TheBrownBottle

I’m all for signing good young players, so if the lad comes in this is good news. I’d also be perfectly fine if we bring in two new keepers, and Pope and Dubravka leave. I really like Pope, but his injuries are a concern, and there are of course better out there. Dubravka cost us European football last season as far as I’m concerned.

I agree, though I’d add the permanent signing of Targett to that list (and hopefully Tonali is a hit on his return, though there is still a chance he becomes one of - if not the - worst signings in the club’s history. Though of course hopefully he has many glorious seasons here). But to paraphrase Brian Clough, a successful transfer policy is to get more right than you get wrong. Our hit rate has been well above that.

100%. They make up a serious chunk of my listening on a regular basis. Can’t say that applies to any act from Tyneside tbh. We produced a load of acts that appealed to yuppies - Sting, Bryan Ferry, Mark Knopfler / Dire Straits. I’d rather enjoy my commute to work in silence than listen to any of them.

Yeah, was thinking that too. From the mid-70s on Manchester has far greater sway than anywhere else on British music. Manchester certainly dwarves Liverpool in that regard, Beatles or not.

He could also be 10-20 games away from being a £10m prospect. It’s not exactly nailed on and playing well in Holland doesn’t necessarily translate into world-beater.

Yep. And the Eredivisie is weaker now than it was then.

I always find this type of thinking a bit head-scratching. We’ve literally no idea if Minteh is PL-level, yet we’d get rid of half our squad ahead of him.

I was at the kit launch in 98/99. There was a queue down to the old Gallowgate bus station, with a light show and Ant and Dec playing a human sized game of table foosball under the Gallowgate - me and a couple of mates joined in. If anything it reduced over the years - this launch felt like the late ‘90s again. The materials and manufacturing were always cheap; part of the ‘Toongate’ scandal was Hall and Shepherd taking the piss out of fans paying £40 for shirts which cost £5 to make. There was always a difference between fan and player kits - which is why they were ‘replica shirts’. Personalisation began in ‘92. Completely agree re reducing the gaps between new tops from two years to one.

I’d always assumed we’d bought him for that exact purpose tbh

Never worried me generally tbh - that’s the nature of football. Agree the calling players shit, but buying and selling is part of the game.

Both can be true tbf

Slot being after Minteh would be a red flag if I was a Liverpool fan. Nothing would make me more anxious than a new manager’s first target being someone he’d worked with previously - especially someone completely unproven at the top level. I’m ambivalent about whether the lad stays or not. He was likely bought to be sold - if we made five times what he cost then that’s a cracking return. If he stays, then it’s because Howe wants him, which is good enough for me.

Yep. It’s not a coincidence that the PL is filled with clubs who’ve spent most of their history in the lower leagues. A chunk of England’s historical ‘big’ clubs ply their trade lower down. Your Palaces, Brightons and Bournemouths of the world are just happy to be on the gravy train.

I think they will too - it’s a talented squad. But Southgate is an unbelievably lucky manager.

I like the little flourishes on the ‘s’ in ‘pedos’ It says ‘sure, the torch-wielding mob want you strung by your bollocks from the nearest lamppost, but that doesn’t mean that graffiti can’t have some frivolity’

Their Nike one is through Just Sport - not sure re the adidas one, though they were a PL club when they had adidas so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was direct with adidas. They definitely weren’t one of their ‘elite’ clubs like we are, mind

Sorry to ruin the ending, but a glakey cunt misses a penalty and we go out. Luckily he never had owt to do with England again after that.

Yeah I think that’s spot on. They’ve had Nike and adidas doing their kits and I think they believe that makes them a glamorous outfit - whereas the truth is that the big manufacturers do kits for clubs at all levels these days (adidas and Nike used to only do kits for big clubs). It’s showing them that their kit deals were perfunctory - just another club for the manufacturers.

Everything does now. They’re completely broken

100%. Which requires a good manager or coach to instruct him properly. We don’t have one.

Five mins? The referee is a sadist

It remains a mystery to me how someone hasn’t ripped the skin off their drum and smashed those fucking trumpets into smithereens

As much as I hate that Sheff Wed band who’ve been a fixture at England games for over quarter of a century now, I always laugh when I hear them play that absolute dirge of a national anthem we somehow still have, and a handful of bored punters half-sing along with it.

They should be thinking of the Cod War if they were propa Inglish and beating these

The players have already …