The9

Unlucky to have Van Dijk injured and not bother to mark Ibrahimovic in the last 5 minutes in the box more like. :/

There's usually at least one of the top 6 underperforming and catchable. That didn't happen this season, partially because two of the clubs who were cack the year before didn't have Europe and were able to focus entirely on their domestic campaigns. Next season the whole of the "elite" top 6 will be playing in Europe, and Spurs will have a new ground, which gives the rest of the league half a chance of competing with the ones underperforming. In addition, we've been the top performing not "elite" side over the past 4 seasons (along with Leicester by virtue of their title season) and we won't be in Europe, so you'd also expect us to be one of the challengers. Then again, if the top 6 are able to balance Europe with domestic competitions and take advantage of their final advantage it might be more of the same.

Why is it these days when you are losing an an argument/debate, that you throw in the "must be losing argument/debate because throwing in the race card" card? It's not JUST because he's French, no.

Schneiderlin got loads of flack for pretty much everything from 2008-2010, including some ill-advised comments about his national tendencies on here IIRC. We even had a whole conspiracy theory that he was signing for Arsenal asap based pretty much entirely on his nationality as well.

I see. Well as the area I lived in before didn't have any of that (not against the French anyway) it was a lot more noticeable when it did start happening, and I think it's a lot more than "1%". Not outright hatred or anything, just digs and comments and things like that. It's not like I have a lot of France-based conversations either for that kind of thing to come up, tbh. It has been a fairly consistent feature of conversations I've had with people who don't like Puel though, but then that tends to be down to their reluctance to come up with genuine reasons for wanting him sacked beyond "we haven't scored in x/y/z games... if you exclude the ones we have scored in", and they didn't even have that until May.

However, upon further inspection... found the arc function.

This is true, we've had curved text for ages, but as it's approximately 20 times more hassle to do it and some teams have straight text, I decided against.

Well I didn't say it was everyone.

If you'd taken your own advice you'd have left here at least 5 years ago.

Didn't realise the French were a race... it's a nationality, and by the way, it's not the Puel in camp that's got the problem with it.

Ha, no, very much not, pretty much the opposite actually. You're not very good at this drawing conclusions thing, are you? Or do you regard that as some kind of hate crime or something?

Not being funny but I've heard absolutely loads of people sniping at the French since I've lived down here. No idea how widespread it is, but it is definitely a "thing" down here that I haven't seen anywhere else. Well, except Dover, come to think of it.

Yeah, good logic. States opinion, someone else states a different opinion, complains about being made to consider someone else's opinion. Nice one.

Or people could just accept we underperformed due to being handicapped by existing fatigue for most of the season and the need to rest players. Next season we won't have to travel to the middle east in midweek and we're unlikely to have to play 6 months of the season without being able to pick a team for just one game a week. Next season if we come 8th and haven't come close to challenging for a cup or threatening the top 6 it WILL be an underachievement.

We were perfectly fine in attacking and creating for far more than 2/3rds of the season. Where we played for low-scoring games in some matches it was usually a sensible tactic too. I went to Israel and was pleased with our 0-0 draw there, for instance.

Not at all, I'm saying him being French gives some people a reason to hate him before he even starts, not all. Others loved Koeman's big name status and can't get past that, and others moan about his lack of charisma. They're all reasons which have nothing to do with his abilities, and as it took all of two home games for the moaning to start this season, I'm going to stick my neck out and say it wasn't all football-related. Especially as we then had 4 wins in a row and went 7 unbeaten.

Oh come on, there are shedloads of nobheads around here that generally hate the French for no particular reason, it's practically a defining characteristic of the area and very obvious to outsiders, don't try and pretend there's no overlap.

Bit bored, started messing around with the template and new Prem fonts to see what size the shirt back would need to be to fit the letters and numbers. Had to widen the stripe a bit, but not that much. I could also see the back being all red or all white though. And yes, Ward-Prowse is number 16, needed to use a bigger number to show they'd both fit.

See below...

Seeing as you've got no-one in a position to make decisions at the moment and captain Doyle's just decided to join Coventry instead of try League One again, I'd say it was more a case of people trying to get out while their stock is relatively high.

Still the same persona though...

It's been ridiculous from the first minute. Has far more to do with him not being a big star footballer or charismatic in interviews, as if those are things which matter at all in a management role. A cynic might also point at the enduring irrational hatred of things French from certain quarters around here too.

Anyone whinging about our current position needs to take a long hard look at themselves to be honest. Beat Inter, 6 games in European competition, EFL Cup Final, win at Anfield, thrashed West Ham at Olympic Stadium, stuck 4 on Watford and Sunderland, finished 8th despite the season being over in February, a ridiculous schedule, key injuries to two star players, missing piles of chances when dominating matches, conceding at the first opportunity a load of times, and choosing to test out an U23 centre back with no Premier League experience for 4 months. Loads to be pleased about.

As long as it doesn't have any Patrick logos or trademarks on it they'll be fine. They can't copyright a design style, especially not something as vague as "a broad stripe". There are hundreds of kits out there with a broad stripe on them made by numerous different companies already.

Should read "Poor football clubs..." and make up your own conclusions.