80

I think us not getting Europe will have totally transformed our thought process for Minteh next season, unfortunately.

By November 3rd we'll have a much clearer idea of how high we should be gunning this year. Tough final month, but altogether that's about as good as you can ask for. It's set up really nicely for us.

As someone said earlier, it read like AI to me. Probably a lot more of that to come in the future...

Superficially, sounds like a good hire. Guess it's Jack Ross making that call?

Seems like this conversation is mainly happening in the FFP thread mate

This doesn't feel like a plausible prediction. Unless the board has an epic poker face. I could believe a gap - which is one reason I won't feel totally comfortable about Bruno's situation until July - but not that much.

I think part of what makes him interesting is he's lived his life/career on the edge a bit. By his own words, in terms of old friends, old diets etc. It sounds like he could've easily gone down a different path in terms of taking himself seriously re: professionalism etc. But overall he's listened to the right people and made himself top class, which makes him more credible for some people to listen to.

Yep, playing with inflatable toys. Literally harmless fun.

With a bit of pushing from his agent, I think they'd be willing to go halvsies on the Daz. But electricity costs will be a red line.

I think this is it. Certainly not getting my hopes up, but supposedly he's very careful and calculating in developing his career. He might conclude coming here and being a main man for a couple of years, ripping the league up with a respectable minimum release clause would set him up for a big move to wherever he eventually sees himself i.e. PSG according to @Palace fan. He might be looking to join a well run club that would let him go without a saga, which narrows his options right now. And that would be ok with me, all things considered.

Yikes. Quick way to destroy a reputation among younger Brazilians. I forget why but remember thinking he was a dickhead back in his day.

@The College Dropout We need another one of your rants.

Wonder if it was someone sending a balloon up to see what the reaction was.

Supposedly we do actually. But I'm under the impression they're way too young to play i.e. aged 16 or less. Hopefully we're looking at having first teamers who will actively engage with such kids and support their development though.

Yes... But that hasn't really let us down so far so I haven't really got any complaints about it. I think he has a black book in his mind of people he's known who he thinks offer more than whatever their current value is

I don't think you are looking too far into it. I'm not sure disinterested is the right word though. He looked sick with nerves when he went up for that penalty against Chelsea in the League Cup, rather than not really caring whether it went in or not. I get a sense of distress off him.

Misinterpreted the grunts, makes sense

...Unless there's something he's not enjoying here? As I've said before, I haven't really got a dog in this fight. Something seems to be wrong, I don't know why, I hope that if there is it gets better soon. If it does and he stays and ultimately becomes a coach then great, if we sell him to Saudi then that's cool too. Just hope there isn't any outstanding bad feeling for whatever strange reason.

By the way, from his interview, apparently Kelly had been talking to Callum Wilson about coming here. I'm glad he didn't listen to anything he said, seeing as ITKs have told us Wilson has hated Eddie Howe and everything he stands for for at least a couple of months, now.

Yeesh.

I didn't listen very closely but I thought the interviewer handled it far better than normal

Same. I wasn't surprised they got to the final after seeing them against us. Sounds like they've had internal power struggles?

Haha, where? He can just collect his salary in the oubliette in that case.

The article goes into his son being there but observes it's unusual for an academy kid's father to have a one to one with their sporting director, whose remit is focused on the first team. While there he also had a conversation with Gary O'Neill who was later linked with Man U. "Not that there's any suggestion of wrongdoing". Presumably it was a meeting in works time to discuss personal matters...

That's the bit that makes this funny. They're letting the disharmony simmer. I think the move itself is ok enough in and of itself. I didn't think De Zerbi or Tuchel were going to come in and transform their fortunes.