CB Fry

He will never be a true great until he goes on the longest unbroken run of victorious sporting bets in the history of gambling.

It's been a funny old day for that kind of thing. The Boris Johnson dad story where he is slapping women's behinds is apparently due to different standards and different culture in old days gone by.....for something that happened in 2003. 2003 FFS.

He won't sing a frigging word of the Albanian national anthem. Not a word of it.

When do they start drilling for that oil down at Jackson's Farm? With the way these do-gooders are going on about so-called "climate" "change" if they don't get on with it sharpish we're going to miss the petrol powered boat.

Didn't realise how complicated the play off stages are. Still twelve teams in it for three slots. Scotland at least guaranteed a home draw but still looks entirely within their power to choke it.

Jesus wept.

Honestly by some distance the least plausible explanation. He had a long contract with Villa so would have been paid by them for the next two years anyway. He wasn't going to be hard up. I am sure he has his reasons for getting back in so quickly but "it's a pay day" will be nowhere near the top of the list.

How about obviously no I didn't and have never, ever said anything remotely close to that. Nice try though.

Involved in five consecutive games off the bench, offered plenty of cover and security and scored a goal in open play. Fuck me, just imagine what the "he's proved you all wrong, he's proved you all wrong" forum div brigade would be making of that if that was Lycano's contribution for us already this season. Clue: they wouldn't be sneeringly describing it as "nothing of note".

You wrote them off, didn't you. You wrote them off.

Like people who said Harry Maguire and Jordan Henderson should have spent the entire European Championships watching it at home on TV? Those kinds of people?

But people wrote off Valery at the beginning - he's definitely going to prove everyone wrong by being brilliant any day now right? I think that's how it works.

Yes, and it is also possible to sign players for the first team: like Adam Armstrong, like Stuart Armstrong, like Che Adams, like Kyle Walker Peters, like Jannick Vestergaard. I didn't think it was a unjustified opinion back then that Vestergaard's replacement should be a player signed with that intent rather than a "one for the future". In Stephens and Bednarek we have two third choice CBs competing for second choice. I would say now that Salisu being an absolute beast this season has made that less of an issue so I salute Ralph for that. Jury still out on Lycano himself though.

As someone who far too often gets into pointless bickering on here about nothing (Look, I'm sorry everyone), this seems a particularly thin issue to argue the toss over. Fight the good fight, though 👍

Nah, you're alright. He didn’t like a particularly exciting signing at the time, which is the kind of thing I said when we signed him. If he turns out to be a Ballon D'Or winning greatest centre back of all time, that doesn't make what I said in August incorrect. He didn't look like a particularly exciting signing at the time. Said it then, still true. My main criticism was that he wasn't the front line centre back i thought we needed, and oh look I'm right. He didn’t go into the first team as a first choice CB. So I was right there too, he's barely played. So remind me what people have been proved wrong about again? What victory lap are you actually on here?

Really odd post. The comments around the time of his signing were closer to "it's underwhelming" (his appearances, reports from his club, the general underwhelming-ness of it, the fact we were picking up third/fourth choice players from relegation level Serie A teams). We'd also just sold a centre back for £15m and in previous windows we'd been buying CBs for £16m-£18m. This guy was nowhere near that. Most people wer not saying "he's useless" off the bat because most people had never seen him fucking play. If anyone is "imagining" things its you.

Yes I get that, but I just think he's had four years of absolute triumph at his boyhood club, in his hometown, as a hero. Within a week he is suddenly flat hunting in East Anglia, or living in a hotel and charged with turning around a completely different club. Also loads of pressure next season because Farke did deliver two amazing title winning campaigns. He scraped Villa up through the play offs. But its not really about "football". I just think at a human level it's a bit mad for him to rebound that quick.

In ten years time when he's signing copies of his autobiography in Waterstones Solihull, they'll be a chapter about how he regrets going to Norwich within a week of being sacked by Villa. Feels absolutely mad to me at all levels.

The main problem with Cummings is that he is absolutely full of shit. If, as he claims, Boris didn't have aclue then what were his advisors doing about it. Like, his chief advisor.

I think it's that if we had sold Mane for £41m to Man United rather than the £36m to Liverpool then we would have won the Uefa Cup by now.

Nice to see him get one. Surprised to see McGinn involved though?

Feels odd to me that Dean Smith is putting himself forward for Norwich within days of being sacked. Have a little holiday mate, spend your compensation. Also dreading the almost inevitable narrative of "Dean Smith loses his last game against Saints to get the sack but he bounces straight back with Norwich in his first game against...." We aint got time to be part of "fancy that" fairy stories or future pub quiz questions, we've got points to get. Just give it to someone like Felix Magath or Bob Bradley Norwich, just get on with being relegated FFS.

Wah wah wah

There is a universe where Liverpool paid their record fee at the time for Mane, which the universe we are in right now. As others have said there is rarely a "bidding war" these days, especially when a player has settled on a club. I have no memory press reports of lots of clubs in for him, i think mainly because, as Mane has said himself, he chose Liverpool and wanted to go there. Honestly, 2016 for gawds sake. Lets say we got another five million for Mane ten transfer windows ago. What exactly would have happened differently than we are experiencing now? I tell you one thing, we probably wouldn't have got all the add ons from Man U and Arsenal l because they ain't won shit. So incredibly likely the "£40m" or whatever newspaper headline fee you desperately wanted to see from them probably wouldn't have matched what Liverpool have had to actually pay us in this universe.

Not really no. There's loads of factors in play and this is one of the smaller ones.