Saint Mikey

The whole deal with wages, signing on and agents fees is reportedly c. £300m. Mental.

I like him and think he'd be a good acquisition for us. Transfermarkt reckon c.£20m. Has a deal until 2024 with an option for another year, so even if they go down it'll be top dollar, as other sides would certainly be interested.

That comment 'whooshed' so quickly over your head - it must have given you a haircut! 😉

Yeah, he seemed to improve the trajectory at Stoke, making it more flat than loopy and more like corners. I don’t know of any player who’s been able to achieve that type of throw before or since - was very effective at causing mayhem in the box.

I agree with most of your points, but I never feel that confident when he steps up to take pens - maybe it's because he has missed a couple. It's not like when Le Tiss, Beatts or Ricky were about. As soon as the decision was given, you'd be confident it was a goal.

I was disappointed to see a lack of yellow and blue jester hats last night. A sea of these would send a strong message to Putin, something he surely couldn’t ignore. 😐

Players adapt though and it can prolong a player’s career. Not saying JWP will, but players like Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, Rooney all adapted from attacking positions to the holding midfield role. I think it’s a position where you need a good range of passing and tackling combined with excellent positioning, reading of the game and quick decision making, usually under pressure. JWP certainly has some of these attributes already.

Ok, so taken a look at this as it didn’t seem right. Whilst only 3 teams outside the so called top 6 have won the FA Cup this century (Leicester, Wigan and another no-mark lower division club), I counted 12 other clubs who were finalists. Villa (twice), Stoke, West Ham (twice), Watford, Palace, Hull, Cardiff, Everton, Millwall, perennial Lg 1 playoff losers also got to another and of course, we were there in 2003. There were a lot of narrow losses in there, including our own final. So, whilst no-one thinks it’s highly likely we will win it, some are saying there’s a chance at some point of getting to the final and then it’s down to the day. Also, Top 6 Spurs have not made a final since 1991. How heavily funded have they been in that time?

My first thought was Potter, although he has been in the league a little while now. He has done a similar job to Ralph in terms of having a definite style of play and improving the connection to the supporters.

Looking at this from a very cold business perspective, do football clubs insure themselves against such events? The evidence seems pretty damning and Utd could be losing an asset that was 'worth' 10's of millions. I know clubs are insured against career ending injuries, so assume that there's something for this type of eventuality (same with City and Everton recently) - given that they have little control over their players' personal lives?

😆 The scoreboard we bought 2nd hand from Everton! Blast from the past.

'Only a few weeks ago, the Slovakia international admitted that he wanted to stay at the Rio Tinto Stadium. But, for whatever reason, an agreement over a new deal could not be reached.' Investigative journalism at its finest!

On the face of it, this takeover seems very promising. With the info we have, I feel confident that even if we were relegated - we could weather it, rebuild and maybe return within the parachute payments period. Under Gao, it felt like relegation could be catastrophic. Due to the lack of investment and flexibility we were working under - I could only see a gradual demise in a tough league. Hopefully, we won't need to find out, but I feel the club is in a better place to weather such an event, which is likely for a club our size at some point.

Interesting thread. Some of you guys may enjoy Ryan Holiday's material. I have read three of his books and they have fundamentally changed the way I view stresses/challenges in my life. His lessons are aligned mostly with Stoicism principles and draw on a millennia of examples, including Marcus Aurelius, Lincoln, Edison, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson etc. The biggest thing I've taken from them is the self-awareness and the sense of personal responsibility that it encourages, particularly the book on ego. He also has a podcast 'The Daily Stoic' and has done the rounds on loads of others including Rangan Chatterjee, Tim Ferris etc. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18668059-the-obstacle-is-the-way?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=rgykQklapo&rank=1 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27036528-ego-is-the-enemy?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=rgykQklapo&rank=2 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43582733-stillness-is-the-key?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=rgykQklapo&rank=4

Yarmolenko maybe his replacement. Looking at Wiki, he hasn't scored in two seasons in the league (no goals in 20/21 or so far in 21/22). So, pop him down for a hat-trick if he plays...

Didn't he turn down a deal with us, yet hasn't been picked up by another club? May be injured I guess, but looks a strange one.

I suspect a Skate Lube Salesman.

Just need Ralph to two-foot Lewis in training, then we can get an emergency loan in.

Sounds like an Only Fools and Horses sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNvRo68rBxE

Aye. The combination of the diet (haggis, deep-fried Mars bars, Irn-Bru) and the fitness regime (tossing the caber) clearly not working out for Stu.

What would we call the bar, the Cement Lounge?

An elite player is lucky to a) be good enough to go to a World Cup, b) be part of a team that's good enough to qualify and (c) be fit enough to participate. Any top player may be lucky to play in 1 or 2 WC finals. Do you think they should forfeit that because FIFA made a decision on where it should be held? Is it the players' responsibility to make a stand here? I bet they couldn't give a fuck and just want to play football - which is what their focus should be. Instead, because of media pressure they almost feel that they have to do 'something' and this is what you get, a token gesture.

Yeah, this will be their approach I reckon. Top 6 squad players that want to play more, but don't want to commit to a side that might get relegated. These players you mention plus maybe, Dele, RLC, Barkley. In terms of perms, they might get established players in the final 6 months of their contract by wafting huge sums under the clubs noses (Tarkowski would be in that boat). You'd expect them to have a stronger squad, post Jan, but whether it'll keep them up - who knows?

He did a great job for us and I really enjoyed the football we played in those promotion seasons. He did have players that were far better than the league we were in (clear to see that now) and we also spent heavily on transfers and wages for League 1. However, he got the manager's position for us off the back of very good job at Scunthorpe - taking them to the Championship twice and then keeping them up in one of those seasons. The resources he would have had in that job were far smaller than anything he's taken on since leaving us, so it is a bit of a mystery that he hasn't managed any semblance of success. Each job he's taken has yielded pretty poor results.

Off the top of my head, I think they scored 1 goal between them. Edit: Just checked, they both scored 2 each.