The Fish

It's not about 'want', you goober, it's about looking at what we've got and being realistic about where we can make moves, to make money. Who are our most valuable, least integral players? Just like your beau, Saint-Maximin, these two represent players who are not guaranteed starters, but who can command a decent fee. Murphy is a great pro and works hard, but he's limited in terms of quality and we could still get ~£15m for him, Willock is great and in an ideal world we'd keep him, however he plays in a position we're strong in and could command a fee upwards of £35m. That's £50m (plus their wages) to increase our ability to strengthen without breaking FFP rules. Due to years of neglect by Ashley we have little to no valuable depth in the squad. So players like Ritchie, Dummett, Hayden, Hendrick will get fuck all in terms of a fee but are eating up wages. At least the first two in that list are 'good characters to have around the dressing room' and won't mind not playing, and all that. I'd much rather we sack off those 4 entirely and spend whatever we like on replacements, but we can't, so we have to be clever and we have to be ruthless.

Don't go giving random people moderator badges, this board would lose it's fucking mind.

Just what, in the blue hell, is your problem now?

Doesn't seem to be a concern if you play in blue either, mind.

I think he means Szoboszlai and if I've spelled his name right without Googling, you all owe me a blow job.

If breaking FFP rules was purely a financial concern I'd happily spend a fortune and smash it to bits, but a points deduction is not something we can afford to be messing around with. Thanks to Chelsea we can't sign players on prison contracts either. What we need is a stock of saleable assets whose value has been fluffed by virtue of playing for a club that's performing well. Had it not been for the injuries I'm sure players like Dubravka, Murphy, Willock, Lascelles, Targett would be considered for sales and their values would have been higher at the end of last season than they are now. Sell them for anywhere between £5 and £35m, get their wages off the books and replace them with real quality. I read that Italy has changed their tax break law so Serie A clubs can't offer the same wages that they once could, meaning players may be thinking of leaving Europe's boot and there'll be players who were on their way who may be thinking twice. The Saudi project doesn't seem to be working out how they expected, so there may be players there we could sign too. I dunno, January is a very difficult window and we can expect no favours from Premier League clubs. I'd expect another domestic loan, and a couple of players from the continent be they on loan or permanent. There are 2-3 holes in the squad that are a priority.; DM and FW definitely, and RW maybe?

Ashington is gruesome enough as it is, but this?

Iwm am exshewwend dwivuh

Any gardening leave, or straight back into it?

Centre Parcs aside, this is eerily similar.

I hadn't heard of this. I wish I hadn't googled. Fucking hell.

I put up with a lot of shit, but comparing me to Steve twatting Wraith is a bridge too far.

I don't think any of them were.

Makes sense to have people representing different parts of the fan base on the fan representative board, doesn't it? There should be fans that've been going for decades and fans that are new to the whole thing. Also, I'd take three of her over one Steve Wraith. None of it really matters, it's all lip service anyway. These owners, just like any other owner, will do what helps the 'brand', do what makes the monies.

All this could be resolved if we had a 3rd striker on our books. Surprised nobody has thought of this before.

I really like this new discovery of theirs. Context, I think they call it. I wish we had it back when they beat us, y'know before they swandived out of the footballing spotlight. Back then the only thing that mattered was the result, not the bigger picture. End of the day the only reasons we won were; PR gaffes, the flag display being underfunded because it's the Christmas period, the flag display group pocketing the money and then fucking off to Benidorm, and of course our owners paying off the refs and their players to gift the win to our more expensively assembled team of better players.

Aquaman is shite. Most of the DC films are bobbins, to be fair.

To get that return when he's no fully fit, and he's playing in a side that's not playing well (or fully fit themselves) is remarkable. I can't wait for us to have the likes of Barnes, Tonali, Willock and Wilson, back. Not just so he's not ploughing a lone furrow up front, but so he can't get a bit of a break as well. He's so fucking calm under pressure it's unnatural.

He should leave it to the pros.

Any news on his injury? If it was an injury.

I was nervous as fuck before the match. Shit away from home this season, loads of players still missing, most of the rest are walking wounded, poor run of form. Expected a hostile atmosphere, blood and thunder tackles, injuries to our lads, or Bruno/Joe getting too wound up and getting sent off. Instead they rolled out the black and white carpet, couldn't compete physically and didn't get a rise out of our lot with their fouls. Longstaff had a few chances to put it away early, but as the first half went on it just got more and more comfortable, as soon as the second went in I could really begin to actually enjoy it. Thoroughly professional performance against a pretty average Championship side, no serious injuries or suspensions, 3 goals, none conceded. The mess they've made of this, their biggest game for ages, is hilarious. The Black Cat Bar, their ticketing, their 'display', the derisible pruhtests that were sharp abandoned, fighting amongst themselves in the stands, apparently free drinks for us, our photo on the pitch. Lovely stuff all round. Not one of their players look ready for the Premier League, they didn't look close to us and most of our lot are running on fumes. If that's the team that the 'model' has produced it's time to bin the model and try something else. I thought they would at least make a game of it, but honestly we could have been playing (quick Google of middling Championship teams) Cardiff.

If only it did.