Rayvin

So I've just googled Wraith because I'm curious as to what he actually thinks his job is, and Google believes him to be an 'actor'. And he has his own imdb page: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1724384/ Complete with painful showreel proving that he is not an actor after all.

Interesting things about that interview: 1 - It's a bit difficult to take her view that he's the perfect appointment seriously when we were clearly in for Emery. I get that she can't really say anything else but come on man, we're not stupid. 2 - Impressed that they took the risk to buy us given that she's say they could have waited. 3 - Mentions she was impressed Howe brought Bournemouth out of League 2 on 'limited resources'. Similarly, mentions January isn't a window they would normally want to invest in - which I totally get. I think the emphasis is going to be on spending but doing it smartly, not just throwing money around until success comes. 4 - Pleased that their decisions are being strongly underpinned by data and numbers. You'd expect that these days of course but I still suspect it's a strong departure from Ashley.

It's a weird fucking thing to see this complete transformation of Gemmill tbh

That sounds like good news. So we may not be heading back to Christmas lockdowns then?

I want to stress for the record that I have never been pro-communist I believe in mixed economies of left wing persuasions. I'm still capitalist. The manga comment is a bit rich coming from Captain Comic Book, mind.

"He has our full support until he doesn't". It's up there in terms of cynical management speak with "It's up to you, I know you'll make the right decision" right after you've set out two potential options to someone and made clear that you have a strong preference for one of them.

Essembee probably knows more about Sunderland than you do He's an anomaly.

I really hope she's the fucking president one day. Took a while to win me around but she appears to be an actual human being, which must be a first in American politics. Maybe even politics in general.

Prefer Emanelo anyway. His credentials seem very solid and he's a guardian favourite which will no doubt wind them up since he'll be joining Evil Incarnate FC.

I think we all know I'm about as hipster as the Fish is. I make a sincere effort to tone it down for you lot

I mean the truth is that for all it's obviously amusing for us on here that you guys are still in League One, it's also fucking crackers man 4 seasons... Is there a concern that if it goes on much longer you'll become institutionalised at that level? I'm half tempted to say that this must have already happened for you to be writing yourselves off for automatic qualification, but you have consistently been in the promotion equation at least.

Was Ba better than Cisse? Maybe more of a complete player, not sure about just a goalscorer. Mind you I've always loved Cisse because of that goal against Chelsea.

Do we not have to be a bit more mindful of 'homegrown' players now that we're not in the EU?

I kind of hope it holds a mirror up to the rest of them as well tbh - this didn't happen in a vacuum, it happened because the road towards undesirable owners had already been well worn. Maybe they're all a bit further down that road than they'd like to admit, if Saudi Arabia is coming in just after them.

Actually a really good point - the only clubs who are really going to care about our success longer term are the top tier clubs. Those with delusions of grandeur like Palace, West Ham and Everton will care for a few seasons until we go past them, then they'll just recalibrate and get on with things as usual. I mean the likelihood is that we'll replace an existing top tier club anyway so it doesn't make that much difference for them. And as Howay says, the top tier wouldn't sell to each other anyway.

I actually think it will indeed go something like that - and if he does manage to make relegation less of a certainty, the other clubs might give up on their stance anyway. It's only worth pursuing if going down looks likely.

The truth is we all wanted it to happen and we're all prepared to more or less turn a blind eye because we're in the very fortunate position of not actually having been able to influence this at all. So we get the benefits with plausible deniability. I don't think any of us were under any illusions about what Saudi stood for before this takeover was on the radar though. But we can simply shrug and say "this is the world we live in". Because it is.

I think there's a limit to what they'll actually be able to realistically do before they become anti-competitive - the lawsuits that would come in if they tried to prevent a team from being promoted under the existing terms of the league arrangements would be incredible.

If we go down, do they not lose any chance of limiting our ability to spend? Can we not use the opportunity to sign several 10 year multi-million pound sponsorships that would constitute pre-existing business relationships that the PL won't be able to veto, and that would just come up with us on promotion? I don't think we're going down even if we do limited business in January anyway, I'm convinced Howe can get more out of this team than Bruce did.

What's gone wrong then, as far as you can tell? You really need to go up automatically tbh, you've had a few runs at the playoffs now and they don't appear to be a strong suit.

Those on RTG certainly don't look like they will.

Howe actually being physically able to run is a key distinction in and of itself.

I really don't apologise that much ffs

You'll get no bother from me, but brace yourself for a sea of gifs from everyone else

It's excessive from the outside looking in but I don't really think it's counter-productive; you don't tend to see trans issues getting anyone except the media and radical feminists worked up tbh. Maybe it's useful to the people living that reality though. Even if it is though, I don't know what bearing that has on infrastructure and traffic systems. It's just going to cause confusion more than anything else.