leffe186

Where did you get this from? Want to check our numbers.

You can console yourself with that when you're playing in the Europa League in February

Moyes won't' get relegated - it's just far too satisfying to actually happen. The thought of West Ham going down with that stadium .

Meh. Hype is hype. We're in the CL and in a CL place. *broken record* Until we get into the new stadium and start generating the kind of revenue which will allow us to compete on a level at least comparable to the clubs above us, then I will take a CL place as a success. Teams don't play in a vacuum. The teams above us right now spent 221M, 188M and 150M on new players this summer, to add to the crazy amounts they spent in previous windows and the insane advantage they have in wage bill. We're really good, we punch far above our weight, and have done so for years. Had dinner with some Real Madrid fans this week and they're still in shock after the London game. Good.

Meh. Hype is hype. We're in the CL and in a CL place. *broken record* Until we get into the new stadium and start generating the kind of revenue which will allow us to compete on a level at least comparable to the clubs above us, then I will take a CL place as a success. Teams don't play in a vacuum. The teams above us right now spent 221M, 188M and 150M on new players this summer, to add to the crazy amounts they spent in previous windows and the insane advantage they have in wage bill. We're really good, we punch far above our weight, and have done so for years.

Finally got to see the Eriksen hat-trick. Wew.

Still remember the day he came into my HMV on Oxford St. He looked and dressed like a fat alcoholic tramp - he was still "playing" for Palace IIRC.

Sure, Italy are a better team, but they were such insufferable whiny cheaty bastards. I'm perfectly happy not to see that at the World Cup.

I saw the first leg in a Mexican restaurant yesterday, and fuck me, the Italians are cunts. Come on Sweden.

Oh wait, the Atsu injury might be more serious. Is it? If so then urgh.

I know Merino is going to be out for a while, but Atsu will hopefully be back after the International break. I guess how you deal with the absence of Merino will be key. Some very important - and tough - matches coming up. Failing to get at least one win from Watford and West Brom will be a problem. Who replaces Merino? If you struggle without him then you've just got to strengthen in January.

I've not got a good handle on your squad - how would you be able to cope with injuries? That's really the only way I see you going down this year. There are a lot of teams with mediocre squads but decent coaching, and the hope is that one or two of the teams with better squads and shitty/new coaching struggle (looking at you, West Ham and Everton, and possibly Stoke).

Jake Livermore is 27? "x is the future" is a phrase to indicate that something is great and everyone needs to get on board (obviously I was being sarcastic). I didn't mean it to suggest I think Jake Livermore is 19 My problem with his selections, mainly in midfield, is that unless he plans on playing Loftus-Cheek as part of a deep midfield 2 we're only going to have Harry Winks potentially offering us anything going forward in that role. I think we should be playing one of Dier or Henderson (probably Dier) with the other in reserve, taking either of Livermore or Cork to the World Cup seems like a massive waste of time. Calling up the likes of Solanke, Cook and Gunn just seems like he's trying to be a clever c*** giving everyone their first taste of international football. That's part of the reason why people are defending him though. If he actually does something clever you say it just seems like he's trying to be a clever cunt . He can't win. I totally agree with your comments on the midfield. I cannot understand why Livermore keeps getting picked, unless it's continuity, and I haven't got a lot of faith in Southgate's tactical acumen. The one thing I do like is that at least we seem to be trying to play as a team with a plan. The problem is that we have a couple of really good players and then a sea of mediocrity, which means that almost every PL team has a couple of players you could make a case for picking that are getting overlooked. The most obvious problem is that he has persisted with Hart for so long. Everything else is relatively trivial.

Harsh. Borderline cheating by the ref.

That's really good. I laughed a little too much. "We're not becoming the laughing stock...it's just...the joke is getting funnier"

Hang on there . Carver was on a different level. Ranks in the same area as JFK as DOF.

http://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=170009 The poll results are...interesting...but it looks like they don't want either Pardew or Moyes, unsurprisingly. Anyone but Moyes.

To KUMB!

The one and only time I remember wanting Arsenal to win a game - I hated Liverpool so much. Regretted it ever since. My uncle lived next to Ally Pally, and when Thomas scored he ran out of the house and up the hill screaming and punching the air. He says he only really came to his senses when he reached the top and was just grateful that nobody else was around.

I dunno, that sounds like bullshit to me. I mean, I can't imagine they were undergoing Poch levels of training, but they're a Premier League club, despite their comedy owners. You really can't be that negligent. God I hope they get Moyes though. It might work out, but it would be hard to imagine a less inspiring yet still plausible appointment.

West Ham going down in that stadium would be a dream. If you offered me the table right now at the end of the season I'd bite your hand off. I think third is a good finish for us in the circumstances, and a bonus would be Arsenal possibly missing out on Europe, but West Ham going down would be desperately sad hilarious.

Not to defend Beardsley (because it sounds like he's not the best coach in the world) but results alone at reserve level don't mean all that much. We've lost heavily in a couple of games where the opposition picked strong overage players, or where we've played weird formations or players out of position as part of their development.

I've worked with Forest and Derby fans and while they both see each other as their main rivals, neither are fond of Leicester. Stoke vs Port Vale's died down really since the former got promoted and the latter slipped back to League Two. Was mates with a Crewe fan when I did my masters and he absolutely despised Port Vale. I lived in Birmingham for a while and spent a lot of time in the Black Country. The general gist I got was: Aston Villa and Birmingham City absolutely hate each other - and it's a little bit like the Newcastle/Sunderland rivalry in that one team has most of the (relatively recent) success and considers the other team and its fans as being in a different sporting and social stratum. Actually, everyone hates Birmingham City. Everyone hates Wolves. Nobody cares about Walsall. People seem to quite like West Brom, on the whole. But then there's this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Country_derby I don't even think it's the fiercest rivalry in the West Midlands, but I stand to be corrected.

Well they're right to be like that. Spurs are an anomaly in football in that loads of players they've paid low prices for have turned out to be class. Not everyone gets a striker who knocks about being below average at championship clubs and then becomes world class like Spurs either FSG did support him though. They spent, what, 40M or so apiece on Salah and Oxlade-Chamberlain. He just didn't buy the players he needed, although it might have been FSG who fucked up the VVD transfer - don't know who their "middlemen" were.

Been spending a fair bit of time on RAWK this week . They are still demanding that FSG support their manager, despite spending 40-55M net in the summer (depending upon who you believe) and then being prepared to spend God knows how much on VVD only to fuck it up by making their tapping-up too obvious. And despite us actually making a profit this summer. Apropos of nothing, just wanted to get it off my chest.