genghis

Baleba at Brighton. He's 20, an absolute colossus, excellent dribbler & passer, and a one man defense & midfield. Only *slight* problem is they'll want more than they got for Caceido I reckon.

F'king hell, kids these days. 75Mb is LIGHTNING if you grew up wfh on 512kbps ISDN

Radio Free Transfer (one for the proper oldies there. So: all of us) ((and goddammit if there isn't space in this forum for a new type of pun))

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FTFY

Surely Xabi revealing his plans for next year didn't change this perception? He's like the SI unit standard for c**t. E.g. Hodgson = 0.7 Keys.

Ah that's horrible, poor lad. Just seen it now, haven't not looked at anything footie related since Friday.

No Conor?

Yeah possibly - I was only putting them there as there was a media narrative (last year especially) that De Zerbi was a perfect coach, and a shoe-in to succeed at City or us next. The 2nd point is important, as moaning about playing twice a week is a bit whingy - you know that's the drill if you get into Europe. 3rd point is the biggest one for me - there never seems to be a plan B for RDZ. There really are times when you put in high crosses for the big man, if only to mess with how the other team sets up.

Your forum expert Brighton-watcher here. De Zerbi Pros: - slightly mad on the touchline (been sent off several times for losing it with linos) - said to the press that "80% of the refs in England aren't competent" (which was quite clever as he didn't call into question the competence of any specific refs) - demands his players have "big balls" and make brave decisions, take risks - happy to use youth, and develops them well - fundamentally attacking mentality; increased goals scored by 50% over Potter, same number of goals conceded. Same pattern at his last 3 clubs. - is overperforming hugely vs budget Cons - never managed a big club with big expectations (not counting Shaktar as one) - complains about schedule when in europe - i.e. playing twice a week giving him no time to prep tactically - might be a one-trick pony tactically: relies on drawing oppo out and then passing through their press centrally and very rapidly. Amazing when it works (especially away) not so great when the opponent sits back in a low block. Brighton have really struggled against low block teams at home. So overall, wouldn't be devastated if he is our next boss, but not seeing that he's a much better bet than Xabi, and worry that he's another manager that can over-achieve at smaller clubs; doesn't often translate to success at bigger ones where expectations and opposition setup are completely different.

Yeah sorry not saying it doesn't stink even for "free". Was more asking the question from the POV of "at what point does everybody agree this is bent?". Cos obviously if they were being paid a £1million a day, by the blokes that own City, I think pretty much everyone might find that a bit hard to swallow, however much they dislike LFC.

If that was true, I'd expect them to do it as part of their salaried employ by PMGOL.

Yep, that's enough. 10% of your annual salary for 1 day's work. Plus of course all the 'extras' around the trip, which speak to Cobs' £1 point.

Simple question: what is the fee at which these UAE freelance reffing contracts start to stink? Assuming the refs are on £200K/year. If each of these trips is worth £20K? £200K £2m? Framing it in this way is the right way to approach it, as it would put the question uppermost in people's minds - how much are they getting paid for this, relative to their normal income? And everything dodgy will follow from that - who gets to go, who picks who gets to go, what tacit quid pro quo might be expected from the employers, what kind of obligation might this set up in mind of those who go?

"Usual Scouser rules apply?" "Yeah - no f**kin way they're getting the first goal"

HMHB?

Ig-f**king-zackly.

This was the stadium screen, c/o Sky

This would be entirely plausible if the VAR message on the screen in the ground hadn't been "checking disallowed goal - offside". So very obviously horsesh*t.

Reversion to the mean. Once a c*nt always a c*nt, no matter if he's occasionally said sound things.

Oh aye, I'm not enthused by the idea of Endo playing at CB, just suspect that's the contingency plan. If we've played Robbo there when we shift to a 3-4-3, I can imagine we'd also put Endo in the backline. It's a terrible idea, but we have previous.

Two things- 1. I think Endo is the CB cover (he's played there) 2. Baj's injury from a relatively small number of games is the kind of thing that can indicate he's not tough enough for long term top flight football. Adductor tears tend to have a high rate of recurrence. Wouldn't want to rely on him until he's shown a long period without injury.

Good old Franky Plates, not been wrong so far this summer has he?

I think it's pretty inevitable that Chelsea will announce their new shirt "sponsor" at the end of the transfer window, it'll be a Saudi company paying them £400m a year, and all their problems will go away.

You missed out 5 steps, each of which has to take at least a week.