Howay

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.

Nah it's fair enough, I rate Krul and think he's our best keeper for sure. You not think Eliot could do a job for us in the Championship if Krul did leave? At least until we got back into the Prem and could attract that level of keeper. I'm not a big fan of Darlow mind but think he's fine as a back up for the Championship.

Mossa Sissoko, I'm sure everyone is thrilled for him.

Agreed, it had slowed to a bit of a crawl until recently.

So Arya v the moody lass in 8, Jon v Ramsey in 9, then everyone against the night king in 10? They're really speeding up the storylines towards the end of this season.

Manchester City are signing Gundogan: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36430721

I didn't recognise the name, he's probably one of the lot Rafa brought in.

This, I think he's our best keeper but Eliott has shown he can be a PL keeper so will be comfortable in the Championship.

Rafa must have almost keeled over on his first day when he was told the players had the day off and had the prior day off as well. I think the greatest advantage we have is we basically have first dibs on any player that's available for the division, we have the greatest pulling power with Rafa and most definitely the largest budget. I'd like to see us bring in players who could grow with the team like Lewis Dunk, that way we can get use out of them after promotion. I'm very interested in who he will target and how much pull he'll have, he might even be able to attract players away from some lower prem sides (one season with Rafa in the championship then PL player with Rafa coaching you, or have Alan Pardew as a manager?).

I think even our worst squad players are upper Championship players, people like Dummett will look very comfortable down there despite being nightmarish at times in the PL. We also saw them after 5 years of coaching from Pardew, Carver, and McClaren, they were greatly improved after just 10 games under Benitez so after 2 months training and bringing in who he wants I think we'll have a very well rounded squad for the division. We also have a very young squad by and large, Mitrovic and Mbemba will be a lot more settled now and have learnt a great deal over the season. Once the confidence is flowing after a few wins we'll be very strong.

Aye pre-season was a farce, that coupled with McClaren giving the players 3 days off a week throughout the season meant we were fucked. I think Rafa will use the pre-season to drill the team defensively, our defence will be immense next season imo (which will make a welcome change) and although our attack struggled in the PL they'll be a lot better in the championship (plus we'll buy some attacking players).