The Fish

Yeah I've even started to hear this from my vehemently Labour voting parents. I mentioned how childcare is now up to £80 a day and my dad said that people shouldn't have kids if they can't afford them. I was genuinely raging. We're pretty lucky in that we both have jobs and both earn a decent amount. We shop modestly, we drive reasonable cars, we save money where we can and we aren't frivolous. However, we can't account for mortgages going up as much as they did, we can't account for utility bills exploding, we can't account for old cunts voting for Brexit because of "reasons" meaning among other things that food shops are vastly more expensive. I'm paying about £200 a month on gas and electric, paying about £1k a month on childcare, the same on the mortgage. Cutting back on avocados or Netflix isn't going to plug those financial gaps, Dad.

Aside from paywalls, I don't know what the answer is to that. Even then, I've noticed how much shit the Athletic churns out and I can only assume it is trying to claw more money from ad revenue?

Diogo Jota's died in a car crash. Two weeks after getting married

Oh, I get that. I'm just a bit of an old romantic,

So, only last week then.

I don't disagree with a lot of that. But in theory I quite like the idea of the best clubs from each federations best leagues playing each other to see who is the best in the world. But it should be just that, the best teams from the best leagues. Not the 4th or 5th best, not the winner of a cup. It should be English, Spanish, German, Italian champions vs the champions of Brazil, Argentina, US, Mexico, Japan, Korea etc. Have a simple knock out competition so teams only have to play 3 or 4 games even if they make it all the way to the final.

Stop believing everything you read from football journos in the silly season man. They're just cycling through ways to get you to click on the links/tune int' t' wireless. Trafford has been rumbling on for ages and it's probably as much to do with Burnley getting a replacement as anything else, which means waiting for the other team to get in a replacement for their 'keeper and so on. Yes, it's frustrating that we've not yet been able to announce the signing of a raft of new players, and yes we really need the club to be more agile before and during the windows. That's a criticism that ultimately falls at the feet of the ownership. They should have had a replacement CEO by now, Eales has been one foot out of the door since the announcement of his illness. Mitchell was a misstep, no doubt, but it comes hot on the heels of Ashworth's unexpected departure so perhaps less due dilligence was done at the time? Either way, we will sign some players, we will likely be competing for the CL spots once more, and we've still got a very strong first team. Howe has us playing very good football. Oh and while he may get frustrated by the slow movement in the transfer window, he's still got way more control here than he would do at other clubs, he's got an excellent group of players to work with, his pick of staff below him, and the love of the fans. He's not going anywhere. You all need to fucking relax.

To be fair, in theory I don't mind the idea of a global club competition. It's just that this all seems too Super League adjacent, for me.

So, about 80% of what you got in prize money for the Premier League final position? That is fucking batshit. ~£40m for playing against Wydad Casablanca (finished 3rd in the Moroccan league), Al Ain (5th in the UAE Pro League), Juventus (4th in Serie A), and Al Hilal (2nd in the Saudi League)? Going off transfermarkt, just with that windfall, you could buy Wydad Casablanca's squad and still have enough left over to get a 6 bed Georgian in Belgravia. It's just ridiculous.

Maybe, I think he'd have got a lot more minutes than he did in his final season with us. He'd have been ample cover for tiring legs of Bruno, Joelinton or Tonali. And he could have provided cover on the right or left flank. He is tailor made to help unpick defences, something that we're still struggling with and because of this I think we'd have seen loads of him.

You had to go into the basement of your mind palace to dig that clue out, huh?

I know nobody asked, but just want to put my cards on the table, I was zen as fuck.

And Anderson

I dunno, he did seem long in the face

Thank god for the PSR rules protecting the competitive nature of the sport.

The fuck did I do?

Well, that I'm aware of. It's a few times now that I've had to turn the hose on Foden and Mainoo scuttling around the bottom of my drive.

There's some really great football in those clips. Best season of my life, I reckon.

I suppose. But, honestly, if Elanga was coming from La Liga I'd probably be more excited. Which is stupid and juvenile, but it's true. For what it's worth, I still think we need an RCB and more depth across the board, so lets hope some Uruguayan plying his trade in the J League can get me giddy as fuck.

Is it ok to say that Elanga, Pedro and Trafford don't make my downstairs bit all fizzy? I guess it's the football hipster in me, but none of them are particularly exciting. Well, Trafford, maybe? But Pedro and Elanga are just... yeah, Ok, I guess.

I was about to ask, why is SR6 a draw?

Looks like he's going for quantity over quality.

When in Rome... Randomly attack someone with a plastic sword trying to drag parochial football rivalry to an entirely different country.

I hope not, it was brutal. On the brightside, after significant testing it's clear that the wifi mesh system I've got in the house really improved the coverage I get in the toilets.