Aggy

Presumably more examples of “child like squabbles” that used to exist only on the non-football section.

Have you seen the more recent TV series / how did they compare?

Green aarons Malky Klose drury tettey buendia Hoolahan Hucks Holt Pukki

I stopped posting in the main forum after receiving a load of insults for making the completely ludicrous and unreasonable suggestion that the keeper may possibly have been at least partly to blame for a couple of the six goals we conceded against Plymouth last year…

Yes but compensation for terminating the contract would be calculated differently. A transfer fee currently is basically open market value and highest bidder wins (subject to players agreeing terms etc.). And if a club doesn’t want to pay the inflated price tag, the player doesn’t move.

Not sure the guardian article is all that clear. As I understand it, currently if a player unilaterally terminates his contract, both he and his new club would be jointly and severally liable to pay compensation to the old club. The new club would also potentially be liable for sporting sanctions (points deductions etc.) Diarra says that effectively stops new clubs from employing a player who has unilaterally terminated their contract, and is therefore an unfair restriction on trade. The bigger of the two to me seems to be the sporting sanctions. I suspect most players wouldn’t terminate their contract unless the new club would agree to pay the compensation. And as the compensation might be lower than a transfer fee, clubs might be happy to do so. But not if they’re going to get whacked with a points deduction…. Take the points deduction / sporting sanctions out of the equation though, and you would basically no longer have transfer fees as we know them. The selling club wouldn’t be able to set a price or refuse to sell. Players would just unilaterally terminate their contracts and then (probably backed by the new club) pay compensation. Probably though, to avoid litigation and uncertainty, there would still be an element of clubs agreeing the compensation payable (which might mean “transfer fees” aren’t hugely reduced). But it would mean more bargaining power for the buying club and the player in engineering a move (and potentially lower transfer fees?).

I think it was on talksport this weekend that somebody made a point about kompany getting the Bayern job…. If you’re a young ambitious manager, playing Big Sam style hoofball isn’t going to get you a top job, even if you keep your side up. If you fail playing good football, implementing a system but with players who just aren’t good enough, then a bigger club might take a punt that your style will work with their better players.

Can only remember us from the late 90s - we’ve had some pretty good attacking players since then who might dislodge some of that 08 list, but there aren’t many defensive players who would… From players I’ve seen it would be Green, Aarons, Mackay, Klose, Drury, Tettey, Buendia, Hoolahan, Hucks, Pukki, Holt in a 4132. Based on reputation though and looking at the 08 list, Buendia probably gets in above Eadie, and Pukki or Holt above Roberts.

I quite like it. I still wear the 06-08 Flybe one to five a side occasionally and this looks fairly similar. Quite like the keeper’s kit as well. Always used to get keepers kits with padded long sleeves though - that no longer a thing? (Admittedly the last one of those I bought was the grey proton one …)

I’ve always thought this to be a fairly weak argument. If one team (its players or coach etc.) makes mistakes, then it’s fair enough that team loses. That’s the nature of team sports. The ref isn’t a competitor, so it is clearly a lot more unfair to have a supposedly impartial adjudicator making a mistake which ruins a game / tournament for one of the sides. Fair enough, some close calls will go your way, sometimes they won’t. That happens. And usually in those circumstances, the team who suffers could have done better to avoid that situation anyway. But it’s things like the Henry goal that stopped Ireland qualifying for the 2010 World Cup - stopped it going out and pushed it back into play. Completely clear cut, not a fifty fifty challenge that the defender could have executed slightly better, just clear cheating by one side. Should be extremely easy to use technology to avoid that sort of thing. The “only” issue with VAR is that they’re over complicating it.

Agree re Tomori and England. But re bit in bold, Godfrey is 26 and will be 27 during the course of the upcoming season - not really a young prospect anymore.

For a team from the last twenty five years or so that I can remember watching us, full backs are probably the weakest position. Drury the obvious shout at left back and probably Aarons at right back. Edworthy? Helveg mentioned above who I was excited about signing but only 20 games. Lappin? Russ Martin I suppose. Whereas up top you’re struggling to get Earnshaw even on the bench and in midfield you’re probably not starting Maddison.

I’d have Green and Ruddy above A. Gunn. A little too young to properly remember B.Gunn. Holt not in Ashton’s class in terms of ability, but I think would have to at least make the bench in an xi I can remember watching.

What is the point of the rules? My understanding was that originally ffp was brought in to protect clubs from overspending and going into administration. If that’s still the case, then I don’t see that letting them spend as much as they want but making them pay more on top by way of a tax helps very much. If the rules are about “levelling the playing field” then it doesn’t help with that either if it lets clubs spend whatever they want anyway. If it’s about keeping the big boys as the big boys, and even about keeping the top 17 much better than anyone in the championship, then it would probably help do that.

Probably not going to be important in terms of we miss out by 1 goal, but I think goal difference (after a certain number of games) usually gives you an idea of where you’re likely to end up. You can see the existing little “mini-leagues” based on goal difference - and at this stage of the season I think they’re a pretty good indicator. Preston being the only ones really where their points/position is massively different to their GD ranking. I suspect us/ Hull/ Watford/ Sunderland will be finishing 7-10th in no particular order.