Gemmill

Lots of talk from Caulkin of anger from within the club at Man United's behaviour and the way Ashworth has handled himself. I hope they come in to negotiations with a similar "We're Man United, guys" attitude.

Given the geopolitical situation, us finding out that our nuclear deterrent doesn't work can't be great news.

Well I don't think anyone saw this coming....

Have you just murdered him? Cos I can't see it reported anywhere.

"Damn skippity I would. No diggity, no doubt, I would."

More heartbreak for Taylor Swift.

The boy is learning.

Michael Beale has a previously anonymous twitter account from which he has been posting support for..... Michael Beale. Dates all the way back to his time at Rangers, but as recently as last week he was using it to defend Sunderland manager Michael Beale.

Thread.

I don't mind Winter some of the time but he loves playing the clever cunt. Definitely thinks he's a cut above other football journalists, and is absolutely obsessed with the smell of his own farts.

Oof, 29 during Italia 90. Paging @The Fishfor the appropriate adjective to use here.

Still yet to peak sexually.

Aye, if you told me I only had 15 years left I'd feel a bit short changed. 10 or 15 years ago I probably would have thought "Ah he's done alright. Could have been worse."

Tbf to Viduka, there was probably a risk. Him and Kluivert are up there for fattest headed NUFC players of all time.

Unsurprisingly, new shit has come to light on the Post Office scandal. Nothing to hang Badenoch with (yet) but Staunton will be appearing before the Commons Business Committee next week, which is requesting evidence to get to the bottom of the row.

Started Kin last night on iplayer. First episode was alright. Started that Breathless thing about the NHS during COVID too. Obviously I never worked in a hospital but certainly transported you back to that time as we approached lockdown for the first time. You've already got the likes of Bev Turner on twitter rubbishing it and slagging off the doctor that wrote the book on which it's based. We have some genuinely appalling people in the public eye in this country. With decent sized followings.

He was an absolute beast at Italia 90 if my then 14 year old's brain is recalling correctly.

One of the things they measure btw is the last time the player sprinted at full speed. They know every player's top speed and they use the last sprint at top speed as a proxy for full fitness when a player is getting back from an injury. Also I think to spot when someone is not being completely honest about their fitness. I think it proves both physical conditioning but also that the player believes they're back to full fitness. Anyway, back to your stat mocking, you filthy rats!

As I was saying...

The way you lot scoff at data, it can hardly be considered a brag at all. Maybe later when I post it on the PowerBItastic forum.

That last point is a genuine live possibility, that Man United refuse to pay what we deem is an appropriate sum, the bloke sits on gardening leave, and they have to look elsewhere. I don't think it was avoidable that the bloke end up on gardening leave at least for a period of time, but he COULD have done something like said to Staveley etc, "look I'm interested, of course I am, but I understand that I have a contractual situation that needs to be resolved. What about if I take a back seat for a month while formal discussions take place, and if an agreement can't be reached then I'm more than happy to continue with the project here." He's put himself right out on a limb as it stands. I mean he's getting paid £28k a week apparently so it's not any great hardship he's facing. Maybe I just don't understand the level of freedom that sort of situation affords you. From memory, I'm sure the talk at the time was that Brighton were very amenable to our approach because we handled it in a completely professional way, going to them before initiating any contact with Ashworth etc. Contrast that to what's happened here. At the very least Ashworth could have said - "look I'm under contract to NUFC, I want this done properly. Speak to the club first."

I know Newcastle have massively overhauled their approach to what goes on internally with regards to data. Player training loads, data from all training sessions, testing player strength in each leg and trying to address imbalances etc. I know the bloke who built it all for them and he's shown me the dashboards and the attention to detail is insane. He reckoned both Ashworth and Howe were obsessive at least about this side of data. I suppose if Ashworth was mainly looking to identify youth talent, then the stats won't be there to lean on, but aye who knows what went on at Brighton, or how much of what Waugh is saying is accurate, but he has never come across as a Billy bullshitter or someone who will jump to conclusions on things. Waugh definitely makes it clear that Howe had final say on signings.