Wurzel

Another history making "first" last night .

Even more baffling, if reports were true he turned us down when we approached him before (in the summer??) because he felt he wasn't ready. What the fuck changed his mind?

Now that would be totally out of nowhere but I'd take him like a shot.

Is that not our own fault though? In these days of instant messaging/twitter/forums etc rumours are spread around like wildfire. It's down to us whether we choose to believe them or not and human nature being what it is we believe the ones we want to be true. There's been nothing from the club to confirm or deny interest in any of the rumours discussed on here, so we've got no-one to blame but ourselves if we end up disappointed when certain players don't end up joining us . Oh for the good be old days when the first we knew of a transfer target was when The Echo told us they'd signed. Agree though that in general, when we can all see certain areas need strengthening we'd have a right to he disappointed -if not folded arms, scowling face,season ticket handing back, downright furious - if no-one is bought in.

If I've got this right they are trying to push sales of Kingsland seats on the basis that you will be able to be part of this "groundbreaking initiative" (as long as you get there early enough), but presumably the only place in the ground that you won't be able to witness this amazing spectacle will presumably be ..... the Kingsland stand. 🤔 To be fair light shows can be pretty amazing these days, I'd actually be interested to see what they come up with, but I doubt, even if I was going, it would be something to get me there any earlier than usual. Now if that magic wristband also included a free pint .....

As footballers I admire, and have enjoyed watching both of them. But my comment was based on personalities, Messi for me comes across as the more humble person whilst Ronaldo both on and off the pitch gives off "it's all about me" vibes . I'd be very happy to have either of them in my team the pitch but there's only one I'd want in my dressing room and it wouldn't be CR7.

So pleased that Messi has finally won it ..... and Ronaldo never will. #GOAT

What we can' be sure of is are the players turning us down, or are we not offering enough for the selling club to accept? If it's the former we really are in a Catch 22 situation, won't come because we're not big enough, can't get big enough without players like that. If it's the latter then hopefully that window taught us a lesson, if we want a player bad enough then we have to sometimes forget the business model of buy cheap/sell at profit and simply stump up the cash.

Not really thought that through have you. By the logic of your argument if the ball is definitely out but only by a margin of .1% of the ball's width it should then be considered it in to allow for the accuracy of the white lines. In and out is black and white, it's not open to opinion. I didn't see it live, but every VAR photo I've seen since conclusively shows it was in. Argument settled, no point of contention moved .

Only just seen yesterday's highlights. WTF was Lukaku on? He made Che & ArmA look world class 🤣

On the evidence of this match he could be the answer to our selection problems. We have too many CBs but we need a striker, take him out of our defence and play him up front 🤣

Yeah, just heard the words Dejan Lovren in the commentary. Didn't realise he was still a thing.

They can't have missed it, can only assume they decided as Maguire had his arm round the defender too it was 6 of one half a dozen of the other. Don't agree, but can't think of any other possible reason not to give it.

Tammy Abraham looks like he could be available again. Can you see us a) ever splashing out what it would take to get him (or someone of his stature)? Transfermarket (probably as reliable as wikipedia to be fair) values him at 45m euros, how much were we spending on Gapko? b) assuming the cash was there, would we change the business strategy to sign someone like that? Personally, I'd put him at the same level Ings was when we signed him, so allowing for transfer inflation since then maybe not out of the question, and surprisingly still only 25 so time to make a profit on him too. And I could see him and Adams forming a decent strike partnership. Whether it be him or someone else, we need some experience to mix in with the youngsters. It's all very well giving them game time but how much benefit are they really gaining - particularly the attack minded players - if we are constantly under the cosh. They need an experienced spine not only to help them on machdays but to learn from as well. Edit: Guess I should add a c) would he or someone like him want to join us at the moment?

That's a great read. If he doesn't already that guy should be writing for The Athletic. Assuming it's accurate I can see 2 possible outcomes for us this season, rock bottom or top 10, it's either going to work and work quickly (only a couple of more games before the transfer window to get through) or not at all (and as an eternal optimist I'm going with the top ten). All that assumes NJ didn't write the article himself of course 🤣

Why not? Or are you implying that we are such a big club that we should treat other PL clubs as our feeder clubs for management appointments. If we didn't get him now and 2 years down the line he's taking someone like Fulham or Bournemouth to a top half finish how many on here will be moaning "why didn't we get him when we could?"

Exactly There's a lot on here writing him off before we've even announced him because a) He "failed" at Stoke - most people do and anyway, we're not Stoke. Howe failed at Burnley, Benitez failed at Everton, Moyes and Mourinho failed at ManU, (I could list dozens more) doesn't make any of them bad managers & b) He has no Premier League experience . - Can someone explain how any manager had PL experience until he'd managed in the PL? Somebody has to be brave enough to give them their first opportunity.

Full strength (although to be fair I know longer have any idea what tyat is). Selles will want to have a 100% record on his managerial cv. Be interesting to see players' reactions to the events so far this week. Hopefully they'll come out smiling and spend 90 minutes running around like duracell bunnies overdosed on Red Bull. .

Fans "should" be able to sit together in perfect harmony, and, if an away fan keeps themselves to themselves, probably do. But if they are going into the home ends in colours, giving it large, drunk, or chances are all 3, that's just trouble waiting to happen. It's against ground regs and if stewards are doing their job right they should never even make it through the turnstiles let alone to their seats. The club should be bombarded with emails with a link to this thread so they are aware how often it's happening. You can bet your life stewards take a "didn't see it, so it didn't happen" approach, and aren't reporting it unless it's the few isolated incidents they are actually forced to deal with. The club themselves are probably unaware of the extent of it and are probably congratulating the stewards on nipping it in the bud when it is reported. No-one likes a grass but isn't then a text number for reporting incidents during the game, bombard them with that as well. My favourite response would be our own fans forcibly removing them from their seats, with a clear reminder not to try it again, but we all know who it will be receiving the lifetime bans if/when that happens. BTW, OP or Admin should change the thread title , it's clearly ongoing, not only the ManU game

Nope, when two teams have identical records head to head decides, so our crap performance at Villa keeps them above us

As a kid (and even a young man) the WC Wall Chart would already be up and I'd be getting more excited every day it got nearer. For 4 weeks my social life would be arranged around the fixtures Today, many years on, I'm not even sure without checking who England have in their group, let alone all the qualifiers, and certainly unaware of the dates of our fixtures. For a multitude of reasons this just doesn't seem a "real" WC. I'm against it on footballing, political, humanitarian and prejudice reasons, yet no doubt like all tournaments when it starts I shall get sucked in and still be watching the first few games - I can't see how not watching a free to air programme forms any kind of relevant protest - but I'm already thinking it's going to need something extra special to keep me interested after the first few days.

If Carlsberg did first posts on a message forum ...........

I was always convinced at least 20% of the turnstiles mysteriously "didn't register" for every night game. They regularly seemed packed, overpacked even but the official attendance was always way less than it seemed. All seater stadiums obviously put paid to that 😂

Sign of the times, a pre-match thread for our next fixture turns into a much more interesting one reminiscing about the 1980s. If only we could be have a performance and atmosphere on Saturday like we used to get in those days.

No chance. Even in an attempt to disguise himself there is no way MLG could bring himself to post using such poor punctuation.