Colos Short and Curlies

He went off on a stretcher in that game didn't he?

This is going to be embarrassing live on TV isn't it.

. That is a pretty random one to throw in

Feels a bit unfair having Alnwick there, I guess he is the worst keeper we've had play for us in the last 10 years but he was a kid thrown in when he was nowhere near ready. Blob gets my vote shiteness longevity.

That's another stupid decision. Sports Direct is associated with cheap sports clothing and oversized mugs, Fraser's (or House of Fraser's) is high end high street fashion and home ware. Its a branding mismatch nightmare

We want 5. Neither free kick happens under Rafa imo, he'd have been coaching the shit out of Yedlin on Grealish all half. Not arsed about the fouls, by the time it gets there they have no choice, it's allowing the play to get to the foul that is preventable

But it's a continuation of Rafa's progress. Rafa basically started fresh each year, Rafa plus Rondon plus Perez, on I'd quite like ASM added in, and we'd be sitting 5th on Monday night, if not there already with a game in hand

Is this the Clark or the Bruce derby? Fancy Almiron to get one, but it will be Wesley vs Joelinton that the analysis will fall on

Another one from 96, shed seven going for gold.

If you're playing Enrique (and why not, he's the best left back we've had in the Premier League era) then you play Colo, they had a great understanding together. I like the Schar-Lejeune-Colo suggestion but it would be fun to see 2 mad Argentinian CBs together as well. One thing in the comparison is that Colo was playing alongside Taylor or Big Mike, any of our current CBs would look worse in that situation. Another hypothetical - would Rafa have been able to get rid of Bramble's 5 minutes of madness every game?

MA to buy Mothercare next? Plenty of rattles and prams for him

Don't believe that. We could be 3 up inside 10 minutes and Ando would still think we're poor and dour

More threat from the back 3 than the front 3 today

Can't wait for Liverpool to bottle this one

So they are going to try and put in a better performance? What is there to try about, just bloody do it

Bruce to go with a midfield of Ki, Shelvey, Longstaff? I'd stick Carroll up front from the start with the aim of getting 45 out of him and bombarding them from the off. We can't afford to start slow Dubs Yedlin Schar Lascelles Ferandez Willems Ki Longstaff Almiron Joelinton Carroll 4-3

So. Sustainability predicated on buying low and selling high. Why not; it's worked a treat so far. Slightly different to the MA model of just sell anyone half decent for a half decent price, keep the money

Because they will be asked to avoid as much tax as they possibly can, hide as many other financial problems as they can, and everyone from the outside knows that SD is not doing things a company should. If they came out and hid everything and said SD was fine, HMRC would look at the auditors, then also look at other companies the auditors have worked for. Basically as soon as any company does look at them, that company and it’s other companies would be fucked. I don't get this. Why would they hide shit then? They wouldn't. Accountancy is an art not a science and there is plenty of grey to play around in. Auditors review the accounts and make sure that income and costs are being fairly reported - its A true and fair view, not THE absolute truth. Plenty of assumptions and interpretation going on. From a tax perspective, that's not the auditors - its the team engaged to prepare the tax which may or not be the same firm as the auditors. Why no-one will audit them? Simple SD now have a demonstrable track record of hiding important details which makes auditing the company impossible. They can do the accounts and they can prepare an Audit report that says they are happy with everything or not, but they can't pass comment on what they don't know. If no transactions have been made they rely on company representations and if these aren't made what can they do? It's also the company that dictates when they file the accounts, so even if the auditors do everything right the company can still not file them (yes there are fines involved) but the auditors name gets dragged into this. All in all, its not worth the fees.

i'd love to hear what our resident accountants think of this, the lads who go over the books in detail i'd also like to hear how it makes him more money than simply hiring a competent manager, spending a decent fraction of the TV money, and trying to increase the clubs commercial revenue properly Well step 4 isnt physically possible - how do you lend yourself money? Relegation won't be part of a masterplan, but I don't think one relegation every 5 years is something he would worry about, sell some assets and start again without any significant investment. Problem is that in 09 we had a good team, last time we had Rafa. We will have neither this time and the Championship gets stronger each year. In short we ain't coming back up straight away without significant change and investment

Its the £94 million wage bill that always gets me, not a hope in hell we pay players and staff £94 million a year. We will, but it will include inflated signing on bonuses/extension bonuses that the players pass onto their agents. A way of circumventing disclosure on how much we pay in fees.

For the career experience it would be Zlatan - Sweden, Holland, Spain, France, Italy, UK, US leagues. For a one off moment has to be Tardelli. Never has a man had a greater moment of joy than that 1982 final goal Playing style I would have loved to have been a player like Colo. But overall my heart says Shearer. Bar a trophy he's done everything you can in a career for his boyhood club

But the point isn't what works on or off TV. The point is that decisions are corrected. If it's a problem in ground, which I'm sure it is, they need to solve that with some commentary or whatever. The box has been opened, there's no going back. You can't now wish for less accuracy it's mental. Surely it depends on your personal view as to whether inaccuracy was ever really a problem? When VAR was used in the world cup a few years ago it was sold to the world under the impression that it would be used to correct "clear and obvious errors", and to-date that tournament has been the only good use of the system that I've seen. It's gone way beyond the clear and obvious now. Those offsides in the city game today were mental, there's no way it's an obvious error from the linesman if different frames of the ball being kicked show different results... If they have to analyse things frame-by-frame and still need a computer display to figure out whether it was actually offside then it's definitely gone too far. If they want to get those decisions perfect then why bother having people there to review it anyway? In this day and age you could probably just whack a GPS on every player and every ball and have it work as efficiently as goal line tech anyway; I'd rather wait for a solution along those lines if we're aiming for perfection, because at least the decision would be instantaneous rather than the shambles it is now. Something in the way VAR's used needs to change like. Almost every time a goal goes in now we're just waiting to see if it'll actually count, that just isn't right IMO. It's a bad enough experience on the tele with the commentators telling you what's going on, it must be a complete mess for match-goers. My point on VAR would be they've tried to make it fit existing rules and it won't. They need to amend the rules to fit the technology. Then we can move on. or we could just go back to the old rules which worked just fine and throw var in the bin rather than try and mutilate the rules so var fits. Which ones, they've been changed countless times in small ways over the years like. Look at offside, has gone from daylight to the width of a fingernail man. Rules don't have to be changed wholesale like, they just have to make sense with VAR. So of the 4 things they're saying it's used for, as an example: Offside: needs to be a practical advantage taken by the attacker, this mm bullshit is nonsense. Make it daylight again which var can easily capture with very little controversy. Advantage goes to the defender if it's in doubt, imo. Red card incidents: is there an issue with it for this? I guess the main one would be you can't review things like 2nd yellows right? Not sure anything needs to change there Mistaken identity: again any issue? Penalties: main one is surely this f***ing nonsense about the hand being in an unnatural position or whatever it is. They need to adjust the rules so every f***ing ball kicked at a defender won't result in a penalty As regards the overall point about something happening 28 passes ago that led to a goal, it's going too far imo. Off the top of my head make it active in areas or something, so if there's a foul in the final third of the pitch prior to a goal then it's eligible for var review and the goal can be chalked off. I get that a foul could be committed next to your own box to win the ball then you go up and score right away. You'd feel aggrieved but at the end of the day if you take the ball 90 yards and score the other team has had ample opportunity to stop you doing it and haven't. Go back a couple of seasons, Everton at home when we lost to a last minute header from a corner that should have been a goal kick. So literally 3 touches after a wrong call, VAR rule that one out? I'm actually curious, I haven't read up enough on what it is to be used for.

Jamie Redknapp, banged Louise

Extremely generous that. How close to Rafa’s points total do you think Bruce will get? He could well match it, just obtain them against the real dross who Rafa sometimes struggled against. Our GD will be miles worse though, giving the real story of the season

Just remove transfers/transfer fees altogether and have players issue notice on their employers like in any other business