Hughesy

Isn't that exactly whats in Dokko's post, something from PCP to St James Holdings? I dunno much about companies house stuff tbf. Yes, some of the one's associated with the club have changed, although why St James Holdings is lending money is a strange one. Could it be a charge for some kind of Deposit? Someone on twitter has said it means Ashley takes the club back if they default on the loan? Wouldn't surprise me for him to insert something like that. That would be correct given my experience IF the loan is defaulted. Or at least it's a possibility. The secured asset under the PCP security is her claim (or the proceeds thereof) against Barclays.

This is absolutely happening.

The second Robert goal vs Spurs in the 4-0. The volley was amazing, but the second one was almost more audacious. Amazing hit.

This -

I'm intrigued to know what people think Staveley (or the Reuben brothers or PIF) gain from this, if they are all in on a conspiracy with Fat Mike. Having multiple attempts to buy a business fail doesn't tend to help.

Agreed. The stats revealed in Miguel Delaney's first piece, where he showed how points totals are much higher in the top 4 than previously, are obviously undisputable, but I don't believe they really point to a reduction in competition. They're saying you have to be better, these days, to get there - but then teams generally are better thanks to better resources across the board. Sheffield United, Wolves and Leicester will all finish between 3rd and 8th this season. That doesn't point to a closed shop, imo. Not sure I totally agree with that. If you take our last decent period under Robson, we had a chance of winning the league for 3 seasons or so. It might have been a small chance, but we were involved in the title race until March on a couple of occasions. And the same could be said for at least 5-6 clubs over that period. In addition, making the leap from mid table to CL qualification was possible and something that could be sustained if you were a well run club. Sheffield United could finish in the top 4 this season - although extremely unlikely - but they sure as hell won't be doing it the season after or the season after that.

Always feel Remy gets a bit overlooked in the list of our decent strikers over the years. Had a real effortlessness about the way he played - wish he'd hung around for a bit longer.

I feel slightly uneasy as well, but I always find it a bit odd that a different standard is applied to football fans. I mean the Saudis invest in all kinds of stuff that people still consume, yet we don’t upbraid people for using Uber.

Kind of feel that if it doesn't happen this time, it just isn't ever going to happen.

Genuinely can't believe people were writing this guy off for a few errors. Fucking bizarre.

Linked with Piatek as well. Not sure that would be a great move. Nor would he come.

Controversial opinion - but I don't actually think he looks that bad... He actually won quite a few flicks on yesterday but there was no one around him.

I haven't really posted much here as I find the whole thing too depressing. Like many, Rafa was the only thing that was keeping me hanging on. However, over the summer, when it seemed Rafa was going, I almost convinced myself that I could carry on if we'd appointed a manager you could get behind and believe in. Although I've come to hate the word, I could have made my peace with a "progressive" manager. To be honest, appointing a management team like the Cowley brothers would have been enough to believe in a project and stay interested. But appointing Steve Bruce was just too much. I don't even hate the bloke and I don't even think he was that bad a manager in the early 2000s. But football's changed now and it's left the likes of Bruce behind. For the first time ever, I just don't care anymore. I'm from the South East so don't go to as many home matches as I used to, but usually try and make 3-4 home matches and all matches in the south east. I haven't been to a game yet this season and my dad asked me if I wanted to go to the Chelsea match. I can't quite bring myself to tell him I don't really care anymore and don't want to go. I fucking hate Mike Ashley.

I feel, Hughesy, that your opinion might be a little biased can't believe someone has seen through my cunning disguise.

Think Aaron Hughes was comfortably better than Dummett.

Maybe I'm biased as I used to play as winger/full back when I was younger, but there's nothing more frustrating as a winger than stretching play as you should and hugging the touchline and then a pass being played way too short. Yes, in an ideal world you anticipate the issue and react, but you've essentially set yourself to receive the ball with a view to opening your body up and going down the touchline. It seems simple, but if you've positioned yourself that way you aren't going to react immediately to set off in the opposite direction to approach a pass that is going to be intercepted. Especially at Premier League level where you have a reasonable expectation that the player making the pass is capable of getting it to you without you having to move towards the ball to win it.

Shit pass. Dummett should be able to weight an unchallenged pass to someone on the touchline without Willems having to move towards him. Yes, Willems should have anticipated it, but it stems from a shit pass.

I dunno, David Luiz has just gone for 8M, really can't see you getting 15M for Gayle. Also, you should probably have appended a qualifying adjective to Joselu too . That's always the mooted figure and seems relatively achievable given the fees paid for strikers. But even so, let's call it 8-12m. We should still be looking to get someone in who is better than Gayle by spending some money. Joelinton - Rondon Perez - Maxim Almiron Joselu - Carrol Muto Gayle Not a bad line up to be fair. Anyone proven from a foreign league is unproven in the PL and anyone prem proven is out of our price range so it's kind of a moot point. I dont see too many proven strikers in any league going for £40m. Joelinton represents a huge gamble by any clubs standards so I can't be mad with the signing in much the same way I wasnt annoyed with the Almiron signing who was equally unproven. If we were to get a CM I'd of actuslly have been happy with this window up until the point I remembered Steve Bruce was our manager. We could definitely spend 25-30m on a striker and improve on Gayle. And we have the cash to do it.

I dunno, David Luiz has just gone for 8M, really can't see you getting 15M for Gayle. Also, you should probably have appended a qualifying adjective to Joselu too . That's always the mooted figure and seems relatively achievable given the fees paid for strikers. But even so, let's call it 8-12m. We should still be looking to get someone in who is better than Gayle by spending some money.

Don't see what's so complicated. We've lost Perez and Rondon and Joselu. We replaced them with the unproven Joelinton, a perma-crock Carroll and proven-to-not-be-PL-standard Gayle. To improve on last season's team, we should, at a bare minimum, be selling Gayle for 15m or so (subsidising his wages, if need be) and buying a quality replacement for the Gayle money plus some of extra funds knocking around. What we've done is a cop out and it's not good enough.

You know Gayle played in the PL before he played for us, right?

Don't have a problem with signing him on a pay as you play deal, but we still need another striker.

Even if ASM and Joelinton are as good as Perez and Rondon - which seems unlikely - we still haven't strengthened the squad in any material respect. You could argue that Willems gives us a more natural left wing back, but Krafth doesn't seem any better than Yedlin or Manquillo. Fucking ridiculous. We should be looking to improve every position possible, whether it's getting a better central midfielder than Shelvey or Ki or getting a better back up striker than Gayle or Muto.

Waugh isn't too bad, but strange they didn't go after Douglas, who I actually think (despite what people say on here) is a decent writer. Some of his longer reads are quite good.

Can't wait to see him repeatedly give away free kicks in dangerous positions this season. Going to be amazing.