The Fish

Needs more Cowbell.

It's with little surprise I greet the news that Wolfy is convinced of something that isn't true. I hope Parky is just being mischievous with his silly claims about East London.

1) Real Madrid 2009 – £218m Big deals: Kaka £55.25m, Cristiano Ronaldo £79.9m, Xabi Alonso £30.09m, Karim Benzema £29.75m An absolute shit ton of money, but unlike the other ones, it's hard to make a case that any of the players were anything but successes. Ronaldo is arguably the best player on the planet and has repaid that outlay a few times already. Best window by some distance 2) Real Madrid 2013 – £149m Big deals: Dani Carvajal £5.53m, Casemiro £5.1m, Isco £25.5m, Asier Illarramendi £27.2m, Gareth Bale £85.85m. Unqualified success. Bale is one of the best players on the planet and has repaid his fee already. The others have been good enough to justify their fees, Isco included. Very good window. 3) Barcelona 2014 – £141million Big deals: Marc-André ter Stegen £10.2m, Ivan Rakitic £15.3m, Claudio Bravo £10.2m, Luis Suarez £69.46m, Jeremy Mathieu £17m, Thomas Vermaelen £16.15. Bought arguably the final piece of the attacking jigsaw. Messi, Suarez and Neymar are the best attacking combination of my lifetime and Suarez' energy, his technique and, yes, his sh!thousing perfected that triumvirate. £10m for ter Stegen is a bargain. The other players all slotted in perfectly and Barcelona went on to win the Treble. Very good window. 4) Manchester United 2016 – £145m Big deals: Eric Bailly £30m, Henrikh Mkhitaryan £26.3m, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (no fee), Paul Pogba £89.25m I know they finished outside the top 4 and haven't exactly played great football, but I'd say this was a successful window. They've all settled quickly and while £89.5m is a huge amount for someone, I can imagine Pogba having years at Man Utd and when he settles properly he'll dominate games. Good window. 5) Manchester City 2009 – £119m Big deals: Gareth Barry £11.82m, Roque Santa Cruz £18.02m Carlos Tevez £24.65m, Emmanuel Adebayor £24.65m, Kolo Toure £15.9m, Joleon Lescott £23.38m. Decent window to be honest. Barry became a reliable experienced Premier League player who looked a little out of place initially, has settled very well. Like a lad you have to invite on your stag do because he's your Fiance's mate, but actually he's a good laugh and gets the rounds in. Toure and Lescott were good additions, Tevez was a very good player and Adebayor celebrating that goal in front of Arsenal fans makes his transfer fee a bargain. Average Window. 6) Manchester City 2015 £179m Big deals: Raheem Sterling £44m, Fabian Delph £8.13m, Patrick Roberts £12.75m, Nicolás Otamendi £37.91m, Kevin De Bruyne £62.9m. De Bruyne is arguably the best in his position in the Premier League and a world class talent. The same cannot be said for Sterling or Otamendi. Two flops in my opinion though I might be being harsh on Sterling. Delph is a waste of money, but not a lot of money so I'm meh about that and Roberts is one for the future. Ok Window 7) Liverpool 2014 – 128m Big deals: Rickie Lambert £4m, Adam Lallana £26.35m, Emre Can £10.2m, Lazar Markovic £21.25m, Dejan Lovren £21.51m, Divock Origi £10.74m, Alberto Moreno £15.3m, Mario Balotelli £17m. Mixed fortunes here. Lambert was buttons, so I don't care. Lallana, Can and Lovren have come good, so that's nice. Origi might make it, might not. Moreno and Markovic must be considered flops given the return on the investment, but Balotelli was disruptive, ineffective and a liability. Going to say a bad window. 8) Manchester City 2016 – £154m Big deals: Ilkay Gundoğan £22.95m, Nolito £15.3m, Leroy Sane £42.5m, John Stones £47.26m, Claudio Bravo £15.3m. It's a measure of how little impact Nolito has had that I didn't remember they'd signed him. Sane looks decent and Gundogan has been unlucky with injury, but looked ok when fit. Dunno if they're worth £65m though. Stones looks both out of his depth and cocky. When an attacker does that you can understand it, but Stones ... I don't understand John Stones. Nolito, Bravo and Stones are flops for me. Bad window. So sad. 9) Manchester United 2014 – £166m Big deals: Ander Herrera £30.6m, Luke Shaw £31.88m, Marcos Rojo £17m, Angel Di María £63.75m, Daley Blind £14.88m, Falcao loan fee £6.46m Herrera is all right, but has not looked a £30m player under Van Gaal or Mourinho. Shaw, Rojo, Di Maria and Falcao are all flops. Falcao's flopping may have cost little, but it was a spectacular flop. Mourinho seems to hate Shaw so I'd expect him to be sold on, for half of what they paid for him. Disastrous window. 10) Manchester United 2015 – £132m Big deals: Memphis Depay £28.9m, Matteo Darmian £15.3m, Bastian Schweinsteiger £7.65m, Morgan Schneiderlin £29.75m, Anthony Martial £51m Depay, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin already bounced out of Old Trafford, and it looks like Martial and maybe Darmian will follow. Unmitigated failure of a window. Shocking . Hang your head in shame Louis. Worst window of the lot here Yes, I am super busy, why do you ask?

Nah, they've got all the races, apparently... I think they meant they've seen something on whatever is the Australian FOX news variant. I agree that a secular society is the only way forward, but meeting intransigence with intransigence is pointless. Especially when the threat of violent retribution isn't much of a deterrent. Obviously a line must be drawn somewhere, but there's a lot of moderates to be convinced before you get to that point.

Few mates are suggesting I watch the following, don't want to start if they don't pass the TT filter; Designated Survivor Riverdale This is Us

Can't see him having the same troubles separating PSG's owners from their cash.

I think it was @Jimbo that was a bit of a SoA fan, maybe @Kid Dynamite? Never held my interest for particularly long to be honest.

Wonder where he'll end up. Had Arsenal not offered Wenger another 2 years I wouldn't have been shocked to see him there. All the big English clubs seem to be settled on their man.

Didn't he fall out with the owner or something?

Arsenal Fan TV will be a joy, as will FanDenial

Pretty sure that not picking you pretty much spelled that out Moussa, you big ol fraud.

He was in "Sons of Anarchy", that biker drama with Ron Perlman. All he can do is moody arrogant bellend.

Cool cool cool, I just telling Wolfy that it's not the priority he implies it is. Not that it shouldn't ever happen, just that the focus should be on the positions I mention. I've no doubt Benitez and his staff are working on bringing in players for some of those positions. I mean we've already heard about links to Mangala and now Iheanacho, Abraham, the Cairney rumour isn't going anywhere and Gabriel Pires liked a NUFC fan account so he's definitely signing.

We all live in bubbles though, right? The polarisation of the news media (and it's need to entertain, rather than inform) reinforces those divisions. The right are just better at selling their message of fear and blame to the masses, than the left are with their message of cooperation and compromise.

Well, to be fair, Europeans stole it and became Australians. Sure, but these are two "civilised" countries, not some isolated nation that suddenly has globalisation foisted upon them.

We have 3 1/2 'keepers, 2 of them have performed good-to-average in the top flight before, and while signing Reina would be a bit of statement of intent, I'd be hoping to see the priority areas addressed. I don't believe an "experienced quality keeper" is as vital as a striker, a left winger, a number 10, a centre mid and/or a left back. Cabaye used to make all the players around him 10% better, and this experienced 'keeper may well do the same, but the current roster would still be pretty poor by Premier League standards. That's why I think those positions I mentioned should take priority over a well-stocked position of all right players.

'keeper is not a priority.

Was visiting a mate in Australia (Freemantle) and her friends honestly told me that the "only reason Australians are racist is because we've all the races here". She wouldn't accept that London is more multi-cultural, even when our mutual friend backed me up. Swear to god I didn't see a single non-white face is Freemantle, not even an Aboriginal. That was part of the holiday where I visited Vegas, some of California, Sydney and Perth. Met friends of the family, family of friends, locals and holidaymakers and the only places where overt racism/bigotry wasn't the norm was Monterey and San Francisco. Even with my mate's dad's family, his partner was not a fan of "them mexicans". Thoroughly depressing on reflection.

I can't remember, were you someone who struggled with keeping up with the myriad subplots, locations and characters?

Hunnan couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. He's been shit in everything I've seen him in, but yes, he wasn't exactly helped by a script that stunk up the place.

Cannot understand why both managers set their teams up to limit the opportunities of their opponents. This is the biggest game of their season, it could be the biggest game of some players' careers. If they're going to lose, surely it's better to lose when trying to win? Do the Huddersfield have money behind them? How're they set up to strengthen in the window, because that team will go straight back down.

Sorry Brock, but Reading are an unappealing addition to the background of Newcastle surprise Premier League title season.

Who do you want to come up

Why not? Decent option on loan imo