John P

I also had that book, would spend hours reading it before bed when I was little. Also remember going to watch the training at that time, got pictures with Keegan and Beardsley (my hero) and got them blown up and put on my wall at home, must still be in the garage somewhere. Watching matches at the Odeon also sticks in my mind. We lived in Loughborough at the time, but whenever we visited my Nana we would always make a trip to the Odeon if we couldn't get a ticket for the match. I always remember it being completely rammed in there. Amazing times though, got so many vivid memories of that period.

Joselu has retweeted it

Of all the number 10 alternatives, I'd say Ritchie would be the most suited to the role based on his attributes. However, he's in good form playing on the right, so I'd just stick with Ayoze there for now.

He'll find out. Not this season he won't, Anita was fine in the Championship.

Ritchie celebrating already as well, the pyschic little nutter.

You could see when he was being brought off that he was disappointed in his own performance, but he seems to have the right character to be able to bounce back and put it right next week. He was by no means terrible, just had a poor day. Got to love his tenacity and attitude though, seems to be a good guy.

Looks to be a good all rounder - works hard, good touch and link-up play, can hold the ball up well, good in the air yet still mobile enough to get on the end of things in the box. Very impressed so far, hope he can keep it up.

Completely smitten with this guy like.

That would be a much needed boost.

Praet's youtube compilations aren't exactly the most exciting. Looks to have a decent touch but doesn't really possess great pace or dribbling ability. Also doesn't have a particularly good goals/assists record considering he was playing for one of the top sides in Belgium.

He did a good throw to the halfway line on his debut and everyone assumed that his distribution was very good. He's done nothing since then to back it up.

He started last night for Sampdoria for the little that it's worth.

We have so much s**** left in the squad that I think it's worth just taking a loss on some of the players and getting them sold for £2-3m each. Riviere, Krul, Saivet, Colback, Lazaar etc clearly aren't going to feature for us so just get them out and reinvest the £15m received (plus freed wages) on someone who can actually contribute to the first team. Surely there must be teams in France and Holland who are willing and could afford to take these guys for £2-3m. The players also have to agree to go, and very likely take a big pay cut. That could be offset by the low fee though. I guess football clubs calculate the entire cost of a transfer by transfer fee plus wages. Surely Saivet, Lazaar and Haidara aren't on much more than 20k per week. The article just posted in the Ashley thread shows that we pay low wages compared to other premier league clubs.

We have so much shite left in the squad that I think it's worth just taking a loss on some of the players and getting them sold for £2-3m each. Riviere, Krul, Saivet, Colback, Lazaar etc clearly aren't going to feature for us so just get them out and reinvest the £15m received (plus freed wages) on someone who can actually contribute to the first team. Surely there must be teams in France and Holland who are willing and could afford to take these guys for £2-3m.

Desperate for Merino to be given a start to show what he can do, but I have a funny feeling that Rafa will put Diame in. Really hope not though, Merino looked more than ready when he came on last week.

Joking aside, you'd hope that we'd be a more attractive proposition than Brighton if it was a straight choice between us.

Forget it then. Bloody sovereign states.

He's Marco van Basten, get him in the team.

Doesn't sound like there's much in it - 'a possible surprise offer' from us, and Southampton also interested.

Moat was never gonna make it happen and that is why I moved on from him as a partner and tried to go it alone. I was making progress twards raising the funds (almost $20K) when MA pulled the team off the market. The funds are in escrow should the opportunity arise for me to bid again. I'm confused. You had 20k sitting there and this indicated you were on your way to matching Ashley's asking price? No joke fellas. That is when I switched to my name "Consortium of one". I used to sit on street corners with a tin cup selling pencils and singing. I raised a lot of cash that way (got some nasty looks too). I hit up family and friends for money too. I had to give a lot of it back when I heard threats about "my Ponzi scheme". That's alright, I can get the money machine cranked up again in no time. I haven't got a pot to p*ss in myself but that's never stopped me before. Well I'm in. Just give me your bank details and I'll send the money over.

Regarding the Barry Moat takeover bid, he never had anywhere near the amount of money required to buy the club for £80m or £100m. My Dad was a financial advisor and was contacted by Barry Moat's team to essentially try and arrange a huge loan so that he could pay Ashley's asking price. For the club to say that the asking price was met was complete nonsense, at no stage could Moat prove that he had the funds or would ever be able to raise the funds. He was essentially a relatively wealthy fan but had nowhere near that amount of money. Oh, and the Moat business plan (called 'Project Magpie' ) was to sell all of our most valuable players, which included Coloccini, Gutierrez and Enrique. They were costed in to the revenue the club would generate in that Championship season. So it was probably for the best he couldn't raise the funds, seeing as they all played a massive part in us coming back up.

Weeks rather than months is fucking great news to be honest (if that's how it actually turns out).

depends on the grade of the tear. Grade 1 is a few weeks. Grade 2 about a month - 2 months. Grade 3 could be upwards of half a year. Come on man, it's guaranteed to be a Grade 4.

How long would ankle ligaments be? Few months? Recovery time isn't as long as it is for knee ligaments is it?

I thought this guy looked great (again) today. Got a feeling he's going to turn out to be a terrific player for us this season.