The Kraken

Perhaps not always in the premier league, but Cole Palmer in particular last season springs to mind. Checking in wiki, he played in a total of 11 games last season in all competitions (I remember him doing well in an FA cup tie on TV). Talk is that, particularly with Sterling gone, Palmer is lined up for more minutes this season. James McAtee also featured in 6 games. Most other youth got 1-2 games each.

From the limited amount I’ve seen so far of our new signings, I’m erring on the side of negativity. I think we are in real danger of getting relegated. Bazunu aside, I haven’t seen anything at all that makes me think we’ve signed anyone a good bit better than we’ve already got. We’ve got more players, which may well help, but I don’t see our first team level as having gone up very much since last term. Our form at the end of last term was a disaster and I’d hoped to see us become a bit more exciting going forwards, but three pre season games haven’t enlightened me there so far. I also think the 3 at the back doesn’t look like a particularly wonderful formation for us. A proper striker will change us in a big way, so we’ll see what happens there, IMO right now it’s utterly crucial we get someone in who can get very close to double figures for the season.

At goalkeeper. Im trying to remain positive but I share your concerns. The major positive I see so far is that we have a few more options for formations and resting players. Romeu looked shot later in the season playing every game so hopefully Lavia helps that, or gives us a solid 3 CM system (which we were unable to do at Liverpool and got thrashed). Aribo, Ketchup and the new lad, they may end up as starters but I’m not convinced yet they’re much better than what we had, we just have more of them now.

Yeah I can’t see him lasting long. He’s not very good and he seems like a divisive character, constantly throws his players under the bus. Lose some form and he’ll likely lose the dressing room.

Can’t see us getting Ings. He’s on £100k a week, and he cost them £25M last summer.

Interesting, up to now all reports have said that there’s massive interest in him from clubs but that City we’re going to keep hold of him.

Probably a good move for little Terry at this point.

Is that true? Just reading it’s only a one year deal he’s going to be on, so it would be a massive outlay for someone they’ll lose next summer.

It’s not an office job. And your analogy makes no sense, it depends entirely on what the conditions of work are. You also previously said that contracts only include dates, not times. So it’s an irrelevant comparison. I agree, you are being very silly 👍

So a player is contracted up to and including 30th June. It’s pretty obvious when it expires, at the end of that day.

The contracts expire at midnight on 30th June. Therefore a player cannot leave the club before that time, they can only leave once the contract is expired. Which would be on 1st July.

They’d be a good purchase for somebody. It’s why they were brought to the attention of daGrosa in the first place. Decent history and fan base, big stadium, have historically done well in a league that, outside of PSG, doesn’t have huge competition for European qualification.

I think that’s beyond doubt after that mad rambling.

What way is that? Conceding lots of goals? 😉 I wouldn’t mind someone like Mee. Out of contract, and if Brentford are in for him I can’t see that his wages would be prohibitive. Going against him though is his age, he’s 33 in September.

I think we’re wandering into Paul Allen yacht territory here…..

That’s all well and good, but I’m not sure you’ve used the best example there. Lingard scored 9 goals in 16 for West Ham. That’s an incredible strike rate, albeit over a short duration.

Cracking finish. Come on then England, hold on to this. If you do, Sue is gonna be running around The Lanes later tonight waving her dungarees over her head taking on all-comers.

Yeah, I know. I’d love Saints to lash out on Broja, I think he’s class. But… a) I don’t think the club would pay the approx £25-£30m he would command b) from a financial perspective, and only if the recruitment is right, there is potentially much better short term value out there with an ‘unknown’. edit, and c) I don’t reckon he’d come here anyway

If you must use gifs, at least use a really good one.

You could replace this with…. Not sure if it's just me, but I'm not getting the fuss over Broja. He had a purple patch at the start of the season, and then went missing after February. I don't think he's worth the 20-25m they're asking for.

Well done Ingerland, great equaliser. The volume on the TV is now at 3/100, the pitch of noise is a touch unpleasant.

Good god, Jamie. I think whelk was right, you’re certainly not getting any cleverer.

It’s been good to get some of our transfer business done early, well done to the club for that. But it’s now only two and a half weeks until the season kicks off, so time is very much of the essence. Very much hoping to see striking incomings very soon so they can play a part in pre-season. Thinking it might be likely though that we may not complete dealings until the transfer window #slamsshut. Given the early start to this season, it makes things a bit more crucial to get done early.

Nah. Fear sells. You might need an ‘in’ with a local meteorologist to start peddling doom about 30 degrees being the new normal, but it’s doable, people will believe anything these days.

It looks awful for those people in Wennington, the video is horrendous. https://news.sky.com/story/major-incident-declared-across-london-after-huge-surge-in-fires-on-uks-hottest-ever-day-12655061