ponsaelius

Watching a video on YT and the food at Forest Green looks good without being pretentious tbf. Good for them, and for the carbon neutrality too.

I can actually comment on most of his career funnily enough. My other half is from the same canton in Switzerland as him and he played for the same youth teams as relatively close friends. He's basically a local celebrity so his career was always followed closely. He also played for Lokomotiv Moscow who a good friend supports and he never established himself as first choice there. He's basically been a journeyman for most of his career, and was 2nd and 3rd choice at Hull until this season. Although he was highly rated as a young kid in the Swiss set-up way back.

Jakupovic is poor. Genuinely no better than any of our current goalies. Before his little run of form this season he was seen as a joke figure to Hull fans.

Destro is garb

Banner seems to have gone viral now. Well done to that egghead cunt for once again making us a laughing stock in front of the entire country.

Cardiff Metropolitan University are playing Bangor for a place in the Europa League today Welsh league

Will remember both of them reasonably fondly. Both did well when called upon.

Yep, why they signed Begovic in the first place.

You're not getting my point. I'm well aware Celtic would win the league regardless of who was in charge. What I'm talking about is the manner in which they have done it and the way they have played. They are the only metrics in which you can measure the current Celtic side and Scottish football. There is winning the league with 86 points, losing in both cup semis and going out in CL qualifying (as happened last season) - then there is winning the league unbeaten with 106, brushing everybody aside playing good football and winning both cups. All of which is pretty likely to happen. And there's no guarentee whatsoever that the top 6 Championship sides would beat Celtic to the title. In fact I'd question that fact to be nonsense quite vigorously.

Surprised Juve not gone for him; decent replacement for Barzagli who is almost 36 Rugani will replace him. And Caldara in 2018. Plus they have Benatia too.

It was more of a perfect storm last 4 years when Rangers (and Hearts) were pissing around in the lower leagues and Deila made a pigs ear of it. Celtic have looked formidable all season and good to watch. Always play with high intensity, create chances and put teams to the sword. Of course they'd win the league regardless, that's not the point, it's the manner in which they are doing it. Rodgers is a good coach at that level, far too good for Scotland.

It's going to be interesting who Inter and Milan sign this summer. With no European football it's going be very difficult to attract big names. Can see their owners getting frustrated with throwing money around and getting nowhere.

Playing with a defence he can probably barely communicate with. He might be past his peak but I've no doubt he'll go to a team like Everton and be perfectly reliable. Not just that he can't communicate with them, but Torino pretty much sold their entire backline last summer and didn't replace them (Glik to Monaco, Maksimovic to Napoli, Bruno Peres to Roma). So he's been playing infront of a very unsettled and disorganised defence in general. That said, he hasn't performed particularly well on an individual level. I'd take him as he's better than what we've got but there are still question marks on his recent decline.

I'd take Hart, but if not him Begovic would also be a huge upgrade on what we've got.

To be fair he's done a very good job. Celtic have looked really well coached and extremely entertaining every time I've watched them this season. Yes they have by a long way the best squad but they did under the last manager too and were shite to watch.

How is he out of favour? He's started 34 league games out of 36 this season. Koeman is fed up with him because he's not signed a contract with 1 year left, not because he doesn't rate him. He's not signed a new deal because he's clearly had bigger, wealthier clubs in his/his agent's ear.

You don't think any of the top 5 or 6 have been targeting Barkley? Why do you think he's having this standoff over his contract with Everton? So he can secure a not so lucrative move to Southampton or Newcastle?

Yes. He'll have suitors above Everton, and us. It's why he's not signed a new deal in the first place.

Howay man

Keegan was a manager of a different era, had been out of the game 3 years before coming back and doesn't have anywhere near the track record Rafa does. Rafa is somebody who wants to build and model the entire club, will present a vision for improving infrastructure, the youth set-up, and has as wide a knowledge and connections in European football as any manager. Let's not forget that Keegan binned off the youth team during his time here, he was never one for building other aspects of the club. I think for all his merits as a motivator and in building teams you can't compare him to Benitez. In my opinion Ashley will be far more convinced by Benitez and his model for running the club, and will see him as somebody could be the goose who lays the golden eggs for him. That works in our favour, and will win Rafa more control than Ashley was ever willing to afford to Keegan. I'm not saying the Keegan fiasco was at all acceptable - this has been done to death on here and we all know the story. Just pointing out how Benitez is IMO far more likely to win over Ashley due to his management style and way of handling things.

That's true like. Almost forget Man City had Boateng and Savic at one point.

You're just getting old, I'm afraid.

I've posted this before but I've had it on very good authority that in the recent past (when McClaren was here) the club wouldn't fork out for proper ice baths and we were using wheelie bins instead. There was photos of it a few years ago during pre-season. Probably Pardew's first full season or maybe second.

The current state of some of our facilities is a joke by PL standards like. Some of the photos I've seen look like something from the 70s. Although apparently significant improvements were made last summer. Rafa could help drag us into the 21st century.

I don't want or expect him to put any of his own money in. Do you? Putting his own money in the short term could make the club more profitable long-term. Man City and Chelsea spent fortunes at first but now have huge commercial revenue streams. In Chelsea's case their scouting network and player stockpiling has also become profitable. Not expecting to be on the same level of course but spending some of his own money on improving infrastructure, the commercial side and the brand of the club could feasibly pay for itself in the long term. But yes, spending the money the club makes would be a good start.