Colos Short and Curlies

its performance that’s important today, need to get some rhythm back. Result is secondary

id replace Barnes and Gordon for Tino and Hall.

Well that’s a blatant lie. Every single minute Fab?

They feel like different eras completely so it’s nuts that the last debutant before Trips was Freddie Woodman

Does the 5 year limit stop clubs spreading the fee further by offering new contracts as well?

People were asking for our shithousery from last year to be brought back - must read the forum

I tell my boss that I’ve no interest in leaving as I am responding to emails from recruiters setting up interviews. i like the element of surprise

I don't think any club in England can. There's an allure and romance to the Spanish giants in particular for a lot of players which at some point trumps everything else. Yes the Manchester clubs in particular can always pull players in the opposite direction but they still lose players who fans ideally would see staying. There's also a factor with PSG of being the one to bring the CL there, along with living in Paris. Must be tempting for a lot of players.

Of course, its more a general point rather than pointing to Eddie

Would only apply (to the exact scenario of the link) to English players. Foreign players wouldn't have been UK domiciled in the first place so different rules would apply for when they are triggering tax liabilities for their time in Saudi. They'd have to fall in line with their own countries tax regimes. (caveat I'm an accountant and understand enough about UK tax rules but pretty much zero on other countries!) Of course any income earned whilst playing in the premier league is taxable in the UK

I'd not quite agree with that, there has to be some consideration into how well he (any manager) deals with what the season throws up. So you will take the injuries into account when looking at league performance but you also need to look at how the manger has tried to mitigate them to the best they can.

transfer fees etc went through the courts with Bosman didnt they? the get around is that the transfer fee is for the registration and not the player. Would it be modern slavery if you were physically trading and loaning players? you probably could find a restraint of trade argument if a player was not actively involved in first team football but it would be a very messy bowl of spaghetti to work through. I actually believe that you should be able to trigger a release of your contract (ie buy it out for its remaining value) if you do not play in a certain % of games when available for selection

If a journalist does a 180 in their views its usually as they think they are getting ahead of the game - i.e. he sees changes afoot. Whether he is right on that or not is another matter of course

I'm not buying the Tonali signing as being a vanity one, but the Barnes over the likes of Pedro and Palmer points towards our signings being 'system' buys and not just how good a player is. I'd say P&P are better than Barnes with a higher ceiling but based on our 4-3-3 intense press Barnes was the safer bet. Hall is the same, if he gets up to speed then he fits the profile of what we need in a full back.

exactly, we’ve basically tried to play the same way throughout the injury crisis which lends itself to ‘we had none to bring in to give Gordon a rest.’ we could have gone 3 at the back with Tino and Hall at wingback, we could have brought 1 player from the u23s in to at least gove someone 20 minutes less in their legs. i said it earlier that yes the injury situation. Is a freak and a genuine excuse but Howe has not done anything to play the hand that he’s been dealt other than to keep flogging a handful of players. he also chose to give Ritchie and Dummett extensions, there are players out there who we could have brought in on loan or low fees as a low cost riskier option. We didn’t and if they are in the squad then they should be considered first team options

Almiron and Longstaff were part of a team that got us top 4, a cup final and a Tonkin of PSG. if you can’t criticise Howe then you can’t criticise the players either. You could even flip it and argue that the players have made a fairly rudimentary playing style (all intensity and pressing) successful. youd be wrong on both counts of course, plaudits are right for the past but questions are right for the future

Howe was the one who decided it was better to give Ritchie and PaullyD new contracts rather than look at a couple of risks from abroad. If he’s happy to have them in the squad then he should be using them against the relegation threatened teams at least

so you adapt and literally park the bus in a game like today. the fatigue and injuries are a genuine excuse but he has also played the hand dealt to him pretty poorly at times

Anyone who is looking for us to spend on 3-5 players in Jan May as well be looking for a new manager. its just not Eddies style and they wouldn’t be making a difference to the team for another 10 games anyway

one was on a red shirt, one was by a red shirt

Hulk

just start casually dropping in to the locals that Castlemaine XXXX was named XXXX as Aussies couldn’t spell beer.

he’s not called Big Dan Burn for his height

And of course Salah goes to AFCON straight after this game

so it could be John Carver or Steve Bruce then