Elma

There are some decent Beşiktaş classic shirts. Just stumbled on an 88/89 XL match worn Ferdinand shirt available for $5,000. There is also a Demba Ba match worn away shirt (2014/15) for the slightly cheaper $500.

Am loving the fact they are away at Blackpool at New Year's Day while we're at home to Man Utd. September's fixtures hit hard too; Oxford, Fleetwood, Burton, Rochdale and Coventry.

I'm no accountant and I agree on the timing being very suspect, but a few things I think I can see in there: We made £125.8m in the relegation season. We will make more in the current year as we've got that coming in in prize money alone. Add in gate receipts and commercial revenue and it should be higher than that. Those losses in the last year don't include Gayle, Ritchie and Sels, which came out of the previous year. Therefore we signed £30 million worth of players for the relegation season which was included in the £80 million net from 2015/2016, when we still made a profit. If Ashley is happy sitting with his loan at £144 million, and isn't trying to claw back the £15 million he had to put in due to his incompetence at running the club and getting it relegated, then why shouldn't we be able to offer Rafa a comparable budget this year? They also alluded to payments for the sales of players being staggered (we knew about the Sissoko deal structure) so some more of that cash will be coming back in too. The wage bill is obviously high and I'm not sure when we get this year's prize money (?), but I can't see any reason why at least £40-£50 of that couldn't be released this summer, with the sales of Mitro, Mbemba, Sels etc topping up the pot. That would give Rafa nigh on £80 million without breaking the bank.

Gerry Armstrong

True. Look on the bright side though. Maybe 'almost in' helped get him his advertising gig later in life?

A shout out for John Bailey (once of this parish), although against the grain of the thread I'm probably one of the few who remember his goal against Luton in 1982. https://twitter.com/forgottengoals/status/859399151792082946 Remarkable as he only ever scored five in his career (none for us) and this one was from his own half. Scottish keepers eh?

David Platt

Agree with the above. I also preferred the promotion shirt to this season, so I don't mind going a bit thicker on the stripes for a change. Should be no other colours in use than black and white though. Wish we would stick with a set of colours for one of the change shirts too, ideally yellow for me, maybe with green.

I wouldn't rule him out going to Arsenal and I won't relax until they've appointed someone, but as others have said, I don't see it. Having browsed their forums 24 hours after Wenger leaving was announced, I only found five mentions of Rafa. Two were throwing the question out there - 'What about Rafa?', one was saying he didn't want the 'Spanish coach driver now doing a job in Northumberland', and the other two were actively pro-Rafa. The majority were focussed on Tuchel, Rodgers (who very much split opinion) and Vieira. Coupled with Arsenal's own statement it suggests he's not in the running. If he did go there it would be Chelsea all over again as they think they are better than him and the majority would be on his case from the first minute. In my opinion he'd be a fool to go there. What will Rafa do? Well, if he gets assurances from Ashley I think he'll stay. He loves everything about the club apart from the ambition at boardroom level. Wenger leaving could actually work in our favour as Ashley knows how the club will tank if Rafa goes - on the pitch, off it, the works. The barrel he has Ashley over just got a little bigger at a critical time of negotiation. If he doesn't get those assurances and Arsenal do indeed come calling, I think he would (regretfully) jump ship and take a punt on them, hoping to do what he couldn't do at Chelsea and Real and win the fans over. I'm just hoping Ashley pulls his finger out and makes him an offer he can't refuse as soon as possible (not holding my breath).

Fleetwood Mac-kems

?

Our next game couldn't be funnier either. At Everton, who they 'relegated us' against, with Fat Sam as manager, for a place in the top half of the Premier League. Mitro is nailed on to score against them Friday as well. Its in the stars.

If it were truly that I'd agree. There's no way Ashley or any buyer should be holding up negotiations based on needing one point from five games, one of which is at home to WBA. Anyone with 37 is definitely staying up and 35 should have enough.

Although a Southampton loss would officially make us safe, the relegation ship has sailed and there's no chance we're going down. If Ashley is hanging on for absolute certainty before selling the club then he's got a screw loose (actually we know that). Southampton win please (although I still want them down with Stoke and WBA to make it, on paper at least, an easier league to navigate next year). Shocking to think that the three most likely to drop finished in 8th, 10th and 13th last year on 46, 45 and 44 points respectively.

I take your point, but the numbers of goals it would actually rule out would be tiny, around 2-3%. Once you got used to it goals would still be celebrated. Another option is of course to give each team one or two VAR challenges a game and not allow the VAR ref to intercede unless a challenge is raised. That would cover the real injustices, although on the flip side you could see teams using them tactically like substitutions to disrupt play. Maybe one each would be sufficient?

I'd only call handball when it's a hand that puts it in the net and missed by the ref, so that only leaves offsides. For me it would be any pass in the phase of play leading up to the goal, bearing in mind I'd only call obvious offsides. Anything where it is a foot here or a knee there then it goes with the onfield decision. However, in saying that, if the powers that be declared it to be the final ball only and the goalscorer themselves has to be obviously off to recall it, I'd go with that. As long as it is consistent. What they are trying to do is remove every mistake which isn't feasible.

Am up for VAR, but it is being applied in the wrong way. It should only be used on goals and when penalties are given, or for cases of mistaken identity on red cards. If a penalty isn't given on the field then tough. That's the ref's call and he shouldn't be allowed to go to VAR to help him. When a goal is scored, the VAR ref should immediately it review it for obvious offsides, handballs etc, and communicate back if there is any reason to disallow it. If the offside is tight then let it go. The rule even allows for that. I would expect Aguero's header against us a couple of years ago to be disallowed for example as it was clearly off. Watford's equaliser against Southampton this year would have been cancelled out too (for handball). You'll get fans celebrating goals which are overturned but it will be a couple a season and I think it's more important to get the decision right where a significant error has occurred. Each review would therefore take place in a natural break in play, but they do need to rethink the speed of review and comms with the fans during the review.

https://www.footballgroundmap.com/n16bdgr The Nou Camp has recently taken me to 55. Some gaps in my UK grounds, particularly the new ones. Been to Filbert Street but not the King Power. Been to Plough Lane, but not Kingsmeadow. Been to Gay Meadow, but not New Meadow. Been to Roker Park but not the SoL. Should really get some more Spanish and Turkish ones on the board.

bolton to beat barnsley. then only need a birmingham win, and a mackem loss to take to goal difference at best. Whatever the Barnsley v Bolton result fourth bottom will be on at least 40 points. A mackem loss to Reading will mean a gap of seven points and I really don't see them getting anything at Fulham while Fulham need points for automatic promotion.

The way they do business they would have to spend at least £150m before they would have £75m worth of players to sell.

£4m squad bonus to stay up, £1m per position above 17th. That still blows my fucking mind considering each place is only worth £1.5m or less as it is Think it's more like 2 million a place this year. So effectively for every place above 17th it's a million to the players pot, a million to the club. With 16 TV games 10th should bank us £125 million total pot, with £18 million going to the players. https://www.totalsportek.com/money/premier-league-prize-money/ 50% just seems high to me but I guess it's par for the course. £18m is a lot of money to split between what ~25 players on top of their wages. Good luck to them mind. Hopefully agreeing to that deal should see the back of Charnley! I guess he didn't expect such a high finishing position to be possible. At least this bunch have earned a bonus I guess.

£4m squad bonus to stay up, £1m per position above 17th. That still blows my fucking mind considering each place is only worth £1.5m or less as it is Think it's more like 2 million a place this year. So effectively for every place above 17th it's a million to the players pot, a million to the club. With 16 TV games 10th should bank us £125 million total pot, with £18 million going to the players. https://www.totalsportek.com/money/premier-league-prize-money/

We're flying. Fancy at least a draw against Arsenal (although wish they had to put out a competitive side in Moscow on Thursday) and we should give Watford a game. No reason we can't get to the mid-40's at least. Went 7.

I'm prepared to take a chance on them. They come across as professional and if the rumours of them bidding £1 billion for Liverpool are correct, then they have access to funds. In ten years, Ashley has shown that he doesn't understand the football business. For a gambler his unwillingness to speculate to accumulate has been surprising. I'm hoping to see the end of business decisions such as; failing to understand the importance of a good manager (present incumbent excluded), failure to fully capitalise on potential revenue streams, hiring unqualified 'yes men' into key positions, failure to invest even modest amounts at key points in time (which could have significantly improved performance and associated prize money). Make no mistake, PCP are in it to make money. However, that means staying in the Prem and who knows, they may just feel they can get into the further riches of the Champions League? Simply put, I'm hoping for a well run business, with qualified people in the correct positions, and a sensible amount of investment to allow the club to maximise it's potential, whilst not over-committing. That's an improvement over Ashley and anything more than that is a bonus.

Oh my giddy aunt. Didn't think this could get any better after Murphy scoring against them.