THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 78

Hello, and welcome to Issue 78 of the 93:20 Newsletter, and am starting the year as I intend to go on. By moaning. Ahh, it feels so good, getting triggered once more. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Thanks for all your support in 2025, here’s to a great 2026.

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Anyway, this one is a biggie, so we best crack on.

That Sean Dyche is a cracking bloke isn’t he? Says it at is, salt of the earth, a dying breed - just ask Richard Keys. Would love to go for a pint with him, then off to a gig. Great bloke, got a lot of time for him.

All potentially true, but of little interest to me, when the schizophrenic football manager shows his true colours once more during and after a match, for me little more than a modern-day Neil Warnock. I’m sure Alex Ferguson was lovely to talk to away from the football, but it doesn’t change what he was during his day job. The juxtaposition of football managers is stark, once that club tracksuit goes on.

Nottingham Forest are into the third season of their persecution complex now, and it has truly infused many sections of their fanbase. This is the club that hired celebrity ex-referee and professional bullshitter Mark Clattenburg as a referee advisor, which naturally ended badly. Stick to Gladiators, where I don't have to see or hear from you again please, Mark. Fans are rarely truly impartial of course, that applies to every fanbase on the planet, but you get the feeling there are large swathes of Forest fans who think they were cheated at the weekend. The distraction of a whining, hard-done manager works on fans as well as his boss. All so pointless, considering Forest played really well, so no distraction was required. Dyche is probably the perfect fit for this football club therefore, though after then losing to Everton 2-0, as another club expended all their energy on a City game, to then slump in the following game, perhaps the club’s time could be spent better by working on coaching and not an endless succession of embarrassing letters to the PGMOL. What precisely do you want explaining to you? Why Jesus was not sent off? There was less uproar from blues when City were cheated out of an FA Cup. The Dias incident was the sort seen every weekend that would pass off with little further comment or coverage, if it wasn’t City.

It all helps feed a narrative with rival fans that in yet another manner, City are “getting away with it”, not that we should care. But then, what’s the point of winning trophies if we don’t make friends along the way, and win the respect of Arsenal fan SimplyOzil56, 14, somewhere in Norway.

There is a more sinister side to all of this. Ultimately, dinosaurs like Dyche undermine all referees, and tarnish their reputation further. Look, I’m no stranger to referee criticism, but when I feel it is deserved, and hopefully measured at the same time. And I am not a Premier League manager stood in front of a TV camera. All this undermining is fueled by players who look to deceive and cheat, making the job of a referee even harder, and with the full support of their manager, all part of the marginal gains. No other sport would stand for any of this.

Sean Dyche will sit on a couch and espouse the genius of Pep Guardiola, but he will never do likewise after a match. There's always an excuse for men like him, which makes me wonder why they act this way? What is the end game? Dyche has the uber-villain Marinakis watching over him from his evil lair, also known as the corporate seating area, and men like Dyche are simply activating survival mode. Portraying victimhood, and an unfairness to all defeats simply improves the chance of escaping another P45, in their heads at least. Now Pep can be a right weirdo on the touchline, no doubt about it, and occasionally crosses a line or two, and deserves criticism when he does, like any manager. But what he never does, and will never receive any praise for, is make excuses or call out officials, and he's had plenty of opportunity to do so down the years. A friend told me the other week that she thinks Pep always plays to the camera after matches, which shows just how little other fans understand him, or choose not to. Don’t they realise he’s just tapping up opposition players at full-time? Cut him some slack.

Anyway, credit to Wayne Rooney for pointing out the legitimacy of the winning goal, and the attempts of Gibbs-White to draw a foul, a nice palette cleanser to the cowardice of the touchline commentators, such as Joleon Lescott, who we knew were immediately going to agree with everything Dyche said. I guess when you know you will be crossing paths with managers in your job, you lose your convictions. Which makes your presence pointless.

This is not a new fanbase for City fans to cross paths with. Normally the sniping begins after a Wembley encounter, especially should City win, and this is no different. We saw the Forest fans crawl out the woodwork for the FA Cup semi final, when they took more fans to Wembley - they lost, so it's all they had. Let's see how many they take for their 30th visit in 20 years – guess we will never know.

For the record, Notts Forest’s average attendance in 2015/16 was 19,676. Historically, it has fluctuated around the 20,000-29,000. In fact, the record attendance for Nottingham Forest at their home ground, The City Ground, is 49,946, achieved during a Division 1 match against Manchester United on October 28, 1967. So less than City get for a match with empty seats dotted around.

When i posted this, it was quickly pointed out to me he was already touting CBD oil.
SO on brand, bravo.

It really pains me to be trawling through all this sort of stuff again, and being immature enough to call them Notts Forest, which is of course offensive to the fanbase. Grow up Howard. It’s all just so tiring again, another reminder, for this and another thousand reasons, to stop trawling social media. No good can come of it anymore, especially considering the proliferation of Arsenal fans outdoing themselves, which is some achievement. Them winning a major trophy may actually be the tipping point for many to leave X, as it finally becomes too unbearable to endure. Every cloud and that.

This is especially so, as there appears to have been another algorithm change on X, which now means when people I follow reply to arseholes, I always seem to see the horrific original message. It’s impossible to exaggerate what a cesspit that platform is, and whilst New Year resolutions are pointless, if I was to have one, weaning myself off there would surely be the priority.

Those algorithms were working overtime with the news that Antoine Semenyo preferred a move to little old Manchester City. It got rival fanbases in quite the froth, another player they’re pretending will sit on the bench for five years. It presented another opportunity for fans to proclaim how much they didn’t care about City, so not all bad, and how they wish that could be true. You see, they have to care, because City, and their GOAT manager, deprived the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool fans of many, many more trophies. Hard to turn a blind eye to that. The only time they truly don’t care is when City have a lull in results when amazingly talk of 115, evil owners and net spend suddenly wanes.

For Semenyo, the attraction of moving to City is obvious. Amazingly, the most reasoned summation I've stumbled across was from Mark Goldbridge, which can only mean that over the Christmas period, I have unwittingly stumbled through a portal and into an alternative dimension. Maybe I have been sleepwalking, or perhaps need to cut down on the booze.

Now, where was I?

Oh yeah, I’ve not finished Forest. Because if you really want to delve into City, their support, their owner, alleged cheating and more, just remember to get your own house in order first. There are things about your owner I cannot legally say, to put it mildly.

What about Forest?  Still waiting on this one, disgrace.

Oh, and about that cheating…

I’ll stop now. Just letting off steam. As fanbases, we’re all as bad as each other really. Well, except Arsenal, obviously.

There are, after all, worse things going on in the world. And none worse than the introduction of half-time interviews with players. An abomination, and devoid of any interest. Ruben Dias was the latest victim during the Forest fan, his demeanour resembling mine when trying to get away from a charity mugger in Sale town centre.

In "news i definitely saw coming", Jack Grealish has unfortunately managed to pick up a "virus" over Christmas, in the same way i pick up a virus after 10 pints of Holts bitter, and in a similar vein to Neymar picking up an injury around the time of his sister's birthday every year.

No one speaks about the inevitable tailing off of Grealish's form at Everton, because that's not the news people want to hear, as it damages the narrative of Pep stifling him. He was never going to maintain his early form for Everton - there are tribes cut off from civilization in the Amazon rainforest that could have told you that. It is what it is. I love him as a human being, and wish the best for him. But to reiterate an oft-made point - any decline in his career is on him, and no one else. I hope he still has plenty to give, and I remain convinced this is a good move for him and Everton, and he’ll do just fine there.

 A STRONG START TO 2026

14 hours into a new year, and we may already have a winner for the best/worst take of 2026. Someone like Keys is such a dinosaur, such a parody of himself, that it’s impossible to be offended or angry. He is widely mocked for most of the things that come out of his mouth, and his weekly blog is a must-read, just not for the reasons he intended. It’s the best way to deal with people like him.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

A lot! If you do not subscribe to our Player, please give it a go. There is so much available, for every taste. The best city content out there.

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THE MARKET SHOW: - XMAS EPISODE

Ahsan and Lloyd discuss the news around Antoine Semenyo, other potential January signings, plus loads more!

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- ENERGY ENERGY ENERGY

Howard and Bailey discuss another huge win at the weekend. Grit, determination and Rayan Cherki. Plus fake outrage and more.

2025 REVIEW – PARTS 1, 2 & 3

Three HUGE shows. Howard and Ahsan look back at 2025, the highs, lows, and much more. They also look at the good and bad takes, hand out awards, and rate everything in sight.

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- BRUISED

Ahsan and Lloyd look back on a tough 0-0 draw at Sunderland, and the return of Rodri.

OPPOSITION FAN:- SUNDERLAND

Howard chatted to Graham from the WTF Sunderland podcast about all things Black Cats. Another fascinating chat.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

Ste and George revisit the Stadium of Light, look ahead to managerless Chelsea and review 2025 in the Premier League.

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 10 minutes sample on Soundcloud, along with a full, free weekly Friday show, jam- packed with content. Give it a try!

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