stevegrant

Alternatively, at the time of Les's first comment about wanting to keep players in-house, the level required of an academy graduate to get in and around the first team was low enough for that stance to be justified, hence players like Reeves, Shaw, Chambers, Isgrove getting fairly regular opportunities back then. Then, as the quality of the first team squad improves, the bar is raised so it's much harder for young players to break through, so we need to have an alternative for them, so loans within easy reach are a decent compromise. Now we're in a situation where we are currently the sixth-best team in the country, so the bar has been raised again. Local loan options aren't viable for the standard we want our young/fringe players to be playing at (Bournemouth are at too high a level now, Pompey far too low and that partnership would never work), so we now need to look further afield. It's called being pragmatic and doing what's best, not just sticking to a comment made four years ago because a few people on an internet forum might pick you up on a change of stance.

Yeah, Cresswell's out for months, so as a result last night they switched their actual right-back Sam Byram to left-back and put Michail Antonio in at right-back - a position he was continually exposed in last season. Not quite. They lost 5-0 away to Artmedia Bratislava in Gordon Strachan's first game in charge, and won the second leg 4-0.

Relevant scores: AZ 1-0 Giannina (Greece) [LATEST] Genk 1-0 Cork City Lille 1-1 Qabala (Kazakhstan) Saint-Etienne 0-0 AEK (Greece) [LATEST] Gent 5-0 Vitorul (Romania) [LATEST] Birkikara (Malta) 0-3 Krasnodar Zhodino (Bosnia) 0-0 Rapid Vienna Admira Wacker (Austria) 1-1 Slovan Liberec [LATEST] Aberdeen 0-0 Maribor [LATEST] Pandurii (Romania) 1-3 Maccabi Tel Aviv AEK Larnaca (Cyprus) [manager: Inigo Idiakez] 1-1 Spartak Moscow Austria Vienna 0-1 Trnava (Slovakia) Zaglebie Lubin 1-2 Sonderjyske (Denmark) So only two of the teams in that list have lost the first leg (both at home as well), but a few still in with a tough second leg. Not Gent, though

One thing that document doesn't clarify is whether, when the draw is done, the teams are automatically assigned position 1 in the group if they're in Pot 1, position 2 if they're in Pot 2, etc.

Considering it's being subsidised, AND with free travel for season ticket holders, it seems a bit weird to not take the full allocation. Did the same at Chelsea the year before last as well. Odd.

And the rest. Believe it may be due to expire or a release window in the contract opens in the next year or two.

I stand corrected. Flashscores originally said the Montenegrin side won

Genk and Partizan Belgrade both got knocked out on penalties this evening, and both had a higher coefficient than us, so that's helpful

Can you un-IP ban me, please? Read-only purposes...

Some unexpected balls on display this afternoon. Lewis McManus came to the crease at 184/5 and walked off 69 overs later unbeaten on 117 with the score at 398/9. Just shows that the runs are there if you apply yourself properly, something the senior players would do well to heed when we still inevitably have to follow on at some point tomorrow morning.

Thanks for all the reports, we are investigating and will disable the ad networks that are causing the issues when we work out which ones are the offenders

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