verlaine1979

Yup - big money players only get that way when big clubs pay big money for them (duh). There's plenty of talent out there, you just have to know what you're looking for.

I still think he's potless and that this will ultimately hurt us in a league where almost all other owners are prepared to put in funds.

I suspect if someone comes in and offers us the chance to double our money on Ings, the club will take it. Just based on the board's prior proclivities, his age and injury record. That said, I doubt the clubs that could afford him would take him, so I think he'll probably stay.

Eh, I don't know what's so difficult to understand. In a game of (generally) fine margins, there is a bias towards towards continuity/inaction as significant change is as likely to yield outsized negative results as an outsized positive ones. However, in the case of the 0-9 the margin wasn't fine at all, so continuity was categorically proven to be the imprudent course of action.

As of the last published accounts (to Jun 2018), Wages were £85m and had dropped from the previous year against a reduced turnover of £152m. Despite the drop in turnover, the club still posted a profit of £35m. A new tv deal has kicked in since, so presumably turnover will be receiving a boost this season, while I'd put money on the wage bill being even lower these days.

As do many players vastly more accomplished. All this proves is that PFA categories have failed to keep up with trends in the game.

Those are exceptional players, better in their 30s than most players ever are. Still, in all three cases, their best goalscoring seasons were in the age window I mentioned (though Vardy could possibly exceed his best season if he keeps going this year).

Five at the back has been a safety net for our last couple of managers, but since we don't have world-beaters in midfield or attack (though Ings is making a decent case atm) the security was illusory. Being brave enough to ditch one of the CBs and compete further up the field has made a huge difference, though without Ings' purple patch, I doubt the formation change alone would've made quite such a profound difference. Fine margins n'all that.

Jones looks a real talent - the goal was fantastic, but is passing is great too. Lots of intelligent, inventive one-touch stuff.

Eh, I didn't scour too far back, but by October of his debut season with us, people were already touting Mane as being a future big money player (£30m still being a fair whack in 2015). There were a few randoms who spouted off about him, but he showed touches of class from his very first substitute appearance for us. For what it's worth, I think Djenepo has looked almost as promising, albeit with more injury disruption. On the other hand, I thought Adams' finishing looked rubbish when I saw his goals for Brum on YouTube, and I've not seen any of those promising moments for us that might persuade me he has the technique to make it in the PL. He just looks like another average Championship striker that a PL club has taken a punt on - the transfer history of the league is littered with them.

He was planning to bring in a few signings last January too. Not sure it means much in terms of whether Gao ultimately spends or not

It isn't money laundering. It's finding a loophole to move money out of China at a time when the government wanted cash outflow to cease. He said it himself in that interview earlier this year - Jack Ma or someone like that was extolling the virtues of establishing capital outside of China, so he wanted to do the same. He's borrowed £200m in short term loans to buy a cash-flow rich asset in the hope that it will eventually self-finance the incurred debts. Once the loans are repaid, even if he sells the club at a small loss it will have been worth it to move a sizable chunk of cash out of China.

You don't think three years makes any difference? The sport has changed - average players aren't at their peak from 28-30 anymore, with the physical demands meaning that decline now starts from about 26. Even allowing for the fact that center backs peak a little later, Yoshida, Bertrand and Cedric are all on the wrong side of their peak years now, having been close to their prime in in 2016/2017.

What's the point of this comparison? An additional three years hasn't done any favors to most of those players, with Bertrand, Yoshida, Romeu and even Hoj seeming a good yard slower than in 2016 (plus Cedric clearly wants out, so his effort has declined regardless of his physical condition). For reasons both to do with transfers and the general composition of our first XI, we are a slower, weaker team than we were under Puel. And as someone else said, standards in the league are increasing all the time.

Except he's a lightweight beanpole and is **** in the air. Vest rarely does more than loop the ball up in the air when he does succeed in getting his head on it.

So slow, so weak, so scared of the ball. So painful to watch.

Maybe, but you'd have to assume she did her due diligence over his finances (she was being advised by UBS or similar) so would know that a) the value of Lander was in the process of collapsing even as the negotiations were ongoing, and b) that Gao was having to finance the purchase with high-interest loans. Not sure how she could look at either of those situations and conclude that Gao was in a position to take the club forward in any meaningful sense.

As someone said above, their goal started with McCarthy botching a kick out. We were set up for it to go long, but he only managed to slice it around half way. Put us on the back foot immediately, and we weren't set to defend the simple through ball.

McCarthy's kicking is dreadful. The turnover leading the goal began with him slicing one less than half-way.

Credit where it's due - fantastic leap from Long

Brilliant free kick

Hope I eat my words before the end of the game, but Redmond really is gash - no pace and no ability to take it past his defender.

F-ing hell, how far down the pecking order has our marquee summer signing fallen that Long and Obafemi, neither of whom can reliably finish to save their lives, are comfortably ahead of him?

This is likely to be it - the motion smoothing setting on many TVs is input-specific.