Midfield_General

Fergus29 certainly seems to be a big fan 😉

FT: 2-2. They were better second half once Brugge took their foot off the gas but it was very noticeable that it really doesn't take much for that crowd to turn. If they're ready to boo them off in a pre-season friendly, then if he's not winning every week they're going to be on his back very quickly in the games that actually matter.

True. But when your first Champions League qualifier is in two weeks time, it helps 😉 Edit: 1-2. Shocking defending and goalkeeping from Brugge.

Rusty off to a good start. Their first friendly of pre-season and they were 2-0 down after 15 minutes and have just been booed off by their own fans at half-time 🤣 Fans already questioning their fitness, marking, closing down, defending and the fact that Martin's decided not to wear their precious club suit on the touchline. He has got a big, big task ahead of him.

Or a law firm specialising in defending the Mafia.

Solak said that he’d approved the signings of a defender, attacker and creative midfielder without the need to sell anyone first. We’ve got the defender and attacker now, so hopefully should start seeing some links to creative mids next.

And De Bruyne. Quite impressive for the same club to fail to recognise the potential in not one but two of the world's best players.

Excellent. 23 years old, full German international with three clubs apparently interested. Let's start the bidding at £20m

Spot on

Macca's ony got a year left, and at his stage of his career no-one else will be matching his wages even with a relegation cut, so I very much doubt he'll be going anywhere. As you say, if we get a proper new number 1, Macca's absolutely fine as second/ third choice until his contract expires next year.

And right. And high to the left, and high to the right. And don't forget the straight ones.

If Fernandes and Dibling both stay then we really would have no excuse not to be challenging for the league. I think it’s rather unlikely but we can hope 🤞

Would be a great signing for them on paper, until he lets them all get unfit and then makes them all look stupid with how he tells them to play. But it looks like he's getting all his affordable mates back together, so hopefully the call for the Wee Man™ is coming in 3, 2, 1...

'Welcome to Leicester Danny! Must be good to have escaped that madhouse!' 'Ja' 'Oh and by the way we're broke, we're starting with a 12 point deduction, the owner sold the club yesterday and the new Chairman has said he's not convinced you're the right man for the job' 'Scheiße'

Very sad news. RIP.

Mad that anyone responsible for signing off the design could see that and think it was alright. The overall concept is great and with a tiny bit of thought it could have been a classic, but the whole design and execution of the sleeves is just so shit. I can't believe how hard they make it look to design a football kit every season. It's such a basic thing to be able to get right, half the people on here can do it perfectly well. Ah well. If we win in it no-one will care. But so near and yet so far.

I personally hope not, but yes, he could well be. Who knows though. It's still very early days and until some of the bigger sales start happening and we start to get an idea of how Still wants us to line up, it's very hard to tell.

Yeah Armstrong's the one who, if we play him in his best position coming in off the right, gives me the most confidence will get goals out of who we've currently got. I personally wouldn't read too much into his WBA loan spell because by all accounts they were playing him down the middle which anyone who's watched him enough knows he can't do. I'd definitely keep him. Stewart looks to have a bit of quality but you just feel he could break down at any time. With Archer, the jury is still totally out for me and it would be an enormous risk to rely on him to lead the line, and BBD I just think is an embarrassment and he'd be the first out of the door, regardless of whether or not he's scored a few at this level before. He's abysmal. I'd still like to think we're going to spend some proper money on an established, obvious first-choice striker. Going in with that person, Stewart, Armstrong and Downs, and getting rid of Archer and BBD would feel to me more like the behaviour of a team expecting to challenge for the league. And I agree with you about the supply being critical. Until we see how Still wants to play, who stays, who goes etc it's almost impossible to predict what the team will look like at the start of the season, but it definitely feels like there's a lot of work to be done.

The risk at the moment though is that even with Downs arriving you don't look at any of our striking options and think 'yeah he's going to be the main man to score the goals to get us promotion'. Every one of them still feels a bit 'might be alright off the bench for the last twenty minutes'. It's only the beginning of July though, so let's see where we are at the end of the window.

It’s hard to write much when you’re doing a running high five victory lap and laughing hysterically

Reports say Russ 'wants' Downes... but he ends up signing Rothwell. There could not be a more perfect illustration of the difference between the speculation on who Rangers 'want', and the pool in which they are fishing in reality.

Quite. I could definitely see deadwood like Fraser going there, because we'd almost certainly want rid and it could easily be the best (or only) offer he'd get. Which is very different to them realistically competing for much better players that other, much more well-off clubs might actually want.

Which they can't. He's a £20m-£25m player under contract until 2028. Their all-time transfer record paid is £12m, and that was 25 years ago when they were good and had money. Apparently he was also on £30k per week last season, so if goes he's going to want to increase that. He's 26 now, so he's got probably 5 years left to maximise his earning potential. No way can Rangers compete with what even the relegation bait down here would be able to offer him. It's TeamTalk. It's bollocks, just rehashing other clickbait stories that were made-up in the first place. Downes may well leave, but it 100% won't be to Rangers. It's almost as absurd as people suggesting Rangers could come in for Ramsdale. Look at who Rangers actually sign, what they pay for them and the wages they pay. It just has no basis in reality whatsoever.

https://www.manutd.com/en/players-and-staff/detail/maya-le-tissier If THB does go we should be all over that

That's weird, at Uni I flicked your girlfriend's bean while thinking of Gwen Stefani The circle of life I suppose