Graffito

They were fortunate in having Bale to score a cracker against us last season at WHL and just plain lucky at SMS this season. Oh how I'd love to beat my neighbours.

Cascarino had no family connection with Ireland whatever, as he confirmed in his autobiography years later. He qualified by having once gone on a stag party to Dublin.

Newcastle, Everton, Man Utd all to play at home.

Before somebody else does it to him.

Before the second half kicked off he was slapping his own face vigorously. It's lack of concentration when he's got little to do.

Can Lambert not play as a target man? And since Lambert can play in a withdrawn role and has a more to his game than Carroll, he's the more flexible option in the event of injuries during the tournament. Penalties have been mentioned. How many times have missed pens done for us?

Main talking points from the game covered already. Two observations. The move finished by Schneiderlin's goal was a beauty. How often does one of Saints midfielders run beyond the forwards? And how effective it is. All game Rodriques was on the shoulder of the last defender and looking for the ball through or over the top. I think there was one occasion when Ramirez played him in. Otherwise, Saints either didn't see it or decided to play sideways or backwards.

Chelsea. Probably most vocal support too, maybe Palace.

I'm sure Boruc kept giving them the ball because he was bored and wanted some action.

Apparently his cock fell off.

How much income has it produced? I thought it had produced a lot of debt.

Chelsea isn't sustainable. It's bankrolled.

Like Chelsea Village?

See I wouldn't think it funny that he was on the list. The public perception is too often "Fat Frank" and all that stuff but midfield goal scorers with his record are like gold dust.

Probably multi owners. What if the owners don't want to sell?

How's the club going to monetize the surrounding area (whatever that means), if it doesn't own the land?

I'm sorry but if all developers used your logic then nothing would get built because they very soon would go out of business.

I know what you said. The point I'm making is that I'd have preferred that it hadn't come out in the press now before he's signed.

He hasn't signed yet. Always makes me wonder how and why these things get in the press before they're done, or not done.

The following is from the Secret Footballer. Maybe the what Read refers to when he talks about Chelsea and Man City hoovering up young talent and sending them out on loan. They are making money from it. "If you want an example of this type of transfer, look no further than the career of the former Chelsea player, Kevin De Bruyne. De Bruyne was signed by the higher-ups at Chelsea from Genk, an unfashionable club in Belgium, for £7 million in the January window of 2012. Later, Chelsea loaned him to Werder Bremen, a very capable Bundesliga side, where he played 33 league games and scored an impressive ten goals. Ultimately, Chelsea were able to put De Bruyne on the European map and increase his value while halving his wages by loaning him out, despite the fact that he played only three times for the Blues. In the January window of 2014, Chelsea sold De Bruyne to another Bundesliga club, VfL Wolfsburg, for £17 million. I realise that football purists might balk at the manipulation of a player’s career, especially a young player, or even the fact that the club has traded off its position as a blue-chip football club. But any person who appreciates business will no doubt have to begrudgingly admire a deal like that. There is a side of transfering players that is ultimately about nothing more than making the club more money. When it works, you can’t help but be just a little impressed." I'm not sure how many of the Chelsea and City type loanees out are signings and how many are from their development squads. We may be doing things quite differently two respects, in both growing our own and controlling their development through to first team. The weak point in the approach is the standard of competition the Under 21 s compete in, as Read has identified.

Thanks for a link. An interesting and thought provoking read. The Germans ahead of the game in preserving football culture and continuity with past while we've gone down the entertainment route like the US and lost our young fans and football's traditions and it's links to community. We're destroying something valuable which I was fortunate enough to experience in the 70's and 80's. All is not lost. Aside from the football culture arguments , there is fortunately a compelling business case for safe standing so there's a chance the money men might go for it. He's wrong about one thing though "The magic of that goal was that it ever crept in at all: a diagonal shank from 20 yards that ambled past Alex Stepney in the Man Utd goal ". Crept in? You're joking aren't you.

Very good. There's also methane from all the bulls**t.

Rodriquez couldn't miss. It was a sitter.

On today's evidence absolutely the opposite.

Wanyama was perfect for today's match. Poor pitch, physical opposition and hoofs down the channels or even straight down the middle. He was ideal protection for the back four and did the job well.