Abacus

2015-16 I think, with Hull. Like, after getting them relegated in the first place.

I think he and Warnock both have 4 promotions from the championship. Warnock has more promotions overall if you include the lower leagues. It's that sort of stat that makes me worry that we'll hang on to him even if we get relegated.

I have been told that Steve Bruce has the joint highest number of promotions to the top flight, so that's pretty cool.

I am delighted to have Steve Bruce represent us at a big occasion such as this. He is a true ambassador for the club sandwich.

This squad should be well above the relegation places. But this fraud of a 'manager' is lower championship at best, so that's where we'll end up. 9

The buttery fool will be taking the stadium tour right now, praying for a free badge.

Well I for one hope Ronaldo forgets to put his shoe on and then steps in a dog dirt.

I'm excited to see how this turns out.

I think Pickford was a liability yesterday, and not just for the blunder that very nearly gave them a comical deflected goal. He is a good instinctive shot stopper, so can be good at pens, that's true. But he loses his head and every now and again he has the awful distribution skills of Yodel. He's either spanking the ball miles up the pitch to no purpose and giving a decent chance of it coming right back at us, or on at least one occasion making a short pass to the wrong player that played our defence right into trouble. The distribution point is exactly why we brought Dubravka in and suddenly, after I was wondering why we were prioritising a GK when we had the likes of Darlow who is similarly a decent shotstopper, it made sense. Particularly when we seemed to have much more glaring problems. Not saying he is perfect but it became obvious that suddenly we had a keeper that could find a player up the pitch without a 50-50 headed battle, and that's why Rafa has brought him in. Suddenly, you've not quite got an extra sweeper, but you at least have another footballer. And suddenly, the pressure is off the rest just that little bit. Now, a keeper can't just be a shot stopper. I do wonder how long he'll put up with Pickford at club level. The other thing is that he really doesn't command the box, just runs about looking panicked, and that can't give the defence much confidence. Of course it's an unfair comparison, but the likes of a David Seaman would leave their line at a corner or a cross and serenely gather the ball most of the time. They're intimidating in the way Pickford is not and never has been. Whilst it doesn't help that Pickford is no giant and with arms that can barely reach the top of his head, also watching him scurrying about glued to his line unable to catch anything can't fill anyone with confidence in the last few minutes of a game when you just need to hang on and the air raid sirens are going off. Where I do agree with you, however, is that I don't know what better options we have. But Southgate has a few matches now where we have the opportunity to experiment instead of just picking his favourites. And I do think this keeper is a weak link at the top level, so he should.

I think that trying to peer inside the mind of Steve "bin juice" Bruce by guessing his formations is like staring deep into the void. He is so existentially stupid that it can only lead to despair and, ultimately, death.

It's such a weird statement, as it's not really to the fans since none of us expected NUFC to buy anyone anyway. It looks like it's just airing an internal grievance. It's hilariously incompetent! Also, saying Joe Willock 3 times - he must be delighted with that.

Thanks for that link, given that a go - looking forward to reading it

Ah, I see. I think what you're asking is - "who is the biggest Pardew"? And whilst that's the biggest trophy that he might ever have hoped to win in real life, I still feel that he might well lose it but nevertheless have a glorious excuse for not doing so. After all, that makes him the Pardew that he is. So, I vote for John Gregory.

I had so forgotten about that crazy cat!

Bruce has got his buttery fingers on Pardews trophy I'd say. Which is more sexual than I'd like.

Hang on, have we actually forgotten Steve Bruce? Fair play if you can, mind.

Graham Taylor

Peter Reid, and his monkey's heed.

George Graham. Who was actually quite good.

Steve will have clogged up the fax machine with his fat buttery fingers anyway, so no more transfers. Haydn though, I think is underrated. As a purely defensive midfielder sitting in front of defence, he's not bad. The problem is that he has to play alongside Shelvey, who also falls back because he has no athleticism, but he can't tackle either. So him and Haydn occupy the same position, cutting off any link with our front players. It's why St Max drops back into our own half and has to run past half a team instead of just beating one, which you'd back him to do most times. It's also why Haydn goes charging forward out of his depth like a headless chicken - because Shelvey is always drifting around there doing nothing - he's not the link player we need but given the right role, he'd be good. It's a bit like Longstaff again - play to his strengths with a decent coach instead of just throwing players onto the pitch.

How come? That's really not intending that to be an aggressive question, by the way. I know a bit about finance, and due diligence, but when it comes to buying football clubs all logic flies out of the window to me. Couldn't value NUFC or any football club if you paid me, and I've read all our last filed accounts for 4 years. Like, just for fun. Football clubs are the ultimate casino purchase, with so many assumptions that you might as well spin a wheel.

Terrible news, an irrepressible presence on the touchline and a great foil for KK. He'll be a legend here, in fact he already is for me. There's not many folks you don't even know who make such an impression on you. Aww, really wishing the best for him and his family.

I think what happens at the end of September is that it's decided whether the CAT case has the jurisdiction to decide whether the PL has blocked the takeover unfairly purely due to breaking anti-competition law, or else that it's not in their domain to judge it. If they do have that power, then this becomes an external process that the PL can't control, and that's quite a big thing and not just for us, but for others too. I guess that's why people hope the PL might fold at that point. But who knows, really. It's not my area of knowledge.

I hope that the people using it don't know what "mongs" means. It's usually a shortening of mongoloids, often used as an insulting term for people with Downs syndrome. It is in no way acceptable to be used, and still less as an insult. Time for me to leave this place.

Agreed. A more simple question might be; Richard, do you think that giving certain clubs a permanent financial advantage will mean the league will always remain as competitive? If so, despite all logic, then on what basis should those select clubs be chosen? And why are Spurs even there ??