Chris_R

To be fair, Ashley took no shit from anyone either. I don't think he was a pushover. Massive cunt? Yes. Skinflint? Of course. Idiot? Undeniably. Easy to deal with and take advantage of? Different story.

Ashworth has been here 5 minutes and is looking to jump ship already after presumably not doing the job he was recruited to do, to put long-term plans and processes in place. If us playing hard-ball over his departure puts off someone from coming to us who's already wondering what would happen if they tried to do similar, then that's a good thing. Nobody coming to us for the right reasons, with the intention of staying with us, would be put off by this.

If Ashworth reckons he hasn't put in his notice yet, then surely his notice period hasn't started yet? Doesn't seem like the best defence, IMO.

I'm not one to put anyone on a pedestal or anything like that, but fair play to the lad, he went above and beyond going to that hospital. And fair play to his lass for driving him there too. Neither of them had to do that, but they did. Lovely to see.

Branthwaite for "at least" £80m seems beyond absurd considering: - Everton are almost bankrupt and are absolutely desperate to get money in - We were led to believe (yeah, I know) we'd accept a lot less for Bruno than his £100m release clause Nobody should try to buy any of Everton's players until they get desperate enough to hawk them round publicly for peanuts. Fuck them. Leave it long enough and they'll come crawling to anyone with a quid in their pocket.

No, because Kane's resale value is going to plummet year on year, to virtually nothing soon enough due to his age. Add in his wages and sign-on fee, and most if not all of the money we'd get for Isak would just evaporate. It would be crazy. Buy young players whose value will increase. Not only are we not in a position to buy older players, we absolutely should NOT buy older players anyway who are at or past their peak. It rarely works well and is a very expensive thing to do.

Not sure anyone has ever questioned his athleticism, only his speed? Personally I've always thought he's plenty fast enough, but the impression I get from others' comments is that there's a perception he's not quick enough. Not that he doesn't have a good engine.

When Dummett came on with seconds to go yesterday, I was pretty sure he was being given his swansong.

Follow me for more betting tips.

Absolute baller. When some players get through on goal you know it's a chance of a goal. When this lad is in, you expect a goal.

Needs dropping. Too short.

How the actual fuck has he missed that?!

Pope's shit. Sell.

I hope it's a very long time before Keegan gets a statue. Statues are for dead people, once their legacy is finalised.

What, bigger than the £120m Mbappe just got? Nah. Wouldn't even command that as a transfer fee. He's well into his 30s now.

If we need to sell Bruno to make our FFP commitments, I'd rather we just take the 4 point penalty. He's worth well more than that to us.

Again, giving a team £30+m when they want to buy Bruno but are short of the cash to trigger his release clause seems suicidal. Just no, for me.

As a self-proclaimed and completely unapologetic grammar Nazi, I can't disagree with this bit....

Keegan sold Cole because he knew he'd peaked and wasn't training well. And gutted though I was when Cole left, Keegan was right.

Plus, nobody will want our cast-offs.

FYP

Should never have played today if Pope is fit for the bench, as I said pre match. Cost us at least a point today. Annoying that Howe is so loyal to players and needs them to be palpably shit before he'll drop them. Needs to work on this side of his management and be more ruthless in getting his best players on the pitch.

Pope not playing is annoying. He's clearly, by a long way, the better keeper and if he's fit enough for the bench then he should play. I get "having faith" with players, "your shirt to lose" etc, but in this instance the ability disparity is big enough to overcome this.

Plus we've still got to pay for all the players we amortised over the previous windows. We've still not finished paying for Bruno, Botman, Isak, Trippier, Livramento, Barnes, Tonali, Burn, Targett or Pope yet. We're still on the hook for at least £70m/year for all of them yet. We've got to continually understand and appreciate our running total of commitments regarding amortisation, not immediately forget all previous transfers once a new window opens. I know I'm like a broken record with this and it's not aimed at you as such, but the forum as a whole has a big blind spot on this thinking we can just keep spending a net of £100m/season provided we use the magic "amortisation" word. Revenue growth is now vital. And the PL are hamstringing us there. I'm sure we're working on it behind the scenes but until we make significant moves there, we're likely up against the wall for transfers.

If you get stopped every time, it's not the machine failing. I travel regularly for work and the e-gates refuse me every time. I got sick and asked the border official. His response: "Well I can't say for certain for obvious reasons, but..... (checks computer) one 'possible' explanation could be that we're looking for someone with very similar details to yours *nodds enthusiastically*, but as I say I can't say for certain *more nodding*" You've likely got some kind of flag on your passport. Annoying but there's little you can do. I've got 2 UK passports and the same happens on both of them.