acrossthepond

We're playing without a striker and it's showing, if there was someone to finish these chances off it'd be out of sight by now. Hopefully the message gets through to the owners before Watford.

I agree with all of you, please don't interpret my comment as any sort of support or respect for the fat bastard. He'll run them into the ground, same as he did with us. But if he buys them, they'll not be liquidated or suffer any further administration penalties.

I know what he means though. Mike Ashley actually has money. Real, actual money that spends, unlike many of the bullshit artists who appear when a club is in dire financial straits. For a club circling the drain like Derby, he might appear to be a saviour.

I don't know why the Vlahovic price should be related to fears of relegation. We can now comfortably absorb the financial costs of relegation and wouldn't be forced to sell our players at cut-rate prices. Vlahovic would surely move on, but at a price that we set, if not the price we paid for him. It's crazy in one sense that we are discussing 50m+ signings in all seriousness after years of utter bleakness, but even with our league position I don't think it's outlandish. Players will realize we're going to compete for honors, that we're going to upset the PL apple cart. It's going to happen. It may happen next year or five years from now, but it's nailed on with the financial muscle we now possess that we will be joining the PL elite. May as well get in early. Trippier will open the floodgates and alert top-level internationals that playing for us is the real deal. The owners are surely looking for that marquee signing, that Robinho. I would love it to be Vlahovic but - and I can hardly believe I'm saying this - there's plenty of other fish in the sea. One really edifying thing is how quickly the bullshit "the Saudis won't spend in January" narrative has evaporated. Bargain basement days are over. Bullshit loan rumors in the final hours of the transfer window that just couldn't get over the line are over. Movement in the first week of the window was exactly what we needed to save this season and we're acting quickly and decisively.

I'm not engaging with you at all. Renton made a comment about a particular style of posting. I supplied the name. If the shoe fits though, you're welcome to wear it.

It's called sealioning, common troll tactic. Here's the origin: http://wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png EDIT: Image won't embed.

all i wanted to do was talk about my beloved club.

Why did it have to be the "Saudi-backed regime"? When City buy players nobody refers to them as the Emirati-backed regime. We're not a fucking rebel faction in Yemen for God's sake, we're a football club.

No, I don't personally. I think it's about money, like everything else in the elite leagues. But racism is absolutely one way to frame the contempt with which European clubs view the AFCON. @Wykiki: Can't imagine why, Salah is going to give the same half-hearted performance he's done for years when pulling on an Egypt shirt. Meanwhile our donkey coaches will shape the entire gameplan around getting a Liverpool-level performance out of him, which won't happen, nobody else will have a clue what to do except give it to him, and we'll put in another mediocre showing. Maybe he'll conveniently catch COVID so he can have an excuse not to go. I put nothing past him at this point.

It's their tournament, they have the right to stage it when it is most convenient for African teams. It's held when it is so as to avoid the wet season that affects much of sub-Saharan Africa. I'm not going to start banging the racism drum like Ian Wright, but it's not a hard conclusion to reach when you hear the owners of ludicrously rich, privileged-beyond-belief Western European teams bitching that the darkies couldn't hold their bongo-bongo tournament in summer like normal people do. Fuck that and fuck them. It's as much a privilege to play for Nigeria or Gabon as it is for England, France, or Italy and it should be given the same level of respect. If I were Dennis I would've told Watford to fucking do one, I know they pay his wages, but there's some things more important than money. That said I'm glad he's out because the worthless set of donkeys that play under my father's flag and call themselves the Egyptian national team play Nigeria on matchday 1, and we can use all the help we can get.

The number of bitter posts relating to us in there is truly sad. We've got nobody on that list and they probably never will again, but their sad obsession as always pulls them in. Like the moon to our Earth. They can't help but revolve around us. It's simple gravity.

Fuck me, I've just seen the replay on the penalty. If that's not one then what the fuck is?

The "defenders" made a perfect V of incompetence as Cancelao wound up to shoot. He could've driven a truck through the space they gave him, do these morons not know how to close someone down?

Leg dangling or not, that was simulation, 100%. Maddison began the dive before he touched Lascelles (and it was him touching Lascelles, not the other way round.) That's what VAR is supposed to be for, that goal should not have stood and Maddison should be in the book. That in no way excuses Lascelles's stupidity or the bad pass that began the entire passage of play.

An obvious dive.

And I think everyone else in the league knows it, hence the panicked sackings of Smith and Farke. Normally they'd feel reassured seeing an Ashley-owned, Bruce-coached team sinking without trace, only this time they're banking on our new owners to bail us out of it.

Ashley apologist with a twist, he's a boring as fuck divvy who distorts stats to support his point. Even from the worst Ashley hoop-lickers you rarely hear that Benitez "got the club relegated," that's a fucking new one. Here then you impostor, how about comparing apples to apples? Bruce wasn't at NUFC for 3 years as you state, he was here from 17 July 2019 to 20 October 2021, that's 2 years and three months you throbber, which you're comparing to nearly 3.5 years of Benitez's tenure. Bruce racked up 110m of dogshit signings, nearly 10m per player, spearheaded by the biggest fucking plum to play for us in recent memory, a player who Benitez told the club not to sign, whereas Benitez had a larger total spend (over substantially longer, as well as overseeing a Championship rebuild) but a far, far smaller net spend. A net spend that was actually negative, in fact. I notice you mysteriously didn't mention that when you were trying to quibble over how much money Rafa was given. Bruce had a staggering net spend of 93m during his time here. Rafa? -11m. You've heard the one about lies, damned lies, and statistics, right?

Shelvey has been a liability for ages now, you must be having a laugh. Our best central midfielder? Outperformed the likes of Colback, Saivet, Barlaser, and Bentaleb? What an accomplishment, the latter 3 probably had 500 minutes of pitch time between them and being better than Colback isn't exactly a glowing endorsement. As for mentioning Willock in that list, we'd have gone down last season if not for his performances, it's actually comical to state that Shelvey outperformed him by any metric other than the number of 50-yard passes he put out of play, or the number of Cruciatus curses he laid on people. The squad absolutely has been run down during Bruce's tenure. We splashed a lot of money on a small handful of players upon whom we then over-relied, allowing strength in depth to decline massively. Ritchie is almost ready for a trip to the glue factory as he's been so overused over the past few years. Beyond the first XI we look incredibly threadbare, with players like Hayden, Hendrick, Gayle, Krafth and Manquillo regularly getting games when they should be playing for Championship sides. Carroll had an embarrassing cameo for us and then even more ludicrously was given another year. Murphy had a revival but is contracted until 2027 (!), that should tell you everything you need to know about the way Ashley was simply running out the clock on the last few years. We did better with a worse squad under Benitez, who was given - as you pointed out yourself - far less money to work with. So whistle with your "poor coaching over the last 7 years."

Aye but TOT is playing.

Why is Charnley still employed? There can't be that many pencils that still need sharpened. Get shot of the fucking clown. I also agree with the post above, Nuno will be looking for an opportunity to bounce right back and he's a much better manager than the lad from Bournemouth who's been out of work for a year because apparently he can't stand to work anywhere north of France.

It's inconceivable to me that the first manager PIF appoints would be some low-level knuckle-dragger like Eddie Howe or, God forbid, Lampard. They're going to want their first appointment to be a marquee signing. Someone who's actually won something.

Nuno hounded out after three months, but barely a word about his treatment. Bruce, on the other hand, with the lowest PPG of any permanent manager during Ashley's reign, was hounded out by hordes of malicious Geordies, ungrateful northern mankeys, etc etc. Spurs are rotten, if I were a manager looking to build something I'd steer far clear. Levy runs that club, you'll never be able to realize any sort of vision as long as he's at the reins.

You're not Algerian like, are you? I'm not sticking around if there's going to be any Algerians on this forum. We also can't leave out Danny B, fop or wolfy if we're discussing the Toontastic rogues' gallery.

As I live and fucking breathe I never thought we'd see the back of him. Been at graft all day, saw a BBC headline. Don't think it's sunk in yet. We are now the richest club on the entire planet Earth. Newcastle United, you fucking mad club. Where the fuck's my Coca-Cola, #cans it is!