Howay

So it seems the only evidence really was 3 Wolves players saying he made reference to Saiss as an "arab", "arabic" and/or "Morrocan" with an expletive in there somewhere, not exactly compelling iyam, "In addition the panel said the evidence of the three main witnesses from Wolves was "clearly to be preferred" " it just seems a bit fucking soft to me to ban a bloke for 5 games when the only evidence is 3 players from the opposition saying he did it. Nowt can be done now anyway since Shelvey isn't appealing (I agree with him even if he didn't say what is accused as there's no way they'd overturn it if they were willing to ban him on that sort of evidence), at least it means he's available for Brighton.

I'd have any of the ones rumoured at Newcastle, I'd rather we signed one and then had them bed in the side for 6 month so they were settled when we went up as there's no chance Chelsea would let us sign Loftus-Cheek from them. It would be class to sign one of the CM's mentioned as it'd be one area we'd not be worrying about after promotion.

He's quality like. I can't see us going for him, nor him coming (although stranger things have happened), but he would be fucking quality. The major upside to this is we might be able to convince Delph while teams chase Schneiderlin...

Fully agree, I can't help but feel it's the pull of that Parrish and maybe Jordan (I've no idea of that orange pricks pull anymore) that want English managers. As you say they're a non-entity to us but they're a PL side and to foreign coaches (and people in football in general really, look at Townsend) that's all that matters, they'd get paid a wedge and be in London. It's simply bad ownership tbh, I saw a thing about them on tv a while back which was clearly intended to show how mint they were but they started filming when the wheels were coming off but in it Jordan was essentially saying very similar stuff to the Geordie nation stuff we get pulled to bits for and that's a big reason they went for Pardew and I think it's what keeps them getting British managers: Allardyce, Pardew, Warnock, Pulis, Holloway etc.

Shaka's accent always makes me laugh, the odd word is clearly in a Geordie accent . The thing with Pardew is he's just not a good manager but he has the arrogance of a Mourinho/Guardiola level of manager (he's definitely more obnoxious about it but I'm more meaning in terms of self regard than how he conducts himself), it's fine if you're their level to act like that because you're successful and I think when you're at that level you need to have a lot of self confidence in order to manage players like Messi, De Bruyne, Cole, etc. He's probably a Championship standard manager which is where he'd be if he wasn't English but because he's English he's often given a pass and they have short term memory when it comes to his previous failings (until it suits them to point it out, normally as he's on the verge of sacking). NJS is spot on about how disgraceful it is that the media are pretty much silent in regards to Allardyce just walking back into a PL job after being found to be a corrupt cunt, that is the sort of shite that English managers get away with and is why we were left getting slagged to bits after Pardew left. Look at the squad he had for Southampton and the bloke couldn't get them out of League one Puncheon, Lambert, Jose Fonte, Schneiderlin, Lallana, Michail Antonio, I know they were a lot younger but howay man a half decent manager would get a team with that lot higher than 7th in League one. I've little doubt some daft shites will appoint him as manager soon.

But they don't have the money to pay the fee, or at least that's what their executive said. An £8m fee plus £90k a week for 6 month is a lot of money for a club that has nowt, I'm not convinced Delph would be the sort of target they'd risk going broke for.

Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

He's cost Palace a fucking fortune when you add the compensation they paid us to the contract they've had to pay up on when they've sacked him (no way he walked away). Oh aye also we fucking told you so Palace fans.

They have no money though.

It says a lot about that place that I'm not surprised they're getting onto their high horse over a bloke who has supposedly said something racist despite the fact that in very recent memory they actually chanted 'he shags who he wants' about a bloke who was under trial for sexual conduct with a minor (they can wave the 'innocent until proven guilty' flag all they want that is still seriously fucked up) and had fans who racially abused a players mother to the point he transferred away. I say supposedly as we don't really know what was said, but even if we assume it was horrific they still have no right whatsoever to claim any moral high ground here ffs.

That would be the major sticking point, I think he'd have to take a pay cut to go pretty much anywhere that would take him (unless a team is particularly desperate) but it would probably come down to who paid him the closest to that 90k as he'd probably pretty much walk right into the team of any of the sides rumoured to be after him so that wont be a factor. I wouldn't be opposed to getting a top Championship prospect as Fish mentions but if Delph was a real possibility I'd rather we just signed him as we've already got Hayden as a prospect type player so it'd be nice to have a PL-level player who, at 27, is coming into what should be his peak years.

I'd personally rather 6 months getting back to match fitness in a lower league under a manager like Rafa than playing for Tony Pulis in the PL. I know I'm biased but if he's that short sighted that he can't hack 6 months in a lower league and would rather the status of playing in the PL for an extra 6 month he's daft.

He's a total fucking crank like. This country is mental man, as if the Trump lot weren't riled up enough about everything MTV released a video called "New year's resolutions for white guys" and Lena Dunham said she wishes she had an abortion (she doesn't have a kid or owt, just said she wishes she had had one at one point) it's as if people are fucking trying to rile them up.

Aye, I think he's a decent enough PL player, was never going to make it at Man City and was clearly bought to help tick the English player quota. Between him, Shelvey, and Hayden we'd have great options if Rafa kept it as a CM pairing as well as having the option of playing the three together. Is it a loan rumoured or a buy? I doubt Man City would be asking for much seeing as they only paid 8m for him so surely it'd be in the 4-6m range which would be a brilliant buy.

I like the lad and think he is potentially a good player, I really don't think Rafa likes him in the system he prefers mind and I think we will see him moved on in the near future (provided Rafa stays).

Sounds mint, I know the associates that audit google are there permanently and get a lot of the perks of being a google employee without being smart enough to be a google employee . Very lucky regarding chargeable hours as well, some of the people at my office have a bunch of small clients and they're scrapping for owt they can get to charge. Aye I'm in no rush to move home at the minute, one day I probably will even if it's just for a few years.

I actually came over here, met her and got a degree here. She's on my back about me trying to get a transfer back home as she fancies living in England I remember you mentioning working over here, all tech clients out there I presume? They get to go to work in shorts now out there as the clients were saying they felt like their dads were coming when the auditors turned up

Aye, also for the same company yous were on about. Yeah the level of uncomfort with social situations is definitely higher in tax than audit mind, my group is a bit better for it though.

Fuck you two.

To be fair it would be a bit weird if the FA were consistent since they're a shit show in pretty much every other area.

You can't blame the lad for going back on his prior statement for that amount. The amount I heard quoted for Lavezzi was somewhere between £425k-500k per week so that Tevez amount easily puts him as the highest earner.

Aye it's one of them things where I see where they're coming from, he'll have the money to set his family up from just one contract so it's hard to turn down but they're essentially throwing their competitive career away (the people that oppose that by saying that's a "PL-centrist view can fuck off, the Chinese leagues are not prestigious ffs) and they could still set their family up with the wages they get in Europe if they weren't daft. Maybe he'll regret it one day and wish that he'd stayed in more prestigious leagues until he was older, then again he has won a fair amount and he's going to be absolutely fucking minted now so who knows. I think I understand players like Pelle the most where they're a bit older and were never really top players anyway and they're off earning world class player wages (I saw somewhere that Lavezzi is the highest paid player in the world now if you're going off just club wages and Gyan is on 250k a week). I still think Oscars are going to be real rarities mind and they're going to generally be South Americans and Africans who perhaps value the European leagues less than Europeans do.

Fully agree. It sounds a bit like they were both having a pop and the lad (or someone nearby) took exception to something Shelvey said, he may well have said something racist in which case aye he deserves his ban but as you say unless they come out with the alleged term used it's a bit harsh to deem racist abuse and move on as there's a pretty substantial difference in what could be deemed racist. If the bloke had said something about Shelvey's baldness, an area I'm sure he's fairly sensitive about, then I find it canny hard to get on to the moral high ground about Shelvey having a go back by him something people would class as border line (like the couscous rumour). Of course as I said before he may well have said something we'd all deem racist and in which case fair enough he deserves the ban. Anyway it's typical that the FA really made a mess of this, moving it so late into the season etc, so it would be in keeping with them to have made a decision on little evidence and will quickly move on without clarifying what was supposedly said.

Spot on. It's canny funny when you think at the start of the season we were told how irrelevant we were and that we're not rivals because we're not competing in the PL with them. Despite that here we are not really giving a fuck about them aside from having a bit of a laugh at them, meanwhile the chip on their shoulders regarding us is growing as they've noticed telling us we're a league below them isn't bothering us, and we're actually enjoying the season while they're fucking miserable in theirs. They are also keeping an eye out for teams that are x amount of points off us "wouldn't it be funny if McClaren's Derby overtook the mags".