ponsaelius

Was decent for Atalanta. Not watched him much this season as i've actively avoided Boro games.

If you look at players 24 and under for France; Mbappe (18), O. Dembele (19), M. Dembele (20), T. Hernandez (19), Coman (20), Kimpembe (21), L. Hernandez (21), Martial (21), Lemar (21), Bakayoko (22), Mendy (22), Rabiot (22), Tolisso (22), Laporte (22), Zouma (22), Umtiti (22), Digne (23), Fekir (23), Kurzawa (24), Varane (24), Pogba (24), Kondogbia (24). That's just off the top of my head playing for big clubs - and doesn't include the likes of Kalidou Koulibaly, Raphael Guerreiro, Serge Aurier, Mario Lemina etc who were born/grew up in France but chased caps with other nations such is the competitiveness of their youth levels. It's not just youngsters too. They are a breeding ground for late bloomers that can be signed cheaply. The likes of Kante and Mahrez were signed for peanuts. Gueye has dominated in midfield for Everton this season. Knockaert has stopped us winning the league this year. Our failure to pick out appropriate talent from Ligue 1 and 2 when it's been our primary market is pretty comical, and Carr's heed should be on the block for that alone.

So are French-born players of African origin not French then?

France has by far the best generation of under 23 year olds right now of all the European nations. It sums up our ineptitude in the transfer market when you look at some of the shite we've bought in such a market.

Nufc, a real life soap opera. Back in the prem 5 minutes and the shit begins to fly. It's insane. Expect Rafa to sign an extension on Thursday and wild boars to decimate the U-18s on Friday.

:lol:

Hasn't he bet on himself to be first goalscorer in one of those games? Like fuck is that harsh. Stupid cunt.

Corsican Mafia. Class.

fucking hell man lads, howay

It helps, but PL money is worth more now because of the ludicrous TV deal.

Well the scale is fucked since half of you seem to think 1 equals good.

I put it at a generous 4. Last time was a 5, but the novelty wasn't there this time to make it as fun. The refereeing has been almost intolerable and the performances were stop-start, indifferent. Most of the home games have been forgettable for different reasons. It has felt very much like a procession and a job succinctly done, without ever being blistering. But I knocked it up from a 3 to a 4 because I got to see the 4-3 vs Norwich and 0-6 at QPR live.

I enjoyed the away days, and the League Cup run, but some of the matches have been a bit arduous to watch. Delighted with a job well done rather than a brilliant ride.

The biggest worry for me is that I think Ashley's eyes will be looking at the current bottom half of the PL, and thinking that to stay in the league it wouldn't actually take much investment. Burnley and Bournemouth for example have done it with a handful of signings dropped into a team of lower league plodders. Bournemouth in particular have actually done it with most of their major signings hardly involved. There's a significant chance that he will see the amount of money needed to stay up in 15th, then look at what it would take to be pushing top 7/8, and think "fuck that for a laugh". This will be where egos and ambitions will clash and it could be disastrous.

I think something around £50 million as a low end of the estimate to be honest. But ultimately it's not about how much we spend, it's who we buy. There needs to be a solid mix of players. I think many are feeling like we have had our fingers burnt in recent years by buying cheap from the continent and it failing. The problem is we've consistently bought cheaply, we've bought players who don't fit in technically, who can't settle mentally, who never wanted to be here in the first place, or who don't fit into a system we're implementing. Then they've been playing under terrible managers who have had no idea how to build a side. We've now got a manager with a set way of playing, with an idea of the players he wants, and who has a broad knowledge of British and European football. I think down the spine of the team in particular it would be advisable to pay a premium for some PL-ready players. A decent goalkeeper (Begovic?), a solid no frills CB (Shawcross?), a quality number 10 (Sigurdsson?). Players that are top half players and you could hang your hat on being good enough to lift us into mid-table. Then, it'd be advisable to play the market in terms of finding players with promise across Europe and the lower leagues who will be a bit cheaper and more of a gamble, but also with potential to give more of a return too. The main thing is simply to find players to fit Rafa's system. This is the major problem with almost all of our signings in recent years. Going out and buying players with no clue how to fit them into a line-up. Wherever we buy from, this needs to be the most important thing. As long as this is the case I'm sure we'd end up with a solid percentage in terms of successful purchases.

Double figures in all comps for the season. Not been quite good enough, but he's chipped in.

Has anybody ever given you a clip for being an unbelievably miserable arsehole? If not it's long overdue.

Illarramendi cost Real Madrid 30 million, then they sold him back to Sociedad for about half of that. He's very much a hometown boy, and if I remember correctly the Madrid move went against his wishes. So it might be difficult to prize him from San Sebastian to Northern England. Very good player though.

Kroos has always been like this.

Neither are. Stegen is getting better though. ter Stegen. You can't just call him Stegen, it's like calling Ben Arfa just 'Arfa'.

Fulham are sensational to watch, like.

Did it on my computer, phone and my uni computer through Citrix

Vote Shola

Watching Pritchard tonight, he'd have been a far better signing than Diame.