verlaine1979

He looks pretty small time. Biggest deal still seems to be turning around 250 Burger King franchises more than 20 years ago.

Not a lot of clips on YT either, but what you can find shows a player with pretty dodgy control. His first goal against Madrid went in when his first touch ended up playing the ball against his standing foot.

Watkins can finish with either foot and scores a fair few with his head. Looks a much more complete player to Adams,, who is very, very, very one-footed.

Same starting 11 as ended last season, but our bench will look stronger if Salisu and Djenepo are both fit to take part. Midfield bench very light though - no close-out-the-game type player will be available.

Didn't Hoj only really get dropped when he started talking openly about his desire to leave? Hard to keep picking the captain under those circumstances, especially when his performances dip, as they did quite early after the restart.

MLT's freedom of speech hasn't been infringed. If he lacks the courage to stand by his convictions, that's on him - not the people who used their freedom of speech to disagree with him.

Getting the job on merit? How would you measure that, exactly? Are there viable stats for who is the best pundit? Expected-valid-points-made per game? Unforced solecisms per 90 minutes of commentary? Or is it just down to whose face fits for a given moment in time? And please don't try and argue that having been a good player is qualification for being on TV. The footballing world practically exploded with shock with Gary Neville started showing up on Sky, precisely because he was able to form a coherent thought. Ex-footballers who have something enlightening to say about the game without resorting to cliche and repetition are extremely few and far between, and none of the GSS panel fit that bill. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I'm going to assume that your implication that only white people with penises can be meritorious is just an errant bit of logic, rather than an unpleasant glimpse at your soul.

You think you're disagreeing with me, but you aren't. You also seem to have confused making the best possible product for you, with making the best possible product for the market. You'd rather stick with what you know - that's fine. It just makes you one of the people Henry Ford said would've asked him for a faster horse. Sky have presumably decided that thinning out the herd of old, reactionary white dudes will be good for their long term business. Time will tell if they're right, but unless you're privy to their internal viewership numbers, sentiment analysis, focus group research and all the other data points that huge media businesses look at every single day, I'd say you're unlikely to be in a position to decree that they're wrong ahead of time.

Probably no coincidence at all - it's no secret that the media does its best to reflect social change back at the society that's changing. It's how you stay relevant/in business. The only people who still want the only faces they see on tv to be white men over the age of fifty, are - you've guessed it - white men over the age of fifty. But no one is obliging you to move with the times - your feelings and opinions can stay the same until you die if that's what you want. Statistically, it's unlikely to be that long. However, corporations are obliged to try and do everything they can to avoid dying - hence why they are less resistant to change than you are.

The article mentions four players but only two positions (RB and CB). We bought two out of the four. Those were clearly options, not bullshit.

These aren't surgeons or engineers, where there's a quantifiable way of evaluating merit. They're just a group of people who talk about live football matches on a Saturday. They didn't 'qualify' for the job in the first place as a result of a rigorous, empirical process that selected MLT and Phil Thompson as the best possible candidates. Someone just decided that they were right in one moment and has decided that they're wrong for this one. There's no injustice here, and suggesting otherwise presumes that these three somehow have more of a right to be on tv than anyone else, which is, of course, not even remotely the case.

Haha, as if we're powerful enough to keep all the interested parties involved during a potential transfer quiet. There might be rare occasions when it's in everyone's best interests to say nothing, but most of the time, the player's agent has no reason not to try and drum up additional interest by talking about an offer being on the table.

Koopmeiners looks strong, composed and a good passer. He also seems like a reasonably strong runner. Being 22 and the captain of his side, on the face of it you'd think he'll cost a lot more than £14m.

They wouldn't be the first tech/media startup to spunk their marketing budget and then run out of cash before launching a worthwhile product. Wasn't there some new online service in Europe that bought up a bunch of foreign league rights and then went bust after only a month or two?

Could be a new record - had his head turned before even making his debut?

No one has shown a convincing connection between Gao and LD have they? More likely an instance of foreign Chinese assets (football clubs) either being obliged or feeling obliged to help other Chinese companies gain market exposure.

Eh, didn't we just hint that we were switching to an under-26 recruitment policy? I'm sure there'll be exceptions to that occasionally if we want to add a bit of experience and leadership to the squad, but I doubt we'll make one for someone who has averaged only 10 games a season throughout his career on a minutes-played basis.

Maybe RH thinks he's found another Keita, who was part twinkle-toes, part destroyer for Leipzig.

Would be great if that's where we end up, but I fear it'll be more like £5m + KWP.

Think Spurs will probably beat us down into taking about $15m for him, which is the lowest he could go for without us completely losing face. And you could argue that prorated over a standard four year contract, that's the equivalent of valuing him at £60m, which is probably actually a bit over the odds for what he brings.

Do people really still not understand that clubs can't just sell players without their agreement?

Two year-long cruciate ligament injuries and a recent knee surgery.

Hopefully RH's reputation in Germany, particularly around bringing through young players, might give us an edge in recruitment.

Adams looks a lot more alive in the box after a few games, but his one-footedness is a concern. I know 99% of players have a dominant foot, but he seems absolutely allergic to touching the ball with his left.

Absolutely - you don't let players get down to only a year left on their contracts and then try and hardball who they can sign for. At the very least, it would absolutely kill our reputation as a reasonable stepping stone club for talented young players.