ponsaelius

I swear Schar has more serious head collisions than any player I've ever seen.

You're referring to people as if they are one homogenous being. What a bizarre thing to say. I doubt anybody applauding the knee is also being racially abusive.

If that was the case he wouldn't have thought twice about wearing a shirt with a rainbow number on it.

Was his AGA oven wasn't it?

17.5 million doesn't seem cheap to me. I don't think he's very good.

Theo Hernandez just channeled his inner George Weah

Got to win this to make sure they're not in CL. They will be competing with us for potential signings - particularly up top.

It's amazing more footballers don't look to leave on frees mind when you see the way it allows them to pocket signing on fees and higher salaries. How rarely it happens kinda indicates they're generally pretty risk averse.

You think? It's hardly out of the way like a lot of northern league grounds are. If anything it is more residential than most. The historic attendances for PT were always a joke considering the size of the town.

That's how a lot of big deals in Italy are done these days - and is a well trodden path specifically with Sassuolo selling to big Italian clubs (Locatelli to Juve, Politano to Inter off the top of my head). So I certainly wouldn't think it means anything relating to us. If anything it points more to Scamacca going to one of the big 3 in Italy. If they do sell him abroad they're more likely to push for money upfront (since it is there to be had). In terms of the player himself I honestly think he's likely to flop abroad. This season is his first real breakthrough season (despite being a regular scorer at youth level). He's got loads of good attributes and scores some absolutely spectacular goals but is still very raw and has games where he might as well not be on the pitch. Also has a bit of personal baggage with his family life that seems to follow him around. I suppose it might actually be good for him to leave Italy in that sense though.

Prudhoe Town folded a few year ago after dropping into the Wearside League. They couldn't even put an XI out in the end which was ridiculous in itself. PYC have now effectively filled the void. Which in reality is far better because they have age group teams going right down and so there is now clear continuity/pathway up to seniors. It'll be interesting to see how they make the step up to NL, and whether there is bigger support from locals now that it is more imbedded in the wider community.

It's almost admirably blatant in a way.

Phillips would be exactly the kind of signing I'd be keen to make. A high level player but who would be making a step up by coming here. Feel like the fee they'd ask for on survival would make it a waste of budget (compared to other positions) - but at a cut price deal it's basically a market opportunity you shouldn't ignore.

Somebody like Gayle could have been sold for 10-15 million to an ambitious Championship club easily when he was 27-28. Even at 29 he was off the back of a 23 goal season at WBA we could have got close to our money back from a desperate promotion chaser. Instead because we refused to progress and upgrade the squad by spending, and instead just kept him around like many others, he has hung around into his 30s becoming more injury prone and now has a value close to nil. This is just really bad squad management. It's a really tricky balancing act, no doubt. The Longstaff one is a good case in point. Really we should be securing his value as a player at that age so we don't lose him for nowt. But equally you don't want to end up stuck with a player you can't shift by overpaying them.

We might be the richest club in the world and it's easy to say 'it's not my money I don't care' (there's definitely an element of that which I empathise with) but equally with FFP we have to be ran sensibly. It will take years of building up - and part of that will be buying and selling sensibly. You only have to look at Everton to see where it can go wrong. This will mean possibly biting the bullet and cashing in on players when we get mega offers, or ensuring players that don't quite fit or aren't good enough aren't stuck here on inflated contracts or at an age where we can't move them. On a smaller scale you can see the issue we have at the moment where we haven't moved on players when we should have done due to kicking the can down the road - and are now stuck with aging championship players who we will probably have to literally pay to get rid of. It also means stumping up the money and wages when it's right to do so and the player is worth it. I think we basically showed we will do that with Bruno.

I don't think a wage structure will rigidly prevent any signing on 100-150k a week. It will just be reserved for players that deserve it, or are of an age where their value will hold. I definitely am not sold on the Lingard idea at the wages discussed tbh.

This feels like a dig.

Yeah - plus I remember the following season him scoring the decider at home to Chelsea, setting up Giuly with a perfect pass against Milan in the semis. Lots of pretty big game moments even just off the top of my head. The only thing you can say about Ronaldinho is that, even moreso than Kaka, is that he shined very bright for a short amount of time and then fizzled out. That arguably does place him lower than other greats.

Surely Ronaldinho tearing apart the Galacticos at the Bernabeu, with two wondergoals, earning him a round of applause from the home fans - counts as grabbing hold of a big game?

I can't see Wycombe beating them like.

Roberts is actually there permanently.

Obviously there's reasons they've had to drop down to this level but the likes of Clarke, Pritchard and Roberts in midfield seem very talented creative options for a League One side

The only think you could say about Kaka was a lot of his game was physical attributes and once he lost a step he regressed quite a bit. He was undoubtedly the best player in the world for about 18 months and was generally brilliant for Milan.

Lentini was in a pretty serious car crash after his first season at Milan. He pretty much never recovered properly.

Trippier pulling a caravan there