Howay

I don’t mean to be. I think he’s been solid, dependable, and a good addition in a similar fashion to Burn, I agree with DK that he’s not that Bruno/Trippier type upgrade which is really what I was meaning. I’d be happy if we signed him permanently, but I’d not be disappointed if we didn’t as I don’t think he was first choice in January. I think we’re going to have to get a bit more used to lads who come in and do well but aren’t part of the team going forward, I’ve felt for a while Targett was going to be that and it looks like it’s leaning that way. Imo we won’t be signing Targett, I just don’t understand why they’d delay taking up the option - would have thought it was a nice send off for the squad if a well liked team mate was rewarded. They can’t, we have a £15m option (we paid a £2m fee so £13m left to make it permanent).

Yeah, I think it’s nice to get background on the player for sure, and Diego obviously knows a lot about the player. But we could level all of that or more at Targett, ask most Villa fans about him even prior to us signing him and it wasn’t glowing reports. Targett also has never come close to being capped whereas Lodi is competing against Marcelo for caps, if our scouting team and Howe prefer Lodi I’m more than happy with that tbh. I do think there’s a bit of overrating going on with Targett as well by sections of our support, he was dependable but I personally don’t think he was much better than Krafth post January - he was a late loan signing who come in and was solid, but not spectacular. I’d be happy if we signed him and he started for us but as I say if our team rate Lodi higher, which it seems they do as I think they also tried for him in January before loaning Targett, then fingers crossed we can get him. If this was happening under Ashley I’d be gutted and we could safely assume he was looking for a cheaper stop gap, but with this lot we will be looking to improve.

Because he’s been fed bullshit, or he’s just completely made it up. They added in that £20m or so through the share workaround for FFP which meant we could spend that without any FFP hit, so that meant the £60m amount would have meant we were restricted to £40m for FFP , meanwhile everyone else has been throwing money around like mad. Even Leeds are buying some bloke for 30m from Leipzig without blinking.

Another fucking round of thoughts and prayers will be the result. The same people sending the thoughts and prayers will be the ones opposing even the most minor of restrictions on firearms. Texas as well, so there goes another one of their fucking shit “it wouldn’t happen in a state that doesn’t have gun restrictions as the teachers would just shoot them back” excuse they always fucking use as well. Sickening, tiring, and fucking depressing. You could honestly record the aftermath of prior shootings and play it back - it would be a mirror image of the discussion that will be had on the topic. The sides of the political spectrum aren’t just opposed anymore, there’s a fucking chasm between them and they will just vote against the other side simply to stop them doing anything no matter how much it’s needed. I’m not sure if it was discussed here but there’s a mass shortage of baby formula over here, after fucking ages of people raising the issue it finally was looked at and when Biden tried to put something through every fucking Republican except 9 voted against it. They cited some fucking bullshit about how it was Biden trying to get money into the pockets of FDA employees or some fucking nonsense. Even if it was true so fucking what? It was $26m, just bite the bullet and allow some action in the area - this is literally a month after them acting like they all actually give a fuck about human life to such a degree that there’s no way a fetus should ever be terminated, but now when parents are driving 180 miles scavenging for fucking baby formula you don’t give a shit? Because indirectly giving $26m to some employees is far more important? Fuck off you bunch of fat old pedos. I’m fortunate my daughter is 19 months so is past the age she needed formula, it was fucking soul crushing that when my wife put up that we had ONE single serve bottle of ready made formula on our town Facebook group that she had lots of messages asking if they can have it, and a woman drove across town to pick it up - a single fucking serving man. Between the response to the formula shortage, the inevitable handling of this school shooting, and the anti abortion fucking insanity I’m about ready to move.

To be expected really. Can’t see any possible argument that he deserves it over Howe tbh, but I don’t think anyone can be surprised as they weren’t ever giving it to Howe.

If anyone is wondering he said France is brilliant, he stuck some of his canned battery acid on random shelves in a Carrefour supermarket. He also said he highly recommends their toilets as a washing facility, it’s free (provided you sneak in as security is swapping over so they don’t stop you), and not as dangerous as the ones at the docks, perfect after a month under a local bridge.

William Storey . Honestly makes me laugh everytime I see him and his fucking kite sticking out of a reg Vardy top, with his scraggly beard and sunglasses. There’s actually mackems that want him to takeover their club.

I like Targett, but Lodi is a 24 year old Brazil international with a league winners medal. When we think of how good some of our lesser players look in Howe’s system it’s exciting to think what more talented ones would be like. If our set up prefers him to Targett I trust them tbh. We had/have an option to sign Targett for £13m, I feel like if we were going to exercise it we would have by now.

They’ll be calling it a building process, as Villa have another 9 figure spend. If we want Bissouma we’d get him tbh, Villa won’t compete with us - I know a lot of their fans are going mad that they beat us to Kamara but the reality is we didn’t value him at the price they paid, people can say it’s free but it ends up being an £80m or so deal once you factor in all the player/agent fees plus wages. I’m calm about this window tbh, I think we will go about our business in a methodical way, we will try for a bunch of players like Ekitike and maybe miss out to top sides - but maybe we sign 1-2 like that, then as KD and others point out we get a couple in like Harrison who are in that Burn/Targett mold.

They’re after Suarez too apparently (as Gerrard can’t think for himself), plus Arsenal apparently bidding £90m for Osimhen. I don’t want to hear a fucking word about our spending from the press.

I think honestly it’s his injuries, he’s looked a bit nervous compared to his old self but I think he could recover from that but the main issue I think is he’s only managed about half our games the last two seasons.

That’s the FFP workaround our lot used isn’t it? So it seems Conte has convinced them to back him.

It’s Eddie Howe’s nephew that’s pushing for it apparently. He’s an upgrade but I’d prefer a bigger upgrade given what I’d imagine they’d ask, I have sort of similar feelings as I have about Lingard (although I would prefer Harrison) in that he improves us but given their aims we’d need to improve again in the very short term. Not that I’d be upset if we signed him mind as he’s a threat, but he’s not an exciting link.

Bowen and Tomori as well. About fucking time Tomori got a call up btw, how Tyrone Mings was getting call ups over him is mental.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cd77k1yD2yS/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Almirons against Palace was brilliant, but aye it was Bruno v Southampton for me as well. Just the audacity and ability to pull it off, how clean he hit it despite it being such a difficult thing to pull off, absolutely magic. The Trippier free kick v Everton, or the Bruno last minute winner against Leicester for buzz.

I’m not bothered if he does or doesn’t, if he’s on that amount of money it’s up to him - I just mean I’m tired of hearing all these poor players being called good servants when they’ve been making fucking fortunes compared to what they should have been making, and playing PL football when they should have really been in the Championship.

You’re forgetting they’re everyone’s cup final, and will be the current most massive club in the championship. Therefore they’ll be on TV nonstop like Newcastle were in that division. I agree though, it’s going to be really difficult for them they have a League One squad - even Rotherham who were miles ahead of them will struggle.

It does my head in man. You have Ciaran Clark making £38k a week and refusing to leave despite being unregistered and people going “what a great servant to the club this man is”

He was banging on about Silva being shite in the game and that subbing him off was the turning point, then said Silva was playing like Almiron.

He seems fine, the same way most footballers are. I just don’t think it’s that serious or that Grealish owes him anything, he spent the game against Man City fouling Grealish and then diving (with Grealish doing the diving bit too), so I’m sure it wound Grealish up and they’ve had a laugh after the match about how shit Almiron is (in their opinion) so he’s brought that up when he’s drunk and having a laugh. “Professional” no but I also really don’t get why he has to be? I agree he was being a nob, I found it funny whereas you and Craig didn’t which is fine - I just can’t get my head around our fans on Twitter getting so precious over it. I suppose for me I’m just hitting a bit of a breaking point with all this reverence of our players from everyone on Twitter. Like people posting about how mint Gayle is and that he didn’t get a good chance (despite leading our line for a season and a half in the PL), or saying they’re all good servants, etc.

I think it’s funny tbh. I also find it hilarious that our fans are performing mental gymnastics to defend a bloke that’s shite and been pushing to leave the club since the day he walked in the door. Also one of them goes on to say Miggys mags live rent free in their heads, they smacked us aside 5-0 ffs. Trying to compare Grealish to him is pathetic by this lot too, not even in the same stratosphere of player. The only player at Man City that created more per game than Grealish was De Bruyne (2.5 chances to 2.4), his goals and assists will go up next year whereas Almiron will be playing for a Spanish relegation battler. I know you two weren’t making these points btw, I’m just getting tired of our fans on Twitter being so precious and calling all our players good servants. I can see people thinking it’s harsh on Almiron but Almiron did spend the game against them kicking Grealish all over whenever he got the chance . I also honestly like to see players be a bit more genuine and take the piss out of each other rather than all being boring professional robots who just say every other player is class.

The really do take pictures of the absolute shittest stuff, make up a story about it and then get emotional over it. “Eyyyaaah marras ah wuz walkin my staffy and saw a mackem-wagon, brought a reyyyt tear to my eye just shows how much last weyykend meant, even Callum the staffy had a tear in his eye”.