Alex

I think the Emirates is one of the nicer new stadiums and Highbury was definitely too small once all-seater grounds came in. But there’s no comparison in terms of character imo

Filbert Street used to be like that too.

Fucking odd behaviour by Toney like. Not really the actions of someone dealing with a full deck. You have to question what Southgate thought he was doing picking him for an England squad with this hanging over him too

Ground will be 90% empty if happens so no worries

Mind, he went up in my estimation when it became clear Bruce couldn’t stand him

You’d be laughing anyway. HMHM (and Cock-eyed Mala, golf legend) just reinforce that

Not now, Keto

Fish trying to pull off the old double whoosh manoeuvre

Aye. I think that Rice is an outside possibility for us as I think Man Utd, Arsenal and potentially even Man City will be after him.

In a way it’s possibly good in the long term if this happens. But it’s fucking awful in the short to medium term. But how will people realise what’s really happening and how much they’ve been duped otherwise? The PM meanwhile is still banging on about stopping the boats as a top priority. Even though their policies basically create the market for them and legal net immigration has doubled

Aye, Maddison makes sense if the club fancy him. Same with Rice. He’d also cost a lot but he’s a top talent and the contract situation with both means they are relative bargains. The other two are fringe players (in the sense they probably wouldn’t start if everyone was available) at rival clubs who’d look to rip us off imo

Mowbray is fucking great for them tbh. Good coach, manager, great bloke, happy to be there, has performed above reasonable expectations etc., has the fans behind him. And you’d imagine it won’t take long for a new coach to realise they’ve been sold a pup. Because there’s nothing to suggest there’s much money. They don’t even stock the fucking club shop

You’re joking? That’s mental if true.

I see the link a bit like McTominay. I.e. buying from a direct rival, mid-20s, premier league-proven, etc. all means the fee would be massively inflated. It just doesn’t seem to fit the transfer policy at all. You could point to Burn and Wood but the former was a bargain who wanted to come home and the latter was a necessity in the circumstances. It’s not a case of turning my nose up at him because he would actually improve the starting XI but you’d imagine Ashworth would be looking at better value abroad. Especially as we seem determined to stay within the FFP regs.

They’re an amazing young team who play some of the best free-flowing, attacking football anyone has ever seen. They also finished 11 points behind tinpot Luton who play league one hoof ball and were the poorer side for about 75% of a two-legged playoff. They were 22 points (or needed 8 of their losses converted to 7 wins and a draw) from getting the tally Sheff Utd amassed to get an automatic promotion spot. Schrödinger's Black Cat 👍🏻

if you look at their home form over the last 8 games of the season they were 22nd out of 24 teams. Which is weird given what fantastic support they get at the SoL.

A bit like the Ajax side that reached consecutive Champions League finals in the mid-90s - their big challenge going forward will be how they rebuild after the biggest clubs in Europe have taken their best players.

Eric Gates! Kate Adie! Adam Johnson! Micky Gray! Jackie Milburn! (as a boy) Wearside Jack! Niall Quinn! Steve Cram! Durham Cathedral! Athletic Bilbao! Total football! Your boys took one hell of a beating tonight

And the other alternatives, like VAR not currently being fit for purpose and the officials implementing it being incompetent isn’t much better.

Mowbray will be found dead wearing that gilet

He’ll be a Tranmere fan. Allegedly

The doc on the BBC / iPlayer made for the 40th anniversary of Aberdeen winning the Cup Winner’s Cup in ‘83 is class. Especially if you’re old enough to remember it. Some class little snippets of Scottish incidental music for the trainspotters like me too, from the more obscure like Boards of Canada to the more well known stuff by Primal Scream and Big Country etc. Great bit of nostalgia. Eric Black is still dreamy too

Or conscious

Well he’s seen Pearson join the mile high club off the back of it

Can you give me a quote for a new patio?