Yorkie

£120m is a hilarious price. He's an incredible player but he's definitely past his peak and for him to go for well more than even Harry Kane this summer would be mental. Liverpool shouldn't think twice about that if it's true.

Maybe Pochettino will turn them into something great but aye, atm they look unimpressive and disjointed.

Enzo should be in the book ffs

Like I said. Basically I was determined to remove Gabriel cos of my frustration at him not starting in W1 and W2, and was just like "ah fucking hell Shaw's injured? Urgh whatever I'll just shove him on the bench." Then I hit confirm and wonder wtf I was thinking. This is FPL every week for me.

Would love that move for him.

Absolutely fuck all on the bench this week; Chukwuemeka and Shaw both injured and Lascelles there as a lingering punt from week 1 when I expected Schar to be out. Used my transfer on subbing Gabriel out for Akanji. Probably should've just used it on Shaw. I'm so shit at this, never think enough.

That's an interesting one. Obviously we need a better option than him if we're going to establish ourselves as real trophy hunters, and I do feel a bit nervous about the amount of game time he's probably going to get this season. However, he's obviously a crucial part of the dressing room and there'd be something incredibly nice to see him line up in a Champions League game for us. He deserves that moment for his absolutely brilliant service to the club. Seems a plausible link given their recruitment style and current CBs. Picked up Daniel Amartey on a free from Leicester this summer and appears to have gone straight in the team.

Always thought the collar was a bit OTT on the grey/blue one. Still a great shirt.

Never wanted him in the team but it's still a bit sad that it's turned out the way it has for him. You can tell from Eddie's pressers on the subject that it's not something which has been handled particularly amicably. As I say I've never really rated him but enjoyed his anti-Bruce agenda and that NUFCTV interview after that fantastic Everton win last January warmed the cockles. He's dripping in EFL so I'd back him to have a decent rest of his career.

Those are worse versions of iconic kits from previous eras, alright. Dee something new and go back to two years for homes.

Didn't realise our lads Klaksvik still had another tie to secure Europa. 0-0 with Sheriff atm. Nordsjaelland absolutely humping our old friends Partizan 5-0 isn't one I would necessarily have expected. No idea how competent the Serbs are these days but their opponents have no European history to speak of.

Deputy Dawg was right.

Ever heard of Hapoel Bnei Sakhnin? Armchair fan.

If it was in UEFA's interests to invite members of the Saudi Pro League into their competitions, continental definition would suddenly become very arbitrary imo. And as others have said, there's already a precedent with Israel and Kazakhstan. Again, not saying I'd be in favour of it, just discussing the hypothetical strategies.

I'm not saying they should, I'm just saying I think that's what it would take for them to have a fighting chance of gaining a sustainable European audience. @r0cafella makes a good point about why it probably can't happen anyway.

As a Croatian, this wouldn't happen Maybe that's a bad example. Just Dinamo Zagreb.

I think the Saudi Pro-League stands a chance of gaining a meaningful European audience if some of their teams start competing in UEFA competitions. I'd wager that, as it stands, none of the teams mean anything to the vast majority of people - certainly in terms of the British audience. As long as that's the case, it'll never gain sustainable interest, regardless of which players turn up there. I'd even argue that the casual observer would have difficulty telling teams apart given most of them start 'Al-' and all of the squads seem to have the same mix; i.e. predominantly Saudi with a few South American unknowns and a few household names doing the payday thing. My assumption is that UEFA would resist any attempts from Saudi to enter the UCL or Europa competitions, but - then again - they could consider an 'enemies closer' approach. Rather than keep them at arms length whilst there's a growing perception that the Saudi Pro League is on the up; let them in, have them get routinely battered by Croatian sides and Swedish sides, thereby emphasising the hierarchy. Should be interesting over the next few years, whatever happens, but there definitely needs to be more to their strategy then just player recruitment. If it wasn't Saudi I'd be wishing them all the luck in the world; a proper agitator to get UEFA sweating could breed some positive outcomes, who knows?

Happened a couple of times with Puma also: https://www.nufc.com/html/2013-14html/2013-08-10braga-h.html https://www.nufc.com/html/2014-15html/2014-08-10sociedad-h.html

Again worn only once and not even competitively. https://www.nufc.com/html/2008-09html/2008-08-09valencia-h.html

It's hard when you're abominably shit at your job and will find anything to absolve yourself of any accountability. Christ even Pardew made it look easy for a year or so.

Oh I fully understand that there's no place for such a thing in the modern game, of course there isn't; meanwhile the Conference League does a respectable job of providing a European platform for those types of teams anyway, so there's no need for anything like my daft proposal. But despite the increasing gravitas of those competitions, I just grimace at the balance being ever tipped in the favour of a handful of leagues/clubs (five English clubs in the CL next season for goodness sake). It's just a fun thought experiment to imagine the carpet being pulled from under them as opposed to it being gushingly laid out. Would love to see more done to increase the strength within those presently unfancied leagues, but admit that probably has to be built internally rather than relying only on the UEFA cup competitions. S'why I'm very pro the regionalisation idea (... which'll never happen).

Panathinaikos started really well but shot themselves in the foot conceding a pen. VARing now.

Was surprised not to see him before now tbh.

You'll never ever beat Dan Burn, Vinicius Jr.

I could say for the millionth time that the whole thing is flawed but that would be boring. Imagine if he'd got a three game ban for that though. Disappointing from a Liverpool-hating pov but absolutely the correct outcome.