Bobbyboy

Wow! I didn't get that, at least not yet. Did you do anything in particular to trigger the initial email from them?

Non-Gold App live coverage for the first time yesterday... totally about Palace of course, we're completely under the radar as usual. I'm finding so far that my measure of "was I right to pay for Gold app AND get Sling TV as well" is based on whether we win or lose (or play well/not play well). So that proves nothing but I'm glad I got to see Lemina play, he's immense, at least against Palace.

Before the start of the season we visited the UK and I bought the new shirt. Thinking now the new shirt is comfortably the only good thing so far this season.

I'm thinking it deserves a place on the banner.

Davis, conversely, does manage to get into those positions occasionally and then whacks it into row Z. My seven-year-old daughter actually thinks he is called 'Steven Davis Goal Machine' thanks to my sarcastic outbursts. BUT maybe MP has some ideas about how to get this midfield-forward thing to work... some weird combination we haven't tried yet. I'd continue to try Boufal just because of the talent, but let him know it's a limited-time run. I'd also either drop Tadic or at least tell him he's not allowed to even THINK about taking any more penalties.

Carlton Palmer, Geoff Thomas, Andy Sinton...?

Those of us with long memories will recall Rupert Lowe hiring a PR firm to do exactly that.

We went to Sling a while ago and that has most of the channels where we might be featured on a regular game (except main NBC itself), plus I coughed up the 50 last week when I saw this coming. The NBC Sports Gold thing has been ok for cycling and the picture quality was good on Roku for the Saints-Swansea game. But it's still a mess compared to what it was, and is now more about getting money out of the established audience rather than growing a new audience, which is what it was doing pretty successfully, at least until last year.

Fair enough, he has a bad virus, poor fella.

So WHY have they changed it all? The big plus when NBC took over the Premier League coverage from Fox/ESPN was that it was all available in one nice package. Now we have to pay extra for NBC Sports Gold for online AND have some kind of cable package for when the games are on the actual channels. And since they spread over the Sports cable channel, a news channel (CNBC), the broadcast channel (NBC itself)... we're just back to where we were with Fox et al. What I don't get is if NBC have the rights to all the games (presumably that hasn't changed this year) then just make all 380 available on the streaming platform and we're good, cord-cutters and all. Or keep the model where every game is on cable/satellite on those 'NBC extra' channels. Or both. Anyway, I paid, so i'll see the games ok, but I think the thing about the way it USED to be was that your average American would stumble across it from time to time and the audience would grow due to the high availability. Short sighted? Probably just me moaning. I know, Gao, VVD and all that, far more important stuff going on. There'll probably be a big black spot over the sun next week or something.

He's changed since he became so famous.

Assuming he goes after this, wonder what that leaves Cedric and Bertrand thinking?

It's a measure of how much British success we have had when you we've got a Brit in yellow, another in white and so far the yellow has ONLY been on British shoulders in the race... and we're thinking it's a dull day. I remember in 1994 when Sean Yates got the yellow for ONE day and it was super exciting, or when Chris Boardman would win a Prologue... But it is all a bit boring out there today. Most exciting thing over here in the US is that the coverage on NBC is different this year... the 'ad free' streaming service that you can pay for is NOT featuring Liggett and Sherwen this year for the first time - they're doing the main NBC Sports channel coverage, but not the streaming one, where we've got the Aussie commentary from Matthew Keenan and Robbie McEwan (arguably a great improvement!). lots of moaning from subscribers though, so much so that as of today they've changed the streaming options and you can now choose if you want ad-free aussie commentary or Phil, Paul and their suitcase of courage (and lots and LOTS of adverts). We're coming over to the UK next week and it'll be quite a relief. Is it Ned Boulton and David Millar doing ITV4 again this year?

This. Completely.

Reading a few people saying that Cav was already on his way down when Sagan's elbow went out. Doesn't matter, his elbow went out and made contact and people have been thrown out for similar in the past (thinking about that time they kicked out Mark Renshaw). Opens up the green competition for the first time in years though, esp since there are so many sprint stages this year. At least no sprint crash tomorrow... riding up the board of beautiful girls or whatever that mountain name translates as.

That was nasty. Greipel sounding off at Sagan as well. There's tough racing and all that, but that elbow looked pretty deliberate. Not sure what a Premier League ref would have made of it, probably depends which team it was for/against. Same probably applies here since it's Sagan.

I think they sold it, along with all its output, when Ridsdale came in there. Still no real idea how they survived that whole saga.

Better take out my predictions about Valverde. That looked as nasty as it turned out to be. Still, never thought of Geraint Thomas as a winner of that opening TT. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Maybe he's used to that kind of weather?

Does the 12% battery icon refer to how much life they have left in them? To me that sounds optimistic.

With Froome not exactly in the form of his life, could this be the most interesting race in years? Not a lot of summit finishes or time trials. With Quintana having done the Giro and not in amazing form there either, could this be the year for Richie Porte? One last hurrah from Contador? Or even Valverde ignoring team orders and jumping away after having a good Classics campaign? Bardet has to be in with a shout if it's an open race also, and Aru is always a good outside bet. And who knows if we'll see Simon Yates hanging in there... that probably depends on how Chaves is feeling though and who is going to be #1 for Orica. Barring crashes (or even if there are crashes) Sagan wins green, they may as well not have that competition and just send him a bundle of green jerseys in bulk, it would be cheaper. With Cav being out for so long with glandular fever and not really being tested since returning, will he win a stage or two? There's no Bryan Coquard as his management don't like him, and Caleb Ewan isn't there for Orica, but presumably Kittel is going to be on top of his game and Greipel always wins at least one sprint. And Sagan always mixes things up there too. Maybe Dan McLay to come up with something? All in all it's hard to see Cav catching Merckx's stage win record this year, but you never know... there are a lot of potential sprint stages this year. Any other surprises out there? Steve Cummings seems to be in the form of his life so he'll probably try and sneak away for a win here and there, and you just know Voeckler is going to try something on his last tour. I'm thinking Dan Martin has to win as stage sooner or later but can he ever beat Valverde on one of those short, steep climbs that they both seem to like? Whatever happens it'll be something to follow instead of stressing out about if VVD and Bertrand have gone yet or if the Chinese have found enough coins down the back of the sofa to complete the takeover.

Is that the opening of the book on when he'll be headed to Anfield? June 2019?

Can we rotate managers?

This. Completely.

About to say I agree with this, then I remembered Fonte. More accurate to say Les THINKS the replacement is all lined up.

What's the story with the shirt sponsorship thing tonight? No more Virgin Media?