TheBrownBottle

Or maybe transfermarkt is wrong? How does it establish value?

I still find the criticism of Burn odd. Are we that sure the Eddie Howe just can’t see that he has a better left back in his squad than Burn? Or maybe he prefers Burn to Targett for a reason, and he knows a bit more about football team selection than us?

The Geordie dentist was another fake ‘ITK’. Didn’t pick up that BZG was run by a fake sheikh when even a brief perusal of their website & realising that the bloke just shared a similar name to genuine Abu Dhabi royalty would have pointed him that way. They’re all just weird, tiresome wankers. Fuck knows who actually listens to them. The only surprising element is that Wraith clearly has contacts with ex-players.

Vs Halmstads in the 96/97 UEFA Cup Yeah, he could be magic on the ball. Also, agreed re winning PFA PotY at Spurs - Man Utd’s treble team splitting the vote helped that one massively too. We looked like contenders before Ginola joined - at the beginning of 94/95 and the end of 93/94. He joined a side which spluttered across the line into 6th having been top three for most of the season the year before. Also, I would have swapped him for Giggs at the time given the choice. Giggs is one of those players who it is easy to forget just how good they were.

Bit of both for me. Pardew didn’t have a clue how to manage talent, but HBA’s attitude has always been an issue. The lad should have been world class - that he wasn’t is something he takes some responsibility for.

All four months of it. I was at Highbury that night in the LC - he was kicked from pillar to post. Never the same player ever again in B&W. My memories of Ginola must be more selective. Of course I remember him turning Cox inside out vs the Smoggies. There aren’t many ‘Ginola’ games that stand out though as match-winning performances. Both feet were like wands mind.

It possibly isn’t tbf - ‘assists’ being tracked is a relatively recent thing. I can’t pin a year on it (I’m sure the internet hive mind will know) when they started to become a sort of ‘official’ stat. It still feels like it comes from a different sport tbh - the game existed for a century and a half before anyone really started to track and record ‘assists’.

HBA better than Robert? Sacrilege. (I’m also owld enough to have watched Ginola. And I’d have Robert in my XI ahead of him).

Dolly Potter and the Friends of Leazes Park. Sounds like a shit JK Rowling knockoff. They were 100% NIMBYs. The type who write strongly worded letters to the Times about public lapses in moral rectitude.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, of course - but it would be a bastard to build (and might be impossible). As Sima pointed out above, the Metro changing lines at SJP makes it even harder - the simplest solution would be to shut the station either temporarily or permanently while you either rebuild it or grout it.

I laughed, and then I realised that this is more detailed than some of the civils drawings I usually have to estimate from …

Neither was I

I'm from Throckley - the lack of pubs and reliable buses would be a nightmare for a new ground. On the bright side, I can identify entire areas which could be demolished for a new stadium ...

Their tactics were tiresome in the extreme, and they came across as NIMBYs. And canvassing in sunderland was fucking disgraceful. You are right that the plan was to maintain SJP for rugby etc - John Hall's 'sporting club' stuff was still rumbling on.

No, because the offices weren't going to be built on top of the Metro station (see link). Even if they were (they definitely weren't), the office block foundations would be on the building footprint - the stadium foundations would be structural piles underneath the steel columns. The weight distribution would be completely different from that of an office block. The stadium expansion is a civil engineering project; the office blocks an architectural one. The foundations aren't built in the same way even if they were both a level greenfield site. https://heliosrealestate.com/mixed-use-scheme-strawberry-place-newcastle/

I suppose one question would be - do you even need a SJP Metro station? (Can you tell I'm from the west end?)

They talked of it - but that doesn't mean it was possible. You'd need to span the structure over Strawberry Place. Which would mean that the piles would be coming directly through the roof of the current Metro station.

You'd have to do something like that tbf. The stand extension would need huge pile foundations and even their installation could cause substantial damage to the station and line - assuming of course that they are even able to avoid the station at all. Removing the Metro - even temporarily - would make it more feasible, as it could be possible to build across Strawberry Place leaving the road intact (if temporarily closed). The slope at Gallowgate makes it all the more fun

The NIMBYs trawled for signatures in sunderland, too. The cunts. The issue with the Gallowgate remains the same regardless of the funds available to the owners. It is a potentially insurmountable task to extend the Gallowgate to any substantial degree - a civil and structural engineering nightmare. The risks - not only cost-based ones - would be a nightmare. I suspect a move will be the only option for any kind of substantial increase in capacity. The site is a fucking nightmare, basically - blocked by listed building on one side and likely blocked by the Metro station on the other. I can't see how the structure to expand the Gallowgate can be safely built.

He was terrible in the handful of games I saw at the end of the season. Looked disinterested or poor.

Todd Boehly is of the Peter Ridsdale school of football transfer negotiations

Why are you writing in German then?

We also pretty much know what Maddison’s ceiling likely is - he’s in his prime. Maddison is an excellent footballer, but he isn’t an elite one and never will be. No-one would describe him as world class. Szoboszlai‘s ceiling hasn’t been reached, and potentially he could be a genuine world-beater. I wouldn’t be unhappy with either signing, but I know who I would be more excited about.

Oops, forgot about the changes made after Chelsea gamed the system! Yep, five year cap is in place now

Alright keep your wig on. Time will tell who is right