Alex

Nobody who has to do that sort of thing enjoys that sort of thing. Electric charisma from the pair of them too

Well it’ll be his office that’s leaked it

I’d probably go for beatification at this point. Wait until he wins a trophy with us

I’d love to see the stats on how much ground he usually covered compared to Bruno

I think you’ll find our expert on all things calcio-related is @ciaomanheyman

The callousness of (the basically traitorous) JHB. I fucking hope she gets what she deserves one day

Thought you were going to make a high brow post for a moment there

That Liverpool match, man. Absolute chaos.

I’ll give you a two word summary as to why we didn’t win anything in KK’s first spell as manager here: away form. That applies to cups as well. But it was especially the case in 95/96 when I think we lost at home to Man Utd and drew the final hone game v Spurs. But won every other league game at SJP?

Aye. Batty of all people scored and Fenton then got two late goals. After that it really felt like it wasn’t meant to be. They played really well too.

Beardsley, of course. How could I forget? Think KK would’ve been more pragmatic later in his managerial career too.

I meant Ginola

He was fucking finished at Leeds. Barnes and Pearce weren’t bad signings.

There was more than those two like. Problem that team had was, until Batty was signed in the January, not s single one of them had that experience of winning the league. That said, if they’d beat Man Utd at home or maybe even just drawn, which they were desperately unlucky not to, they’d probably have gone on and won it anyway

Shearer didn’t fancy him and his fate was sealed when Dalglish replaced KK and also didn’t think he grafted enough.

One of the main reasons he left Barca was because Spanish football was so brutal at that time. And he obviously came in for a lot of treatment from the opposition. Goikoetxea was notorious and he made no attempt to play the ball and purely tried to injure Maradona with the tackle that broke his ankle in that previous match. Says a lot really as Italy was clearly no picnic at that time but he got more protection there and was able to thrive. He could clearly look after himself too, as you had to then (and where he grew up).

Also @ fish trying to rekindle the Robert v Ginola debate

Went down in instalments. As Big Racist Ron would say

He was definitely trying to hit the opposition player I once saw him try that with Lauren v Arsenal from point blank range. He missed them too Lauren (who I definitely think would have won if it came to a fight) did not look best pleased

I think it’s a very marginal call either way. Agree too there’s not that much difference between getting in two strikers or one plus a top midfielder. If we had to sell anyone, players like Joelinton are relatively easy to replace.

Disagree. We’d need to buy two strikers then, Shirley. I’m not sure we need to sell anyone, mind. As a lot of the press etc seem to assume is the case.

I think Foden will play as he’s started the last few games iirc. But it’s ridiculous how well he’s had to play to get to that point where Southgate’s hand has been forced

Think it’s poor management by Southgate in terms of motivation for Phillips and other players. The Pep comments about his weight and his performances since going to West Ham smacks a bit of a player not giving a shit. You can see how that could happen with the way things panned out. And I’m not saying it means he’s a bad apple. But to reward a player off the back of that by picking him in England squads and starting him? Plus what it says to players doing well who can’t get in the squads. Particularly when it’s one of the most talented group of players England has ever had

I liked Carmy’s character. Like he was a bit if a dweeb / loner and found this obsession with food which lifted him out of the shadow of his much cooler brother. I also got the bit about how making food for people is a really nice thing to do. Even if I could never be a chef / handle the intensity. Not sure where it’ll go from here on. I hope it doesn’t turn into another one where they just string it out because it’s popular. The Xmas dinner episode was really well done too btw