TheBrownBottle

He literally stopped as well - which you’re not allowed to do

He fucking stops there as well. They’re meant to have continuous forward movement

VAR ruining football again

There was a FIFA directive before the 2014 WC about this - it’s also why Brazil started wearing those bloody awful white shorts. Not sure if it is still in place but I agree it’s bloody awful

I really like Barnes - but he is one-dimensional. No issue with that for me - he's direct - the lad is always looking to find a position from which to shoot. It is something many players in the modern game lack. Hall and Livramento are for the future - but in the immediate term, I didn't view them as resounding successes. I'm confident they will be. Agreed re Tonali - hopefully in a few years' time we can wax lyrical about the career the lad had on Tyneside after a nightmare start. But as it stands - he's up there.

They don't care about the Premier League. And tbf, given why the PL breakaway happened, it is hard to sympathise with the PL as an institution. It was formed because of the grasping greed of the top clubs, and a bunch of little ones who were happy to jump on the gravy train. Nowts changed

Yep. Hall looked like a dud until the last month or so of the season; I thought Livramento often flattered to deceive, but is young and clearly talented; Barnes is one-dimensional and suffered from injuries (though that one-dimensionality is still an asset - he's the most direct wide player in the squad, so gives another option); Tonali hopefully will work out but didn't pull up any trees when he played - and then ... I'm in agreement though - perhaps all four will have blinding seasons this year. Certainly hope so.

Is that whopper seriously implying that DCL was an Isak replacement??? He was obviously a Wilson replacement. Fuck me.

Not allowing for what looks like some inevitable sales, CB and RW are the two positions in need of obvious strengthening. I wouldn't have been happy starting the season with Almiron, Murphy, Minteh in all honesty. So if at least two of those are gone but at least one quality RW comes in, then I'm perfectly fine with that.

I wouldn't swap Howe for Southgate - but I'd swap their luck in cup draws in a heartbeat

Honestly, the rumours are laughable - Chelsea couldn't pay what we'd want, and we wouldn't need to bring in Isak money to get over the PSR line. Absolute non-starter

I was at a Champions League game in the Nou Camp when Shola scored vs Barcelona. It isn't an ironclad proof of being first rate.

You must know that this isn’t either / or?

City’s current arbitration case wouldn’t have any impact on us in terms of meeting PSR this season

Meanwhile … this is a normal occurrence elsewhere https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/ceqd09exwqqo

Didn’t they sign Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh off the back of good seasons in Holland?

If we need to sell for PSR, then I very much doubt Brighton would insert a sell-on clause. We’re the desperate ones - we’d have no leverage

I’d be surprised if PIF are happy at all re a rules breach. They’ve clearly been keen to play nicely with the rules from day one.

PSR doesn’t ’force’ any club to do anything, regardless of how shite the rules are I’d be amazed if Isak was sold

If we’re £30m in the hole, then buying Barnes didn’t make much of a difference

Still waiting on training ground sponsorship etc …

Downie isn’t the smartest, is he? If you’re say £30m under the FFP requirements, you don’t sell a £100m+ asset to pull yourself back in line. This would be the worst time to sell a player of that value, as you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the amortisation benefits.

Agreed, but it does exist, so we aren't

We're not richer than them - Chelsea, Spurs and Man Utd all have turnovers double ours, have (in Man Utd's and Chelsea's cases) ridiculous track records of success, and are far bigger 'names' at the moment. It would be head-turning to our players for Man Utd or Chelsea to bid for them at the moment. That doesn't mean that they leave, but there isn't an argument that exists that we are bigger than Man Utd or Chelsea

FTFY