TheBrownBottle

That’s true, but it doesn’t make the knackers doing it any less embarrassing. Most of them are grown adults, too. There must be a way to write an autoblock algorythym for sad cases who do this

I think the only people I’ve ever referred to as ‘daft cunt’ have been mates…

We had the proposed plans in my old office. They were unworkable as the piling required for the extension to build over Strawberry Place would have been problematic in terms of the Metro line and station below. It would have cost a lot more than 50m if it had been workable. Today, again if workable, you’re talking 150m+. Less than a new stadium, certainly - but again, you’re talking about drilled concrete piles to a depth of as much as 30m+ (as estimated at the time). Not sure how you achieve that without the Metro Station and line potentially looking like ‘Kerplunk’. (I’m a civils quantity surveyor during the day)

The Amsterdam Arena has a road running under. The problem at SJP is the Metro line underneath - this makes it a civil engineering nightmare. I don't think extending the Gallowgate is likely; it definitely wouldn't be worth it from a cost perspective.

I'm all for safe standing, but I don't think it will increase the capacity by much, and potentially not at all - you'd still need a seat and a rail.

I think ‘confirm’ is a better fit than ‘admit’ in that sentence. There’s no guilt involved. Still, the brass neck on the cunt. Almost admirable to be that delusional. https://mobile.twitter.com/ChrisDHWaugh/status/1542167753070678017?cxt=HHwWgsC4ndLZ8OYqAAAA

And if this wasn't Spain ... your arse would be well and truly nicked

Championship (Football) Manager used to assign 5 and 4 to CB. Always mildly irritating to have to swap them round to the (correct) 6 & 5. I love traditional numbers, especially given that the sequence is a hangover from the 2-3-5 formation that all teams played for half a century - the fact that with the switches to W-M and 4-4-2 no-one said 'hey, maybe we should amend the numbering to reflect the new formations'. Nah; 2, 5, 6, 3; 7, 8, 4, 11; 9, 10 it is.

They'd happily finish 16th every year, as long as we were 17th. And that doesn't necessarily mean in the PL either. They've no interest in being the best they can be; they just want to be less shit than us. Ashley's reign gave them a few opportunities to do this, so they now think that somehow that is a normal state of affairs - the problem is, we were being hobbled by Ashley, and they were being propped up by a sugardaddy in Short. Normal service has resumed

I think being a young’un now would be great, but I’m sure as shit glad we didn’t have easily available recording facilities and social media when I was one. Fuck knows what embarrassing shite me and my mates would have posted. Mind you, the only NUFC signing I ever remember going to the ground for was Shearer’s - and that was organised fun with the Flashing Blade and the Flashing Bladettes (DJ Alan Robson for those lucky enough not to know). I wouldn’t have spent a weekday morning sat outside the ground waiting for a highly rated ‘one for the future’ centre-half.

Yep. Still find it incredible that these parasites somehow managed to get the clubs to pay them, rather than the players pay them.

That also involves getting a shitload of sponsorship money, which to date hasn’t been the case.

I’d be amazed if we went for another CB for now. Botman, Burn, Schar - we’ve signed Dummett for another year, which means only keeping one from Lascelles or Fernandez.

Wasn’t one of our first signings one of Liverpool’s data gadgies?

Christ, the defenders Milan had from the late ‘80s to late ‘90s (and on tbf). Tassotti, Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini is surely the greatest back line in football history - Tassotti and Costacurta were superb players, and Baresi and Maldini will always be in ‘greatest defenders ever’ conversations. To think they had the likes of Panucci and Galli as back-ups in the side that won the 1994 European Cup - Jesus wept. I can’t separate them from Barcelona’s late ‘00s-early ‘10s side as the greatest club teams in history.

And the agent has caused us to (correctly) pull out. Honestly, this one is for the best for me.

Hopefully he'll realise at some point that the reason the likes of Messi and C Ronaldo don't try and beat twenty players every fucking time (even though there is a good chance they could) is because there is usually a pass which is on which would stretch the opposition defence quicker and more effectively. And yes, they obviously aren't trying to find Chris Wood - but the point remains; beating players is the usual recourse when better options are not available. Johann Cruyff always talked about good footballers playing with their heads up; they don't need to constantly look at the ball, they're looking for options. The easiest, quickest and most effective way to beat a man is to pass the ball past him. If the lad would learn to look, he'd improve rapidly. What gives me hope is I thought you could see a bit of that in the last four or five games of the season. Nothing would make me happier than Howe and the coaches improving this side of his game. If they do, he could be with us for years. If not, he'll be gone quickly.

“I want to moonwalk son, but life’s a shithouse”

I’d stick that on the trip advisor site for Sunderland. This type of honesty is missing from most travel reviews I think - Judith Chalmers take note

Watching Adam Pearson talking about Newcastle directly down the camera is like being trapped on the bus to an away game with the weird cunt who no-one wants to sit next to, who proceeds to talk at you incessantly about the third choice fullback, all while you’re just wanting to sleep off a hangover before getting back on the sauce.

Agreed - though I have to say I'm entertained by the rumours being put out by Ekitike's agent (who I'm not convinced is very good at his or her job). Real Madrid are the latest 'interested' in him. Funny how none of these clubs are actually willing to bid on a player they're all desperate to sign who has a contract offer on the table which he could sign any minute. It's not even subtle at this point. Even if the lad signs, we're going to have fun with his knacker agent. Reminds me of Anelka more than anything - though by the same age Anelka was a full French international and had won the double at Arsenal, so I'm definitely talking about the knacker agent rather than conspicuous talent.

What's even more astonishing is the fact that most of them will have watched as many minutes of NUFC last season as us, and are still willfully blind to the obvious. You know that hoping we lose if far more important than 'the lads' winning

And if true, it would explain why there was lots of noise and then no noise. We're going to get a lot of that for the next couple of years - plenty won't be interested. I'm just happy that we're even looking at players of Diaby's quality - and not all of them will say 'no'

RW and a CB look like huge priorities to me. It is hard to imagine a RW coming in who wouldn't be an improvement over Almiron or Fraser.