brummie

As an outsider, I'd say 12m is an absolute joke. It is interesting seeing what is happening so far this season - clubs insisting on big, big money before they'll move on their key players, and there seems to be less movement as a result.

Yeah, I thought similar, "hang on, they mean 28m for the pair?" - as if that's going to get accepted.

This MOTD2 is way way way better than it used to be. The funny bits at the end, ha ha ha, awesome. Not at all assuming we're an audience of absolute fucking cretins.

Gus Poyet is odd. His accent sounds like he arrived in the country for the first time yesterday, but if you listen to what he's actually saying, it is grammatically pretty good.

The "there aren't players good enough out there to buy" argument is absolutely nonsense. It doesn't stand up to even the most cursory examination.

Remember where you are. Yeah, I know but hey ho, you know what I mean ...

I love Kevin Phillips. He'd still be scoring at 50 let alone 40 given the chance.

I was enjoying the return of Premier League football, but the reminder that Chelsea FC still exist has taken the shine off it.

This assessment by Pat Nevin of Mourinho is marvellous stuff. Just marvellous.

Away kit. I think it's actually not too bad. Of course, being a grown adult, I'm against being seen dead in a replica kit but hey ho.... Looks a bit "busy" if you know what I mean Yeah, I do. I also wonder if the reason we've got a third kit this year (last season's away kit, that bright green thing) is because the away shirt is a bit too close to the home shirt (ie claret-ish bits) for when we play West Ham. If you squint at the new home kit, it is lovely, and the positioning of the circular bit above the sponsor's name makes it look like our old badge in the middle, thus rendering it like the European Cup winning season kit. Then when you look closer, there's far too much fussy bollocks on it.

Away kit. I think it's actually not too bad. Of course, being a grown adult, I'm against being seen dead in a replica kit but hey ho....

Tell you what, if there's one thing that sums up us under Lambert, it is this. You're the Villa left back, you're away at Arsenal, you're winning 2-1, you're under the cosh quite a bit, but there are 85 minutes gone, you just need to stay back, keep a tight line, play it safe and see out the next few minutes and take the three points. Instead of that, you find yourself galloping up the pitch and scoring a third. Don't get me wrong, we're still plenty flaky at the back, and when we go to Chelsea in midweek, neither a win or an 8-0 defeat would surprise me, but fuck, it might be nerve-jangling, terrifying stuff from time to time, but it is never boring.

It's like MON is operating the graphics.

See also: O'Neill, Martin.

Sadly, that's what is likely to happen when you get anywhere near Benteke. Watch the last defender here from the friendly against Malaga last week. Ended up with a broken collar bone. Not to mention Chris Smalling last season:

At some point this season Sunderland are going to have to come to terms with the fact that, whilst he might have been enough to drag them out of the relegation scrap at the arse end of last season by installing sufficient quantities of "give a fuck" in the players, they are now for the longer term lumbered with a bloke who is a league one manager. The salvation from relegation is one thing, but the longer term is probably the cost of it.

There aren't many businesses who would ignore an impending, signed for, contractual guarantee of an enormous amount of money in the very near future. All transfers are paid in instalments, too, it's not specific to Newcastle. Nobody stumps up 20m for a player in one go.

Did anyone see that cocksocket Scudamore on the telly tonight talking about how the PL is "so competitive, because every team in it can beat every other one". Well, that's an interesting idea of what "being competitive" is. Yes, of course, the shit teams can "beat" the wealthier teams on a one-off basis, but the league is chronically uncompetitive in terms of actually winning things. That's why former successful clubs like us, you, Everton et al now have quite literally zero chance of winning the league. I can't believe anyone can say the competitiveness of our league is its main strength and keep a straight face. Let alone on camera.

Apparently Fulham are paying his wages, which the Torygraph says are 65k a week, plus a hefty loan fee, which is probably going to be 1-2m. That's basically worth 3-5m for us in terms of what we're saving / making over the year. Not too bad in the end, I guess, but really, I don't think PL clubs should be able to loan players. It's a bit of a joke, really.

I've no idea how much he's paid, but again, we're hardly going to be throwing around the sort of money on wages other teams can't match.

It'll have to be a loan. No team could afford a fee and the greedy bastard's wages Not that I'm still bitter or anything... I don't know how much we've been paying Bent, but I am willing to bet it's not a figure which would be beyond other clubs.

If he's going, I just hope it is a permanent deal and not some shitty loan arrangement.

Downing - in his one full season with us - did very well for us. I was disappointed to sell him, but on reflection, the fact we got £20m for a player who, by the looks of things, had just had the best season he's ever going to have was good business. Although the way we then spent it wasn't quite so good

Christ, we appear to have signed a player who can take a more than decent corner in Tonev. After going 1.5 years without scoring from a corner in any competition.

Benteke has looked awesome the last few pre season games. Just scored a lovely goal against Malaga. He's just so hard to knock off the ball.