The Fish

My team is stretched out across the country but we have rare meetings that we have to attend in person. At the same time the company have refused to pay for hotels. So now I have to, on occasion, drive 2 hours to Birmingham to have an hour long 'Team Meeting' in the conference room of a shitty office on a shitty trading estate in a shitty part of Birmingham, then drive 2 hours back. Made all the more worthwhile by half the team calling in from the Newbury office.

I didn't see a mention of the stadium name.

I know what he's saying, but what's the ceiling for him? a top half of the table defensive midfielder? Surely, surely there are players out there with a higher ceiling, that're in our price bracket, and would want to come? Like, even if Howe does manage to make him a better player, how much better can he actually get? But, obviously, if he was playing in the J-League and his name was Sakura Mitominai, I'd be all over it.

He even uses modern terminology to back up his argument against it. He's just being a cunt for the sake of it. I mean, I get people pushing back on Trequartista, that kind of makes sense to me. But gegenpressing, low block, half spaces, these all make more sense to me than the reams of monosyllabic grunts you'd need to make the same point.

Sunderland man... If you fill a plot with shit, seed it with shit and water it with shit, you can only expect shit to grow, I guess.

I like this stat. Seen something similar with goal kicks too.

With a name like that, I can't imagine there'd be too many copycat killers.

Could always take some gardening advice from Fred West?

and brass in bin bags

I like that he offers a different type of midfield role than Longstaff and Joelinton do. He drives with the ball more directly than either of them, he's got a better finisha dn more close control too. Longstaff is better sitting a little deeper, doing the defensive work and being the player that arrives late, rather than spearheading an attack. Joelinton is pure physicality, dominant in the challenge, disruptive with his pressing, his control has improved and has an engine that just doesn't stop running. Different round pegs for that round hole ahead of Bruno. Be interesting to see what his ceiling actually is.

I'd definitely wear either of those jumpers, and look good doing it.

Be snappy.

It was irresistible, and I won't apologise.

Be Happy?

Don't worry.

I got the odds from Betfair, not Betfair exchange. So it's the odds worked out by the company, and as such it'll be based on metrics, and of course the monies usually placed on a particular team (e.g. Liverpool and Man Utd have huge amounts put on their games so they stretch the odds a bit more).

You know how it's widley accepted that Brighton are a well run club, Brentford too. I'm sure if De Zerbi fucks up Brighton will already have a short list of replacements. Managers who play a sufficiently similar style, so that the playing staff don't need to be overhauled, the coaches don't have to be replaced wholesale. Why don't more clubs look at their approach and make similar decisions? This appointment is a rush decision, a backwards step. When they appointed Vieira why didn't they have a list of similar coaches in mind should it not work out? If our lot have anything about them, they'll have a list of coaches that can replace Howe, even though he's doing really well. It's just poor planning. Still think they'll stay up though, still think they'll need to replace Hodgson pretty damn quick.

Absolutely, doesn't take a new manager's impact into account, nor like you say injuries and suspensions. It's just one of those "All things being equal this is what we expect"... things.

Only has a year left on his contract, has said he wants to leave, rumours have him around £35m.

There are better defensive midfielders than McTominay, cheaper too. We could get Milinkovic Savic for c£35m, how much would Scotty Boy cost? £50m? More? I know Savic is a couple of years older, but the difference in quality is stark.

Nah, no chance. Too many teams in the mix and Hodgson will very quickly get their defence in shape, rely on Zaha, Eze to score the goals in 1-0 wins.

Probably mean they'll stay up, but it's not a great bit of strategising from their owners. They'll need to replace him next season if they're to kick on, right?

I don't know how it's modelled, but it's not as simple as the wisdom of crowds. They do use performance metrics and the like to inform their decision, then obviously the betting markets will be adjusted to account for bets placed and stuff. fivethirtyeight uses performance metrics to assign a value to each team and then, based on one team's strength vs the others, work out their expected return from the remaining games. Run that simulation many times to get a probability.