themanupstairs

Very good point on the Chronicle podcast made by one of the pundits on it that we still haven't seen Longstaff's full repertoire. For once I agree with them. He can be devastating playing as an attacking mid, almost as a number 10. He's just such a talented footballer that he's been able to sit in that midfield and do a job following Rafa's instructions.

Hopefully we'll see him given licence to get forward more as every time he's anywhere near edge of the opponents' area something positive seems to happen for us.

He's been truly outstanding and worth the hype. Not surprising considering his talent.

So it's taken 20 odd million and a record breaking transfer for Ayoze to finally do his lightning-quick turn on the halfway line again! For the first time in about 3 years he looks interested again. Absolutely brilliant today and deserved his goal. Lovely finish.

 

That's not true since he was very good towards the end of last season, was crucial in keeping us up

That's a fair comment. What I actually meant is that he looks to be enjoying his football again. My bad. He's been a miserable git for a while now despite the hard work he does.

Have nothing but respect for this lad. Outstanding again today.

Every performance is only going to increase his value.  Every southern bottom half Prem team should be looking at him as a squad option.

 

Straight swap for van Aanholt in the summer.

Wan Bissaka please.

So it's taken 20 odd million and a record breaking transfer for Ayoze to finally do his lightning-quick turn on the halfway line again! For the first time in about 3 years he looks interested again. Absolutely brilliant today and deserved his goal. Lovely finish.

Delightfully cynical read about the January transfer window:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2019/feb/01/transfer-window-premier-league-deadline-day-barney-ronay

 

It was reported in December, quite casually, that 400 people had queued on Christmas night outside a branch of Next in Nottingham to be first in line for the 6.30am Boxing Day sale.

 

Nobody objected to this. The people queueing were described as “bargain hunters”. It was as though this is all just fine, normal behaviour. Rather than, say, mass acquisitive hysteria, the shared conviction there is a some kind of happiness to be found in waiting six hours in the festive cold in order to pay marginally less for a cable-knit V-neck jumper that starts to look slightly sad and disappointed the first time you wash it.

 

I’d like to think those 400 people sprinting into Next at 6.30am on Boxing Day felt euphoria at first. Followed by a slow dislocation of the senses: drowning in fleece and wool-mix weave, struck with silent angst on the escalators. Before finally giving in to a rising tide of rage, the urge to smash and tear down and break out through the plate glass, to rip the half-price roll neck from their shoulders and howl at the dawn, perhaps after stopping off in Costa for a panini.

 

It seems unlikely this was how it played out in practice. Public displays of consumerism have become a form of shared affirmation, something to be celebrated and waved around like a flag, as anyone who follows football will know already.

 

Watching transfer deadline day play out on Thursday evening it was tempting to wonder if English football will ever start to question its own obsession with performative spending. This is a sport that always seems to be coiled on the starting line outside Next, maxed-out credit card in hand, face pressed up to the glass, already drooling over the knockdown gentlemen’s smalls.

 

People know all this of course. We raise our eyebrows on social media and express a weary disquiet. In the January transfer window net spending for the season rose to a record £905m. Going by the figures for 2018-19 at least £220m of the overall spend will leave football in payments to agents and in-betweeners. This is what the transfer window is for. It is a circus but a circus that is laughing right back at you. Meanwhile there is less green space, no drainage at the rec, no workable changing rooms, less will to participate. When will we start to resist?

 

It’s also a lot of fun. Deadline day was, as ever, a brilliantly slick production. Sky Sports News was fronted up in mid-afternoon by two eager, gleaming men dressed as corrupt high-end estate agents. A countdown clock spun at the edge of the screen, ticking down the minutes to deadline hour.

 

It is the roving reporters who are the real heroes of this show. Vinny O’Connor was at Liverpool, gamely freezing his feet into the car park asphalt on our behalf. “Jürgen Klopp has just left for the day. I wonder what message that sends.” Nobody really wanted to say.

 

Tim Thornton was at Huddersfield standing in front of a snow-dusted fence, looking healthy and eager, like a handsome farmer advertising muesli. He seemed unshakably optimistic. “We will of course bring you any news as soon as some happens.” In the corner the doomsday clock swung closer to 11pm.

 

Later the rolling studio show was renamed Deadline Day: The Countdown. Peter Crouch has gone to Burnley. Sam Vokes has gone to Stoke. Wilfried Bony, the scorer of six goals in the last three years, is off to Qatar. Apologies if you heard some bad language there. And we can go live to Kirsty Edwards, who has been stationed in the barren wastes of the Leicester car park all day and who has, you feel intensely reassured to notice, remembered to wear gloves.

 

It is all deeply engrossing. But somehow it does not really fit the staging any more. With seven minutes left on the clock Sam Allardyce began to talk a little jarringly about austerity as the studio thrummed with confected excitement about “getting Michy Batshuayi over the line”. When will we start to resist?

 

English football has a tonal problem at moments such as these. The Premier League is obsessed with competitive spending, with the idea success really can be whistled up out of a shopping spree. This is its founding principle, Thatcherism in shorts.

 

It just seems increasingly jarring and vulgar. We are a cash-strapped nation these days, full of people working harder and longer and feeling ever more stretched.But wait. Here comes football again with its wasted millions, hat askew, a drunken lord gurgling down Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill at the back of the bus as it trundles on towards the edge of the cliff.

 

There are some things that could be done about this. The January window should go for a start. It’s disruptive and inane. It offers a misleadingly easy way out. A culture shift may help too. Perhaps we could venerate a little more the methods of someone such as Mauricio Pochettino, who has built a strong team while “not spending money” (even typing those words, it is hard not to work in a note of shrill outrage).

 

Clubs could stop presenting the purchase of a player as a moment of triumph in itself. For the rest of us the idea that it is fine for supporters to be needlessly priced out because this is the will of The Market could be dismissed as defeatist rot. Who is all this benefiting anyway? Apart from the people who always benefit, those whose job it is to promote this profitable flux; while the rest of us stand, noses pressed up against the glass at every splurge of the money-gun, hypnotised by someone else’s show.

Wow. Not sure I've ever read a better football piece anywhere.

Hahaha does that prick Lansbury still play for them?

The Millers are descended from mill workers

The Smiths are descended from foundry workers

Interesting to see where The Longstaffs of the world find their origins.

 

Same with The Windasses.

My neighbor is a Cockburn

His nickname should be The Real Deal Longstaff. Because he is one.

Top banana this lad.

One the worse defenders at the club and easily the weakest link in Rafa's system/recent lineup. A better replacement can't come soon enough.

LOLZ at people still being surprised at the standard of refereeing in the PL. If you haven't yet figured out the reason the standard is so poor then you haven't been watching closely enough.

Not sure what he's playing at. One of the biggest drops in form I've ever seen from any player anywhere. Horrendous decisions in his shit little cameo today. I don't give a fuck if you're a fancy Brazilian with tricks. Just fucking play football man! Not every  possession has to turn into a showboat session. Cunt.

That wasted cross-field pass

Good to have an Italian sauntering up and down Barreca Road.

Negotiation a suprise permanent deal according to Luke Edwards.

Rondon?

I see the usual suspects are absolutely nowhere to be seen yet again.

Gutless wankers.

Dry your eye

Dempsey, Friedel and Howard were all PL regulars for years. Even Brad Guzan played regularly for a bit

Difference is they're all American whereas Almiron is Paraguayan. He's genetically bound to be better than the best of the above list

Who was it that was flying over for their first ever match at SJP? Astroguy? How did it go fella? Hope you enjoyed your special day!

FWIW, even when we were 1-0 down we looked good. Our shape was there, we were trying to counter effectively, just didn't have the quality to make it count. Put some genuine class up front and you'd see something on a different level. This is all down to Rafa making a silk purse out of a sow's ear.

Also need to delete shite like Yedlin and Manquillo who do more harm than good.

Who’d we say would be the best partner for him moving forward? He’s definitely worthy of it being Longstaff plus one when they’re all fit.

Diame and let's see what he can do with a bit more forward licence. I reckon we haven't seen his forte yet which is in the attacking third.

Thought Schar was the best of the 3 tonight but only just. Lejeune is so consistently good and seems to be the most trusted player on the team by the other players.

Still in awe of this great man. Fuck Richard Keys Fuck Sam Allardyce Fuck Crumpy and all the haters.

Absolutely superb again, the real deal this lad.

He really is. As far as academy products go he'll be a bigger player than Carroll IMO.

Love the progress he looks to be making already. Dovetails nicely with Hayden who has been equally as impressive. Both of them had a hand in our goals tonight. Fantastic stuff!