Sheaf Saint

Congratulations. I think you have just set a new personal record for the highest number of strawman arguments in a single sentence. You'll never learn will you.

It's very difficult to listen to Johnson decrying Russia's financial influence on foreign governments when you consider that he himself admitted to taking a £160k bribe from a member of Putin's government to have a game of tennis with him.

Trump would have been hopelessly compromised by his financial dependence on Russia. That's why he's always so full of praise for Putin because the survival of his business empire rests on him being compliant with Putin's wishes. If Trump was still in the Whitehouse, the only way it would have changed the outcome in Ukraine is that the invasion would have happened sooner.

Great result for Burnley. Reckon they have a good chance of staying up. Watford and Norwich to go down, with one of Everton, Leeds and Sandcastle to go with them. Leeds have been crap recently, but Everton have a horrendous run-in with very few 'winnable' games left. Will be fascinating to see how it plays out.

On the plus side of that though, it looks like we are going to see a a proper title fight this season after all. Six straight wins for Liverpool and Citeh's 12-point lead is now down to just 3.

Just watched the Netflix documentary "Downfall" about this subject. It's heartbreaking. There's a special place in hell reserved for the Boeing executives who considered their share value to be of greater importance than passenger safety.

As @Turkish said when I shared the video of the Everton home game, what a brilliant team we had that season. Bonkers to think that MLT and Rodders scored 45 goals between them from the wings in a kamikaze 4-2-4 formation. Never a dull moment that season. Ten out of ten for entertainment.

https://www.hampshirelive.news/sport/football/football-news/ralph-hasenhuttl-southampton-been-proved-6701181

Sports personality turned Saturday afternoon sports TV presenter turned full on conspiracy theorist. Next he'll be wearing a turquoise shell suit and claiming he's the son of God. Perhaps we should never have given him that nickname.

Dean Smith couldn't win at SMS with Villa, who have a much better squad than Norwich do, and our performance levels currently are much better than they were around the time of that Villa game. We didn't perform 'badly' at Carrow Road IMO. We just didn't take our chances and they scored from their only two serious attempts on goal thanks to McCarthy's incompetence. Just as with Everton on Saturday, they have improved a bit recently but if we play to the level we're capable of we will beat them comfortably.

I don't think that's even their biggest worry. They are currently building a new £500m stadium at the docks. The financial fallout if they get relegated would be catastrophic.

The answer is nobody. The pace of the PL game these days means it's impossible for the likes of MLT to get the time and space needed to score such a ridiculous goal as that second one. We'll never see another hattrick like it again IMO.

Has it occurred to you that, following the publicity it had received, we perhaps waited until there was a genuine foul in the Everton game to avoid any suspicion?

Hi @Dan Sheldon, The Athletic welcome to the forum. Are you new here or have you been lurking for a while?

Everton's next 3 are Man C (H), Spurs (A) and Wolves (H). On current form it's hard to see them getting any points from that.

Do you think he and Grealish made a bet to see who could be the biggest £100m flop?

The company I used to work for had annual summer conferences in one of the suites at SMS. The MD would book a surprise guest, and one year it was Rob Beckett. He was mildly amusing. Certainly a lot better than the following year's guest Richard Blackwood, who was about as funny as passing a kidney stone.

Playground near us earlier today

We've taken another battering here in Sheffield. Been raining incessantly since the early hours and all the rivers in the city have burst their banks at various points. A slight respite at the moment but more heavy rain forecast overnight. Been bad in Leeds and Manchester as well so I gather.

Happy to see Leicester losing and staying 5 points below us, but at the same time I'd like to see Wolves drop points as they are potentially catchable. Draw would be the best result but it's hard to see anything other than a home win at the moment.

But this just isn't true. Go back and read it and you'll see that even his most ardent supporters on this thread fully acknowledged that he has flaws and isn't infallible. Why don't you just admit that you were so blinded by your opposition to him you couldn't handle the fact that some people didn't see it the same as you so you came up with a bullshit label to apply to them to make you feel better.

I find it incredible he's only 29. He looks so much older than that, and not just because of his receding hairline.

Lampard would probably have been better off keeping him on and risking him getting sent off than replacing him with the completely useless Gomes. He was so shit, it gave us total control of the midfield.

Oh yeah. Forgot that came after. Last time at SMS then.

Last time we faced a team managed by Dean Smith, he was sacked the next day. Just sayin'.