SteV

Depends who’s asking? If you’re from DR Congo, no absolutely not.

Of course. For all we know Wissa might be bang up for the AFCON or even if he’s not, Congo might tell us to fuck clean off for suggesting he misses it. But - we don’t know that’s the case. I’d expect if we do want to try and get him to miss it, then we go about it fairly discreetly, by speaking with him first and then Congo. And the first we were to really hear of it would be when it had all been agreed. I’m fairly sceptical than we manage to get him to miss it, but the premise of getting him to peak fitness by a potential WC playoff in March, is at least something that we could try and use as justification for being in everybody’s best interests.

Only watched the first half but he looked a level above that standard. Which tbh, he is.

Would imagine we’d do well to get more than £500k given his age and contract situation. Would find it hard to see us getting an offer that would outweigh having him here for the second half of the season.

Live on the England YouTube channel if anyone wants to watch.

See the rest of the post.

Exactly. They’ll have friendly games anyway if they don’t make it to that. Suppose it’s easier for him to duck out of friendlies like.

If they can beat Nigeria, I reckon it strengthens our hand in terms of getting him to skip the AFCON. ”Want him fully fit for that World Cup playoff? Then let him stay here and work his way back so he’s at peak fitness by March”. Obviously still completely relies on both Wissa and Congo buying into that theory, but at least it’s a little something to try and bargain with.

Believe the unwritten criteria states that only Brazilians can be proper wonder kids.

https://x.com/worflags/status/1989272868459323752?s=46&t=OQLMckSuatbpqWF13Al4mQ

As anticipated, nothing new of note really in what he said. Peter Beardsley the best player he’s ever played with or managed. Not a fan of VAR. Would be a “disaster” if Eddie Howe didn’t remain as Newcastle manager for the foreseeable future. But the thing that struck me most was that, even at 74, he still has the ability to completely command the room with his charisma. You can absolutely see why former players talk about how he got them to believe they could achieve anything. I guess it’s just a natural gift.

Absolutely scandalous from Man Utd.

First you don’t apply for Burnley, now this….

Going to a talk-in with him tonight at Consett Empire. Can’t imagine there’ll be much in the way of new information, but will report back with anything I think is worthwhile.

Interesting to see that their ‘greatest player in 30 years’ is currently on four yellows. Absolute meltdowns if he were to get his fifth away to Man City on 6th Dec.

True. Although they had so many players they were literally able to bin off the surplus ones. Man City would still need Trafford if something happened to Donnarumma. I’d love to know how the transfer was sold to him, alas, it doesn’t really matter now.

But now they’ve got an unhappy player on their hands who probably feels like he’s been royally shafted (unless he was told they were intending to buy another elite keeper). Not great for morale.

It was bizarre all round from Man City. The only two explanations I could offer would be they thought if they bought him they’d be able to sell him for more (seems unlikely tbh) or they weren’t in for Donnarumma at the time of buying Trafford, but then he subsequently became available, so they went and got him as well.

http://Axel Tuanzebe: Man Utd accused in £1m lawsuit of harming defender's career by failing to treat injury 'promptly' and 'appropriately'

Not that it’s hugely relevant, but I think one more point will give us a higher coefficient than the England country ranking, which has been our default total for the last couple of CL seasons. Obviously it only matters if we qualify again sometime quite soon, and with the the changes it doesn’t matter too much which pot you’re in, but a really good run this year will help boost the revenue we can generate should we qualify again.

That’s World Cup qualifiers mate. They’re in a group with Senegal, Benin and Botswana at the AFCON, so probably favourites along with Senegal to make the knock out stage.

The simplest thing would be to say it’s only accessible to those who’ve had a membership for X months or something. Won’t stop the touts who’ve been on it from the start of the season, but would stop mackems in the home end unless they’ve really planned in advance.

Yeah, that’s what I mean. People are busy. Some don’t use social media. Whacking up ‘applications open in half hour’, isn’t really very helpful when there’s only a 24hr window to apply. Overall, I don’t mind the 24hr window as such, as it speeds the process up, but announce when it’s going to be a few days before. That way people get a chance to see it, note it, and it’s on them to make arrangements so they don’t forget. In this particular instance, I suspect the discussion/decision about the mutual reduced allocations (🙄) has delayed things. Fair enough. But they must have known they were close last week, so just put a holding statement out, saying you ‘expect arrangements to be announced shortly’, so it at least gets on folks radar, rather than banging it out of nowhere.

Bit ridiculous announcing the dates for this game of all games half an hour before the application window opens. *for everybody that wants to post about us getting beat, the sunderland thread is open…

And, he’s gone: