Keegans Export

VAR did look at it, I'm sure they confirmed that on the TNT coverage. They agreed that his arm was in a natural position and the handball was accidental therefore the on-field decision stands. But yeah, if it had gone in off Joelinton's hand the goal would have been ruled out.

I actually think the handball was one of the decisions he got right. Arm in a natural position, doesn't move his hand towards the ball, with the rules as they are that isn't handball. However I think Burn was lucky with his handball and on another day Joelinton could have been booked earlier. On the other hand, I don't disagree with the collision that smashed Gordon's nose not being given but he then gave them a free kick for the exact same thing. Give both or neither. Regullon (I think it was) definitely should have been booked for dissent for arguing about that throw in. It was just a crap refereeing display, not a biased one.

Plenty of threats in the front four and Maddison and Son on the bench. We need to come flying out the traps like, don't want them to think they're still in it after 60min with those two ready to come on.

James Bunce casually scrolling Twitter in his PJs this morning...

What's the going rate for training kit sponsors these days, maybe £10m at the very most? Certainly not comparable to shirt sponsor or kit manufacturer money. Like I say, there are definitely opportunities for us but the high value ones are already signed.

They're signing the Georgian keeper aren't they?

The issue with those projections is that we've already picked the low-hanging fruit with Adidas and Sela. They're the big-ticket items. That uptick from £46m to £64m is impressive, but it's going to be hard enough to find another £18m to match that growth, nevermind an additional £32m to take us to your 2025 projection.

I'm not saying he actually knows anything but don't assume NDAs = nothing leaks out. I've mentioned before that when Craig Hope broke the news about the extension/refurb of the current training ground, NDAs were in place, so they aren't an absolute lock.

You're absolutely right in fairness. In a non-PSR world, we could allow those players to leave the club and replace them with younger, better players. That wouldn't necessarily involve spending hundreds of millions, but making deals such as that CB playing in France we've been linked with.

Aren't Villa in a similar position to us PSR-wise?

He probably is their #1 target in fairness. If I was a club that needed a CF he'd be my #1 target too. Either way, the press isn't going to bully us into dropping our price and whether he gets his head turned or not isn't going to depend on how much coverage it gets.

Isn't theirs built on a reclaimed dock or something? Imagine that complicated things a bit

Almost identical goal scoring record to Schar this season I think

Just a clear indication that PIF are losing interest. Will be staggered if they haven't dumped us and shacked up at Inter by the end of January.

Bad news for Forest, Everton and Leicester then

Maybe thats the plan? Bring Grealish in, he winds up Miggy constantly, Miggy hits 22/23 style purple patch constantly, no need for premium RW signing.

The only thing I thought the "not a red" argument had going for it was that his left ankle buckled which threw him off balance, but looking again this morning I think he might actually roll his ankle because he's aiming to stand on Schar with his left, misses, then has another go with the right. Really surprised to see online that there is any real debate. If it had been the other way round my overriding emotion would have been angry at our player for doing something so stupid in such an important game.

It's amazing. The season before our takeover they finished 2nd. Since then they've spent in the region of £500m (net) and this is what they've got to show for it.

According to this, Chelsea low-balled on their wage offer then Napoli tried to increase their asking price from the Saudi club at the last minute; I suppose by the time the loan deal came about any other potential suitors either couldn't afford him or already had their CF for the season so Napoli just had to take whatever was left on the table.

Well I wasn't going to bother with the pub tomorrow but I guess I'd better get on it

I have two concerns about the belief that "we'd sell out 75-80k etc" Firstly, in the future one of three things will probably happen. Either we'll stay roughly where we are now, always in the discussion for European places but not getting there every year and not challenging for titles, we'll drop off and be more of an upper mid-table side occasionally challenging for Europe or we'll end up consistently in the Champions League places or at least getting European football more often than not. With the first two, I think demand will drop off as the excitement wears off. The third option obviously makes that less likely but you still have the issue of playing Barcelona in a CL QF on the Wednesday then following it up with Ipswich at home. Secondly, there's an issue with using the ballot numbers. At the moment I'd say you're looking at probably 1/3 chance per game at best, maybe even less. But if that suddenly became 4/5? We've got 5 home games in less than a month coming up, if you'd been successful in the ballot for the first three, how likely are you to go for the remaining two? I'm not sure whether I'm making a good point there or not.

Me neither. I'd take a rework or subtle modernisation of the current one, having a club crest based on the city crest is great.

Hasn't he been proven to be full of shit? Pizza Rob that is, not @Dokko...

As I understand it, it runs from 1st July to 30th June.

That's come out of left field, does he have any experience in football?