ponsaelius

True. I guess not then

Your other option would be to team up with somebody who has a membership and link your dad's with theirs. Then apply in the ballot for the two together. Then if successful you could transfer your ST to that person. Saves needing to fork out for another membership if you could. Edit: although actually that would probably be technically illegal under the current system as the ticket would be under the wrong name. But I doubt they'd ever check this for a home game.

I think Germany have took in nigh on close to a million Ukrainian refugees.

You obviously didn't watch the game otherwise you would have known that Dias played

Ward Prowse will get WH some set piece goals but the loss of control and physicality in midfield without Rice is so glaring. I'm not sure you can play him and Soucek in a pivot in the PL.

If we'd get twatted by somebody at least I could get angry at what was unfolding. That entire experience just left me emotionally cold. Genuinely felt my eyelids closing at one point in the second half.

One of the dullest games I've watched in ages. Like a Spain group stage world cup match.

I'd probably rather lose 6-2 in cut and thrust game than lose a game like that. Suffocating, dominant, perfectionist misery. Really just feels like I've completely wasted my life watching it tbh Never at any point felt like we were going to score a goal, whereas City never really seemed like they wanted to pull us apart.

Feel like I've wasted 2 hours of my life

How frustrating is it to watch/play against. Wish Guardiola would fuck off.

Could be a genuine change of plan to drop them all today before the City game tbh.

Looks like they've fucked up and dropped the last two eps

Sheffield United have fifteen players out of contract next summer

I wouldn't say that's unusual attitude to them tbf. They're a big club, good fans but without having much chance of being successful again any time soon. The kind of club that you quite like to see in the PL but also love the schadenfreude when it goes badly for them. It's really not too dissimilar to a lot other clubs fans thoughts on us, at least pre-takeover.

That would be a bit of a weird one but would be brilliant for our travelling support if we were allowed a big allocation or to just fill the stadium.

No player we sign is ever going to be the finished article though. That's kind of our entire transfer model. Not even sure Barnes is.

Hiring the player liaison guy from Milan speaks to how we are approaching this. It's pretty fascinating actually - I think the club will be conscious of the issues Italian players have had settling in England in the past and will be doing everything possible to mitigate for it. It's asset value protection at the end of the day.

Man City like us wouldn't won't lose anybody now Mahrez has gone. Man United will probably be fine too - unless Onana reverses his position with the NT. Arsenal would be Partey and Tomiyasu. Tottenham will lose Bissouma and Son potentially. Liverpool would just be Salah and the new Japanese signing (Matip doesn't play for Cameroon anymore). Chelsea I think it would just be Jackson - but that would be a bit of a loss considering their striking options. Villa would be fine. Brighton would be both Mitoma and Adingra which could potentially be big losses in wide areas. Lamptey too. Overall it's probably not the big impact it has been to the big clubs in previous years - as I think there is less big African stars at the top clubs.

Following up on this as I think it is a really interest point considering how clear this transfer policy is shown to be. I really don't mind it personally. I don't think it's just Eddie who will be pushing it, but I think Ashworth will be right behind it as well. There are quite a few reasons why focusing on a core of English players makes sense. 1. Team spirit. We're starting from a low base in terms of squad quality and a lot of our recent success has been built on collective team spirit and camaraderie within the group. In my opinion, and it may be a controversial point, it is simply easier to do this if you keep a solid core of domestic and local players. New players are more likely to settle in the area and stick around, it retains a clear lingua franca on the training ground, limits too much cliqueing within the group etc. Having local NE players involved, even of a lower skill level, reinforces this further. Obviously as we improve this can't be maintained at the cost of the talent level in the squad - but it's a good base line in the short-medium term as the momentum of the club carries us. 2. It is 2023, not 2010. If we'd prioritized English players even 10 or so years ago, and I will have even said this at the time on here, I think it would have been significantly to the detriment of the squad. The value wasn't there because there was a dearth of talent in this country. Since the St George's Park reforms, this is no longer the case. There is actually a pretty strong depth of English talent and they are often tactically astute, technically proficient, physically robust. Ashworth will know that well enough more than anybody. I'd also say this increased depth in quality extends to Scotland too who are producing much better players that they were previously - and similarly there appears to be a potentially good generation of Irish youngsters coming through below the admittedly weak current national team. 3. Risk and value. The perceived understanding, and has been the case for a while, is that English players are overpriced. That's still possibly somewhat true but I think it is becoming less so as a result of the increased supply of good English players (see above), and I don't think the prices are any wilder than the rest of the market. While you may pay slightly more upfront for an English player, I think there is a lower chance their value will hit the floor as with a signing from continental market. There's been loads of cases of English players who went for what I thought was crazy money - but would probably cost you more now. Morgan Gibbs White is probably the most obvious recent example of this where the fee Forest paid seemed enormous but in hindsight was probably the best signing they made last summer and he's probably worth even more now. The other factor here is that PL clubs have loads of money - so even for players who don't do so well you will nearly always have a re-sale market down the league. Big flops from continental Europe you have a bigger risk of having to cut your losses if the player bombs or wants to go home. I think it's also worth noting that we are not exclusively buying from the domestic market. Some of our biggest signings and best players have been from the continent - so we are not limiting ourselves. But we are striking a balance between a domestic core young English talent and only getting 'marquee' signings from abroad where we are feel they are sure things (Botman, Bruno, Isak, Tonali).

Forgot about AFCON and Asian Cup. We'll be one of few clubs completely unaffected by that.

Agree though that the homegrown keeper thing seems an easy win for us to get a slightly bigger squad registered and I'm surprised we haven't looked at it instead looking to renew Karius and Gillespie. Krul, Forster, Woodman, even Alnwick tbh. We probably have more club grown keepers knocking around than most clubs at a reasonable level. Particularly the first two could have easily performed Karius role as third choice. I'd probably have equal trust in Forster as I do Dubravka these days too tbh. This will not be an issue in coming years as players get club grown status for us or we have a stronger academy so can pad out with u21. But it does limit us a little bit in the short term.

Do you not think it means that digital tickets that get rejected would have to go? IE if people have printed a digital ticket (so the barcode won't work), either to change the name on it or just innocently, would then have to go to the box office? Like you say I cannot believe they will be randomly rejecting tickets at the turnstile at 7:50pm. It's nuts.

Surely Gillespie won't be registered? We don't need four keepers.

We're playing 4D chess in the transfer market, like. This one has fallen into our lap.

Nobody is just going to give up millions of pounds, which is basically what you are suggesting he do. The clubs who would be signing him (Celtic, upper Championship clubs) would be expecting him to take a pay cut of around 80-90% to fit into their pay structures. The only way he's leaving is on a heavily subsidised deal. And then it's not just on the player - it's down to the club to find a move that is the best economically for the club. We will be holding on right until the end of the window to see what deal presents the most favourably.