trousers

Great line-up for the new series. Prefer the general public version, as that's usually much more competitve and ruthless than the celeb version, but highly entertaining nonetheless. Televisual-tastic p.s. James Blunt is my dark horse punt (rhyming slang intended )

Was it that his corners "weren't great" or that, in his latter years here, we didn't have the calibre of players to convert his corners? Will be interesting to see if Larin's presence in the box 'coincidentally' renders JWP's corners better than they were previously perceived to be by some...

And the 'least surprising comment of the day' trophy goes to...

I guess it could be interpreted either way... *If* we were looking to sell him, you'd want to put out a message that he's on the cusp of returning to full fitness, rather than be downbeat about his recuperation. But fingers crossed that it's more likely to be your hunch than my hypothetical one

Indeed. 7 years younger than Messi, and a similar physical stature / engine. Loads of life left in him yet I would venture.

Surprised Blackmore didn't ask a single question about JWP...

There's "underwhelmed" and there's "overwhelmed", but is it possible to just be "whelmed"? If so, then count me in... 😁

Is he Finnish?

Is that because he's become crap at free kicks or because he hasn't been taking (m)any...?

Obviously a classic feigned injury ahead of his dream move to St Mary's...

Yep... Pretty much exactly where I am 👍🏻 (i.e. mainly on the fence, as one would expect )

I'm inclined to agree, but Eckert doesn't strike me as the kind of manager than chucks a new player straight into the starting line-up... (Cue MLG listing 7 times that Eckert has done just that... )

Yeah, but apart from the goals and the free kicks, what has JWP ever done for us...?

You'd have thought a hotel of that stature would offer an internet service for such things, rather than magazines...

I'm not sure if 'watching a few training sessions' suddenly turns a poor manager into a really good one, or visa versa... Surely the benefit from such an activity is more about the fine margins rather than altering someone's fundamental aptitude?

Fair enough... Although my interpretation of Tonda's quote will remain the same though 👍🏻

Without wishing to go into full blown MLG mode.... How do you become competitive with someone without being as good as them? Or are we using the word in the sense that I could "compete" with Tyson Fury...?

Eckert said before the Stoke game that he was "close", with a chance of featuring tonight, but more likely versus Millwall... I guess we're about to find how much of that might have been bullshit...