Yorkie

We used to leave an empty white box around it just to show it off, too.

💙

The blue star on its own is probably the greatest front of shirt sponsor of all time, says this unbiased observer.

What, front of shirt...? When the Sela thing got agreed they didn't actually state the length of the contract. Just 'multi-year'.

To my absolute shock, the class of 1962 isn't convinced:

Yeah I'm annoyed for you. They're hardly swarming in subscribers/followers, could at least acknowledge the engagement. Cautiously enthused by next season's. Been aching for something a bit different and I loved Juve's this season, aside from the back which almost ruins it.

Just caught up on the highlights myself (woke baby woke up around the 75 minute mark last night 🙄). I called Scotland uninspiring last night but that has to be one of the most epic and inspiring conclusions to a game you can see. Commentary absolutely made it, too. Magical stuff, good for them.

Got to say fair play to the Scots, great achievement.

Can definitely live without another incredibly uninspiring tournament appearance from this miserable Scotland side.

You could sell Brylcreem to this shit ref.

Ludicrously harsh yellow.

Really annoying, like. I've said multiple times that it's better for us in the long run if players are representing their country whilst playing for us, but every fucking friendly? Really? I do think there's a responsibility on the player to some extent.

Well obviously. But I'm saying are they deliberately doing the fake news thing when it comes to their dodgy mock-ups.

I'm not really sure what FH's game is but surely there's something deliberate in creating a mock-up that's miles away from the reality? They clearly get the inside track on stuff so why would they whip up something completely different? Are they just producing an image to get socials abuzz, knowing it's bollocks? The truth is in the written description, which their sources can live with in terms of giving away commercially sensitive material? It was the same last year with our home kit.

That has to be one of the worst photographs ever taken in association with the club. @Kid Icarus Footyheadlines' mock-up miles off, then? They were last year too (with that foggy effect on the black stripes, fuck knows where they got that idea).

Yeah. Even separately to the Isak stuff, my loathing for specifically the coverage of transfer windows has been simmering for years, and it really boiled over this time. Proper shark jump. Then you've got the transfers themselves, and the various miserable patterns and themes which characterise player movements these days. I just want absolutely none of it and would love to go to sleep until September/February 1st.

Feel like I'm only just over the trauma of Ornstein and Romano. Already dreading the transfer window.

Ayoze Pires apparently.

It just feels like some sensible decisions made within the modern context are long overdue - particularly (maybe exclusively) from UEFA and CONMEBOL. It's farcical that - for instance - Brazil and Argentina need to play 18 matches to confirm themselves as one of six from ten. It's an absolute inevitability and just feels like low hanging fruit when searching for realistic opportunities to trim the calendar. When it expands to 64 teams (which I'm entirely in favour of at this point, details notwithstanding) it's going to be even more of a farce. The principle of securing qualification based on previous tournament performance is already established by virtue of the winners being guaranteed. Can we not expand that further? The 8/10/12 best-performing UEFA nations should earn the right to avoid the pointless trudge of a full-blown qualification campaign. No bye to a play-off either, because a one-off tie (where anything can happen) presents a much reduced chance of qualification, compared to a campaign where you build up points and can afford a couple of slip-ups. You're just in, simple as that, and there's eight 'competitive' fixtures removed from Harry Kane's calendar in an instant. I get that this compares almost to the coefficiency and league performance drawbridge shit from club football, but if you're having a 64 team World Cup, Christ, let's just be realistic about it. These teams are gonna be there whatever happens, might as well save some legs in the mean time.

The ideal situation is we win, play well, and it's a sign of a corner turned with better things to come. That seems a little bit fanciful at this point given how dysfunctional we are right now, but I'd also very happily take a classic crack-papering, blood-and-thunder, ugly performance and - hopefully - result. If we can't rouse ourselves at least to that (even if we come away with a narrow defeat) then I'll probably start worrying a bit. If we're carrying our listlessness into our home games then we've got problems. 1-1, Woltemade to volley one in off his hip or something.

Exempting teams from qualifying would be massively unfair and is unworkable, imo. Just follow the lead of CONCACAF and AFC, who are both lopsided with many nations, and make the weak teams play an additional round of qualifying. I suppose there'd still be some merit-based qualification, only it wouldn't be achieved via 6-8 essentially dead rubber contests. Especially if it increases to 64 teams.

Below, the top 12 European teams in the FIFA rankings at the time this qualifying campaign first kicked off. The ✅s represent group winners or soon-to-be group winners. Spain ✅ France ✅ England ✅ Netherlands ✅ Portugal ✅ Belgium ✅ Italy Germany ✅ Croatia ✅ Switzerland ✅ Denmark ✅ Austria ✅ With the expanded tournaments it really is time we found a way to exempt a certain few countries from enduring the qualification trudge, whether that's through rankings or previous tournament performance or whatever. If it was club football, the suggestion would be abhorrent, but I really do think it's different here, and the calendar is creaking so much that we have to find concessions somewhere. I mean what a waste of time that England group was.

That's amazing for Ireland. Good for them, two spectacular results. Pleased for our Irish contingent in here.

Unless the paltry transfer offer we'd receive from the Bundesliga somehow gave us incredible PSR riches I don't really see the point. Still an incredibly important member of the squad and we need depth.

Wow, what a list. Impossible to choose but particularly enjoyed the tributes to Robert vs Spurs and Ginola vs Ferencvaros.