Holmes_and_Watson

Like JRM, admin for them would only help us. Their dodgy approach to trying to meet PRS rules, from loan applications to inflated covid impacts lowers the sympathy for them. Leicester and Everton in minus points is a good start for us.

He could pass funds across as many personal accounts as he liked. But the tell tale would be the moment it left any of those and went to Daniels. Getting Cohen to be the one paying it, seemingly completely separately removed that direct link. Trump could then pay Cohen a similar amount under whatever legitimate guise he wanted. Trump gets to hide a political embarrassment prior to an election, with no clear link to himself. I don't think he was using other people's money with the thought that personal distance gave him a sort of power trip to dismiss Daniels. What he used was a common enough money laundering route to conceal source of funds for an illigitemate payment, knowing full well the reason was to hide a link, and not damage his campaign. I typed "political embarrassment" above. Trump is a walking, breathing embarrassment. His encounter with Daniels, which he still denies, would have surprised no one. As it turned out, the Access Hollywood tape came out before the election anyway. That still caused Republican panic, and in that you can see why they wanted it not only buried, but distanced from Trump as much as possible. He still managed to win, and perhaps he still would have, if this had come out at the time.

His goal was to provide a bit of concealment of the source of funds. He wanted to prevent a direct line between his own account and the payment to Daniels. So they pretended it came from another source, for another purpose.

As kitch said, I'd not be relying on his fitness and AA wanting to be central as our options. While I do think Mara has learned a bit, it didn't have anywhere near the impact needed. So, I'd look for Mara to go out on loan and bring in 2 players looking to be getting lots of first team minutes. Ideally, one of those could be play across a front 3, giving us a proper Tella replacement too.

Gosh! A £50 million player according to the club, available for a discount of £25 -£30 million! What a deal... I've not seen anything of him since he left, other than a couple of Chelsea appearances. Was he showing the all round skills we need at Fulham? Not convinced.

Darn. Every time I'm about to become a Jedi Knight, it's one of these questions...

Not as innocent as Donald.

MLT is going to be sitting in Block 34? The risk of alien abduction or being mind wiped by the MIB, brings a discount. 🙂

There were any number of officers of dormant companies, only too happy to step in to ask for £50k for each of them before checks were put in place. Early on, there were networks of connected low activity companies moving funds around to claim multiple times. And fairly new companies could get away with showing projected earnings.

Yeah, it opened us right up when we'd committed forward. I couldn't say if he has the skills to develop in the areas he would need to here, or not. Perhaps he'd just prefer to find somewhere that focuses more on his strengths. I got the feeling there was a bit of mutual frustration. It's something I'm more aware of when people post up highlight videos. I end up looking at their team's set up for the goal/ highlight, to see if it's something we'd be likely to see here. 🙂

Adopt/ keep a style of play. Get relegated. Wait for the next revolving door at Old Trafford. 🙂

'A Conservative Party spokesman said: "Much of the association wanted him deselected for inactivity and his failure to be present in Bolton for extended periods of time. And he's been asking No 10 for a peerage." Quite a kick on his way out, I thought.

Well said. It would be very poor for the club to abandon any group, telling them they'd had their chips. (sorry. Couldn't resist a post using chips there) 🙂

Motorbike

I hope that the bonus of getting a European spot, and the prospect of playing in it, gets KWP to extend his contract. 🙂

Just a thanks for this post, for those of us who couldn't remember the details. Always good to get the perspective, before the memory cell jumps to conclusions. 🙂

I agree on Alcaraz. The strengths he showed in the PL, weren't applicable to Martin's system. Under Selles, he could be the pacy player to launch a counter attack with. All about his attacking. Like a lot of others, Martin needs all rounders. And that's tough to make such big changes to your game, especially if you don't like the constraints. I also think it's something that the recruitment team have to look at. It's all very well getting in a young talent. But where, and how he plays now might be just part of what Martin wants him to do. I see the same things with Sule and Charles. I like Perraud too. But we have Bree, Manning, KWP, Stephens, Meghoma, Larios (if fit) and maybe even an incoming Fraser as a wingback option. All wanting minutes. So, agree with conclusion there, unless lots of movement.

I read that as Starmer pretending not to be involved, while in the very next sentence putting his oar in. That's not a good look. If you're a supporter in Abbott's constituency, Starmer has just said that your preferred candidate isn't of sufficient quality. Good enough to be back in the party, good enough to be a long standing MP, and good enough to have been a trailblazer throughout apparently. But not good enough for your constituency now. Not because of what she said. Because they let her back in. But because of the voice he wants his party to sing to the electorate. And that's the leader. I can only imagine the rats in a sack squabbles going on between the functionaries over this, behind the scenes, to try and get her out. One reporter said the briefing that seemingly started this, could have really been from an Abbott supporter about what was happening. But could have just as easily have really been from someone on the other side, wanting to stick the boot in to make sure she couldn't stand.

Cut and paste Football related Poetry for the things that annoy me thread. 🙂

I thought Brooks showed a skill upgrade early on. A bit like Fraser, that faded a bit. Where Fraser's workrate would compensate and lead to some things, Brooks is a different type, and maybe didn't stand out as much. I put both down to them adapting into a controlled system. One that was trying different things to get the most out of RussBall. Towards the end, and when we changed most, Brooks' skill became more obvious again. With Edozie, we had a flash or two of outputs, before he was out the team again. Brooks is more capable in that respect. We need a range of different attributes in our front 3. No reason why he couldn't be part of that group.

It looks like their chosen path was to keep Abbott's process going as long as they could (even after it had actually concluded) with the goal of ushering her out. Preferably it seems by influencing the selection process (I think they had to bring in appeals not long ago, due to protests about how they were doing that), or by doing a deal. It looked like the compromise was that she would be allowed back in, and gets lots of tributes on the way back out. Abbott gets to stay part of labour, and maybe get something after. While Starmer gets to continue his purge, get to point out how much they've changed, while keeping a broader church onboard. Instead, the purge is more openly revealed and Labour come across as vindictively pushing out long standing MPs to bring in people with the same voice. While popular in some quarters, it also shows the that there are still divisions in his party, and how little the quarters are liked by the people calling the shots. Abbott has wisely chosen not to give them the out of standing as an independent. That pushes it back onto Labour to show just how much they listen to groups in their own party. Personally, I've rarely agreed with Abbott. However, she should be entitled to a fair process. If she is back in the party, then the local party should be free of influence to select her. Labour were only to happy to let in a previously apologetic Tory, which has haunted them where Abbott is concerned. Labour just look weak, pretending to have changed, while clearly not having done that when they could have. Deputy leader unsurprisingly backing Abbott, highlighting just how strong the divisions actually are. Starmer not getting involved in the process, but deputy doing just that.

While Forest brought in a shedload of players and stayed up... SR seemed to be keen on getting ahead of the curve by trying to bring in young players, who would be in other teams, but who were at decision points having been in top academies. Also data influenced signings of other players, influenced a bit from them being gems in other countries, talented youngsters as above there, or slightly more risk based signings of players - injury, fallen out of favour etc. All while building up our academy and lowering our wage bill. All of the above cost controlled to maximise sell ons ( even if false economy by multiple January signings). We've got 6 natural gaps already in the side. We need a DM over and above that. While, of, course, we can look at upgrading as well, we have to make sure we're not left overstaffed in one area, unable to move on others, while also being understaffed elsewhere. For example, we bring in 2 left backs, Bree and Manning stay and we struggle to get a Che replacement in, partly due to budget/ PRS constraints. If Martin is still in charge, and if he wants to play his system, it makes more sense to keep the core of players who got promoted playing it, than start the season with 11 Holgates. Practical, rather than romantic.

Jacket

Hang on! I put my savings into investing in a place where I could pet chickens and monkeys. A dream so many of us share. Are you telling me it's a place to watch monkeys petting chickens?!

Having been second best to Stu's hair this season, Martin is bringing in Lallana's beauty regime to make sure he is the best groomed next season.