James

Not sure why the first part is relevant. If we’ve paid less than we thought then all the better. Getting a good deal is fine. Waiting a whole year, keeping Rafa waiting and risking the player going elsewhere just so we can get the (initial) price below our transfer record is pathetic.

0. The player signings are irrelevant the fact that we negotiated the Almiron transfer to below our transfer record and for Charnley to then say what he said has just highlighted what we all knew, the club is dead.

I thought the whole point of Almiron is to unlock Perez

What? Why not? Suspended. He doesn’t have a work permit

Unless returning to 4411 I’d imagine he remains first choice LWB unless there is some central midfield potential we don’t know about

You reckon? Why have we signed him? Rafa’s quotes imply competition and a non-certainty that he will adapt. He was at best second choice for his position out of the limited pool of loan players and he did not feature much for Monaco. You do get players from time to time that come in and don’t play much and I have an inkling he is going to be one of those.

A quarter of Laurent Robert > half a Ben Arfa

Unless Dummett and Ritchie are both injured or in need of rotating he won’t play

Our transfer record remains untouched...

Still not a club record then

Rafa pretty much says he has some doubts about him in the official club interview. ‘Adds more competition if he adapts’ FFS

Just negotiate an agreement that each club have exclusivity to discuss a deal up to 1st June for Rondon and Murphy and Gayle, there is no urgency to get this done today

Media will be doing this all day generating exposure

After showing promise in preseason you can be sure that he’s spent six months of first team training being primed by Rafa in his team to know exactly what they want from him and what he should be doing in different situations. He’s clearly been listening as it shows from the consistency in his early performances and the faith Rafa has shown in him. Colback for example was the exact opposite.

High schools in the USA have better training grounds than we do

The fat Spanish accountant

There isn’t. He’s making a joke because Napoli were rumoured to be interested in him. Fucking hell

Plane been diverted to Naples because of the snow

For me he’s a bit reminiscent of Woodgate, a great defender but leaves a gaping hole as a result of some rather prolonged injuries.

It’s moments like this when I miss Skirge

i asked the exact same thing and have yet to see a suggestion you might argue that an allardyce might be able to work with the defence we have and rondon up front but i honestly don't see how you get more out of this squad in the areas that rafa is currently struggling with no one is gonna get this group of players playing like wolves or whatever, not a chance in hell, so what so critics of rafa actually want? I don’t even know what someone like Allardyce could do with the defence, aren’t we already one of the best in the league defensively? Our limitations are purely attacking, because offensive players cost money.

Huh? Light aircraft crash around once a week in UK airspace, sometimes more often - not all lead to death but over water your chances of survival are next to none. you’ll just never read much about it unless there’s a celebrity on board or in your local newspaper. These statistics are in fact down from previous years, proving flying is in general a safe mode of transport. There will always be aircraft accidents - there’s nothing the government of the world need to do. Around 25 (minimum) private chartered aircraft land at my work everyday Mon-Fri, and there hasn’t been an incident (touch wood) for years. Unless I’m mis-interpreting what you mean, I don’t see how any action I should required to stop an ‘escalation’. Anyway, awful news. Agree it’s safe but at the same time the more people can afford these flights and want to take them the more incidents are going to occur with needless risk to life. Better regulation is going to be needed going into the future.

It’s very sad. Private aircraft are becoming more affordable or available to the slightly less rich and famous, and geographical needs increase the demand for such trips. Just on a fixed probability basis this is going to increase the occurrence of these tragedies. Increased demand also means increased pressure on planes and pilot availability so the probability may increase a little too. I hope Sala and the Leicester owner’s deaths haven’t been in vain and that the coroners and air accident investigators and more generally the governments of the world speak out and act promptly to stop an escalation.

Most of them seemingly were Robson buys strangely enough

Aye but that’s not the pull is it? It’s the former title winners wanting to actually be a project that may appeal. I’m not saying it’s the main pull being talked about but it’s clear that there are quite a few individuals lacking geographical awareness!