trousers

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/22/tottenham-confident-of-signing-pierre-emile-hojbjerg-from-southampton

Howdy Jim... Given your ITK-esque posts on the Hojbjerg thread, would I be wasting my time if I read too much between the lines on this post, especially the carefully crafted 3 dots?

Up

Source? Cheers 👍

Yep, pretty sure I read years back that clubs can't introduce ad-hoc bonus payments during the course of the season. i.e. bonus structures have to be set in place before the season starts. That said, I guess there's nothing stopping a club putting some kind of pre-emptive league position bonus scheme in place at the beginning of each season to cover such eventualities as this anyway....?

Come on Manchester United!

We'll finish 1 point behind Arsenal if Watford can do a Villa on Sunday and we dispatch Sheff Utd. If only we'd turned up in the Arsenal game after the restart...

Ah, fair point

We'll finish top 8 next season (you heard it here first! #madness) so Villa being awful next season will be of no consequence to us

Come on City!

Oops... I've just realised Levy's heritage so fair point! Comparison retracted. I was trying to suggest that just because Levy hasn't done a particular thing before doesn't mean that he wouldn't contemplate doing it in the future, given his reputation for being a bit of an arse. (I'll pick Bobby Davro for comparison next time! Apologies for any offence caused, none intended )

Bugger, history was never one of my strongest subjects.

Can you cite a country Hitler invaded before Poland?

It's all about 11th place brother. Stick with me on this. Besides, if all goes to plan, plucky little Bournemouth will still be relegated whilst we also parade the 11th place trophy around the streets and boulevards of Southampton.

I want Bournemouth to have a reason to beat Everton on Sunday. I thought you were with me on this 11th place quest FFS?

Come on Manchester City!

Talking of Arsenal... https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1312283/Arsenal-News-Mikel-Arteta-Tottenham-Jose-Mourinho-Pierre-Emile-Hojbjerg-Transfer-Gossip "Arsenal are considering entering the race for Tottenham Hotspur target Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg." (Apologies if already posted, and yes, I know it's the Daily 'pinch of salt' Express...)

Cheers Benjii. On reflection, it does indeed appear to be a case of a higher scale of lending requiring a higher scale of protection for the lender so, yep, seems to be BAU in that respect rather than anything more tantalising. Oh well, back to yacht and earlobe spotting

All humans are hypocrites and I'm no exception...

Happiness

Cheers... So, reading between the lines, the club have basically got a worse loan deal than they had with Macquarie...? (i.e. it's stacked more in favour of the lender than it was before)

Cheers for that summary John D. So, my layman's interpretation of that is the new lenders (MSD Holdings) have a clause that allows them to gain control of the club's assets quicker than it would have been possible for Macquarie (under the T&C's of their loan)?

It was based on the fact that our form last season after Hassenhutl took over from Hughes was 1 point off being top 10, despite a mini collapse in the last 5 games of the season whereby we only mustered 3 points out of 15. That said, and to be fair to the doom and gloom merchants, I didn't foresee said mini collapse continuing into the start of this season, but I always had faith that Ralph would turn things around. (although I admit that faith was very much put to the test after the Leicester result!) And, of course, the other reason for predicting a relatively decent finish this season at the outset was that I was desperate to be labelled "mad" by Batman.....