Stottie

Dunno about that decision. A shot from the same distance and it gets called ball to hand.

Rafa is a strategist and that might save us, but with a lot of managers, that fixture list would put them under probably terminal pressure. At one stage last season, weren't we the only team in the bottom seven or eight who hadn't changed manager? There might have been two teams, but I think it was one. I think fixtures are one of those things in football that are supposed to even out, but don't.

It sounds like Spurs have raised their wage ceiling, so yeah, that opens the door to Martial. With a year to go, Man U will take a massive hit on the fee. If so, can we have Llorente?

I feel for ordinary Villa fans, even ones that sang the odd song at full time when we went down. I wouldn't wish bad ownership and mismanagement on any fans. That said, the twat (singular I believe) who made the banners, and any other "bantz" obsessed idiots who thought it was a good idea to wave them in our faces can have their noses rubbed in it as much as anyone likes. What goes around comes around.

Time for someone to ask that arsehole Villa sooperfan who their next messiah is.

Sterling's great. He showed a lot of promise and trickery at Liverpool, but Pep's turned him into a much more effective wide forward who makes killer far post runs for seemingly easy goals. His interplay with the others at City is also excellent. He was outshone in the latter half of the season by Sane, but what a player he is too. I've got a feeling Sane could be one to watch at the WC. Sterling was also just about Rafa's last signing at Liverpool, for those who don't know the story.

Must say I enjoyed it myself. Perhaps Klopp should have tried the gegenpress in training on his own goalkeeper. Ramos should have been booked for simulation and the grainy zoom shot makes it look like he might have got a sly one in on Karius, but the Salah one is just a coming together. It sounds like people clutching at straws. RM may be a poor side, but they were better than Liverpool.

It might get lost in the story, but the worldie won the match, the howler only confirmed it.

This'll sound crap but pre-match I thought one narrative could be Bale beating Liverpool and then joining Man U.

Karius again!

Wow from Bale!

I'm in Japan and according to Japanese sources, the average salary of a Japanese footballer in the J1 league is about 20 million yen a year, which is about 130,000GBP or two and a half grand a week. That would be low for the Championship or high for League 1. According to different sources Iniesta is on annual wages of 3.25 to 3.9 billion yen, 150 to 200 times the J1 average. I think I'll go and see him play if I get the chance, but the above relative difference in pay does sour the romance of what he's doing.

Well there is only one year left on his contract, which points to someone getting him for a low fee. Current wages are rumoured to be 140k per week. For a club with ambition, a knockdown fee in January and 100 to 140k a week for three years are probably going to be cheaper in total than any comparable #10.

Man U may have gone up to second with Jose, but they are still very dependent on De Gea. He goes and they could drop out of the top four easily.

Gayle and Joselu don't put their feet through it. The potential screamers we had all hit the post. Ritchie had two, one vs. Everton, Merino vs. don't remember (same Everton game?), Shelvey vs. Bournemouth (the one the onside Gayle knocked in) etc.

S If he maintains his current form he will definitely go as England will crash out after failing to break down teams that just sit in front of them and everyone will say we could have done with Shelvey Shelvey doesn’t break down teams that just sit in front of him. With Kane, Vardy, Stirling, Rashford, ... making runs, he just might. I love Vardy and under Pep, Sterling has turned into a very good wide forward.

Great points about the full-backs and Milner being the one versatile player you'd want. Pray that Henderson stays fit, because I think the whole formation will have to change if he can't play. With the pace and finishing there, the likely 11 will have goals in it, but its going to be ropey at the back and is not going to control the game against any decent opposition. An Iceland type situation where it lacks the guile to break through an organized team defending deep also looks likely.

If Rafa wanted to go to a more badly run club, West Ham wouldn't be a bad choice.

I don't think Moyes did that badly. I reckon some of it will be to gloss over West Ham's other problems, with the stadium and Brady and the club seemingly talking to factions of fans including the ICF. Allardyce was jammy as anything to get 6 points off us, with a much more valuable squad. Sacking him is much more understandable. Anyway, now the Allardyce and Pardew have been discredited, perhaps the media could finally fucking shut up about us being impatient and turning on "good" managers. On that score, it's been a great season for us.

Interesting to hear on the TF podcast that Rafa was more wound up by Penfold etc.'s inability to sign players rather than any lack of a transfer kitty. He made it sound like there was money there, but the club was too busy with petty haggling battles to get the business done.

I seem to remember Luque rounding the keeper and hitting the post in his first game. It might be old age though.

Going back to page 250, but I'd take a punt and buy Tammy Abraham, not loan him. (as one striker of course, not the only one we bet the season on)

Even on his good side, he doesn't seem to put his foot through the ball.

Plenty of go-down-soft players get given penalties. We don't get them for the same reason we never play against 10 men.

Gayle should have three or four more from the chances he's had, which is the result of getting into positions but failing to finish. He's also been denied at least three penalties, which isn't his fault and comes from playing for our club. If we have ambitions, and we should with Rafa around, he's not good enough, but there will be strikers at clubs in the lower half of the PL who are worse.