Chris_R

How would that even explain why the process took a long time? If they were investigating public executions, well they happened. So why then approve the takeover? What did the 2 year investigation uncover that changed anyone's mind on the matter? I know they're just mouthing off, but the argument doesn't even stand up to the most basic scrutiny.

True but I honestly don't fear then anymore. The boogeyman status they had has gone. Of course they could beat us, any team can, but I'm no longer thinking it's an automatic defeat like I did for the last 30 years. The spell is broken.

Sorry but do pro footballers still share hotel rooms? I earn in a year what most of these earn in a week and when I go away with work (lots) I get my own fucking room. And if I earned what they earn and was told the club could only pay for one room between 2, I'd just pay for my own room.

Not sure anyone mocks the mackems for having empty seats. We mock them for the club blatantly lying about attendances, about the mackems patting themselves on the back for the "attendances", and the fact that as a fanbase they so blind with rage about us they spend vast energies coming up with excuses as to why they aren't selling out all the time. If the club just announced 25k like is probably in the ground most weeks and owned that number collectively as a fanbase, then fair enough. Nothing to mock.

We finished 4th and then 7th They finished 4th and are currently 6th Yeah, night and day between the 2.

The 1v1 yesterday I actually think is forgiveable, I think he expected the keeper to go down and he was going to lift it over him. Keeper stood up though and made him look silly. It's like when a striker hits a penalty down the middle. Statistically it's the best penalty with the greatest chance of going in, but if the keeper doesn't move you look like a right bellend when he just catches it.

We need to register 4 academy produced players and another 4 UK-grown players in our 25 man squad. If you reckon we're OK for that without Longstaff then fair enough, but there's good value in just being academy-produced. (Miley won't count towards any of that as he's U21 and won't take up a squad place) So despite how much it'll make people's heads explode on here, I reckon the club will try hard to keep Longstaff.

So Oba was right, he was equally good with both feet.

Burn is a fantastic central defender Burn has severe limitations as a fullback Both of these things can be true

Think that's even better than the first. Fabulous hit.

Steven? If so, wasn't it always?

I once spent a very enjoyable 20 minutes watching him try to parallel park his sports car outside a nightclub in Newcastle. Have no reason to think he was drunk, but it was quite the attempt!

He'll have written that reply with not an ounce of self awareness, he still won't get it. The penny still won't have dropped.

I can say with absolute certainty that if he was booked for the first dive, every passage of play after that would have been different. There is no way for the same match to unfold afterwards with the same incidents, because from that instant everyone is in slightly different positions, thinking slightly different things and doing things slightly differently. After just a few seconds, the entire future bears no resemblance to what happened when he didn't get booked. Even if (and this is impossible for the reasons above) Bruno found himself faced with making that exact tackle after getting booked for diving, he'd know he was on a yellow so would be thinking differently. But as I say, that's not a possible position for him to be in if you book him the first time because everything after will be different. First incident he was lucky not to get booked. Second incident was probably a booking but no more, he was playing the ball but just missed it, there was no malice. But "lucky not to get sent off for 2 yellows" is just nonsense talk due to the laws of causality. Anyway, I need another beer and I'm off to play Indiana Jones.

Not even that. Butterfly effect means that something small changing locally can eventually have repercussions on the other side of the world. What we're talking about here is something different happening on the same pitch. The ref pauses play to book Bruno, everything after that in the ground happens differently because all the players are in different positions, make different decisions and hit the ball differently. It's like when a commentator says "He could have had 3 today!" after a player misses 3 chances. No, he could have had 1 three times. Score one, and everything after is different.

That's not how it would have worked though. He gets a yellow for the dive, then everything after would have unfolded differently. Different passages of play would have happened.

Absolute baller. Unplayable on days like today.

Yeah I don't doubt we'd use the money, this isn't the Ashley era. But we'd either have to bring someone in better for less, or be left worse off as a squad. Personally I can't see who would be better for less, though I'm sure there's players out there. It's a big world. Just feels like a risky dice roll, but eventually we have to roll it I guess, if not for Bruno then for one of the other big names because FFP means we can't let everyone retire here. We do need to be better sellers, but that needs a really good long-term plan and strategy. We'll just have to trust that when we do sell someone, it's part of such a plan.

Gillespie is there to just take shots in shooting practice. You don't want the "main" keepers shattered from constantly having shots pinged at them for hours on end, plus it increases the chance of injury, so Gillespie is there mainly for that from what I understand. Plus if you're shooting at Pope during shooting practice and he saves almost all of it it'll be quite demoralising. If you're shooting at someone a bit shit then you'll feel like a superstar when everything half-decent hits the back of the net.

I'm not suggesting we won't sell him, and indeed we do need to recycle players at some point for FFP reasons so on that level I'd understand if we did, but anyone suggesting selling him is a good idea needs their head read. We're struggling right now to break teams down and he's our most creative player. It'll leave a massive hole.

He's rubbish and injured as much as Wilson. Just... why?!

It's funny Ashworth has gone and that Man U have given us millions in the process, but from Ashworth's perspective surely this is an absolute dream come true? Basically works just a few months a year then gets paid countless millions to not work for ages. Doubtless they've had to pay his contract up or at least some very good severance clause, so he'll be absolutely rolling in it. I'm laughing at Man U, but I'm certainly not laughing at Ashworth. Rather jealous really. Bit like when Bruce was making more money from sacking compensations than he was making from being employed as a manager, in fact that's probably still the case.

Thrown in a skip out the back with the words "well someone might take them?" uttered, as they key them into the computer as "distributed to fans" Absolutely convinced that's what they do.