The Fish

What fucking crisps are you eating?

Gimme a second.

I think therein lies the rub. Boehly and whoever is advising him haven't given it much thought at all. Caicedo is a good midfielder. But as a responsible owner you should ask yourself and your advisors the following questions; Did he solve the problem they have? Was he value for money? Did his transfer put unnecessary pressure of the PSR/FFP burden? If the answer to any of those is "no", then you really should take pause. If two are answered "no", then you should take a long fucking pause. If it's three "nos" then you need to go have a fucking lie down.

So in my example, could the remaining cost of the player fall into that years reporting? Caicedo's remaining £50m suddenly dumped as a cost into the 24/25 accounts?

I don't wear the apron for them.

We don't know what flavour it is, and the usual "As long as it's healthy" caveats aside, I'd like a daughter. Complete the set, y'know? Plus the increased likelihood of my answering the door in pants, socks and a blood smeared butchers apron to greet her first boyfriend.

I'm definitely open to the idea of getting neutered on the same day as the second comes into the world. Under no circumstances do I want a 3rd. A puppy, for sure, but a person? God no.

Heavens to

Aren't the issues more linked to the amount they're accounting for each year? E.G. Caicedo and Fernandez are gobbling up ~10m a year, (unless the 5-year amortisation limit is applied retroactively? in which case it's closer to £20m) so they'd have to sell them for a significant sum. Say they dump Caicedo for £40m in the summer, they'll only have paid £22m of the £110m they paid, leaving £50m of the initial fee to be amortised over how long? All the while the deals for Mudryk, Jackson et al are gobbling up sizeable portions of the allowance.

I like Mjolnir, because only those who are worthy can pick them up. And in the dead of night, while I am clearly not going to be worthy, the Mrs will be. I like Terry for a boy, so when he writes his name on a form with surname first, whoever is reading can do a wildly offensive imitation of a Chinese person deciding what to watch: "Watson Terry" Genuinely stuck on names, we don't know the sex yet but we're down to a choice of two for each. I've vetoed some absolute horror shows from her though.

Yeah, we had childcare lined up for Friday and Saturday. But midweek poses more problems, obviously. Which will be exacerbated if we need to stay in for more than one night.

Mrs Fish would want me to say that our first was a c-section.

I just don't think he's got what it takes to play in the number 8 role for Howe.

If I had those scan stats, yeah, probably.

This one won't be light, they're already about 8lbs. We breed big Fishies. Eldest was ~10lbs. I was 9lbs 13.

I know I'm being daft, but it's just a jarring coincidence and now a stressful period until childcare is found. Could really have done without this sudden change towards the end of the pregnancy. Does her (and my) anxiety levels no fucking good at all.

Bruno, and I bet those scan stats would back that up. But what about Bruno Fernandes vs Bruno Guimaraes?

Absolutely and had we had a full compliment of midfielders he wouldn't have played half as much at 17. But Anderson is 21, the same age as Willock was when we loaned him from Arsenal, and he doesn't look as close to the first team as either of them.

A bit all over the shop to be honest. Just got back from the final scan before the birth next Friday and the consultant says asked if we can pull the planned c-section forward a few days because the baby's growth has slowed a little. I asked how accurate the measurements are and she said within 10%. Now, the kid has been measuring big (~90th percentile) and all but one of the scans show a pretty straight line, so if that one reading was over by 5% and this one is down by 5% you'd have a nice straight line and no slowing of growth recorded at all. I asked what the risk is in keeping to the existing date and she said there's a very small risk of still birth, but bring it forward and that lessens it. So that's that I guess. We have no real support system here but we need childcare for Little Fish. Her folks have passed, mine are 200 odd miles away and in their mid-to-late 70s, he doesn't really know my sisters (I've done well to keep them the fuck away from him) and hers live in London or Leeds. Only a few mates nearby and we'd need to ask them to take leave so that they're here for drop offs and pick ups, and there's no guarantee they can do that at such late notice. Now, this would be a pain in the arse, but manageable. The thing that's got me frustrated is that, two days ago Mrs Fish got a call asking if we could bring forward the birth because they were particularly busy on that day. Call me fucking silly but I'm barely containing my cynicism and if they've used the threat of still birth to ease their workload I'll be raging.

Re the latter point, I think that's chiefly because of the way we play. Miley is a real central midfielder, Hall is a versatile LB/CM, but Anderson's best position or role aren't used by Howe. So he's needing to learn a new way of playing in the few minutes he's getting. If a bottom half of the PL club come in for him next season I could see him going on loan, but a fee would have to be silly for it to be accepted simply because the only reason to sell him is to expand the PSR/FFP envelope and why sell for £15m wriggle room? It's not worth it.

Just quantifies awareness of the pitch. Dunno what the problem is. If a player is looking around more, he'll have a better picture of the positions of the opponents and his teammates, so he's better informed about where danger or opportunity lies.

Exactly this.