Howay

I tend to agree, when we bought Townsend we were over a barrel and he used it to get a release clause in there, this time we're in a position of strength where although it would be mint to have him in the side we could definitely get promoted without him. If we get him on a loan with an end of season fee agreed we're in a controlling position, we know he'd rather be here than there as he's rumoured to be pushing for this, so that gives him incentive to play well in order to make us want to make it permanent (not saying he didn't work hard last time but it's always good to have additional incentive), it also locks in a good fee for us if he does perform without much risk if he for some reason flops (or gets a bad injury).

He'd never ffs, they can't even say they have the money to offer him, they'd have to pay off Moyes and owe Brighton compensation on top of any wages that they'd have to offer him but meanwhile they're bringing in Joleon Lescott because they're fucked financially. He's at a club where the fans will be idolizing him should he get them up, has a well knit squad playing good football, is on good terms with the owners and most likely is starting up preparations for transfer targets should they get promoted, why on Earth would he swap that for a club that is the complete and utter dumpster fire that is SAFC? I know their fans have shown a recent tendency to overrate what the PL means but come on man.

Coric was the only one I gave a pay rise too tbh aside from a few players who had emerged as first teamers and they were on youth deals, I sold most the rest of them or they settled down.

There has been a protest going on outside the office of this areas congressman in town for a few days (he's called Leonard Lance). It seems to be over the healthcare stuff but predictably they only kicked off after the congress votes which stripped the things they want kept in, no idea what they hope to accomplish by doing it the lights in his office haven't been on since he was fighting for re-election and I'd never really seen them on in the years before that .

Also what is more American than rap music? is it not a genre of music that originated there ffs? Just say he's a black fella and we don't like them, at least they'd be being honest.

Aye that's what I was getting on my Liverpool save, it's a total fucking nightmare tbh and the game is frustrating as there's nothing you can do.

He was pretty poor tbh, he looked slightly out of shape to me and was so slow on the ball which led to him being caught a few times. Thought we played well and comfortably controlled the game, Shelvey completely changes the side mind as we were able to play 3 youngsters in their debuts and comfortably beat what was largely the starters of a Championship side (it was also almost the exact same 11 we drew with), 3 assists and he looked really up for it. The three young lads all did canny I thought, Barlaser and El-Mhanni were both positive and looked to move the attack forward, similarly Findlay was more positive with his passing and bringing the ball forward than Hanley (although Hanley did a good job overall). Barlaser had a good surging run at one point and probably took the wrong choice when he chose to try and take it into the area himself rather than pass to Gouffran who was open but it's great to see that sort of confidence and positivity, El-Mhanni also put in a canny cross at 1-0 up and Gouffran had a decent chance at it but put it wide. Thought that was Gouffran's best performance in a while and he took his goal well.

Cheers for that HF, got it on now. Early doors still but that Findlay lad seems to be fairly positive with his passing.

I'd have a scout about online if I was you, I got it off some CD key website where they bulk buy product codes from steam and offer them to people and it saved me about $10-15

Aye there's literally no other reason, additional tactical adjustments ffs it's just more time that people will be getting a coffee/beer/pie/duck pizza and wishing the match would hurry up and get back on.

That's it like there are plenty of changes they could make that are things people have complained about for years but they're either not adopting them or have been painfully slow to do so, yet some of their lot come out with ridiculous proposals like what Van Basten is on about. I'm not sure if it's completely serious or if it's a grab for attention/headlines as you never know with anyone connected to FIFA, however we do already know they love to make shite changes to things that aren't broken like the 48 team world cup.

Spot on.

:lol: SEW had him right, what complete and utter fucking bollocks. Was the offside rule not really brought in because defences just sat ridiculously deep? You'd just end up with long ball football, why are they seeking ways to make football 'more entertaining'? It's the most popular sport in the world, how about they pack in paying people money to come up with ridiculous ideas. One thing that would improve football is if FIFA in its current format was scrapped. Orange cards and 4 quarters ffs.

Imagine the plight of the England team (even more so than it is now).

Suppose that would be the compromise really, in that for International friendlies, tournaments and Qualifiers that cause players to be away from their clubs during the season the countries foot the bill (perhaps helped by a pot of the tournament profits). Of course none of that will happen as FIFA currently boast tournaments featuring the best players in the world without really having to pay them and keep a good chunk of the proceeds from them.

It was somewhere around 10m wasn't it? That's staggering tbh. I like the idea of countries paying the players wages while they're away but I think the hard bit about instituting any rule that insists on wages being paid is it's hard on the smaller nations who have high paid stars (like Armenia with Mkhitaryan and Gabon with Aubemeyang), I suppose the world cups make FIFA a boat load of money and it could come out of that but I doubt it's enough to cover all of the Qualification, friendlies, etc leading up to it. It's a weird area really, I definitely think something needs to be done about forcing players to go if they're selected as we mentioned earlier at the very least (not just to AFCoN but all internationals, it was someone like Makelele who either was threatened with a ban or was banned for rejecting a France call up iirc).

Oh aye I absolutely get Tooj's point, I'm just looking at it from the selfish point that it is an inconvenience to the club I support. I also do find that modern football has made International football a bit of an issue in that clubs have to release multi-million pound assets to go and play for another team and still have to pay their wages while they're risking injury, tiredness, etc, obviously that has always been the case but the money involved nowadays is staggering, International friendlies and the AFCoN tournament are even more of an inconvenience than most tournaments due to their timing.

Aye I'm hoping for that in all, I had a feeling that's what they kept referring to in their past but don't know anyone else that watches the show. I really liked the ending to the episode as it was a better look at his nature that you've only really heard rumours of to that point.

To be fair to Vukic being made out of paper mache makes it hard to be agile.

Another good episode of Taboo, Stephen Graham has come onto it now and he's always good money to be an absolute head case on shows.

Agreed, I get that confidence is playing a part (to a degree I still don't think he's anything special) but we've got better and he doesn't look like he's going to emerge as some world beater so what's the point in carrying on playing him? Darlow is only 2 years older than him and is far better and Elliott has already shown he can cut it at the PL level.

Aye it sounds like absolute bollocks and I'm sorry you and the wife are going through it, really hope your appeal goes well.

True, I am more frustrated with the EFL really it's just easier to take it out on Brighton. I do hope we fucking batter Brighton and they miss out on promotion mind.

It's crackers that basically every single attacking highlight for us starts with Shelvey, he really is so integral to this team and it's brilliant that he's back. The pass that led to the pen is a proper reminder of what we've been missing as without him no one else in our side would make that pass tbh.