Howay

38 goals in 31 league games is still impressive mind, even when taking the standard of the league into account.

It would be canny funny if he did stay and became a massive club legend (although tbf he probably is already), then they went on to establish themselves as a PL power (I know) and all the posh hangers on to footy would have to sit in the Jamie Vardy lounge and there'd be a statue of him outside the ground. Biggest charva ever as a club legend?

Aye despite his age he had an absolutely ridiculous goal scoring season last season, he'll be a very good focal point in their attack to have Martial and whoever else playing off him.

But Blatter said he'd done nowt wrong!

I can't help but feel Vardy is a bit of a risk, he had a cracking season but it's about his only really good one at 29. I'm not saying he's not capable of scoring double figures again and being worth it because he really is a tidy finisher but I'd just worry about the possibility it was a purple patch in a team that was brimming with confidence. Saying all that 20m isn't a great deal of money for a player nowadays to the top sides and if he gets them 20+ goals as SEW says he'd be worth it, he's also very direct and aggressive in possession which is something Arsenal often lack.

I agree but sadly see him jumping ship, I think Mahrez and Kante will leave at the first opportunity as well. The money will undoubtedly be better at Arsenal but it's also a status thing, their facilities will be nicer, transportation probably fancier, partying in London etc etc. Maybe he'll surprise the pessimists like me and Rayvin here but I see this as similar to when it was Monaco v Porto in the CL final with both squads getting pulled to bits after (particularly Porto). I think with this probably being his last contract it'll be hard for him to resist what will no doubt be over 100k a week.

Aye I thought it was daylight robbery at the time, I think Villa profited from Man City's need for English players (as they did with Delph who is fucking crap). I agree he's a handy player at league level while not doing much and a useless international, I think he's a grafter and likes the physical battles in the league but suffers in Internationals where he's probably told to stick more rigidly to his position and you can't touch anyone without giving a foul away.

He'll always be remembered for THAT goal against Cardiff and THAT celebration afterwards.

I remember years ago when he moved to Villa I had an argument with a Boro fan about Milner, he was claiming Milner was rapid. I kept telling him I'd been a season ticket holder for Milner's whole career at NUFC and he'd regularly beat his man only to be caught up and have to beat him again before he could get his cross in, the lad was having none of it until Milner started getting England games and he was watching the bloke play from the side of a fan. I assume that's why we now have to suffer Milner as a central midfielder type? The bloke is clearly a hard worker and a good professional but he just doesn't do much.

Is Mbemba being better than Kirchoff up for debate like? Kirchoff was so shambolic as a CB they moved him into midfield ffs.

Looked like he was going to be canny when he was young but he actually regressed tbh. The club kept him around to point to and say he was back up but in all honesty he was injured too much to really back any of our defensive positions up, so for that reason it's good he's going as they'll have to actually bring in someone that might make it onto a football pitch. I will say that Taylor is perhaps one of the least intelligent players I've ever seen at NUFC which is an impressive feat. I agree with Alex that Benitez will probably look to make Mbemba and Lascelles the partnership, there's definitely promise in that pairing and a season in the championship with Benitez coaching them will do a good deal for them. Hope to see Colocinni follow Taylor out the door soon and Benitez can start building a squad.

The bloke has had one hell of a career for someone that doesn't really do much. He was fucking hopeless yesterday, at one point he just passed it straight to Nani outside our box which the commentator said "he scuffed his pass back to Smalling a bit there" I'd say so it was about 15 yard off ffs.

So we finally whack in a cross and score, we've got a side of blokes mostly over 6 foot tall and have 1 winger in the squad . This is going to be a fucking shite Euro's like, Rooney will start every game. Shoehorning Rooney into the side meant not only pushing Vardy wide left, but Alli was pushed deeper and made less effective, and when Rooney kept gravitating to up front Kane was pushed wide right, so basically playing that twat means 3 of our form players are pushed into uncomfortable roles.

I'm so glad Milner and Rooney have been shoehorned into this line up at the expense of players being in their natural positions, they've really contributed.

Tactical mastermind Roy in full swing, one of the taller sides in international football and he's trying to have them keep the ball on the deck like our lot are like Spain.

Almost seems a pre-requisite that you have to be a complete and utter cunt to play CB for Portugal (Jose Fonte seems ok mind) Pepe, Carvalho and Bruno Alves ffs what a pack of twats. Utterly grim 1st half that, everyone basically trying to avoid injury.

Portugal playing a high line with the decrepit pairing of Bruno Alves and Carvalho, surely that's screaming for Vardy through the middle? In fact that ball that Rooney couldn't get on the end of probably would have resulted in a chance for Vardy, I'm sure Roy will see all of this and make the necessary tactical adjustments...

Well you have to make sure you can shoehorn Wayne Rooney in somewhere.

I love that he used a quote from Rocky.

You lads have a tense off? Suppose worse stuff happens in bogs. Him flipping his dreadful locks about would have put you off your tense game.

That confirms something I have long feared, he actually rates his hair. For a long time I simply brushed off Tim Krul's brutal hair cuts as part of his unfashionable Dutch upbringing, maybe he simply doesn't care I thought but then I began to worry that like Colocinni he actually thought his utterly nightmarish hair cut looked good. Thanks for the confirmation, he can leave now. I'm glad I've never seen it up close that must have ruined your flying experience.

I wouldn't worry about any test for that relationship, Ashley has signed full control over to Rafa on that issue and if he breaks it Benitez will walk. There's no way Ashley is going to break his word until we're at least back in the Premier League. I don't see a team going over 15-20m (probably not even that high) for Perez, getting back to the PL means 100m+ so there's no chance of Ashley risking that to cash in for 13-18m profit on a player that would fetch a similar fee in a year.

Another speedily built fan theory is Bran is responsible for the mad king , quickly put together on the back of his flashbacks. The idea is he told the mad king to burn them all referring to the walkers and the bloke went mad from the visions of Bran and started burning everyone. I'm not convinced really they're using Jaime's story where the Mad king kept repeating "burn them all" as further evidence but they conveniently leave out the fact he'd ordered Jaime to go and kill Tywin before that meaning he was saying more than just those 3 words. They also went further and reckon Bran is Bran the builder who built the wall and he's been travelling time and becomes able to physically effect the world as he learns, I think that's too convoluted though and if it were true the story would just get bogged down in a shit time traveler story line. The final one I saw was that the Night King is (was?) a Stark and that he's controlling the zombies through some powerful type of warging and that he's going after Bran as he worries Bran might work out how to control/divert his zombie crew.

I think he'll stay, he came out saying he wanted to stay a few week back (before Rafa had committed iirc) along with Mitro and Rafa has full control over who goes in his contract. Normally I'd not put any stock into Ashley being against breaking a clause but it's quite clear he's desperate to keep Rafa for now. 15m isn't worth it, keeping a lad like Perez really helps us with the promotion push as it'd be tough to get a player of his level in the Championship.

Seems like all of this was known ahead of time and organized, didn't know that type of organization was possible.