Wullie

Definitely, I said that the other day. There's been at least 2 World Cups he's turned up at looking completely goosed (and he's now 34).

Yeah maybe. I'm just not convinced that moving to Bayern or Juventus (at the time Ronaldo did) or Man City is any more exciting or even more of a challenge really. Domestically it's highly likely to be a procession whether it's against Nice, Aston Villa, Bologna or Eintracht Frankfurt. Sure it would be interesting if he does a Maradona and joins a midtable team but when does that ever happen? Top players now all cycle round the same ~10 clubs because they're all obsessed with winning the CL, that's just the way it is.

It's not my recollection that Ronaldo's move to Juventus at a similar age was seen as being a grim and depressing indictment of modern football that Messi's is, despite the fact that Juventus had just won 7 Serie A titles on the bounce while Messi's not even moving to the French champions. Is there a reason for that or am I remembering it wrongly? I definitely don't remember a clamour for Ronaldo to go and play for Watford for free in order to cement his legacy.

Quite common among footballers to do that I think.

"Serie A on BT Sport kicks off on Saturday 21 August and every single match will be broadcast, with at least five live games shown each round, totalling more than 200 live games across the season." What does that mean, they'll show the other five but not live?

I grew up on Teesside, watched that with a load of Boro fans at someone's house, Heskey scoring with the last kick of extra time to force a replay is one of my favourite footballing memories. 12 years old, taking the absolute piss.

As above, Tranmere, Leicester won 2-1. Not a game I can remember in the slightest.

Who did Leicester beat to win that League Cup? I don't remember this even a tiny bit.

What's the state of play with fans in stadiums? Someone better bloody buy the rights before next week, preferably someone I already pay for.

Good for booking fans.

A lot of those clubs would require him to put a serious shift in domestically, some of them couldn't afford him unless he takes a huge cut and some of them simply wouldn't present a good enough opportunity for a CL (I don't give the Italian clubs a cat in hell's chance). He'll definitely have his eye on the World Cup next December as well. PSG is by far and away the biggest opportunity to be able to both win the CL and not put that much football in his legs before then (the only other would be Bayern but they have quite a strict wage policy I believe). Re: the CL, you can get BT Sport in a TV/broadband package with Virgin for under 50 quid, I used to pay more than that with Sky with no sport.

As I understand it (though I stand to be corrected), he couldn't. Barca are already over the new La Liga salary cap even if he played for free, they are not allowed to put him back on the books. Some serious hyperbole though, PSG aren't even the French champions, he's not effectively retiring. He wants another Champions League and they're certainly the best available opportunity for that.

Got smashed 4-0 at Old Trafford in a friendly.

It did that last night on the Champ game, once the game is listed on the in-play menu, you seem to have to use that.

Ake/Ndidi cards 55/1

Huddersfield apparently waiting on a load of Covid results that could take several players out.

Rocked up on here when we signed Kluivert and posted obsessively about him for two years, he could tell you the pH of PK's piss. You can still watch his hero worship videos:

You obviously don't remember GHoeberX

Can't believe he's still at Fulham.

If you pay the extra £5 a month for Boost you can split it 3 ways with mates/family, split the cost.

One of the biggest problems with having a single powerhouse club is how little interest the rest of the league holds to neutral, more casual, outsiders. In the PL, you've got "the six" and therefore if you just watch those, you're still going to see a lot of the other clubs - you might still watch Burnley ten times a season, and subsequently gain a passing interest in their fortunes. In France, if you're only really interested in PSG as the one club with significant interest outside France, all the other games between all the other teams pass you by. That's a huge amount of games going by unless you're really invested in French football. One of the trump cards Serie A has always held, even when the league was in the doldrums, is its history, they've got loads of historically significant clubs, even mid table teams like Fiorentina, Torino, Sampdoria. Almost nothing in France. Nobody gives the slightest shit about Reims or Lorient or Angers, and the league gives them no reason to start.

There's just something about that French league, I don't know what it is. I actually like watching it, lot of good young players coming through all the time, but the overall competition is dull. Even when PSG have a proper competitor it's hard to get excited about.