The Fish

I work from home and would I fuck tolerate my lad bunking off school. Just makes things immeasurably harder.

You couldn't afford the hip operation.

Just a bit of fun ✅

Deputy for Schar in Tosin, I reckon. Big lad, good in the tackle, good range of passing, not slow (just takes a while to get going). Kelly is versatile and a good squad defender, upgrade on Targett for sure. If we can fill two spots in the squad for (relative) peanuts, that means we can focus the funds on the more expensive areas like RW and CF. I'd still like a better deputy 'keeper who is more comfortable with the ball at his feet (or at least more brave in coming out to sweep up as Pope is) and I still think we need depth at fullback. I also like the fact that it looks like we're doing some business early. Longer to bed them in, longer time on the training ground, better chance of them hitting the ground running. Also means we can focus more intently on deals that are perhaps more complicated to get over the line.

No, he fucking doesn't I'll be having words about his behaviour with Mr and Mrs McGroin when they come in at the next PTC.

Almiron is useful, and that's kind of the problem. He's fast but doesn't time his runs brilliantly, he's decent technically but not great, he can finish but doesn't do it consistently, he harasses opponents well and is busy. But all of that while useful, isn't enough for a team with lofty ambitions. Longstaff, Burn, Krafth, Lascelles, Dubravka, Murphy, Targett are all in the same bracket, for me. That said, I love him, even if he does look like a kid who's never had a bedtime, but if some Saudi club flashes £25-30m for him we should sell. The frustration for me is that while Barnes and Gordon can play on the right, neither are at their most effective there. Minteh looks good, but it's the Dutch league so who knows? I don't think Almiron is the reason we drew the game, the whole attacking unit were off their game and he at least injected some impetus.

What's tripping you up?

In an Athletic piece about Liverpool's hunt for a new wide player.

Ok, that's enough of that. Fingers on lips, bums on seats now. You've all got work you should be doing.

This time.

A mate invited me to his stag in Glasgow. It would have cost me £500 for travel, hotel and "activities", that's before food and drink. For a Stag in Glasgow. I did go to his second stag in Bristol, for 1/2 the price, so I think I made the right choice.

Who's recently announced he's leaving his job and will likely be fleeing to a country without an extradition agreement...

Just typical of top-down thinking. Outmoded ideas that people only work hard when in the office, or that emails= productivity. I'm at my most productive when I'm at home getting on with the fucking job, not sending an email to Mike to see if he fancies a brew in 10 minutes. *disclaimer I'm never particularly productive.

I've been on some corking stag dos to be fair; Oktoberfest in Munich, week in Portuguese villa, European tour of London. Mine was a day at the races, a steak dinner and getting drunk in York (although we were the oldest people in the club, by about 20yrs).

I was sat beside two massive Kiwis on the flight from Singapore to London. For 13 1/2 hours I was pressed against the window like the last commuter squeezed on the Japanese underground.

Same, I'll just wait for it to appear on some "Reaction" channel on youtube.

That's a heck of a spin.

Victims of stalking ✅

I'm not jealous at all.

It's good to see grifters like him and Fox getting sued into bankruptcy, but it's baffling that yet more grifters are lining up behind them despite the warning signs being clear as fucking day.

Back off Paternity Leave now, aren't I?

Took them from 19th to 12th in about 10 games. You can see a downward trend in xGA, and and a nominal upward trend in xG across the season.

He hasn't scored a single goal from what I've arbitrarily deemed a 'Good Chance'. They're all either Penalties or <0.25 xG. Compare that to our top scorer

Ok, so a quick check and 38 of 52 (73%) Man Utd's goals come from chances valued at less than 0.35xG. Given a penalty is valued at 0.79xG I think it's safe to say that 0.35 counts as a half chance or worse. To go further, lets say any chance valued less than 0.1 is No Chance, 0.1-0.39 is a Half Chance, 0.39-0.79 is a Good Chance, and anything better than 0.79 is a Sitter By comparison, here's ours