Raconteur

2 hours ago, steve_69 said:

Exactly! If you're in any doubt, clear it - if there's no communication from the keeper, take the initiative.

Keeper needs to bellow one of two words there: either “keeper” or “away”. He clearly didn’t. 
 

That’s not a good reason for Clark to let it bounce in the fucking six yard box.

1 minute ago, The Prophet said:

 

No idea. Manquillo was ill and Schar rested, so you'd hope so.

Isn’t “ill” code for “unvaccinated and isolating”?

2 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

He was a poor Premier League defender when he was at his peak in a shite Villa side. The fact he’s 32 now and still getting games at this level is terrible.

Fourth choice in a team that got relegated. Still blows my mind

2 hours ago, The Prophet said:

So given Dummer, Fede, Lewis and Hayden are out, I guess we're looking at: Dubravka, Manquillo, Lascelles, Schar, Ritchie, Big Joe, Willock, Shelvey, Fraser, ASM, Wilson

Are we certain Schar and Manquillo are available?

Digne might be available for loan given he’s been dropped and about to be replaced. The Everton board might not want to sell him in case there’s a new manager who might like Digne…?

Mind, if that’s true, you’d expect Chelsea to get him

There’s also the three year period that has now advanced six months since they were hamstrung in summer - some expensive transfers would no longer count towards FFP

16 hours ago, Happinesstan said:

You people are obsessed with what other people call other people. i remember when you all got up in arms about Ayoze Peres being called by his proper name.

I remember a period of a few weeks where it seemed commentators had been briefed to call him “Ayothee” and then it went back to Ayozee or Perez.

How the fuck can you live and work in two different English speaking nations for five years and have no English?

16 hours ago, joeyt said:

Almiron plays like an expensive competition winner

Weren't we involved with a Middle Eastern TV show that gave three kids spots in the academy? Maybe 10-15 years ago?

They've just spent years (and 350m) acquiring the club. They might well have planned to spend modestly in January, but the future of the club is on the line - they're going to spend in order to protect their investment.

As for attracting players, if you listen to rumourmongers, Trippier and Lindgard are as good as signed. The new executive mentioned three players they certainly want, with another two or three if necessary. It becomes more apparent every week that those extra two or three are pretty fucking necessary.

The whole "never ever in history has it been done" if pretty fucking daft, if you ask me.

When has a relegation-threatened team been afforded hundreds of millions to buy genuinely quality players?

At his age, after a serious calf injury, he has little chance of being quick again. Out of contract in the summer - he'll be lucky to dirty a shirt for us again.

Just now, Dandy Don said:

Apparently Longstaff was more interested in shagging a lassie from Gregg's....And she only gave him 3 out of 10 for his performance... True😁

That's outstanding

1 hour ago, Optimistic Nut said:

Net spend for newly promoted clubs is always misleading. They rarely have sellable assets and they get the huge TV money boost. Newcastle being the exception of course, I bet Brighton, Bournemouth, Leeds, etc will have big ‘net spends’. Villas was huge but then took £100m for Grealish. It only takes Leeds to sell Phillips for £60-80m at some point and it wipes theirs out almost.

 

As for Everton, if they sack Benitez I’d be genuinely interested to see Duncan Ferguson get the gig even if it was just until the summer. They’re not getting into Europe, I can’t see them going down, could be a good time for them to give him 15-18 games to see how he’d cope.

Surely it will be a Rooney-Ferguson old boys wankfest?

2 hours ago, Dandy Don said:

Loan contract terminated,you have him back.

Worst Aberdeen team in 10 years,and he couldn't even make the bench.

Worst loan I've ever seen,thought he was a star,more a disaster.

You've not heard of the Toon superstars Ireland, Doumbia or Ferrerya?

10 minutes ago, JeffJ said:

Or a super middleweight on the undercard of a Mick Hennessy Promotion. 
 

It’s a bold transfer strategy, id also throw in no double barrelled names either.

Hard pass on Trent Alexander-Armstrong for me.

 

 

 

I don’t know - would be happy with Calvert-Lewin, Hudson-Odoi, Smith-Rowe or Alexander-Arnold.

56 minutes ago, Fantail Breeze said:

 

Yet people post other paywalled articles on here on the daily?

 

Don’t particularly disagree with you, but it should be all paywalled articles rather than just The Athletic.

I think the difference is The Athletic is specifically for sports? 

Isn't it generally just the Tory rags that are paywalled (for general news)?

EDIT Further to the first point - the whole principle of The Athletic is "We're setting up a high quality sports journalism subscription service", which is why I hesitate to post stories from there

Not just hated, Michael, but probably the most hated Toon player in the PL era

2 minutes ago, LRD said:

Thought they are skint.

 

Could probably recover most from selling Digne.

 

 

 

Given Lewis’ injury, I’d really like them to sell him to us

4 minutes ago, mighty__mag said:

Total write off, next slightly possible points are Everton. 🤞🏻

 

No slight possibility of a point when Man U roll up with a cobbled together team and another week of Howe’s planning and training?

No possibility at all?

1 minute ago, Happinesstan said:

I have a vague memory of something being applicable at some time, but not at all sure what it was.

In FM you can only make three changes to your European squads after the January window, that’s all I can think of…?

11 minutes ago, Happinesstan said:

Is there any limit to how many changes we can make to the registered squad?

No idea, would have thought of it was limited then it would have been mentioned at least once in all the coverage of our first post-takeover window 

7 minutes ago, greydos said:

If he can shift all of our deadwood to the likes of Celtic and Reading he’ll be worth his weight in gold! Part of a successful January will be finding takers for our garbage. So a “Transfers Out Director” could be ideal 

There’s a lot of merit to this - if we want to bring in four or five then we need to shift as many out

13 hours ago, HTT II said:

Fucking Shelvey on that goal, if he doesn’t twist away to avoid being hit, it doesn’t go in, fucking brain dead!

It was hit sweetly enough that, had it hit him, he might well have ended up brain dead. Proper Robert v O'Brien potential

Just now, SUPERTOON said:

I suppose on the plus side we surely already know who we want and his job will be to get the deals done rather than pick players ?

Yup, here's hoping