Wurzel

If only they'd tried a Baby Shark inspired Angus Gunn chant instead , it might have caught on

I agree with some of the comments above, there are far worse potential owners out there than Gao. As above, he hasn't put a penny in but hasn't taken a penny out, which is really how it should be. And he hasn't interferred in the day to day running of the club. The one thing I don't get is the apparent total failure to cash in on the Chinese market. Ignoring the dodgy non-existent sponsor (wonder if we'll ever hear the true story about that) there doesn't seem to be a queue of Chinese companies trying to get themselves linked with us, and I've not seen any reports of, for instance, increased shirts sales in China. It would have cost Gao millions to get us to the level where results won the pitch would start bringing in extra millions (i.e CL qualification) but I'd have thought it would have been relatively easy - and free - to increase our prescense in China with a bit of Gao inspired publicity/promotion, and with it extra commercial income and/or retail sails. Obviously not to the same income levels CL qualification would bring but it could have been enough to make a difference. I wonder if the average Chinese football fan is even aware that "one of their own" actually owns this EPL club.

Never understand that. Not just this match, you'll often hear players say the same thing after a mediocre team performance. So they (or at least Mings) realised during the game that they needed to up their game. So where was the geeing up of team-mates? Who was encouraging them to step up the pace a bit. Why no complaining to team-mates when you've played a good ball and they diodn't make the expected run, or vice-versa. Who was doing the shouting at fellow defenders for not getting close enough to the opposition. Who was risking a yellow card to put in a few crunching tackles to persuade the opposition they might be better off chickening out of the next 50:50 ball. Captain was Kane but he comes across as the least likely player on the pitch to "have a go". By the look of him he was struggling to talk to himself last night let alone anyone else. Intensity isn't a tactic it's a state of mind, and if Southgate was happy to watch that from the touchlines with minimal substitutions (was it only 2? and did I really hear the comentator say Henderson was warming up at one stage? ) I can only assume he's totally incapable of changing their mindset. Man for man, every one of our players was better than his opposite number on paper (might make Robersson/Shaw an exception) yet he allowed them to let themselves be totally outplayed. If he's going to sheepishly stand by on the touchline and allow "lack of intensity" like that he may as well go now and let someone like Sean Dyche come in and stick a proverbial rocket up thier arses.

He did, which was nonsense. Although quite rightly, he gave no England player a higher score than Adams.

So remind me, is it Kane or Adams looking for a move and being touted as worth £150m ?

"The club would like to thank Wesley for his service and wish him all the best for the future" Said a club spokesman through gritted teeth with fingers crossed it doesn't fall through at last minute

Don't think there were any parachute payments left when ML bought us, although admittedly he spotted an opportunity to buy a club on the cheap and get a good quick return on his investment. But why would anyone wait for us to be relegated (bearing in mind any parachute p[ayments would be factored into the price). Take a look at the Championship and League 1 tables. You'll probably find around 15-20 similar sized clubs to us already down there if you want to replicate the "buy em cheap and get them promoted" business plan.

A message appeared in my google calendar this morning saying the fixtures will be announced and automatically added to my calendar tomorrow at 9 am. It feels like last season has only just ended. Assuming it's genuine is that earlier than it usually gets announced? Hopefully we can avoid the 3 promoted teams in the first few games, they often play out of their skins for the first few weeks. Wolves, Newcastle, Palace and Burnley would be a decent start.

He's a Scot. They're like Pompey. Optimism is all they have.

Hope Armstrong and Che don't try and tap anyone up from that squad on our behalf. Apart from Robertson there's not one that looks like they'd improve our squad, let alone our first XI.

Even when only comparing transfers made during the same seasons there are some - with the benefit of hindsight - strange disparities between fees paid for some players. Thinking more about the value we got out of players than their value at the time. 2012 Yoshida cosat less than Forren 2014 Pelle cost less than Long 2015 Romeu cost the same as Juanmi and less than half the cost of Clasie 2017 Everyone cost less than Carillo Guess ever club in the country gets some right and some wrong.

Is it too late to revoke my choice of Turkey as dark horses? They looked very poor with their passing and by the end were so knackered their next game (whenever it is) is going to come to soon for them

Winners: Belgium Runners Up: Portugal Scotland get knocked out at: Group stage Wales get knocked out at: Round of 16 England get knocked out at: Round of 16 Dark Horse (Furthest a team gets excluding England, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Portugal): Turkey Top Goalscorer: Lukaku UEFA Best Player: De Bruyne UEFA Best Young Player: Torres

One of my favourite ever football books. (His European stadiums was equally as good). An updated version would be interesting to compare, but I'd bet he'd struggle to find such floweryt romanticised descriptions for some of the modern grounds.

I'm intrigued by "“It’s important for our fans to know that we will pursue them to the end of the Earth until we get our money back" Get it back? Surely we weren't taken in so easily we gave them some?

But we have always been so prudent. Our policy was for a long time break even every two years, so the odd big name like Keegan had to pay for itself the following yeare or player(s) sold to cover the cost then. That continued through Lowe era but one big gamble on a "spend" season that didn't get us back to the PL as expected suddenly put us in the shit. Marcus allowed us a 5 year plan after which he intended us to be self sufficient. The current situation is really nothing new.

After the Romania friendly on Sunday

To be fair I'd dispute the BIB. He'sdone the right thing by leaving the running of the club to Semmens & Co. Christ (or Confucious) knows what shit we'd be in now if he put no money in AND decided he wanted to be hands on and treated us as a plaything.

As a dickhead right whinger myself I have to agree with you, totally unnecessary to bring politics into a football discussion. But back on topic, there's a lot of assumptions that if he sees out his contract he'll be off next year anyway. Maybe the club are gambling that being a year older no bigger club will want him anyway* and/or we'll have been taken over by then and be able to offer him a better contract then than we can currently commit to right now. *Although Aguero at 32 (thought he was older) going to Barcelona possibly pisses on that theory

Great info thanks for taking time to post it. Stats like that always amaze me. I know selective memory plays tricks on us but back in the day it seemed the likes of Chris Nicol and Dave Watson would head away dozens of crosses every game, whilst Jimmy Case and Terry Hurlock would have made 25 tackles (some of them fair) before half time every game. Nowadays 3 per 90 minutes is good!

And not only that, every one above him except for Kane (no fee but worth fuck knows now) Vardy and Bamford cost more than him as well, some considerably more. Even this season ( poor compared to last) represented great value for money.

Interesting to see who we have modelling it in the photos this year. I'll go for JWP home, KWP away and TBA keeper.

Jees😳 And the 20/21 award for most obvious attempt at trolling goes to....

He was sub in that game, he wasn't on the pitch until 2nd half. 🤔

Thought that one was inexcusable. He had so many options available and 2 or 3 occasions when he could make the pass and he appeared to simply not be able to make a decision , and just ran into trouble. I get a feeling Klopp's insistence that he was in his plans for next season was based on the fear they weren't going to qualify for the UCL and wouldn't be able to afford to replace him. Now they have I reckon they'll be happy to get shot of him, but from what I've seen so far one of the 3 promoted sides seems more his level. Wouldn't be happy keeping him.