louistoon

if a draw was not possible who do we actually want to win this game? Palace have lost 3 in 3 but looking at the squads burnley have to be favorites for relegation.

Maybe he asked Jiminez to put the bet on.

Nothing, apart from I doubt Ashley would have made a promise like this without taking out some kind of insurance to ensure he actually didn't lose 20 million if we won the fa cup.

Not sure if serious.

And as i said, Ashley is a billionaire and the normal rules probably don't apply. If he is doing something like this he won't be doing this by walking in to Ladbrokes with a wad of cash. If he was to do it I'd expect it would be with a Casino. (or via an insurance policy as Pip said).

He could get someone to take it. Its not like he'll be logging on to his bet365 account he's probably on first name terms with the owner of several casinos. All of which are gagging to offer 50/1 odds and risk having to pay out £20 million in cash I'm sure. I'm sure the odds would be much less to reflect the size of the bet, but your point is that he wouldn't be able to get anyone to take it.

He could get someone to take it. Its not like he'll be logging on to his bet365 account he's probably on first name terms with the owner of several casinos.

You can get 50/1 quite easily, I posted a link 2 or 3 pages ago. Again (To everyone, not you): Mike Ashley is not putting up £20m. He's staked £400k @ 50/1 and will use the winnings to pay the players. This saves him over £600k vs what he was going to offer for league placings, ie £1m+ depending on position, which would have been much harder to cover with a bet as the odds of us finishing 17th or greater are nowhere near 50/1. He's a known big-time gambler and I'm as sure as anything I've ever been sure on that this is what he's done. This is not affecting our transfer budget at all This is not costing Mike Ashley £20m, nor is he risking £20m if we do win it This is not money we could have spent on players by Rafa, in fact if anything Rafa now has an extra £600k to spend because of this though of course a far more likely outcome is a guesswhowinsagain moment where he just trousers the difference I hate that fat c*** as much as anyone for what he's done to the club, and this offer is still s*** for a number of reasons, but let's not pretend this £20m is anything that it's not. You're probably on the money here.

And they lost Sigurdsson and Llorente. Thinking about one season alone, I'd have those two all day over Sanchez and Bony.

He also seems to be a little confused with his gender identity given that he occasionally refers to himself with a sexually neutral pronoun.

I spotted that too. FFS in 10 years people will be correcting me for saying should have. And I'm going to go insane trying to justify my stance. Should of should just be written Should've and then it would be fine.

Its an interesting week in leagues one and two as basically all the top teams are playing the bottom teams away from home. I've hedged my best and gone for a bet of 25p on every possible 5 team accumalator for the 8 selections below. Won fuck all money trying this so far, but I just need one of the 56 to come off. Crewe to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 11/4 Grimsby v Crewe Peterborough @ 12/5 Doncaster v Peterborough Shrewsbury to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 9/4 Correct Score Group Betting Gillingham v Shrewsbury Scunthorpe to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 9/4 Bury v Scunthorpe Coventry to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 21/10 Chesterfield v Coventry Stevenage to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 3/1 Cheltenham v Stevenage Swindon to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 9/4 Swindon v Barnet Wales to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 @ 15/8 Wales v Austria

Not seen anything. I hope you're going to accept responsibility for the mass suicides and destruction of household items which will have inevitably resulted from this.

Wijnaldum? Also I'd argue that as Diame wont be starting its him vs either Hayden or Merino. I'd probably rate Merino higher (going off only one game) but jury is out with Hayden. Otherwise I agree though.

I don't think it will be, barring an injury crisis. Admittedly, it won't be anywhere near as good as it could have been. But, Saturday showed that there's some s**** in this league that we won't have too much trouble turning over. West Ham are garbage, agreed. But pretty much everyone around us improved. Swansea lost their two best players from last season, Palace re-signed last years loan for 26 mill and have done little else, Burnley lost Keane and Gray. Bournmouth have started badly and have an absolutely horrible start to the season which could really f*** with their morale if they don't pick up points. True Swansea and Burnley have signed replacements but I would say both are weaker than last season. We have a decent team. Not as good as it should be, but while Rafa is here we need to support the team and remind Rafa why he decided to stay. If he leaves then its time to kick off, while he is here I still think we'll be alright. Also the attitude of the players is better than two seasons ago.

Really wanted him to succeed here and wish him well for the future. Seems like a sound guy

You've done absolutely nothing to convince anyone that you've made any sense mind. Made a few weird metaphors and completely misunderstood Yorkies's point. So fair play, we'll see you at the next one. It's okay, a sassy post in Forum Services And Updates will get us telt! Well you (royal) are talking complete s**** to be fair

The biggest thing he will give us this year is commitment. That's often used to justify a poor player, but don't mean it like that, this season we need players who are going to drag us through games where we're not playing well and ritchies competitiveness and work ethic is probably the best in this division. He hates losing, and I'd rather have someone like him this season than a wijnaldum who will dissappear when things aren't going well.

I think we're writing gayle off a bit quickly he needs confidence both in his body and ability. If he can get that he will do well this season

I was quite critical of him last week because, especially in the first half, it wasn't just one mistake, it was mistake after mistake. It really annoys me when people praise performances of a new signing that would get absolutely slated if it was Hayden, shelvey or someone else. Can't speak for anyone else but I wasn't writing him off, i was calling what I saw as a bad performance a bad performance, and I don't recall anyone actually saying they though he was a bad signing.

Aye I can see that happening

Depends on the opposition. I wouldnt be against playing all 3 in some games. Haydon and merino starting to look solid though.

Gayle is "ill" according to 5 live.

Wish Aarons was starting. So much for squad rotation. No Gayle is a worry.