Stottie

The media is reporting that he is prepared to "mentor his successor". So that the idea is that the FA would want the same again after a spell of Big Sam football. What a clusterfuck.

Pity about the Townsend relegation clause because he must have been worth much more.

Just a rough mockup of a bold/simple one. Lots of room for tweaks and improvements. It would be better with even stripes and a font with equal width characters for starters. For iconic images, how about the Angel of the North with the Shearer shirt on? Can you do the bridges over the Tyne with the keep or do S&N have it?

Arsenal activated Luis Suarez's clause but Liverpool didn't sell. I've been a bit skeptical of them since.

On a contract till June 2018, so the price sounds unrealistic. Full marks to him if he's prepared to drop a division.

He's only played about 3000 total minutes in the Premiership, so under 35 games of game time. I think he looked very promising under Pulis but has since been undone by Warnock and Pardiola. It doesn't sound like the King has used him very much down the middle.

Big wages probably, but Bony and Benteke would be 25M or less, if that's what Deeney costs. With regular games in a team with Mahrez and Albrighton, either would be a good shout for 15, enough for top half dozen scorers most seasons. Both are young enough to return to previous form. Bony only played about 12 games' worth of minutes last season.

Pelle for 5M is great value! Troydini to cement Leicester as a big man/little man, two up front long ball team. Their last 10 games were more about their defence than attack, so my suspicion would be that they need to mix it up more from now on.

I Yeah with the "territory" point. I'm sure HBA copped a lot of criticism for the same thing, especially at the end when Pardew would throw him on for the last 10 minutes. I think he cuts inside too much. In the brief time I saw him playing on the left, he did it there too. I say this because I think it makes him predictable.

Gayle looked great to me, genuinely fast, a bit tricky, and a good finisher. So much so that I hesitate to turn to stats, but he has fifteen PL goals in 2700 career minutes, err, thirty games. Yet Pardew plays Conor Wickham.

Christ, what a berk.

I thought he was poor and only got plaudits because expectations were rock bottom. As with Krul, I think the level of coaching has partly been to blame. I happily get rid and promote Darlow to #2.

According to the player himself, we went as far as offering Aubameyang higher wages but he chose Dortmund.

Look at his starting position on most of the goals and where he's scoring from. He must be beating at least 1.5 players per goal. That's including the pens! In addition to Pardew, I blame the mongs on MOTD who would blame him for every move against us scored from his side of the pitch, creating an echo chamber of criticism. Colo too for the factionalism in the dressing room. I don't watch it any more, but does MOTD do the same with Mahrez?

Roll on August 6!

Its not uncommon for fans of struggling clubs to have "relegation fantasies" where they hope their team goes down so that there can automatically be a major rethink and reorganization, with all of the deadwood being removed and the club ultimately being invigorated by the experience. Of course, history shows that such "automatic" recovery is actually rare, with clubs more commonly stagnating or to continuing to sink further. In Rafa, and what sounds like the assurances he's got, we could well have the fantasy relegation. The new broom sweeping clean. Exciting times!

On the subject of other "top managers", contrast with Mourinho leaking news of his appointment just as his predecessor was lifting a major trophy.

Chuffed to bits. Rafa is the man! What a classy act for someone of his pedigree to take us on. He deserves legend status just for that. Wish I lived back at home so I could go to the matches.

;D at the big screen entertainment at the Palace. (a bit of nostalgia for anyone who went to the Odeon in the 70s and 80s)

Great appointment for Everton if that comes off. Mourinho is coming off the pretty much the worst title defence ever, so he'll have to do a better job of juggling the egos than he has been doing recently.

It looks like Palace are eighth (!) favourites for relegation next season. 6-1 at William Hill according to oddchecker. On half season form they should be favourites. They've barely got more points than Villa since Christmas. Their odds are longer than Swansea, who are at 4-1. Swansea are a stable mid-table club, with an established system that is not especially manager-dependent. Palace are far more likely to go down than them.

Out of interest, do more people actually watch matches if they start at 5:30PM like the Cup Final today? I know the change was five years ago. I grew up being told that hundreds of millions were watching it in one hundred and whatever countries worldwide when it was on at 3pm.

Sorry if Giggs but a quick look has the odds for the Championship next year as Title Us 5/2 Norwich 9/1 Derby 12/1 Brighton 14/1 Villa 14/1 Promotion Us 4/5 (odds on!) Norwich 3/1 Derby 4/1 Brighton 9/2 Villa 9/2

Post of the Year If he gets a new contract then we can confirm that Ashley's minions read these pages closely and that the Fat Man lives to f*** us over. Yeah, great post. Hopeless Geordies who stick around the Toon for years aren't that rare. Shola would probably the first name on a recent list, but he was far more likable than Steven Taylor. KI nails why that is.