TheBrownBottle

Whelan, above, reasserting his view that there is "no chance" of Wigan's manager, Steve Bruce, taking charge at St James' Park while Ashley is the owner there, said: "I don't think you will ever get Steve going to a club that is run the way Mike Ashley runs it. Ashley has no class whatsoever. The minute he arrived there and turned up in the boardroom in a replica shirt and jeans and pair of trainers, the club was gone.“ Dave Whelan - FA Cup finalist, entrepreneur, soothsayer https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2009/mar/25/wigan-jjb-stadium-dave-whelan

Some parts will be a reduction in racist attitudes in the general population, some parts will be ‘frown power’ and the removal of any sense of social respectability of holding / saying those views. Which is of course the primary whinge of the ‘you can’t say anything these days’ brigade. Every time I’ve pressed someone saying that to tell me what can’t be said, there never seems to be a firm answer. Odd that.

It’s a fucking grotesque argument that mind. Proper business-speak wank. It’s obviously bad for sport for one owner - in this instance, the funding arm of a dictatorship - to own its four most popular clubs.

Very, very little. And what has been said is lacking in any kind of detail. They’re more like silent investors - again, very different from PSG & Man City where it was clear from day one who was running things and where they were aiming. Agreed re the Trust. Arse-kissing fans reps are never a good thing; they’re far too desperate to be close to those running the club. Arms-length is more appropriate

Of course - but that’s not happening in a million years. We couldn’t offer the salary nor immediate guaranteed trophy returns that he’d want for leaving Spurs

We still play it against ‘big’ teams where we don’t expect to dominate on the ball. But we don’t at all against lesser sides, as it is completely ineffective. There’s a more methodical style with pressure building from possession. The games against good sides at the tail end of the season - Arsenal, Spurs, Villa - all illustrate my point re how exposed the defence has looked. We blew Spurs away but conceded a stupid y pressured goal. Villa overrun our midfield and exposed the lack of pace at the back - if you wanted a blueprint for beating us, that was it. Arsenal hit us with sucker punches. A CDM potentially changes that.

We play a pressing game but not the same as what we played first half of the season

We don’t play a high press anymore. We stopped that when we went on that dry patch at the start of the year. After which our defence started to look very exposed and started making schoolboy errors in pretty much every game, leading to conceding daft goals like clockwork. We went from the best defence in the league to an average one. It seems patently obvious to me that if we continue playing the more positive style of the second half of last season (which was more fun to watch) then a genuine defensive midfielder would be a positive.

Me neither. It’s the most uninteresting transfer saga in history. Every year the same shite.

TBF the source being impeccable is difficult to verify when both the source and the poster are anonymous. Though of course if you're right we won't have to wait until next summer to have it confirmed - it will leak shortly if this is the case (as it was with Fun88)

Which is why Shearer is the 5th highest top flight scorer of all time. The 'PL record' stuff is a right old load of bollocks. The fact that only Jimmy Greaves has outscored Shearer post-war is incredible, mind. Kane still has a fair way to go to even break top ten - which would knock Hughie Gallacher out of the top ten list (nee one wants that)

I get the impression that we'll use this window for significant squad strengthening rather than one or two 'marquee' signings. Total guess mind.

I mean, I don’t like them either, but I draw the line at spit roasting them.

Listen love – just a little tip alright? You’re on the edge now and you need to pick the right way. ‘Cause one way’s heaven and the other … well, probably best not to think about that right now, but it’s fucking horrible, yeah?

Hello Sky Blue Sorry to do this, but Roberto DiMatteo beat Milburn's record in 1997 with a goal after 52 seconds (Milburn took a mammoth 55 seconds). Congrats on the win though - you would have spent enough of those intervening years watching failures. Hopefully we'll be winning things with you soon enough

Make that three of us. It isn't an 'assist of the season' - it is easily goal of the season for me. The technique and vision for the pass was simply unbelievable - all coolly finished by a sublime footballer. The notion of 'assists' is a relatively recent one - the greatest World Cup goal of all time is still Carlos Alberto's in 1970 for me - but it isn't because of the finish (which is well taken). Thunderbastards are ten a penny for me - that there are so many of them to choose from tells you that they are more visually spectacular than they are requiring of sublime technique.

No, but it is a reasonable point that some of the more OTT criticism may not be justified - and that if he signed, he might prove himself to be of significantly better quality than the current incumbent of that position. Just as Pope did. Personally, I find the 'elite level players only' stuff a bit odd - one top four finish doesn't mean that we're an elite level club yet, and FFP slows our ability to join that club. Perfectly reasonable for people to think that he isn't much better / is the same as / isn't as good as Longstaff - it is a game of opinions, etc - but I watched what happened to our midfield when Longstaff was out at the end of the season. I think McTominay is a perfectly talented and capable footballer, and would be better than the current competition for Longstaff - which last season was nobody, and next season would at present potentially be Hayden (if he returns). There is a danger we're getting ahead of ourselves and making the perfect the enemy of the good. I don't doubt that in four or five years time, signing a player like McTominay would be a retrograde step and would raise eyebrows and questions - I'm confident we'll be at a much higher level by then. And of course, we might not even be interested in the lad anyway - it is just speculation until something happens. I get the feeling that the rumours may be inaccurate this year, now that we have a full recruitment team onboard.

Yeah, I agree with that. Hollywood saves are often the result of poor positioning - and Dubravka's positioning isn't the greatest. Pope is clearly superior in terms of positioning / angles / decision making, and was when he signed. Dubravka is a mediore top flight keeper - but that made him superior to what we had at the time. He's still an excellent 'number 2' if he is happy to stay, though.

Come on Kaka, we’re ultimately talking about watching a game; an entertainment. A game invented - in its current code - by Victorian schoolboys if we’re getting exact. It is by definition a childish pursuit. It’s meant to be fun - and even if those saying they’d want to see Messi in B&W shirt just once were serious so what? The joy of the game is the happy moments and memories that stay with you. Seeing possibly the greatest player ever play for your club would be one of those things - even if he doesn’t press like Almiron … The childish thing to do IS to treat football so seriously. I was never more serious about football than when I was a kid. As an adult I laugh most of this stuff off.

While I know there will be context and it’s just ‘mad bantz’ but current footballers doing this sort of media is just unprofessional for me. I’m surprised NUFC & WHUFC are ok with them doing it.

Arsenal signed Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus last season from Man City. Unwanted squad players from rivals don't necessarily equal bad signings. Tierney is a really good (if injury prone) LB - and would be an obvious upgrade on what we have already

Yeah, it is a tricky one for me because I think Targett is a canny player and a good personality / of good character. It is just that we're probably not at the point where 100k/pw for a reserve LB is the norm. I'm trying not to be overly critical here, as I like Targett and would be happy for him to be in the squad for the next couple of years (provided he's happy with a squad role). With the increased income next season (and of course in future seasons) everything I've written becomes less of an issue.

He was an excellent loan signing - but I'm not sure 15m + his being one of the highest earners at the club is worth it for a reserve LB. The back five also haven't been the best in the league since the tactical switch in February - we kept three clean sheets in the second half of the league season (final 19 games). They looked pretty vulnerable to me for those last few months - with most matches seeing a goal conceded from a piece of poor defending. Not meant as a criticism of Targett nor of his signing - but you'd be hard pressed to argue for 'value for money' for the first full season.

No need for any watching at all. The takeover has sent Delaney and Panja peculiar tbh - my advice would be to completely ignore them; a couple of plastic 'big club' supporters whining because their own clubs are under additional threat from another club. Delaney said fuck all about the talk of a KSA takeover of Man Utd (and seemed to welcome it), and has been laughably forced to be a bit vocal re the potential Qatari takeover. Panja is an Arsenal fan who hasn't so much as raised a peep about his club playing in a stadium sponsored by a UAE airline nor his team running out wearing 'Visit Rwanda' on their sleeves - a country where Paul Kagame wins almost 100% of the vote on almost 100% of the turnout due to bent elections, having now been in office for nearly quarter of a century (and effectively running the country for 30 years). They can get fucked, as far as I'm concerned - I don't buy their sudden love of human rights. They come across as risible wankers, and a lot of their criticism (like that tiresome drunk cunt Barry Glendenning) comes across as being soaked in regional prejudice. Once the takeover was approved, it was pretty much game over for them - as per Chelsea, you'd need a govt intervention at this point to force a sale of the club. Restriction of trade is usually frowned upon - football is sailing close to the wind already and possibly would find any challenge to its rules and regs being successful. If any club were to challenge them, it could turn football on its head - ask Jean-Marc Bosman.