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I live here in the Tampa Bay Area and I put this on twitter if any of you care. Sad about Jonathan Rowe he will be out for a while with a foot injury he was walking around in a boot & crutches I asked him how it was and he said “Not good but didn’t have the results back yet” & I asked Tzolis if he was coming back in January and he said likely not. Also congratulated Kenny on his new contract which was announced on the website during the practice and when he came to say hello to the fans and he was like finally it’s been done for a while. It was good times wasn’t organized very well with it being Announced last minute and right before the England usa match and everyone including players wanted to leave pretty quickly to get back over the bridge to Tampa. Btw the heat here is almost like Qatar right now and these players were gasping after only a few mins. I can only imagine how the European teams are feeling over there playing in the heat.

For those that prefer objective data to gut reaction/ prejudice, this suggests KM is 118th out of 443 championship midfielders by their model which is around the top quarter, which sounds about right to me. Last Championship season he was in the top 10%, but was in the bottom 15% in the Premier league last year. Given that he will not require a fee and is seen as "an experienced head" it seems a pretty sensible decision to me. Good championship player who struggles at EPL level. The idea that we should replace all our midfield and only buy premier league standard players is a bit naive. https://footystats.org/players/scotland/kenny-mclean

Even better? Comedy gold, in case you havn't noticed just about everyone who knows about such things accepts we are in a recession, and a recession that is forecast to hit the UK harder than any other top 20 economy except Russia. What is different about the UK? The economy still hasn't recovered its pre Covid levels and living standards haven't recovered from the crash in 2007. Why?

I heard he had 'Smith Out' stitched to his underpants too.

Jesus Christ, I haven't posted on here for about 2 years, although been reading but nothing has forced me out of hiding to post like this utter utter garbage being spoken by the Dark Knight. I actually genuinely can't believe what I'm reading, so I just wanted to pop on to add to the list of people calling you a deluded fool. See you all in another couple of years.

"Billy Gilmour got an assist in the Carabao Cup and that's the reason he'd walk into the England side" It gets funnier and funnier

That makes an assumption I support Labour, I don’t I have always been a Tory voter, however I should stress I will do anything possible to bring my Tory MP down in the next GE. I will support whoever will challenge my MP and hopefully remove her from Westminster. I can find no Labour donors going to prison in that period, however I can see lots of problems around MPs expenses, and at the time supported the jailing of anyone involved. Recently we had hundreds of offences committed by people connected to the Tories and the Tory supporters reckoned the one against Kier Starmer which he was cleared of, was worse than all those 100’s put together, so excuse my scepticism that there is a bit of Trumpism going on here.

Yeah I'm well aware of Brighton and their midfield. Now Caicedo would walk straight into the England side sure. But Gilmour isn't close to him right now. This says it perfectly. Gilmour's glaring weaknesses means he essentially needs the entire midfield built around him and his strengths don't justify doing that. And as @kirku says, this isn't bitterness about his failure here- it is your ludicrous insistence that he'd be walking into the midfield of a World Cup semi finalist and European Championship finalist when he can't even get off the bench for Brighton. There is a massive middle ground between 'Gilmour isn't as bad as some Norwich fans say' (something I'd probably agree with) and 'he'd walk into the England team.'

I have a little bit of a strange obsession with Gregg Wallace. It started when I paused Masterchef years ago and got the (not unusual) stupid expression captured of, I think, John Torode. After catching a second one, I sent a photo to my daughter and now if I see an opportunity to catch an “interesting” shot of Gregg, I’m there. Other friends have joined in if they see a good one. Some of the best from my collection: Nervous Gregg: Egg Gregg: Coy Gregg: Cabbage Gregg:

And Nunez and Sara. No one's saying he's a shoe in. If you read the article where Smith reflects this, the squad have a leadership team that are voted in by the players. McLean is in it. It's a squad game and if he slowly fades to a bench role, or back up left back role over the next two seasons we know what he can deliver when called upon. Makes sense. His replacements could already be at the club. Sara, Nunez, Gibbs and poss Hayden. Oh and the argument that he was only good because he played alongside Skipp? Go home. Shut the door and stand in the corner. I suppose Grant Holt was only good because of Wes Hoolahan. Huckerby because of Adam Drury. Bellamy because of Roberts. Pukki because of Buendia. Footy is all about finding players that work well together. We have always relied upon that more than having a team burgeoning with individual tallent.

It is a skateboard I will take a picture of it when I get home from work. I made it myself

Just want to point out DK hasn’t insulted anyone. I completely disagree with him but look at his post history, one of the most respectful guys on here. Maybe some of the trolls can get back in their box and just agree to disagree. Edit: this doesn’t apply to all replies

Not to mention PLM, Gilmour and Normann! And the thing is that none of these players would have even considered us when we in the championship - getting premier league quality players when you are in the championship is even harder than getting them once you are promoted.

If you want a clear understanding of Billy Gilmour as a complete midfielder, all you have to do is look at the highlights from all of Norwich's games in which he played last season. He features in most of the goals: you can see him jogging back into the shot just as the ball is slammed into the Norwich goal. I don't think they keep reliable stats for positional errors or failing to track your man so claiming that your son wee Billy was statistically our best midfielder is a bit like saying Tim Krul was our best striker because all his shots were on target. Ultimately there's a reason why he isn't getting a game for Brighton. It's possible that he will develop the missing bits of his game, but it's totally absurd to claim that he already has an all round game appropriate to the Premier League. He probably should have gone on loan in League 1 last season and then the Championship this time, otherwise I'm not sure how he'll get the minutes required to actually learn. Oh, an one thing Billy really didn't do for Norwich was 'show for the ball'. And he certainly never turned anyone. He did hit some nice passes into threatening areas, but he didn't really understand Pukki's movement or how to thread a through-ball for him to run on to. It was a monumental mistake for Norwich to think that Gilmour would be up to the required standard. Farke got it reasonably quickly and dropped him. Sadly Dean Smith didn't - like with so many other facets of his tenure - so we were treated to a whole season of watching his shortcomings first hand.

An interesting article. Here is a snippet.

This probably confirms that whilst he may have been good enough for an automatic promotion team 2 and 4 seasons ago...he's not now His performance in this league isnt what it was..coupled by the fact he was alongside Skipp 2 seasons ago We should be looking for an upgrade on a 30 yr old who is on the wain and isnt going to get any better....not handing out 2/3 yr contracts

Equally, anyone would think you were talking about some Champions League midfielder who's been in good form and grabbed 5 goals and 8 assists half way through this season. Instead you're talking about Billy Gilmour who can barely get minutes off the bench for a Brighton side that will likely finish midtable. A Billy Gilmour who Brighton will delightfully allow to go on loan. A Billy Gilmour who has played 13 minutes of football this season. He can't even be trusted as an option to rest their better players. A total of over 2000 Premier League minutes for Chelsea, Norwich and Brighton with a single assist to show for all that passing and awareness.

Bravo to LYB and sonyc, unlucky Purple. 💰🍻 Apples

Walking is about as much as Billy Gilmour can be attributed with in terms of ability. He can probably walk. He wouldn't get anywhere near England's midfield. He's a championship player. John Stones would perform better in midfield than Billy f*cking Gilmour

Can't for the life of me think why you didn't copy and paste the graph from that OECD report. Perhaps you would like to explain? Anyway, to help you and others out here it is:

Oh, and (you may want to look away for this one), Sex Gregg:

Reminder that the 3rd Round of group games starts tomorrow. Round 2 has been difficult so where one picker gains in one game fails back in another so currently @Aggy maintains his lead.

Before Brexit you were more likely to see an immigrant in the consulting room, on the ward, in the operating theatre or in the care home than in the waiting room.

Sorry DK. I have to agree with the BG is not good enough camp, albeit less vehemently. England looked a bit short of ideas vs USA not because we are missing a Billy Gilmour, but because Southgate is pants. While we played very uninspiring football vs USA they hardly dominated us to the point of creating much in the way of golden chances. They were energetic and set up well against a boring Southgate tactical borefest. It’s no different to a non league side taking on a Chris Hughton Norwich side in a cup game.

Unlucky @PurpleCanary; well done @sonyc I really enjoyed that. Thanks again for the invitation, @nutty nigel, and thanks again for all the cracking suggestions to everybody else!

Big limitations in heading the ball during training to prevent brain damage. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-63767548

My marker is whether I think I’d rather retain Cantwell over him. I would and there a few bars lower than that for me 😂

Trolls is a bit much, I agree he's not slagged anyone off, I don't get why he's here but it's a free world. However just like I do in real life if I think someone is talking tripe then they'll be told and usually with a high amount of **** take too. Maybe it's just the type of people I'm used to talking to in public, give it out plenty but also take it too.

Smiths quotes today alongside the previous quotes from Farke kind of underline everything that gets missed about McLean. Hes not rated by a lot of fans. A lot of fans are guilty of not seeing beyond a goal or a crunching tackle and let's be honest, there's plenty on here who have written off players and been horrifically wrong. Hes rated by the players. Having spoken to recent ex players in the past couple years they all start McLean. Other recent footballers like Hucks, Lappin and Eadie have all said the same thing. Ultimately two managers and there several different coaches have all also felt the same way. Not a Premier League player but that's for our recruitment to sort. He can certainly be a Premier League sub / reserve and it wasn't that long ago West Ham were interested.

Integrity my a$$. Yeah who Really cares about him , QPR , Rangers or Wolves.

I just can't

England lost on penalties because Verratti and Jorginho (who missed) had better ball retention than Rice and Phillps? Makes perfect sense.

Thank you TBO66! I have not appeared near the top of the list before. And well done @littleyellowbirdie for your inspired BTTS. For @PurpleCanary I guess that Bristol Rovers are, as they say, concentrating on the league!

3-2 to Ghana. This is such a bonkers World Cup Wales will probably beat England 4-0 and send them packing.

Against Wales it's going to be s total scrap. Or possibly total Crap 🤫🤣

I am sorry to hear about this ladies death, but one of the common things that killed people with covid was blood clots, especially on the lungs. The Pandemic was a harsh thing there were no vaccines or treatments. Now due to trials there are many vaccines and treatments. Anyone that signs up to a trial, especially those where the disease is likely kill you are signing up to the risks, many begged to be put on trials as it was their only chance. You can argue even when the results are in some treatments and vaccines prove far better than others, I suppose a good example of this would be Astra Zeneca against the mRNA vaccines. As much as I love AZ and all what was done, the way forward was the mRNA vaccines, so those that chose that solution were very lucky. Moving forward because of those covid trials, the traditional type vaccines will no longer be used or manufactured, it will be mRNA. The new flu vaccine in trials at present, it is believed would likely wipe out a future pandemic around the flu viruses. It is also known that the cancer vaccines, that were being worked on prior to covid, are now well advanced, however it will take years to prove they definitely work. It is said that Bird flu does not transfer to humans, but is that really true as Pfizer are currently trialing a bird flu vaccine. So in conclusion every death from a trial is so depressing, however the billions these save is immeasurable. Where would we be without things like penasillin and vaccines, still dieing in our 40’s I guess.

Remember him well towering center half with a head of black curly hair £12 a week during the season £10 a week during the summer

Oh dear! Instead of this entirely random guess work you might be better off doing some actual research. The Nuffield Trust (probably the most respected Health research organisation in the country) has just released a report showing that post Brexit 4000 European doctors have been lost from our health service (based on pre-Brexit projections) https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/think-tank-says-there-has-been-a-slowdown-in-european-doctors-working-in-nhs-following-brexit/ar-AA14D0Lq#:~:text=More than 4%2C000 European doctors have opted not,in the NHS in 2021 than predicted pre-Brexit. The typical GP on average cares for around 1800 patients https://profound-answers.com/how-many-patients-does-an-average-gp-have/. The Government has a mandate for 50% of medical students to become GPs https://www.rcgp.org.uk/training-exams/discover-general-practice/medical-students/shaping-general-practice#:~:text=The government’s mandate for 50% of medical school,educate%2C and inspire future members of our profession. So let' s work on the figure that 2000 of the lost 4000 would have become GPs. Now multiply1800 by 2000 and we arrive at the figure of 3,600,000 patients that could have been covered by the EU doctors we have lost because of Brexit. So very obviously yes, immigration is the answer, and would have been the answer if we hadn't lost all those EU doctors from our health service.

Quickest goal update. Canada with 2 minutes puts GMF in pole position. That's going to take some beating!

Nice one Sonyc! 👍💚💛

Stats and tables still to come tomorrow, but congratulations to November's PUP of the month @sonyc 🥇👏🎉🍾 Sonyc 4 4 100% 1.87 TheBaldOne66 4 4 100% 1.27 Kathy 4 4 100% 0.85 PurpleCanary 4 4 100% 0.66 Til1010 4 4 100% 0.64 Parma 4 4 100% 0.22 Hammond1612 4 4 100% 0.17

It really was quite a feat from Webber to spend £20m on Tzolis and Rashica...and roll on 12 months to have neither player or any money for them (except any loan fees)

Lewa was so emotional after that. Scoring in the world cup was one thing he desperately wanted to do in his career and it just hadn't happened. He talked about it in a pre tournament interview. Rough backstory too, His dad was the driving force behind his football development as a kid, and he died when lewa was 16. 635 career goals and to see him get emotional like that was quite something. He's in the top 10 international goalscorers in history now. Level with Pele on 77.

Scenes in the land down under, first world cup win in 4538 days! I heard the women are glowing and the men chundering.