John P

Caulkin never used to have that much concrete info regarding transfers did he? I wonder why he appears to be the first to know now, didn't he also break the Diame and Clark deals?

Absolutely incredible. 2 of the most blatant penalties you'll ever see and he missed both of them, the fat cunt.

Yep, he was incredible that day. Nothing got past him and he made it look so easy it was ridiculous. Was the best player I saw at St James' that season.

A tough thing to account for in friendlies though when there are so many changes made and probably a few players coming on who've barely played for them before etc. I wouldn't worry too much about it, it won't be a problem during the season as we'll have done our homework on the opposition more than we will for friendlies.

Bid rejected for Knockaert according to those good old sky sources

That's an insulting offer that like

They can fuck right off. Losing him now would be pretty disastrous

Dennis Wise tells me Pritchard is just the sort of attacking midfielder we need, looks to have good end product. Barely playing last season is a bit of a worry because he's 23 and should be making an impact now, but seeing as Pulis often likes to play 5 central midfielders I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

f***ing hope not. Canada have been building their bid for ages and the sport is taking off rather well over there. Apart from the massive amount of match-fixing that goes on. The Canadian Soccer Association withdrew it's support of the CSL. Also the match fixing came from betting activity in China. Well yes but the teams/players have to be in on it as well otherwise it doesn't work does it? The amount of fixing that was going on a couple of years ago when I was doing a lot of betting was ridiculous. It was so blatant as well but the Canadian football authorities did absolutely sod all about it. It involved pretty much every team too as far as I remember. The CSA ended ties with the CSL in 2013 after it found out how deep the corruption ran. Since then it has been nothing more than a Sunday league competition. They were responsible for the running of the competition whilst blatant match-fixing was going on and did nothing about it, despite being made aware of various pieces of evidence by different authorities. They may well have withdrawn their support a couple of years ago, but they still didn't do anything about it. To say the sport is taking off rather well over there is a bit over the top I think. The sport is growing over there. More and more people are taking part in the sport and it's not just kids and women. On pretty much every park there is a set of goal posts, Canadian football posts now double up as goal posts. There are posters about advertising 5 a side leagues to a similar level seem over here. Now every city has at least 1 dedicated Soccer shop, the bars all show matches from various leagues. I saw this myself only 6 weeks ago, contrast that to 2003 when I went and Soccer goal posts etc were hard to come across. Aye ok more could have been done a few years ago about the match fixing, but theirs a good article on it about how it's hard to clear up with legal loopholes etc and this is problem with organised crime as whole. In the end the CSA decided to take the drastic action and stop supporting the CSL and now Canada is left with no official league. Only the Canadian Championship Cup is left as a cup competition over there which only Canadian MLS and NSL teams can compete in. So yeah it's had it's fair share of problems but it is doing what it can to stop them and football is becoming an increasingly participated sport. Out of the Canada, China, Mexico, and Columbia who are all expected to bid for hosting the next World Cup which one do you think is less corrupt? Which one do you think will be safest for fans to attend? Which one will leave the best footballing legacy? Well, I wasn't arguing about which would leave the best legacy and which would be safest to attend etc etc. My point was that Canadian football was very corrupt a few years ago. There may well be goalposts on parks and bars showing football, but seeing as you're interested in comparing countries, I'm fairly sure there will be goalposts in parks and bars showing football in China, Mexico and Columbia too. Those countries also have more than 5 professional teams (who play in their own professional leagues) and I'm not aware of there being huge amounts of match fixing in the Chinese Super League. It's also a bit blase to say 'ok they could have done more about match fixing', I would say that's quite a big issue but anyway, I don't know why I'm bothering to write this post to be honest because I'm not really arsed either way The whole initial point was that the Canadian bid would leave a better footballing legacy. The Chinese are hoping to snap up some big names for big money and then muscle in on a sport in order to have the spotlight on them. Canada have been preparing for a bid for a long time now and as more and more Europeans settle over there the increase in the sport is rapidly increasing, both in terms of playing and spectating. I'd much rather see them win a World Cup than a country that is just screaming 'Me too, me too' much like what Qatar did. Your initial point didn't mention legacy at all. Yes, China have invested a shitload into getting better known players and managers over there, but that's all part of how they're trying to grow the sport over there. Attendances in the Chinese Super League were up nearly 17% on last season, the top 3 average attendances were all over 37,000 (Guangzhou had an average of 45,000) so I don't think they'd be leaving empty stadiums with only 'hundreds of people' in them if they did get it. To compare it to Qatar is ridiculous to be honest, there are hardly any similarities at all. I'm not saying Canada shouldn't get it (again I'm not arsed), just trying to say that China isn't like Qatar and that there are holes in your argument.

f***ing hope not. Canada have been building their bid for ages and the sport is taking off rather well over there. Apart from the massive amount of match-fixing that goes on. The Canadian Soccer Association withdrew it's support of the CSL. Also the match fixing came from betting activity in China. Well yes but the teams/players have to be in on it as well otherwise it doesn't work does it? The amount of fixing that was going on a couple of years ago when I was doing a lot of betting was ridiculous. It was so blatant as well but the Canadian football authorities did absolutely sod all about it. It involved pretty much every team too as far as I remember. The CSA ended ties with the CSL in 2013 after it found out how deep the corruption ran. Since then it has been nothing more than a Sunday league competition. They were responsible for the running of the competition whilst blatant match-fixing was going on and did nothing about it, despite being made aware of various pieces of evidence by different authorities. They may well have withdrawn their support a couple of years ago, but they still didn't do anything about it. To say the sport is taking off rather well over there is a bit over the top I think. The sport is growing over there. More and more people are taking part in the sport and it's not just kids and women. On pretty much every park there is a set of goal posts, Canadian football posts now double up as goal posts. There are posters about advertising 5 a side leagues to a similar level seem over here. Now every city has at least 1 dedicated Soccer shop, the bars all show matches from various leagues. I saw this myself only 6 weeks ago, contrast that to 2003 when I went and Soccer goal posts etc were hard to come across. Aye ok more could have been done a few years ago about the match fixing, but theirs a good article on it about how it's hard to clear up with legal loopholes etc and this is problem with organised crime as whole. In the end the CSA decided to take the drastic action and stop supporting the CSL and now Canada is left with no official league. Only the Canadian Championship Cup is left as a cup competition over there which only Canadian MLS and NSL teams can compete in. So yeah it's had it's fair share of problems but it is doing what it can to stop them and football is becoming an increasingly participated sport. Out of the Canada, China, Mexico, and Columbia who are all expected to bid for hosting the next World Cup which one do you think is less corrupt? Which one do you think will be safest for fans to attend? Which one will leave the best footballing legacy? Well, I wasn't arguing about which would leave the best legacy and which would be safest to attend etc etc. My point was that Canadian football was very corrupt a few years ago. There may well be goalposts on parks and bars showing football, but seeing as you're interested in comparing countries, I'm fairly sure there will be goalposts in parks and bars showing football in China, Mexico and Columbia too. Those countries also have more than 5 professional teams (who play in their own professional leagues) and I'm not aware of there being huge amounts of match fixing in the Chinese Super League. It's also a bit blase to say 'ok they could have done more about match fixing', I would say that's quite a big issue but anyway, I don't know why I'm bothering to write this post to be honest because I'm not really arsed either way

f***ing hope not. Canada have been building their bid for ages and the sport is taking off rather well over there. Apart from the massive amount of match-fixing that goes on. The Canadian Soccer Association withdrew it's support of the CSL. Also the match fixing came from betting activity in China. Well yes but the teams/players have to be in on it as well otherwise it doesn't work does it? The amount of fixing that was going on a couple of years ago when I was doing a lot of betting was ridiculous. It was so blatant as well but the Canadian football authorities did absolutely sod all about it. It involved pretty much every team too as far as I remember. The CSA ended ties with the CSL in 2013 after it found out how deep the corruption ran. Since then it has been nothing more than a Sunday league competition. They were responsible for the running of the competition whilst blatant match-fixing was going on and did nothing about it, despite being made aware of various pieces of evidence by different authorities. They may well have withdrawn their support a couple of years ago, but they still didn't do anything about it. To say the sport is taking off rather well over there is a bit over the top I think.

f***ing hope not. Canada have been building their bid for ages and the sport is taking off rather well over there. Apart from the massive amount of match-fixing that goes on. The Canadian Soccer Association withdrew it's support of the CSL. Also the match fixing came from betting activity in China. Well yes but the teams/players have to be in on it as well otherwise it doesn't work does it? The amount of fixing that was going on a couple of years ago when I was doing a lot of betting was ridiculous. It was so blatant as well but the Canadian football authorities did absolutely sod all about it. It involved pretty much every team too as far as I remember.

We really really need a couple of attacking midfielders / wingers if he leaves.

f***ing hope not. Canada have been building their bid for ages and the sport is taking off rather well over there. Apart from the massive amount of match-fixing that goes on.

Lad I know giving the ball away for Vurn's goal

Combine my post with joeyt's to get 'that is absolutely ludicross'. Much hilarity ensues.

That is absolutely ludicrous

In relation to this, Nile Ranger is at Southend now and my tomato sauce says he isn't that bad. Comes in and trains and isn't a dick. We'll see how long that lasts.

I know someone who plays for Southend, will try and get his opinion on our team from a player's perspective. Might be quite interesting what he makes of certain people from playing against them.

Just caught up with this, I'm definitely blaming the astroturf next time I fuck up

I think we'll be after a creative midfielder and a more experienced striker next. We're lacking creativity in midfield, especially if a lot of teams are going to be sitting back when they play us. All of our strikers are young and will be prone to lapses in form and confidence, so we'll need an experienced striker with a decent goalscoring record to take some of the pressure off them during the course of the season. I'm saying this without actually being able to name anyone who'd fit the bill though

Fuck, looks like PSV get 100% of the fee then.

If we actually get £35m for Sissoko it will be one of the most overpriced transfers of all time. We have a contender for the exact same price mind True Both of them should be in the top 5.

One of the journalists on Twitter (possibly Joyce from the Express?) mentioned that it's £25m plus add-ons.

If we actually get £35m for Sissoko it will be one of the most overpriced transfers of all time.