The9

I see. Even though Allardyce didn't break any rules and was not in breach of the contract the FA gave him by doing so?

It's just incredibly lazy journalism, ignore it.

No, what we do is hold onto players until we've guaranteed replacements we're satisfied with - it's why the Alderweireld loan-to-buy hijack left us scrambling for a while, because he was clearly part of the longer-term plan.

May as well put it on here - I think we'll sign a Fonte replacement this summer (which will cause a meltdown with everyone thinking we're selling Van Dijk), and then we'll sell Van Dijk summer of 2018. We haven't just hoiked his wages up and given him a 6 year deal just to let him go with 5 years left, but we won't allow both Fonte and Van Dijk to leave a gap at the same time, it doesn't give us the continuity we need.

I wouldn't be surprised, given the obvious approach not to cross in the air into the box that we adopted in the opening match - it has to be part of the system somehow. As I was saying at the time, you still need to cross in the air sometimes just to keep the defence thinking they will need to defend it... but we basically have a short team by Prem standards, only Forster and Van Dijk are particularly tall, and unless you've got more than 2 tall outfielders the opposition has always got enough tall defenders to deal with it. Man U murdered us in the air without needing to be decent on the floor, for instance.

We'll be resting Fonte for that one, like we have for every other EL game. For the cynics suggesting its so he isn't cup-tied for Europe, you can actually play in the Group stages for one team and the knockouts for another (though I can't remember if it has to be the other competition or not).

A bit naïve given that the club announced Leicester would move again pending the EFL Cup result even as they announced it was being moved to the Monday.

As a long-time M4-user, I'd go M4 westbound to Reading J11, then cross country to Basingstoke via A33, Ringway on outskirts of Basingstoke to M3. There's also the option of continuing on M4 to Chieveley (J13) and going A34 to Winchester, but that's two sides of a right angle instead of the hypotenuse, as it were.

They avoided a deduction like this because 1) Brian Mawhinney was no longer head of the Football League and draconian punishments suddenly went away 2) The FL insisted on them signing up to a financial code of conduct of sorts to be allowed to play in the League 3) They got the -10 that was due to them when coming out of admin - but were already relegated so it had no effect, and because they weren't going INTO admin the "default deduction to the next season" rule didn't apply 4) The forensic examination of their books during this time is not yet complete (but see 1 for how likely they are to be punished).

You have become incredibly tedious. "Default position" is one thing, trying to drag everyone else down and presenting your miserablism as indisputable fact is entirely another.

We knew that would be the case after Newcastle and Leeds lost on Tuesday.

Yup, he's really stepped up this season and reduced his errors after some typical dodginess in the first couple of games - maybe he knows Fonte's on his way out (whether by transfer or due to age) and thinks he can make his mark?

Week commencing the first dates - unlikely the games will be on a Monday and Tuesday - that means the Leicester game will move from 23rd too.

Would be nice to get the second leg at home too... seeing as we can't in the Europa League if we get through.

We could play Hull another 10 times and they'd be lucky to get a draw.

Personally I think the draws in Be'er Sheva and the Etihad edge it, but this was a great effort against a disjointed Arsenal side.

Funnily enough I thought the constant rotation was one of the things that gave us a huge advantage - we still looked like a team, Arsenal a bunch of individuals.

Fantastic team performance. 10 excellent performances and Long running his arse off but not taking his chances. Superb stuff. Now, a spawny draw in the semis would be nice... Hull please...

I'm just going to leave this here: (source: http://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=2471&teamTabs=results) Matches with C Soares W3 D4 L2 As a %: W33 D44 L22 Matches without C Soares W5 D2 L4 As a %: W45 D18 L36 Matches with C Martina W4 D2 L3 As a %: W44 D22 L33 Matches without C Martina W4 D4 L3 As a %: W36 D36 L27 Statistics, eh? Won 33% of matches with Cedric in the team and 44% of matches with Martina. Overall record for comparison: Totals: W8 D6 L6 As a %: W40 D30 L30

Long's been injured, they're dodgy things hammies, especially when most of your game is sprinting around chasing stuff.

FWIW I've given up caring where this thread sits now and have never suggested anything other than what you said in the third sentence. I'm surprised MLG isn't all over your God comment though.

Except when we play in Europe and Cup games, apparently.

They're being asked to do different jobs. The fact Martina is getting picked to play away games in Europe clearly means the manager thinks he's better suited to the task at hand, or Cedric would be doing it, with Martina playing the league games.

I think maybe you just see what you want. There's not a huge amount of difference between them or they wouldn't both be getting games. I agree that Cedric is the better overall.

I should think so...