CB Fry

I've literally given you the answer. Fucking weirdo.

The Premier League put a statement out, its on their social media feeds, and on their website as well I guess. You'll know it when you see it. It's the statement that at no point mentions anything remotely like "going to football is disrespectful".

"Going to a football match is disrespectful" is not the reason given though is it?

I think the issue is that football is not some noddy niche sport like Rugby. If it was a genuine big Rugby match (England in the 6 Nations) then it would be off. Worcester vs Sale or whatever, who gives a shit. Premier League football generates too much news and attention, plus the crowds and the supporters present too much risk of a negative story. Even a basic Premier League weekend is a huge part of the national conversation, so it would just take up too much attention in a weekend like this. It's annoying - especially the kids football thing, which should have gone ahead - but I can see why, and I think it is the right call. Last Night of the Proms is the mad one for me, and I don't even like it. Should be going ahead 100%, just with a slightly different running order.

Seems fanciful. I know we sack a manager every 18 months or so, even if they've won the league/Champions League for us but now, with this guy, we're not going to do that any more. No siree. They could have given the "we want an identity" and "we want to stop hire-and-fire" in a speech explaining why they are not sacking Tuchel. Pretty hollow to say it immediately after sacking someone who has been successful and that you gave several gazillion to spend a few weeks before. If they don't finish top 4 minimum he's gone by the summer. It's not like the fans will be that bothered. I think they quite liked the Champions League winning guy, and Potter is not a big name or has any Chelsea heritage. Chelsea fans has seen countless managers thay they really, really like be sacked in front of them. Jose. Ancelotti. Conte. Even Lampard. So why should they suck up Potter if he ain't no good. They won't.

Someone send Nicholas Witchell home.

Starmer's pretty good as well. She stood for what we agreed upon.

There ain't going to be no game this weekend lads.

I think this is incredibly contrived, well done.👍 I can't see how/why another club would need to offer (say) double vs the buy back clause amount. It works pretty much as a release amount. City know they can but back for £40m and they have that baked in. In the unlikely event the player doesn't want to go back there and wants to go to Liverpool instead, then that's the defining factor, fees don't need to come into it. Liverpool don't need to offer twice as much because the player would already be clear in where he wants to go, and interested clubs just need to hover around the release amount. I don't think you will get bidding wars with players with very specific buy-back amounts. I just don't see any scenario where Man U and Liverpool get into a £60-80m bidding war for a player that doesn't want to go back to Man City. If there is competition then it would be at player salary/terms level and both clubs would pay the £40m release clause amount. At every stage City will be there, ready to buy back and talk to the kid about his future. If you're thinking next summer, say, I think City will be in our players ears to complete 2 years with us and not jump off to Chelsea or Newcastle etc. In summary we get the best part of the deal now in getting a good player for a couple of years. But a fee ceiling is pretty much locked in as far as I can see. I've got no doubt that one of these boys may well be "worth" £80m or whatever but we ain't going to get that, we'll get what City set it at. Sure people on here will be sobbing about how unfair it is but the point is we got the player in the first place.

Graham Potter currently boarding a private jet to John Lennon Airport.

Maybe. But they've only finished true mid table once under Potter - his previous two years they were bottom six and below us. Before that two seasons scraping up under Hughton. So 4 out of 5 seasons in the Prem finished bottom six. Will depend on who they get of course.

This. It's a terrible fit, he'd probably be gone by Christmas but go for it. Take the money and the Champions League games and the experience. I always look at managers and think that as long as their last-but-one job went okay they'll always get another shot. So Potter goes in at Chelsea and is binned, fine - he's not going to be out of work for long and he'd get a job at a club like Leicester or Palace or Saints etc no bother at all. Even if he goes to Chelsea and loses ten games in a row and is sacked before the world cup, he will bounce back. Honestly if he turns it down he's a fucking plank. Take the money and the challenge. Make no mistake i think it would be a terrible appointment for Chelsea but that's not the point. Also it brings Brighton back into the bottom 6, all being well.

Now, I'm not comparing Truss with E Haaland but this has reminded me of the stuff that came out after his first Prem match following the Charity Shield game when he was a bit off the pace. One match later and Pep and others giving it the "ha ha ha you all said he was shit and he's not". No one said Haaland was shit in the first place, and I haven't seen anything anywhere that would suggest that Labour have "underestimated" Truss whatsoever. I have no doubt they expect a honeymoon period and a poll bounce, especially as she is about to dish out a load of money to people. The polls this weekend will be much closer, probably Truss in front in some of them. Labour have definitely estimated that.

Chelsea are chaotic (see Lavia, R for evidence of that) so I would not put it past them to get permission, speak to Potter, making his role as Brighton boss untenable, and then they go and offer it to Pochettino anyway.

You think Austria v Macedonia would be a 10-0 match in mens qualifying?

Eddie Howe wants to be worried with a Champions League winning manager with experience of managing big clubs back on the market.

Can't see it being Potter. Chelsea under this ownership seem to have turned into a worse version of Man United. They'll want a big name celeb manager - Pochettino seems the obvious one (did he take over from Tuchel at PSG?)

My personal favourite thing is all the people who we spitting blood about things like Alex Scott taking over as presenter on Football Focus (typical leftie-woke-box-ticking-quota-filling whatever-happened-to-the-best-person-for-the-job etc etc) seem to be the exact same people crowing about the four great offices of state being occupied by non white men and ha ha ha fuck you we're the best at diversity. Make your mind up lads x x

Its the Dave Lee Travis at Radio 1 method - quit before they sack you. Entirely performative, of course.

Everything about it is insane. Just imagine if Saints say yes to Chelsea. What kind of bad-faith move would that be - our Joe Shields can kiss good bye to any future young stars if that's how we treat City and their young stars. And even for Chelsea, it doesn't make them look ambitious or forward thinking. The kid has played five matches in his entire career. Their leadership just look ridiculous as well. Absolutely nuts.

Incredibly bold decision by the Laura K production team to book Joe Lycett on the debut program. Thought it was a gamble before he opened his mouth. He absolutely delivered. Never laughed so much at a Sunday morning politics programme. Genuinely brilliant.

Very easy to foresee lots of " well, we did some good things, just unlucky on the day" results for the rest of the season. Let's hope we can bounce back against Brentford because the bottom six is going to be tight this season.

I think that is something that just happens at any well run club. Whereas putting this concept forward as a fundamental/primary reason to sign Barkley (or to retain Walcott etc) is misguided. James Ward-Prowse can mentor young players with the added advantage of, like, being a useful player in the first team.

No, not really. He did not say we definitely had him, and from the subsequent reports in The Athletic and elsewhere backs up what Blackmore said at the time.

Pretty unequivocal.