Whitey Grandad

Interesting, thanks Norway. Is the E-Up how they market it in Yorkshire?

Very scary. My own (minor) heart attack caught me by surprise nearly four years ago at the age of 62. One tiny little globule of fat goes the wrong way through your heart and blocks an artery that's only a couple of millimetres wide and that's it. We all think that we have many years ahead of us and before we know it it's all over. We can load the dice by living better but sometimes the odds are against you all the same. RIP Pavel. You are not forgotten.

Copy

If you could get silly money for Mané then you'd be silly not too, and I do mean stupid money. But there's something not right about his attitude and if not sorted it can upset the whole squad.

The trouble is that it's bloody difficult to paddle when you've got one hand holding your nose on account of the smell of the shît in close proximity. (How long can we keep the analogy going?)

Shallow shît, I'd say, but steadily getting deeper.

My apologies, I was going by this website which says that it opens at midnight on the 2nd January which I took to mean 23:59:59. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/competitions/premier-league/12074284/When-does-the-January-transfer-window-open-in-2016-Premier-League.html

The window doesn't open for us until midnight tonight.

Only that I assume that we are not paying wages associated with the upper levels of the Premier League. Our total wage bill may have actually gone up but I fully expect that all those who left went for higher earnings, even Cork. A couple of expensive long-term injuries and a couple of expensive flops won't have helped either.

Why do you think they left, if it wasn't for more money?

Yea, whatever

We need to sort out our defence and that means we need to stop chopping and changing every game. It's no wonder there's so much sloppy defending.

Environment Agency spending actually up by £131m this year to £1.3bn but in general I agree with you about where the money would be better spent. I don't know why we need to pay anybody several hundred thousand pounds a year for a part-time job though.

Oh no he wasn't!

2 goals in 15 appearances for £12m fee. If he played for us with that record there'd be hell to pay on here.

I think we must be talking about different situations. For the second goal Antonio starts off wide on our right flank and all alone. He then makes a run towards the far post behind Yoshida's back and gets his head to Fonte's deflection. VVD is over the othe side of the penalty area.

Not really. He was in the correct position for what was actually a pretty feeble attempt at a cross which was deflected up by Fonte's outstretched leg. If Antonio's run gets picked up then he just gets blocked off and doesn't get a chance to make his header. We had both Yoshida and Fonte trying to cover Carroll and Antonio is completely ignored. It's not Virgil's job to be cutting out crosses from wide outside the box, that should be Bertrand's. I think we can both agree that defensively it was a complete shambles all round. I tend to concentrate on the fullbacks because that's where I used to play.

I saw all our players, VVD was in the central area. Thanks for the advice but I don't need any education in ball watching, I've seen enough examples of it this season to last me a lifetime. The big question is: why do they all do it!

Will he be able to sign in time? The window doesn't open until midnight on 2nd January, I believe.

Ah, thanks. It's a bit of an indictment that we get halfway through the season without a right back who can play a full 90 minutes of every game.

Not a silly idea.

Well, I've watched MOTD again before deleting it and I stand by what I said. Antonio starts off wide and runs in to attack the goal in case there are any crosses or deflections. Yoshida is a total spectator throughout and hasn't got a clue that Antonio is running in behind him. It's the fullback's job to protect the flanks and watch for anybody attacking from that direction and he failed, and not for the first time when playing in that position. If Antonio's header had gone straight into the goal then we'd all be blaming Yoshida and quite right too. Was Cuco really that bad that Yoshida was a better choice for that position?

Nice one. What an epitaph that would be.

Me too. For the second, why was Yoshida on the pitch if he's just going to wander about spectating?

Did they say when? We are bound to have ups and downs and top six can only ever be a long-term aim and it's not going to happen when players want away every season and we don't have a settled team. I'm pretty sanguine about it all.