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Says he wants to be a coach but not a manager which I think bumps up the chances of him staying here long term. Would be cool if he does slot into our setup long term.

Fair enough. It was a genuine question, maybe everyone's loving it more than me. But a few other video features would be good. Maybe convince some of the players to do edited versions of their life story presentations they do for the squad or something. Just for a change.

Sure, it's just seems pretty lazy at this point, what with the connect 4, the scalextric, the pictionary, the darts, guess the tune, guess the face, what's in the box, what have I got stuck to my forehead, what's that stain on the mattress etc. etc.... They'll be guessing how many grains of rice are in a bottle next. It started out cool but how much deliberate naffness can we take?

Are these videos popular? They better be, because they don't half do a lot of them to the exclusion of anything else...

He's an interesting boy...

Trying to use Rice and Saka as makeweights?

That's my gut feeling also. Given what's going on there it sounds like this is a joke. Saying that, supposedly we have been in a decent amount of contact with 777 in the past. There were rumours of us buying their group to fast forward the multi club model. So it's plausible we've got a relationship with him, and I don't suppose I can be too prejudiced against him without knowing more...

Yeah... There's every chance I'm talking shit, of course!

No idea but from what we've heard, I'd take a punt on it being Mourinho's guy from Napoli.

Better make sure he reads the small print on his cone-tract, first.

Reminds me of late '21...

It is striking how many decent foreign managers have really humble, journeyman backgrounds compared to what clubs here tend to go for. Maybe drifting around at unfashionable clubs, maybe retiring in their late 20s through injury in the lower leagues. The closest British comparison I can think of is our very own Eddie Howe And he basically dragged a tinpot club kicking and screaming into the big time to make any mark in this country. And still had the media laughing at the idea we'd hire him rather than someone who knows what it takes like Frank Lampard.

At least you recognised it

To be fair that's a bit of a disease we have in this country. If he was foreign we wouldn't think twice about his background being in Series B or the German third division. But because he's a Brit we naturally expect some star power like Gerrard.

You're making a valid point, and it raises an interesting prospect - it's possible Eddie still doesn't consider him ready because of his off pitch habits, and is still only playing him through necessity, rather than because form dictates it. I suspect not, but we'll see.

...And people would be confident that he's still not ready and wouldn't be any help in matches.

Yeah, it's a fair argument. Specifically re: Burn, rather than another tall CB/LB, the counterpoint is how much weaker in various other areas he and we are when he's out on the left, though. If size is the killer point for Howe though it's going to be a struggle for Hall as the one thing he probably can't do is grow...

https://archive.ph/9hWyt Thought this was worth posting. In relation to Salah and Klopp, Shearer talks about the end of his time with Robson. Never really seen him reflect on his behaviour in that time e.g. the Valerenga match the season before Robson was sacked. I remember that being especially destabilising. To be honest, in this article he still doesn't seem to really grapple with the rights and wrongs of it, given the context of his stature at the club back then as Mr NUFC, which he'd never shied away from.

To be marginally ahead of Dummett in the pecking order of course, everyone knows that. But back to the original subject, eh?

Hmm... Fuck. Makes sense I suppose.

So is there any prospect of Everton getting another points deduction this season at this rate? I've got the dumb and dumber gif lined up.

Yes, this is where it gets silly - when there are attempts to gaslight you into not believing the evidence of your own eyes. Every combination of defenders that didn't involve starting Hall was used until finally Targett, Livramento, Trippier, Lascelles and Botman were all simultaneously injured and we couldn't avoid moving Burn to CB. That's the only reasonable explanation for why Hall has had a run since the West Ham game which crippled our backline. Clinging onto the belief Howe just happened to think Hall had finally stepped up his game in time for the next match is mental. Now, I have a lot of sympathy for @Kanji's point about Joelinton and Ciaran Clark. There's a lot of serendipity in football and life, and a lot of what separates great managers from the rest is the ability to take advantage of it. See Bobby Robson and Francis Jeffers. So this issue doesn't need to get litigated to death, what's done is done. But just making up stuff to match your feelings that Eddie Howe is the best dude ever and anyone who doesn't know it stinks is stupid.

There have been little noises around. Take it for what it's worth, but there was a snippet in the Athletic recently saying one reason we were keen to loan Kuol out again this season was to save on his wages, which superficially is a stunning statement. Scarily, the implication was he thought a chemicals company would be messier and splashier than a football club, like he's Mr Burns or something.

Honestly think the missus is a major factor in Bruno staying here

I think so, yeah. I'm not certain of the procedures, but I meant he could've blown for a foul and then kept his card in his pocket, and waited to see if VAR called him back because the offence was actually on the serious side. Which it wasn't.