Stottie

Just a favour, but does anyone know if you can buy a poster with the "Howay the Lads" banner in half white and half black like the stairs in the tunnel at SJP? I can print at A3+ at home, so if anyone has a digital copy of the image with a decent resolution, I could print it out. I'd quite like it above my stairs. I don't live in the UK so most folks won't know what it is to take the mick. Like this, only much higher resolution.

I reckon if Rafa walked with the squad in its present state, the club value would drop by tens of millions. We'd instantly be into a relegation battle. It makes sense for Ashley to get out now while the Rafa halo is there.

Man City were given a stadium built for an athletics competition, but have developed further and given a lot back to their local community. Let's see what West Ham do. My guess is sweet FA.

The exact example I was thinking of.

Ashley's Sky interview was basically a "come and get it" appeal. The publicly declared "you can have it on installments" made his multimillion pound business sound like new shag pile from Carpet Warehouse. So he either wants to sell or is on some massive piss take for his own amusement. Given the people he surrounds himself with and the comments about business deals in pubs and vomiting into fireplaces, it is extremely unlikely that he is deep enough for the latter. PCP making an offer means there are no skeletons in the closet to scare anyone off. Ashley said himself he doesn't need the cash up front, so there is leeway for a deal to be made. With the squad's paucity increasingly on show, Ashley might be wise to sell up before more damage is done.

There will be a lot of reasons as mentioned above. Diversification out of oil in an non-ME country will another. The PL has a high guaranteed income stream so long as you can remain in the league. With tech like AI and the Internet, other businesses face potentially massive disruptions. Property seems to be in a bubble, so maybe its not the time to buy in there. Assuming the PCP deal goes through, it would be interesting to know what they know about Man City and if lessons there have been learnt. City kept Hughes on for a season and a half and let him piss away something like 100m, which must be the equivalent of 300m now. City's pockets were bottomless, so ultimately it didn't matter, but with other clubs, poor investments on the pitch have resulted in the owner pulling the plug. What can be seen to be a good owner turns into a bad one. Having Rafa to spend the budget that is provided could be key in how all of this goes.

Rafa up to ninth longest serving out of the current managers.

Great first half. Unlucky to be behind. We had them under control till Murphy lost possession near midfield at the 30 minute mark. They had a counter that seemed to shift the momentum in their favour. It was then all them till that chance on the end. I hope we can build on it second half.

Indeed. He blathers on as if all their non-performing players on Prem wages will just leave and let them rebuild with a clean slate.

Man U have only scored seven in their last six games, after fourteen in their first five. Lukaku hasn't scored in a while, seven games I think I heard. I'd rather play against a rusty Zlatan than Rashford. I still think we'll get beat, but we won't get tonked.

;D

Dunno much about Shaw but the frequent comments about his weight do not bode well. I can't see how Spurs could sign Barkley for what he wants without wrecking their pay structure. Barkley could play ahead of Sissoko, but they'd end up having to pay most of their team millions more than they do already. He wouldn't start for Citeh, Man U, or Chelsea, so that leaves Arsenal and probably Europa League. Personal safety rules out Liverpool. Sitting on the bench for big wedge at Man U or Chelsea looks most likely to me, but it's a waste of his talent.

Take their time, aye, it's not as if they are bottom of the table with the joint most goals conceded or anything. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nkWYlQxuMU8/UARKZo5P93I/AAAAAAAAAPk/iKr5E2vggFg/s320/Nero%2Bfiddling%2Bwhile%2BRome%2Bburns.gif

Dunno about Shaw but I think Rafa could really revive Barkley's career, if that's what the lad really wants. The package to get him will be large, but not in net terms because the fee will be so low. Everton missed the boat on that one this summer. Barkley needs to be playing regularly, and I don't think the big name teams can offer that. If he just wants to sit on the Man U bench, then that's up to him.

Without a big wedge of cash waiting to buy one, possibly two strikers at whatever it costs in January, Everton looks like a potential banana skin for an up and coming manager. Silva would be foolish to risk his growing reputation unless he thinks Everton's squad is a step up on Watford's. It's a big job so they'll be plenty of takers, but not necessarily the ones that they want. We got Rafa Benitez because there was little downside for him. We were headed for certain relegation and he rightly got no blame for it. Expectations at Everton will be much higher. On the subject of managers and squads, Puel was sacked by Southampton for being solid but dour, but has been given a Leicester squad that won the league not long ago with counter attacking. It won't be the tools he's used to working with and he mightn't get much time to come up with something that works.

That sounds about right. We've had relatively easy fixtures so far and should really have more points in the bank. Our current total projects more toward 40 points than an absolutely average 45 or so.

I'd trust Rafa as much as anyone for setting us up to thwart them. I would also be much happier than in our recent fixtures to see us play out a tight and largely action-free game. However, the simple choice of goalkeepers mean they'll probably score and our strikers won't. I can't see it any other way.

Sorry if giggs but Caulkin's steamed right in calling him the "undertaker" https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/slaven-bilic-sacked-by-west-ham-united-with-david-moyes-set-to-take-over-3226kxrff

I associate Moyes at Everton with teams that were more hard for the rest to beat, rather than being free-flowing or especially creative. His record against the top teams was always poor. He wasn't at Man United long enough to sort out their defence, so I'll give him a pass on that, but his inability to organise Sunderland or even leave them with defenders who can manage at Championship level strongly points to him being a busted flush. This is a terrible appointment by two inept owners and their high profile idiot sidekick. With their free stadium courtesy of the taxpayer, I can't have any sympathy for them.

I love Rafa but I think he messed up today. I won't criticise the starting eleven, but you could have dialled in a Diame substitution at 60 minutes before kickoff, and I think him tiring changed the momentum of the game in midfield leading to their goal. Also concerning that he only gave Gayle a few minutes.

Shit game won by one mistake. Like Brighton and Huddersfield away, we stopped them playing, but did little to get something ourselves and it was another chance missed to get something in an easy away game. The Monday curse continues, but that was mostly our own fault.

Strikers have been poor, but so has our delivery. Shelvey looks the best player on the park.

Diame can't last 90 minutes surely. I'd be surprised if he can manage 60. fwiw, Ashley Barnes is 1 in 3 as a CF in PL, calculated from minutes played.

I'd like Mitro to be at least on the bench, but I don't think Burnley are a team you batter. Their defenders are all "body on the line" types. It'll be good delivery from Jonjo or Ritchie or guile/pace from someone that opens them up.

Burnley's stats are awful. From them alone, you'd think they are fluking every result. To their credit, part of it is having good keepers, and part of it is them having played four of the current top six away already this season. It would be fairer to judge them this season after a few more games. Our fixture list so far has been much kinder. Going back though, it looks like they have never scored very many in the PL. They were relegated in our Carver season as lowest scorers in the league. Dyche's main achievement may have been stopping the yoyo for one season last year. For all the talk of him going to a bigger club, when he does, he'll have to start setting up teams to go out and score goals to win games, something that Burnley have not done in the PL.