Wurzel

Interesting Athletic article HERE if you can access it . Basically virtually every one outside the top 6 follows the a similar cycle of promotion, over acheiving, making tweaks to management/playing staff as that group get stale/too old/get poached by big 6, become established and lose the underdog spirtit, make a few mistakes in recruitment, struggle, eventually go down. Anything over 5 years and you're doing well. We've done better than most - outside traditional top 6 and Everton we are longest serving with West Ham at 11 seasons. We might not like it, but we've overstayed our welcome, it's simply our turn. ☹️

Discussed on The Price of Football podcast. Front of shirt only, Big Six don't have gambling companies as main sponsors anyway as they can attract bigger fish, for the rest the sleeve sponsor will probably now attract a higher sponsorship fee than the shirt front.

Really can't see what he was complaining about. Something must have got inside his head in that match.

If, if , if. Utter nonesense. Every match ever played has an "if only" moment. Just cherry picking the ones that suit your agenda is ridiculous. Genuine "luck happens once in a blue moon, I guess you thought the likes of Alex Ferguson just got lucky year after year.

Christ was that 37 years ago? 😕. Yes I was there, and I now feel about 20 years older than I did 2 minutes ago

Yep you're right, having googled a bit the second part of my question is called a first refusal clause.

Good sensible reasd. One question, if City have a buy back clause, only effective in (or from?) 2024, if we sold him this summer would that clause not then also go with his contract and impact on the buying club? If so no-one is likely to pay more than than the £40m they might have to let him go for a year later. Actually 2 questions. Does a buy back clause mean if City offer £40m in 2024 we have to accept it? Or does it mean if we choose to sell him they have to be given first dibs for £40m?

Niemi cost us £3m but worth every penny. And Anders Svennsson for under a million has to be in there.

Doesn't Claise hold some sort of record for us, highest percentage of wins per games played or something? Never quite looked the part but must have been effective

They didn't, they threatened to but never went through with it. Am I right in thinking if - big IF - they did go down anyway but also received a points deduction, as it's a PL punishment it wouldn't apply until/if they ever got promoted again?

Out of principal I will never bet money against Saints. But I have captained Kane and transferred in Son in my Fantasy team. So Saints winning about 8-7 will make my weekend.

Burnley currently have a transfer embargo, but apparently it's only for late filing of accounts and they seem adamant it will be lifted soon.

"Back where we belong" and "Premier League? It's not all it's cracked up to be"

20/ 10/96 Newcastle 5 - 0 Manchester United. following week 26/10/96 Southampton 6 - 3 Manchester United Absolutely no relevance to the present day but a little straw to clutch at.

I'm clinging to the belief that every season we have a decent run at some stage and a poor run at some stage. This season the decent run is well overdue (NJ's 3 in a week doesn't count, only one was a PL game) so hopefully it starts today. Unfortunately we are playing a team currently consistently as crap as us, so we all know how that ends.

I had the dubious benefit of only watching 5 minutes either side of half time. They didn't . they took abot 3 minutes deciding if there was offside in the build up before even looking at the handball. Way too long, there needs to be a 30 second limit. 2nd penalty I've only seen once but as I saw it it wasn't a foul so could only have been violent conduct in the ref's opinion so why no red card as well?

See you there then 🤣

To be fair I pretty much agree with you. My "where would we be" meant where in the table - surely that would have put us on par with Brighton/Brentford/Fulham/Villa and Chelsea right now, but you're right, 2-3 years down the line we'd have to do it again but with not many saleable assets to raise the cash. I do think SR have got the right idea of how to run a clun of our size, but think they underestimated how crap we were and tried to run before they could walk and made some very poor signings (considering the existing state of the squad) this year. They should have gone for 50/50 (profitable) youth and experience this year and then let a few youngsters become our experience whilst we "trade" others for more youngsters in 2/3 years time. Being ultra optimistic we're not down yet and I can see a few more teams being dragged down into the mix. But in the long run maybe re-grouping next season with a succesful run in the Championship might be better for us than simply struggling to survive again next year.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and so is completely changing a business model, but it does leave me wondering where we'd be now if we'd kept pretty much the same squad as last year but added a £50m stiker a £40m AM and £30m DM and still have change from what we have spent.

I'm not 100% on the time line but pretty sure that he was brought in after RH had given his retire in 2 years hint. If that's right then I think your suggestion is spot on. A sort of serve your apprenticeship first deal. I am extremely optimistic by his appointment. Just seeing his assured confident sensible pressers makes me think there is something special about this guy, and the players reactions at the end on Saturday confirmed it for me. Dunno, maybe I have my first ever mancrush at the age of 61, but stay up or go down I really hope he's here for the long haul.

We'll never know now (thankfully) but I wonder how "basic" Jones' "back to basics" would have been. He came across as someone who would have considered the tactics of Wimbledon's 1980s Crazy Gang the peak of sophistication. Having said that, it did win them an FA Cup.

Could be anyone below Chelsea. I think Bournemouth are nailed on to go down. There's often a team you don't see coming that has a bad run and finds themselves down there too late to stop the rot. I hope not because I like them but I think that's Palace this year. That leaves us and 7 others. I still say every team has a good and a bad run at some stage of the season, we're still due a good one and I honestly see us doing enough to survive*. So wish it will be Everton but I think the other place is between Leeds, West Ham & Forest. *opinion could be subject to change by 5pm Saturday

... we are now only 23pts off of a Champions League place🤣 . Pompey are 26pts off of an automatic promotion place. 🤣🤣

Call off the search, we've found out man.

He really impressed me too, and you have explained why perfectly. Relaxed, confident and in control. How often would he have faced the media at any of his previous jobs? He seemed to totally natural. There were also a few moments where he showed amusement, almost as if laughing to himself in an "I know something you don't" kind of way. I'm hoping he already knows he has the job at least for the ret of the season, but for some reason just isn't allowed to say so yet.