Howay

He showed signs early on at West Ham but he seems like a right bellend, couldn't have played more than 15-20 games the last 2 seasons because of off the field issues. If HF's theory on Rafa being a disciplinarian is anywhere near correct Morrison wouldn't get near the pitch for us.

Good shout, funnily enough I'd completely forgotten about him. Probably the most similar type of player I can get for reasonable money, my new hope is to mug them right off and get 80m + Odegaard for Coric. Cheers.

Aye I'm going to try but as I've said before I don't want to be rejecting 100m+ bids, it may even be out my hands at that point if the chairman just accepts it. If they sulk enough it can get pretty crap mind, their form significantly dips and they stop turning up for training etc, it can even start to effect other squad members and have them start dropping in morale as well. Coric isn't one of the ones just demanding money, I asked what it would take to convince him to stay, he said a CL win so I chose the option that we'd win it next season which wasn't good enough apparently which is odd as we'd just knocked Real Madrid out of the QF with a 7-3 aggregate win . He was asking for an improved contract as well but he wouldn't negotiate after the CL discussion, the petulant little bitch. There's a chance we could win the CL this season though so maybe if I manage to win that he might chill out.

Aye I've got Kuki away out on loan until the end of the season and he's about ready to step up now, I also bought a Brazilian kid called Evander from Vasco Da Gama for about 15m in January who has been canny everytime I've played him. One of them will probably be the replacement. The issue is Coric's passing is ridiculous, he's always got the most key passes and has 29 assists in 40 games this season, so I don't imagine I'm going to get a like for like.

Yeah seems about the best tact. I'm just whinging because I'm quite liking how my side plays with Coric but know I'm going to have to sell him, I'll be forcing them to break the world record to sign him mind.

I hope they keep him but still get relegated and he does have that rumoured clause that he can walk for fuck all which he promptly exercises and goes to West Ham on a free. Just saw this on BBC: "Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe, 34, would "probably rather be back in London", says his former team-mate Jermaine Jenas after a £6m bid from West Ham is turned down." That'll go down like a wet fart on SMB. I know it's obvious but they'll no doubt be foaming over ex-maggie cunt Jenas saying it.

All 3 are in the CL, they even played each other in it this season. I've always found the game demanded more money from your team and bid lower for your players than they do for each other. So it's probably just that mechanic continuing but I've been pretending it's because I sort of done them over in the deals for Passlack and Mor.

I rarely use that one as I worried it'd just lead down a bad road, I've had some success with the "let's wait until the end of the season" but that's just delaying it. It's pretty annoying that you sometimes get completely cut off at the knees in those chats with the responses and it leads you down a road of responses that you've no chance of it ending in anything but the player being transfer listed.

I like that, I'm now intentionally trying to fuck Dortmund over as they were the ones that unsettled Horn originally, refused to sell Pulisic to me for less than 72m but then let Spurs have him for 35m (they accepted the Spurs bid before rejecting my 40m bid) so that's my pettiness but I might add your bit in too.

I'm just having a whinge really it's not usually this bad, my 2nd season wasn't anything like this and I won the title but for some reason my 3rd season has been a nightmare (I've always found the season after a title win challenging so it could be the game just trying to make it a pain?). I'm refusing to give them the contracts they want and most are moaning but I can't give them the deals they want or the clubs finances will be a mess They've all got 3-4 years on their current deals anyway and they're performing well enough, I'll let you know if there's more issues with them though. I've had my captain talk to most of them and it has worked on occasion but then they usually come back again 2 month later. The best way to handle it is to just make sure you're scouting well so that you have replacements lined up (as Andrew was on about earlier), or have a young replacement already on your books out on loan, I'm in a position where I'm not at all concerned about anyone leaving but it does make building a cohesive team a pain in the arse.

Aye it's very frustrating tbh, I've got 2 players that are unhappy now starting for me as I refused to pay them 10m loyalty bonuses in their new contract (bearing in mind I had already agreed to increase their wages from around 60k to 150k and increased all their other clauses). I think what's doing my head in is just getting the fucking thing after every game, "Coric puts on show for Madrid" etc okay I get it put in a fucking bid then. I'm also a bit frustrated that they still haven't fixed the issue where the computer seems to accept far lesser bids from other computer sides than human controlled teams, they also consistently low ball the fuck out of human players, Arsenal have unsettled Timo Horn by bidding 22m for him with only 14m up front but the blokes valued at 35m and isn't transfer listed. I think it's over the top, I'm having blokes sign a contract and then ask for a new one less than 3 months later (Lozano signed for me in July and was asking for a new deal less than 8 games into the season). 22 out of my squad of 25 have asked for new deals this season, majority of which have asked for fucking ridiculous deals to the point that 6 of them have demanded to be transfer listed (asking for 260k a week when their prior deals were 65k-80k range), Goretzka demanding I improve the midfield despite having constant bids from Man City, PSG, Real Madrid, Barca and Bayern for my midfielders . I've always found contracts to get well out of hand with the quality regens (alot of them also get really good really quick) but this year the players seem to be like that from the start.

Yeah I figured it was, I've no idea what they're like as I'm not on twitter but I can assume some are saying some mental stuff.

Spot on, if Fish's comment is aimed at numpties on twitter etc then that's fine but I really don't see anyone panicking on here tbh. I'm fully confident we'll be going up and Rafa has my full support but he's not some perfect manager and people are going to have complaints here and there I don't think voicing them on a forum is bed wetting or pants pissing, it's simply discussion. I personally hate watching Vernon Anita play and would far rather watch Yedlin, would we get promoted if we played the full season with Anita starting over Yedlin? Aye I'd be fully confident that we would it's just I'd prefer Yedlin and I always get a bit disappointed when I see Anita start over him. The same way a lot of other people really want to see Mitro get more playing time, can we get promoted without playing him? Aye, but there's people that would still like to watch him play because they find him entertaining to watch which at the end of the day is what this is all about for fans. Edit: Also fully agree with DK's comment above mine.

The amount of times players ask for new contracts is fucking absurd, every single player in my first team asked for a new one this season and the majority had signed their current one less than a year ago. Real Madrid are currently fucking over Coric for me as well, after every single game I play I get something about how they watched him play, Marcelo, Ramos, and Ronaldo have all urged him to join them and then I had a convo with him that was pretty much impossible to get out of without him getting transfer listed. I'd be somewhat okay with it but this is the 4th player this has happened with this season and it's just getting a bit tiresome having them all be sulky and miserable. Coric just broke the PL record for assists so I don't fancy selling him at all as it'd be hard to replace him, I'm considering Alli but he doesn't get many assists.

It would be fucking hilarious if Moyes walked when they went down mind.

I wouldn't mind giving Elliot a game to let him carry on his recovery. Sels is a waste of time tbh, very similar age to Darlow and not as good.

Aye he was okay for us in the Championship, I thought he was a Championship level player but he has been okay for them in a shocking side. It could be one of them things where he just happens to look better than the shite around him rather than him actually being that good himself.

That Patrick Van Aanholt is decent as well mind, wouldn't be opposed to us throwing in a bid as they head down. Unless of course Lazaar is being prepped as our Premier League left back.

To be fair when they go down they go into full on miserable cunts mode, "yous still fucking going on about that? it was two days ago ffs, typical mags bringing up the past" I remember a few days after we beat them 4-1 at their hovel I brought up the result to a mackem and he literally said "you still fucking banging on about that" there hadn't even been a game since .

It wouldn't surprise me, bampy as fuck that fan base. He puts up with the mackems mind so surely he'd get over it.

It is a liberty mind, I don't think I've ever had that sort of situation before. I've had stingy people come in but can't remember it being that bad. 55m isn't bad at all like and it sounds like your team is fairly well stocked. I'm in a transition season after my title win, and with a bunch of injuries/upheaval my team is sitting 4th in January, nowt separating 2nd through 6th really though. Spurs sold Kane to Man Utd for 90m and bought Pulisic for 35m, despite him being shite the buggers have won every fucking game besides 1 loss so they're miles ahead. I've just had to sell Coutinho for 75m to PSG, Sakho to Barca for 20m, and Lallana for 4m due to the first two moaning their tits off and Lallana being the wrong side of 30 + barely playing. I'm not bothered about Sakho going, he had been class for me first 2 seasons but for some reason anytime he came in this season my defence was shambolic and fairly solid any time I left him out. Coutinho is a bit of a gutter though, it was at the point where I couldn't keep him as he was asking for mental wages to stay and was sulking, I also try and be somewhat realistic in accepting mental bids for people even though the computer are fairly unrealistic with their demands from human players (as evidenced by me having 45m bids for Pulisic turned down and 71m demanded before they accepted 35m from Spurs...). I bought Leon Bailey early on and he has slotted into Coutinho's position on the left wing fairly well but he's nowhere near the threat Coutinho was.

Was just about to post this after reading your theory. Really hoping it is the last time we see him play. I agree with the Fish's post about Mitro, no problem with Gayle starting as he has been doing a cracking job but Mitro has done enough with the time he has had to deserve decent playing time especially in games when a chance of pace might be good. Murphy did nowt but has basically never played and is extremely limited anyway so I can't complain about him but it means Mitro should at least be on the bench. Maybe HF is right and he's acting the arse in training or Rafa is trying to spark a reaction from him but it's canny hard for the lad to do anything if he's never getting on the pitch. Either way I'm not particularly worried about it I just like Mitro and think he has potential to be a canny Premier League forward (8 goals in his first season points to that) so worry there is a clash between him and Rafa and we're going to lose him.

Valencia is away out on loan, the rest are either shite or aren't being anywhere near as effective. I get your point that there's zero competition at the mackems and he would at least have some competition at West Ham but I don't think that will bother him as long as he gets games and gets a good wage, he may even prefer getting the odd game off rather than playing every single game at this age. Does he have problems with the dildo twins or something? I try not to pay much attention to West Ham as they're a total bunch of cunts. Even if he does I can't see it being enough of a problem to stop him jumping at the chance to retire back in London with a PL side. Regardless I don't see Sunderland selling him for all the reasons ewerk mentioned.

He'd be their main man up top I reckon, their top scorer is Antonio and top scoring striker is Carroll with 2 goals (if you count Lazini as an attacking mid/winger rather than striker, he has 3) so it's not like their current crop of forwards are doing much.

I can't see the mackems selling him, he's their only hope of staying up tbh. People are saying the 10m range and we're being quoted 15m for Scott Hogan so even if they were able to spend the full fee on a replacement (doubtful) it'd be nigh on impossible for them to replace his goal threat for that sort of money, ignoring the fee their history of buying strikers outside of Defoe is pretty fucking shite. West Ham would absolutely pay his wages mind, they're desperate as fuck (as evidenced by the fact they're apparently bidding for Defoe) and have a history of paying high wages for people. He'd jump at the chance imo, even if they come in at a little below his current wage, he'd get the chance to retire playing in London and spend a few more years playing PL football there.