Wolfcastle

Some people will be deferring to the league tables and avoid engaging their brains and just go "5th"

Exactly where I'm at. Think next season PL-wise will be like 94/95, drop a place or two, but in the bigger picture you know its all going forward and gearing up all the while, so can't get vexed

Didn't get that with Pistone. Who shockling over 20years ago cost nearly the same amount. Thanks again Kenny.

Not saying he's full of shit but he's hardly experienced judge of things and his memory may be playing tricks on him as I think we've played Ipswich at home all of twice in over 20years and once in over 13years and specifically remember seeing some in Bourgouines (or however it spelled) where we were and Rosies prior to that in 2000/01 01/02.

Not supporting, in fact disliking, the England national team/fans/media has come up trumps again

Heard an interesting take on this recently that some people will ethically source their coffee but paying into an illegal crime an slave ridden drugs trade without the slighest compunction.

England have played friendlies against and in Saudi Arabia. Sir Bobby famously getting the "in the name of Allah go". They're fighting rebels trying to take over in Yemen who themselves are commiting those crimes. Its bad enough without the exile-esque misrepresentation of what's going on like its for no reason, deliberately targeted and they haven't been invited by the Yemeni government to help them stop an Iranian backed rebellion. Having said that I'm totally against the friendly. Agree. Its a new trend of people backing themselves into corners with their stances on some things but being selective about where to apply it. Most people haven't done that so can, for example, buy trainers without ethically sourcing whether they've come from a sweatshop without meaning that they are 'pro sweatshop/slave labour' without contradiction.

Blackburn 13years earlier. Pre Premier League. A nothing second division club that had honestly just averaged just over 8,000 tried to sign the captain of England, then lure a manager who had won the league a year earlier out of retirement, spent astronomically by the standards of the day to get promoted (£6m in one year, only Ferguson had spent more a few years earlier at Man U and that was considered wild) and broke the British record transfer the following summer. A true underdog story, as its since been rewritten as. Don't think there was ever a consideration to stop it then because it would have looked like exactly what it was. Basically cheating to maintain your spot at the top unchallenged.

and that would just be a smokescreen to make it look like we were actually trying to do at least something, which we wouldn't be. Halcyon days.

Maddison to Spurs the top thread in Pure Football NUFC Sportswashing the top thread in Parsnip even splitting the audience we dominate the ratings

He's also said he wanted to go to a team in the Champions League

Nobody is coughing up a wedge like that with ffp restrictions. Another win for the little clubs.

Viz 'Celebrity C*nts' parodied that shirt police thread 20years is how tragic it is. With the poster always coming off as hard or having intellectually bested the flawed out of place celebrity somehow. Hope for Gipetto's sake that incident was when he was about 13 such is the originality, witlessness and crassness but am resigned to think he and his mates were at least 30.

Part of it will be not wanting to join a rival club to Spurs

Leicester fans say he downed tools towards the end of last season sounds ideal for Spurs

Absolutely fine with this sort of transfer being as my biggest concern last season was thinness of squad especially given the way we play and how much they give. Was bound to be dips if not injuries. Can negate that with this sort of thing. Not sure it will happen, especially if they want 30m (Maddison might not end up going for much more than that). 'Tino!, there's only two Tino's' chant good to go though?!

Agree entirely. Ginola was a luxury that we couldn't carry at that stage under Sir Bobby and football generally has gone like that now. Even a Man City might not risk a Ginola, Tino, Le-Tissier type now. Substance over style. If you can win with the style that would be perfect though so its a personal interpreation of what 'best' is and whether entertainment overrides practicality. As he's come up I often think that way about N'Zogbia and Milner. N'Zogbia, to me and with us, was the better 'footballer' most ability, style but Milner's attitude was better and look at their careers. Milner would often not look good, horrible shots, crosses but he wouldn't hide the next time.

Some reach that. If only their club had a similiar reach they might have closed the gap to being just under half as good.

Everyone's got to deal with ffp and has a limit. Selling clubs don't hold the cards. Without it there probably would be a bidding war for Maddison. That's gots its pro's and cons. Wonder if the Saudi league keeps going the way it is if ffp is revisited.

The gaps don't look that big now but when nearly every club in the top two divisions is sandwiched between 10k and 30k averages, 4k, 8k and 11k (randomly picked) are pretty significant. Stick an extra 8k (the gap between us and them in 88/89 *despite the heavily boycotted last two games) on our average and we'd have had the fourth highest gate in the country for example.

"comparable" ...

Reminds me of this. Shameful double whammy from Sky.

Used to be tackling too. Harder to tackle if your right footed and someone's slipped in to your left especially chasing back. Used to be a thing where you'd try and expose that.

That's fair enough because of your age you'll have missed Ginola. Himself miles better than Robert for me.

Liverpool and Man City are expanding. We don't want to end up in a cylce started in the 90s with the expensive expansion proving to be too small then having to go for an even more expensive one after that's now too small and requiring another expensive expansion.