TheBrownBottle

All those forward options, yet I bet Southgate still manages to bore every fucker to death with his negative approach

We already did - in 1999 … Tell Saha, Saha, he won’t be home for tea, he’s going to Wembley, tell Saha, Saha Fond memories of that night with a big group of mates going down to Blackburn

I’m going 3-1 Villa. Hope springs eternal though.

Yeah, they were right in the middle of that form that won them the league - they started to fall apart around Easter, but Man Utd didn’t quite have enough to catch them (they would have if Andy Cole had scored any one of about ten chances at West Ham on the last day). That Everton QF is burned into my brain as possibly the most disappointing day following NUFC. We just did not turn up against a shite Everton side who went on to win it.

The point is you talk the talk, but do not walk the walk, vis-a-vis you've not stood behind your post

That 2-1 in 95 was fucking great. Hardest away tie possible after drawing at SJP. It’s the only season I’ve experienced where I was absolutely convinced we’d win the cup - before that shite QF at Goodison.

That Boro finishing above them more often over the past century stat is incredible mind, especially given that Boro have almost a 50:50 split between the top division and the second during that time.

It’s a worldwide FIFA ban, so it would look kind of suss

Tbf the only people who ever claimed we were the world’s richest club were those who literally didn’t know what they were talking about

A combination of a misreading of the PL (and that they’d actually apply proper punishments) and the COVID write-offs getting the clubs used to the idea that a spot of Hollywood accounting would make everything ok. I suspect that there are a few clubs currently bricking it

I’ve had contract clauses stipulating that I can’t take clients with me for six months etc. But it’s hardly the same as my employer holding my registration for several years.

If it was the other way around, we’d already know if it was a record or not. There’d have been a six-month old featured on the front page of the Echo, after its ‘SAFC-obsessed dad’ had carved an amateur tattoo into its forehead stating ‘8 years in a rur’

I wouldn’t argue that. But it’s tiresome reading the Twitter stat brigade using it to build cases for or against players. No issues with someone who actually deals in statistical analysis for a living moonlighting in football

Football has never operated in an open market. It’s why you have transfer fees in the first place - if you move jobs, does your employer have to buy you out of your old contract? I’m not keen at all with football simply throwing off all the rules that allow it to manage its own market. The FFP rules have needed revising for some time, but I’m getting concerned re some of the voices you see in football calling for a lassez-faire approach

The problem remains that football doesn’t naturally lend itself to this sort of detailed data-crunching. It is far too open to interpretation in terms of analysis. Most of it is just Charles Hughes nonsense on steroids, and English football is only just crawling out from under his shadow.

Parklife!

Counting chickens before they’ve hatched isn’t the best idea when it comes to cup football

Exactly. He was Austrian

Other than Birmingham City, I never felt in my danger in that neck of the woods tbh. Went to Villa Park more than Hawthorns or Molineux but none of those three ever felt particularly dicey.

Yep

Liverpool, Arsenal, Man Utd seems to be the popularity sequence over here (Liverpool seem to be the most popular). I also don’t think that there was a cynicism in NUFC’s approach - there isn’t the supporter numbers over here to make serious money off the back of an Australian player signing for a club. I think it was because he was seen as a kid with real potential. Perhaps he’ll still make it - he’s still young. The signs are currently pointing towards ‘not’, though.

Ameobi is an Ashley-era hangover; a yes-man for the previous regime. Fuck knows why he’s still in situ.

I wouldn’t and I doubt the club would either, given UEFA requirements for HG players

Love the heroic pose while holding the People’s Broccoli. Must be related to collective farming

He isn’t at the moment. Who knows in the future, but you wouldn’t put money on him making it atm