you know City are back, when coverage turns to anything but the football. It is predictable enough to set your clock to. And the fall out from City beating Liverpool 3-0 was, let’s be honest, joyous.

Before attention turned to City, with 115 murmurings naturally resurfacing, centre stage was taken by Liverpool's disallowed goal. Various opinions are of course available on its merits, but this was naturally portrayed by Liverpool fans as one of the great injustices of modern times, on a par with the postmaster scandal. A more accurate view can be found from Chris Foy in the Guardian and Dale Johnson on the BBC site. Alysson Rudd, always front of queue in offering terrible, Liverpool-centric opinions, suggested VAR should be referring to similar past occurrences (on this occasion, John Stones' goal v Wolves), as a referral point. That's the VAR that has to make a quick decision, not treat a goal like a court case, and that's the VAR that didn't really get involved in this decision, which was decided on-pitch, and wasn’t deemed worthy of overturning or referring to a monitor.

Poor Jamie Carragher is also going through the mill, struggling once more to contain his anger management issues after not being allowed in the Dortmund end last week (see my previous newsletter). Liverpool once more embarrassed themselves after the match by contacting PGMOL for an explanation, presumably seeking an explanation as to why they spent half a billion pounds in the summer and are now relentlessly shit. For people like Carragher, it's easy to source their rampant hypocrisy, as I did with his Haaland views last week. Someone soon stepped up this weekend too. Carragher was quick to question Arsenal approaching PGMOL in the past, as he was right to do. Funnily enough, he had nothing to say now his club has done the same. 

What precisely are Liverpool expecting to happen by embarrassing themselves in this way? An explanation for the disallowed goal is readily available, whether they agree with it or not. I can only assume they are applying pressure to get more favourable decisions in the future, and not for the first time.

It should also be pointed out that there is little point City, or any other team, trying to play offside if players are allowed to stand next to the goalkeeper, and when talking about said player affecting play, and Donnarumma, it seems to have slipped the attention of every Liverpool fan that as the corner comes in, Robertson pushes the City keeper, thus immediately and clearly affecting play. He’s not offside then of course, but it simply adds to the overall feeling that this is not worthy of further discussion. And by standing there, Robertson is affecting the decision making of certain players about where to position themselves. If offside is to be so easily disregarded, then City might have left a player on the post. Robertson had to duck out the way of the ball. Spare us the faux outrage. This is all classic distraction – more victimhood that diverts away from the overall performance, another away defeat, a manager under pressure, and more. For certain fanbases, a game is never deservedly lost. If the goal had stood, I would not be up in arms, but it is clearly not worthy of a week’s discussion, but we all know why that has turned out to be the case. No one would care if Bournemouth had been wronged in a similar fashion.

And then there's John Brewin, an impartial Manchester United fan, who is not in any shape or form bitter about his lot. John felt it necessary to tweet a lie about a “weird lack of atmosphere” at the Etihad for the Liverpool, a game that had the best atmosphere for many a blue moon. Sheer projection, almost as if he wanted it to be bad, so he had something to criticize City over. Is this the standard of coverage now from our media? It’s little difference to taking a photo of empty seats at half-time. But do subscribe to the Libero podcast, for similar hot-takes. It’s always good to see such lies demolished, and a 100% denouncing from all who replied. Well done John, on making yourself look like even more of a buffoon than before. Hope it was worth it. It reminded me of Barney Ronay’s similar lie about City fan’s reaction to winning the Champions League. That article answered me so much I called him a c*** at our live show, which is not like me, but was factually correct.

Still, speaking of Barney Ronay, it's not been his best week either. He wrote another pious article about the UAE and Sudan, as is his right. This is not a politics newsletter though, so am not going in deep, though his whataboutery linked to Israel was pitiful, and on-brand for similar recent weak pieces. Barney displayed his research skills by accusing Frankie Boyle of playing in Dubai this year. This was also a lie, as Frankie was quick to point out, having played there once 27 years ago. Barney made some pitiful excuses online, but couldn’t actually stretch to saying sorry. The level of his research was to screenshot a Dubai line-up that included Sean Hughes – a man who died eight years ago.

One question remains - why was he looking up Frankie Boyle anyway? Why was he looking to catch him out? Searching for hypocrisy is in itself hypocrisy, at levels Alanis Morrisette would turn her nose up at as excessive, from a man who excused a World Cup in Russia (and wrote a book on it), but has since acted as a moral crusader.

Meanwhile, on Talkshite, Tango man, the lamentable Simon Jordan, claims City are boring to watch. Yes, the current version of City, and says he prefers to watch Arsenal scoring from corners. Jamie Carragher is again obsessed with size, telling the Daily Mail that City will never be as big as Liverpool and United, the purest topic of the pub bore, deflecting from his own team's deficiencies. Not one City fan cares, and they didn't care all the years when City were bigger than Liverpool. 

Look, this newsletter has clearly stared in the past it would rather be laughing at United, but Liverpool are more than adequate and unexpected compensation, a fitting replacement whilst Amorim experiments with competency. So let’s take a moment to laugh at more rewriting of history.

This fits in perfectly with the mentality of the fanbase. They would rather rewrite history and claim Liverpool were never contenders, rather than admit simple underperformance. We all know about the summer crowing, and expectations from fans and media alike, that an era of domination was to follow. It's easy to say with hindsight, but Liverpool's summer recruitment has shades of United's policy for the past decade - signing big name players because they could. Wirtz joined Liverpool on the promise of playing as a number 10, which meant unsettling other players, thus lessening their impact. Luis Diaz has shades of Mahrez, as his good reputation improves with every passing week after his departure, and ripping it up for Bayern Munich helps with that. But it does feel like the impact of those who departed was understated, due to the shiny baubles that arrived. I'm not predicting long-term failure - the quality of some of the players is too high to expect consistent failure. But you can now see why things have gone wrong, and how fragile that squad is, below the surface. Liverpool built a fabulous palace on weak foundations. Failing to sign Guehi was a pointer. The squad looked good on paper, but was always an injury or two away from potential disaster. Bad form and tactical inflexibility has had a similar effect instead.

One individual many Liverpool fans aren't talking about is Pep Lijnders, who they had plenty to talk about earlier in the season, when they were once more than happy to rewrite history. Some fans were happy to suggest City’s underwhelming start to the season was down to Lijnders, having now decided, after denouncing him as a traitor for going to City, that he is actually terrible at what he does, and was responsible for many of Liverpool’s ills, as he now would be at City. Now City are purring, suddenly you don’t hear such talk anymore. Almost as if City’s issues were more linked to last season, huge recruitment, and bedding in a new team and new ideas, all of which takes time, as Liverpool fans are finding out to their cost. Ljinders is yet another individual to add to the list, a very long one, on a hit list of Liverpool fans, who they have deemed to have wronged them. One Liverpool account seriously suggested Liverpool fans boo him at the Etihad last Sunday, as if he would even have noticed. The list of those “walking alone” grows with every passing week, as the comprehension that anyone at the club can prosper elsewhere, or even contemplate leaving on their own terms, continues to elude them.

One final thought, so out comes the tin foil hat – it wouldn’t be a true newsletter without it. Imagine if City had spent £130m on a striker and he had barely played three months later, despite not being injured for most of that period. City still get sick for ruining Kalvin Phillips, because who else is there for critics to lay into, now Nunes and Gonzalez are world-beaters?

Talk has arisen, for the fiftieth time, of the possibility of Pep potentially leaving City in the near future. There's no tangible evidence of this happening, the entire talk created simply because Pep has reached 1000 games in charge. Thus, the talk, as per previous talk, has been utterly pointless. There's only one person who knows when Pep is leaving, and you can work out who that is. It isn't a member of The Game podcast. Look, I know it’s an international break, it’s an arid content desert out there, but come on……

Adam Clery

A recommendation as this Newsletter draws to an end. Adam’s video on Doku is well worth a watch.

He also makes an interesting point about minutes played by Doku, which is far inferior to many other young players who have broken through in recent years – the big talents tend to play far more minutes at a young age than used to be the case. As for Doku, he still has fewer minutes in his tank than Jude Bellingham at the age of 20. This should serve him well, especially as a player for whom muscle injuries will always be a concern due to the explosive nature of his game. Little surprise therefore that he rarely lasts 90 minutes before being subbed off, irrespective of the standard of the performance.

FINALLY – IT’S TIME FOR AN INTERVENTION

Sadly, quote tweeting this did result in a conversation with Matt. Even sadder, we never got to the bottom of which Phil Foden No.10 performances killed Southgate, due to him never playing in that position.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- MILLENNIALS
Howard, Lloyd and Ahsan look back on the joyous 3-0 win over Liverpool. So much to talk about, all bases covered.

THE HUB:- EPISODE 48
Kish from LilywhiteLab joins Bailey to discuss Thomas Frank's start at Spurs, the struggles to progress centrally, and getting the best out of Simons.

IT’S LB SHOW
LB is joined by Lloyd to reflect on the Liverpool win, Big 6 games, wingers, Nico G, full back evolution and much more.

THE HUB:- EPISODE 49
Asier joins Bailey to discuss Adoni Iraola, Spanish teams struggling in Europe, and the role of Doku this season.

30 QUESTIONS
It’s an international break, so we welcome back the return of an old series, as Ste fires 30 questions in the direction of Tom Harrison.

THE WEEKEND SHOW
A big show, as Ahsan and Lloyd take a deep dive on City, and what has changed, what is working, set up, players and more. A must-listen.

If you are not a subscriber to our player shows, then enjoy some free samples of what we are about. Every show we do will have a 15 minutes sample on Soundcloud, along with a full, free weekly Friday show, jam- packed with content. Give it a try!