madras

I reckon unwittingly he's going to get "so bad he's good" recognition and he'll get kudos for sheer bloody persistence.

Trains to the Metrocentre about every 15mins and straight on to A1. Train takes 7mins. Shouldn't be affected by strikes as Sundays are ovetime for many rail staff. You can find out a week in advance if there are engineering works.

I remember seeing sunderland tops at our away games. They (by which I mean tge folk that do it, theirs and ours) tend to do it when they club has the upper hand.

Aye, that's why I took a little bit of issue

We did at times last season, Everton and Arsenal come to mind straight away.

Take a little bit of an issue with Pope. Apparently he's much more of a sweeper keeper than Dubravka allowing us to squeeze up more. Interesting to see if that's the plan and if so how much it changes us.

I did ask if it was option or obligation. And if they didn't want him to leave that much they wouldn't let him, regardless of what he wants.

If they didn't want him to leave they wouldn't be in talks with anyone.

Earned it and could help a little with FFP as well

It's not helped by the internets nature of encouraging exaggeration and enabling people to be twats.

Option or obligation ?

Shut up ! Stop spoiling it.

Know what I take from it ? The word "has", past tense, possibly meaning deal done?

Ha ! Quite the opposite really. I think stats like Assists can be very misleading as, as far as I'm aware a miss hit shot or pass can count as an assist, Dan Burn got an assist for his header for Bruno at Southampton, had Bruno not had that bit of genius then no assist for Dan even though in both scenarios his contribution is exactly the same. Key passes is a better measure but not on its own. The depths of metrics used now in player data is amazing and adds so much for managers, coaches and scouts. I just couldn't understand how anyone could arrive at the idea that Maxi playing better under whoever could be a myth based on such narrow based stats.

Can you explain what it means though ? I googled PFMs and it was nowt to do with football.

Possibly the opposite. We are looking and enquiring but with no real intention, trying to make it look like we have plenty of options in order to keep prices down on the real targets ?

I've no idea what any of that means.

That's if what Lyon are reported as wanting or wanted is actually true ?

Very often. Serious question, do you think any serious manager or coach or pundit makes a judgement on such a broad stat ? It's like judging a keeper on clean sheets when there are so many more variables. Don't get me wrong I'm not writing off data as it is now so much more comprehensive and results driven rather than merely goals and assists which tell you very little really.

Do you mean dispossessed or giving the ball to someone else who gets dispossessed so he does ecactlty the same thing but his stats look different because of others ? I'd be saying they were talking shite and we both know they regularly do.

You said the better season under Bruce thing was a myth because of those stats. Re Messi is it purely the stats that dictate if he's had a better season than others he's had, could he play better in a season when he scores less ? Of course he could. Him being g the best forward on the pitch without scoring g or assisting g does stand up to scrutiny from someone watching, but not by stats alone. Last paragraph 100% Stats and data can be used as a guide but they don't tell the whole story. Just like you'll miss bits by watching a player alone.

Harry Pearsons "The far corner" Karl Ove Knausgaard and Frederik Ekelund "Home and away"

I'd say what set it off were the stories that we actually went for him before Bruno in January and a deal was set but he didn't want to come because of our position at that time. Now, I don't know how true that is but it's what set stuff off, the Brunos best mate stuff just built on it.

There's a bit of a difference between 30 odd goals a season and 4 or 5. You're saying a wide player who scores 5 goals a season has a better season than if he scores 3 or 4. I disagree and bringing a matter of a couple of assists is even sillier. An assist which could have been a miss kick and poor decision as opposed to not getting an assist if he takes on the entire team, plays a Zidane of a pass to a forward who misses from three inches out so no assist. Callum Wilson had a better game V Arsenal in which he didn't score than in a good few games in which he scored.

Do you never see games where the best forward player has neither scored nor made an assist ?