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It seems that he wants £400,000 pw to sign another contract. Up from the £300,000 he is presently on. However it means, if he does in fact pay UK taxes, his weekly tax will pay our Prime Ministers salary for a whole year. Do we need any further evidence about how mad the world of PL football has become. Love football, but hate what it’s become.

There is a Frank thread in the non football bit but it's non league Saturday so just for this week it's here. Plenty of good games to choose from. Isthmian League Dereham v Canvey Island. Dereham play some really good football. Thurlow Nunn Premier The Thurlow Nunn is one step below. Our local teams are excellent and are dominating the division, much to the annoyance of our Suffolk friends. Two important games at the top of the table see Gorleston play Long Melford and Wroxham play Newmarket. Mulbarton (pride of Norfolk) are at home to Hadleigh which is essentially Norwich v Ipswich. It got a bit feisty last time. Two more games for your diary, Tuesday 5 April Gorleston v Wroxham in a game that will probably determine who goes up to the Isthmian League Tuesday 12 April is Wroxham v Mulbarton in the Norfolk Senior Cup semi final.

Final 6 pick will be delayed while I go through Purple Canary's suggestions 🤣🤣🤣

Indeed, I know I’m like an old broken record, but having been to St Petersburg and worked with Lukoil I hope that post war things change for the positive for normal everyday Russians too! They don’t deserve this level of a hit nor a suppressive regime like they have! I really hope they can get a political change in place and back towards an open market working the global countries. There’s some really lovely people in Russia, certainly feel sorry for them! My heart goes out to all effected, hopefully a peaceful end can be found and we can all start to rebuild Ukraine! 🇺🇦

Leicester?! **** me, if we'd won the Premier League in the last 5 or 6 years the way they did, I'd still be smiling about it today. What on earth have they got to feel negative about?!

You don't have a spare 200 million every year for quite a long time do you? Asking for a friend ly footy club.

This is how you keep Buendia, keep Pukki, Keep Toney and attract Eriksen. You don’t buy and pay 22 x mediocre players and eat your budget that way. You cling to weapons, spend very occasionally on another if you get the rare chance to add one. You do not cleave to single law of the Medes and the Persians. Parma

Canary Fan Dictionary. "To Jim Smith". Definition: to draw the most pessimistic conclusion possible from a seemingly neutral statement or event and then proceed on the assumption the conclusion is correct.😍

Ok, I think I'm there, luckily I took the afternoon off as I was feeling a bit dicky so I've been able to go through every suggestion thoroughly, looking at the past history of each match, how each club has being doing all season and the recent form-even for @PurpleCanary's picks 🤣 They were all very good suggestions but they couldn't all go in-I've gone for 6 Home wins in games where the home team is top or thereabouts and the away team is down near the bottom-this has given us a selection of some short and mid range odds. My pick is Exeter home and to be honest I'm a bit worried about this-2nd v 22nd shouldn't be anywhere near odds of 3/4 so that's the one I'm most worried about! EXETER HOME-League 2 3/4 WREXHAM HOME-National League 1/12 EMMEN HOME-Netherlands Eerste 1/2 GATESHEAD HOME-National League North 1/4 HAYES & YEADING HOME-Southern Premier League South 1/2 DJK VILZING HOME-Germany Oberliga Bayern North 1/10 Anyway, sending this before I change my mind. Fingers crossed, and hope everyone going to a non-league match this weekend has a great day.

Russia to focus war on eastern Ukraine - Russian army chief The chief of the Russian army says Russia will now focus its main war effort on the "complete liberation" of the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region. The defence ministry said Russia had been considering two options for its "special military operation" - one covering the whole of Ukraine and one focusing on the Donbas. The comments - carried by Russian state news agencies - hinted at a possible downgrading of Russia's war aims. Russian forces have met strong resistance in the north of Ukraine and around Kyiv. Sergey Rudskoy, head of the main operational department of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said 93% of Luhansk oblast and 54% of Donetsk oblast was under Russian control. Russia had destroyed the vast majority of Ukraine's air force and navy, and this marked the successful end of the first phase of the conflict, he added. However, the defence ministry did not rule out storming Ukrainian cities that had been blockaded and said Russia would react immediately to any move to close airspace over Ukraine - something President Zelensky has repeatedly urged. The ministry also said Russia would continue its invasion until targets set by Putin had been achieved, Ria news agency reported, without specifying what the targets were. From the BBC - I think that's called polishing a t u r d but it at least shows some movement in the Russian position about more limited aims. It still won't fly though.

PM calls for P & O boss to resign for breaking the law and being dishonest. Now not that I disagree that he should resign but that brings the words pot kettle and black to mind. Those in greenhouses should not throw stones.

The video he shared was also incredibly pointless. "We've found foreign weapons" is hardly groundbreaking news, given all the public statements of military aid being provided to Ukraine.

If successful you'd be able to Choose Norwich match picks on the weekly thread. You'd have £10 to spread over any number of bets involving the Norwich Match that particular weekend. Winnings go to charity. So for example £1 on Pukki to score or £1 on Norwich to win 2:1. You'd present your selections Friday evening before the match and nutty places the bets. Keeping the overall weekly Pups/Rays thread simple. Everyone chooses a team to win from any global match over the weekend e.g. Fulham to win and someone picks 6 of those and a £10 bet is placed on it. Winnings goes to charity. The other part is the Norwich Match Picks as explained above. All selections must be availabe on bet365 People taking part in any week helps.

I was really referring to him (Hardnut) aligning with Russia just to be opposite to us. He either is more concerned with being contra or has no compassion.

I did see this question on Twitter, but even for £50k a week its surely a no brainer to keep him! £2.5mil to keep a proven quality champs (even lower league prem) player around for another season - yes please.

Those that know will know and were you there ?

LOL I can think of at least 1 poster who might disagree with you there....

Not really, as that would only need one punch. I prefer plenty of spiteful shots in this case, instead of one pinging leveller. 😉 Or, as we say in Germany, "lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als Schrecken ohne Ende". (Better an end to the torture than endless torture).

If you can make the mental image of Gandhi built like Mike Tyson, then pretty much perfect.😀

I have a mental image of Gandhi punching Piers Morgan in the face hundreds of times. Will that do?

Just looking over recent pinkun articles and can’t help feeling like they serve as the propagander arm of Canary State Control Services. Case in point, Olsson interview where it insinuates he doesn’t care about the model but in the article it says about his view on big squads. Nothing to do with paying bigger wages or spending more on better players. This looks like an attempt to wheel out a fairly liked former player to try and simmer down unrest about the criticism of the model. Case 2, Gilmour being lauded as standing out a mile in training. When this actually refers to his time as a toddler at a very poor Rangers at the time. Case 3. Webber being pretty quiet after our recent bilge and unsuccessful appt is glossed over by the brave Everest climbing hero. Case 4, following more dross they wheel out Pinto to remind us that we are his favourite and blah blah blah. I’m not a subscriber so maybe I’m being unfair, but is it too much to ask for an honest and fairly insightful bit of journalism about an issue we are all interested in? Just feels like a total PR machine. says the man using its forum to ask about it 😂 if I don’t post in a while you know they got to me. Tell my wife I love her and i never meant to break the tumble dryer that time Sweary

I think we are all in agreement...😀

Thanks Parma, this is exactly the level of of analysis that I was alluding to in part 2 of my comment. No doubt Roberto Mancini is looking into the depths of his soul thinking about this today.

That is very kind of you Taiwan 🇹🇼…let me have a go at 1. I personally wouldn’t call Mount a ‘weapon’. I would however suggest that he is a coach’s dream, an excellent player. There is a difference. Mount is a player that is something of a holy grail in Italy. Beckham at his peak would have been a fine example too (he was also a weapon as well). Someone who can deliver game-changing moments such as assists and goals, whilst giving nothing away defensively or tactically. It would be true to say that even Buendia - who we loved - was something of a compromise at the top level. He may always be so. He can give the ball away in poor areas, flail with his hands in the air as a decision goes against him - and the action continues around him, without him. Mount (and Beckham) are diligent, tactically aware, defensively sound, can run, tackle, pass and - on top of all of that - add assists and goals. Think of it - as Italians do - as a maths equation: what you get in a player vs what you compromise on. Good Coaches are forever working this equation in their minds, on everything from selection, formation, tactics, purchases, sales, opposition, …plus what they have and what they lack as a collective, a team, a squad…over a whole season (factoring in injury records, what are key positions for the formation, set up and players chosen…et al…et al…). Focusing only on what a player can do - such as lovely Onel - is a luxury only fans can afford. With Mount you don’t really have to do this. He is going to do everything correctly, he will be responsible, he will work hard, he will give nothing away tactically, he will be positionally sound - so the equation vs the opposition is currently at least zero balanced at worst - then he may well make a cute pass, arrive late in the box and score a goal, spot the opportunity to drift into a false 9 position and disrupt the opposition to score or - just by making that move - create the space for someone else to make an assist or score. It is something of a no lose bet. Parma Caveat: no coach worries about an opposition player scoring an incredible goal from 25 yards or similar. These outlier events are factored in and discounted. There is no ‘mistake’ tactically or technically here (mostly)

Probably picking the Final 6 at around 7 pm. Do your worst 🤣🤣🤣

My god, just imagine the horror of the other 4...😱🤣 Apples

Parma, there is an unspoken assumption in your argument. That if we had refused Buendia the move he wanted (and may even have been sort-of promised) he then would have knuckled down and given 100 per cent all season and been the proven difference-making weapon you are talking about. I have no idea, but there is an alternative scenario in which a distinctly p*ssed off player in effect downs tools and is bad for squad morale rather than good for it.

@nutty nigel apologies - I thought I had confirmed last week, yes the 30th is perfect for me, thank you for the chance. For this weekend my pick is a Sheff weds home win v Cheltenham, who I hope are over priced..

Can see Teemu dropping to number 10 next season and playing a shade deeper. As others have said, his link-up play is very good and he could well be our Stiepermann replacement. A front four of Idah, Sargent, Rashica and Pukki would cause a lot of trouble with their workrate, trickiness, size, and strength. Under Farke, we had to slowly keep the ball as if we were without it for long periods, the extra size and power of opposing teams would wear us down, so our keeping hold of it made them run instead. It also put a premium on fast, incisive passes that cut a defence up - Buendia and Vrancic's forte, whilst Cantwell and Stiepermann could also find one. If we're playing with a genuine winger in Rashica, then we need more strength up top to keep the ball up there. That's where Idah and Sargent together come in. I thought those two were looking quite good together as both pose fairly similar problems, although Sargent's workrate is better and Idah looks faster but it did mean we were able to hold the ball up far more often, allowing the team to reorganise or get up the field.

You can also see if you can beat my record of having your selection down the drain on a 1/10 banker failing by 13.30 on Saturday afternoon. 🤦‍♂️🤣 Apples

I agree we should keep him Regarding the style of play that suits him there's an interesting graph of his actual goals vs his expected goals. Basically the blue bits he's playing well and red not so well This season he was underperforming under Farke but overperforming under Smith - presumably the 442 with Idah really suits him

I don't think anyone is alleging. You can't allege the truth. He bought the 2016 election which he went on record as saying he wouldn't win. Trouble is he didn't use his own money. He used the people of the US as collateral.

Blackburn do have a 12 month option like we have on Pukki, so imagine that will be triggered and him then sold for £15m+

Of realistic options for us, Josh Bowler, Jed Wallace, John Swift. Thats about it.

I never look at the league table as for me it is the taking part that counts.

There's a league table? 😉

Nutty, Where do you choose the match from? is it any game played anywhere in the world on a Saturday-Sunday-Monday from either of the following sites? https://www.bet365.com/#/HO/ https://www.williamhill.com Can you focus on favourite Leagues or teams that you know well? Can you you develop a favourite system and study form? Can you just choose a team you fancy will win and post that on the new thread every week? Is it really as simple as that? And any winnings all go to a great charity? https://www.communitysportsfoundation.org.uk Parma

3 days was all it would take,wasn't it Jools?

I hope this helps @SwearyCanary

I was channel hopping and watched about 5 minutes of Dan Wootton at about 9 o'clock tonight, he's not very annoying is he...

I’d take Vrancic back

Several ex-City players. How about a midfield 3 of Johny Howson, Marion Vrancic and Bradley Johnson?

With our business model the money simply isn’t there. Non-renewals of key players - such as Pukki - and fire sales will be upon us again. Only new investment will change this.

Will Pukki want another season in the Chumps? He is reaching the twilight of his career and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if he decided to seek a final payday. And if so, good luck and thanks for everything. Whatever happens, he will be a club legend

Are we being softened up here for a non-renewal of his contract by this being drip fed to the Athletic. Its a one year outlay. Not really acceptable to just let our only proven goalscorer walk away.

The Dykes comment won't raise any eyebrows. It will make anyone who has recently sipped a tea spit it all over their computer or trigger a crisis at Norfolk and Norwich A&E to deal with a sudden spike in patients with split sides. It's a peculiar comparison to select whilst ignoring more recent performances in the Championship. I mean 7 in 27 and 11 in 28 isn't actually massively different, particularly when 2 of Dykes goals were penalties (0 of Pukki's were) and Pukki also played several of those matches out of position wide right. I suspect Dykes was always centre forward. But what's most peculiar is that you ignore their Championship records. 20 goals in 64 games for Dykes can't either tie the shoelaces of 55 goals in 84 games (a goal every 3.2 games compared to a goal every 1.5). He's literally twice as efficient in front of goal in the Championship as Dykes. Dykes. Better than Pukki. That's going to keep me going for a while. Now excuse me whilst I go and find some kitchen roll, I've some tea to mop up.

You paying?

Russia may well be still at war in 2028. Against whom remains to be seen.

look I get where you are coming from but the very fact it has got to the point that players are unhappy and want more when they are already being paid more in a week than many earn in their entire life is a joke and even you have to admit that. Maybe if it was say 300 grand a year then prehaps I could understand but 300 grand a week is ridiculous