stevegrant

This is the main reason why I've still not got round to upgrading this - the fear of having to spend a week rolling everything back We've bought a licence for Invision Power Boards, but it's so wildly different that I need to test the conversion script in anger, and then get the skin done properly.

Or perhaps back into the pockets of those who loaned, rather than gifted, money to the club to cover necessary maintenance costs.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, that highlights reel needs to be taken in the context that he was playing out wide in that game, which isn't his natural position. I saw a few of his previous appearances for Bayern a couple of years ago, and while his right foot is certainly his natural side, he's perfectly capable of using his left foot as well. Genuinely quite excited by this signing

I believe the package the Friday night games are in (the same on as Monday nights, so there will be fewer of those for the next 3 years) restricts the number of Friday games to 10 per season - there's a theoretical maximum of 4 times a team can feature in games in that package, but that won't be an issue for us as we just don't get shown that often.

Don't think there's a rule as such anymore (similarly, there used to be a rule that kits had to be for a two-year period), but it's a general policy that most clubs stick to because it's the single-match-going fan who probably provides the highest "per game" spend - their ticket will be more expensive than a season ticket holder's, and they're more likely to spend a fortune buying stuff in the megastore.

Stone makes sense, apart from potentially being injury-prone, but we're hardly helping the perception that we're a retirement home for average county pros by going after two 29-year-olds. Bearing in mind that Vince would have played instead of Alsop in the current game, we'd have fielded an XI comprised of: Smith 33 Adams 35 Vince 25 Carberry 35 Wheater 26 Ervine 33 McLaren 33 McManus 21 Berg 35 Andrew 32 Best 34 Whereas in the past we were excellent at bringing youngsters through, with the likes of Vince, Wood, Briggs, Griffiths, Bates, etc all coming through at around the same time, we now seem to be choosing to pick players with plenty of prior experience but no mileage left in them. A sad state of affairs, really.

All kickoff times 15:00 unless specifically stated, obviously subject to change based on TV picks and Europa League commitments. August 2016 13 Watford (h) 20 Man United (a) 27 Sunderland (h) September 2016 10 Arsenal (a) 18 Swansea (h) [moved for Europa League] 24 West Ham (a) October 2016 2 Leicester (a) [moved for Europa League] 15 Burnley (h) 23 Man City (a) [moved for Europa League] 29 Chelsea (h) November 2016 6 Hull (a) [moved for Europa League] 19 Liverpool (h) 27 Everton (h) [moved for Europa League] December 2016 3 Crystal Palace (a) 11 Middlesbrough (h) [moved for Europa League] 14 Stoke (a) [20:00] 17 Bournemouth (a) 26 Tottenham (h) 31 West Brom (h) January 2017 2 Everton (a) 14 Burnley (a) 21 Leicester (h) 31 Swansea (a) [19:45] February 2017 4 West Ham (h) 11 Sunderland (a) 25 Arsenal (h) March 2017 4 Watford (a) 11 Man United (h) 18 Tottenham (a) April 2017 1 Bournemouth (h) 5 Crystal Palace (h) [19:45] 8 West Brom (a) 15 Man City (h) 22 Chelsea (a) 29 Hull (h) May 2017 6 Liverpool (a) 13 Middlesbrough (a) 21 Stoke (h)

Pretty sure everyone inside SFC is bored with it as well, tbf.

Nurse!

Poll now active as a new sticky thread. Might add a few others I've missed if there's someone glaringly obvious.

Assuming he does go, and it seems pretty much done and dusted, who do you want to see replace Ronald Koeman?

One thing I have noticed is that the number of people who have reacted in the old "meltdown" manner seems to have reduced significantly as time has passed. Whether that's as a result of becoming so weary with it all that they become desensitised to it, or whether it's because the club has managed to continue to progress in a positive fashion in the wake of every setback, I guess that's open to debate, but I think the club has earned a significant amount of trust from a previously-cynical fanbase that it has a number of plans for this situation.

Just to bump this, three places have become available at short notice for the event on Thursday: GK on Matt Le Tissier's team (90 minutes) CM on Brett Ormerod's team (45 minutes) ST on Brett Ormerod's team (45 minutes) Link or email info@playwithalegend.com

On another note, there are only 11 non-CL-dropout slots left to fill in the competition now: Group Stage Swiss Cup winners - Sunday, Lugano v Zürich (strangely, the bottom two teams in the Swiss top flight) Third Qualifying Round 3rd in Greek league - currently PAOK (3 games to play, finishes Tuesday 31st May) Second Qualifying Round Playoff winner in Belgium - Charleroi or Genk, playing over two legs tonight and on Sunday. 4th/5th in Greek league - currently Panionios (AEK Athens are 4th but have already qualified for 3QR as cup winners, and might yet get into the CL qualifiers) 7th in Romania - CS U Craiova, but depends on a CAS appeal by Dinamo Bucharest - verdict known by the end of May 2nd in Denmark - currently Sonderjyske, 3 points clear with two games to play. Midtjylland the other challenger. First Qualifying Round 3rd in Denmark - currently Midtjylland 4th in Denmark - currently Brondby, 2 points clear of Aalborg. 4th in Bulgaria - currently Slavia Sofia, ahead on goal difference, one game to play on Saturday. 2nd in Moldova - title playoff match taking place on Sunday between Dacia Chisinau and Sheriff Tiraspol. Loser into the Europa League. Luxembourg Cup winners - Mondorf-les-Bains v F91 Dudelange on Sunday

We cannot be a top seed for the group stage because of the teams who will drop into the group stage from the Champions League playoff round, so while we probably wouldn't draw Feyenoord as their coefficient is not much higher than ours (so will probably be in the same pot), we could certainly draw AZ if they get through the qualifiers or Ajax if they get dumped in from the Champions League.

Correct. In the Champions League third qualifying and playoff rounds, the draw is split into the "Champions route" and "League route" - basically the Champions route is, as the name suggests (more than the competition name itself), for those who qualified as league champions, while the League route is for those who got in through their non-winning league position. There are 15 teams in the "League" route. 5 qualify directly for the playoff round, which comprises the teams who finished 4th in Spain (Villarreal), Germany (Mönchengladbach) and England (Man City), and the teams who finished 3rd in Portugal (Porto) and Italy (Roma). Those 5 play against the winners of the 5 ties in the third qualifying round, which feature the 3rd team from France (Monaco) plus the runners-up from Russia (Rostov), Ukraine (Shakhtar Donetsk), Netherlands (Ajax), Belgium (Anderlecht), Switzerland (Young Boys), Turkey (Fenerbahce), Greece (TBC - currently Panathinaikos), Czech Republic (Sparta Prague) and Romania (Steaua). From those 15 teams, 5 will drop into the Europa League playoff round so could make the group stage with us, and 5 will drop straight into the EL group stage. All bar one of them (Rostov) have a higher coefficient rating than us. Add to that, 12 of the teams already confirmed in the Europa League qualifying rounds also have higher coefficient ratings than us. Pretty sure we'll be in pot 3, with the possibility of pot 2 only if basically every playoff round tie was won by the lower-ranked team.

REALLY annoying that, as a Sutton United season ticket holder, I'm away for the Pompey game

Boom! Now, let us never speak of this day again. *scrubs furiously*

Now there is a player who loves a booking

It's about 13 hours, isn't it?!

Spain loses a Europa League place regardless of which way the Copa del Rey final goes. If Sevilla win it, 1) the cup winners in Greece get promoted to the group stage, 2) the cup winners in Cyprus get promoted to the 3rd qualifying round and 3) the cup winners in Serbia and Slovenia get promoted to the 2nd qualifying round. If Barcelona win it, only scenarios 2) and 3) take place. Spain will only have Athletic Bilbao in the group stage and Celta Vigo in the 3rd qualifying round.

No. The point for me when they became absolutely laughable was when they gave James Milner man of the match against Borussia Dortmund, when pretty much his only contribution to the whole game had been to hit Shinji Kagawa's forehead with 12 corners. Stats-based analysis is fine up to a point, but this sort of thing is why there still needs to be humans interpreting the numbers, because context is everything.

Not necessarily a problem, as long as the player channels those strops in the right way - Pelle's performance against Palace when he came on was excellent, I thought. Showed exactly the right attitude to being dropped, IMO. I think we'd all largely agree that you wouldn't want any player to be happy being left out of the team, and that it's those situations that improve the overall quality of the squad because there is then competition for places.

Oh, and Grealish Played 16 games this season. Lost them all.