tmonkey

Concussion confirmed in a few weeks time.

Lmao.

Outsourcing catering makes sense in theory. Pass on the costs and risks associated with having kitchens, ingredient stocks, warehousing, trained kitchen/delivery/counter staff, delivery, etc etc, and let another company that has expertise in all of the associated processes handle it all. If the company does multiple football clubs then they'd be able to offer better quality for cheaper through economies of scale. All NUFC would have to do is hold them to a quality standard for their products and maybe take a slightly reduced profit due to the outsourced catering fees. The issue I'd have here though is the potential for Ashley to make money for himself from this to the detriment of the clubs income. Who did the catering contract go to, and was it competitive? Did it pre-exist Ashley? Was there a tender for the contract (must have been if it's above EU thresholds for advertising in the EU journal), and how was the winner selected? Ultimately I wouldn't be surprised if the caterers are a company Ashley is connected to through some convoluted means (shell companies), or is owned by a pal of Ashley's, or he's getting money as backhanders for awarding the contract. Which in turn leads to all kinds of issues around independence and whether the club is getting a good deal. We might be overpaying in costs to the catering company for example, but because Ashley owns the club there's no mechanism for holding him or the Directors to account for poor value for money deals with conflicts of interest like there would be in the public sector (or even PLCs with proper shareholders and proper Boards who expect good internal controls in procurement). Essentially we know fuck all about the situation. And that's why dodgey business men like Mike Ashley buy football clubs - they're cash cows where anything goes.

Sort of playing devils advocate here, but might be biased because I like Andros as a winger and want to give him a second chance if he were to sign for NUFC. So, is it really fair to hold Andros' departure after only 6 months against him? He had plenty of justifiable reasons for wanting to leave to be fair: - Ashley. That alone is potentially enough. - No guarantee of instant promotion and having to spend at least a year in the Championship, a dire league with more fixtures and where there's a reputation of more tough tackling. - Fear of missing out on getting into the England squad. - Profile and sponsorship lowering. - Probably more money on offer from Palace. - Seeing Palace assemble a decent squad and looking like a club with alot more ambition than us (at the time). - Family and friends probably in London. - Maybe he has ambition to win trophies, which was never going to be matched here. - He had given 100% whilst with us, so did he really owe us anything? He was comfortably the one player keeping any hope of staying up alive. - He's a human being, a big part of which is making mistakes. - Maybe he's a thick footballer and just does whatever the agent says? In terms of Rafa and the positives of staying and being a real part of a club for once instead of a journeyman, at the time of leaving Andros stated it was a very hard decision he had made, so clearly knew about and weighed up the positives of staying with NUFC. He must have just decided, or been advised, that the risks were too great. Also, to be really fair to him he probably would have had no idea what Pardew was like given that it's only really supporters of the teams Pardew has managed who know how destructive the guy is. Many people within the sport had zero clue about this, probably not until Pardew failed at West Brom. They won't have followed Pardew or clubs like NUFC much if at all. So from our point of view Andros' decision was stupid because we knew what he was getting himself into, but from his perspective he's signing for a highly rated (in some camps) British manager who had recently finished 5th and won the PL Manager of the Year, and was seemingly doing alright at Palace. Having said all this, if there's zero truth in us being back in for him, then yes, he was a stupid twat for leaving NUFC.

Kenedy made a huge impact in the team by injecting some PL quality pace and trickery/dribbling into the team. Meant we had another way to open teams up and weren't as predictable/reliant on Shelvey to create something. Assuming he's still as good as he was when with us, Andros adds what Kenedy did, unlike Ritchie/Atsu/Murphy. Ignoring his idiotic decision to leave Rafa, £20m is a decent price in the current market for a proven PL winger who we know for a fact can work well in Rafa's preferred system (this latter part is the key, i.e no gamble). Ideally we want to add two wingers of this type/calibre - why limit ourselves to pace/creativity/quality on one flank only? We'd be a much better team with wingers on both flanks posing a real threat on the ball, especially in Rafa's system. So Townsend plus another Kenedy type would be great.

Rio had a hand in his pocket as he was talking, pinching the tip.

Jordi Alba is such a whinging knob.

Empty seats in the opening match, loads of empty seats in the Egypt Uruguay game. Disgraceful for a World Cup.

Hardly a surprise when they can't persuade the manager to sign an extended contract. They are already preparing for life without him in a year's time. Ashley is going to be sitting on 2 years worth of PL mega cash by then (17/18 and 18/19), so as you say it'll make sense that he'd have calculated that Rafa keeps us up on the cheap this year in 18/19 with a low net spend. Rafa then leaves, Ashley gets a cheapo manager in (saves more money, win for Big Mike), and then for 19/20 Ashley can again gamble by not spending much. However if we're at panic stations by January 2020 he'll have ample cash to throw at whichever yes man is in the role like he did with McClaren should it be required. If the gamble pays off then Ashley will have 3 years worth of mega money PL cash whilst still showing losses in the accounts due to creative accounting. All the while the free advertising of Sports Direct continues, as does all of NUFC's retail and merchandising sales being channelled through Sports Direct in return for a tiny percentage of the sales. Plus the few million paid to Sports Direct for fees for who knows what. Plus his mates getting on the NUFC payroll (or probably being paid through accounts receivable as contractor invoices). Plus whatever assets he can strip - did he go ahead with the land sale adjacent to NUFC (the car park iirc), and did the club get the proceeds for that sale?

Leeds are a club who ought to be in the PL. Hope they do well and make a comeback.

Fully understand the Spanish FA. Quite a sneaky thing of Lopetegui to do, securing a job without telling them he has intentions of leaving a job he's damn well lucky to have. Also wondering if partisan/nationalism politics has anything to do with it. IIRC a big deal was made of the last super successful Spanish national team generation being united for once in terms of "Catalonian" and "Spanish" players pulling in the same direction. Having a national team manager confirmed as joining Madrid might be something that upsets the apple cart with regards to that, i.e. perceived favouritism or bias against Catalonian players, even if it's probably silly.

It's nearly a decade later and I still have no idea why they celebrated us going down like they had won a trophy that day. I could understand a few derisory songs, but they had banners in the ground revelling in our misery ffs, as though we were a bitter rival. So utterly bizarre and really pathetic. Just remembering their smug celebrations at full time means I'll never have sympathy for them, even if we'll probably follow their footsteps under Ashley when Rafa eventually leaves.

Classic N-O mong response. My fault for thinking spending that time posting a detailed argument wasn't going to be responded with a comically irrelevant shitpost.

As stated, it's a fairly common opinion on here that Mitrovic was poor/shit in his first season (go back a few hundred pages to see that), just as it was a common opinion on here that he was OK/decent for a young player in a new country thrown into a mediocre team. So logically you'd be accusing me of revising the past if you think Mitrovic was good/decent. That's a given. I'm not discounting that possibility. The point I made is that from my perspective, because I am in the "Mitro in first season was poor" camp, others seem to be revising the past based on their bias towards the player. You've not really covered that. Another point which I hadn't raised but which you've failed to acknowledge in your factually incorrect statement above is that an additional method of revisionism is retrospectively extrapolating performances from stats and then saying "oh he must have been decent, look at this number on paper, see?", as you've done in your next sentence. Anyway, "nothing but your own opinion" is a tad nonsensical. Everything on here is opinions, including your opinion on interpretation of stats when judging a player (which I'm sure won't be consistent when it comes to universally accepted mediocre/crap players who have good stats on paper occasionally, e.g. Shola in 05/06). Plus, it's not just my own opinion, I've already made the point that noone went near Mitro after relegation, and since his "good debut PL season" he's only played in the Championship, which if anything is far more a concrete argument that supports my view. Already explained, in some depth too, re: expectations. The stats are decent on paper certainly, but that why I specifically said I went by what I've seen. The poor performances far outweighed the positive stats, and the failure to do the basics as the season wore on is what has led to the opinion I and others have that he had a poor first season in spite of the OK'ish stats. Again, seeing that he's spent 2 years in the Championship since that supposed (according to you) good quality breakthrough first PL season, at a club with an owner who sells at every opportunity and under a world class manager who doesn't rate him, potentially backs that up. Just as another example, according to WhoScored.com Mitrovic had an average rating of 6.67 in 2015/16 for us in the PL. Shola Ameobi had an average rating of 6.72 in 2010/11 (21(7) appearances, 6 PL goals, 3 assists).

Don't understand the agenda behind this sort of opinion being peddled out all the time. By any measure, he had a good debut season in the PL, all circumstances considered. A different opinion to yours doesn't necessarily have an agenda. I've gone entirely by what I've seen and remembered, nothing else, and listed exactly what I thought he showed in his first season with us. If anything, I'd argue the agenda is more on the side of Mitrovic admirers (i.e. they like him as a person, reputation/image/attitude, celebrations, "madness", whatever) - imo it's borderline revisionism to claim he had a good debut season when for large parts the lad struggled to control a football and looked like he had two left feet when on the end of chances. But then that's my opinion of his performance standards, which is obviously subjective. I'm sure if we go back far enough in this thread to the middle/end of the first season there'll be plenty of posts about how shit he was and plenty of other posts saying he was decent and that he's young/learning. If you wanted another objective counter argument to "Mitrovic had good debut season", when we were relegated everyone who could be sold for decent money was sold. No club went near Mitrovic, and the strongest link at the time was a loan move back to Anderlecht. Again, I don't like to put too much stock into "why don't good clubs go for him if he's good" arguments since there's various things to consider (e.g. maybe clubs didn't want a perceived bad egg ala Anelka at Fenerbahce), but it's certainly indicative. If Mitro had had a "good" season I'm certain he'd have been snapped up by any number of PL clubs needing a striker, especially given his supposed pedigree at the time, even with the bad boy image.

He started this season with us and went on loan in Jan. The few times he came on he looked kinda useless and the same as before. Might be harsh, but that's why I'm asking if anything has changed.

Mitro was gash for us in the PL imo. He's a big target man who lacks the strength to hold off PL defenders, doesn't have notable aerial ability at all especially in build up play (barely jumps), and doesn't hold the ball up particularly well. He's also slow and has shown he's a mediocre finisher who can't be relied upon to take rare chances. The only time he made a positive impact in the PL was when he'd come off the bench and "offer something different", and that was purely by virtue of just having a different play style to Cisse/Ayoze/etc, i.e. try to win headers, hold the ball up, battle physically with defenders instead of actually being good at those things. That was in the past, though. Wonder if anything has significantly improved in his game whilst with Fulham that now suggests he'd do well in the PL? Not sure scoring regularly in the Championship is a good indicator of him being good to go at PL level - he was behind Gayle for us when in the Championship because Gayle looked like Andy Cole down there, yet we all know Gayle isn't remotely good enough for the PL asides from effort, so there's only so much stock you can put on that. Come to think of it Mitro was behind Murphy too, either due to a falling out with Rafa or because Murphy was slightly better aerially/held the ball up better. And maybe this isn't a consistently applicable barometer, but if Mitro looks class then you'd expect other PL clubs to be banging on the door to sign him permanently. Can understand Fulham wanting him because he's already embedded in their team, and for a newly promoted PL side they'll struggle to get a quality goalscorer. He'll also be good should Fulham get relegated from the PL, so it's a safe gamble all round for them. But you'd expect other mid table or low end PL clubs to be seriously considering him if there's a decent chance he's a much better player than we've seen in an NUFC shirt. I'd personally be inclined to sell Mitro if we get a decent offer, ideally straight after the WC in case he scores a couple of goals and his value increases. I think that'd be one of those deals where everyone wins - Fulham get an OK player, and we get rid of a player who'd at best be a bench warmer (especially since he doesn't have the mobility needed for Rafa's system and things like Shelveys passing ability). There's always going to be the risk that he develops further and becomes another Jon Dahl Tomasson type that we regret selling after misusing him (not sure that's the case with Mitro tbh, he's had plenty of games for us in his preferred position/role), but it's also just as likely that he gets found out again at PL level or does something stupid that will make noone else want him. We'd then be stuck with an unsellable player that noone really wants, taking up space/wages in the squad till his contract runs out or he gets a new contract from whichever new/desperate manager has come in and realised there's no money for replacements - basically what kept Shola here forever.

Looks bad/probably intentional from pics alone (intentional in terms of trying to slam an opponent into the ground whilst pinning an arm, especially with the way he's going down whilst turning). But in real time video from different angles it looks like Salah is also pushing/leaning into Ramos. Impossible to know, and to be brutally honest if Ramos meant to rough up Salah then he's done it in a genius way.

As long as we don't buy Karius.

Looked to me like it was a clear tactic for Madrid players to go in as hard as legally possible on Salah. Had several fouls on him prior to the Ramos injury incident.

sweetjesus WTF, didn't they see him play during his 4 months there First comment on there:

Logically, never going to happen. However, just to be pessimistic...remember when Karren Brady randomly decided to publicly back Mike Ashley? Was that because Ashley is mates with Gold and Sullivan and so they got her to mouth off about Geordies when it was none of her business to be defending a crook like Mike? It's entirely feasible that they're mates given the things they have in common: cockneys, tacky business owners (Gold = knickers, Sullivan = porn, Mike = sports tat), own PL football clubs, lie to fans alot, undermine managers, dodgey deals, most likely pilfering money from the club. If so, there could be merit in this. Ashley will be believing he can get the club to survive on a cheap yes man type, tells Rafa behind the scenes that he's not going to get another penny, meanwhile gets his mates at West Ham to buy Rafa for £6m which they're more than happy to since Rafa is world class. Rafa decides to go there because he has limited choices if he wants to remain in England in the Premiership and will be getting promises of spending big at West Ham. Mike Ashley laughs all the way to the bank having gotten rid of a "No Man" for £6m, and having a convenient excuse to say "we tried". Everyone wins in Ashleys eyes.

This is like the hammering we gave to Spurs on the final day of the season two years ago, just without a relegation. Great to end the season on a bang.

Can't quite believe this is the same player who looked an absolute donkey in the Championship.

They really have nothing to play for.