TheBrownBottle

Definitely, if the imaginary combined XI plays with two CFs. He wouldn't get ahead of Kane, and while he's a superb footballer, I'm not convinced he walks into a position on the flanks.

I'll be watching, but I doubt it will top 'Premier Pashuns' or 'Sunlun til I die' for laugh out loud comedy gold. I still watch both from time to time - age has not diminished the laughter.

He did, but had he sat it he wouldn’t have needed a conviction to fail the test.

MBS didn’t need to be convicted in order to fail the FPP test

You literally can’t give them away due to their wages.

The harsh reality is that no-one outside of Sunderland actually gives a shite. We only notice because of schadenfreude. I don’t actually think that this is a good thing, mind. Particularly for Sky Sports, which owns the broadcast rights to the Football League. This applies double for NE hacks. They should be interested in the Mackems, smoggies, monkey hangers, etc.

It’s incredible how bad a signing the lad has turned out to be. I wonder what would have happened if he had signed for Liverpool instead of us.

As was I

It's all a bit silly, tbh. Grid iron, ice hockey and rugby are all sports where you can get hurt badly playing. This is also the case with football. All a bit daft

Padding and helmets are for wimps, etc

He's still listed on PZ Newco

Ok cheers

Sorry, where are you getting this?

100%. It is the 'watching eleven shirts on a washing line' argument that Tommy Docherty put forward. The standard of football isn't the point - at all.

It's been around for double that time - but I think your point is spot-on. I won't be watching Inter Miami any time soon. I think this is where KSA will miscalculate - the belief it is about 'names'. Since the PL breakaway, only once has a player in England been voted World Player of the Year (in any of its various incarnations) A league only really needs to be watched by locals to be viable tbf.

Targett is a classic beans-on-toast PL LB. I can't imagine getting animated over his presence - he's your solid 6 or 7/10 performer over a season. Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see a Tierney etc at LB - someone who really can cause trouble marauding forward etc. And I can't imagine Targett is with us in the long term (assuming he isn't happy being a bench-warmer - the cited reason he left Villa). But the lad hasn't done owt wrong - certainly not enough to provoke anger

I'm confused, is Targett shite now? I'm convinced he's a decent PL LB tbh, and though I wouldn't grumble about an upgrade at LB, I wouldn't be at all worried going into next season with him and Burn as the options

Known as the 'Gordon-Wilson scale' by sociologists

Makes sense - particularly if genuinely independent businesses start investing in them. I do think it is better for a sport with the pretentions of being the world's game to not have so many resources concentrated in Europe (and South America to an extent) - it would be the best thing for the sport generally if serious investment in Asian (and African) clubs led to a general growth in attendances, interest, commercials etc. There is though the feeling that we've seen this before, too - the US, China etc have in the past (and present) thrown money at the game and signed big names, yet the sport never grew in the way they hoped.

Unsustainable in that the revenue of Al Ahly will never match those outgoings.

David Speedie isn't actually a cunt

He's the opposite of 'quick'

Agreed - RCB is the obvious position to recruit into for me. Botman is an excellent centre half, but he’s very slow for a PL defender. A quick no.5 alongside him would help mop up

The problem is that even if the PL lost ALL of its international TV revenues, it would still have a higher income than any other European league. The domestic TV revenues alone are double that of La Liga or the Bundesliga. And it is unlikely that the PL will go from £5bn+ for each three year cycle to £0. The PL losing its financial dominance of Europe isn’t likely to occur any time soon. What makes events in KSA interesting is that it could have the effect of strengthening Asian football. At the moment, the PL doubles its TV revenues from international broadcasts. If folks in Asia start paying for domestic leagues instead of PL, that could really help support stronger domestic and Asian competitions. Though of course the KSA model is unsustainable - KSA clubs would never have the income to support the crazy wages paid. They would always need propping up - and that can’t be indefinite.

Hang on, I thought ‘average’ PL performance wasn’t good enough? And Tielemans wasn’t even average last year. Can Frimpong play centre mid?