The Kraken

FC of Manchester.

In pre-season it’s important to have all players working together, so Lovren’s signing is a very good job by the Chairman and all of the staff at the Club.

And what happened the season after that one?

Young, hungry and bound to improve, yes?

What are their ticket prices. And hot dog/drinks prices inside the ground? Can you give us a comparison for Dortmund's 80k gates compared to our 30K gates in terms of revenues?Nice editing of Turkis's whole quote to try and make your point have more emphasis too, good work.

It seems to be the English thing to see them as "little old Dortmund". Despite them winning the CL in 90s and as you say having an enormous ground that they fill out whilst winning their domestic league 5 times in the past 20 years.

4-4-2? Pah, backwards thinking Glesgie.

He goes on to clarify that he means not just as a one off but as a club that repeatedly finishes top 8, season after season. So his 5 years is valid. Someone else on there chidingly makes the comparison to Everton, but Merseyside rivalry apart its actually a very fair comparison and a decent ambition for us to have. Still a bit of a way off yet though IMO.

Been thinking a bit more about this signing, and despite the negative feeling in some parts of the media I'm still genuinely really upbeat about it. Look at it this way; if he were a starting centre back for Lyon, about to play in the Champions League next season, there's simply no way we'd have signed him. Us signing first choice players from top level Champions League teams simply isn't going to happen. This is the next best thing though, a good prospect who didn't quite live up to the hype of a big 4 club. And apparently for less than £10M, which for a 23 year old international for one of the top 5 clubs in the world isn't a huge outlay. I'm all for going for younger players but this dude has plenty of top level experience too, which could be invaluable. I just hope we don't adopt the Forren model of signing with him, and rest him for 9 months....

You need to bear in mind who the OP is, and go a bit easy on him. Lucid thoughts tend to be quite rare in the world of ART.

Good Lord. Performance related pay has been around in English football for years. Decades, even. It's completely common for players to receive bonus payments depending upon the team's league position at the time. I've seen instances of mid-range Championship clubs doing this almost ten years ago, so the idea that we're copying Barca by doing something similar is naively laughable.

Yours seems to be working fine, pal.

We should build a 7 star hotel into the new Cortesedome. That would make the footballing world sit up and take notice.

Lovren the effort there, Gay Crabs.

We may be a 5 star boutique hotel, but only for now. Just wait until we achieve our ambition of becoming a 5 star international brand of top quality and renown. Its in the post.

Miltonroader MkII

"The Bales, the Walcotts, the Chambos..." Am I the only one who can't stand this ridiculous pluralisation that seems to be a prevalent within the world of football these days? "The Bales.....", just how many Bales did we produce? Have we got any more on the books?

Excellent news. Has also played right back and left back for Lyon so he also offers some versatility. Very happy. CB was our posirion in most need of prioritising for improvement and we've done it, and done it early. Well done SFC. A top striker next and the squad is really starting to take shape.

I like Lefty a lot, he's a class act. Him on the 17th in the Ryder Cup against Justin Rose summed him up. Classy man, and a superb player. Hoping that Luuuuuuuuuuuuuke can stay amongst it and win through. Short course which should suit him; but its the US Open so anything can happen.

I rarely have a bet but I'm well into the golf, I'll be watching all the way until close tonight. 15 years ago I had a job teaching golf in Philadelphia at a kids golf academy, and lived a 5 minute walk from Merion. Its an unbelievable course, the TV pictures don't actually do it justice, I was blown away by it.

I'd prefer it if we bought Rangers as our feeder club.

Diamond White or K mixed with Castaway made a Blastaway; tasted just like Lilt. Ben Sherman shirt with white jeans, and a floppy curtains haircut; oh yes, them were the days.

Ah, Martines on a Thursday night. The halcyon days.

Not everyone did, it would seem. I guess the urge to criticise a media outlet for not saying that more than 1 player of a team that finished 14th in the league are the top ten player in their position in that league was a little too much.

I found this far funnier than I should have.